Blessed

I'm not sure you want to watch this, but if you are feeling brave are are in a place you can shed a few tears, click the link below:

Warning: Get your tissues!

Aren't we blessed??? I can honestly say that I thank God for Ellie everyday, but in the moments when there is a little too much crying, and not quite enough sleeping, it is hard to enjoy myself. I can't imagine what these parents would give for the chance to stay up all night, every night with their sweet Eliot. I don't know why God chose to give us an incredible, perfectly healthy, AMAZING little girl who gives me tremendous joy everyday. I don't deserve these lavish blessings, but I sure am grateful. My heart just overflows with gratitude every time I look at her. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GOD, FOR THIS AMAZING GIFT!!!

Pumpkins!

Today I planned for us to go to a pumpkin patch. However, I didn't really want to go to Pumpkin Works just to get a pumpkin, and I didn't really know where else to go. Plus, Ellie was really fussy after her nap this afternoon so I didn't want to get her back out. So, I just ended up going to Wal-mart to get some pumpkins. If you wait until the week before Halloween to get pumpkins, there is not such a large selection. There were only three left, two of which didn't stand up on their ends. So I got the one that did stand up and I got a white pumpkin! I just got Ellie a bag of little pumpkins.
I have been trying for weeks to get a good fall picture. We tried this afternoon to get some outside. I think we got a few decent ones. Next, we carved our pumpkins. I put Ellie in her highchair and gave her the insides (minus the seeds) to play with. She really enjoyed it! She played there the whole time we were carving. I have pictures I will have to post later because I have not put them on the computer yet. Here are some of the pictures we took today. I played with them on a new program:

Nashville trip

This weekend I thought it would be fun to take Ellie on a little trip. We went to Nashville, IN and Brown County State Park. Although we had a good time, things did not quite go as planned. My main goal for this trip was to get a good fall picture of Ellie so that we could make so wallets for family. So I got Ellie dressed in her cute fall outfit and we set out. Our first stop was to Nashville for a little browsing, dinner, and hopefully a good photo op. Here is where things began to go awry. First of all, don't go to Brown county in the fall. It is beautiful, yes. But everyone and their brother has the same idea. There were sooo many people! So much traffic and people packed onto the sidewalks. However, we forged on. For some reason, I didn't think about the logistics of getting a baby in a stroller around in crowds and in and out of little shops. This was just not doable. So Tyler stayed with Ellie while I went in and out of a couple of shops. About this time we decided that dinner here was out of the question. We decided to go to a candy shop--(we needed some chocolate), look for a spot for a picture and head to the park. While Tyler was in the candy shop I decided to hold Ellie for awhile. I picked her up and I was surprised when my hand felt a soaking wet bootie! Now, we have not had a diaper leak and many months, so this was very unexpected. Not only did she leak through her diaper, but her onesie, pants, and stroller were all wet! To make matters worse, I didn't have anymore pants! I always bring extra clothes. But for some reason, I didn't that day! I had shorts, but it was much too cold for shorts. So, I changed her and just wrapped her pantless self in a blanket and we headed for the car! Needless to say, our perfect fall picture in her cute outfit just wasn't happening! We decided to go on to the park and just look around a bit. We went to a couple lookouts, but because Ellie was without pants, and we really needed gas...our trip was cut short. However, after a trip to Target for some new pants, we had a pleasant dinner at Red Lobster. Here are some pictures from our eventful trip:

Sleep Update and some fun things!

I have caved :-( Ellie is crying herself to sleep right now. A couple of weeks ago, things were really starting to improve! We had a good routine down. I have been working for a couple of hours in the daytime and they let me bring Ellie with me. This has helped our routine and she was getting two regular naps. I thought things were going great! Then, she went back to her old no napping self. Tonight she just wouldn't settle. So she is crying. I hate it but I don't know what else to do. I guess I am just going to take this day by day and do whatever works.
In other news....Saturday night I got a much needed girl's night out! I went to Indianapolis to celebrate my friend Kelli's birthday. We ate at PF Chang's. It was delicious! I had never been there before but I intend to go back! I had lettuce wraps and crispy honey chicken. Mmmm...it was so good :-) It was really nice to get to see some old, dear friends. I really enjoyed it. Poor Tyler had a rough time with Ellie. I left at 5 so that he would only have a couple of hours and then he would just put her to bed. Well, she screamed when I left, which was hard, and I guess she didn't improve much. He got her to bed and then he sent me a message at 11 that she had been up for an hour and wouldn't go back to sleep. So, I headed home. Poor Tyler.
This weekend we finally got a video camera! I have been so sad that we were missing all these moments. We borrowed a camera for Ellie's birth, so we have footage of her right after she was born. But we have missed the rest of her first eight months! So before we miss anything else we went ahead and got one. We got a hard drive camcorder so as soon as I get something good recorded, I can post a video!

Funny Faces

Lately, Ellie has been making some funny faces! There are hard to catch on camera, but here are a few examples.




I just like this one because you can really see her teeth.

Bodies

Yesterday Ellie and I went up to Indy, picked up Heather and went to see the Bodies exhibit. If you don't know what this is, it is a traveling exhibit that shows preserved human bodies and organs. It was in Tampa when we lived there and I have always regretted that we didn't go to it. So I am glad I got the chance again. It might sound kind of gross, but it was amazing! I got to see brains and spinal columns, hearts, lungs, everything! When we got there, we found out that they didn't allow strollers inside so I had to carry Ellie the whole time. However, I understood when I went in the reason they don't allow strollers. They have whole bodies standing up (minus the skins and other parts so that you could see all the muscles and organs) without glass around them! A bump by a stroller would have been disastrous. I was so afraid the whole time that Ellie was going to reach out and rip an arm off! That would have been mortifying!
The most amazing parts:
1. The brain and spinal column-Your spine is really broad at the base and there are long nerves that run out everywhere! The brain in encased in a tough shell that is covered in blood vessels!
2. Blood vessels- There was one part where they showed a body with only blood vessels. You would not believe how many there are!
3. Lungs- Smokers lungs are disgusting!!
4. Appendix- It looks like a little worm hanging off the intestine!
5. Babies- Part of the exhibit showed some babies that had been miscarried at different stages. While it was sad to see these babies that didn't make it, it was amazing! At 9 weeks you could see all the fingers and toes and the little bones. The face looked just like a miniature baby. It was also amazing how much the babies grew in just a couple of weeks. At every stage they were bigger than I expected. I just don't see how anyone can say an abortion at any stage isn't murder.
And you wouldn't believe how small a uterus is! I can't believe that it can stretch so far.
There are more amazing things, but those are the highlights. There were a few negatives. It was kind of weird if I thought about how those were real people. So I tried to keep a scientific mindset. And...I'm not sure how I feel about eating meat now... But all in all it was a great experience. God truly made us amazing.

The sleep saga continues

I am DONE with crying. Done, done done! I have decided that cry it out does not work for Ellie. It has been about a week or so of serious letting her cry with no improvement. We are still crying for 45 min to over an hour a night. I decided last night that I cannot take anymore. She is getting no better and her naps are getting worse. She doesn't sleep for anymore than 10 minutes at a time for a total of about 30 min a day. She should be getting 3-4 hours of daytime sleep for her age! So, we are trying something new. I am trying to follow The No Cry Sleep Solution. For the first few nights you are just supposed to keep a log of night wakings. I think this is just so that you can notice subtle improvements. You are supposed to right down quite a few things every time you wake up. Well, since I am not coherent enough in the night to even notice what time it is most nights, I just tried to keep count of how many times she woke up last night. I think it was around 5. I lost count a few times :-) So, my new plan is to get her to take a nap no matter what it takes. This morning I pushed her back and forth in her stroller until she fell asleep. Whenever she started to wake up (sometimes about every 2 min) I would push the stroller again. We did this until we got to an hour. Hopefully, once she gets used to napping at certain times and isn't so overtired I can transition her into her bed. As for nighttime, I am going to feed her to sleep and put her in her bed as many times as it takes (it may take hours the way this has been going! She wakes up before her back hits the bed) Once she gets used to that I will gradually put her down more and more awake. This is not a quick fix. It is going to take lots of time and TONS of patience. Please pray that I can make it :-)