Elli and I sat down to read a few books. She has been on a Cinderella kick lately (Daddy is now referred to as her prince) so we were reading about Cinderella's Christmas. In the book, Cinderella teaches us that gifts that come from the heart are the best kind of gift. Therefore, she bakes the Prince tree shaped cookies. This is the conversation that followed...
Elli: "I want to make tree cookies!" Me: "I don't know how to make tree cookies." Elli: "you just put the stuff in (making a stirring bowl motion) and you have cookies" Me: "I don't know that we have the 'stuff' to make them." Elli: Pops up and heads to the kitchen pantry and starts putting items on the counter "we need peanuts, peanut butter and rice cakes to make tree cookies."
Me: " is that all we need?" Elli: "yes"
Here is my version of a tree cookie
Apparently I passed the test.
When her Prince got home from work, she said "yay, my prince is home." Then, she said she needed to make him a tree cookie. The prince let her do it herself this time. And for his royal highness he got a special topping of dried apples.
10. The in betweens. You know, those times when there is nothing big happening, nothing to celebrate but life itself. Those are the times that you are really living and loving. So maybe you celebrate the color purple, because you can!
9. Getting to have honeymoon periods over and over again. We can thank the military for this one. There is the downside of being apart often, but my cup is half full, people. So I see it as a chance to run into each others' arms in sheer joy at the end of the apartness.
8. BO... yes, we love each other's body odor! No, BO was the call sign for Brady in utero.
7. Dash-2... Second pregnancy, second girl, but a whole new piece of work
6. Dale... Last but certainly not least, Elli, our little fighter, would not let you consider her as least ever.
5. Leaving stereotypes at the door. Men don't always grill and mow, women don't always scrub the toilets and do dishes. We found each other and compliment each other VERY well.
4. Exploring new activities together. From kayaking the cove on our honeymoon to zip lining for our 10th anniversary.
3. Riding the roller coaster of Karl's naval career. There have been high fives of joy, and pats on the back of pride to smooth over rejection. There have been expected deployments untraveled and unexpected missions avenged. We have 'seen the world'; the world between Pensacola and Norfolk. There have been stories shared in immense detail and classified adventures untold. Without the ups and downs, the roller coaster would not be fun.
2. Learning who we are as an individual by being part of this union of two. You quickly learn what your true priorities are in life when you are in a partnership.
1. Making it to today. Because every new day together is my favorite day. One in three marriages have fallen apart by 10 years. Proud that we are stronger now then ever.
What a lovely decade it has been...I will double down on that!
After having my first child, and falling head over heels for her, I wanted to give her everything life could offer. I wanted her to have a sibling (especially a sister) that she could have a lifelong bond with like I have with my own sister. Sure, enough 18 months later she had a sister.
Their bond has been apparent from the beginning. I post about on here often. Here are the latest examples.
Yesterday, Brady was invited to play at a classmates house, that also lives in our neighborhood. Great, fine, wonderful, except this is a friend of only Brady. Remember this is their first year of school ever to not be in the same class. So, up until last fall they shared all their friends. Reese was devastated by the lack of Brady. Brady was gone for 1.5 hours at her friends house. Reese cried uncontrollably for one hour of it.
Then today, I stopped by the school to eat lunch with Brady. Brady's teacher quickly whispered this story to me.
They are working on St. Patricks day folklore in class. They were discussing the pot of gold legends. The class was asked to write a sentence "_______ is worth more than a pot of gold." Brady showed her teacher her paper. "My sister is worth more than a pot of gold." Her teacher stated "Brady, you have two sisters, you need to put an s on the end of sister." Brady replied "no, I mean just one sister. My sister, REESE, is worth more than a pot of gold to me!"
That means more to me than if she would have said me. If nothing else, I want to raise kids that love their siblings!
Elli is now 16 months old. She is every bit of 16 months old too. Her personality is really starting to show. So I thought I would give an update on my little ray of sunshine since it has been 4 months.
First off, she is ALMOST walking. She has taken her first step, back on September 9th. I was taking a video of her because she had just started standing independently. While filming, she happen to take her first step. Who actually catches a child's first step on film? This lady right here does ;)
I suggest you turn down your volume, I squeal really loud in the video.
She has taken up to 4 steps at one time, but that is not consistent yet. Once we can build her confidence, she will be off and toddling.
But she has not let the lack of upright mobility stop her from being a curious exploring 16 month old.
She loves to put of sunglasses. As soon as they are on, she looks at everyone in the room with the "aren't I fabulous" look. My response is always "Hollywood!" (Anyone remember the 80s movie "The Mannequin").
She is also really taken a liking to books in true Orthner Girl fashion. Currently her two favorite good night stories are "Goodnight Moon" and "The Dog Book"
She loves to be outside and playing in our yard or at parks.
You will often find her at the back door like this... Trying to figure out how to work that door knob. Tonight I told Brady to go outside and play and within seconds Elli was standing at the back door.
She is still a bigtime cuddler, giving some of the best hugs ever, and yes, she still loves to play with hair. All those hugs are by far my favorite benefit of Hypotonia.
I think besides outside time, she treasures playing with her big sisters most. She really thrives off their attention. She also is really showing a need to have things in order, like her oldest sister. She will always attempt to put her good night story back in the bookcase. Today the remote was left on the coffee table and she crawled with it to the stool that has a basket it is normally kept in. She pulled up on that stool remote in hand so that she could properly place it. Yes, she is taken, no, you can't borrow her.
She is also a trooper. We have to go to quite a few doctors, and she has become the queen of the waiting room! She takes the hours of driving to the hospitals and the hours of waiting to see the doctor for minutes like a champ. Love this girl!
Here is a couple more fun videos that show Elli being Elli.
Lastly, my big girl may not be walking but she is drinking out of an open cup regularly now. She wants to be just like her big sisters.
She is growing up right before my eyes. But I am okay with that, because I love seeing her grow up, such a fun journey to be on.
So as parents we fall in love with our screaming bundles of joy at first sight (most of the time; I am not judging those who let the jury deliberate for a day or two). Becoming a parent is a cosmic experience. You love those babies with more depth than you knew your heart had. And every time you have another kid, you find that your heart is way larger than you knew and can love deep and wide. We all know that though....
I am here to talk about falling in love with my child again.
The other day, I had the rare experience (especially lately with school in session) of sitting down with JUST Brady outside. Just me and her. No other kids that might possibly interrupt. Her looking into my eyes, and my looking into hers. We had a 5-10 minute conversation. But that was all I needed to fall in love. She was telling me a story about school, honestly I don't even remember what she really said. But I watched her, studied her, and learned about her all on a new level. She is different now, she is mature in a six year old kind of way, she is becoming a person; people. Then I looked back at her, all those words I was intently listening to went to a humming blur because I was struck by her awesomeness, her beauty and maturity. I was falling in love at that very moment. Yes, I loved her before, but this was a new love. A new love for her. I walked away from that conversation with her floating on a cloud because I was IN love.
Now this is why I love being a parent. I get to fall in love with the same little people over and over again. Subtle but powerful moments knock me off my feet on a regular basis. I take residence on cloud nine, because I am floating and in love all the time.
Reese has always taken intriguing, breathtaking, beautiful closeups. She can be straight faced and tight lipped but I am struck by her beauty. Sometimes I feel vain when I say this since so many people say she looks just like me.
She told me that she was going to make a funny face.
Then I asked her to make another funny face.
Then she said she was going to make an even funnier funny face....guess what, she was right because I downright laughed out loud. I love this girl's sense of humor.
Now you can't see her face in this picture, but needs to be included. This was Karl's greeting from her when he got home from work! She LOVES her daddy!
