Punkin

Our little punkin today

On Wednesday night, we took the kids to a costume party at Patrick's work. Elijah had a great time and everyone thought he was sooo cute (yes, I heard that many, many times that night) in his dinosaur costume. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him - the costume has a tail so he couldn't wear it in his car seat and he got dressed up and then undressed while we were there, and I had my hands too full to carry around the camera. I did get Miss Molly in her baby bear costume when we got home - ain't she cute?!

Everyone thought she was a boy though - I guess I should have put a bow on her head or something! =)

Sweetie (nice drool!)

This one is for Bobbi - look, she's wearing a dress!

More pictures

Here are some more pictures from our week in Virgina.

Zoie chatting with Papa

Maiah reading to Elijah

Papa playing with the boys

Evan and Elijah

Elijah is just not used to the crowds - he's outta there.

But Evan, Zoie and Maiah tough it out to hear the story.

We (Patrick and Papa did all the hard work) made homemade ice cream - yum!

Bobbi and Molly

Lorrie, Evan, Maiah, Zoie & Danny

(Molly was asleep)

On the way home we got to spend some time with Diane, Bill & Rylee. It was a nice, relaxing break from the long drive. Elijah had a great time - look at him go!

Rylee, all ready for Eagles football

Navy game

On our way down to Virginia, Patrick, Molly and I got to go to Annapolis to visit my brother Cameron at the U.S. Naval Academy and go to a Navy football game. (Elijah stayed in PA with Bobbi and Papa for the day and he had a great time there. As much as he would have loved to see Uncle Cam, I think the game would have been fun for him for about two minutes and then we would all have been miserable.) We had a great time even though Navy lost the game. Molly was pretty happy for most of the game, and we managed to stay warm enough even after it got dark. We especially enjoyed having dinner with Cameron and meeting his girlfriend, Amanda - it was an evening of good food and good conversation.

Cameron (#48) on the sidelines

Molly in her Navy gear ...

at her first football game!

She spent a lot of the game in the bjorn.

Flashback to October 2006 - Elijah at his first football game
Navy vs. Air Force, Colorado Springs, CO

Vacation

We got home from our trip to Pennsylvania/Maryland/Virginia last night. It was a really good trip. We enjoyed the places we visited, but the best part was just being together, spending time with family and being on vacation. =) I will post more about the things we did and put up more pictures later, but here are just a couple of fun ones!

Bobbi with Zoie, Caroline, Maiah, Evan & Elijah

The cousins pose with the pumpkins. Cute!

Four months

Nice hoodie, Miss Molly!

Molly had her 4 month doctor visit yesterday (a few days early). She is well and growing and doing everything she should be. Both kids had shots (Elijah is catching up now on a few vaccinations that we put off when he was a baby), so the end of the visit was a little chaotic. Since I didn't write it down immediately, I have of course forgotten the exact numbers, but I think Molly weighed 14 lbs 11 oz (75% ?) and her height was somewhere around 70-75% too. But anyway, it was all good news and both kids seem to be doing fine with the shots.

Happy to be with Daddy

Elijah shows off his spaghetti & chili dinner fashion - a tradition in my family.

When I asked for a smile - nice.

Elijah in his cowboy PJs and his cowboy room

We just got Elijah's name on the wall this week - Patrick finally painted the letters since I didn't ever get around to it. He also got the curtains up in the kids' room last week - hooray!

Cute stuff

Reading with Daddy

Swinging

Homesick

This afternoon, Elijah and I were coloring in his Trucks coloring book. He was coloring a picture of a jeep four-wheeling in the mountains, and I got homesick. Not that I've done a whole lot of four-wheeling in my life, but the mountains ... I miss them. Thanks, John, for the mountain pictures.



I'm sorry about the lack of posts lately. We're still here and doing OK. Both of the kids have a cold, which has not been fun. Thankfully, Patrick was home all three days of the long weekend, which was really nice. Two weeks ago, my Aunt Gerry passed away after a two-year battle with ALS. Check out Melissa's blog - she said it all better than I could. On the other hand, we rejoice with our dear friends, Erin, John, Caleb & Bear, as they welcomed baby Emma last week. Congratulations!

Today

Aren't they cute?

Elijah is having a blast with his trains

A day at our house

Here's a little slice of our life, today.


7:00 am - Daddy gets Elijah up and changes his diaper. This morning Elijah's new overnight diapers leaked for the first time, but just his pajama pants were wet instead of the whole bed. We had been struggling with two issues this summer - 1) a chronic heat rash that got worse every night that he wore a cloth diaper, so then we tried disposables and 2) he was leaking through his regular disposables and waking up with a soaking wet bed most mornings. I was tired of changing and washing the whole bed, and Elijah and I were both done with the diaper rash. My solution was to try extra-absorbent overnight disposables. They have worked pretty well - two weeks of dry mornings, until today. I think that is much better. I have to wash the sheets sometimes anyway. =) And the rash is gone, too. Maybe we can use cloth diapers at night again now that it's cooler - we'll see. For now I'm just thankful for something that works.

7:30 - Daddy wakes me and leaves for work. Elijah and I play and read books, and we share a bowl of cereal.

7:45 - Molly wakes up. I feed Molly and change her diaper. Elijah brings all of his "friends" (his favorite stuffed animals) from his bed and lines them up in front of the couch, telling me what each one says. "Horse. Neigh." "Pig says oink." Then, "Hi, giant panda." I guess I don't know what a panda says, either. Then, "Elephant. Hup, two, three, four." Elephants march, as anyone who has seen The Jungle Book knows.

[Don't Molly's eyes look green?]


8:00 - Elijah has breakfast: pancakes with cream cheese, breakfast sausage and milk. He decides not to have any applesauce. Elijah has been using a regular (open) cup at meal times and is doing very well with it. We still use the sippy cups when he is not sitting at the table, or when we run out of clean plastic cups.

After breakfast, Molly chills on her boppy for a while and Elijah plays while I put some laundry away. I smell something funky, so I change Molly again and get her dressed. Molly and I go through Elijah's sock drawer and put away all the socks that are getting too small while Elijah plays with trucks and does some puzzles. We sing some songs and play with Elijah until Molly fusses. I get Elijah some clean clothes to wear and a fresh blanket for Molly.

9:15 - Molly goes down for a nap. Elijah and I go over and get a load of clean laundry out of the dryer. When I'm sure that Molly is asleep and not going to need her pacifier again, Elijah and I start on our secret project of the day: Patrick's birthday cake (peanut butter silk cake with chocolate icing). We get out the ingredients and Elijah's stool, wash our hands (Elijah loves to wash his hands at the sink), and he helps me pour everything into the mixing bowl. Elijah thinks the mixer is cool (so do I). We put the cakes into the oven and Elijah sets the timer.

I help Elijah get dressed for the day and we play for a while. We read Elijah's new book about using the potty. He's not sure what to think about that. He plays with his new construction trucks and his train for a while. He watches the video of himself singing, and sings along. He plays next to me while I type for a little while, and then I smell something funky again, and change his diaper. The timer goes off and we get the cake out of the oven. It looks great - hooray! Elijah decides to color, so I do a little more typing.

Our cake, cooling.

Coloring

11:00 - Molly wakes up and I feed her. Elijah tells me what he's been coloring. "Coloring dump truck black. Coloring tanker truck green." Everything is black or green or brown today. Yesterday everything was blue. He decides that he is done with the trucks and trades it for the Cars coloring book. "What number, Mama?"

"How about 2?"

"OK."

I don't know what I am choosing numbers for, but he seems to be pleased by my choice and goes back to coloring his car green. Elijah decides to get down and play for a while before lunch, but he really just walks around brushing his teeth. He shows Molly his toothbrush and how he brushes his teeth. ("No, Elijah, do not brush Molly's teeth with your toothbrush!")

Cute girl, talking

Eating lunch

11:30 - Elijah eats lunch: milk, tomatoes, leftover shepherd's pie, and blueberries. Part way through lunch I smell something funky again and change Molly. Sheesh, what's with the poop this morning? She got poop on her clothes, so we change outfits as well. She still looks cute, but now her socks don't match. Oh, well!


After a while, Molly starts to fuss and since Elijah is too lazy to feed himself today, I put Miss Molly in her swing. She continues to fuss off and on through the blueberry course. I get Elijah cleaned up and Molly starts really crying while I change his diaper and get him down for nap. Apparently the batteries in the swing are dead. Molly and I cuddle for a bit and I apologize for the lifeless swing and for being busy when she needed me. I remind her that sometimes its Elijah's turn to cry while I help her, but I think she ignores that last bit. We chat for a few more minutes, and then it's her turn to get ready for nap.

12:30 - Molly goes down for a nap. I start cleaning up the kitchen and get myself some lunch. I wash the mixer and put the cake in the freezer to get ready to make the filling and assemble it. I put together the picture frame of the kids for Patrick's birthday present. The frame project takes a lot longer than I thought it would, so I hope I still have time to finish the cake.

1:55 - Molly wakes up. It's a little early - she often sleeps until 2:30 or so - but she's up, so I feed her. Elijah wakes up while we're nursing, so we go in and get him. The first thing he says to me is, "Stinky diaper, Mama." Yep, poopy again. I change them both and then clean up Elijah's diaper - the cover is poopy, too. Great.

2:30 - Elijah has a snack: animal crackers and milk. He takes his time and eats a lot. We chill out for a while. Elijah tells me the various Sesame Street characters who appear on his diapers. Molly talks happily with us for a while, and then starts to act tired.

3:15 - Molly goes down for a nap. It takes me all five verses of Psalm 23B to get her settled, what with Elijah running in and out of the room and occasionally yelling or slamming the door. After I go in and give her the pacifier a couple of times she finally goes to sleep. Elijah and I get the cake out of the freezer, and he watches a short video while I make the filling and put the cake together.

[At some point here, I lost track of what time everything was happening ...]

When the cake is all ready to go, Elijah and I play for a while and practice singing "Happy Birthday." We wrap the framed pictures and hide the present.

4:45 - Molly wakes up. She is poopy again. (This is poopy diaper #5 for us today. Seriously.) We have a little chat and I ask her if she is up for wearing a dress this evening for Daddy's birthday. She promises not to poop on her dress, so we take her clothes off and change her diaper, then I feed her and get her dressed again. Elijah picks a nice shirt out of the choices I give him and we change his clothes. Elijah and I start picking up the toys so we can be ready for serious birthday celebrations when Daddy gets home.

Molly in her birthday party dress

Elijah in his birthday party outfit

5:30 - Daddy comes home! We all give hugs and kisses, and then Daddy takes over clean-up supervision while I get dinner going. When Elijah is all done with his toys, we give Daddy his present and the Happy Birthday picture Elijah colored for him. He loves it! Well done, us.


5:50 - We have Daddy's birthday dinner: chicken and sesame noodles. Elijah starts with green beans while his noodles cool off. During dinner, Molly decides she is too tired to make it through and we change her into her PJs and put her down. Usually she gets a bath with Elijah and goes to bed around 7:30, but there was no keeping her up today. After Molly goes to bed, Elijah and I get the cake and sing to Daddy. We all have some cake and ice cream. It is really good cake. Elijah likes it, but when he is done he says, "All done cake. More green beans, please?" We give him more green beans.

6:35 - Daddy gives Elijah a bath, then helps him put on PJs and brush his teeth. We all read a bible story, sing and pray together.

7:00 - Good night, Elijah!

So, that was our day. We made it through without any major meltdowns, injuries, or other catastrophies. Of course, we had some fussing and some disobedience, but it was a pretty good day. Now I just want a shower!