Whoa Nelly!

Life, slow down!

A catch up on our life these past few months. Part 1



Eli is already 16 months old. He flat out runs pretty much everywhere and is loads of fun in any fenced in area - free range babies make mom run too much. We enrolled Elijah in the reading challenge for listeners at our local library. If he listens to us read him 30 books, he gets a puppet or some equally amazing prize at the end of June. We're at 29. School aged kids are going to be so much fun. I can already tell Rob and I are going to have to hold back our "nerd-it-up" tendencies if our kids are to have any chance at normalcy.

We're not quite ready to begin potty-training, but almost. We've bought Eli a potty which he plays with but that's about it. He's been showing some signs of readiness, but we're not quite there yet. My goal is to have only 1 in diapers at a time. ha! we'll see.

Elijah says about 2 words still. Though these words vary monthly. We've been on "snack" and "hello" for quite some time. Though sometimes I do catch a "rob" thrown in. Oh, and of course he loves to say dada. Sometimes when Eli wakes up especially early (like 6am) I'll take him out to the living room to play while I nap on the sofa and Rob sleeps. As soon as 6:45 hits, I'll tell Eli, "you know dada's still sleeping. Go get dada". He'll take off down the hall running and yelling, "Dada! Dada! Dada!" I love doing that. I'll walk in a few minutes later to see Rob rubbing his eyes and Elijah scrambling on top of him. It's great. Eli loves to play "phone" with anything and everything. He'll often walk around the house with a pen, cup, or just his hand at his ear, saying "hewhoa" "hewhoa". To supplement his verbal vocab - we tried baby signs again. They didn't really work for us at 9 months. But when we tried again at 12 months he caught on quickly. He signs "All done" and "more" very well and we're about to start learning "potty", "monkey", and "thank you". Potty - for obvious reasons. Monkey - because his stuffed monkey is now is favorite possession. And Thank you - because he's old enough to learn some manners!

His new favorite game is a variation of peek-a-boo. He likes to hide behind dish towels that he stole from my kitchen drawer or behind curtains and then we pretend like we can't see him. Then, he'll pop out from behind his invisibility cloth and voila! Elijah. He loves it! He also enjoys knocking on doors or opening doors that you're knocking on, "excuse me, can I come in?" And...walking backward. It cracks him up!

These 3 pics are from our new favorite Tuesday night family activity. It's a blast to watch Eli play in the fountain at Market Square - It's just his size. It's all fun and games until he starts drinking the water.

Besides keeping up with a 16 month old - we're also pregnant! I'm finally out of the first trimester and can slowly feel life returning to my body after spending the last 3 months creating it. I have been exhausted and incredibly sick. With Elijah, morning sickness began earlier around 6 weeks but only lasted until 10. This time it hit at 7 1/2 and is still nothing to brag about at 13 1/2. I had no remembrance of how terrible morning sickness is and hope I forget all about it again so that there can be a third Hartley Baby one day. I remember with Eli after an especially hurl-full morning, I sat beside the toilet in Africa and cried. I thought being pregnant, I'd be cute and fun and pretty with a big belly. That all came - just later than I'd hoped. This time Elijah spent weeks walking around the house saying, "hu-a", "hu-a". It took me awhile to figure out that's the sound I make before I throw-up.

I'm utterly convinced this one's a girl. Though I'd be happy with either. Eventually, I'd like a girl. But for the first few weeks when the "this is a girl" feelings hit, I was completely afraid I was ruining Eli's life. "He needs a little brother!" I'd wail to Rob. Now I'm on Rob's team of "Eli's on his own - we're making a great family" and either a boy or girl will fit in perfectly and ruin no one's life. Except mine for the first, hmm, 6 weeks or so until it sorts out it's days and nights.

We haven't had an ultrasound yet - we opted not to get an early ultrasound (you can't fool me into that lovely experience again), though we'll have one at 20 weeks to find out the gender. Rob can't wait to find out- but I think I could. Eli and I did hear some tiny baby heartbeats though at my last appointment. The baby was flipping out and kicking already trying to get away from the doptone. Our midwife asked if Eli was that active and I had to laugh remembering just how in-utero active he had been.

I've been eating terribly (and I should know better as a childbirth educator). But I tell myself, "being able to keep x down is better than nothing at all." Unfortunately x has been mostly french fries, ground beef hard shell tacos, whole lemons - yes plain with salt please, and even a shameful run to Long John Silver's. Gross, I have no idea why. This baby loves as sour and as spicy as I can take, though I feel as though I'm craving bland potatoes. To keep the morning sickness at bay I've also chugged gallons of ginger ale. Soda normally is not my thing - and this new upswing of sugar is not exactly a good thing. Other than ginger ale, my other drink of choice is lemon water. And I'm not talking a lemon wedge in a glass. No, It's half water, half lemon juice and a lot of salt over crushed ice. Yumm. My last midwife called this concoction my virgin margarita.

Besides all that family business, I've also started up my business of childbirth education classes and doula services. Back in October I traveled to Atlanta to finish out my certification and since the new year began I've been working on getting myself and my business up and going. Since February, I've held 2 Bradley Method series and completed 2 Doula jobs with 2 more in the works. I absolutely LOVE what I do. Rob has been quite instrumental in the whole process. Encouraging me, doing mundane things like helping me make copies, and watching Eli while I'm teaching or away on jobs - all with a smile and telling me what a difference I'm making. I couldn't do it without him. He's wonderful.

Right now, I'm teaching a series on Sunday nights to 5 lovely couples. We're halfway through the course and they couldn't be more engaged and excited. I love having found what I'm passionate about and good at and enjoy like crazy! I'll be teaching one more series at the end of the summer before taking a little maternity break until the new year.

Whew, yes. All that makes our heads spin, too!