tickle, tickle

Eliana's little personality is getting funnier and funnier every day. here's some things that i hope make you smile as much as they made us.

Eliana was on the phone with her Nanny and Gampa the other day when her Daddy asked her to show them how she could count. this was what she said...
"2, 3, 4, tickle, tickle" (the "tickle, tickle" portion was complete with her little hands tickling the phone!)
we have started playing a game with her where she tells us what to count to and then we tickle her at the end. she will go on forever doing this if we let her, and it's so fun to hear her giggle too. i guess, she just figured that Nanny and Gampa needed a tickle. she is also starting to tickle the people outside the taxi windows by tickling the windows.

she also frequently likes to cheer for herself by saying "yeah, nyanna" (that's what her name sounds like when she says it) and clapping very excitedly. she did this after she blew out her birthday candles (video coming soon!), and every time she climbs to the top of her swingset (bday gift from mommy and daddy...pics coming soon of this too!)

she also likes to say "nyana tall" when she gets to the top of the swingset and call out like a monkey whenever she hangs and crawls around on the bars (it's a very exciting little swingset!)

and, she's trying to find baby Titus in her tummy. i mean, if mommy has one, then Eliana does too! right?

she's developed a secret code with me for which Good Book stories she would like me to read. are you ready....take notes or you might forget.
"ow, ow"=the ten leppers who JC healed
"fish"=JC helps Peter and his friend catch fish
"clip, clop" or "ow, ow" (ow is popular around here)=the good samaritan (he has a donkey who "clip, clops" in our story book
"talk, talk, talk"=JC heals Bartimaeus (he hears the people "talk, talk, talk" about JC coming down the road
"little"=Zaccheus (he was a little dude afterall!)
now, don't you feel spiritually enlightened?? seriously though, i love hearing my little girl recall these stories, even in her own simple way.

i do love my little Elly Bean and all her little charms.

why am i so tired?

oh yeah, i'm pregnant! i'm to the point now where i really do need to start pacing myself a little bit more. i hate that i don't have the energy to play with eliana and do all the housework that i feel needs to get done and get out and about, but this too shall pass. for now, i'm trying to pick my battles and do the things that are really important for each day and let the not so important things slide (as one of my cousins would say "focus on the eternal!" :). so, for now, if i do my mommy thing well, get us fed, and we have enough clothes to wear (who cares if they match, right?) then that counts as a successful day for me!
i had a really fun idea for my next post where i was going to take a picture of my EMBARRASSINGLY BIG pile of laundry, but that would require me taking the camera out and taking the picture and then downloading the picture to the computer and then uploading it to the blog, and i'm still working on just getting the pictures already on the camera weeded through, edited, and then downloaded! and, taking a picture of my dirty laundry instead of actually spending the energy washing it would definitely NOT qualify as eternal! haha!

anyhoo, my dad has been here since last Wednesday, which has been lots of fun. Eliana is loving time with her Papa for sure. he'll be around till Friday, so don't expect too much out of me by way of blogging till next week!

i promise the next post will be lots of fun pictures and stories from Eliana's birthday celebration week! woohoo! we've been having fun!

If only i knew how

if only i knew how to measure a fundal height. yes, you read that sentence right. in case you don't know what a fundal height is, it's the distance across a preggo belly to put it simply. during my last check up, at 23 weeks, my fundal height was a little on the large size...still within normal range, but on the high side. so, the doc said to get it rechecked in two weeks and gave us the phrase in the local language so that we could do this simple procedure in our city without making another 2 hour trek up to the big city. so, we went to the local hospital. got it measured. sent the numbers off. and, the doc called and said he had no idea what they had measured and we just better come on up to get it rechecked. so, yesterday, we headed off for another long day in the big city. Due to the earthquake over here, most of the docs were there volunteering (awesome that they are willing and able to do that!), so there was a skeleton crew. the doc who was there is great but extremely thorough (by thorough, that is my nice way of saying she takes a long time.) i thought we would be in and out in 20 minutes tops, but she had to go through my chart again, questioned a few things she didn't understand from the American records i brought over, and before i knew it, we had been there for over an hour and a half. (probably wouldn't have brought Eliana to that if i had known it woudl take that long!) and, all i needed was a tape measure held up to my belly! so, on the bright side of things, the fundal height is now back to a more normal number and Titus' heartbeat is great. but, the really fun part is that we get to go back next week for my glucose test! if i had known i could have done it yesterday, we would have prepared in advance, but by the time they told me, it was lunch time, Eliana was melting down, wanting to run around the entire hospital, and i was beyond starving. so, we'll be off AGAIN next week for another big adventure in the really big city!

one of the perks to the trip was my new oven! woohoo! my old oven we bought 4 years ago finally had it. (it took me 1.5 hours to bake a loaf of banana bread this week...and the temperature was all the way up....and it was cooking from the top and the bottom!) this is still not a normal oven by American standards, but it is really big, which makes me really excited! i'm thinking i might even be able to cook two things at once in them depending on the food. i'll let you know how it turns out!

also, stay tuned for pics. my hope is to have them on the computer today, so maybe by tomorrow i can post some.

a bug like no other

as i told you in a previous post, we recently were visited by a very unpleasant and very unfriendly stomach bug in our house. it has since passed to two other families with small children as well as another buddy. ahhh! how awful do we feel about that? very. and that's putting it mildly. anyways, it's just blowing our minds to watch how long this bug is hanging around in our lives...it's been almost three weeks now i think! so, this Saturday, moved by a fierce hatred for this evil stomach bug i did something that i still can't believe i did. it was totally not like me. completely out of my comfort zone to say the least. our house helper, who also works part time for one of the other families who was visited by said evil bug came over to clean our house like normal. right as she was getting started we were chatting and she was telling me how she had been sick and thrown up that morning but was fine now. of course, her concern is her income. there is no such thing as a paid sick day around here, especially for a house helper. i'm feeling awful that she is feeling sick but still pushing herself to work. (i so would have been in my bed watching movies and drinking gatorade by then!) i was also scared to death that she had this dreaded way too contagious bug. so, i went in to the living room and talked to Vip, who was thankfully home (his language...as well as personality... is much better at handling these difficult situations) and we told her she had to go home and rest. she was so embarrassed. i was so embarrassed. we assured her she would still get the same amount of money for the month. she assured us that we should not give it to her. of course, we will give it to her, no matter what she says. so, there you go. the house has now been re-disinfected (is that a word), the cleaning rags have once again been soaked in bleach, and i have a ever deepening and very very strong conviction that we will never ever enter into an asian ball pit unless i see someone wiping off each and every ball with a disinfecting solution, as i am so certain that is where this tragedy began!

now, aren't you glad i didn't talk about the potty this time?? (don't worry, i'm sure there will be more posts to come on that in case you miss my potty talk)

Potty update and other thoughts

Well, day 3 of potty training was not as blissful as day 2 was, but as i looked back at it all, it was my fault more than anything. i had a lot of housework i felt i had to do, a few friends came over throughout the day, and my patience level was at the low end, unfortunately. so, our fits were up as well as our accidents. but, it really helped me to see just how much i influence my child! when my attitude is not where it should be, her's is not either. wow. how humbling. anyways, we ended day 3 with mommy apologizing for where she had failed and asking Father to give us new strength and a new start for the next day, and He did.

as far as potty training goes, we moved on to the big girl panties this morning and had no accidents at all today. we even moved the potty seat onto the big potty and started using it (Vip got this neat potty that can be split up and used as a step stool for washing hangs and a seat topper for the big potty). again, we had a few different friends come over, but we were much more pulled together today, praise Father! at dinner we decided on the spur of the moment to go out with our friends to a make your own pizza place (still not as good as my uncle jim's pizza!), and i put a diaper on her for that. i just knew that none of us were ready to deal with the squatty potty as well as the two layers of pants she was wearing. next week, i might just put the diapers on over her panties if we have to go out for a long time where i don't know about the potty situation and that way i don't have to change her outside clothes (or mine...or wipe up bus and taxi seats!) if we do have an accident. if any of you moms in asia have pointers on helping your toddler use the squatty, please pass them on! right now, i'm just thinking we will have to hold her up over it (which pretty soon i won't be able to do too well!)

so, there is the potty update for you. i'm sure you are fascinated by it all, right?

my other thoughts?? well, i'm so glad you asked! :)
i kind of got a little overwhelmed yesterday. i just ended the day feeling like failed in so many areas. i knew that i had failed eliana and not been the mommy that i want to be as well as the kind of mommy Father wants me to be for her in many ways. i felt like i hadn't been the best hostess to the different people that were in my house. my house itself was a wreck. and inside, i was just emotional to say the least. but, that is what the enemy would have me focus on. he would have me post that list up on my wall and think on that every day. because, as i think on that list, i just get worse. so, instead of dwelling on the failures, i chose to push them aside today. He makes each day new, right? right! eliana and I had an awesome day today sharing our lives with friends and learning together what it means to obey and not think only of ourselves. i really have been so thankful that the last two days have provided us with several opportunities to be involved in what Daddy is up to. it's been nice to have people in the home, cook some meals for them or just sit and chat in the living room while Eliana plays.

I'll close with one little story from today that really encouraged me in this whole mommy thing. we haven't really been doing rewards everytime Eliana goes potty, but we have been having fun with stickers and m&m's every now and then when she goes, especially if it's a big one. and, she's kind of picked up on that, of course! (who is going to forget an opportunity for chocolate??) so, this afternoon, while our friends were over, she went to the potty. we had just switched over the seat and set up the step for her to use while she washes her hands (so much easier than holding her up to the sink!) so the step stool was a new fascination to say the least. mommy needed to wash her hands too as well as help her wash her hands, but eliana did not want this. she started hitting my hands to get them away and throwing a typical little fit about it. (she had also already started talking about a sticker and a m&m too before the fit) so, as the fit continued and she refused to calm down or willingly accept my help or let me wash my hands, i told her there would be no treat that time. when we got back out to the living room she asked for her treat again (in front of our friends) and then got upset, of course, when i told her again that there would not be a treat since she threw a fit. then, she surprised me by asking to pry and starting to walk back toward her room. so, i took her back to her room and pryed with her, asking Father to help her not throw fits, all the while hearing Vip explain what was going on to our confused friends. (this all took place in english, of course, so they didn't quite understand) the really funny part to me was that she kept trying to do it right. over the course of the next thirty minutes she asked me to go to the potty two more times (she didn't really have to go potty i'm sure). the first retry, we didn't get it right and still threw a fit while washing her hands (bummer). but, the third time, she got it! i guess the thing that encouraged me was to see that me just doing my mommy thing that Father has called me to do right now, still opened up a door. my husband got to talk about the importance of instilling the Word into our children from even this young of an age (these particular friends happen to be likeminded) and teaching them to pry and go to Father and several other various topics. and, me sticking to my guns and not just giving in to quiet a fit while our friends over helped my daughter make progress in her attitude as well as building the skill of washing her hands.

so, there is my random long winded thoughts for this evening. now, i need to go to bed! good night!

Elly Bean: the rock star potty trainee!

yes, it's true. my child is a rock star when it comes to using the potty. (in case you were wondering, that is my way of saying she is doing absolutely awesome!) in the last two days, we have only had two accidents. one of them was when she put on her training panties for fun and then decided to pee in them (yeah for no mess though!) and the second time was so minor that i hate to even call it an accident. she stopped when i saw her, helped me clean it up, then proceeded to the potty to finish her business. see, what did i tell you? absolute awesomeness. so far into Day 2 (she just went down for her nap so we are half way through the day), we are accident free ,so we will see how the little Bean does this next day and a half.

and, in case you were wondering about the whole no clothes on the bottom half and how that is going, i'll address that real quick. i was, like you might be, a little skeptical about it in the beginning. if you know me or have been to my house, you know that i at least strive for cleanliness and order. (don't always achieve it, but who does with a toddler running around...especially while pregnant and settling back into a different country than one's own!) so, i was not super thrilled about the idea of no pants. but, i decided to go for it when i thought about how long it takes me to get one small load of laundry clean AND dry (about 5-6 hours). we had a trial potty training run on Sunday morning wearing panties and she peed through 4 pairs in the two hours we did it. so, i know there is absolutely no way that i could keep up the laundry load. this also gives her one less thing to try and figure out since she doesn't have to pull anything down. she is just focusing on learning all the cues and then acting on them. anyways, i really do believe what they say about something clicking in their little brains about it all. i was totally convinced when she had her first and only real accident after she put on her panties. the rest of the time, she just naturally thinks to go and sit on the potty or will at least go when i remind her. lots of the things i read about it suggested that you continue to go bare bottom in your house for the next three months and then wear only loose fitting pants while outside, but i don't think we will go that extreme. for one, it's still too cold outside for us to not put more layers on her little body when we go out. and secondly, i'm sure our electric bill will be through the roof this month as i've been running our heater non stop as well as some space heaters when we are in her room to keep her warm enough. so, we will see how it goes next week when we have to enter the real world with no diapers! stay tuned! (aren't you just fascinated by all this potty talk? welcome to my world, this week!)

[i would love to post some really cute pictures of her this morning in her sweatshirt, legwarmers, and red and white polk a dot rain galloshes, but we're not quite sure how we feel about posting those for the World Wide Web to see. if you are ever over at my house :), just let me know, and i'll give you a looksie! they are hilarious!]

just in case you thought that all i was doing was talking and thinking about the potty, here's some other things i've been up to.

*continuing to get back into the groove of cooking from scratch. made an awesome poppy seed bread this week for breakfast along with a huge batch of granola (no cereal available here). also prepping for an awesome mexican fiesta tomorrow night! (Vip even scored us some tortillas from the little stall in the mall who makes chicken wraps! woohoo that i don't have to make those anymore!)

*setting up the third bedroom for guests (a friend this weekend and my dad next week!) as well as getting it ready for our second little bundle of joy.

*enjoying reading in my favorite Book about the life of Moses. Eliana has been quite enamored with him lately, so i took a little detour in my QT to read up on him again. good stuff!

*working hard to instill in me and Eliana a strong commitment and excitement to lift Daddy up when he is out working and encourage him in the work. along those lines, i'm trying to figure out a way to give him a "home office" in our bedroom as it is nearly impossible for him to get stuff done while home if he's got computer work/studying he needs to do. any creative (and don't forget cheap!) space saving ideas would be greatly appreciated!

*visited a local hospital (the same one i had to go to the night i had bleeding when i was pregnant with eliana....talk about some memories i had to push past!) to find a doctor who could measure my fundal height. (it was a little large when i saw the doc in the big city, so he just wanted us to get it checked again in two weeks time) you would think it would be a pretty simple thing. they just take a tape measure and measure your belly, right? wrong. we started out at the ultrasound room where they tried to measure it via ultrasound, but only did the top half, held up a random sheet of paper and tried to make some measurement markings on it, and then just didn't understand what we were asking for really. then, they called the obstetrics department and said i had to go up there for a doctor to do it. so, about 45 minutes later we walked out with some numbers that we aren't quite sure are accurate, but just waiting to see what the doc in the big city says. hope we don't have to make that long trip just so he can measure my belly! but, through all that, we got to connect with a new friend who works there and helped us out a lot and hopefully made some new friends as well.

*trying to figure out how me and Eliana can get out some next week to catch up with some old friends. i sure do miss my car and carseat these days!

life according to Elly Bean

here are some fun things we have heard Eliana say lately.

Eliana: [shouting into her phone] "Wei! Wei! Wei!" (pronounced like "way")
Mommy: who are you talking to?
Eliana: ummmm... (she has to think through her answer, of course)
Eliana: insert random friend or family members name here
Mommy: Well, what are you and so and so going to do?
Eliana: ummmm.....
Eliana: taxi....ummm....chicken

of course, this means that she is calling her friend to come, get in a taxi with her and go eat chicken. she has also already picked up on the fact that when you answer a phone here you must say "Wei!" very loudly over and over again. once in a quiet tone is never enough. (i'm absolutely serious about that too!)

another fun elly bean quirk these days is that she tells me that she wants to "hold you" whenever she wants me to pick her up and hold her.

and, then last night as we were reading before bed, we read the stories of the ten lepers and the one who returned to thank JC for healing him. at the end of the story it asks the child what they can be thankful for. i absolutely love this whenever we read this story. she cuddled in my lap like a little baby (another new fascination lately...guess we have been talking about babies a lot lately!) and went through a long list of all the people she loved and the things she loves most. here's a sampling:

pretty much all of our family members back home...that's a long list, so i will save you time by just leaving it at that
pretty much all of our friends here
cheese
chicken (our time in Dallas eating at Chick-fil-A really made an impression on her!)
mommy
daddy
titus (that's baby brother's name if you hadn't heard)
yogurt
play
walk (going for walks)
bunny bear (what would we ever do if we lost him??!!)
work (me and her have spent time this past week prying for Daddy each time he goes out to work and telling Father thank you for a daddy who takes care of us)

I love how Father wired us to pick this stuff up from even this young of an age! after our long list, we spent some time thanking Father for all the good things He gives.

another neat thing that happened this week with sweet Elly Bean is a few times when she was on the very edge of a tantrum she calmed down some and asked me to pry with her. now, sometimes she definitely is not able to calm down on her own, so we have to go to her room for a discipline, pryr, and talk through it some. i've told her that she can always come to me and pry when she wants to throw a fit and that Father can help her to have self control and calm down. it was just refreshing to see her getting it some. now, we are by no means perfect and today has definitely not been quite as smooth of a day as others this week have been, but it's a good reminder to me to press on (especially on the rough days like today) in teaching her His ways and trusting Father to form her into a little girl who will one day love and serve Him only.

as tiring as it can be sometimes, it is so fun, and so neat to watch her grow. i love being your mommy, Elly Bean!

i promise that pictures will be coming very very soon! keep checking back with me!

such a big girl

tomorrow is the big day. the rugs have been put up. the couch will be covered tonight after Eliana goes to bed. a nice supply of cleaning supplies will also be set out after Eliana goes to bed. our Elmo and Gabby sticker chart is taped up. and, tomorrow we will leave behind the life of diapers...hopefully forever (at least during awake times). in fact, for three days, we are even going to leave behind the life of clothes on the bottom half (again, during our awake times)! that's right. i'm going extreme, baby!! We're doing three days of intensive, we hope not too exhausting or too messy, no looking back POTTY TRAINING!! so, i'm prepping for lots of messes!

i'm trying hard to psyche myself up for this. what i really feel like doing is letting her stay in diapers till she's 6 or so, but since that's probably not the best idea, and she is in the largest size of diapers available here, and we are about to have a newborn around here that will take even more energy than pregnancy does, we are going to push ourselves and press on!

so, be thinking of us this Wed-Fri as we embark on a new adventure, please!! :)

Our first 3 weeks

well, if you are on facebook, you might could guess from my status updates that we've had quite the ride these last 3 weeks back in Asia! i keep finding myself getting a little frustrated that we haven't been able to get back to life as "usual", but then this morning, Father gave me a little perspective. here's a breakdown of our life recently.....

week 1: unpacking, jetlagged 23 month old, very tired parents due to unpacking and jetlagged 23 month old, met a few friends, daddy was busy with lots of business meetings

week 2: still a little jetlagged, preggo mommy continues to have sharp pain in chest/back area on one side that started upon arrival (i.e. can't do a lot of lifting of anything....which slows down the unpacking, organizing, and cuddling with the 23 month old!), told we need to make a trip to the doctor in big city for preggo mommy's chest/back pain

week 3: make the trip to the big city for the doctor, told everything is okay (preggo mommy seems to have injured a muscle when she was coughing and it's not healing quickly due to all the relaxed pregoo mommy muscles), get home from the trip that night and find out we have a very sick little 23 month old who has a very bad case of diarhea (sorry if that is t.m.i.!), stay indoors playing the hydration nazis for the next 4 days, get a break from the sickness on Easter (thank you, Father!), then Easter night preggo mommy comes down with a different version (although still unpleasant) of the nasty tummy bug.

week 4: we're only a few days into week 4, but so far, we have a daddy pulling double duty since mommy is out of commission, and a very very emotional little girl who doesn't understand what is going on!

so, as i thought about all this today, i was able to understand why i keep going back to Matt 11:28. i just feel weary! but, at the same time, Father has made His presence and His goodness known. I'm just so thankful that we have a Father who we can go to when we are weary. wow. I'll close out with just a few of His blessings we have seen these few weeks in the midst of all the chaos.

1. the day of our big trip to the capital city, eliana wouldn't eat a lot at breakfast, and she wouldn't eat any lunch. i was pretty concerned and upset about this, but then when we got home after dinner and her diarhea began, i saw what a blessing that had been. it would have been so hard to deal with her being sick on a 2 hour bus ride! i really have no idea how we would have done it.

2. when we first arrived Vip had a lot of initial meetings he was going to and lots of logistical things to set up to get us settled back in and get his business on the road to being set up. he's currently in a holding pattern for several reasons and can't do anything further till some other things come through. so, if there ever was a time for mommy to be sick, this would be it. he hasn't had to cancel anything or drag Eliana along to any important business meetings these last two days. this is definitely not the norm around here as far as Daddy's schedule goes!

3. our city sells gatorade. :) this is the closest thing we have to pedialite around here and i was so thankful (even if i did have to go to 2 different stores before i found it) to be able to buy that and keep us all from getting dehydrated! we've also found a pretty good version of saltines. not quite as light or salty as i would prefer, but good enough.

4. and, even if all these things weren't there, i can't let myself get down. i can't let myself question why we couldn't just have a competlely bump free and easy adjustment. He knows, and He will take care of us, no matter what. that is what we must always focus on.