in the last few days lyla has been smiling a lot more in response to baby talk. eli got her to smile tonight by singing, "don't cry baby." a song that he made up, it goes, "don't cry baby." it was the first time she smiled at him.
we're sitting on the couch and i'm holding lyla, eli is sitting next to me watching a show. lyla is looking intently at eli, holding her own head up (a new skill). eli has not seen this new skill, he looks at her and in his best baby talking voice says, "baby, you have a big head!"
lyla was laying on my lap yesterday when eli got the idea to decorate her, she didn't seem to mind...
this was one of the peaceful moments of the day. we went to the doctor after a few days full of lots of crying. turns out she has another ear infection and acid reflux. we got medication for both, but so far have not seen any sign of relief. she cries or is fussy most of the time she is awake. but those few moments when she is feeling good are so cute. she coos and ahhhhhs and is simply adorable. i'm looking forward to more of those times.
it was my favorite kind if day yesterday. blue skies with big white clouds, sunny and cool. we went for a walk at military reserve to take advantage of this last month of nice weather. we bug hunted and sword/stick fought along the way.
i know this is a barrage of photos, but believe me, i whittled them down a lot.
eli has been so good to lyla. he is certainly feeling the consequences of her presence, but he still is so nice to her. maybe he has not made the connection between her arrival and the attention deficit that he feels. he has not been listening so great, but i think some of that is built up energy blocking the reasoning portion of his brain:) he needs activity and craziness and lately between the lack of sleep, being sick, and caring for a newborn, i am neither active or crazy (the second is arguable, i guess). my parents and aunt have had him today, they are also watching yogi and zion, so hopefully he is getting some crazy boy time.
lyla, seven weeks...
after me taking so many pictures, eli wanted to take a few. i love the one with his toes in it:)
kris, laurie, ben, and julia moved back to san diego last week. we had a going away dinner to send them on their way...hopefully they will be back for Christmas. here are the crazy kids that were there...zion, yogi, ben, julia and eli. we will miss you guys!!!
we were driving home from dinner at my parents house last night when eli said, "there is a rhino in my car!" i said, "oh no! there's a rhino in the car!?!" very nonchalantly he said, "no, i was just making a joke."
adam's work had their annual "company picnic" this week. though the food was super awful, we still had a good time.
eli really liked this little girl. he kept talking to her...she just stared at him. this is a picture of him trying to woo her, he is getting his multi-tool out of his pocket...
lyla had a blast looking up at all the trees. can you see the the excitement on her face?
this morning when eli woke up he crawled into bed with me. i was nursing lyla so he cuddled up on the other side of me. i put my arm around him and was stroking his hair. he was quiet for a long time so i opened my eyes to see if he fell back asleep. not only was he awake, he was stroking lyla, starting at the top of her head and going all the way down her body to her legs. it was so sweet. i'm sure he'll die when he is 20 and i tell him about that. these pictures have nothing to do with this story, we were just hanging out in the backyard enjoying the beautiful evening...
i love this picture. i just took it tonight and had post it before i forgot. in the evenings she is so wide awake, more so than any other time of day. she is growing so fast...she has gained about 2.5 pounds already!
we got to weigh her because i took her to the doctor last week. she was crying a lot and seemed to be in pain. turns out she had an ear infection. this was almost exactly the same time eli got his first one. he went on to have one every two months for the whole first year of his life. i'm hoping she doesn't take after him in that respect.
i think eli is starting to feel the impact of her being around. yesterday he started asking us to put her down and play with him. it is so hard (as i know most of you know) to put down a fussy/crying baby. if you think about it, please pray for him and us. that we would be able to meet his needs and that he would know how much we love him. and for him that he would have patience and continue to love and care for lyla.
this picture surprised me when i first saw it. is this eli? my eli? he is getting so big! (sigh)
jesse, molly, shane and hailey came to visit this weekend. we crammed as much as we could in the 3 days they were here. we had a 5th birthday party for shane, picknicked at municipal park, played in the river, went to the nature center, discovery center and the boise depo. whew! we had a great time watching shane and hailey meet lyla...i think it was love at first sight. hailey could not get enough of her and loved holding her and kissing/licking her head. shane cooed at her and held her hand. it was so cute. shane and eli had a grand o' time. it is getting to the point where the age difference is making less and less of a difference. they spent a lot of time fighting and shooting eachother. eli was very sad to see him go. here are some pictures of the fun...
the boise depo
the fam feeding the fish at the pond at the depo
playing at the river
hailey lovin' on papa
the kids playing in the backyard at grandma and papa's house
hailey lovin' on lyla...
grandma, shane and eli making shane's birthday cake...