I'm sleep deprived.

Ever since we got to Texas, Elliot has been waking up at least every two hours. I'm the only one getting up with him most of the time because Aaron has to wake up so early. Last night, he woke up every hour SCREAMING his head off. Consequently I'm throwing away full bottles of formula every morning and I'm just... exhausted.
Why is he doing this? I'm not sure. Teething? Tummy troubles? Nightmares? I have no idea and since Elliot obviously can't tell me what's wrong, we're pretty much helpless. We move tomorrow and I'm REALLY hoping that once he settles in he'll develop better sleeping habits. If not, I might pull all of my hair out!

Ouch!

We made another trip to the emergency room today.
After waking up from a nap, Elliot was happily playing in his pack and play and then suddenly started screaming bloody murder. I rushed to pick him up and his right arm was hanging completely limp and he cried even harder if I tried to touch or move it. After he cried for about an hour straight, my husband was finally able to come home from work so we could go to the hospital.
Turns out, while trying to pull himself up to stand, Elliot managed to hyperextend and dislocate his little elbow. It was a pretty quick {but PAINFUL!} fix- the doctor just had to reset it for him. He certainly didn't like it, though! As we were instructed, we gave him a dose of tylenol for the swelling and pain, and he's been sleeping ever since we got home, for over two hours now.
Poor little guy!

Christmas in July :)

I was recently given the opportunity to review a christmas ornament from Christmas Ornaments.com At first, I thought, what a strange time to review an ornament! After all, Christmas is a long ways away! When I stopped to think about it more, though, I realized that summertime is the perfect time to shop for ornaments {and other Christmas things}.
If you're anything like me, come November and December, you're running around frantically trying to plan holiday parties and vacations, hanging Christmas lights, and trying to finish all of your Christmas shopping... so finding the perfect decorations is usually the last thing on your mind.
Ornaments can often make the best gifts, especially if you take the time to personally choose something that fits each individual person. Our tree is full of ornaments we received as gifts. Each year, as we dig the ornaments out of their boxes and place them on the tree, we relive the memories connected to each one.


The ornament I chose to review was the "Snuggle Bunny", which can be found here. It reminded me of my little snuggler Elliot and, quite frankly, it's adorable! The ornament is very well made. It would probably even survive being dropped once or twice, which is important when you have small children. I can't wait to hang it on our tree this December!
To get your own ornament, visit this wonderful website today!

Life in the hotel.

Like I said before, Elliot and I are bored out of our minds in the hotel all day while Aaron is busy inprocessing all week. We go for a walk every afternoon, but you can only stay out in 104 degree heat for so long, especially when an infant is involved. And to my dismay, Elliot can't even play on the grass in the shade because the ants around here are ANGRY and they bite... hard! So, here are a few random pictures I took today.


Peek-a-boo! I see you!


Elliot is trying to pull up on EVERYTHING lately. Luckily, he hasn't quite figured out how to do it in the pack and play yet... but it probably won't be long! I helped him up for these pictures :)


Pardon the drool. He has five teeth now and is working on his sixth!


Dangling. {Don't worry, I was holding his foot in case he decided to make a dive for it}. This morning, when I was 2 feet away quickly folding something, he crawled across the bed and launched himself off the edge. He has a little red bump on his forehead, but is otherwise fine. I think his dignity was more hurt than anything else.


Wild child! Who knew links could be so fun??






Silly :)

Macinaw pictures- finally!

Life in this hotel while Aaron is at work all day is boring. REALLY boring.
To make it worse, we don't have any of Elliot's favorite toys or his walker or anything, so he wants to be played with or carried around all day long. Seriously. He cries or whines the SECOND you put him down, walk away, stop looking at him or playing with him, etc. He's such a high needs baby. I really love spending time with my little man, but it's hard to get anything done!
It's good to know he loves his mama, though ♥.
He also happens to be the cutest, happiest, friendliest baby I know- as long as he's getting attention. So that's great too. Don't get me wrong- I have a REALLY well behaved baby. I just wish I could get a break every once in awhile, that's all.
I'm really loving Texas so far though! The weather is beautiful! We're moving soon. The waiting list was significantly longer for bigger houses, and to be honest I don't know how much longer I can last in this hotel, so we're just getting a 900 square foot 2 bedroom house. It'll be small, but cozy. We move in August 5th and I can't wait!. Everything will be better when we have space and a yard to play in.
I FINALLY edited the Macinaw pictures last night. Here are some of my favorites:


Family picture in the Butterfly House. Elliot was WAY too distracted {and hot!} to look at the camera.


A really friendly butterfly that kept coming back to us.


Yes, there it is again!


And again.




Elliot absolutely LOVED being in the bjorn all day.


On the ferry ride home. :)

Well, we made it!

We're here!!
In Texas, that is. A cancelled flight, unexpected drive to Detroit, 3 hour plane ride, missed shuttle, and $180 cab ride later... we're here at sunny Fort Hood. Elliot was WONDERFUL for the every moment of the 12+ hours we spent traveling. It's currently 104 degrees but it's a nice dry heat. We're staying in a suite at the hotel on post for now. Tomorrow, Aaron is going to the housing office to find out exactly how long we'll have to wait to move into a house on post. We've been on the waiting list for quite some time now, so hopefully we won't have to wait long.
We had a FANTASTIC time at Macinaw Island. Elliot was SO well behaved and had a blast while Aaron wore him in the bjorn for 6+ hours in the humid 90 degree weather.
I really do have such a wonderful baby and husband. I love being together again!
Thank you so much for all the kind comments lately. I promise to catch up on all of your blogs soon and to actually start posting regularly soon, too. I also have a bunch of Macinaw pictures to post!

HE'S HOME!

Aaron is home! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been trying to spend some quality time with my husband now that he's finally here.
Seeing Elliot and Aaron together absolutely melts my heart. They are perfect together. I don't know why I was so worried about how Elliot would react to Aaron, because he took to him immediately. It's as if he never left!
To top it off, ever since the first night Aaron was home, Elliot has been sleeping seven hours straight every night! SEVEN HOURS! It was hard to get used to at first, and I kept jumping up every time Elliot moved, just to find out that he was still sound asleep. I'll tell you what, though- I haven't felt this well rested since the first trimester of my pregnancy. I'm not sure how long this will last, so I'm soaking up every last minute of extra sleep while I can! Let's hope he doesn't go back to waking up every 2-3 hours.

Here's a recap of what you missed:

Thursday night Aaron flew into Flint, and even though we left Gaylord with PLENTY of time to spare, we had some car trouble and ended up being late to the airport! I felt terrible but we were so happy to finally be together that it didn't really matter too much.


Friday we celebrated Aaron's homecoming by going out to eat for breakfast and just relaxing together before making the drive back up north with Elliot- and I'm sorry to admit that Elliot spent almost the entire three hour trip back out of his carseat. He screamed so long and hard on the way down the previous night that my ears were still ringing the next day.
I insisted on doing a quick family photoshoot, of course!








Saturday was our first trip to the beach as a family. It was bright and sunny, 95 degrees in the shade, and we had a blast.









Sunday was a special day- Elliot's baptism. My favorite part of the ceremony was when Father James said to Elliot, "I claim you for God." Now that's a powerful thing.
There were FOUR other babies being baptized during the ceremony, and Elliot was definitely the most well behaved, which is a small miracle since it has been in the 90's here and our church isn't air conditioned so it was SWELTERING in there. When they poured the water over his head, instead of crying, he looked around like, that's it?! I want more! He was also enthralled with the candle and kept smiling at it. I completely forgot to bring my camera, so I'll have to steal some pictures from someone.
Elliot decided to sleep through the entire party {even though he was the guest of honor} so I didn't get many pictures then, either! We had a great time with family and friends, though.


Greasy Elliot with his godmother, Shannon.





Monday the movers came, packed up all of our furniture and belongings, and sent them on their way down to Texas.

And that brings us to today. Elliot woke up early, but Aaron took him upstairs and let me sleep in until 9 and then made me breakfast!! What a great husband, right?We took a walk together and since then we've just been relaxing. Tonight we're having a big turkey dinner with both my parents and the in-laws.
I still can't believe Aaron's home. Every time I look at him, it feels like my heart will burst. I love this man so much, and can't believe what a wonderful husband and father he is. It is absolutely wonderful to have him home.
Tomorrow we're going to Macinaw Island- I can't wait!

5 Hours...

In just five hours, Aaron will be home. I can't believe it. I remember when this was 99 days away and I was excited to get into the double digits. And now, he's almost here!
I can't wait!





Come back tomorrow for LOTS of pictures of our family finally together again!

YAY!

My husband will be home the DAY AFTER TOMORROW!
and that is all :)

If you're a woman, you need to read this

As a woman recovering from an eating disorder, posts and articles about body image, self acceptance, weight issues, etc practically jump right off the screen at me. So when one of my favorite bloggers, Laura from Between the Lines suggested this post, I read it immediately. And I couldn't agree more- if you're a woman, you need to read this post. It's fantastic!

Click below to read:
a post about Body Image

I've gotten many requests to do a post about my journey through pregnancy {and beyond} while recovering from an eating disorder.
Well folks, I'm finally getting off my butt and WRITING that post.
You can expect to see it soon. Very soon!

Massive photo dump.

I took ninety-seven photos of Elliot today. NINETY-SEVEN. I might have gone a bit overboard, but I haven't been using my camera as much lately and Elliot is changing so fast that I just wanted to get a bunch of pictures of him just... being him. Not doing anything special. Just our day to day life, when he was 6 months old, before daddy came home.
I picked a good day, because Elliot was in SUCH a good mood! He is just so much fun right now! Full of energy, always moving, always laughing, go go go go go! He's really looking and acting like a little boy lately, rather than a baby, and it makes me kind of sad.
Without further ado, here are twelve of my favorite shots from today. Hey, cut me some slack. I started off with 97... I think I narrowed it down quite nicely. Don't you? :)




If this one doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will. {He was chasing after me and yelling happily}




He is really starting to get some meat on those thighs!!




The face I was greeted with when I went in to get him after his nap. He always plays and rolls around in his crib and/or pack and play when he wakes up now instead of crying. It's so cute!






He was super into investigating the grass.


Poor giraffe!


Chewing on his paci. The only time he actually sucks on it anymore is every once in awhile when he's sleepy. Usually, he just uses it as a teether/toy.

Chloe's Closet Bib WINNER :)

and the winner is...
Comment #38: MH @ Pup and Tot!
Congratulations! I will be emailing you shortly! :)

Busy, busy, busy

Aaron comes home in ONE WEEK!
I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Luckily, I have a lot to do over the next seven days to keep my mind off of it, because otherwise, all I can think about is: Aaron's coming home, Aaron's coming home, Aaron's coming home!
This morning, the moving company sent over a consultant who meticulously inventoried all 4,000 pounds of the stuff we'll be moving to Texas. I found out that they will pack everything for us. EVERYTHING! In fact, she said not to bother packing anymore because they'll have to unpack and repack everything. So, that's one thing I can cross off my to-do list.
Then, this afternoon Elliot spent the afternoon at my in-law's house while I practiced parallel parking with my father-in-law. My driving test is on Monday and I'm a little nervous but feel much more confident driving now than I used to. Yes, you read that right- I have a driving test on Monday. Yes, I'm 22 and I don't have a driver's license. At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about it on my blog, but then I figured, well, what do I have to hide? I don't have a driver's license because I had a scary driving instructor when I was 16 and was deathly afraid of driving for years. I would even go so far as to call it a phobia. I was just TERRIFIED of driving. But I know that it is something I need to do, especially now that I have a child, so I'm sucking it up and FINALLY getting my license. And I actually don't really mind driving anymore... in fact {dare I say it?} I actually kind of enjoy it now.
This evening I had a preparation class for Elliot's baptism. It was really interesting and I am so happy that we decided to finally have him baptized. Faith has always been important to me. I hope to be a good christian role model as Elliot grows up and hope we can go to church together every Sunday like I always did growing up. I'm also thrilled that Elliot will be baptized in the same church where Aaron and I met! There will be four other babies being baptized on the same day as Elliot's baptism... so that could be interesting. Apparently, summer is the busy baptism season in the catholic church! I'm very much looking forward to that day. I hope to do a more in depth post about this soon.
And now, as a reward for listening to me ramble for so long, you deserve some cute pictures. So here is my favorite bath baby!

How we celebrated the 4th... aka my baby is crazy!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday! I know that I personally would have enjoyed it better had Aaron been home {I always seem to miss him more on patriotic holidays}. We did, however, still have a good day! My father had his annual fourth of July extravaganza at his house... fireworks galore! Elliot loved it all... the noise, all the kids running around, all the attention he was getting... so much so, in fact, that he stayed up past his bedtime. WAY past his bedtime. He didn't go to sleep until 1:30am. ONE THIRTY in the morning!! He's been sleeping in lately, so I figured, well, at least he'll sleep in. Nope! He woke up right at eight o'clock. What can I say? My baby is crazy!
Other than, you know... the fact that I battled a screaming baby for two hours straight, I had a good time. I did what most people do at parties and ate entirely too much food and stayed up way too late. Oh well!
Some pictures from our day:












Our family- I will miss these guys when I move away in a couple weeks!

Elliot is currently cutting his third tooth {right next to the ones he already has!} so he's been pretty clingy and fussy the last couple days. That, and all the planning/packing/etc I've been doing lately, is why I haven't posted the last couple days! Aaron will be home in EIGHT DAYS!! I can't believe it.