our little wiggle worm

just to show you what a little wiggle worm we have on our hands, here are some fun pictures. back when i was trying to shoot the last bunny meter shots, Elly had quite the fun time turning around in her bed. i put her down directly besides the pink bunny, and by the end of it, she had done a complete 360!

Bunny meter

Yep, that's right. it's time for another look at the bunny meter! she's a growing girl!!

right after she was born:Month 2month 3Month 4

catch up on pictures

ELLY'S FIRST SWIM:
well, we held her the entire time, and she never went completely under, of course, so i don't know if you can say that she really went swimming, but she did go to the pool! we got together with some friends recently in the big city and took advantage of the nice pool at the hotel we stayed at. so fun!
ELLY'S FIRST ROLL OVER:
And, how fun is it that on the same weekend as her first swim, while we were doing a fun photo shoot in the hotel room that she rolled over by herself for the first time! we got the whole thing on camera!
we started out with some belly time...
she pushes up some more with her right hand....
and she's over!! the crowds go wild! ahhhh!!
"i'm such a big girl, mommy!"
HOW ELLY HELPED US MOVE:
Daddy tries to pack up some boxes...Elly wants to go for a spin (a slow and very careful spin, of course) in the swivel office chair. Mommy wants to pack up the rest of our clothes....Elly wants wiggle time (with all eyes devoted to her alone) on the bed. and when wiggle time won't cut it, mommy must stop all she's doing to hold her up so she can stand like a big girl! i think this was around 8 or 9pm the night before we moved, so we (meaning Vip and I) were pretty tired by this point, but there's not time for tiredness when you have packing to do and a 4 month old to entertain!
ELLY FINDS HER TOES:
We usually start out most mornings with some family time in our bed. the truth of the matter is, we aren't really morning people, so when she wakes up, which is usually earlier than we would choose for ourselves, we bring her into our bed to wiggle and play some while we take a little extra time to wake up. it helps us wake up too as we watch her wiggle and smile. anwyays, on one such morning, Eliana decided it was time to find her toes, so we, of course, being the stereotypical first time parents that we are, grabbed the camera and took pictures of the whole thing!

she preps the legs...
starts the reach...almost there...got 'em!
and they have been some of her favorite toys ever since!

You just have to laugh...

Well, like i said in the last post, the last few weeks have been a little rough, but yesterday was a good day. I decided to rise above it, with the help of the Father, of course, as you can't just "rise above it" on your own. I spent some good time reading in Luke about the time Peter denied JC and then wept bitterly afterword when he realized what he had done. I thought to myself: how many times do i worry about what others think and what they say to me (because they say a whole lot of negative things to me around here) instead of just keeping my eyes on JC? And, how upset am I going to be one day when i realize that i spent so much time worrying about what they may or may not say or do, when i should have spent that time thinking about JC and what He wants me to do. His opinion is what matters and not whether i hear 10 aunties that day tell me what a bad job i'm doing as a mother or how many things go wrong with the apartment. so, i was encouraged yesterday to just look at JC and not let the other things get to me. And, Eliana and I had a great day at home and took a walk across the street even to the market to buy some potatoes and milk and enjoyed some time playing together.
then, we heard that the water is still leaking downstairs, and they really do think that it is coming from our pipes. So, Vip came home at lunch because they said they could come check it out at 12, but then, when he got here and called the office, they said they had all gone to lunch with their boss. so, we enjoyed the bonus family time and made plans for them to come back around 5 when he came home for the evening. He came home at 5, gave them a call, and they said that everyone from the day shift had gone home for the day and they didn't really know what was going on there in the night shift. but, they sent someone up anyways, who didn't really do anything. so, we enjoyed some more bonus family time since we don't really know what's going on and no one seems to want to fix it right now. Meanwhile, i have a pile of laundry the size of Texas that is constantly growing that i am scared to do due to all the visions of pipes exploding and soaking my entire kitchen dancing around in my head. but, it's all good. just keepin my eyes on JC!
then, today, the water is turned off all across the city. so, i guess i wouldn't be able to do wash today even if i wanted to! thankfully, we knew about it yesterday, so we all bathed last night and filled up our handy dandy bathtub with water so our house helper could still clean the floors today and we can flush the toilets and wash our hands. so, as my husband always says, it's all good. just keepin my eyes on the Big Guy!
so, with the water turned off, and Elly asleep right now, i thought, "oh goodie, i have some time to finish the office!" wrong! i went to open the door, and somehow, it locked itself when it shut, and, of course, we don't have the key! so, then i sat down and thought "well, i guess i have some time to catch up on all the pictures i need to upload to the computer and then to the blog". but, then i realized that the card reader i need to put the pictures on the computer is locked away in the office right now! so, after wiggling a screw driver and a hanger around in the lock all to no avail, with no water to do any laundry, and pipes that might bust at any moment, i just have to laugh! it's a good thing i have JC to keep my eyes on or i might go crazy!

We're finally back!

Well, when i say we're back, i just mean that we are finally back online. yeah! after the move, it took a whopping 10 days to get us connected again, but 4 visits from the not so friendly internet guy later we finally are able to connect again. and, the internet is just one of the many adventures we had to endure during this last week and a half. let me just give you some of the highlights....

Thursday (2 thursdays ago): final packing day at the old house. AC guy came and uninstalled our AC so that we could move it to the new house, so the rest of the day was pretty toasty. we all slept pretty poorly in our bedroom with the single fan blowing since we lived on the first floor and couldn't open the windows. I think Eliana woke up 4 or 5 times at least that night, so i finally pulled the rocker out to one of the few open spaces left and slept in the chair with her. too much chaos and hotness for the Elly Bean!

Friday: moving day! the movers arrived--great. the mover's flat bed truck arrived--not so great. we asked some friends for a good company to call and thought it would be a good decision to use a company that they had used and trusted, but it turned out to not be so great an idea. all our stuff was exposed to the dust and dirt of the city, which was oh so fun to deal with while unpacking!
The AC guy couldn't come till Saturday, so we camped out in our bedroom which had our landlord's AC already installed in it.

Saturday: AC guy came to reinstall our AC in the new apartment! yeah, now we can enjoy being in the rest of the house too!

Sunday (i think...it's all jumbled up in my head): the kitchen cabinet guys came to install our counter tops--great. the kitchen cabinet guys cut out the wholes for the sink and the stove top in our kitchen--not so great. this created such a horrific smell and an even more horrific layer of dust that all three of us were constrained to stay in Vip and I's bedroom that night since it was the only one with a working AC and no dust. it took me about an entire week to get the dining area and kitchen cleaned from all the dust created from the counter tops!

Monday: tried to do wash and found out that the pipe doesn't work for the washer. so, we had the plumber who did our bathrooms come again to fix the problem . he caulks the pipe and says it should work now and not overflow out of the pipe. he also fixed our kitchen sink that was leaking.
we also discovered that about half of our plugs weren't working. So, we had more workers come over and reinstall the plugs so that we could plug things into them. some of them are too loose now, but most of them are good to go, so that is good enough for us!
We also decided that it was time to get Eliana's room done. she hadn't slept through the night since before we moved and we were all getting a little too tired from the constant wakings. she just didn't want to sleep unless I held her due to all the chaos around us. so, i spent a good portion of Monday unpacking her room and getting it done. she slept in her room Monday night and was back to just waking up around 4 am to eat. yeah!

Tuesday: did another load of wash and the water leaked out the top of the washer since the pipe was caulked up. so, vip calls the plumber again who installs a new pipe as tall as our counter tops (the washer is in our kitchen) to give the water some more time to make it down as well as an extra opening under the sink in case the super tall pipe doesnt' work. so far, the tall pipe is good to go, so i haven't had to move my washer over to the sink to do clothes, but i also haven't been able to do any more clothes, but more on that later..

Thursday: Eliana's shot day! we had to take a day trip to the big city for her 4 month shots. we weren't looking forwrd to dealing with this on top of everythign else, but we knew it was best to stay as close to on schedule as possible. she did really well this time, and we were so thankful that she is at the children's tylenol age now too! that helped her a lot!

Saturday: AC in our room starts dripping. we're just not using it very much and putting a bucket under it for the time being. it's about to get cold again anyways!

Monday (yesterday): we get a call from the apartment complex management saying that our downstairs neighbor (a construction company) has water leaking into their office and they think it is coming from our apartment. so, no more wash again until we figure out what the problem is! they keep wanting to come over and tear into our kitchen while Vip is away, but he pretty much put his foot down and said they would have to wait till he was home to do it. what a great hubby! he told them to set aside time today (tuesday) at lunch to come over and check it out, but they went out to eat with their friends instead and got mad that he couldn't come home in the afternoon. so, i guess they will be over here this evening. hope they don't have to tear into my kitchen!

Now, with all this drama, you might think that we were living in an old decrepit apartment complex, but this place is actually considered to be one of the nicest complexes in the city and is only 5 years old! oh well! i guess that is just the way it goes over here! it definitely hasn't been easy to deal with, and i've had many hard days when i dealt with culture shock i thought i had already put behind me, but the Father is helping me. Eliana and I had a pretty nice morning today walking aroudn the apartment complex and buying vegetables at the market, so life is slowly getting back to normal. but, it has definitely been a lesson in humility and how far i have left to go before i reflect JC like i am called to do.

i'm working on some new pictures to post soon of the apartment and Eliana's adventures lately!