Baby Baby

Our baby girl was finally born Monday December 28th at 6:40 pm via a scheduled C-section. She was a whopping 9 lbs and 20.5" long. The doctor was shocked since he had thought she was about 7 lbs. but I and my bruised ribs thought otherwise. Since Ela was an emergency it was nice to have this planned so the doctors could take their time and I could be awake to hear her first cries and actually see her before being in the recovery room for 2 hours. Plus my doctor said I would have ended up with a C-section anyway since she was so big. Everything went well and we are so happy she is finally here!
The second night we spent mostly awake so this is the morning after. Todd ended up having to hold her to get her to sleep.

The first meeting, as you can see she's pretty ecstatic. Due to swine flu hospital visitors were limited to the father of the baby plus one other person and no one under 14 at all.

Going home 48 hours later with our beautiful baby. It took her a few days to adjust to "life on the outside" but is now doing well as long as she gets plenty of food.

Fa ra ra ra ra

Christmas was pretty calm this year considering I was "great with child" and some of our family was out of town. We had Christmas Eve with my family at our place and then spent the night with Todd's family so we could have Christmas morning together. Then we spent the day lounging, eating and playing games. Ela understood presents this year which was fun. She was very efficient. She would open one, say wow and thank you and move on to the next. Christmas was pretty quick.

She's Crafty

Safety was not first, but at least she got the job done and was not playing with the knives.

My Baby Shower

My super sister in law threw me a lovely baby shower with lots of family food and celebrating the upcoming arrival of our baby girl. It was a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for everyone who came and participated and the generosity of our family and friends.

The story of Tasha Joy

So the name thing was a bit difficult for Todd and I to agree on this time around. All we knew was we wanted Joy in honor of Todd's mom for a middle name. I liked a few names but wasn't in love with anything and he didn't really like any of my suggestions so we weren't making progress naming this child. Ela on the other hand had decided she would be called Tasha since before we even knew she was a girl. She told everyone; family, friends, nursey leaders. It was weird because we don't know anyone with the name and it was completely random. She didn't give up either she was sure that her baby sister's name was Tasha. We ignored it until one day I found out that Tasha means "A Christmas Baby" and since my official due date is Christmas that clinched it. It was too crazy to ignore so we didn't have to worry about picking a name and Ela got her way. Everyone wins.

Giving Thanks 2009

My mom hosted Thanksgiving this year so we spent the day with her andDave and his boys. It was a great time and mom did a fabulous job as host.

Ela and Kelly doing a "pinky promise." Its her new favorite way to get me to forget she's in trouble. "I won't do it again mama, pinky promise."
Us girls with Grandpa Chuck. He cleans up nice.

The future of my shoulders

I was washing dishes today with my shoulders hunched so that my arms could get past my belly to reach the sink and I realized how horrible my posture is. It was never good before but now with this large 8 month pregnant belly its even worse. I hunch when I clean teeth and I hunch when I do pretty much anything standing up. Its getting rather uncomfortable so I'm extra excited for this baby to be born. Hopefully I will be able to straighten up before I become Quasimodo.

Halloween Happenings

Halloween was great this year. We spent it with cousins and Ela got her first real trick or treating experience in an actual neighborhood which was very exciting.

Pre trick or treating/sugar rush.
Clapping for the other contestants in the costume contest at the trunk or treat. She really should have won for cutest costume but we were robbed by a little butterfly. I'm going to say its just because it wasn't our ward and they didn't think it was fair to award an outsider the prize.
The only pose I got since she was on hyper speed all night due to a combination of excitement and sugar.
Trick or treating for real. She was super excited and happy for about the first few houses and then she realized one of the older boys in the group had a pretty scary mask and suit on. She freaked and kept making us walk with or hold her since she "didn't want to see that little boy." The funny part was a few houses later she tried to comfort her scared cousin by saying "its just a mask" about a different guy. Of course she said this from the safety of daddy's arms and still would not acknowledge the first boy but it was still progress. Overall it was very fun and she was the most adorable "titty tat" ever.

Botanist much?

Everywhere we go Ela is pointing out Bird of Paradise plants. She has spied them from across the street in the car to hiding in flower arrangements in restaurants. Sometimes I never see them but she has such keen eyes she can pick them out from anywhere. I'm pretty sure she learned about them from her Grandma Shel, I heard her teaching her about purple pansies the other day so now she'll be on the lookout for those too. What a random funny girl she is :)

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to a cute little pumpkin patch in Bonita this weekend. I had never seen pumpkins actually growing in a patch so I was really excited. It was pretty much one big photo op for me but we all had fun checking out the different types of pumpkins, riding the tractor hay ride and navigating the corn maze. Ela called all the dead ends "dead ants."
Her favorite part was feeding the animals, especially the Llama she named Linda (just like the one on Go, Diego Go her new favorite show).
She wore her kitty ears for a little bit. She's preparing to be a "Titty Tat" on Halloween.

Laughing at Daddy making piggy noises.

Our family in a barn on some hay. It was a good day.

This is Halloween

Last night Todd helped Ela carve her very first pumpkin. Actually he did pretty much everything seeing as how knives are rather sharp and pumpkin guts are rather gooey. She reached in twice to pull stuff out and that was it. Then she said "I'm all done making a pumpkin, I want to watch my shows."

I was expecting some triangles and square teeth but Todd ended up spending about 30 minutes drawing and then carving a "very scary Jack O'Lantern."
The finished product. I'm so excited for Halloween, pumpkin baked goods, sweaters and hopefully some cooler fall weather.

Choppin broccoli

Grocery shopping today she picked a mini stalk of broccoli and carried it around the store. She squealed when she saw it and called it "my size". It did help her want to eat it later at dinnertime though.

Girls Rule

(Sleeping Ela at 3 months)

We had our official sonogram and found out that we will be having another one of these sweet baby girls in December. The sonographer asked us if we had any kids already and when we said a daughter she said "well then this should look familiar." I am so excited to have 2 girls and know that Ela will be such a wonderful big sister.

San Clemente

Last weekend we helped Dave surprise my mom at the beach in San Clemente for her birthday. We were waiting on the sand and she didn't know we were there so when Ela ran up and yelled "Surprise" my mom politely said hi and tried to sidestep this unknown little ankle biter. It wasn't until we shouted hello that she realized it was Ela. So funny.

After the shock wore off mom was very happy to see us.
Ela "boodie" boarding with her daddy. She tolerated it once and then wanted to go back to shore. Everytime we asked if she wanted to go again she would say "later."
Digging with Dave. Everytime a wave would come close she would thank grandpa Dave for saving her. After we played we ate dinner on the pier which I forgot to take pictures of but was beautiful. Happy Birthday Mom!

Down by the Lake

We have been having some typical beautiful San Diego weather lately. We took advantage of it by visiting the ducks at a nearby lake this weekend.

On our way to find ducks. Note the bag of bread in daddys face.
She ate most of the bread she was supposed to feed the ducks. Luckily it wasn't moldy.
The duck swarm. Normally we go out on the pier to feed them but since we had Todd with us we climbed through the bushes to a closer spot.
Here she is jumping over cracks. After each one she would squeal "Let's keep looking mom!" (for more cracks). Its always good to hear my name when its not being whined.

The San Francisco Treat

Rice A Roni has nothing on our 4 day girls trip to the city by the bay. I went with my most favorite girls in the world and we had so much fun eating, sightseeing and reminiscing about the good old days.

Here we are posing in front of the Golden Gate bridge. It was amazing to see it in person after seeing it in so many movies and pictures.
Posing in Chinatown at one of our many delicious meals. Our foodie Brit did her research and made sure we ate nothing but the best. I promise my belly is large with child and not pastries and sourdough bread.
Our statue poses at the Palace of Fine Arts. We walked around a huge park looking for it only to discover we were in the complete wrong area so when we finally got there we were even more impressed by its beauty since we had to work so hard to get there.

More posing in front of the Palace. It is so beautiful.

Brit and Emily tore it up in the San Francisco 5k while Kendyll and I supported them with signs and hoorays. This is after the race which is why Emily is so tired she can't fully lift her arm to cheer :)

I had so much fun so thanks to Brit for her awesome navigation, research & planning skills and beautiful photographs; Kendyll for her navigation, San Fran fun facts and our shared love of sweetarts; and Emily for making us make this trip happen, keeping me company in McDonalds at 6 am and also behind Brit and Kendyll while they guided us around town. Thanks to my awesome husband for taking such good care of Ela while I was away even though the first thing she said to me when I got back was "Buy me more doughnuts."

Kings Canyon 2009

The Glaziers have an annual tradition of camping in Kings Canyon near the Sequoias. We almost didn't make it this year since baby girl had pnuemonia but she made a miraculous recovery just in time. We had a great time relaxing in hammocks, swimming in the freezing cold river, watching Todd fish, eating gourmet dutch oven meals courtesy of my talented mother in law, playing board games until the wee hours of the morning and spending time with family and our camping friends we only see once a year. The first few days she kept asking to go home and watch Dora but after about 3 days she realized the tent was her home and busied herself with the many duties of camp. Here she is showing me a "pineapple" (pinecone), making toast over the fire, unloading firewood in her "glubs" and pointing out the gigantic ants.

Taking some time to relax like a taco. The hammock was her tortilla if that makes sense.
Our kooky family. I love Todd and Ela's "whats going on" faces.

Happy 4th of July

We love going to the beach on the the fourth of July but do not love fighting for a parking space. To avoid that Todd went super early to surf and park while Ela and I rode the Sprinter over at a more decent hour. Ela really likes trains and was so excited to buy her ticket and hop on for a ride. She climbed into her seat and started giggling. It was a pretty good experience overall, only one smelly b.o. passenger who luckily didn't ride very long.

She's got a ticket to ride :)
At the beach. We had lots of family there but I always forget to take pictures of people other than my girl.
Another reason I love America. Thrifty ice cream.

We drug Ela out to watch fireworks. Half way through she said "I want to go home" and fell asleep before the Grand Finale even started. They were beautiful as always though and overall we had an excellent Independence Day.

Baby Love

I'm pretty sure most people already know but I'm officially announcing that I am pregnant. I'm due December 25th (who does that?!) so in August we'll find out if we're getting a baby Noel or a Jesus (with a "h"). We are very excited and I know it will be the best Christmas gift ever!

The Wilmar Fair

I know its now called the SD County Fair but I still call it the Del Mar Fair and Ela calls it the Wilmar Fair so there you go. We went with Grandma Shell and had a great time.
If Ela ever tells you she rode a bunny rabbit it was not a real one but one on the carousel.
Her Pina Colada (white so it won't stain) shaved ice. She threw the straw and chug alugged!
Finishing up with our favorite ride, the foot massager.