Romantic Dinner for Three

What do you do when your anniversary falls in the middle of the week and you have a 6 month old who still thinks he needs to nurse every 2-3 hrs? Well, we decided to just do dinner at home. I fed the kids waffles and doritos and salsa (hey, Sam picked and that's what he wanted--more importantly, he ate it with no complaining) as soon as we had picked up Sam from school. Then I made a nice dinner for us. The kids were told they could watch the movies they had picked out from the library last week so that we could eat dinner and enjoy each others company. I'm quite proud of the dinner I put together. We had a nice green salad, asparagus, french bread and orange chicken. I got out the nice dishes and put a cute centerpiece set-up on the table, complete with candles, heart candies, and the flower Justin got me a couple days ago. It looked so great. And then we sat down to enjoy our dinner, and who came to join us? Well, Ben was asleep and the TV was on so that rules out Sam and Hannah. Ah yes, that would leave the rambunctious two year old who can't just sit next to you while you eat. She has to climb on and off your lap. She also kept pointing to food that she wanted a bite of and I think she took all the rest of the cucumbers out of the salad bowl. And of course she wanted all the candy hearts (the girl has more sugar in her than anything else currently). So yes, we had a nice dinner and enjoyable company. And we even enjoyed the two year old antics. Sorry no pictures, we didn't think about that until we were doing dishes.

January recap

So some of my sisters scrapbook. I have yet to jump on that bandwagon. That would just be more craft stuff to buy and another hobby to try to fit in my spare time. I have enough with my fascination with jewelry, sewing, and other crafts (thank you Jenni). I like all the cute little doo-dads for scrapbooking I decided, so it's best I just stick with what I have for the time being (it's safer if I just stay out of Micheal's but that's not an option really). But I do like the idea of an look at the month and Picassa offers a nice collage setting. January got two pages, one for overall and one for illnesses.

As for our illnesses, we are all healthy right now. Everybody knock on wood for that one! We are back in our routine of sorts once again. It's good to be back to regular chaos. For a week or two there I started each day with the thought of "really, well why not spike a fever/have a croupy cough/break out in a rash" because it really did seem like something new every day. Now it is once again, chaos as normal. And I mean that in the best of senses.

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. :)