Nine months in, nine months out (sort of)

Okay, Elliot didn't wait the full nine months in, but I can't believe that has been out for NINE MONTHS!!! Yesterday (the 30th) was her nine month birthday. Wow. Time flies when you have the cutest, smartest, sweetest, happiest, most adorable kid on Earth! Why don't nine months of pregnancy fly by that fast?

We had a pretty nice weekend, but those fly by too fast, too! Friday I was teaching private lessons (read: made some cash). Saturday night we went to see Peter Pan at my middle school. The kids were great. Elliot was great. She sat there eating Cheerios and watching the show like she was at a movie eating popcorn. Last night we went to dinner (at the Good Steer! Yum!) with the Grandma and Grandpa J to celebrate Daddy's birthday and then came home for ice cream cake. Elle went to bed shortly after they left, and Daddy and I watched "Capote."

Three more weeks 'til Spring Break!

Elle's Brother and Sister

Monty and Zoe....

Monty and Zoe....

Not the brightest dogs in the pack....

Yesterday, while grocery shopping, I picked up treats for Monty and Zoe. They were these HUGE treats for "Large Dogs." Those of you who know Monty and Zoe know that "Large" is the last word used to describe them. In fact, Elliot is now bigger than both of them at 17 lbs, 7 oz.

We gave them the treats last night (we had hoped to break them, at least in half, but they were rock hard). Monty took his and hid in his "den" (a.k.a. under our end table). Zoe took hers and hid from Monty anywhere she could find.

Monty finished his. Gross. It was HUGE and he's a pig-dog. Zoe, on the other hand, did not. In fact, I saw her leave the room with half of it. I said to Dave 'She's going to go hide that somewhere and she's headed for our room or Elle's room.' Then I forgot about it.

A couple of hours later, I crawled into bed. Our bed is Elliot's favorite playplace. She sits amongst the pillows and plays with about 8 toys at a time. So when I crawled into bed and felt something by my leg, I assumed it was a book she likes to suck on. I pulled it out to throw in her toy bin that we now keep in our room. It was not her book, it was ZOE'S NASTY TREAT!!!!

That's right, Zoe, who is not allowed on our bed and knows it, jumped onto our bed, put the treat under the covers, and left the room. She did this knowing that she is not allowed up there. She also did it knowing that Monty cannot, for the life of him, make it up onto the bed with his big fat lazy dog body.

Zoe is smart. And sneaky.

Hahah! I'm not pregnant!

Sorry, Becca - I promise I'm not pregnant!!! I guess I gave off that impression with the title of my last post....oops!

This has been a wild morning for me. That's all I'm going to say.

But the best part of my morning was getting Elle out of her crib. When I reached down for her, she said "Mama! Mama!" (Not mamamamamama which it usually is.) And then she made a kissy sound. And then she kissied me on the lips! Yay! I love my girl!

Elliot's new videos up on www.youtube.com/sajaklitsch - you can also see some on my movie bar to the right!

The New Baby Will be Born Any Day Now!!!!!

That's right! I'm nesting! It's Mother Nature's way of letting you know that you are ready to have the baby, because you're preparing your home for her! I have had this sudden burst of energy in the last couple of weeks, and our home is cleaner than it has ever been.

When Elliot got up this morning, we followed our usual routine. Once she went down for her nap, I showered then headed outside to bag more leaves (perhaps I should have showered after the yard work?!). Our yard is full of leaves from our neighbor's trees. Luckily, the wind blows them up against the fences and side of the house, so I've been trying to bag them a little at a time. When I came back in, I got some other stuff organized.

When Elliot woke, she had lunch (that Mommy made for her, of course) and we headed off to the park. Grandma met us there for about 10 minutes. When we got home, we headed straight out to Lowe's. I picked up primer, and brought Elle home for her nap. While she was napping, I painted about half of our hallway. When Dave got home from work, we hung Elle's swing on the back porch. That girl loves to swing! (Pics added later!) Daddy's teaching now and we ran to the grocery store. She's napping now. I bagged two bags of leaves, then drilled holes in two tree stumps so I could apply something to make them rot faster.

Grandpa came over tonight and Elliot was a DELIGHT!!! She talked to him, giggled, sat for a story (thank you Billy Crystal for your lovely Grandpa book!) and performed all her tricks. Elle is still very cautious around people, so it was wonderful that she was such a good girl for her grandpa.

What an absolutely boring post today...

ETA: Dave and I just beat Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on the Nintendo DS

It's "MaMa" Day!!!

Finally! After about two weeks of Elliot calling everything "dada," I finally got a "Mama" today! And not just one, they've been coming all day!!! In fact, she's next to me now and she's saying it! What a beautiful sound!

And this morning was dreamy...Elle is such an independent kid that she's not much of a cuddler anymore. This morning she got up at 6:30, and I amazingly felt rested well enough to get up with her. We played for a bit, and around 8 I took her into her room, into our big puffy comfy rocking chair and read "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!" Afterward, she just curled up on my lap, put her head on my chest and cuddled. We sat there and rocked for about 45 minutes until she fell asleep and I put her down for a nap. Every once in awhile she'd look up at me and sigh and put her head back down. I am so happy that I took the time to just enjoy and be in the moment. A couple of times my mind went to laundry, dishes, a shower, etc., but then I reminded myself that I wouldn't be able to do this forever and I just melted into it.

Elliot had a great Easter! She was such a good girl at cousins Sara and Steven's.

Okay - Easter pics added!

Daddy is Mommy's Age Again

Today is Daddy's 28th Birthday. Elliot got us up at 6:15 this morning. How darling. I put her back down around 7:35, and got to work. Daddy went back sleep while I ran around the house hiding Easter eggs and birthday presents. Elliot got up again at 7, so she gave Daddy our card with the first clue for the birthday scavenger hunt. After Daddy found all his gifts (wii points card, game stop gift card, green sweatshirt, rock band for ps3, vintage port and port sippers), I made breakfast for us all. Then I got down to work cleaning the house for tonight's party. Daddy is downstairs now playing video games. Pictures will follow eventually with his gifts. Get-together tonight with friends...off to prepare!

03/19/08 Yay! Sleep!

She did it! Elliot slept from 8:55 last night until 7:20 this morning!!! She's starting to get this sleeping thing down! She did wake up at about 2:30 and cried, but was back to sleep in about two minutes. Yay Elli!

We had a great day today! Elliot had a terrific morning, then went down for a nap. Later we got ready to go and went to Daddy's school to visit. El was a big hit, of course, and was very well behaved - though a bit shy and tired. She fell asleep on the way home. That used to be nice when we had the baby carrier, now we have to get her out of her big girl seat. I brought her in and put her down for a nap. Then I napped. We got up at 3 and El had lunch. Grilled chicken & breastmilk in a winter squash puree. Blech. She LOVED it! We're working on the signs for "More" and "Milk" because she has the signs for "Mommy" and "Daddy" down pat.

She took her evening nap at 5:30. She's great about taking naps 4 hours after the start of her last nap. Then she went to bed at 8:40. Hopefully we have an entire night of sleep again! We're so excited that Daddy will be home now for five days! And his birthday is Friday, so I have to finish getting all ready for that!!!

03/18/08 Monty & Zoe's 2nd Birthday

Okay, I've never done a blog before...here goes! Thanks to Laura for inspiring me...she doesn't even know it!


Monty and Zoe turn 2 today, I suppose that means they'll get some special treats today. Its sunny and chilly, but we'll probably take them on a walk. If Elliot is good, I guess we'll let her tag along.



Here's a picture of Daddy and doggies from a couple weeks ago...




Elliot finally got a good night of sleep last night which means Mommy and Daddy did, too. We're getting ready for Daddy's birthday Friday and Easter on Sunday.


Here's Elliot's Easter dress (that's Elliot modeling it...)







You can also find pics of Elliot and Mommy and Daddy at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=844134200

Elliot slept last night. Yippee!!! She went down at 9, slept til 4. Came in to our bed to nurse at 4, Daddy rolled over and she realized he was there, so she wanted to play. True to form, Daddy went back to sleep (lucky guy, he can sleep through anything!), and I finally got El back to sleep at 4:45. I heard her at 7:20 talking in her crib. I didn't get her because I am a lazy sleepy mama. I woke up again at 8 and got my lazy butt out of bed. She got up at nine. YAY!!! Good girl!

"Dadadadada" - quote from Elliot today

"Aa! Aa! Aa!" - another deep thought from Elliot