Elena's Ears

As most of you know, Elena has had terrible ear infections since she was about 6 months old.  I got looking back on her profile at the drug store and she had an ear infection every 6 weeks or less!!  Well, it finally got to the point that our family doctor referred us to the ear, nose, and throat doctor.  

On Monday, April 27 we got to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning and waited for her surgery. (Elena must take after her mom cause she WAS NOT HAPPY that I woke her up that early) While we were checking in, they needed to weigh her and she threw a fit cause she didn't want me to put her down. "Oh great," I thought, we are starting the day out great! Soon after this her nurse brought her a purple teddy-bear that she carried around and would not let out of her sight the entire day.  

Right before we went to the holding room, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me if we wanted to give her a pre-med so she wouldn't cry when they took her.  Since she had already cried when they tried to weigh her, I told them to go ahead.  Soon after, Elena's head started drooping a little and she started getting silly.  At one point she laughed out loud at nothing at all!  The rest of the time she mostly was just jabbering a lot.  All the nurses got a kick out of her making so much noise.  It was the best part of the day!!

Elena was only in surgery for about 30 minutes and in recovery for 30 minutes before they brought her to me.  When they first brought her to me, you couldn't imagine how hard she was crying.  (They told me before hand that they can get really disoriented on the anesthesia)  I finally figured out that if I stood up and rocked her she would calm down, but there was no way that I could sit down!!  Soon after she went to sleep and everything was all good.

The rest of the day went pretty well.  I had to make sure that she had Tylenol in her, but other than that she just wanted to be held a lot.  The day after the surgery Elena started throwing up.  She had a day or two where we didn't know if she was going to throw up or not, but once we got some pedialyte in her she felt 100 times better.

The other day we got Elena's new ear plugs in at the drug store.  We could have just used cotton balls and vaseline in her ears when she took a bath, but it was a pain plus we had to buy ear plugs for her to use when she went swimming anyway.  These are the ear plugs that the doctor

 recommended.  

They are called Doc's Proplugs and I really like them.  They are made to suction to the ear canals, and they are comfortable enough Elena doesn't mind them.  (Once they are in!)  They also fit into the curves of her ear enough that she can't really pull them out which is a definite plus!!!

These days Elena is back to her splashing little self.  It's a good thing she has her earplugs.  If she didn't she would have water in her ears all the time.  The other day she even climbed in the bathtub (with Ella) with ALL HER CLOTHES ON!!  (and that day she DIDN'T have ear plugs....)  

Another medical fiasco completed.  THANK GOODNESS!!

Playing with "Kay"

I had so much fun playing with my cousin this weekend! I call him "Kay". He is two weeks younger than me.

Love Elena

Playing Dress Up

The other day Ella found this dragon costume in the office and decided she wanted to put it on.  Since she had the dragon costume on, I put Elena's Tutu on that Lisa gave her for Christmas.  

After gazing at her dragon self in the mirror, 

Ella decided

 that she wanted to be the princess, and 

that Elena should be the dragon.

Needless to say the girls had a great time playing dress up with each other.  Even if it was only for a few minutes!

Happy 1st Birthday Elena Pearl!!

Happy 1st Birthday 

Elena Pearl!!!

I can't believe how time flies!!  A year ago, I was getting ready to head the

 hospital, and now my baby is ALREADY a year old!!  Where does the time go?  Since Elena's birthday was on Monday, and Dave's family wanted to come up for her party we had her party on Saturday.  She had a whole bunch of cousins there, and we had a GREAT time!! Elena got some really fun toys, some cute clothes, and she must be growing up cause her aunt Stephanie got her hot pants!!  (I have to get a better picture of the hot pants, cause the one I have does not do them justice.)

Elena's new adventure

Elena has decided that it is great fun to walk around the room!  Usually she has to be pushing something, but just this week she has started walking a little bit by herself.  How fast time goes, I swear just yesterday she was learning to crawl!

Quick California Trip

For those of you who didn't know, David's Grandpa died, so we took a quick trip to California last week.  We drove to Utah Wednesday night, and then drove to California Thusday.  While we were there we spent one day at Disneyland.  The kid's had SOOOO much fun!!  Now, if you are anything like me, you don't have a lot of time to read, and I don't want to write a book.  So, I made this slide show of the highlights of our trip, and I wrote short comments for each of the pictures.

After we went to the funeral on Saturday we went and spent some time @ Laguna Beach.  (The real one, none of this fake Lagoon nonsense)  Stephanie and Catherine took Ella down to the beach, while the rest of us took a nap.  After we got there Ella and I played in the shallow waves for a little while.  However, being the Idaho kids that we are, we got a little more wet than we wanted!!  Here are some pictures of our time @ Laguna.

Another Mess

As is common place with a baby, Elena kept having the intense desire to run her face while she was eating her vegetables tonight. The end result looks like someone was throwing food at her, not feeding it to her. OH WELL, thus is the joys of motherhood!!

Her Father's Eyes

It is interesting how a song can get you thinking about things that you normally wouldn't think about. The other day I was downloading a bunch of songs that I like to classify as "daddy" songs. They were various songs that talked about dad's and their little girls etc. Well, I happened upon a song that I have heard many times before, but not for a long time called "Father's Eyes" by Amy Grant. It talks about a daughter that says the greatest compliment that she could receive was for someone to say that she had her father's eyes. The song procedes to talk about all the things that her father's eyes were capable of seeing: eyes that find the good in things, eyes that find a source of help, eyes full of compassion, etc.

Now, when I was younger, people used to tell me all the time that I had my dad's eyes. As much as I knew that it was true I didn't really think much about it at the time, but when I heard this song the other day it really got me thinking. I don't know that I had my "father's eyes" in the sense that I could see all the wonderful things in people that he always did, but at least they looked like his. Knowing I had my father's, never meant so much to me, until that day.

Now I have two beautiful baby girls, both with beautiful eyes.

Ella will forever be able to say that she has her father's eyes. Both Ella and David have the most beautiful sea blue eyes that could melt the coldest heart. (I should know, I get pretty cold sometimes!) It's no wonder that people comment both of their eyes on a regular basis. Someday I hope that I can look into Ella's eyes and see that she has the same open-minded and charity driven eyes that her father has always had. Sometimes I can't believe how patient and loving Dave can be. I nit-pick and bug him a lot more than I should sometimes, but somehow he still puts up with me and the kid's and loves us anyway. I could never thank him enough for giving Ella the best example for what her eyes could be.
Elena on the other hand has been blessed with beautiful, dark, brown eyes, which do not look the slightest like David's, but they are just like both of her grandfathers. Dark soul searching eyes, that make you feel the love that she has for you. Both my dad and Dave's dad have/had these same warm welcoming eyes. It amazes me how both of them saw the good in people, in a way that I can't even imagine.

I remember my dad always helping everyone, no matter their race, intelligence level, or opinion. In Dave's dad's eyes I have seen an extremely loving grandpa who has stepped up and been there for my kid's when they really needed it. It is so nice to know that your kid's have grandparents that will watch over them, love them, and maybe even spoil them once in awhile. Thank you Mike, you're the best!!

My new hope is that these two beautiful girls grow up that they can see the examples that these wonderful father's have set for them, and they can do more than just "look" like their "father's eyes", but also see all the wonderful things that these father's can see.

Redneck Intuition revived

What do you do when you are camping and you don't have a bib? This week we were at Horse Camp and I was feeding Elena some baby food. Grandma Tamara decided that Elena needed a bib, so she got a diaper bag and cut arm holes in it for Elena to wear. Chaulk it up to Redneck intuition, but the bib actually worked quite well!