Three Month Pictures

Elijah's 3-month picture gallery is now available online. You can check out the photographer's website at: http://www.shootingimagesphotography.com/

Then, click on "Enter Site." Click on "Clients" towards the bottom right hand corner. The password is "mmcdonald."

Three Months

It has been quite an eventful third month in Eli's life; from his first overnight stay with grandma and grandpa to a visit to the ER...which started as an uncontrollable crying spell. Out of nowhere on a Saturday afternoon, Elijah started crying so hard and for so long we weren't really sure what to do since we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then, his breathing became kind of erratic, and he just did not look or act like himself, so we took him to the emergency room. By that time, he had calmed down and was even smiling at the nurses. The doctor noticed he had a rash on his upper chest (which if you ask me it looked more like small blemishes that soon went away) and then diagnosed him with a virus, but he did not even have a fever. We are still not really sure what caused the unusual crying spell, and whatever illness he had was very short-lived since the next day he was back to his usual self. Eli weighed 15 pounds that day at the hospital, but we will have to wait for the rest of his updated stats until his 4-month checkup.

As for his feeding pattern, Elijah is still eating every 3 to 4 hours and now takes 5 ounces at a time. We also keep the burp cloth nearby after each feeding since he has seemed to be spitting up a lot more recently.

His usual sleeping pattern is from 9:00 at night to 7:00 in the morning. He will usually take a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap and then occasionally a short late afternoon nap. Eli has also been using his pacifier more now as he goes to sleep but otherwise does not really ever use it much. He is in the best mood right when he wakes up in the morning and when he wakes up from his naps, which is also when he gives me the most smiles:)

Elijah has started to become more interactive during playtime now as he is able to grasp toys and swing his arms and hands at toys that hang from his bouncer and his play gym. When my mom was watching him last week, she mentioned that he had laughed when she played peek-a-boo with him. Since then, I have heard tiny giggles, but I am still waiting for a hearty laugh.

Lately, Elijah has been enjoying...

the bouncer

the swing

the play gym

going on walks to the post office to get the mail

spending time with Dad

watching Jeopardy

and helping me type (it is never too early to learn the home row:)

Eli had his 3-month pictures taken this week as well. It was quite a challenge to get him to smile at the right time, and as soon as the photographer would set the camera down, he was full of smiles of course. Apparently, he was saving his smiles...

...for when we got back home. Below are some sneak peeks at a few of his pictures. Stay tuned for a link to the online gallery when it becomes available.

In other news, I have become the latest victim of the addiction to Pinterest. I was first introduced to this website through a friend's blog awhile ago, but I just recently decided to join in on the "pinning." When I set up my account, I created it with the alias "Mary Smith" to remain inconspicuous, and I set my profile picture as a purple flower...so if you are trying to follow me, that is how you can find me. (I just have a weird thing about my real name and actual profile picture displayed for all the world to see...) Otherwise, the Pinterest link above should take you directly to my collection of "pins."

A New Friend for Eli

Today Ian, Elijah, and I went to visit my friend Julie who I first met when we were both at Clarke. She lives in Dubuque now with her husband Jeff and their 4 kids; Will is 5, Rachel is 3, Drew is 2, and Claire is 4 months. We enjoyed a delicious lunch she prepared for us. It was quite a busy household with so many young kids!

Eli met Claire for the first time, and they seemed to hit it off well by enjoying each other's company. (Maybe we could set up an arranged marriage in the future?) :)

Speaking of new friends, Ian also made a new friend as Drew found himself easily entertained by him while playing with one of his toys.


Julie's daughter Rachel kept herself busy almost the entire time we were there with the wrapping paper from Eli's gift they gave us. She seems to have a very creative mind with all the different ways she was using the paper to keep herself entertained.


I missed out on getting a picture of Will. Maybe next time we will have to try to get a picture of all 5 kids together.

Lastly, it appears as though we have a thumb-sucker. Elijah had previously been attempting to put his entire fist into his mouth, but lately he has exchanged his fist for his thumb.


We had a very enjoyable day, and we even got to see Grammary and Papa Ron on our way home.

Eli's First Overnight and Our Motorcycle Ride to Wisconsin

Ian thought of taking a motorcycle ride to Prairie du Chien to celebrate our second anniversary over Labor Day weekend this year. Since he booked a hotel room there, we asked my parents to watch Eli for the night, his first overnight stay.

I thought I would maybe be able to get a true full night's sleep, but I still woke up several times throughout the night, and I was even up at 5:00 a.m. wide awake and ready to go for the day. So much for the full night of sleep and sleeping in. Plus, the hotel bed was probably the most uncomfortable one I've ever slept on (more about that later...). Nonetheless, it was still a good trip since we could enjoy ourselves knowing Eli was in good hands.

Anyway, here is a picture of Eli taken before we left my parents' house (still sporting his outfit from our family pictures with Ian's family earlier in the day). I have to send out a thanks to Aunt Megan for the khaki pants which worked well and helped him fit in with the blue/khaki color scheme for the pictures (these pants were size 6-9 months!).


We made a few stops on our way to Prairie du Chien. My riding tolerance is not that long before I am ready to take a break. We also enjoyed the scenic river route on our ride.

Once we arrived at our destination and after we checked into the hotel, Fort Mulligan's was the restaurant where we ate supper. It does not look like much of a place on the outside, but the inside was neat, and they had really good food.


We saw a lot of other motorcyclists on our trip, but this was probably the most interesting type of vehicle we saw which also happened to be parked right by us the next day:


We also toured more sites of the city the next day, but it was quite chilly so we had to stop at Wal-Mart first to get some more gear. In the first picture below, I am demonstrating the first way I attempted to keep warm with my headband worn over top of my hood...

Quite the look, I know...but it gets even better...

I know the leopard print does not quite go with the black leather jacket, but at this point, I was more about function than fashion. Speaking of fashion, here is Ian modeling his new "manly" gloves purchased from the women's department along with my new hat. It is a little hard to tell, but these gloves had the flap that goes over top the fingers in order to also serve as mittens, but Ian chose to leave the flap down secured with a cute little button.

We stopped at The Cannery, the biggest craft/gift store I have ever visited! It had 2 levels of crafts and gifts and really unique things everywhere you looked.


Of course we had to make a stop at Cabela's since it is a hot spot of the town.

Below is a wildlife display inside the store.
The last scenic stop on our ride was Pike's Peak.

Overlooking the Mississippi river.In case you were wondering about the hotel bed mentioned above and its inability to provide a good night's sleep, here is the reason:

Yes, our room was equipped with a king size Sleep Number bed. No matter what setting it was on, it was either way too firm or way too soft. There was no "just right" setting that I could find, so if you are in the market for a new mattress and are considering one of the Sleep Number beds that are constantly advertised on TV, I wouldn't recommend it.

On the other hand, the hotel offered a really good hot breakfast the next day, complete with a real live "omelet chef." Below is a view overlooking the balcony from the second floor.
We had a really enjoyable time, but we were both looking forward to getting back to see Eli. It is hard to believe it has been 2 years already since we got married.