More Family Visit Elli

As I noted in my last entry, since Heather's and my parents have abandoned us and we've been home by ourselves, Heather and I have had a lot less time to do things. As a result, it has taken me this long to post about my parents visit. The day that Heather's mom went home, my Mom and Dad came to stay with us for about five days. We were so grateful to have them here and thrilled to introduce them to Elliana. And even though we mostly just hung around the house, I think we all really enjoyed just being together. Besides, on one of the nights, I finally beat Dad at a card game! It doesn't matter that he had never played the game before, the point is is that I won. : )

Also, the weekend that my parents were here, my sister Alyson came to visit with her three kids. And while the house was pretty full, we all had a blast! We loved seeing Trey and Jayci oogle over our tiny little girl.

Here are some pics from their visit.

Elliana excited to meet her grandparents, aunt, and cousins.

Mom, always so energetic.

We went to a nearby park while Alyson and kids were here.

Two young cousins already forming a strong friendship.

Here's Trey showing off his hot legs. He picks up this behavior from his dad.

Our family reunion is only a few more days away. We can't wait until everyone gets to meet Elli!

Elli's one month!

Elliana has been so excited that she's one month old that she hasn't slept at all today. Instead, she's been fussy, crying, or very squeamish all day and would only tolerate NOT being held and walked around for a total of about 40 minutes. Heather's really been enjoying it. : )

Since both sets of grandparents left last week, Heather and I have noticed a sizable drop in the amount of things we can get done in one day. In fact, the other day, Heather was excited just to get the bed made and dress herself before I got home from work. She has been great at making this adjustment, though. For me, on the other hand, it's been a bit more difficult to change my mindset. I'm used to coming home and efficiently ploughing through a list of things that need to get done. Slowly, ever so slowly, however, I'm scaling back my expectations. Now, I plan on getting one thing done in the time from when I get home from work and when I go to bed. And even then, I only meet that expectation about 50% of the time. Other parents keep telling Heather and me that it will get better. We're just trying to hang in there in the meantime.

Elli's just about done feeding, so I only have a few more minutes to type furiously. But here are a few fun things about our precious daughter.

-- She constantly practices her jazz hands. I'd like to say she gets it from Heather, but we all know that I'd be lying. Sleeping, eating, crying, and even in those rare moments of quiet wakefulness, her hands and fingers are often open and fully stretched out in perfect jazz hand formations. It's pretty cute. We occasionally are able to successfully coax her into holding our fingers. We love that, too; her hands are so small and adorable! We feel the same way about her feet.

-- Elli's been struggling with gassiness more often than not after she feeds. The silver lining in this is that she'll make a lot of hilarious and random faces while she's doing it. She's like a Jim Carrey! She's very exressive.

Okay, she's done feeding, so I gotta run. I'll post more pics later.