Um, Oops

Okay, so it's been about a year since I last posted. I actually got pregnant and gave birth to my son, Elliot Nathaniel Miller, who is now 3 months old since my last post. That is so sad. So on this day, December 20th, 2012 - a day once slated, still is by some - to be the last day before the day the world ends, I will give my annual December warning. Obviously, there was an event earlier this month that would fall neatly in this post, but it makes me too ill to think of, so I will not mention it directly. That being said - all of that grief and sadness in no way keeps you safe. There isn't a quota, so it can't be met. Don't lock yourself in a padded room, but do please be cautious. Look both ways. Use your seat belts. Get that thing looked at, even if you don't like doctors. Tell people you love them. Things I'd like to say about the last year, since I'm here: Pregnancy's rough. Contractions suck. Elliot is awesome and enormous. I miss my Uncle. Lillian is a force to be reckoned with. Eleanor is growing up so fast. Maybe next year I'll clean my house. Nathan just got a promotion. (Yay!) Kelley's gonna have another baby. (Yay!) See you back here in December 2013?

That time again

Hey guys, I'm gonna make this quick, because tucking Eleanor in has put me half to sleep. We are back in December, and I would like to see everybody make it to January alive. So be an attentive driver and do not neglect your health. January's a good month. We should all be around to see it, m'kay?

In other news, Eleanor picked my least favorite book to read to her. In some ways I really love it, but it is such a chore. When Lillian got tubes put in her ears, our pediatrician gave me a book that gives an explanation of the structure of the outer, middle, and inner ears, and what an ear infection does to them. It's called Understanding the Middle Ear: Otitis Media. I really can't figure out who their target audience is for this book, because you have to have at least a high school level vocabulary to be able to follow at all, but it's got all kinds of neat illustrations and a bunch of those holographic images that are different depending on what angle you look at them from. Anyway, once in a while Eleanor will insist that I read that to her, and she spends the whole time interrupting to ask about the pictures or scratch the holographic image, or talk about how cute the baby is in the illustrations, and on and on. I mean, it's kinda awesome, because she can look at an illustration of the outer, middle and inner ear, and point right to the ear drum and tell you what it is, but it is such a chore to trudge through!

Okay, I'm done now. I will reward you with my current favorite picture of the girls, and my nephew, Garret.

Can I have my house back, please?

Thursday, June 2: Get home from work, A/C is broken. Go spend the night at my parents' house.
Friday morning, June 3: Call home warranty people.
Wednesday, June 8: Service call, couldn't be done over the weekend, lots of people have broken A/Cs. Guy says we need a new outdoor unit.
Thursday, June 9: Service guy tells home warranty poeple we need a new Unit.
Friday, June 10: After looking for a unit locally, warranty people order a unit that has to be shipped.
Wednesday, June 15: Unit "Delivered"
Thursday, June 16: Unit "Received" by AC people
Saturday, June 18: Unit installed (soonest they had time, lots of people have broken A/Cs.) Stayed at my parents' house that night anyway to spend some time with my sister and her family in a place where we could all put the kids to sleep, and stay up and hang out without worrying about the kids sleep being disrupted.
Sunday, June 19: Spent one blessed night at home.
Monday, June 20: Get home from work, A/C is broken. Go to my sister's house and call the home warranty people. They say they'll have a guy out there Tuesday.
Wednesday, noonish, June 22: A/C guy comes and fixes it.
Wednesday, June 22: Get home from work, A/C is broken. It's not that hot in the house, so call Home warranty people from the house. Still too hot to sleep there, though.
Thursday, June 23: New A/C guy comes to look. We need a new motor for the fan in the indoor part of the unit.
Friday, June 24: New A/C guy calls and says they don't have the part in stock, and he can get it shipped to him by Monday (June 27)or Tuesday (June 28).

Thank GOD my parents live in town, and are very understanding.

Happy Birthday Lillian!!!!!

So she's one. How did she celebrate her first birthday? Well, she climbed up the steps to the playhouse in my parents' back-yard by herself for the first time, and second time, and third time.. around the 5th time she was doing it lightning fast. Then she gave grandma a kiss for the first time (or said 'mmmm' while grandma kissed her), then she practiced her word some, though nobody saw it but me when she waved at Grand-dad and said "Ba-ba" and when I was getting her in her new diaper, I could have sworn (though I could have been mistaken) that she said "diaper." She's such a big girl.

Today was her last day in the baby room at daycare. I don't know how quickly they generally move the babies up, but I got the impression they were scrambling to rearrange the other classes to make room for her in the 1 year old room ASAP. They can't keep her from climbing on the baby swings and falling out, and she plays a bit too rough with the other babies. She's just this little bulldozer, and apparently the other babies are more delicate, and have been for some time. Because of that, though, she won't be using a bottle at daycare anymore, because they don't really do bottles in the 1 year old room. So ON HER BIRTHDAY I found myself packing her bottles in a box to be put away. (Yeah, I get it already, she's not a little baby.) So here's to a year with my Lillian!

Ally

Ally is a little stuffed dog of Eleanor's. She is black, brown and white. I think she looks a bit beagle-esque, though I couldn't tell you for sure. Ally is sometimes a boy and sometimes a girl. Ally is the first thing she has ever named and so far, the only thing that has a clear and consistant name among her toys. Ally plays Hobbes to Eleanor's Calvin. She brings her everywhere and sleeps with her, and always has Ally at her side. Even Lillian loves Ally, and sometimes Eleanor is nice enough to let Lillian play with her. Last week we lost Ally. I mean, really lost her. It was so depressing. Eleanor was okay with it at first, she would just sleep with other stuffed animals, but then the other day she really started asking about Ally. Nathan and I had already torn the house apart looking for this stuffed dog. I would even think of places I hadn't looked while at work and check those places when I got home. Well, I had to check one more place. Nathan, the SAME DAY we lost Ally, was a good brave husband and cleaned out under the couch. It turns out that Ally was lost after that happened and Nathan and I both assumed that it couldn't be there, the under-couch had never been cleaner. When I found her there I think I almost cried. I love Ally. It's so nice to have her back. Or him. Whatever. So, here's to Ally!

Almost a year

I've been lame with the updates. Lillian turns a year on the 17th. She's power walking all over the place, and climbs on everything like she has an aversion to the floor. She's so sweet. Oh, when I read a particular book to her, she tends to point at the main (read: only) character's face. Eleanor is potty trained. It is amazing how many fewer diapers we're going through. Sometimes I felt like we waited too long for that, but Lillian made it difficult to give Eleanor the attention I wanted to for potty training purposes, but I think her age (3.5) helped her be mature enough to really catch on quickly once we gave it a good push. Also she can draw an 'A'. It can sometimes be confused with an H or maybe an R, but most of the time it's unquestionable. Now just 25 more to go, and then the lower case.. but we have time.

Nathan has all Saturdays off now. That feels kinda freeing. When making plans with other people it's nice not to have to say, "Oh, next weekend isn't good for you, well how about in a month?"

So yeah. I'm tired. How are you?

She knows my name.

I think Lillian just said my name. It was totally heartbreaking. We are trying to use Dr. Ferber's method of progressive waiting to help her learn to fall asleep on her own. Basically it's a way to let them fall asleep in the same exact environment they will be spending the whole night in so that if they wake up a little, they won't be confused by their surroundings, and so won't be roused into full wakefulness by that confusion, and so will sleep through the night. But it does involve some letting your child cry, if that's what she chooses to do for a certain period of time. Long enough that the child learns that you aren't going to come rescue her from bedtime, but not so long that the child is scared, because you suddenly disappeared, and you're generally so attentive. Angry or sad, perhaps, but not scared. Anyway, we were waiting the allotted time period (changes each time, that's what makes it progressive)and we hear waaaAAAHHHH!! WAAAAAHHHH! MAA MAAAAA!!!! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

It figures, doesn't it? The first time I hear her call me by my name, it's because I'm disappointing her. She wants her Mama, and her Mama won't come. By the way, if she really did mean me, that was totally her first word.