Every Day with Eli

January 23

1. My belly is huge. Today the massage therapist at the chiropractor's office asked me if I was sure there was only one baby in there.

(FYI: yes, we are sure. Had an early ultrasound; just one baby.)

2. These kids were funny this morning. Daisy saw her reflection in the mirror and hammed it up.

Sorry. She was just so funny that I couldn't decide which picture to use.

3. Caleb and Daisy "read" books to themselves for an unusually long time. I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

See? Sitting happily on Caleb's bed, reading. Love it!

4. Caleb needed a new pair of underwear, and Daisy decided she needed one, too.

She chose the underwear and even managed to get them mostly on, despite the fact that they were going on over her jeans.

Then she decided to add a necktie to the ensemble.

She did need a little help tying the knot, but the idea for the outfit was all hers.

5. My wonderful mother-in-law watched the kids this afternoon so I could have an extra-long chiropractor/massage session, and my back is feeling MUCH better. Let's pray it stays this way! (That means this mama has to take it easy - something easier said than done...)

January 22

Our master bathroom is coming along - it's drywalled, painted, and tile is laid. Our friend Matt, who is doing the work for us, came by this afternoon to finish up the tiling so that he can grout tomorrow. The kids were shy around him at first, but now they're all best friends. Caleb took the opportunity to help Matt out.

Clearly, Caleb takes his bathroom remodeling very seriously.

Daisy, meanwhile, had no interest in helping. Instead, she climbed into our bed and tucked herself in under the covers. She was pretty pleased with herself.

Though remodeling is fun, Caleb couldn't let Daisy have all of the fun in our bed, so he climbed in, too. These two are so funny together!

January 20

We arrived home from church today to find two things:

1. My back (which had been 95% better) was suddenly causing me terrible pain again.

2. My mom had stopped by on her way home from church.

What a blessing! While I hobbled around and made the kids lunch, Mom did this:

It may have only been 36 degrees, but they didn't seem to mind.

This is what Grandmas are for! Boy, do those kids adore her. Thanks, Mom.

January 18

The sun shined today.

We were all pretty happy.

Funny things that happened today:

At lunchtime, Daisy walked up to the fridge, looked at me, and asked, "Eat more butter, please? Eat more butter, Mommy?" The girl really likes butter. I think her Grandma might have taught her that.

Later, Caleb looked me up and down, gave me a silly smile and said, "Mommy, you look really thin!" Mmm-hmm. Just one of the many reasons I love that boy.

And at bedtime, Daisy managed to get her jammy pants on, even up over her diaper, for the first time. Yay, Daisy!

January 15

This girl.

She's so funny! I just can't get enough of her!

She's so happy in this photo because I recovered her beloved pink plastic cup from under the couch, where it had been hiding for at least a few weeks. (Yep! My back is feeling so much better that I was able to move the couch/crawl around to fetch the cup! Praise the Lord!)

Caleb won't let Daisy do all of the funny things, though. This morning he was taking an unusually long time in the bathroom, so I went to check on him. I found him, fully clothed, sitting on the toilet, looking at the toilet paper hanging on its roller. When I asked what he was doing, he replied with great delight, "I'm pretending that the toilet paper is a rotisserie chicken, spinning on its rotisserie!" Then he gave the roll a spin. Funny boy!

Not to let her brother be outdone, Daisy insisted on putting her jeans on all by herself today. After she'd been alone in her room, trying to get them on for at least five minutes, I went in to check on her. I found her sitting on the floor, legs in the right holes, but unable to pull the pants up over her bulky cloth diaper. Before I could even offer to help, she shouted, "NO! Huh-uh! Go away!" and waved her little hand to shoo me off. This continued for the next fifteen minutes, and I was thankful we had nowhere to be so that I could just laugh and enjoy it.

I love these kids!

January 14

Caleb, Daisy and I got to spend today with baby Andrew. For the kids, it was like Christmas: they love Baby Andrew. Love him. For me, I was worried. I'm still having a lot of back pain, so I was afraid I wouldn't be in top form today. Luckily, it all worked out and the children were (mostly) happy. I even got an hour break when all three kids slept at the same time! Hooray!

Sadly, there wasn't much time for pictures. I did take this one, though. I put Andrew up on the chair in Daisy's room, and Daisy immediately wanted up, too. Then she instructed me to get her a book. She didn't want just any book, though; she had a specific book in mind. Once the book was in her hands, she began to "read" to Andrew. It was darling, so I took a few pictures. Then Caleb shouted, "Wait! I want to be in the picture, too!"

So there you have it. Three (mostly) happy kiddos. I call it a win!

January 11

It was beautiful today - mid 60s, sunny; a great break from normal dreary January weather. We were supposed to meet some friends for a fun outdoor playdate, but my silly back is still handicapping me quite a bit. It's improving daily, but I still can't function normally. So instead, we stayed home.

After the disappointment of a cancelled playdate, we were so excited when our friends Caleb and Hannah came by for a quick visit! You'll remember that both Calebs were born within days of each other, and Daisy and Hannah are only a few months apart. Plus, their mom, Jen, is expecting her third baby in April, so we'll get to have another set of babies that are nearly the same age. What fun!

The other Caleb is also a Cars fanatic; perhaps even more so than my Caleb. So both boys were super-excited to watch my Caleb's new DVD of Air Mater and Moon Mater. All of the kiddos lined up on the couch was a photo op too cute for Jen or me to resist!

When they left, Caleb and Daisy insisted on going out on the front porch to say goodbye, despite the fact that they had only one shoe between the two of them.

She wasn't into the hug quite as much as he was.

It looks like she was holding his hand, but I'm pretty sure she was actually poking him. In fact, her mouth looks like she's about to say, "Poke! Poke!"

Can I tell you what else this girl did today? Three things:

1. She looked up at me, announced, "Backward!", then began walking backward.

2. She counted to ten, all by herself, without prompting.

3. She sang her ABCs, in their entirety, all by herself.

My big girl is growing up!

January 9

It was beautiful today, so despite the fact that I could barely walk, I took the kids outside to play. I love this age, but at times like this I really look forward to the day when they can play outside independently, without my supervision!

Regardless, we had fun.

I couldn't help Daisy with her bike, so she tried to ride Caleb's scooter. It didn't go very well.

I know you may be wondering why Superman is riding Caleb's bike. Don't worry; this is actually Caleb, wearing a Superman shirt. He's just pretending. Sorry for the confusion.

Daisy got out the lawn mower, and Caleb immediately began instructing about how to mow the lawn.

That look sums it all up.

"Really, Mom? Does this kid ever stop talking? I've got this!"

Then Superman flew off, and Daisy went on her merry way.

January 8

We are currently in the process of gutting and renovating our master bathroom. We've lived in this house a year now, and have yet to use that bathroom, so Chris and I are pretty excited. This weekend, our friend Matt came and began demo. Never before have I been so excited to hear the sound of destruction in my home!

We chose to use a Bagster to remove all of the bathroom debris. It is very easy and pretty cost-effective, but the best part was watching the truck come today to pick up the Bagster. We were just about to leave for my fateful chiroprator trip when the truck showed up with its big crane arm. The kids stood, transfixed, at the window as the man hooked the bag up and lifted the whole thing into his truck.

Who am I kidding? I was transfixed! I immediately snapped a picture with my phone and texted it to Chris, who was so sad to miss the pickup. Even our neighbor across the street stood at his window to watch!

Also, I took a moment before we left to snap my first belly photo of this pregnancy.

Here's my 14-week pregnant belly in all of its glory.

At first I was pretty embarrassed by how early it started showing, but now I'm just embracing it. The belly is one of my favorite parts of being pregnant (well, that and the whole carrying a new life miracle thing), so I've just decided to enjoy it, even if it has come a bit earlier than before ! (No, we aren't having twins. Our early ultrasound absolutely confirmed that!)

In less-exciting news, we have been on the GAPS diet for three months today, so I weighed Daisy. You'll remember that when we began in October, she weighed 18.6 pounds. In November, she was up to 19.4, and by December she was at 19.8. I was hoping for some big progress this month but... today she weighed 19.8 pounds. Exactly the same as she did a month ago. Zero weight gain.

I was seriously disappointed. But then I remembered that I had cheated and weighed her two weeks ago (I try to only do it once a month), toward the tail end of her two-week cold. That day, the scale said 19.0. A loss of 0.8 pounds. I was shocked, but then came to the conclusion that she must have lost weight because her cold killed her appetite. So really, in the past two weeks Daisy has gained 0.8 pounds, because she was back up to her starting point! It doesn't really count, but I'm not discouraged yet. We're going to keep on trucking for a few more months and see if we can make some more progress. You can do it, Daisy!

January 7

Today we celebrated Ryan's 15th birthday.

15.

I was 16 when he was born, and now he's 15. It's crazy to think about! He chose to have a bowling party, and Caleb was quite excited to try bowling.

He insisted on wearing the straw hat, even though it wasn't seasonally appropriate. He called it his "Sir Topham Hatt", after the character on Thomas the Train.

Caleb's enthusiasm for bowling lasted until he stepped over the foul line and made the buzzer go off. After that, he was terrified. He only bowled three frames, and each time barely pushed the ball. It took over a minute for the ball to reach the pins!

Max did much better.

Caleb's second go-round. It wasn't much better than the first.

But Max really got the hang of it!

Daisy spent most of her time trying to snuggle with Ryan.

When Ryan was busy bowling, or just not interested in playing with a baby, Daisy realized that Grandpa would suffice. Also, in the name of celebration, I committed a major GAPS-diet faux pas and allowed Daisy some pizza. She LOVED it. The next day, out of the blue, she said, "I like pizza!" Poor girl; if only she could eat pizza all the time!