Slippers

 For Franklin's birthday back in August, I knit him a pair of slippers. I also knitted a pair for the little guy who was growing in my tummy. Now they can wear their slippers and be matching. You can imagine how excited they both are about this!

Naptime

I took a nap next to this handsome hunk yesterday afternoon. It was very hard to persuade myself to get up while he finished his nap. Whoever came up with the rule that mommies should sleep while their babies sleep was a genius. How long do I get to apply that rule to my life?

Getting Ready for Coldness

 We bought Ellie a hat, scarf, gloves, and slippers at the store the other day. We thought we'd take a picture. These are what we got when we asked her to pose for us.

Frost

Franklin came in the other morning and let us know that there was frost outside. Ellie hadn't seen frost (or her breath in cold weather) so we decided to go out and have a look. Ellie, who was already wearing her princess towel that she never uses during bath time but always during playtime, decided it would serve as her coat.

Ellie enjoyed stepping on the crunchy frost. She also thought it was fun to see her breath. It's fun to see her experience Fall in Minnesota. 

Relaxing Abraham

Here's my little guy enjoying his bath time. If we wouldn't have involved soap and a washcloth, he could have stayed in his tub content for the rest of the day.
Speaking of Abraham. He was weighed again on Wednesday and he tipped the scales at 10lbs 10oz. So in less than three weeks, he's up 3lbs! Go, Abraham, go. Or maybe I should say grow, Abraham, grow!

Difficulty

It's harder to get a self taken family picture when there are four family members... at least Ellie is smiling big. :)

Growing Abraham

We dressed Abraham up to go get his passport picture taken. He wore jeans for the first time. :)

We had his two week well check up a day before he turned two weeks old and he weighed in at 9lbs 10oz... I'd say gaining an ounce less than two pounds in less than two weeks is pretty impressive. :) He still measured 20 in long.

Grandpa Loren's Visit

  Dad drove up from the cities to meet his first grandson, and it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL Fall day. So beautiful that it was impossible to stay indoors, so we went to the zoo.

Ever since Ellie had a chat with a nurse about orangutangs, she has been particularly fascinated by them. The orangutang seemed to want to please Ellie. He had his back to us, but when we wanted to get a picture, he turned and posed. As soon as our pictures were done, he turned right back around... 

 Grandpa Loren has his arms full. He will have to find a way to make room for one more grandchild in just over a month!

Post-Bath Handsomeness

Lazy Mornings

One thing that has been nice about our first couple weeks as a family of four has been lazy mornings. We've only had a couple days when we had to get up and do things according to a schedule. So, we wake up when it feels good and we enjoy time together until we feel like going upstairs to eat breakfast. One morning Abraham and I went in to wake up Ellie. She loved it. So fun.

Abraham's First Bath

Abraham loved the warm water. He didn't scream, he just enjoyed it.

Ellie's never too far away. :) It's so much fun to have two kids to take pictures of.

Sibling Love

Abraham's First Outing

When Abraham was one week old, we took him on his first outing. My friend had taken Ellie to the zoo with her kids, so Franklin and I decided to go on a date. Abraham was a very easy companion as he slept the whole time. :)

One thing we realized on the way home from the hospital is that we don't like not being able to see his face while he's in the mandatory rear facing car seat. We got this mirror so we can check on him. 

Week 1

 A few days before delivery my doula sent me a text reminding me that the last days before labor seem to take forever, but the first week after birth will fly by. Boy, was she right! How did a week go by so quickly?!

Two days in the hospital, a couple days adjusting to being home, an extremely helpful visit from my sister-in-law, and boom! A week is gone! It's a good thing we remembered to at least take a couple photos.

One morning we realized Ellie and Abraham had matching jammies on.

On Friday morning, when Abraham was just shy of being a week old, we had the public health nurse over to weigh our little man. He was 8lbs 9oz according to their scale... and that's after we took his clothes and diaper off. With them he was 8lbs 15oz! Pretty amazing, considering when we left the hospital, he was 7lbs 5oz. I guess we'll see what the clinic says next week when we take him in for his well check up. Also, I am super relieved that his belly button and circ are already healed. That makes life much simpler. 

So, yay for a successful first week!

On our Fridge

We have some arts and crafts stuff on our fridge right now.  Each week that we are in town, Ellie has been going to the Library storytime. The librarian chooses a theme for the week and reads books about that. Then, the kids all get to do a craft and they bring home a coloring sheet. This week the theme was apples. Last week it was moose. For the craft they made antlers they could wear, so we hung her coloring sheet up on the fridge.

I also put these butterflies up on our fridge. Four hours before Abraham was born, this is what Ellie and I were doing. I had been having mild contractions all day, so I was trying to keep myself busy. Now these butterflies make me smile every time I see them. What a fun memory!

Ellie meets Abraham

During the end of labor and delivery, Ellie got to go spend the night at my brother's house. Susie came and picked Ellie up, and we spent the first night of her life away from each other. She wasn't gone long, though, because the next morning she came back to the hospital and got to meet her little brother.

 

A few weeks before Abraham was born, Franklin took Ellie to a store and said she could pick anything she wanted to give to her new baby brother as a gift. So, one of the first things Ellie did was make sure Abraham got his new lion slippers on his feet.

And our first picture as a family of four.

And a daddy adoring his new son.

Abraham Saelea

 At about 6pm on Sept 30, we took our last picture as just a family of three.

Less than two hours later, we had Abraham Saelea in our arms.

Welcome to our family, little one. We are so glad you are here!

Abraham Saelea

Born September 30 at 7:41pm

7lbs 11oz, 20 in long

Ellie's Birthday Party

Ellie doesn't get to have her birthday celebrated in the States very often, so I had been planning in my head how to celebrate her birthday for a while. I thought it would be fun to have a barbecue at the park. Since Ellie's birthday is in mid September, the weather could have been perfect... but it wasn't. :) Instead of a warm day, we had a cold, windy day. Nonetheless, we showed up and had fun to celebrate Ellie turning three.

One of the fun things about Ellie's party was having lots of family there. Dad, Uncle Allen, Aunt Doris, and Susie are in the picture. My mom was at the party and so was Ellie's Uncle Matthew, even though they aren't in the picture.

The party was a mixture of both adults and kids, so while the adults sat and chatted, the kids had a playground to play on, and we played a few games.... like

a scavenger hunt. Each child got a bag with a colored sticker and had to find the prizes with the same color sticker that were hidden in the playground. (silly picture that won't rotate)

a modified cake walk. Instead of numbers the kids walked on shapes, and instead of cakes, the prize was candy. :)

 

and hot potato. This is one of Ellie's favorite games. :)

So much fun, so many friends and family members, so much good food (thanks, Aunt Doris!)... and such a wonderful three year old to celebrate. We are very blessed to have Eliana as our daughter.

Learning to ride a tricycle

On the day before Ellie's third birthday, Franklin and Ellie spent some serious time with Ellie's tricycle. Before this Ellie has just played on the tricycle for a few minutes, gotten frustrated, and then hopped off to enjoy some other activity. On Sept 16, though, she learned how to actually persevere in pedaling, and pedal while turning. We also let her use her tricycle off of the driveway, on the road. Franklin got out one of Russ' bikes and joined Ellie for the fun.
A few days later Ellie was with a group of other kids and the leader asked what the kids liked to do outside. Ellie's answer was to go on the road. I can only assume that answer came from this experience.

A Family Visit

In mid August my sister in law Kristen gave birth to little William. We were thrilled that they were able to come visit in early September, even if we were only able to spend one day with them.

Three generations of Fenlason men here; Russ, Mark, and William.

Everybody got some cuddle time with William, including Uncle Franklin.

Ellie and Aili, who are only 4 months apart, had fun together. This is the best we did for a posed picture. :) Ellie has tons of cousins in the Solomons, but until William was born, she only had one here in the States. Now she has two, and come November, she should have three. 

On the morning that Mark's family had to leave, we spent some time enjoying the beautiful weather at the park. The girls had tons of fun playing, especially because Mark had tons of energy to play with them.