Quick run-down

Ellis attended her first party (Aunt Janae's graduation!!! woot woot!) and she quite enjoyed herself. She spent much of the first half in her Grandma's arms -fast asleep and oblivious to everything around her.  Then she was ready for action during the second half. We discovered her penchant for Dave Matthews' Band as she danced through an entire song and promptly stopped as soon as it was over. Her little legs just kept pumping left-right-left-right throughout the entire song and it was pretty stinkin' adorable.

Here is her Elvis smile from a few days ago:

Bubble bath time:

Here is the (finally) finished product of a dresser I painted for the daughter of some friends.  The blank dresser was given to me the day before I found out I was pregnant...so it took awhile to get around to it:

More Ellis updates:  Ellis now weighs 10 lbs.!!! And she suddenly (as of today) has a severe preference for nursing over bottles. If this continues it could be a long couple of weeks for Gabe until I finish up the school year. 

Plagiarism is bad, so I copied...

Some people my age -I'm still in my 20's for another few weeks- go bar-hopping.  I go blog-hopping.  In one of my blog-hops (?) I came across THIS blog and really liked what she wrote about being a mom. So I copied it in order to paste it on my blog.  If she minds, I'll certainly take it off and attempt to paraphrase in my best non-plagiaristic (?) manner...It's simple and eloquent and pins the tail right on the donkey. Here it is:

the moment i looked at my daughter for the first time i doubled in my desires to be a good, strong, faithful woman. motherhood has made me feel everything more deeply: love, joy, happiness; but also pain, worry, and fear. and as hard and tiring as that sounds (and it is both hard and tiring), that fullness of emotion is what I love about motherhood. i will take the worry and work if with it comes love that makes you want to burst, happiness that makes you float, and a desire to nurture that sends you on the errand of angels. being a mother fills me with purpose.

HAPPY Baby!!!

Ellis has a few new tricks up her sleeve these last few days.  She has begun giving us these big, wide-open-mouth smiles completely without prompting.  She also has figured out how to enjoy this little play thing I bought at a garage sale last summer.  Her favorite part is looking in the slightly-fun-house mirror at herself and smiling up a storm.  No one can make that girl smile quite like she herself can.

She was in such a fun mood that I wound up taking 279 pictures of her this afternoon. Here's a fraction of them:

Notice how great my skin looks in this next one. Some new expensive cream? you might ask.  No. For this photo, I utilized our computer's editing tool that allows you to erase things like crow's feet.  It's a great tool. The beauty of technology.  

Big blue eyes.

This next one is from a series I've entitled "WIGGLE". Ellis' legs rarely stop moving, left-right-left-right, while she's awake.  Here is a rare non-blurry image of her "running" in place, staring off in the distance, out the window at the places she dreams of running someday:

Here we are

Phew.  Some moments to myself, and my blog.  Time gets eaten up so easily these days.  Don't get me wrong though, it's absolutely delicious.

I returned to school/work last week and was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm able to enjoy my time there.  My students were left little choice but to develop some pretty obnoxious habits in my absence, but they've quickly snapped back into shape.  They are once again the funny, manageable teens I knew before my unexpected departure.  From the sound of it, it's possible that in the twelve weeks I was away, that kids were literally climbing the walls of my classroom and exhibiting other animalistic tendencies like growling and attacking the weakest pack members.

On Friday I undertook a massive excavation in search of my desk top (the sub left some overgrown piles of paper and junk at least a foot high).  One of the more interesting finds was a post-it note which read, and I quote:

'student's name' does minimal work

in Art class.  He seems to have a bit 

of power over girls and possibly women

in general.  He deserves almost no credit.

Whoa!  Are you kidding me?!  What kind of note is that?  I definitely want further explanation, but of course will never get it. 

 

So I teach three classes in the morning and then come home to relieve Gabe and snuggle Ellis for an hour and a half, or so.  Then it's back to school for two more classes and I'm done!  Not too shabby.

***************

I might have a new favorite day: Mother's Day.  I awoke (after Ellis' thoughtful gift of 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep for the first time ever) to find a trail of notes leading me through the whole house (see picture above).  Each one was a piece of a letter of love and appreciation Gabe wrote for me.  The trail took me down the stairs, around the living room, out to the kitchen and ended in the microwave, where I found a maple donut (my favorite kind) waiting for me.  When I turned around, Gabe was there with two gifts: framed pictures of Ellis.  All of my meals were lovingly prepared by my wonderful husband.  I was granted a leave to go to Lowe's and purchase some plants and flowers for our yard and garden, then given time to plant it all. It was a dreary, slightly rainy day---which I LOVE, so all in all, I could not have asked for a better day.  Plus I am utterly in love with Ellis and being her mama, and with Gabe and being his wife.  

Just three short months ago I found myself being hurled into motherhood nine weeks earlier than I expected.  I don't often share very private things on this public blog because, well, they're private. However, in honor of Mother's Day, I'm going to share some of the first thoughts I recorded after becoming a mother.

"...I think of the conversation Gabe and I had when we

went out for brunch after church the Sunday before we 

found ourselves unexpectedly in Labor & Delivery.  

We spoke about the past year or two and how I was having 

this feelingor realization that my faith 

was being transformed 

-and though many days it had felt very lackluster 

and sometimes I wondered how much was even there-

I felt stable in life and faith.  I was sensing

that God was laying the groundwork of stability 

in my life and faith.  

Broken away were many of the false pretenses

I'd operated under for so long.  

Gone was any show I ever

had the urge to put on for myself, God, others.

I had been left with "boring,old" belief 

in a God who loved me, 

a God who sacrificed his Son for me.  Now what?

I was content (enough) but at the time didn't 

"get it." What was God stabilizing me and my life

and my faith for?  

Was there a purpose or was I fooling

myself?  Enter Ellis Jane -and quite dramatically,

 I might add.  

The tiniest person I've ever met.

Never before have I even come close to understanding the immeasurable sacrifice it would be 

to hand over your child

for someone else who has done nothing to deserve what 

you're about to do for them.  

The love Gabe and I feel

for this little soul is hard to put into words, 

but I can say

I have a brand new understanding of the degree 

to which I am

-we all are- loved by our God.

I'm certain it's more than I can fathom.

But I'm also certain it's so, do, so much more 

thanI ever came close to realizing 

before Ellis came and turned our world 

upside down in the most wonderful,

necessary way. For this, and for her, 

I THANK GOD."

I am a mama because Ellis exists.  I love her for that.  I love how pure and innocent she is.  I love how she can toot like a grown man and keep a perfectly straight face.  I love the pensive look she gets on her face when I talk to her --as if she is fascinated by the mumbo jumbo I'm saying.  I love her smiles -real or gas. I love her from head to toe and feel like I've won the lottery because I get to be a part of things as she discovers life.  

 

New pics

I've thought of all sorts of things to post about lately, but finding the time has been hard.  I'm home for lunch, so I thought I'd just throw some newer pictures up for your viewing pleasure.

My cute family:

To give you an idea of size:

Ellis' favorite friend, Mrs. Bear:

The hicky Ellis gave to me while waiting for her bottle to be ready:

Tried really hard to get a cute baby behind picture, but she wasn't in the mood to pose and as it turned out, had to pee...

skills to pay the bills

I'm comfortable stating it now:  Ellis is an easy baby.  She's twelve weeks and 2 days old today (2 weeks and 1 day adjusted) and she's just a good baby.  When she cries, there is always a reason. As soon as that reason is taken care of, she stops crying.  On a dime. No simmering down time, she just full on stops.  Need to cuddle, pick her up.  Wet diaper, change it.  Wakes up, hold her. Hungry, feed her.  I can count on one hand the number of times she cried for no (apparent) reason. Normally when that happens (the few times it has), it's pretty clear to us that she's just over-tired or over-stimulated.  Walk around bouncing with her enough and she calms right down and typically falls asleep.  

Gabe was reading aloud the developmental milestones you can expect to see from your baby at one, two, three, and four months.  Keep in mind that Ellis is only two weeks beyond her due date, so our doctor considers her a two-week-old baby.  She is doing some of the things a four month old MIGHT be doing!  

Here is a semi-complete list of Ellis' skills to date:

-holds her head up while lying on her tummy

-can turn her head from side to side while on tummy

-coos

-smiles at us

-follows objects with her eyes and head

-holds her hands together

-finds her mouth with her hands

-pushes self up with her arms when on her tummy

-can "stand" with support

-holds head up when sitting

-gives rolling over a good college try (no success yet)

-says her ABC's forwards and backwards

-can count to ten in Spanish and English

-cooks a mean grilled cheese

Isn't she great?!