Eliott Is The Big 3-months!

February 5th - 3-months!

Three months ago we headed to the hospital to welcome little (or not-so-little) Eliott into the world. We knew our life was going to get crazy... and it has... but we have LOVED every second of it! Ever since we brought you home, you have been a such a sweet addition to our family. You have graciously welcomed the title of second child, as you have had to 'patiently' wait for Mommy or Daddy as sometimes they have their hands full with big sister. As I have said from the beginning, the lack of attention that you get from Mom and Dad has been made up and surpassed by the love you have received from having a sister. Madison loves you! I often come into a room only to see her saying, "Hello, El-tee-tee" as she passes by you, snuggling you in with her blankets and animals, retrieving your binky, giving you hugs and kisses, ... the list goes on. You have started to get into a bit of a routine this month... Mom wakes you up around 7 to feed you before she heads to work. Then you play with Daddy for about an hour and a half before you need to clonk out. You sleep for about an 1 and a half (usually starting in your crib and ending in your car seat or in someones arms), then you're ready to eat again. You eat around 7, 10:30, 2, 5:30, and around 8:00, taking naps between each feeding. Your nights aren't great, but it's partially Mommy's fault since she doesn't let you stir much before snagging you out of the crib. I'm a bit fearful of waking your sis. Often times, you snuggle with Mommy for the rest of the night. I am still feeding you a couple times at night and sometimes keeping you in bed and sometimes sending you off to your own crib (so Mommy can get some sleep too). I am actually working on your napping as I write this... rocking your cradle with my foot, replacing you binky every now and then.

If I had to take a guess at your personality I would say you are going to be a relatively laid back little boy who easily smiles :). You have been so easy to get to smile... mainly I just have to look at you. You haven't been too interested in rolling over yet. I don't blame you though, you have a lot to roll over! You are still growing and are off the charts! You fit well in your 6-9 month sleepers and onsies and have for awhile! You favorite things to do are sit up on the couch and watch the world go by, watch your sister, and talk to Mommy and Daddy. We are soooo in love with you and are so thankful God blessed us with our wonderful little boy!!! We love you, Eliott!

I am going to post your 2-month blog as well as your newborn 'blog' since I wasn't up in the blogging world then.

January 5th - 2 months

You are such a blessing, Eliott! These two months have been a wonderful blur! You have grown so much these last couple of months and we have loved you as our new addition to our family. You have spoiled Me with how laid back and smiley you are. I just love to sit and hold you and talk to you and make you smile... or maybe you are talking to me and making me smile!? You don't have much of a routine, other than you eat every three hours... going usually four to five at night. You are still an on-again, off-again sleeper, napping for 20 minutes here and there. Soon we will ahve to work on making those longer, but for now, I'm still on your schedule. At your 2 month appointment, you didn't even register on the height or weight charts... coming in at a mighty 16 lbs 4 ounces and 25 inches long. impressive! Dad gave you an A+. You are working your way into 6-9 months clothes very quickly as I have been packing your 3-6 month clothes away. Your favorite place is in your bouncy seat, as you stare down the animals that hang from above. Soon, you will be reaching and grabbing them! You have started to discover that your hands are yours and you control them. It's crazy to watch! That brain is working! We have loved the last 2 months, Eliott, and are so thankful that you are here. We are looking forward to how you grow and progress and what your little personality will show us! We love you and pray for you often and are so thankful for our little boy!!! We love you!

November 5^th, 2010 - Eliott's arrival!

A week overdue… we were definitely ready to meet you. The ultrasound that I got the day before you were born showed that you were going to be 9 lbs 10 oz, so we decided you needed to make your entrance. The next morning, Firday the 5^th, Dad and I headed to the hospital at 7:00 AM. On the way, your Dad said that if you were a boy it was a great birthday, since it is prime deer hunting season. We both guessed that you were going to be born at 1:00 that afternoon. At 8:00, they stole your comfy little home that you had enjoyed for nine months by breaking my water. Katie was my midwife and the wonderful nurse helping me out with your big day was Megan. Not much happened until about 9:30… when my contractions starting. They got a quite a bit harder by 11:00 and I was ready to get you here by about noon. When I was ready to push you here it took about 8 minutes until you were delivered into your Daddy’s arms. He gave you to me and I was sooooo thankful and felt so blessed to find out that God had blessed us with our first baby boy. You came into this world weighing a healthy 10 lbs 8 oz and was 23 inches long. When the nurse put you on the scale to be weighed she decided to take you off, zero the scale, and do it again. We were all surprised you were bigger than your sister was. I had wondered if it was possible for me to instantly love you like I loved your sister, but as soon as I held you in my arms I new it was possible. It is a God-like love when you have your baby in your arms. We decided to name you Eliott Matthew, after your proud Daddy of course, and when you arrived we thought Eliott seemed like a perfect fit for you. I was so excited for you to be in our family! That afternoon, Madison got to come meet her new baby brother. She was in awe of you. She wanted to give you your binky, cover you up with your blanket, rock you when you were in your car seat, and give you kisses and hugs. She couldn’t say “Eliott” very well, so she called you El-tee-tee. It was a wonderful couple of days in the hospital as I got to spend lots of one-on-one time with you as we got used to each other in your new environment. You are a very wonderful baby boy and we are so thankful Got blessed us with you. We are very excited to see what God has in store for you in the days and years to come!

Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentines Day from the Hoffert's... Thanks to friends (Alexa in this case) and Gramma's for making my little girl so stylish :).

Daddy and his little girl

My hands were the second hands to ever hold either of my kids, second only to Matt. And ever since he 'delivered' Madison, she has been Daddy's little girl. Whenever Matt pulls up, her "Daddy!" is priceless. Everything he does is exciting and funny. My favorite part of having a little girl has been watching her capture her Daddy's heart... and watching Matt be such a wonderfully amazing Dad!

Baking With Mommy

Sitting up on the counter while cooking started at Gramma Lori and Papa P's house and quickly transferred to our house. Madison loves to help stir and dump. Some of my favorite Mommy-Madi moments are while cooking.

Time Out Please, Mommy

Well, the two's have quickly approached and Matt and I have found ourselves in quite the situation... Okay, it doesn't bother me so much when Madison does 'naughty' things as it does when I tell her to do or not to do something and she looks at me with this specific "look at me Mommy" look and proceeds with her 'naughty' activity. I told the story about her telling on herself in a previous post. She still does this. For example, yesterday she picked up a crayon, drew on the couch, then looked at me and said, "Time out, Mommy". When I said that what she did was naughty and she needed to sit on the couch for one minute, she jumped right up there. Then she looks at me and says, "No boat, Mommy", and points to her toy boat that is sitting on the couch. She knows that she can't have any toys around her while she is in a time out and politely asked me to remove it. Oh my, so she tells on herself and puts herself in time outs, and seems to enjoy the whole process. This happens regularly in my house. The picture with the post is of Madison standing up in her chair, which she knows she is not supposed to do, and then asking for a time out. The other picture is of madison sitting in a time out. This is usually the face she has the entire time. We have tried spankings a few times and the results have been a bit different... although she has said a couple of times, "More spanking... more owie butt". The whole house did laugh at me when Mommy tried the spanking. I vividly remember my mom trying to spank me with the same results. Man, this parent stuff doesn't come with a book... what are we doing!? Did my parents know what they were doing? It sure seemed like it, but now I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't look at each other as Matt and I often do and ask, "What in the heck are we supposed to do now???"...

Particular Little Girl

When Madison was little we quickly realized how particular she was. I remember when she was really litte, she would line up her animal bath toys along the side of the bathtub, perfectly in a line, all facing the same direction. The other day at my parents house, she lined up all of her trolls. When my dad snuck in and flipped one around, she came back into the room, noticed right away, and scurried right over to 'fix' the situation. Once Madison figured out sleeping, she has been a great sleeper... as long as she is at home, in her own bed, with all of the correct animals in her crib... nothing extra and nothing missing. The picture is her crib 'must haves'... and it sometimes changes, but her puppy and blanket are always in the mix. Lately it's blanket ("mamet"), puppy, puppy-two, and little kitty ("Lil kitty"). If one of these would be missing, she would have a VERY hard time drifting off to sleep. Just last night I put out a new Dora picture for her to color. She was more concerned with aligning her colors than she was coloring the picture. She also has an obsession with my magnets right now... but she doesn't like to put them on the fridge. She would rather take them in and out of her cups and line them up. In this picture she even grouped together like magnets. But don't get me wrong, she is very okay with a mess. As I type, all of her books have been de-shelved and spread across the living room. Oh my.

Stay Little and Little Longer

When Madison was little, we gaged her development partially on when she could 'pull the lion' on her bouncy seat. Eliott has been using the same seat. There are three rings hanging from the top of the seat and the middle ring (a lion) plays music when it is pulled. He loves sitting in this seat and he just talks and talks to the animals on the rings. He looks like he's saying "Watch out guys, I'm figuring out that these are my hands and I'm coming for you!'. The other day, Matt and I were busy doing something and all of a sudden we heard the seat playing music. We stopped and ran in to see him hanging on tight to the lion. He is growing soooo fast!

I also have a baby bjorn carrier that I love to carry him in. I wish I could use it forever. He loves being there, and I love snuggling him while I'm picking up the house, playing with Madison, shopping... Since he's such a hefty little man, I'm not sure how much longer he is going to get to ride... or maybe I'm going to have to start lifting :). He's just the sweetest little guy ever! As I held him today, he could barely keep his eyes open since he was so tired, but he was still cracking smiles at me behind his binky as he drifted off. Sweet boy.

The Yucky Bucket

Madison has had the stomach flu once... and it was miserable. After Matt got puked on twice, we got the bright idea to get a bucket. So there I sat with my miserably sick girl, trying to explain to her that when her tummy started to feel 'yucky', she just needed to get the 'yucky bucket'. I had little hope that this would work, but partially because of my smart little girl and partially because of a quick mom-move (and a few false gags), she got her third and final puke in the 'yucky bucket'. Success. Ever since then, this read bucket has been name, the 'yucky bucket'.

Lately, Madison has really developed a sense of humor... and mainly she tries to make Matt and I laugh. The other day, Eliott burped and she raised her eyebrows (noting that she just had a bright idea), ran and got the yucky bucket, and held it in front of him. She new this was funny and looked at me like, 'ok mommy, laugh'. Of course I did :). Later, Chief burped and she did the same thing... once again cracking herself up. Funny. Once again, I am so thankful for my kids for many reasons. One of the biggest is they provide many laughs in our household!