Christmas

Merry Christmas!! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. To say our family was in the car a lot traveling is an understatement. I definitely feel like I spent half of our holiday packing and unpacking, as we stayed the night in several different places.

We started off our celebrations on December 17th. We made a last minute decision to head to Marion for the day for the Lindvall Christmas. Yep, that's right...we made a 6 hour trip and only stayed 3.5 hours. We were in the middle of sleep training Connor, so we wanted to be back at home in time for his bedtime. The kids were wonderful in car and Elli was SOOO excited when we told her that morning where we were going! We had a great time and pulled off the surprise!

Opening presents

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We headed to Mansfield after church on Sunday for Christmas #2. My aunt, uncle and cousins were in town for a couple days, so we were able to see them. Elli had a great time playing with Adison. We hoped to make a trip back to Mansfield to see them one more time before they left to go back to Georgia, but unfortunately we never made it.

Connor looking at his brand new truck!

Adison, Grace, & Elli opening gifts.

Sitting on Great-Grandpa Brauchler's lap.

Family picture after church!

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Christmas #3 happened on Friday morning (December 23rd). Scott and I were both so excited for our Christmas at the house. We put out reindeer food on Thursday night, left milk and cookies out for Santa, and read The Night Before Christmas. Elli was extremely excited about Santa coming. In fact, 45 minutes after we put her to bed, we heard her upstairs in her room. We opened up the door to her room and caught her out of bed holding her stuffed animal dog. She immediately started crying and wanted in her bed immediately. Scott and I then spent the rest of the night dealing with our sump pump issue (merry christmas, huh?).

Putting out Reindeer food

Well....Santa kept his promise and came to our house a few days early. Daddy went up and got Elli from her bed, told her Santa came to our house, and she jumped out of bed and started skipping around in circles. We read the Christmas story while we waited for Connor to wake up... then we opened presents.

Opening up her dog

Complete with pink lips from her doughnut in the morning.

Connor loves his new chair!!

We traveled home on Friday after Elli's marthon nap.

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We woke up Saturday morning left to go to Culver, IN for Christmas #4 at Grandma and Grandpa Wamsley's house.

Great-Grandpa Wamsley & Connor. Grandpa Wamsley loved holding and loving on Connor. He wanted to give him his bottle and they both ended up falling asleep :)

3 generations

Elli helped pass out presents.

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Christmas #5 was on Christmas morning at the Lindvall house. We opened gifts and sadly Connor slept through all of the gifts being opened. We went to church after gifts and then had lunch.

Trying on gifts

Elli was scared of Dane in his Darth Vador mask :)

Papa with 3 of the 4 grandkids

Connor trying out his new plane that Papa L. made him.

Vander (7), Connor (4 months), Dane (5), Elliana (22 months)

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Christmas #6 was at the Brauchler house. We went over to may parent's house on Christmas day and put Elli to bed almost immediately after we got there. We ended up opening gifts at three different times which was a wonderful idea. We opened up our gifts first, then let Avery and Connor open theirs, and then the toddlers opened up their gifts after they woke up from their nap.

Connor and I before opening up gifts!

So happy it's Christmas :)

I wish I could have posted a video of this rather than a picture. Amber got Elli and Kensley a barbie horse that walks. Both girls were petrified of this horse initially, but Elli eventually opened up to it and now loves watching it walk around. She would laugh hysterically every time the horse fell on the ground.

Connor (4 months), Elliana (22 months), Avery (6 months), Kensley (25 months)

Getting ready to ride on the wagon and help Papa B. burn all the boxes

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For Christmas #7, Grandma and Grandpa Zurcher and Aunt Carla came to my parents house on Monday, December 26th. We decided to open gifts all together, which was a bit chaotic with the toddlers. My mom then made dinner for all of us.

Kensley wanted to hold Connor many times this past week.

Connor getting ready to open his gift.

Great-Grandma Zurcher and Connor.

Playing Hide-and-go-seek, Elli's new favorite game. The girls were hiding under the tree.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out with family, going to Indy, going swimming, going bowling, and playing LOTS and LOTS of games of Hide-And-Go-Seek!!

23 months already

Twenty-three months already? Well, not yet. On Monday Elliana will be 23 months old and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get this posted next week, so I figured I'd do it when I had the chance.

These are the things I want to remember about Elli at 23 (well...almost) months of age:

1.) When Elli is doing something she knows she is not supposed to, she tilts her head down, closes her eyes half way, and looks at you out of the corner of her eye.

2.) She gets so excited about animals, especially dogs.

3.) She loves being a Mommy to her baby doll. She intently watches me and then the next thing I know, Elli is doing the exact same thing with her baby that I did with Connor.

4.) Elli will find one of her purses, put it over her shoulder and tell me "bye-bye." When I ask her where she is going, she'll either tell me she is going "shopping," to "church," or to "work."

5.) She perseverates on different topics. Such as Daddy and Papa being on a plane, seeing Santa and telling him she wants a dog, Seeing a cow with Nana and being scared of it, being locked in a room, etc. I could go on and on....

6.) She loves telling stories (in her own way of course)

7.) She loves pestering Bella. She will take Bella's bones or ball and put it in places where Bella can't get to it. Elli will then laugh hysterically.

8.) Elli thinks passing gas or hearing someone pass gas is extremely funny. At least once a week at dinner, Elli lifts her leg and tries to push one out. She is very proud of herself when successful and thinks it is really funny. Oh the things her father teaches her (by the way...I know some people reading this think it is disgusting, but I have to comment on it for our documentation purposes)!

9.) She is REALLY into her blankets these days....not just her niney. One night she had to sleep with at least 6 of them, her niney, 3 dogs, and her bear.

10.) A highlight of her day is when Scott walks in the door from work. When she hears that door open, she immediately drops what she's doing and runs to him screaming "DADDY, DADDY, DADDY."

11.) She LOVES sweets. Cookies, chocolate, cake, mashmellows....you name it, she loves it!

12.) She is not as much of a picky eater as she used to be. Making one meal and making her eat whatever we do is paying off!

There is so much more I could write about, but I wanted to document one more milestone before I end this post. Elli had her first set of pigtails today!!

I'm not sure how often you'll see pigtails in her hair, as Scott wasn't much of a fan. He thought she didn't look like herself.

Happy Early 23 Month Birthday, Miss Elli Belly. I can't believe we'll be celebrating your 2nd birthday in just a month. You are growing way too fast!!

Connor is 4 months Old

Connor officially turned 4 months old last Friday! He continues to be a sweet little guy and is slowly becoming more interested in his toys. These days, Connor frequently has his fist in his mouth and if you are carrying him, well....you can bet he is gnawing on your shoulder. He doesn't have any teeth, but I'm sure things are moving around in there.

Sleep....oh let me talk about sleep! I'm so happy to say that Connor is turning into a good little sleeper. Our sleep training is paying off and Connor is now going to sleep at 8:00 and sleeping until 7:30 or 8:00. Of course we get up a few times at night to put his pacifier back in (we're hoping in a couple months he will be able to do this by himself), but it is so nice have a little bit of free time in the evenings! We currently have a strict bedtime routine for him that we have yet to deviate from. Connor gets rice cereal around 6:30 at night, a bath around 7:15 to 7:30, and then a bottle. Occasionally we have time for a book if he hasn't already passed out for the night.

Connor hasn't been letting me rock him anymore before he goes down for naps. So, this week I've been putting him in his crib, patting him on the back, and sticking his pacifier in his mouth. I typically put part of his blanket in his hand and then he usually has no trouble going to sleep.

Today was Connor's 3rd cardiology appointment. We were hoping to find out today that his hole was closed, but unfortunately we didn't. He still has his hole, but they don't think it is causing him any trouble. The cardiologist gave us information on possible complications we might see in high altitudes (such as Denver) and complications with the divot in his chest. They will continue to monitor his heart and we go back in 4 months where they will do another echo. Overall, they still continue to think he probably won't need surgery to close it, but will find out more information when they look at the echo in April.

Here is Connor's 4 month photo shoot.

Elli wanted in on this photo shoot...

And then she became interested in Connor's sticker on his shirt

And insisted that she too needed one!

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Bubba!!

Stats & Cereal

Connor is almost 4 months old and as we near the 4 month mark we are slowly getting less and less sleep. Connor is back to going to sleep anywhere between 11:30pm and 1:00am. He is also getting up multiple times in the night. Scott has been surviving on caffeine and I've been surviving on the thought that this is just a phase (I'd be downing caffeine along with Scott if it weren't for breastfeeding). When it comes sleeping, Connor is a difficult case. He passes out at 8:00, but wakes up wide awake 45 minutes later. He'll then fight sleep, be wide awake, catnap, etc....all before the 11:30 to 1:00am span. He is inconsistent when it comes to sleep which is highly frustrating for us, as Elli is a dream when it comes to putting her down for bed. I talked to the dr. today and he gave me the 'okay' to let him cry it out. He said we will have a rough couple of nights ahead of us, but things should be much better within 4 to 5 nights. Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy Christmas and not feel so exhausted! I'm hoping once we get this routine down it won't be messed up while we're in Indiana for the holiday.

I decided to give Connor rice cereal this past Friday in hopes that it might help him sleep at night. Connor didn't seem to mind the rice cereal, but is still trying to figure out how to eat it. And no, it did nothing for his sleep!

Connor had his 4 month well visit this morning. He is 12 lbs 14 oz (10-25th percentile) and 25 in. (50th percentile). He is growing quickly out of his 3 month clothes and has completely grown out his 3 month sleepers. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes and even wore a 6 month outfit the other day. The dr. didn't think the divot in his chest looked any better or worse than last time and said we'd continue to monitor it. He didn't have much to say about his heart, but we have a cardiology appointment next Thursday. He had 5 vaccinations today (1 oral and 4 shots). He did great....only cried for a short time and then he was fine! Overall, the dr. was pleased with his development!

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Instead of making a new post, I thought I'd just add these pictures on to this post.

Too early to start T.V.?? I don't think so....it gave me 10 minutes of time to myself yesterday :) Yep, 10 minutes is all they sat for!

And while Connor has been going to bed later....this girl has been going to bed earlier. We find ourselves starting Elli's bedtime routine earlier these days and she is typically in bed by 7 or a few minutes after. I can assure you her bedtime will not be messed up over the holiday because Elli needs her sleep and it is bad news when she gets less than what she's used to! (Please excuse her snotty nose! She tested positive for para influenza last Wednesday and is still somewhat sick! We're going on almost 2 weeks here!! And yes, she has a horrible immune system. I'm wondering if we're able to go 1 whole month without this girl getting sick!!)

Pictures of Connor

I took a couple pictures of Connor the other day that I thought I'd post. He is becoming such a big boy. He rolled over for the 1st time on November 21st at 5:45am (yep....and that is what time he woke up). This new skills has made sleeping somewhat difficult because he will wake up when he rolls over. Speaking of sleeping, Connor has definitely not been an easy baby when it comes to sleeping the last couple of weeks. His bedtimes have looked like this: 11:40pm, 11:45,pm 12:00am, 1:00am. Yes, it has been rough....especially since Elli wakes up early. Luckily, I think we have this under control, as he has been in bed by 9:30 the past 2 nights. I'm hoping this early bedtime will continue and we will be able to push it up more and more as the weeks progress. We still have to get up a couple times a night to put his pacifier back in or roll him back over on his stomach.

Despite the sleeping, he is a good baby and gives us lots of smiles a day....

Seriously, he's so handsome! Stay tuned for 4 month stats next week!!