Laughing in the New Year!

Eliana is getting pretty good a rolling over! She didn't even fuss as she rolled again and again for us.

Eliana and her Nanny loved laughing together!

Happy New Year!

Six Months Old on Christmas!

Eliana's Big Nanny got her this hat and bib.

Nanny bought Eliana this dress and said that every little girl needs a dress.

Since it is cold here, we played dress up for a short time so that I could get these pictures for Nanny. I think bows can be cute, but I don't like the dents they leave. Eliana tends to wear bows for a picture now and again, but that is about it. If she had hair, I don't think it would have quite the same effect. I didn't have hair for two years, so I won't be surprised if Eliana doesn't have any for a while.

Isn't this dress splendid? A friend of mine got it for Eliana. We had this photo shoot before Christmas, but I am just now getting to posting it.

So, what do I know about my daughter?

*She used to take an hour to eat, and now it is usually around 20 minutes. She is getting two solid meals a day now.

*Three fourths of December was really hard on me because we were often home and Eliana was screaming every night for long periods of time. Eating solids has calmed that way down. For the past two weeks, we have been trying to get out of the house daily. That makes me such a happier person. Eliana lights of people's faces wherever we go, and that reminds me how neat she is.

*Eliana likes to sing first thing in the morning.

*Eliana has grown out of a size 2 diapers and hopefully soon will really fit a size 3. There is some form of her laundry on the shower curtain rod everyday for the last couple of weeks.

*Eliana likes to play with my hair. She doesn't pull it. Instead she likes to touch and feel it in her fingers.

*Eliana likes pinching her dad's face.

*Eliana has been going the nursery while I am at BSF. Part way through last year they opened up a class for her age. I was very nervous about letting her go, but now I find it as a nice breather. She doesn't sleep while there unless I go and help, but that is okay.

*PRAISE THE LORD! Eliana isn't screaming in the car anymore!!! That is a HUGE blessing. I can't even tell you what a difference that makes. If she is tired and ready to sleep, she will get fussy. I often try to avoid hitting her sleepy time while traveling. That makes our outings rather quick, but I'm okay with that.

*Eliana likes to be rocked to sleep. She is still sleeping in her swing, but I don't have it on anymore. That means she can also sleep in a bouncer while we travel. I've found that once she closes her eyes, she likes to be rocked for about 10 minutes. If I put her down before then, she often wakes up quickly. If I get so caught up in the book I'm reading that I go 20 minutes or more, she often wakes up quickly. If I try to lay her down in her crib, she wakes up within 10-20 minutes. May new year's resolution is to get her to sleep in her crib.

*Eliana is around 14 pounds. Yes, that is small for her age, but it isn't small for her. She has been steadily growing and gaining weight, so the doctor isn't worried.

Things people say about Eliana.

*I just want to squash her. -Tara (If you know Tara, you know that is a good thing:) )

*What big eyes. -many strangers

*I just love her. - Taylor

*She doesn't miss a thing. -many strangers

*She is so strong! -Brandy

*She is so alert. -many strangers

*Let me hold the beebee. -Trisha

Christmas

Pop Pop and Me

Eliana loved visiting family!

My family's dinner table. I thought it was super pretty.

Trisha and I took a picture. Tara jumped in too!

Thomas, Eliana, and Me

Food

Kyle made 8 cups of pumpkin puree. Eliana loves pumpkin!!! She has also had avocado and plum mixed with rice cereal. She has drank prune juice and apple juice to help system to not plug up. Next will be sweet potato!

Eliana hasn't quite figured out this source of food. The apple chunks are in the mesh part. She liked the handle more.

Eliana has been napping better and isn't fighting us with the long minutes of screaming at night to sleep. This makes Kyle and me much happier. Eliana isn't scheduled by any means, but she does have a pattern of 4 naps and waking up once during the night to eat. Those naps vary in length. Her awake time between each nap is around 2 hours.

Eliana loves her daddy, and her daddy loves her!

A Good Morning

Eliana and I are having a good morning. I praise God for the good nap she took this morning. While she was sleeping, I prayed over and over that she would take a good nap. I thanked Him for answering that prayer.

Eliana loves her elephant from her Aunt Tara. It has made car rides SO much better! I don't think she cried much in the car yesterday at all! Praise the Lord for that!

All I Want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is for Eliana to take good naps, go to be at 8pm with out a fight, and to sleep for a few hours. I don't even mind being woken up once in the middle of the night if it meant she'd take good naps (longer than the 10-30 minutes ones we've been having) and didn't fight us (scream, push against Kyle and I, and won't sleep even if you lay her down and let her scream for an hour).

Yes, the picture is blurry because I didn't use flash. She woke up a minute later anyway, but this was an effort to get one of my favorite ways to see her. Asleep.

Eliana's First Meal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After having a bad dream that my family fed Eliana all kinds of fruit without asking me, I decided it was time. I asked Kyle what he thought. He was hoping I'd be ready for this next step soon.

The bib turned out to be very much needed as more food went on it than stayed inside Eliana's mouth.

Kyle got to feed her first! She loves her daddy!

She was pretty cute to watch as she liked the spoon and wanted to hold it. After all, she has learned here lately that the things we bring her are meant to be chewed on.

I really wasn't going to put this picture up, but Kyle said he liked it. Why do parents always look so silly when they feed their wee ones?

Eliana is growing, growing, growing! I moved her into 6-9 month clothes today!

6 Year Anniversary!!!

On December 4th, Kyle and I were married for six years! Wow, that is a long time to me!

My friend Ellie Grover is a wonderful photographer. She regularly does these amazing shots with wedding rings. I also love her creative perspective with the bride's shoes too. I got to thinking that if Ellie can take pictures of rings, maybe I could too. Kyle put our rings on the camel in our nativity scene while we were cooking. After a relocation to outdoors, I thought the camel and the rings looked rather nice. I love taking pictures in overcast light!

Quiet Memories

Tonight Kyle and I made the chocolate version of the cookies from a few posts ago for tomorrow's Christmas party. Kyle got out two dishes for us to put them on. We decided on a Christmas boot. As I stared at his special find, a quietness filled me. I just looked and let my eyes mist over. I asked Kyle if he knew where this boot came from. He said, "Grandma Wava?"

"No."

"Oma?"

"Yes."

There are moments that my heart still breaks that they have been gone now over six months. Many times Grandpa Jack has visited my dreams. Sometimes you don't know what you had until it is gone.

Ornament

Eliana, Kyle, and I made an ornament tonight. Thanks Judy for the ornament kit!

A Year Long Wait

You might be wondering what I have been waiting a WHOLE year for. It is simple thing that just about all of my readers get regularly and take for grant it. It is something to be treasured and worthy of thanks the Lord God Almighty when you have it. It is ... drumroll please... a night when I go to bed and don't get woken up until morning. Ta Da! Eliana slept through the night last night! Over the past week and a half we've been stretching to 7 hours a couple of times. This meant she was getting up at 4 most of the time. Last night was pretty hard in getting Eliana to sleep. It has been in habit lately to fight sleep with screaming, arching her head and legs from me, and all out determination to not sleep! Ah! After three tries, we got her down just before 10. She woke up around 6:30ish and sang as we call it until I got her around 7. Now some of you are wondering how this has been a year long wait if Eliana is only 5.5 months old. Oh no, she got me up quite regularly in the night before she was even born!

Eliana ready to go to church last Sunday.

A giggle session with Mr. Giraffe. Thanks Kellie for Mr. Giraffe! She loves him!

Saying Thanks

I have thought about Eliana's birth many times over the last five and half month. There are a few key players that I took a little bit of time to thank today. Remember those strawberry cookies from two posts ago, a bunch of them traveled with Eliana and me over to the hospital. One nurse in particular stood out a huge source of encouragement to me. It took calling on four different days to get ahold of her, but it was well worth it to see her smiling face and to share a sweet treat.

Is there someone who has meant a lot to you, but you haven't thanked lately? It really never is too late. This thank you was 25 weeks from the many acts of kindness. An email, note, card, or even cookies just might make their day. Actually, it made my day too! I smiled for most of the way home.

Eliana is 25 weeks old today!

50 Free Shutterfly Cards!

I've been looking forward to making Christmas cards this year for awhile. It is a way to share a photo of our wee one with many friends and family! I keep going back and forth about whether Kyle and I will be in the pictures too. I've thought about whether or not to put one picture or more than one. Should I use black and white photos? Should it be a recent or newborn picture of Eliana? Oh the many options...

Although I'm still in the planning phase, I do have some good news! Shutterfly.com is having a promotional for bloggers. If you want to take part in the 50 free cards, the info. is here. Don't delay, the registration ends tomorrow, Friday Dec. 10th.

There are so many Christmas card options to choose from. I know it will take me awhile to choose! Check out the options here. There are also some pretty interesting Christmas gift ideas here. You could make a deck of cards, a keep sake box, or even a puzzle! If you want to make a photo book, but you don't want to get out the scissors and glue, you could even try Shutterfly's photo books here.

Yummy Cookies!!!

From Betty Crocker 4 Ingredient Dinners

Munchy Chocolate Cookies

Oven: 350 degrees

Mix devil's food cake mix, 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup of oil.

Shape into 1-inch balls, and roll in sugar.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

*I used a strawberry cake mix instead. You could make them with any cake mix.

Eliana was busy exploring while I baked.

Christmas Dress

Eliana and I had a photo shoot a few days ago. I wanted to get her all dolled up for Christmas cards.

I wanted her to be nice and toasty while I got everything ready. Plus, I didn't want her to spit up on her nice dress that her Nanny got her.

Awe, isn't she cute?

One of my favorite wedding pictures of mine is of me sitting down in my dress and a picture taken from up above. I tried to do the same thing with Eliana, but she didn't figure out that she was supposed to look up:)

I had taken a bunch, but I wanted to get a few more. This was as soon as I went to put her back in the photo shoot. Once I wiped it up, I was able to get a few more. Do you see that puddle of milk by her neck? I wasn't kidding when I said she still regularly covers herself in milk.

The Sleep Diaries

Sleeping Eliana. Yes, it is fuzzy since I didn't use the flash. I didn't want to chance waking her up!

Recently Eliana and I visited family in our hometown. Although there were many blessings to the trip, Eliana's lack of sleep was a constant issue. We had three days back home and then all of us were off to see family again for Thanksgiving. We got a little smarter by bringing our own swing. I knew that at some point I'd need to break Eliana of sleeping in a swing, and this has motivated me to continue to work on it. Let's just say it has been quite difficult on her and me. For the last three nights she has fought sleep steadily from 7-11ish. Last night at 10:30 I finally got her to sleep after she had a good screaming session for 20 mintues. Sadly, she was then up again at 11 to eat. Ugh!

Tonight, a miracle happened. Eliana happily and quickly fell asleep in Kyle's arms. This is truly a miracle for many reasons. One, she hasn't happily fallen asleep at this time in over two weeks. She hasn't fallen asleep for anyone else but me (and Taylor on one occasion) in over a month. You may be wondering why Kyle hasn't had success in rocking our wee one. Her fighting and screaming instead of soothing with him started after he had surgery on his wrist. Having those two weeks off made her prefer just me. Although it sounds like a compliment, it isn't to a tired mama.

Tonight Kyle put Eliana in a baby carrier as we put up the Christmas ornaments. She was already getting tired when he put her in. She enjoyed her close comfy daddy time. After the tree was done, Kyle pulled her out and held her in the rocking position for just a moment before her eyes got heavy and she went out. I tell you, I did a silent happy dance right there in the hallway! Silent, because there was NO way I wanted to wake up this sleeping little one.

So, here is the big question. Did she stay asleep? I know you are all wondering. Well, the answer is no. She woke up while I was typing this. She woke up a few minutes after being transfered to sleep out of her daddy's arms. I'm still happy though. She did fall asleep in her daddy's arms tonight, and I hope she'll soon go out for a couple of hours.