I'm a lazy blogger

I admit it, I'm a lazy blogger. Recently I've had a hard time with sitting down to blog about Elliott or our lives around here. We've been busy with birthdays and holiday celebrations the few weeks with more to come this weekend. Last Saturday we spent the day in Wilsonville decorating sugar cookies with Dan's family and then going to my sister, Amy's, house for Christmas with their family. Amy and her family are in Sacrament until the 28th (I think) so we celebrated and exchanged gifts early with their family.

The bigger kids decorated a Gingerbread House - it collapsed:


Finally a cousin picture that almost worked out well (Josh is hiding):


We had a great time celebrating early and playing with all the exciting new toys!

Elliott is walking all the time now, sometimes even trying to run. If he does run he'll usually fall down pretty quickly, he isn't 100% stable. His new favorite book is Dr. Seuss ABC, specifically the letter L. There is a picture of a lion on that page and he'll growl at it. I'm not sure where he got that from, maybe I did it once? It's hysterical though. I do have a video of it but I'm not sure how to upload it on our new computer. I'll have Dan do it tomorrow.

E is also starting to sign a little more. We got him to do "please" this past weekend. He was being bribed with reeces pieces and doritos at first, but will now do it most of the time when we ask him to. A few times he will sign "dog" and at least 3 times he's done that sign as well as said something that sounds like "dag". He also knows what a door is now and will sort of say "door". There is a difference between how he says door and dog, surprisingly. Right above his changing table is a picture of a turtle. When we are very lucky he will sort of say turtle. That one takes a lot of coaching and most of the time he'll just point to it. Of course, we think he's a genius, I'm pretty sure every parent thinks that their child is one :) It's fun that he'll communicate in his little way. I'm really looking forward to knowing what he's thinking all the time.

I think maybe part of the reason I'm a bad blogger is because I feel like Elliott and I don't do too much. It's been rainy which means we are spending most days inside. If we go out it seems to be to go to the pharmacy or the hospital for me. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis about 5 years ago and this past year - basically since Elliott was born - had been a tough one. I had a mild "flare up" in February, a really bad "flare up" in June and another now in December. (A flare up is basically the reaction my colon has when it attacks itself. Many different lovely symptoms are included that I don't really need to go into, though I will say that on some lucky days I was in then bathroom at least 15+ times a day) I'm on 4 different medications at the moment and take a record number of pills a day to deal - 19 a day! The most recent medication is called Imuran and I have to do weekly blood test to monitor liver function, etc. Last week I had to go in for a Bone Density scan to see if I've lost any bone mass since I have been on and off Prednisone for close to 6 months. Good news - no loss since 2007 (when I first went on Pred.). Thankfully the Imuran seems to be working and things are finally calming down. I'm hoping to get off both Imuran and Prednisone quickly as both have horrible side effects. I guess the only upside to this all is that I've lost all my baby weight plus about 10 lbs! :) I'm back in my skinny jeans! I feel like we don't do too much because I do have to be aware of where a bathroom is pretty much all the time. So, that's why there isn't too much to write about. Sorry. :(

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. We are looking forward to lots of good food and time with both of our families this weekend.

December Already!?

We've had a busy week around here. Dan took last Wednesday through Friday off from work to hang out with us and generally get things done. It was great, though we were busy every night. We had a great thanksgiving splitting it between the two families in Portland by celebrating on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, our Mac crashed today so I have very few pictures from the past couple of weeks that I can access right now. Here are a few from Thanksgiving at my parents house:



Cousin pictures never work out well :( Maybe in a few years....


Cameron had his 3rd Birthday party this past weekend. He seemed to have a great time, even though he didn't quite understand how to play any of the games. This was the best of him from the party:


Here is some cousin love:


We also just splurged and purchased Elliott a new highchair. Basically I'm lazy and also crazy about keeping his highchair clean. I took the old one apart every day (3 times a day) to clean it. So, we've upgraded to something that will be much easier to clean as well as will last a lot longer. Here's Elliott having his first meal in the new chair. Umm...maybe spaghetti wasn't the best plan (see floor below his feet):


Off to the bath we went! Also, just in case you were thinking that poor Elliott has no hair, check this out:


In other news....Elliott is walking almost exclusively now. He loves to climb stairs. He also has become VERY demanding. I like to blame Sarah and her girls saying he got it from our Maui trip - from them, of course! But, in reality I think it has more to do with turning 1 than anything. All day I constantly hear yelling in his incoherent babble. Usually meaning, "hey, read me that pop up book for the 15th time today!" or "let me play with your iphone, it's way more fun than my toys". At least that's my interpretation. Dan's grandma put it best the other night when she said, "Elliott has his bossy pants on tonight!" Yes, he does...all the time! I still like him though :).

Pictures of Maui

It is Sunday night, Elliott and I have been home since Wednesday night. We've been pretty busy every evening since I've been home and I haven't had much time to sit down and finally post all the pictures I took while there. I took something around 260+ pictures, mainly because Sarah and Ryan's camera was broken so I was doing both families. Here are just a few photos from our trip.

Oh yeah, on the flight home Elliott finally fell asleep for the last 45 minutes. We, thankfully, had a row to ourselves again. Around 8:30 Hawaii time (10:30 at home) he curled up on the seat with his blanket. I think I'd like to take Dan on the plane next time!

Here is E on the plane over. We were getting close to landing and I had him strapped in. Who knew my water bottle would be so exciting!


Elliott hated the waves (because they were too unpredictable), but loved playing in the sand.


Thanks Ryan, Sarah, Brooke & Grace for letting us tag along.


Sisters :)


Elliott loved the pools. He had a little ring here that he used quite a bit...not that I let go of him!


Aunt Sarah & Elliott


E snugged up after swimming.


Sunset from our balcony. We were able to see both Moloka'i and Lana'i - you can see the latter here.


Brooke & Elliott wrestling. (I think this is my favorite because they both are totally happy here - pure joy!)


E was making this funny determined face the entire trip.


Getting ready to swim, again. No, we didn't get tan. I did have many people ask me if I had on sunscreen and if I had put enough on Elliott.


Grace loves to give hugs this way. She is so sweet


Ryan & Brooke - this might be my second favorite picture.

Paradise Found!

On Friday night last week my sister, Sarah, called me to tell me how amazing their time in Maui has been. They had a huge set of rooms at their timeshare and wanted to confirm that Dan and I didn't want to come out to visit. I think they were 1/2 way joking, but Elliott and I took them up on the offer. On Saturday morning E and I flew out to Maui. I definitely had my reservations about taking Elliott on the plane for his first time....alone! He slept for a total of 30 minutes of the 5 hour flight. But, he was pretty good the entire time. We lucked out with having an empty seat next to us, thankfully!

It is beautiful here! The timeshare resort is amazing and we have an oceanfront room. Not too much is on the agenda every day other than going the pools or the beach. Elliott isn't too sure about the ocean - I think it freaks him out. Yesterday we swam for a long time and he loved it! We took him down a very short water slide and he was thrilled.

I don't have any connector to upload all the pictures I've been taking. When we get home I'll do another entry with pictures.

Elliott and I are leaving tomorrow afternoon. We've had a great time here and are feeling very lucky to have been able to take such a fabulous vacation at the very last minute. The only think theat would have made it better was if Dan had been able to come :( Ever the practical one he stayed home to work and save some money. Dan, next time you are coming!

Peeping Eyes

So, when I shower there is a little peeping Tom watching me. He's 30 inces tall (85%), 23lbs (55%) & has a huge head that appears bald in some lights (90% head circ.). Whenever I shower and E is around he has to watch me the whole time. He'll wedge himself in between the shower and the wall and talk to me. But, the second I'm done and open the shower curtain he crawls away.

Maybe I should be glad he likes me and wants to know what I'm up to. However, I do think I'd like to take a shower without an audience. Do other kids do this? His other fun trick is to now wedge himself in between me and the cupboards in our kitchen when I'm in there cooking - or whatever I'm doing.

I suppose I should be thankful that he still likes me enough to want to be around me so much.

Yoda & Cupcakes

I'm feeling much better today. Not sure what happened last night. Woke up feeling like I could eat again. On Saturday we made the rounds of families houses and parties for Halloween. Dan dressed up as Spock, Elliott was Yoda and I was a black cat. Of course, no pictures of me (at least on my camera) but here are Dan and Elliott.


Finally able to crawl up all the stairs at Sarah's house:


All the cousins. So, not everyone is smiling, but I think you can see all the faces.


On Sunday we had Elliott's first birthday party. We decided to just have family over, which is a total of 20 people -including 6 kids! Needless to say once everyone was there it was crazy, but fun. Elliott had a great time, hopefully everyone else did as well.



Excited over new toys!




Yum...Birthday Cupcake!


In other news...Elliott is still trying to be more brave with walking. On Halloween we were at a party with him where there was a little dog. E was walking all over the place to get this dog. I think he finally realized he can do it. Since then he's been much more brave. He wasn't too sure about that cupcake. He was pretty clean with eating it :)

Hope everyone else had a fun Halloween!

Halloween & BIrthdays coming soon...

I have tons of cute pictures of Elliott, cousins and family from Halloween and his Birthday party today. But....I am not doing well at the moment. Not sure if I got my niece, Brooke's, cold or I ate something that isn't agreeing with me. Who knows with my horrible immune system (due to taking steroids and other fun drugs all the time).

So, be patient for another day and I'll get all the cute pictures posted for all to see.