Three years of Elijah

We have a 3 year old in our house. AGAIN. From my experience with Maya, I learned that 3 was even harder than 2, actually way harder than any other age we've experienced so far, I think. We'll see if Elijah will prove this wrong. But for now, I'll try to soak up the memories from this age, because he will never be this little again. Just bigger, an bigger, and then older...

Elijah turned 3. Three years seems like an awful lot of time when you think of it in terms of a child, going from a helpless newborn to an exploratory-destructive with much cuteness and charm mixed in toddler. And yet, it's hard to believe that those 3 years have gone by already, in a blink of an eye. Yes, time is a very relative thing.

I can't help but think of the day when Elijah was born. Familiar waking at 3 a.m. knowing that I am in labor, just like that. Our packing of 'the last few things' took about 2 hours, after all I was in labor, resting on the yoga ball during surges (contractions) and listening to my Hypnobirthing relaxation scripts. And no, I could not leave the packing to Mark, I was in charge then, knowing exactly what I needed to do and to have on the day I was going to give birth.

Hospital check-up at around 5 a.m. and 8.5 cm. I still remember my relief, no 15 hour labor this time. Not really surprised though, I was at 6.5 cm 2 days before. I hear Claire, my doula, is here, talking to the nurses. Her voice alone send endorphins throughout my body. Required antibiotics, hooked up to IV for 20 minutes. Mark and Claire are by my side, while I'm sitting on the yoga ball, waiting to get disconnected and immersed in the tub of warm water. I now vaguely remember tiny red lamp blinking and beeping in the dark L&D room, Claire later told me it was for the baby's bassinet/warmer, but I didn't notice it. Hypnobirthing was changing my life then.

Warm water feels like heaven on your laboring body. I don't get to stay there for too long, the baby is coming, my breathing is changing, my body is working harder, and Claire can hear that the baby is ready to be born.

Back on the hospital bed, a few nurses appear from nowhere. Midwife is ready, Mark is by my side, Claire is taking photos. I feel in charge of my birthing by letting go of any desire to control the process. It feels right, it works. No pain, no fear, no fighting, just an unstoppable power and lots of hard work. No 3 hours of pushing this time either. Just breathing and feeling my body doing all the work. I need fewer hands on me, but oh well... He is already here, beautiful hair, beautiful voice. And then beautiful eyes, opened. Love at the first sight. No turning back, he is in my heart forever...

It's amazing how much detail I can still remember from that day. The emotions, the thoughts going through my head, the smell and the noises of newborn Elijah. I remember looking at him and wondering what he was going to look like in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years... Three years? Are you serious? How can it even be possible that this tiny wiggly newborn will turn into a walking and talking toddler? Yes, I was wondering back then...

Those 3 years have been as unpredictable, exciting and challenging as they could be. I prayed my way through Elijah's reflux, constant inconsolable screaming, hating car rides (among many other things he disliked), my PPD, Maya's jealousy once he turned into a happy baby in the 7th month of his life. And don't forget spit-up, oh there was endless spit-up for the first 14 months of his life. So much that we had to lose some of our down payment on extra carpet cleaning when we were moving out of our apartment, and then the brand new dark hardwood floors in our rented house never looked clean again for the first year or so.

No, really where did the time go? It seems like just a few months ago I was wondering if Maya and Elijah would ever play together. Now they do, every day. Yes, they fight and pick on each other every day as well, but still, they play together, pretend together, read books together. And now he is getting more and more interested in playing with Anya, making her laugh (despite Maya's protests, because SHE is the big sister), giving her snacks. He is really turning into a BIG brother, not just 'big brother' who had no choice but to accept the title.

And he is full of love, always. He may be at the age where he disapproves of everything with very loud high-pitched screaming and long endless
nooooooo!'s, but he always finds plenty of love to give. I whisper to him "I love you, boy" and he looks at me and whispers back "I wov you, mama". He must remember that day when he was born...

Winter header be gone!

I thought it would be appropriate to finally switch the header and background color on Elijah's birthday, while it's still spring. And yes, I'm trying to make a post dedicated to our newest 3 year old. Meanwhile, enjoy Mark's musings here.

Miracles happen

I was trying to catch up on photo editing (as always) and was delighted to discover that we finally have a family photo of ALL 5 OF US. This hasn't happened since there were only 4 of us (and Anya was still a floating bean inside me). This is worth celebrating. With a post.

Taken in February after attending open house at the Draper LDS Temple, where all 3 kids surprised us with amazingly good behavior. Photo was taken by Mark's friend and co-worker who happened to be there with his family too. He has no idea what a historical moment it was for us to have him take our family photo.

Two giveaways that caught my attention

If there were two giveaways I wouldn't be able to resist, then it would be for a new breastfeeding book and a quilting/sewing machine... Well, they are happening right now!

"Breastfeeding with Comfort and Joy" giveaway is ending on March 20th, the review sounds wonderful and the book is self-published so this is your big chance (and mine) to win one!

Then there's the Marie Osmond 200 Quilter’s Companion (by Janome) waiting to be loved by someone, it could be you or me, who knows :) Maybe I will finally manage to finish the quilt that I cut last summer, ha!

Good luck!

Fun times

Has it been nearly two weeks already? Or should I say, it's only been less than 2 weeks and I am making another post!

But seriously, I have to blame it all on Anya's teething. Or who knows what it is that keeps her up at night more than ever. Thank goodness for her cuteness during the day and all sunshine with warm weather to sweeten the exhaustion from staying up at night trying to get little Anya to sleep. I secretly have to giggle when she wakes up next to me and starts crawling on our bed in the dark, sticking her fingers in whatever openings she can find on our faces. But the cuteness of it wears out in about 2 minutes when the overwhelming feeling of having to get her go back to sleep settles in. Well, at least in these last couple of weeks it looks like teething is to blame, as compared to no obvious excuses during all those countless nights when she kept us awake. Someday she will figure this sleep thing out and then we'll naively reward ourselves with another newborn thinking that it surely will sleep better than Anya did...

I'm often in awe at how creative our children can get when they try to find things they are not supposed to play with. Maya's old trick of using my make-up (with a lot of effort put into her eyebrows) is nothing compared to what Elijah can do. Every night when I go to bed, I quickly scan the room and the kitchen for things that need to be put out of sight and reach. That involves hiding knives, scissors, any hair products, locking the bathroom and the door to the closet in my craft room (where I now store my Dharma dyes on the highest shelf, but you can't be too cautious after he showed me what he's capable of doing with my dyes last summer).

Well, one of his last week's victims was a nice big jar of extra virgin and extra expensive coconut oil. To my defense, I did think for a second that the jar needed to be hidden when I was doing my usual scan, but since it was probably 3 a.m. when I was going to bed, that thought quickly escaped my mind. I really wasn't a bit surprised when I found Elijah thoroughly enjoying a good amount of coconut oil the next morning.

The cleanup was slightly easier than after 20 emptied jars of Dharma dyes, thank goodness for that. I think the hardest part was seeing all that good oil go to waste (well, not from Elijah's perspective obviously). The upside, his hair smelled and felt heavenly once it was washed.

What a life. Can't call it anything but exhaustingly exciting.

And of course there are always sanity savers that eat up my sleep time when there's such a thing. Meet Maya's very orange and happy new tunic, crafted by mama at 3 a.m.

Now I want one too. Some day...

Emerging from underground like a spring flower

Yes, that's me. Don't know how to explain the feeling but I know some people know what I'm talking about... I don't know about you but I like to celebrate the arrival of spring on March 1st, after all, that's how it's always been done where I grew up. Slowly, but steadily I feel like the winter ice cap is starting to melt from over my head, the sun is shining brighter, the birds are getting more cheerful and the life begins to emerge. I feel I can breathe again...

With spring comes the irresistible urge to clean, get rid of things that we can live without, make some room for the sake of having more room. Time to organize, evaluate, look at things from a different perspective.

I finally got around to turning Maya's former bedroom into my craft/guest room. It's tiny and cozy, a perfect little corner for my art/sewing/knitting supplies that used to hide in the corners of our living room.

And it's only natural that with organization comes inspiration. So I'm back in the sewing groove, the downside is that my head is bursting with ideas. Now I just need to start sewing for US instead of making gifts for others all the time.

And there's more where this came from... Back to sewing, ta ta!

Yearning for a change

Winters are too long here in UT. Although this year's winter has been quite mild, I still feel the need to change *something* while awaiting for the changes that spring brings. My hair often turns out to be the first victim. Last year I chopped it myself, just like the year before that. This time I decided instead of cutting my hair yet again, I'd rather add some 'life' to it.

Henna turned out to be the perfect choice. It's natural, doesn't damage my hair, can be applied many times without having to wait more than 3 days, and it leaves my hair looking amazingly healthy, which is huge improvement for my usual shine-free, dull looking hair.

Dyeing my hair with henna is also quite fun, because there's no way to predict the exact shade my hair would end up with. Since I didn't mind experimenting and was feeling quite adventurous, I didn't mind the prospect of my hair ending up the same shade as my couch. I even added some turmeric to the henna mix to improve the odds of an unexpected result.

Here's my hair just a couple of hours after dyeing:

And here it is 3 days later:

So the color 3 days later ended up being more red than on the first day. I think now, almost a week later, my hair kept the same red shade and turned a little darker. I like it! Honestly, I don't know what I enjoyed more, the process or the end result. But I can tell with certainty, this is not the last time ;) In fact, I can't even guarantee that I'll stick to the same color, ha!