Hunt Family Connection

Week in the Life - Day 4 - Wednesday

This morning I observed a couple of very sweet brother/sister moments that I want to share.  While I was getting dressed and ready to go, Ellie was a bit upset about being left alone in her crib. Graham went wandering off and I found him starting the musical toy hanging on the side of the crib for her :) When we went out to get in the truck I set Ellie down on a little table while grabbed one more thing from inside the front door and then locked it.

I grabbed something from inside the front door and then locked it - when I turned back to grab Ellie's carseat I found G rocking it gently to keep her quiet and calm. There are more moments lately when he is trying to help and take care of his baby sister, and fewer moments when he's trying to clobber her!

Graham thought it was really important to bring puppy to daycare this morning - every once in awhile he wants to bring something from home with him, and I'm usually ok with that.  I was a little nervous about sending puppy because he is an important part of the bedtime routine. I made sure Sabrina knew how important it was to make sure that puppy came back home with Graham tonight :)

I went home to work on my goals for the day - it may seem silly, but I like to write down a few things that I hope to accomplish throughout the day. 

I know it's just a few things, but you'd be surprised how little time there really is in a day when you're caring for an infant.  My life is lived in these 3-4 hour cycles in which Ellie gets fed, sleeps, plays, and needs to be held...and then it all starts again. There is actually small windows of time when my hands aren't busy with her that I can do certain chores. It makes me feel good when I can check these things off by the end of the day. 

I found out that Kara and Melissa were having lunch near my part of town, so I got myself showered and Ellie and I made our way out to Cafe Yumm to meet them...

I love our Wednesday lunches and though we probably talked too much about work, I was so happy to see and spend time with them.  Ellie slept through the whole thing and as you can see here, was still pretty tired when we left :)

When Melissa and Kara went back to work Ellie and I decided to do a little shopping. We stopped at Old Navy and found a couple of deals, then stopped at Trader Joe's to grab a special treat (vegan choc. chip cookies!) for Wil.

By the time we got home from our outing we had just enough time to freshen up, get Ellie fed, and then head out to our appointment with the urologist. He went through the ultrasound pictures with me and just talked in more detail about what it all means. As we already knew, they will continue to monitor Ellie's kidneys with periodic ultrasounds (our next one is in two months) and hopefully the problem will resolve itself. If they are not seeing any progress in a year, they will pursue some additional tests to determine what's going on.  In most cases it all just goes away on its own, so we'll hope that's the case for us too.

While I was at the doctor with Ellie, Wil was taking Suki to the vet. It seems that her liver problems are surfacing again and seem rather serious. The vet ran some blood tests and will get back to us with results tomorrow.

Jim and Chery came over to help watch Graham while we were at our appointments and they stuck around to help Wil through some of the evening while I went out to shop the consignment sale I am participating in. It's been awhile since I had been anywhere free of both children and specifically free of having to haul the carseat in and out of the truck with me. It was nice to have some time to myself and I had a lot of fun looking for deals at the sale. Here are some of the goodies I brought home...

I found a few things for Ellie - a pair of jeans she should be able to fit into soon, a cute little dress she should be able to fit into right now, and a dress for her to wear at Christmas time. I also found this fun wooden rattle/toy - I don't think it will be long before she's grabbing for and playing with toys.

I found lots of fall/winter clothes for G - he insists on growing so it was good to find some great deals on long sleeved shirts and a couple pairs of pants. I also found a bag of books that are all about trucks, diggers, and other machines that Graham has great interest in.  They are going to make for some great bedtime reads :) 

I spent a little time tidying up and watched Glee before heading to bed - definitely one of my new favorite shows this fall.

Week in the Life - Day 3 - Tuesday

It was a different kind of morning since I didn't have to get Graham up and ready for daycare today. Eleanor seems to be developing a pattern of waking up with gas problems/whining around 5:30 every morning - I went in and brought her back to bed with me to rest. Wil got up a little later than usual and was rushing around to get to work on time.

Once Wil left I took Ellie back to her crib and managed to squeeze in a quick shower before she became too upset. I got us both dressed and ready to go out on some errands.

Our first stop was Beacon House to drop off our goods for the consignment sale. They were more than happy to keep an eye on Ellie while I hauled things in, and suggested that I may just want to leave her there :)  Nope - we're keeping her!  I'm looking forward to the sale tomorrow night to see what kind of treasures I can find....

After that it was off to the grocery store - since I was in a different part of town, I decided to shop at Fred Meyer instead of my usual grocery store, Safeway.

Ellie's a great shopper and slept through most of the trip :) It's fun to shop somewhere different 'cause you find things that you don't normally get or find new things to try. Two big finds on this particular outing....YUMMY chicken and wild rice soup in the deli - super creamy and tasty. The second thing was this:

Leine's has finally made it out to Oregon!! In all the time I've lived here, I've never been able to find my favorite beer from back home. Leinenkugal's is based in Chippewa Falls, WI, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from where I grew up. Funny side story on this....recently my mom was doing some grocery shopping and ran into Jake Leinenkugal himself! Because she had some Leines in her cart, Jake stopped to chat with her and thank her for her support :)  Being the fantastic mother that she is, she used her brush with fame to advocate for her daughter and let him know that I was having trouble getting his beer out here in Oregon. He told her that they were getting out here and that I should look at Albertson's grocery stores, not Safeway.  I haven't had occasion to get to Albertson's yet to check on it, so was thrilled to find it at Fred Meyer. I am happy to report that I enjoyed a nice, cold Oktoberfest after dinner.

Speaking of dinner, Graham got one of his favorites - macaroni and cheese! He asks for it for every meal, even breakfast.  We were cleaning up some leftovers  so I warmed up the leftover mac&cheese for him - every time he took a bite he would say, "mmmm....that's good."

I understand - I've always been a big fan of the Kraft Mac & Cheese too :)

Not much else to report about the day - it did rain quite a bit in the afternoon and I even heard some thunder.  Graham was pretty tired tonight, so after dinner we watched a little Noggin before getting him ready for bed. He had a really hard time settling down at bedtime though and as usual had trouble staying in his room. When I finally shut the door he went into hysterics and it lasted a bit longer than usual.....when will this stage pass?!?!

Week in the Life - Day 2 - Monday

Ellie was up with some gas troubles early this morning so I brought her into bed with me. Graham didn't need me during the night and slept in this morning - I didn't hear from him until 7:30 - yay! Wil headed off to work and then we all got dressed - Ellie first, then Graham, and finally me. We ran around like crazies for a bit, trying to get everything ready for a walk to Graham's daycare.

So here we are, finally in the stroller and ready to go to Sabrina's house....

Once back home I had a bowl of cereal then got Ellie changed and fed. We spent the rest of the morning hanging out on the couch.

While Ellie slept I made a vet appt. for Suki, chatted with Kara about some work stuff, and spent time looking through and commenting on layouts in the Designer Digitals gallery.  I had taken a little break from scrapbooking when Ellie was born, but now a month later I'm getting back to it and I finally posted a new page today....

I thought it would make a good cover page for Eleanor's baby album.  Click HERE to see the supplies used to make this page. 

After lunch I put Ellie in the swing and I finished tagging clothes for the consignment sale I'm participating in this week. It took a bit of time to get everything put together, but it's all packed up and ready to take tomorrow. I'm not looking to make much money, but having something to put into the sale gets me an opportunity to shop the sale early. 

On Mondays Jim and Chery pick Graham up from daycare to hang out with him until they bring him home at bedtime. Tonight Graham is staying overnight - he is quite excited about this :)  When we were getting ready for daycare this morning he helped me pack his suitcase...

He made sure to pack a couple favorite books, his pjs, his water cup, puppy, and he also tried to pack my cell phone :)  We didn't have a spot for the suitcase on the stroller ride to Sabrina's this morning, so Jim and Chery stopped by the house to visit for a few minutes and pick it up.

It's pretty quiet around here without Graham - we took turns watching Ellie while the other ate dinner and then came together to watch How I Met Your Mother and some of the other Monday night CBS shows. While we were watching those shows, I was DVRing House - will look forward to watching that sometime this week when I'm home with Ellie.

Wil's still downstairs playing his game, Ellie has been quietly sleeping for about 45 minutes now, and I'm getting sleepy so I guess it's time to call it a day. Hopefully Graham is quietly sleeping at Pa-paw and Grandma Chery's house :)

Ellie at One Month

Eleanor has been here on the outside with us for a whole month now!

At one month old I think she might finally be as big as Graham was when he was born. We're now out of the newborn sized diapers and I'm really enjoying dressing up a little girl.

Ellie really likes to be awake during the day - perhaps afraid she's going to miss something? When she's awake it's fun to watch her look around and soak up her surroundings. She also tries to hold up her head - it's the craziest thing because she is so itty bitty!  I've tried to tell her that there is absolutely no rush for her to grow up - she should take her time :)

She is sleeping anywhere from 2-4 hours at a time during the night between feedings. She's almost always really good about going right back to sleep after those feedings too - something I am sooo grateful for!

We have had a few extra doctor appointments for Ellie, including an ultrasound to check on her kidneys. We got the results of her ultrasound back and they are still seeing the problem they saw in my prenatal ultrasound. Our pediatrician tells us it is something called Hydronephrosis - you can click on the big, long word for a more detailed explanation, but the bottom line is that this is something that is somewhat common, normally resolves itself without treatment, and shouldn't impact her too much at all. The pediatrician has referred us on to a urologist to talk further about the condition - that appointment is coming up on Wednesday so perhaps we'll have more information after that.

Eleanor just seems like such a mellow little girl - letting us know when she needs something, and spending the rest of her time checking out the world and "chatting" with us. Perhaps it's just me that is more mellow this time around :)

Week in the Life - Day 1 - Sunday

So I thought it would be a good time to do another Week in the Life project (inspired by Ali Edwards). Funny thing - I went back to look and see when I had done it last, and it looks like it was this very same week exactly one year ago! Life is certainly a bit different than it was a year ago - should be a fun comparison!

So for this week my intention is to take pictures and tell the story of what our life is like right now - I'm not sure how I'm going to put it all together in the end, but I'll be posting pictures and notes on my blog to help remember what went on each day. 

So let's start with today....

It's hard to say when the day starts anymore.  I was up at midnight finishing a feeding with Ellie and going into Graham's room to calm him down from a bad dream (or whatever it was that woke him at midnight!) I guess we could jump ahead to 5:30am when I went in to get Ellie - it sounded like she was struggling with some gas bubbles, so I brought her back into bed with me and she slept on me there for a bit. After I got a bit more sleep, I pulled out my computer and checked email, facebook, and a few other websites. I fed Ellie again at 7:30 and about 10 minutes into the feeding Graham woke up and started yelling for me. The good news was that this was considered "sleeping in" for Graham - he's been getting up around 6am most mornings. Lately when Graham wakes up, I've been getting him out of his room and he crawls into bed with me and Eleanor to wake up slowly.

You can see Graham's sippy cup on the nightstand behind him - he usually goes downstairs to get his milk himself, so I try to remember to fill it up the night before so there is a full cup waiting for him. He also likes to snuggle in and play with the iPod a bit while he's waking up. It buys me a little more rest time :)

We got up and headed downstairs for some breakfast - we usually have eggs one day on the weekend and then pancakes or muffins the other day.  Today Graham decided that pancakes sounded good.

So here are my "helpers" - Ellie did a great job of quietly watching and Graham helped to mix up the batter. Graham and I ate and Ellie was nice and patient while I ate and did the breakfast dishes...

After dishes it was time for Ellie to eat again so Graham played by himself while I took care of that.

The notepad is for me to jot down when I feed Eleanor and how much I offer her - my brain is so fried and sleep-deprived that I often forget this info!

Graham continued to play and as has been the case for the past couple of weekends, he got antsy around 10:45 and stopped listening to my directions. We've decided that this is about as late as Wil can sleep in 'cause I need some help by then. Wil came down to relieve me and I managed to get a shower :)

When I got back downstairs I found Graham running around in circles and Wil talking to Eleanor while he watched football.

Because we had a pretty filling breakfast, Graham got tired before he got hungry for lunch so we decided to put him down for his nap. Ellie was asleep in the swing, so I decided to give mom and dad a call (as I do every Sunday!) and spend a little time preparing clothes for an upcoming consignment sale. When Ellie woke up, we decided to give her her first official bath.

She did not exactly love the experience, but she was so cute and smelled sooo good when it was all over!

By the time we were done with Ellie's bath, Graham was waking up from his nap. We had a little lunch, then Graham and Wil headed out back to play while I stayed inside to feed and hang out with Ellie.

Ellie and I enjoyed the peace and quiet :)  When Graham came back in he came to cool off and sit with me and his baby sister on the couch - I love these times when we are all cuddled up together just hanging out...

Wil is playing on a volleyball team again with some people he works with, so just before dinner time I ran out to get a pizza before he left for their game. Graham was none too happy about Wil leaving and stood by the window crying for his daddy long after he left.  He was still pouting when he sat down for dinner and kept asking if we could go watch daddy play. I was a little worried about taking both kids to the game, so I called Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery to see what they were up to.  They were at a BBQ, but happily left to come and help us out.

Unfortunately, I was a little mixed up about the time of the game - I thought it started at 6:30, but it actually started at 6:00.  By the time we got there, we only saw about 15 minutes of volleyball.  Graham loved seeing his daddy play though :)  I didn't want to go home right away, so Jim and Chery came to a nearby park with me and the kids while Wil went out with his teammates.  THANKS again to Jim and Chery for dropping everything to help me out - VERY much appreciated!

When we got home Ellie was asleep so I had no trouble doing the bedtime routine with Graham. It's about 10:30 now and Ellie has been sleeping next to me in the bed here ever since Graham went to bed, but it's time I get her fed again and then hopefully she'll give me a few hours of good sleep before we do it all again.  Here's hoping for a quiet and uneventful evening!

Things we do right now...

I'm really trying to find a daily routine - I work best when there is a routine and I think it's good for Ellie and Graham too.

Ellie's routine is pretty easy - goes something like this...

Wake up, get changed, eat, then "chat" with mommy and look around a bit to see the world

Get sleepy, be held/rocked by mommy, big yawns!

Sweet, peaceful sleep - lots of it :)

I am really loving my time at home with Eleanor. I try to set a few goals for each day, but try to leave plenty of time for cuddling and holding Ellie.

Once Graham gets home from daycare things get a little crazy. We usually play or watch some tv together before I start fixing dinner so that he gets some mommy time.  If Wil's home he helps to entertain the troops while I get dinner ready and then again when I'm cleaning up after dinner. It's been really nice out in the evening so for the past couple of nights we've been going out back to play after dinner. Graham has been particularly interested in riding his bike. He makes sure he has his helmet then heads out to go for his ride. He's really close to being able to successfully pedal himself around the concrete.

He will sometimes ask for help, and sometimes just moves on to something else...like his trampoline :)

I think this would be a great time to do another "week in the life" project - I might try to do that next week. I'm doing my best to just enjoy the moment and soak it all in. Ellie will only be this little for a short time and as trying as Graham can be at times, he is using more words and sharing more of his thoughts every day - it really is so fun!

Observations Made While Doing Laundry

I got five loads done and am feeling rather accomplished :)  Here are some things I noticed...

1. There's a lot more of it all of a sudden!
2. I need to start checking Graham's pockets in addition to Wil's - there were three little rocks in the dryer and I remember Graham collected them at Saturday Market and stashed them in his pocket.
3. I need to work out a system where I'm only doing a load or two at a time instead of saving up for a laundry marathon.
4. There are 4 piles of laundry on the table now - another reminder that we're a family of four now.

It wasn't all work...

A lot of work was done while mom and dad were here, but we did do some fun things too.

We went out to eat, went for walks, played cards, ate ice cream, did some shopping, went to the park, and had a picnic.

While mom and I took Graham to the park to play and have a picnic on Wednesday, Jim picked up dad for a plane ride and lunch.

Mom and Dad left very early Saturday morning and I've been moping around a bit since then. I love living here in Oregon, but I wish it was closer to my family. I feel lucky that I get to see them a couple times a year, but it's always hard to see our time together end.

Home Improvement Projects

Before Nana and Papa arrived, I compiled a wish list of "to do" projects that might keep my dad busy while they were here. Wil and I are NOT handy people so there are always things we wish we could do or get to around the house and yard.

Major projects were tackled and completed - I'm in total awe of how much got done!

At the top of my list was fence repair. The wooden fence at the back of our RV parking spot was falling over and quite sad looking. I wasn't able to get a picture of it before dad dismantled the fence that was there (he moves fast!), but here he is mid-project....

New posts were set in cement with metal reinforcement (they won't be flopping over again any time soon!) and then he re-used the boards that were already there (so environmentally friendly of him, yes?) He even improved upon the design and instead of the ugly, metal gate that was there, he put together a wooden one - much more pleasing to the eye...

Wil helped with the gate and they were both working together to finish the project - I'm soooo excited to have this done!  Oh - and my contribution to this project was shopping for supplies with dad - I have to admit I had FUN rolling the cart of supplies around with dad :)  We made MANY trips to Home Depot together before the week was over....

Another exciting project that got done this past week is our new shed.  Dad's contribution to this project was helping to clear the space for the shed and measuring off where it would sit. Dad also watched over the project as it was coming together, but the Tuff Shed people did the shed assembly.  Dad had already removed a tree (or three) when he was here before Graham was born, but we decided one more tree should come out and another tree needed a big trim. It took the better part of the day, but we have a great little shed for backyard storage - yay!

We'll be moving some things from the garage into the storage shed, and I'm hoping that eventually sparks a garage clean-up and reorganization.

While all of this was going on outside, mom got in on the action inside and decided to help me take on the last room in my decluttering/simplifying project. You'll remember I had worked my way through every other room in the house, but when I got to this one I got stuck. A lot of things got shoved into this room in the process and it got so that I couldn't even really walk into the room (especially not when I was big and pregnant!). Every time I walked in I would get overwhelmed and just didn't know where to start. Mom just jumped right in and helped get out the garbage and put away the rest of the stuff for me to go through at another time.

I took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill and I can now walk in the room and feel ok about being in there to continue working on decluttering/simplifying.  The project reminded me of when I was little and mom would help me clean my mess of a bedroom. I would have a hard time knowing where to start, so she would come in and direct the process and help me through it. It was a HUGE relief to get this room tackled and I can't wait to keep working on it...

We're not really sure how this last project got started 'cause it wasn't on any list that I had on paper or in my head before dad came, but all of a sudden we were talking about renting a pressure washer to clean all of the concrete.  WOW - this really needed to be done....I had no idea!  It took almost an entire day, but this is a shot of what it looked like as dad was starting...

And this is what it looks like now...

HUGE difference and soooo nice and clean!  The whole backyard patio got done and then the front driveway and RV parking spot. It is almost sparkling!! What a dirty job though - dad was covered in wet and dirt when it was all done and also quite exhausted.  I don't know when Wil and I would have had the time and patience to get that done...

A couple other projects that got done but are hard to capture on film....

We rented a big extension ladder and dad covered up some holes near the roof-line where birds were getting in and taking up residence in the attic. He also used the ladder out front to sprinkle some moss removal stuff on the roof. Dad and Wil both worked on the pond/water feature in back yard - it was quite mucky and gross with something that had grown there this year. The pump was broken too, so they replaced that.  BIG KUDOS to Wil for kicking off his sandals and getting into the pond to suck out the last of the yuck after dad had pumped out what he could (also quite a chore!) By Friday evening we were really enjoying the clean patio and sound of the waterfall into a clear and clean pond - I can even see the bottom of the pond!!

Mom helped with many more indoor chores - helping plan for meals and cooking every night (cleaning up too!), sweeping/Swiffering the floor to try and keep up with the dreaded cat hair, taking care of Eleanor while I ran errand after errand, and helping in so many other ways that I'm forgetting to mention I'm sure.

While not a home improvement project per se, another HUGE help was when mom and dad would take on Ellie's last feeding of the day so I could go to bed early.  It was a couple more hours of sleep, but it sure felt like so much more.  It was so nice to just crawl into bed and know that everything was taken care of :)

We've decided they need to come more often so the "to do" list isn't so long - LOL!  I promise that next time we'll do more "fun" stuff and not work them so hard.  They insist that they came here to help - I can't put into words how grateful we are for that help and their presence here this past week. 

Weekend with Nana and Papa

Saturday morning I took Graham to music time at the library while everyone else stayed at home. But later that afternoon, we all (with the exception of Wil) piled into the Trailblazer to go wander around Saturday Market. We found a sweet little tulip hat for Ellie to keep the sun off her face and a tie dye Oregon t-shirt for Graham - you'll see both in pictures coming up here...

I also had a chance to take some pictures of Eleanor - here are some of my favorites...

 

 

 

Apparently Sunday was Grandparent's Day, so it worked out well that we were invited over to a BBQ at Jim and Chery's house - Graham and Ellie got to spend the day with two sets of grandparents!

We enjoyed yummy grilled eats and had fun playing outside too - can you see what we're all looking at in this picture??

 

It's hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for, but it's a little, yellow remote control helicopter. Graham was going CRAZY over it and the rest of us were getting a kick out of his reaction alone!

More pictures to share.....

Papa and G at the park - note the new Oregon t-shirt from Saturday Market :)

Grandma Chery and Ellie - Ellie's modeling her new Saturday Market tulip hat

Graham entertains and accessorizes with the banjo

Nana and a wide awake/alert Eleanor

Such good times :)