Little Laney

Laney is a friend of Isaiah's. It's handy since I'm also friends with Laney's mom. They live right in our neighborhood and also attend our ward. Zay and Laney attend nursery class together and seem to get along well (that means Laney doesn't get TOO mad when Zay hits her).  Laney got to stay with us the other day while her mom was at work. She is so quiet and shy compared to Isaiah and it was fun to watch them interacting. Zay even let Laney wear his warm coat while we went on a walk. He loves having kids to play with and I think Laney enjoyed herself too. We had fun being the backup daycare for the day!

Our little party animal

That's right, Eliza is a party animal. She is so afraid of missing out on something fun that she even sleeps holding on to her toys. I thought it was cute when I found her like this the other day. She loves to lay there and play with all the toys hanging above her. This time she just got all tuckered out and decided to take a little snooze.

Eliza's Heart: The Saga Continues

I wanted a post title that would make it sound really dramatic, even though it isn't. So we had our early follow-up appointment with Eliza's cardiologist. (See earlier post for the back story)  I was all ready to announce that she only has 5 holes in her heart now (she had 6 before) but then I heard Jerel telling someone she has 3.  So now I'm all confused.  My version is that she still has one PDA (she had two before) and all four of the VSD's.  All of the holes she has are either the same size or smaller, so that's good.  We are set for another checkup in 6 more months to see how things are going.  The doctor seemed confident things would continue to improve and didn't anticipate any treatment being required.

So it was pretty funny because the reason we had to go in early for a follow-up was that our pediatrician was concerned because Eliza's weight had plateaued and that could indicate that she's having difficulty eating due to her heart problems.  Or it could indicate that she has two particularly small parents.  We are fully aware of this and realize we're pushing our luck hoping for at least one of our children to break through the 5-foot barrier.  Anyway, the doctor was trying to explain that he didn't think her heart was causing any growth issues, and said something like "Well, it could just be that...I mean...well, neither of you are the tallest people in the world..."  I just thought it was funny that he was tiptoeing around it, as if we aren't already well aware of the fact that we're short and that normal people don't need a step stool in each room of their house.  We're glad she seems to just be shrimpy, rather than being unhealthy.  He also commented at one point that babies who are malnourished because of heart problems don't tend to have rolls on their thighs like she does.  Maybe he thought we were in there because we were super paranoid?  We just went because the pediatrician told us to.  But even so, I do wish she'd grow; I'm getting bored of her 3-month size outfits.  By the way, this picture is in her current church outfit.  It's a dress my mom bought her that reminded her of a dress her little sister used to have.

The False Meaning of Easter

We all know what the TRUE meaning of Easter is, but on Saturday we went ahead and celebrated the fake meaning of Easter by going to an Easter egg hunt. My friend Tammy hosted one at her home. She has tons of land (well not tons, acres would be a better measuring tool for property) and had different areas for different age groups of kids. Zay had a good time filling up his basket (courtesy of Grandma Greene Jr.) with the plastic eggs. And, as you can see here, he also thought he was supposed to eat the egs. He had such fun that we kept letting him pick up more and more eggs and then when he looked the other way, Jerel would toss them from his basket back into the grass for him to happily find again.

The night before, the muffin fairy visited our house. I had told Tammy I'd bring muffins for the Second Breakfast meal that preceded the Easter egg hunt. Then I got a terrible cold. By Friday evening, I decided I'd just buy a muffin mix and do the easy way. By Friday slightly later in the evening, I decided I'd just buy already made muffins. I told Jerel my plan and he volunteered to go buy a muffin mix for me so all I'd have to do was mix it up in the morning. And then, I put my tooth under my pillow--wait, wrong fairy--And then, I went to sleep while he went to the store. Magically when I got up in the morning, there were fabulous made from scratch muffins all ready to go!

And so, while the TRUE meaning of Easter is the best part of Easter, the second best part of Easter is definitely watching cute kids hunt for eggs that are right out in the open in the "Ages 0-3" field at Tammy's house! (The third best part of Easter comes later tonight when I sample the chocolate in the baskets Grandma Atkinson sent...)

The Zoo

Today was supposed to be sunny and less cold so we decided to go to the zoo, It ended up raining, Oh and I should mention that Zay pulled the "period" key off my laptop so I will be using commas instead,

We went with Emma & her mom, The main attraction for the two of them was splashing in this puddle, We are both bad moms so we let them get as wet as they wanted, Isaiah didn't seem particularly interested in the animals; he would look at them when I pointed them out but he was mostly just excited to be outside,

As it turns out, Zay is afraid of elephants, We were looking at them and there was a trainer there who had the elephant put his trunk up and down, Then he had the elephant spray out of his trunk and poor little Zay just trembled and cried until we finally left,

Emma has never been to the Portland Children's Museum, so that is our next adventure, Zay & Emma play really well together (with other kids Zay plays next to them at best, but with Emma he actually interacts) and Emma's mom is willing to watch the two of them while I'm hiding away feeding Eliza, Despite the rain and the discovery of Isaiah's pachydermophobia, it was a fun time!

Eliza Eats!

As another step in trying to get Eliza to gain a bit more weight, we're trying to give her more solid foods.  For those of you who don't have kids, you should know that when people say "solid" foods they really mean "liquid" foods.  It's pretty messy.  Luckily we had Isaiah there to help by pulling Liza's hands out of her mouth throughout the process.

Pull up a chair

Courtesy of my sister, Theresa, we now have a second high chair so that Eliza can join us at the dinner table. It's exactly the same as Zay's and he has been very excited to have someone right across the table from him. It's cute how he sits up all tall in it and then her little head barely pokes over the top. I was a little worried when she was born that he'd end up not liking her, but he still does. He's funny though because sometimes he gets annoyed with her. He'll come and tell me "GaGa crying." And I say "Eliza's crying?" and he says "Okay (okay is his word for yes) GaGa crying all night." But he loves to give her kisses and binkies!