Saturday Update: 5 hour stretch and more

Since I didn't get around to a 5 on Friday post, here is a Saturday Update:

Genevieve decided that she would go 5+ hours between feedings last night, from 10PM to 3:20AM. I went to bed shortly after she was done feeding at 10PM, so I was able to enjoy almost all of the long stretch. Of course when she got up at 3:20AM she was up for two hours straight (I am usually back in bed in 40-60 minutes). Between eating, dirty diapers and being fussy there was no break. 5 minutes after I got back to bed, Ellie woke up crying (which is not normal for her). Since I wasn't fully asleep yet, I went into take care of her. 30 minutes after that I got to enjoy my warm bed again. I think in total I actually LOST sleep on the whole deal with Genevieve since she woke up again at 7:20AM (excluding the time spent getting up with Ellie). Not sure which I prefer, the consecutive sleep or the longer amount... a combo of both would be perfect. Thanks to Nick who let me go back to sleep after Neve's 7:20AM feeding. He tended to Ellie and her early 6:30AM wake-up (she has been getting up between 7:15-7:30AM lately). She only came in to see me 5 or so times... at least I felt loved.

Ellie is really into helping with Neve. She really enjoys helping change the diapers. She brings her step stool and puts it right in the middle of Neve's changing table so she can get in on the action. While I love that Ellie wants to help, it is a little difficult trying to change a dirty diaper with a 2 year old in the way. I guess I will learn to change a diaper in a different fashion so Ellie can be in on the action.

Ellie started visiting the next room up at day-care. She officially starts in the new room on Monday. We are excited that she is moving up to the next level, but we will really miss her teachers in the current room. At night one of us lay in bed with her and sing songs. Last week she wanted to sing a song that neither of us knew... she told us to "Ask Alyssa tomorrow." Alyssa is one of her teachers and I guess Ellie thought Alyssa should teach us the song. Alyssa thought that was pretty funny. When Alyssa goes home early (before Ellie) Ellie says, "Alyssa go home. I sad." It is cute. The teachers have done a wonderful job teaching Ellie her numbers, colors and shapes. It is amazing how much she knows!

Nick goes back to work full time on Monday. He used the time off to get things done around the house (and bike) so that he was able to help out the entire night once Ellie was home. It will be different without that extra time, but we will get used to it. Genevieve and I are going to start his first day back on a positive note and visit him at work. We will also stop and see my department while we are in the building.

We had a great Easter at my Aunt Janet and Uncle Steve's! Genevieve ate every hour, but we still had a great time and people got to see the newest addition to the family.

Valentine's Day

I am a little behind on updating the blog with pictures. I finally transferred the memory card to the computer on Saturday morning- we went into the hospital Saturday evening (must have been my nesting that made me delete 301 pictures to make room for new ones of Genevieve).

These are from Valentine's Day: Ellie and I used Play-Doh for her day-care friend Valentines. We also made cookies for Daddy (and Mommy). Since Ellie was sick on Valentine's Day, Nick and I opted for take-out sushi (veggie and fruit sushi for me). Nick picked up some sparkling grape juice to substitute for wine. No worries, once I get through the old pictures there will be plenty of new ones with Ellie and Neve!

Thorson Christmas

Ellie thought she should sit on Grandma's lap when she opened one of her gifts.


A Doctor's Kit. How fun! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa

Look at the fun stuff Santa left!



What else do we have in this stocking?



"Num-Nums!" (aka M&M's) My favorite!

Christmas

Ellie became a pro at unwrapping presents at Christmas time. Here are a few:




Santa has a tradition of dropping off a gift on Christmas Eve morning. PJ's for Ellie to wear when he comes to visit her that night.

Greving Christmas & Cousin Camp-Out

A little behind, but better late than never. Here are a few pictures from Christmas on the Greving side. One of the traditions is the cousins having a "Cousin Camp-Out" when they spend the night. This year Ellie got to join them (at least for an hour). It is quite an adventure.


Poor Uncle Brian laid down for a chat with Ellie and ended up being dog-piled. I guess the cousins wanted to continue a Greving Family tradition. At least they are all pretty light weight now, so I think Uncle Brian survived.


Mom and Dad with all of the grandchildren. The group keeps getting bigger and bigger! The girls still outnumber the boys.

Ellie and the Slinky

I am not posting this video for the picture quality or video direction for that matter--- but instead for the audio. Grandma and Grandpa Thorson gave the grandkids each a slinky for Christmas. When we got home Christmas night, Nick and Ellie were playing with the slinky on the stairs. Ellie had A LOT OF FUN!

Mommy's New Toy... or is it Ellie's?

Nick completely surprised me with a Kindle Fire for Christmas. His reasoning was that I could use it while I was nursing/pumping after the new baby was born. Less than a week earlier I had mentioned to him that I was going to start saving up my money and get an iPad next fall/winter. This was a few weeks after he had ordered the Kindle. He told me if I wanted the iPad instead, I could get it now. So... after a little research and testing I ended up with the iPad. I love the larger size and the faster processing compared to the Kindle. And in the long run, I think the iPad will suit my needs a little better. Although, the Kindle Fire is an awesome tablet and it was a touch decision.

Since I got the iPad I have read 4 books, checked out from the library, and am absolutely in love. I am not the only one:



Someone else in the household calls it "her's" and get upset when we have to take a break from it. My co-worker suggested downloading an Elmo & Grover book and Ellie loves it! Of course she also loves to watch "ABC's" and "Baa Baa" on YouTube as well. What expensive taste our little girl has.

Baking

Ellie and Mommy had baking morning the other week. Then had a baking evening a few days later. Ellie LOVED to 'help' in any way she could. As you can see by the bottom pictures, she was a very good 'taste tester'. I think that was her favorite part.

Waukee WinterFest

The other week we went to Waukee's Winterfest with our friends, the Beltman Family. It was a little cold outside waiting in line for Santa- but was still really fun. Ellie was only a little afraid of this Santa. I think it helped that her friend, Sophia, talked to Santa first. It was neat going to our first town gathering now that we officially live in Waukee.

Ellie and Daddy hanging out waiting for Santa.
The line is slowly moving... lots of people to visit Santa.

Ellie did not want to sit on Santa's lap, but was OK sitting on Mommy's.

Ellie's Birthday

A week after moving in we hosted a small birthday party for Ellie. Nothing big or extravagant, but Ellie enjoyed having a day all about her.

Enjoying her lasagna birthday dinner.

Getting ready to blow out her candle on top of her birthday cakeball. She requested to wear the hat, as that is what Elmo is wearing in the picture on her shirt.
The cakeballs were pretty much the extent of decorating we did (and Elmo balloons I guess). I was just glad we had plates to eat off of and places for people to sit.
The silly 2-year old waiting to open her gifts.
Ellie enjoying her very own little kid Camelback water-backpack. Now she can quit borrowing Daddy's when she wants a drink.

Halloween

Like I said in the 5 on Friday post, I finally got my pictures updated--- from as far back as June. Here are pictures from Trick-or-Treat night in Ankeny and Ellie's day-care Halloween Parade.

Ellie and her day-care friends waiting patiently after their parade through the atrium at FBL.Ellie and Liam with Grandpa and Grandma.

Mike the "Tourist" getting ready to pass out candy to the kids.

Iowa Orchard

This is my favorite picture from Ellie and my trip to the Iowa Orchard pumpkin patch last weekend.

Mother's Day

I know, I am still behind on getting this blog updated. But I am making progress... Now onto Mother's Day.

At day-care they have "Mommy's and Muffins" where the Mommy's go to visit and have muffins with the kids. The kids usually create some sort of gift for the Mommy's.

This was what I saw when I walked into the room:

And on the back:

Loved it! It was really handy because all of the kids had their Mommy's names on their shirts so the Mom's knew the other Mom's names! And it was just cute in general.

When we got home Daddy and Ellie decided to give me my Mother's Day present a little early--- a new blanket! It is perfect because now I have one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Best blanket EVER! Even better gift, getting to spend time with my wonderful husband and adorable little girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last year Ellie was too little to help making her Valentine's. This year she was quite the helper!

First we cut out the tags with the CriCut machine. Ellie was the supervisor/button pusher. She would squeal when the machine would start.

She wanted to write her own name on each of the tags. I let her do it, although I didn't tell her the cap was on the sharpie (or that the sharpie was upside down).

She also thought she should taste test the granola bars we were putting in the bags.

She quickly decided being a taste tester was top priority and left Mommy to finish up the bags.

Here is a picture of the end result.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Treats for Santa

One final Christmas-related post (almost a month later).

While Daddy was out biking, Ellie and I made some cookies to leave for Santa when he came.

Look at how pretty they turned out.
I did go the easy way out- I bought the pre-made dough
and we didn't cut them into any fun holiday shapes.

But they still tasted wonderful,
or at least Ellie thought so as she wanted 'more' than
the one she was allowed to 'taste test'.

She was very upset that she couldn't have more before going to bed on 'Christmas Eve'.
Notice how she brought her own Kleenex box? She needed them to dry her tears.

Here is what she left for Santa (with a little help from her Mommy).

I am excited for her to get older and be more and more excited for Santa to arrive! But I am not ready for her to grow-up too fast.

Teacher Gifts

What do you do for your day-care provider during the holidays?

Our day-care does an Elf Box that families can donate to, then the Parent Advisor Council (yes, we have one of these at day-care!) goes and buys the teachers/aides /floats gift certificates so that not only the main teachers get recognized. I loved this idea and it made it so much easier than trying to figure out what to get each teacher.

But I wanted to still do a little something for Ellie's main teachers, nothing big- just a thank you for their extra hard work. I checked with the teacher gift expert, my sister Megan, and she gave me a super cute idea that I used. Here it is:

The gifts were based off of this quote-

Thanks for your commit-"mint"

Thanks for your encourage-"mint"

Thanks for your involve-"mint"

Thanks for your invest-"mint"

Thanks for making each day an enjoy-"mint"

Thanks for creating a nice environ-"mint"

Then I put together a variety of mints, package them up with the quote and I was good to go. How easy is that! I included Andes mints, peppermint patties, regular hard mints and those Christmas tree mints that are only out around the holidays.

For Ellie's 0-9 month teachers (she is no longer in the room with them, but they took care of her for the majority of the year) I put the mints in little boxes that I punched out using a die cut at our local scrapbooking store, http://www.heirloomsbydesign.com/. I love Heirlooms By Design and as long as you buy the paper there you can use the die cuts for free! I printed off the saying and matted it to the leftover paper.

For Ellie's current teachers I picked up some tins at Jo-Ann Fabrics for 70% off (it paid to be a little behind in finding something to put the mints in). Then I made cards and matted the saying to cardstock that matched the cards. The design for the cards came from a class I took at the scrapbook store above.

I think they turned out pretty cute. The teachers liked them a lot (one even said she would keep it forever!), so I will call it a success.

Only problem, what do I do next year???

Greving Christmas

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent in Ames with the Greving crew. Eleanor was an angel during the 2 hours she got to spend in church (during dinner time and with no real nap) and didn't start to fuss until the last couple of minutes. The 1.5 hours of mass is far longer than the 50 minute mass Father John does back home. She was especially excited to go up to communion with Grandpa, who I think was just as excited to have her go up with him.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

A quick picture of our family after church- you can see how tired Eleanor is!

Ellie posing for Grandma, while waiting for Aunt Megan to tell her it was time to eat again (she may in fact be signing 'more' in an effort to see if Grandma, too, will feed her during non-meal times).

Aunt Megan and Uncle Mike's gift to Grandma and Grandpa was that they were going to be Grandparents again! Ellie is very excited to be a Big Cousin, and even more excited that she got to eat with Aunt Megan every 1.5-2 hours (which Megan was doing in order to make Baby Bunky happy). Ellie had to get in as much quality time with Aunt Megan as she could since next year Aunt Megan will have a different little person to play with.
Eleanor tried out Grandma's rocking chair, and managed to get herself a little stuck. It was quite funny watching her try to get herself out of the chair.

We had a great weekend, although we missed the Iowa City Greving crew as they were unable to make it.

The only problem with the two days: when we got home Ellie thought she needed to eat cookies for her second breakfast (thanks Grandpa) and didn't understand that without Aunt Megan she could not eat every 1.5 hours at home. It only took four days to get her back on a normal eating schedule.