Christmas rush

Our life seems to be a blur of activity lately. I want it to slow down, but that's just not how life works. I love the holiday season. It is truly my favorite time of year, but this year I'm so behind. Being gone almost the entire month of November gave me a very late start. I've been busy decorating and baking, as well as, trying to find the right gifts for those I love. That's always a bit of a challenge for me here in Germany. I really miss American stores like Target, Walmart, Sears, Kohls, Macy's, etc. I especially miss them at this time of year when I'm trying to buy for people.

Ellyanna just seems to be doing new things every day. A couple of Sunday's ago (13 Dec) she started playing Peek-a-boo with us. She was sitting on our bed while Sam and I finished getting dressed. She was dressed and ready to go meet Santa in her festive little red dress. Sam threw a shirt over her head and she worked hard to get it off. When she finally slid it off we said "Peek-a-boo", as we've done countless times before. Somehow this day it registered though. You could see the wheels in her head spinning as she lifted it back up over her head. We said "Where's Elly?" and she slid it off her head as we said "Peek-a-boo" again. A huge smile spread across her face.

The other morning (when Elly decided to get up at 5:00am) I was talking to Mom on the phone and looked over at Elly sitting on the living room floor. She was non-chalantly sitting there holding one of her cloth diapers over her face. I knew what she was doing. She likes the reaction she gets from playing peek-a-boo. It really is adorable.

I keep trying to get a good picture of her two little teeth. She has such a big gummy grin, but occasionally I see those two little bits of white. So cute!

We were working on feeding her solids, but she just has no interest in it. It had gotten to the point where she would just close her mouth tight and fight the spoon, so I quit trying. She's getting all she really needs from me and she'll learn to like food at some point.

She is just so precious and I love her so much! She is an absolute doll all day long, but she still refuses to sleep anywhere but in our bed and even at that some nights she just tosses all night long. I think she must have gotten scared at some point, because she used to have no problem taking a nap in her crib, but now wakes up crying anytime I try to lay her down now. I've decided to just keep her in our bed for as long as it takes for her to get comfortable again. Thankfully, just last night she finally slept well all night. No tossing and turning all night. I'm thankful for small steps right now :)

I don't know why I find it so difficult to get updates posted on this blog. I've been working on this one for a couple of weeks now. I have so much to do and should be using Elly's nap time more wisely, but thought I would try to get this finished and posted.

I have a lot to do before Christmas day, which is just two days away. That's unbelievable! I love this season and always wish I could extend it somehow to enjoy it even longer. We're having a few friends over for dinner on Christmas. Not a big deal, but I do need to get the house cleaned a bit and then I have some baking to do. I figure I'll get what I can done tomorrow and try to keep what I have to do Friday to a minimum.

Something I need to remember for next year....don't put the Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. At least not if it's a real tree. I haven't given into getting an artificial tree as of yet, so I need to remember to put the tree up later next year. I have to say our tree is looking pretty sad at this point. It's rather droopy. I've even kept it watered, but it doesn't seem to have helped any. Anyhow, I think I'll take it down between Christmas and New Year's because it's just not looking so pretty these days.

It's really hard being away from family during this season, but I'm so thankful for the ways we have to keep in touch. I love the webcam and often will just be sitting on my couch visiting with Mom. She's able to see Elly alot that way too.

Today we had our New Parent Support group. We all got pictures around the Christmas tree. Needless to say, that was interesting. How do you get 12-14 babies all looking at the camera at the same time? Yeah, I don't know either, but we tried. Of course, I didn't take my camera, so I'm hoping to get some pictures sent to me.

Well, I better quit rambling and get some pictures posted, so I can get this finished today. I take a ridiculous number of pictures of Ellyanna, but how can I not? She's just so cute and I love that little girl so much. I see how quickly she's growing up and I want to capture every cute little thing she does. Thankfully, for you.....I don't post nearly as many as I take, but here are a few recent pictures from our life.

This was the first time she woke up with actual "bed head"

Her hair was sticking up all over.

Playing in a basket

She LOVES bouncing on Daddy's knee!

Getting ready to go out one evening I just thought she looked especially cute :)

Nothing is sweeter than having a baby fall asleep on your chest

Sam had both of our babies sleeping on him.

"Hi Mom!"

I looked everywhere for these deer. We finally found some at the greenhouse in our town.

Ellyanna's really been enjoying her sippy cup lately

I love how she sits on the floor with her basket of toys. She'll get them out one by one by tipping the basket toward her. So cute!

Cheesin' for Mama

She always has a ready smile (well, almost always)

She LOVES bathtime!!

I love her rolls :)

Nah, she's not ornery!

Figuring out how to get into the kitchen cupboards. Thankfully, at this point, her walker doesn't allow her to actually get into the cupboards.

But, she has no problem reaching the curtains. She loves getting lost in them and just recently started sucking on them. That's kind of gross.

Chewing on an apple in her mesh teether. This was the first time she actually seemed to like it.

Visiting with family in the states

We arrived back in Germany 2 weeks ago, but I've just not taken the time to finish this blog and get it posted. We've been having quite a time getting Elly adjusted back to Germany time. It hasn't just been the jet lag, but also teething. Her first tooth popped through the day after we returned (11/24)!! I found it when we were walking through the PX and she was chewing on my finger. I felt something hard in there and sure enough it was her first tooth! It was the bottom left and just last night her second one popped through (bottom right). We had a rough night with very little sleep. I ended up sleeping in the recliner in the nursery while Sam snuggled Elly to get her to sleep. I was banned from the bed because with me beside her all she wanted to do was nurse constantly. When I finally left she went to sleep.

I think taking two stateside trips so close together really messed up Elly's sleeping schedule. Before we started the trips she would take a 2-3 hour nap each morning and sometimes an afternoon nap. She was also sleeping pretty well in her co-sleeper at night. Unfortunately, that's not the case now. For some reason she will not sleep without me physically staying with her. She will fall asleep right away when I nurse her, but as soon as I lay her down she wakes up screaming. The other day she cried for over 2 hours and the next day it was 1 1/2 hours. That was rough on this Mama!! It is so hard to hear my baby crying and not go pick her up. It's so hard to know what is best. We had several very hard days with me trying to get her to sleep again by herself. Finally, after talking to Mom (who is so wise, by the way ;) I just decided to work with her for awhile and let her get totally adjusted back to Germany time and move past the teething then slowly we'll get her back to sleeping by herself. I'm ready for her to be out of our room, but I have to just take it slowly. For some reason she has anxiaty about sleeping without me right there, so it'll be a slow process, but we'll get there eventually.

Even though we enjoyed our visits with family, I'm so glad to be done with travelling for awhile. It's truly exhausting and I'm happy to be home and getting ready for the holidays.

When we arrived back in Germany we discovered that several of our suitcases, along with Elly's car seat, were missing. We didn't have much of a choice, but for me to hold her on my lap for the drive home. I really don't like doing that, but our friend who picked us up drove all back roads, so at least we were not out on the Autobahn. Thankfully, the luggage was found the following day and delivered to our house.

Ellyanna is such a great little traveler. She's really wonderful on the plane trips...even as long as they are. For the longest stretch on our way home, Atlanta to Paris, we made a little bed for her on the floor out of airline pillows. She actually slept for several hours like that so at least she got a little rest. Otherwise, the only time she slept was when I was nursing her.

That last Friday at Fort Leavenworth was Sam's graduation for the class he was taking. Ellyanna and I attended that and then we were off to the airport. I was concerned about having enough time to get checked in, but everything worked out great. We even had time to grab some lunch before boarding the plane. We got into Pittsburg that evening and then drove on down to Fairmont, WV to spend a couple of days with my Grandma. We had a really nice time there, although Elly was not feeling her best. Friday morning she started coughing. I was so concerned that she was going to get sick because I had been sick almost the entire time in Kansas. Thankfully (and I think in large part to nursing) she only had a few days where she didn't feel real great and had some chest congestion.

Saturday we spent with Grandma. We went out to eat for lunch then went for a drive and ended up out out Prickett's Fort where we walked around a bit. Grandma had some Cream Horn cookies that I helped her fill since she has a hard time doing it with arthritis. That evening when we got back to the hotel Elly wasn't feeling very good. I gave her a bath thinking it might help her congestion. It really hurt my heart to see her so listless. She just sat in the tub with her head leaning on my arm. She was such a sick little girl that night. Thankfully, that was about the worst of it and she started to get better from there.

Sunday morning we went to church with Grandma. I was surprised to see Uncle Roger and his wife Ruthann there. It had been quite a few years since I'd seen him. It's always nice to reconnect with family. After a nice lunch at Grandma's and spending a few hours there we got ready to leave for Sam's parents place in Somerset, PA. It's always hard to have so little time, but when we have family spread out we have to share the time we have.

Once again on the way to Somerset we were so thankful for Tom-Tom. Several places the roads had changed and he redirected us. I'm sure we would have been quite lost if it hadn't been for that handy little contraption.

We had a wonderful time with Sam's family in Pennsylvania. Of course, one week was not enough, but we enjoyed the time we had. Ellyanna was able to get to know her Oma and Opa and I think they all enjoyed the visit. One day Sam and I, with Elly of course, drove to another town to do some shopping at Target and Kohls. That's something I really miss with living in Germany....the shopping. I'm not really into shopping that much, but I do miss the American stores.

The Friday evening before we left, Sam's Aunt Linda had us over for dinner. It was a nice evening spent with family. One of his cousins had a baby just a couple month younger than Elly. It was cute seeing them interact.

Sam's parents introduced Ellyanna to her first concert :) One evening we went to a Michael W. Smith concert. It was very nice, however, none of us thought about how loud it would be for Elly....we ended up leaving early.

Well, I could ramble on, but think I'll just post some pictures from the second half of our trip.

Ellyanna and I before leaving the room we stayed in at Ft. Leavenworth

I love her in this little outfit. She's such a doll!

Elly, me and Grandma at Prickett's Fort

Grandma, Ellyanna and Sam

Sam's parents, Elly and I out for a walk in Hidden Valley (Sam was there, but taking the picture)

Trying peaches

She's really not into food much yet

Aunt Linda with Sam and Ellyanna

Sam and Higgins trying on some clothes

Ellyanna taking it all in

Being silly

Sam and I took a picture with his "famous" Mom. (this poster of her is hanging in the lodge at Hidden Valley)

Ellyanna with her second cousin, Isabelle

The babies were so funny. They both were on their bellies yelling.

Opa and Ellyanna watching a football game

Ellyanna with Oma and Opa Thompson

Sam and Elly with Oma and Opa

All of us together

Look who's 6 month old!

I'm blown away that Ellyanna is already 6 months old! She is so sweet and gets more precious every day. I love her so much and am completely smitten with her. She's so fun and laughs so easily anymore. What a little gift she is!

I was just saying to Sam that it's easy to forget how little she is because of her huge personality. You start to see this person emerge where there was once just a helpless little being. She's such a pleasant little thing. I love how she wakes up in the mornings. She usually just lays in bed talking to herself or blowing "raspberries" and every so often trying out her scream. She will stay in bed for a long time keeping herself entertained. When I do finally go in she gives me the biggest smile and just wiggles all over. I call it her "happy dance".

We've been in Kansas at Ft. Leavenworth for over a week now. Unfortunately, I've been sick the entire time. Really sick. Last Saturday we finally went to a doctor. That was worthless, to say the least, but at least it was confirmed that I did not have H1N1. For that I'm thankful. My real concern was that Sam and Elly would get sick too. It would be hard on Sam because he's in this training that he has to attend. And it would just break my heart to see Ellyanna as sick as I had been. Thankfully, the last couple of days I've started to feel a little better each day. Elly seems to have a bit of a fever though and has been sleeping alot today. I'm hoping that she just gets a touch of the sickness and gets over it quickly.

Sunday afternoon our good friend, Bill, came down from Ft. Leonardwood to visit us. He and Sam go back quite a few years. We knew him back in Hawaii. It was so nice to visit with him again. Some friends are just so comfortable that you can not see them in several years, but when you do get back together it's as if you haven't been apart at all. Ellyanna really flirted with him. She gave Uncle Bill lots of smiles.

This Friday is Sam's last day of class. As soon as the graduation is finished we're heading to the airport and hoping we make our flight. We scheduled it a little too close to when he finishes, so it could be a little stressful. We'll fly to Pittsburg then head down to West Virginia to see my Grandma Thorne. We'll be there a couple of days then head on back to Pennsylvania to spend a week with Sam's parents. I'm really hoping to be feeling a lot better and able to enjoy our visit with family.

Well, that's about what's been going on here. Here are a few pictures from the last week

Here we are on the flight from Stuttgart to Atlanta

Ellyanna playing in the bassinet

My sweet girl :)

Finally in Kansas...and she was still in a good mood.

Ellyanna and Daddy on his first day of class

On our way down to breakfast that first morning.

Thanks to jet lag, this little lady was wide awake at 4:00am...

...giving me cute looks...

...wondering why Mama keeps taking her picture...

...but, figuring that must be what Mommies do.

She pulled a pillow over on top of herself

Looks like it pinned her

Out for a walk and to meet Daddy for lunch

Ellyanna's favorite way to sleep...face covered and blankets kicked off

My adorable little water baby

Bill with me and Ellyanna

Sam and Bill

Water bottles are her most recent favorite thing to play with

My happy girl...what a ham!