update on ben and interesting emergency room tv

So, quick update on ben for those who didn't know. He's home and is actually doing well, but he's still on oxygen and is quite congested. he's smiling and laughing, but he now has a deep-seated fear of putting things in his nose. (That comes from all the suction he's had to endure.) we'll be able to tell his therapist later on in life what happened.

We're actually in the imc er right now - he's here to get suctioned and possibly have an ambuterol treatment. While we're sitting here, I can't help but laugh at what's on the tv here in the waiting room. In what has to be the most self-promoting advertising ever, world-wide wrestling is showing now. I can remember watching wwf wrestling as a kid, and then re-enact everything with my brothers and friends, usually on a trampoline. That show has to be the reason behind half the broken bones and emergency room visits every year.

Oh well - we should have our turn at suctioning soon. Everyone - watch out for rsv! (And the back-breaking body slam!) They'll both bring you to the emergency room.

Darn RSV

This is how are week is going. Ben and I are enjoying (mostly) some quality time together while he gets over RSV. He got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital from the urgent care clinic and has been on oxygen since then.

But isn't this oxygen stuff great! Yesterday he managed to have enough energy to play and smile and kick. Just makes a mommy happy to see some personality again.

He's doing good and we are enjoying time to just sit and snuggle. And someone else gets to try to keep the house clean, I wish them luck. :)

Two years old have way too much energy

I realized yesterday that an overtired Mom and an energetic two year old are not an ideal match. This mom just doesn't have the patience for it. There are no pictures for this post but here are some of the antics of late:

Said two year old doesn't think she needs a nap, until we go for a drive in the car. I really don't like her taking naps at 4 pm but I am deciding if I want to fight her every day about this one. She still needs a nap but only one hour worth.

This same two year old has an amazing knack of going through all of her laundry pretty rapidly. This is partly due to the potty training we are doing (she is doing fairly well) and also her desire to wear pajamas all day everyday. So I help her get dressed and then she will see her pajamas and she changes her clothes. And then she will find something else she likes and changes again. She is currently wearing her favorite nightgown which just got washed last night. We will have to see if she lets me take it off of her tonight or tomorrow morning.

Yes she has a name but it changes throughout the day and she won't do anything you ask unless you refer to her by the right name. This morning that has been "Super Sidekick." Last night it was puppy, some days it is Princess Peach, some times Baby. The other night she would not get on her bed until I finally said, "Puppy, get on your bed and go to sleep" and she looks at me, says "OK" and climbed on her bed and went to sleep.

Going to bed is another thing that needs help. Yes she climbed up and went to sleep the other night but if I recall it was probably 9 pm. She will just sit in her room and play until 9 or 10 every night. Last night it was a better time but I still heard her saying "No Mario, that's where Bowser Jr is" or something along those lines (although she was laying in bed at this point, there have been improvements in the last couple of days). If Hannah is awake the two of them just play until Hannah conks out and then Michelle continues playing for another 30 minutes or so.

She has to do most things by herself and that is often where my patience is tried the most. "I buckle myself." "Not those pants." "I do it." This often decided when I am in a hurry and don't want to let her take the time to do it herself.

Oh well, at least at night when she wakes up she has learned to call for Daddy!

What's on our wall?

Here at the Elliss household we're slowly re-decorating things, putting up new pictures, etc. Below are the latest images.
Ben the Cannonball - he's the latest and biggest addition to the household. Luckily for all of us, he's very good natured and can either be held or carried around on the shoulders. His huge size (99% for his age :)) helps prevent his siblings from throwing him around too much.
Hannah is learning her letters and sounding out words now. She's really looking forward to the age where she can go to school just like Sam. She's a monkey who literally climbs up walls, runs around in a cape, and teaches her little sister how to get her parents to do whatever she wants.
Michelle is loving life as girl who knows what she wants, and she wants it now, and you have to give in to her demands due to her dual powers of cuteness and screaming. She has basically the whole family wrapped around her finger. Luckily she can be defeated by simply not letting her take a nap during the day and cuddling her at around 6:00 at night. Out like a lamp.
Sam is doing great at school and at home - he's reading just about anything with words on it. We never knew how interesting the words on the cereal boxes were or what exactly the signs along the highway were saying. He's very competitive and keeps a tally of who is the smartest in his class, along with what he needs to do to catch up. But he loves playing games and also takes time out to do things that actually help other people.

Overall, the kids are doing well and playing well together. They're really into Mario (Sam), Princess Peach (Hannah), and Bowser (whoever is the bad guy at the moment - usually an uncle) - playing games all the time about Princess Peach getting kidnapped, rescuing herself and Daisy (Michelle), and jumping from couches to chairs to tables to avoid the lava. AJ is doing well - her patience usually runs out around 5:30, but I make it home by then to let her recharge for the next day.




Merry Christmas to all!

Recent Activities

We had a busy October. Here are a couple of snapshots of our activities.

Here's the best photo we have currently for our family. This is up the canyon in Cedar City where we were for Heather and Jonathan's wedding. Next is the only photo we have of them (we aren't as talented at juggling children and camera yet).

And we had a fun day of baby blessings for Baby Benjamin and Baby Martin. Yes they are the same size but that's impressive for Martin who started out just under 3 lbs. And Benjamin is an overachiever (or overeater, however you want to look at it). That was a really fun day since we had my whole family there. And what a fun opportunity for cousins to be blessed on the same day.

And completely unrelated to the pictures we have some t-shirt sayings that fit my children so well:

"Everybody knows I was born this cool" is Ben's onsie.

"I have Daddy under my spell" for Michelle (if you don't believe it come spend the night at our house, around 2 am you may hear a toddler start crying and insisting that all she wants is her daddy).

And for both my girls (I don't actually have this shirt yet but I am seriously considering it): "This princess saves herself!"

I don't have any shirt sayings for Sam. His recent activities include doing a science fair project and making great progress in spelling. The spelling has led to him wanting to be quizzed on how to spell all kinds of words. Then he quizzes me on a few words, fortunately I have been able to spell all of them so far. :)

One Month

Here's a couple of pictures from the last month. To start with we have the painting project. Justin asked me for a "honey-do" list of things to do while he was home on paternity leave. I gave him ideas like clean the house, a good cleaning, the kids want a rope swing, a sandbox, weeding, etc. The kinds of things I haven't been able to do all summer. So he decides to paint the house. The entire upstairs except the bedrooms is painted. I don't know how well the colors show but the lighter wall is a yellow with the kitchen being our accent of a brick red. I took this picture because it should an area that was really clean at the time. It looks really nice and I am impressed he managed to get it down. It did get done thanks to my mother-in-law, who helped us get good colors and helped Justin get started and our home teachers who helped him finish.

Benjamin is starting to get a "social smile" as the doctor calls it. I managed to get this picture the other day. Isn't he so cute? He's one month old but pretty much grown out of things that are 0-3 months size. He can wear some of them still but some are being put away already (not that I had many to start with).

We drove up the canyon last weekend and I missed being in the mountains. I didn't do any hiking or camping all summer (we did go to NM but we didn't camp or hike really, well I didn't). So we contemplated going camping this past weekend and decided instead to camp in our backyard. We had a short fire, which was perfect. Just enough to roast a couple of marshmallows and enjoy being around a fire and easy to put out. And then the kids and Dad slept in the tent outside. I decided not to since I knew I would just worry all night about whether Benjamin was cold, were the kids covered up, etc. They all loved it of course.

Cute as a button! Ben has arrived!

Ben arrived last Sunday at 3:30 AM - a massive 10 lb 1 oz baby. He's really quite even tempered, crying only when he needs to be fed.




He has to survive a monkey of an older sister, who wants to help out in every way. She especially likes to try to shove the binky into his mouth, which is something that he doesn't like.




His older brother has promised to teach him everything he needs to know, especially how to survive two older sisters.




Here's where we are trying to get him to take a nap - Michelle is holding him to get him to calm down. It suprisingly worked.