The Photo Shoot

Here's our second entry for the week. I'm trying to catch up on everything that's happened over the last month, so expect at least two more entries before the week is over. I know, I'm being ambitious, but that's my goal!

So, on to today's post. About a month ago, we had a professional photographer (Jill -- a link to her gallery is under the "useful blogs" below) come to our house and take some pics of Elli and us. She came highly recommended from a number of good friends, and she definitely lived up to her reputation. Jill was here for around 75 minutes, and during that time, Elli wet herself, her changing pad, and multiple sheets, cried or was fussy for about 60 minutes, and was only peaceful for about 10 minutes or so. But through all of that, Jill captured some great pictures. Here they are below. Let us know which ones you like the most!

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Catching Up With Elli

There's a lot to catchup on with Elliana, so I will just dive into it.

In early June, we gave Elli her first real, all-out bath (versus a sponge bath). For the most part, she loved it. For the first half, she was totally lounging, like an adult in a pool laying on a floating bed on a sunny day. Toward the end, she let us know that she had had enough, but even then she didn't cry too loudly.

Now she bathes like a pro. Here are some pics of her first time.

This next set of pics is Elliana with her closest cousin in terms of age, Sawyer, who now lives right down the street from us (Sawyer was born one month before Elli). I love how you can see a difference already in personalities between the two: Elli has a different face in each pic while Sawyer is much more relaxed and chill. Heather and I sure have one emotional girl on our hands. : )

One day, Heather came home from running errands and realized that she had not buckled Elli into her car seat. Oops, right!? Elli was indignant at the lack of concern for her safety, and she let us know it in these pics below.

The rest of these pics are just some cute pics of Elli over the past month and a half. I especially love the ones of her smiling at the end. Isn't she adorable?!

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.

The Diva in Diapers

An Amazing Grandmother

Heather's mom, Christine, left to head back to Texas today. It has been such an amazing blessing to have her here during Elliana's birth and afterwards as Heather and I adjusted to being parents. Christine was amazing during her stay. As some of the highlights, she made us Cafe Rio-like pulled pork salad, she took several midnight shifts rocking Elliana during gassy episodes, she doubled Elliana's newborn wardrobe, and she taught us how to efficiently change Elliana's diapers and give her sponge baths. Also, Christine took Elliana to her first movie: Robin Hood. She loved it!

Thanks, Christine! You're amazing.

Friends of Elliana

Since we brought Elliana home, several friends have stopped by to drop off a meal or see Elliana. It's been really wonderful to have such supportive and encouraging friends, and we have loved showing off our adorable daughter.

Unfortunately, we haven't taken many pictures of these visits, but here is one that we did take. This is Giovanna and Michelle, Heather's coworkers.

Napping with Elliana

I love this stage of Elliana's life: she's so small and cuddly and warm. We love to nap with her. Thinking about her getting bigger is kind of bittersweet: I can't wait until she's bigger and more socially aware so that I can interact more with her and see her personality. At the same time, I know I'll miss her tiny, little body and all of our snuggle time.

Here are some pics of Heather and I napping with her.

The Elliana Fashion Show

Heather knew that one aspect of parenthood that she would love is dressing up Elliana. It's been a little bit of a surprise to me to discover that I enjoy it, too. She's just too cute! Besides, Elliana has amazing fashion sense; she's at the forefront of newborn fashion trends. So here are the many looks of Elli...

Vote and tell us which one of the following are your favorite.

1. Elli au natural. Life is just so demanding as a 2 week old.

2. Calm and perfect.

3. Elli pondering deeply on such topics as the relationship between ladybugs and flowers.

4. The sunflower girl.

5. Elliana's coy look. Watch out; she can reel you in with one look.

6. The plaid princess.

7. "Who's adorable? Oh, little old me?!"

8. Theatrical Elli. "To be, or not to be...?" She's already catching Heather's flair for drama.

9. Dreaming daisily.

10. Pretty in pink and working it with those pursed lips.

11. Chilling in her flower dress.

12. Excited about this big, new world, and that amazing flower headband!

13. Intensely practicing paper, rock, scissors.

How To Pronounce Elliana

Hi everyone! First of all, we are so grateful to all of our family and friends for your well-wishes, congratulations, and support. We feel more certain than ever that we definitely would not be able to be the parents that we want to be without the examples and support that you all have given us.

Now a change of topic. Many of you have asked us about how to pronounce our daughter's name. I'm no expert in whatever phonetic system dictionaries use to clarify pronunciations, but here's my best shot. We pronounce her name El - ee - ah - nah, with the accent on the third syllable.

For a nickname, we like Elli (pronounced El -ee, with the accent on the first syllable), although we want people to use her full name as often as her nickname.