The Many Faces of Eliana

This weekend we went down to celebrate a Eliana's Great Grandma Sue's surprise party!!! Sometimes Eliana is okay in the car, and well sometimes she absolutely hates it! Yikes! I thought it might be funny to post possible thoughts Eliana was having along our recent car ride.

Are we there yet?


How much longer did you say?


I can't take another 2 hours of this!!!


My binky helps, but don't think I'm done voicing my opinion of being strapped down in this car seat.


We went to the doctor today and found out that Eliana is now 6 pounds and 11 ounces! She is in the 5th percentile for her weight. I guess that makes sense since she was 3 weeks early. People keep telling me how small she is. She is the only new born baby I've got to compare her to, so she is just right to me! She is getting too big for some of her preemie clothes!!! She is now 19 inches long. That is almost a two inch gain!




Eliana loves looking outside. Here are some other possible thoughts while looking out the window.

Is that squirrel really going to jump? No, no. He couldn't. That branch is much too far.


Oh my goodness! He's jumping! Ahhhhhhhhhh!


Oh, whew! He made it.


This is just after a sneeze.

4 Weeks Old

Eliana is four weeks old today!


She got all scrunched up for this photo. Even with her scrunched up, I can't imagine her being inside me. Her original due date was just a few days ago.


This is Eliana yawning, not screaming :) .



This is from last week.


We have found the pacifier to be our friend.

A Wiggle Worm

Yesterday morning I noticed that Eliana had wiggled quite a bit to where she was in the corner of the cradle. She had her arm and foot outside of the cradle. That made me nervous, so Kyle adapted the crib to be baby escape proof. You can see in the picture below that although cardboard isn't super cute, it is really needed for our wiggle worm.



Did you know that baby's skin peels?


A coworker of Kyle's made this beautiful blanket.


You can't tell much from the picture, but this preemie outfit (specially bought by Rachel) is actually getting snug on Eliana!!!

Ecclesiastes

For the past three Sundays, I haven't made it to church. The first Sunday was just two days after Eliana arrived. The following Sunday, Kyle made it to church, but I had too little sleep to stay awake during church. Last weekend Kyle was sick, so we stayed an extra day out of town with relatives rather than driving home.

So, what do you do when you miss church? A friend of mine lives in Wisconsin and goes to Blackhawk Church in Madison. On occasion, she recommends sermons she has heard from the teaching staff. So after a few hours of sleep on that second Sunday being home, I listened to Pastor Chris preach the sermon called "A Time for Everything". For a week and a half I've been chewing on his words, so much so that today I listened to "Life Just Ain't Fair". Pastor Chris breaks down the book of Ecclesiastes into these parts:
Life is an absurd puzzle that no one can figure out.
Ultimately only God knows how it all fits together.
Therefore, fear God and enjoy life for what it is.

I would highly recommend taking the time to listen to at least these two sermons. You can find them archived at: http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/resources/message_archive.php#. My life has had a lot of transitions lately. After 5 years of teaching, I'm not teaching this fall. I'm a new mom. My grandfather and grandmother have passed away within months of each other. Kyle's grandfather passed away the same week that Oma did. I found these sermons to hit the spot with all of these transitions. Let me know if you listen to them. You can post a comment on our blog by clicking on the word comment below each post. If you don't have gmail or a blog, you can leave a comment anonymously and then write your name at the bottom so that we can see who is commenting.

Funny Moment

Grandapa and GramE are on their way here. Eliana had spit up several times, so a fresh bath made a lot of sense to me. While drying Eliana, she spit up. While whipping it up and deciding whether to rinse her again, she peed on me and the ground. Awe yes, so another rinse would be needed. Thankfully, Grandapa and GramE are still 20 minutes away. Eliana is now all clean again (for the moment:)) and ready for a visit.

Fraiser Park Sunset

Here is that same sunset a few minutes later.

A Family Filled Weekend

Eliana is now 17 days old. Kyle and I are so blessed to be her parents. I wish she would sleep this good during the night! She has a habit of wanting to eat every 1/2 hour to every hour from about midnight until 6. I was super blessed to sleep from 2:30am to about 5am without a feeding! Wahoo!

Can you tell that she is getting bigger? I think it is sometimes hard for me to see the changes, because I am around her all day.


Grandapa and GramE
Apa is the Indian name for Dad. Perry and I bonded a lot on our trip to India, so Grandapa is his name. GramE does have a capital E for her last name.

We headed out to Bakersfield for a few hours on Friday to visit some family that hadn't been able to meet Eliana yet.


Nanny and PopPop
I don't know if I've ever seen Nanny as elated as she was when holding Eliana.


Cousin Ashlee, Cousin Madison, Cousin Donald, me, Nanny, PopPop, Aunt Taylor, Aunt Tara, Eliana, and Uncle Kevin

Then we headed up to Fraiser Park to visit some of Kyle's side of the family that hadn't met Eliana yet.


Kyle loves his little girl!


Grandma Bonnie, Great Grandma Muriel, Great Aunt Jan, me, Eliana, and Great Aunt Kathy


Kyle, Grandpa Mark, me, Eliana, Grandma Bonnie


Uncle Thomas
We made a special trip to Starbucks on the way home so that Thomas could meet his little niece.


me, Kyle, Aunt Taylor, Eliana, Grandpa Brad

Now all of our Ventura, Fraiser Park, and Bakersfield family has finally met this wonderful blessing in our lives.

Soon!

I know some of you regularly check to see if there are new pictures up of our little one. I have had several nights where Eliana likes to be up between about midnight to six am. Then we were away visiting family this weekend. I'll have lots of family photos to post very soon!

Looking Back

I love Eliana's smile!


Aren't these cute? Frogs are one of my favorite animals!


One day I'll be amazed at just how small Eliana is. Taking pictures with my hands in them will help me to remember her size.


I've been a bit reflective today. It often takes a the time to look back for me to see how God is moving.

As many of you know, I love to plan. I love to organize. I love to fill my calendar with activities. Two weeks before Eliana came was full with at least one, if not more than one, activity for every day. The week of Eliana coming was Vacation Bible School, so I, the Craft Lady, was naturally busy. I remember that Thursday before Eliana came choosing to stay home from VBS because I didn't feel well. I had flu like symptoms, which were actually a sign of labor I realized part way through the day. At some point that day I began to think about the up coming week. I didn't have one lunch plan with a friend. I didn't have any projects lined up. I had nothing. Now I realize that God prepared me with a week of "nothing" because I would have a brand new baby.

The Wednesday before Eliana came was a doctor's appointment. I was mortified when they said I had gained 6 pounds in eight days. I didn't like how my doctor and nurse's eyes got a bit big when they calculated just how much I had gained. I called Kyle after and repeated over and over, "This is not okay!!!" I still have 3 weeks to go. I didn't want to gain another 18 pounds before Eliana arrived. I knew I had eaten what I wanted when I wanted that weekend with that baby shower and all, but 6 pounds?!?!? Now I realize Eliana needed every bit of those pounds to help her be ready to come early.

Weeks ago my mom, sister, and I were trying to decide when to have the Bakersfield baby shower. At one point we thought about the weekend of June 26th and June 27th. I just wasn't comfortable having the shower so close to my due date. We went with June 19th. Now I realize I would have missed a very special baby shower if we had chosen the 26th or 27th. Plus I needed every bit of that tasty, calorie filled weekend. Once again, God prepared the way for Eliana to come.