The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Living with Hope family.

We are truly enjoying some time off work and using it to reflect on the year, respect each other and provide an enjoyable 1st Christmas for Ellena.

Here is a picture of us, taken the other night, after the Christmas service at our church.

We started the "open one gift on Christmas eve" tradition with Ellena. So, last night we sat her down in front of a selection of gifts and what do you think she chose to open? That's right....socks! I guess that makes sense that a daughter's first Christmas present from her parents would be socks! At least they weren't tube socks!

Enjoy!

She Can Hold Her Own

What do you know, I was searching the archives and I found some video of E holding her own bottle for the first time. As you can see, she is a real pro!

Irving Berlin Got His Wish!

We were dumped on today...snow that is. The ground was clean, clear and snow-free last night and the storm (the same one that dropped flakes in Las Vegas yesterday morning) hit us early in the morning. By mid-afternoon, there was at least 10 inches on the ground at our house!

We fared okay though and even ventured out mid-storm to take E to a doctor's appointment. The roads were a slow go, but 4-wheel drive was a complete luxury today!

It's incredible how much snow can really fall in one day. Here is a sampling of the aftermath:



There is a bit more white weather in the forecast for the days between now and Christmas, so our "White Christmas" this year is guaranteed!

Wintry Mix

Well, the weather hasn't been the best here in snowy Michigan the last few days and rumor has it tonight and tomorrow are supposed to be even worse! The family health hasn't been the best either this week with Loren having the stomach flu and Ellena fighting a nasty cold. BUT, with all of that being said, our hearts are always warmed by this little bundle of joy! Wishing you a wonderfully warm and snowy holiday season!!

Works Every Time...

Bath Time, Revisited

She sure does like sitting up in the bath now. Ever since we tried it once, she has been resistant to laying down ever since. She would much rather be in a position to look around!

We just cracked up when she grabbed both sides of her baby tub and hung on. We have also since removed the netted sling she is sitting on here so she can sit further down in the water. She just kicks her legs under water, back and forth, back and forth, and has a ball!

"Who is that other baby?", she asked us

The Nut House, er, Bowl

Putting what we call her "flipper" to good use, here Ellena is having a fun time with S's holiday nut dish. She emptied the green bowl countless times but somehow we couldn't teach her to "put them away". Hmmm...is this a sampling of whats to come?

Happy Half Birthday!

It is easy to remember where we were exactly 6 months ago today. I was sleeping on the hospital man-chair/cot (and loving it...it was like a sofa with sides that served to keep me from falling off!) S was resting and looking forward to her first bite of sushi and her first diet coke. And we were both silently wondering, "now what?".

Yes, that's right, today Ellena celebrates the halfway point to her first birthday. It felt as though it would never come and just thinking about the fact that it is halfway here has a dizzying effect!

We have so many developments lately, but here are highlights of what excites us most right now:

• Holding Her Own Bottle - A few times, she has actually held her own bottle, but only when it becomes light enough.

• A Tooth - That's right, E has cut a tooth and we can just see the top of this chomper, which is located front and center in her lower gum. Wow, the possibilities for so many new foods are on the horizon!



• Sippy-Cup & Water - She's been eyeing the glasses we drink water from each night at dinner, so we finally let her sip some water from our glass. She did this like a seasoned champ, so we broke out the only sippy-cup we had on hand and she had a ball, both holding it and drinking the water! Currently the plan is to buy her some new cups - possibly as early as tomorrow!

• Improved Mobility - You should see how my little panda bear can scoot around the floor. She isn't quite crawling yet, but between rolling, sliding, semi-army shuffling and other forms of ingenuity, she can pretty much get near anything she desires to.

So Much To Be Thankful For

We take time today to break bread with family, share our sentiments for one another, and enjoy our first Thanksgiving with our daughter, Ellena. From our hearts, we could fill all the space Blogger would give us with the things we are thankful for. To name a few; our faith (which expands every day), our family (which expanded this year), our family (for which our love expands) and our friends (for which our reach and heart increases for with each passing season). Interesting how none of these are things at all.

From our piece of the internet to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

Our Gift To The Lord - Ellena's Dedication

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Dedicate your life to something greater than yourself
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The Lord gave us the gift of our daughter, who we vowed to raise in a Christian home. On this day we dedicated her back to Him.

This was a great day for our family and an even better day for Ellena. For those wondering what the purpose of a baby dedication is, allow me to explain. Most people have heard of a baby christening, but I have noticed that fewer have heard of a dedication. The primary difference is in choice. By dedicating Ellena to God, we essentially made a public announcement in our church to recognize that Ellena is a gift from God. A gift that, at this time, we choose to give back to Him. We promised to perform several actions, including leading her to Christ until she can choose for herself to do so. Ideally, at a point in her life, she will choose to become baptized.

For the occasion, she wore a white robe that was handmade by Ellena's great grandmother, Marlene. It was so beautiful and she received many compliments on it. After the church service, we hosted a small brunch at our home with close friends and family. It was a day full of memories for our family and we look forward to sharing the church-provided DVD with Ellena.

Fat & Jolly

Last week S took E with her to the local mall (this is seriously one of her favorite places to go outside of Costco, her day care and Grandma’s house). The purpose of this visit was to rendezvous with Santa for her first time. The girls made it through the line and below is the result. Enjoy.

I like this picture on so many levels. She is smiling (as opposed to scared of Santa and his big, threatening already-warmed lap) and she appears to be having a good time. Also, this was the first time I had ever seen shoes on Ellena. You would never believe how “grown up” shoes can make a baby look! Between the shoes and her jeans, she really looked a bit more mature than I am used to.

Now, rumor has it the Sultan of the Sack and E exchanged a few sentences, but the conversation was masked by general mall noises and piped-in Christmas music, so we really don’t know what she “wants for Christmas”. We'll just have to wing it, I suppose.

Can I Get My Act Together?

Have you ever had one of those days where it just felt like you couldn’t get anywhere? For example, some weekday mornings while I am loading up the truck with all the things E and I need (work bag, her bag, my lunch, her lunch, dry cleaning, her, etc.), I just feel like I am dragging around the house to the point where I finally think to myself “am I ever going to get going today?”

We were in for it today, or should I say I was in for it. About half way to day care I realized I left E’s solid food in the kitchen on the counter. Although happy to remember the food she would need only a few hours later, I really didn’t want to turn around. But I did, of course.

After arriving at day care, I went to place her milk in the fridge and, guess what, it was missing from its pouch on the side of the bag. Oh yeah, turns out it was at home in the refrigerator! After going back to get it, the sun was clearly up at this point. I returned to the center, stored the milk in their fridge, kissed E goodbye (again) and left for work after making the comment to her caregiver “Pray the wheels stay on my truck today”.

Nothing much happened at work, except I did make it all the way into my building and to my desk before realizing I had forgotten my cell phone on the seat in the truck. Great, obviously forgetting things is the new theme. Hopefully, it is a day theme only!

In the evening, safely back at home and after dinner, I decided to check and possibly adjust my tire pressures. This is required each year as the weather cools off. When this happens, a little light on the dash flashes incessantly annoying me that my tires pressures are off. I had been ignoring this reminder for almost a week now and it seemed like a good time to fix the issue.

On the first wheel I reached, I attempted to remove the valve stem cap and found it stuck tight. Using a pair of small pliers, I successfully unscrewed the cap…and half of the actual valve stem the cap had seized on to!

As the air came gushing out of the tire at a speed that could not possibly be any faster, I could not help but just stare at the tire. On one knee, I watched the wheel slowly sink to the ground, half a valve stem in my grasp still, remembering my comment at day care only that morning.

Optimism prevails, I guess it could have been worse!

Now this guy is really having a bad day!

A Dusting & The Aftermath

Wow, Veteran's Day was sooo last week! Apologies for the shortage here, we've been on vacation. We received a freak phone call (long story short) that led to a spontaneous trip to Botswana with the Research & …….okay, so nothing like that really happened. Admit, I had you. Sadly, instead we just blinked and, poof, a week went bye bye. Pretty typical really.

And what a week it has been! For starters we have received the first snow of the season. It wasn't much though, but it did accumulate a bit which sent our morning commutes into the proverbial snow bank. Personally, I will forever enjoy the first snowfall of the season. Every year since I moved here the first snow of the season screws up EVERYONE for at least a day or so. Nobody has a winter coat on yet. The county refuses to salt the roads in advance because, you guessed it, "it won't stick" (really, it will though, they just want to save a buck or two!) The best part though is everyone will forget how to drive. I don't just mean they will forget about coefficients of friction or to add extra time to their commute. I mean they will forget the BASICS! Traffic signals, ignored. Speed limits, non-existent. Factors of safety, none. Then, overpasses will freeze over, black ice rears its ugliness, and the end result it takes forever to get anywhere. It will clear up eventually and we as people will adjust, but what short memories we really do have! I mean, didn’t we just go through this less than a year ago?!

What else happened….oh, I know. Here's a funny story I like to call The Tale of The Daughter Who Thought Night Was Day. Ellena went to bed on Sunday night at a normal time for her, around 7:30 PM. We went to sleep probably before 10 (a miracle I know, but S had to be up at 3:20 AM to be to work by 5:00 AM). Yikes is right.

So there we are, all asleep when we hear a baby waking up over the monitor. It is approximately 10:30 PM. S gets up and feeds her, but comes back to sleep proclaiming "she's not asleep, but I need to be". "Fair enough" I remember thinking. I get up and attempt to put the baby back to sleep. Remember I am not as equipped at performing this task as the family mom, so I heat up a bottle and she drinks the whole thing. She is out now, so I place her in her crib and hit the hay. It is after 11:30. No problem. I wake up 20 minutes later to a baby who has just finished a really efficient nap, but wants to play now. Ohhhhhh-kay. So I go get her and bring her into the bed. Sometimes this will work and she will realize "Oh, I see. Everyone is sleeping here. I will sleep too." That doesn't work. To keep S asleep and to try to put E to sleep, I get up with her and we hit the living room and her toy mat. She is wide awake, kicking and playing. I have all of her toys in their "off" positions in order to minimize noise. Ultimately she falls asleep in my arms while I am playing video games. I know it sounds terrible, but I knew it usually transports her to nighty-night town, and eventually it did. The time was just after 2:00 AM.

I put E in her crib and I hit the hay only to have alarm go off an hour later. This was my "wake S up" alarm. The next thing I knew I woke up to my real alarm speaking out loud "S, wake up! S, wake up!" She was long gone and already at work!

No real point to this story I guess, but I would like to take this time to say we are grateful to have a daughter who sleeps well generally and also to thank God for giving us the energy and focus to make it through the next day, a working Monday (which is typically stacked against us anyway).

Ellena developments include the observation of a lot of short peach fuzz hair on her scalp. With winter here now, it looks like she is thickening up for the cold months to come!

If You Love Your Freedom...

Thank you to all the Veterans out there for taking care of this Country in any of the wars or conflicts you served your time in. We just don't take enough time to express our gratitude, but not a day goes by I don't thank the Lord for, upon many other blessings, the privilege to live in this free Country.

Happy Veterans Day!

One Year Ago: Oh Yeah, Its Much Clearer Now!

Ellena dear, in case you were wondering where we were exactly 1 year ago today, just take a look at the photograph, er, should I say ultrasound.

Yes, we were meeting you. No, it wasn't exactly the first time because we had already been through this once already by this date. But you were really just a heartbeat then. This one was the biggie! The appointment we had been looking forward to where you really started to take shape.

As you can see, that's you in the lower right hand corner, upside down. Your measurement was taken and is posted here somewhere, ah yes here it is, 34 cm, or as the doctor placed it in terms we will never forget - "Roughly the length of the short side of a credit card".

Welcome home kiddo. Your mom and I are glad you can be here!

October Leftovers

Welcome. Glad you could make it over today. How would you like something to snack on? How about some pumpkin seeds? What do you mean the pumpkin seeds are all gone? And there's no more gooey pumpkin pie? Okay, no problem, #1 and #2 don't let me have any of that "grown up"stuff anyway. You had better take a look at these instead...

This was my first Halloween and, oh, you knew that? How?

Here I am at day care, wait, I was wearing a ghost on my head? For how long? Certainly I hope it wasn't for the whole day?

Cousin Lily as a dalmatian and I. She had such soft fur I just kept feeling it!

Me and mom

Me and Grandma Lou Lou

The three of us - ooh - three generations!

And honestly, that's about all I can take tonight. Goodnight!

At The Speed Of Bob & Larry

Initially I thought of labeling this post "What We Have Been Up To", but reconsidered - too generic. In reality though, this post may actually bring you up to speed on...what else...what we have been up to! But mostly it is about the little one.

S and I both agree on the following 2 statements; 1) Ellena has set new record highs lately for being more fun than ever before (or should I say yet?) and 2) had we been graphing her development and progress since birth (remember - we're nerdy) there would be an obvious visible spike in the data over the last 2 weeks. Let's see what I can capture here in this space:

• Solid Food - We are sure E has been thinking something like "Yes! Finally, we are on to more than just the same old milk!" She has been watching us eat for some time. Just staring as if to wonder where her plate is. According to our sources, this was one of the signs to suggest the introduction of some solid foods. First things first - get out the highchair!
  
  

Here she is in her seat - ready to eat!

So far she has had rice cereal, oatmeal, pears, carrots, green beans (yuck! - who likes green beans anyway?!), sweet peas and applesauce. I am always overwhelmed by how quickly she can pick up something new. At first she was "a little hesitant" to eat off the spoon, but this soon turned into "a little messy" and now I'd say she's at "a little bit ready to feed herself". Here is a shot of her early on. She is not so bad now!

• Day Care Update - Yep, it's true, we have our own little routine down pat now. I pack her up in the mornings and we drive in for the drop off together, just the two of us. I can tell by how much she lights up when we arrive, that she really likes her caregivers as well as the other babies in her class. (by the way, most of them are boys, so she helps keep them in line!)



• Motor Skills - No she isn't driving yet, but she is twisting her arms about while holding onto objects. We were very entertained this week when she picked up an empty water bottle by it's cap end and started waving it in the air. Naturally and, eventually, she began to bang it on the floor and her leg to see if she could make noise with it. This is something she learned recently with her rattles. S and I actually claim to have watched her learn this. She had a rattle grasped and struck it into something. Upon hearing the sound, she froze, looked at her hand, looked at the rattle and did it again. The rest of the day was spent swinging anything we gave her into something else. Click on the video to see her swinging her yellow bird rattle around. Something tells us she will be good at badminton! Oh and we strongly see her as a leftie, although we are not sure if it is too early to tell. When does that really come out anyhow?

• Reaching & Touching - She reached up, signaling she was ready to be picked out of her exersaucer. This surprised us both. Also, she reached for me when S was holding her...oops - hot button topic, better change now! She is all about textures too. Recently I walked her all around a department store so she could touch all the different fabrics. At home, she feels everything and gives her approval by feeling the item again!



• Teething - E has all the signs and "symptoms" of teething (which, by the way, include everyone we know TELLING us she's teething - thanks for that) and although we have not spotted any chompers yet, they must be coming! Sometimes we can't help but try to see things from her perspective. Can you imagine what a tooth breaking through the gum line must feel like? We think she's had some of her worst days to-date which are noted by lot's of irritability, crying (rare for her) and sometimes lack of appetite. We feel so badly for her when she's being a bit fussy and we do what we can to help her feel better. As the man in the family, and completely devoid of the "motherly" ability to calm her, I find distraction to be my best weapon. You wouldn't believe some of the faces I can make!



• Stronger, Faster Movements - Overall, Ellena is much stronger than she was even 2 weeks ago. She can lift toys now that were immobile before and she is very good at standing (assisted), sitting (semi-assisted) and moving from her front to her back (and the opposite).

Hmm, I know I am missing something here, but the main points have been covered. We just can't believe how a) the time has flown by (she's 5 months old!) and b) how she has developed in such a short time.

As a parent, this is the best time yet! I describe her to coworkers as "enjoyably interactive, yet not old enough to run away!"

We can't keep up here!

Make Yourself Known!

What are you doing reading this blog today? Don't you have bigger news to follow?! If you have not done so already, consider this your gentle reminder to get out there and vote! Be heard!

OCD - Wei Haas It

Okay, so this isn't us. But it could be.

If we had more cats.

And more bins.

Our Little Gourd Is All Grown Up!

Happy Halloween 2008!

Halloween Prep II

I know what you must be thinking - you never read about a Halloween Preparation I, right? You are correct, Sir (or Madam...whichever fits)

This is a sequel event to an original event, held spontaneously in 2007. Well, it wasn't that spontaneous, but it might have appeared that way to some of us. (Ahem! Hint: S)

~~~ Flashback ~~~ Flashback ~~~ Flashback ~~~

Several of our friends flew and drove in on a Friday evening to surprise S for her birthday. Needless to say she was surprised - the ultimate goal. Check. Here's where the spontaneity comes in: The next day those who stayed overnight (& ultimately all weekend) drove to a local cider mill and bought pumpkins to carve (shout out to the actual cider and powdered doughnuts!). I believe SOME members of the party had never taken knife to gourd, if you can believe that. In summary, a good time was had by all, so the team decided to repeat the activity in 2008.

~~~~~~~~~ Flash forward to Present ~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some of the many photos taken during the carving contest*, including exclusive shots from the staging area, aka: the garage:

* In which there was no judging and no distributed prize - but just using the word "contest" infuses a sense of competition, mixed with a pinch of holiday sneakery & a sprinkle of suspicion.

Drew; long-time punkin' carving champion from Houston

Claim: Nobody bakes a meaner pumpkin seed than Tony the Seedmaster, from Ohio

Megan babysitting Ellena, in a designated "knife-free" area

Drew & Megan

Tony & Nicole

The final result all aglow

Lights out. Clockwise from the noon position: Megan's Wild Smile Child, Nicole's Feline-in-a-Pumpkin-on-a-Pumpkin, Anime Cat in a Box by Sheri, Loren's the Happy Squinter and Drew's dedication to The Men's Warehouse; a barbershop quartet of ghosts in tuxedos.

Anchors Aweigh!

For the records books, Ellena went on her first ever boat ride about a month ago (I think it was a month ago - hey! Don't blame me - this thing got lost in the system!). Our friends, George & Kim and their son Jacob, took us out on their deck boat, affectionately named the S.S. Ramrod.

There's actually a bit of history on the 'Ole Ramrod as you see the boat is a new addition to the family and George courageously rebuilt the transmission this summer (an unplanned event) eating up valuable sailing weather - hence the push to use the boat longer in the season.

This particular evening, there was a slight chill in the air, but we were blessed with a very beautiful sun down and, hey, it is always nice to be on a boat, right?

Here are a few shots of the voyage:

Kim & Jacob

K&J, deuce

S and E

Elle's really got a healthy set of sea legs and I think she liked the trip! Only time will tell!

Always The Optimist

I saw a greeting card once that read "When life hands you lemons, make some lemonade!"

I had the opportunity to make some "family" lemonade last week and did just that. I was returning from a business trip and when my flight was delayed significantly, it started a chain reaction in which I knew I would miss a connecting flight and so on. Instead of seeing this as misfortune, I saw an opportunity.

What did I do? I called my mom!

No, she did not call the airline and arrange for everything to work out in my favor! (although she would have tried!) Instead she, and her husband Jay, drove a few hours to meet me and share a lunch together. Even though I missed my girls terribly, it was very nice to have some extra time to break bread with family.

Side Note: I have only been to Houston a handful of times, but somehow always end up eating at a Saltgrass restaurant. This particular one has been visited by me 3 different times now. (Twice with customers and once now with family) Although this restaurant does not have any locations at home, I always look forward to eating here because a) the food is delicious and b) I never know why I will find myself there, when I will be back, and apparently, who I will be eating with!