The many faces of Ellison

Ellison has this weird stranger anxiety going on lately. She started this about a month or two ago, and every time she sees someone that she hasn't seen in a while, mainly men, she gets really pouty and stick out her lower lip to show her discontent.

Mama, what's going on?

Who are you?

Mama, I don't think I like him...

I'm scared. Who are you?

Mama, please help me!

Why is everyone laughing at me?!

I'm going to cry now.

Luckily Garrett finally warmed up to my dad and even got to sit on the BIG motorcycle! He looks at ease there, doesn't he?

Sorry, Dad. Hope that her reaction doesn't hurt your feelings. But she's a girl, and she cries easily. I guess this just means that we need to get together more often!

My parent's new boat!

Yesterday Doug and I took the kids to Muskegon to visit my parents. And since it was to be a really hot day, we went for a little ride out on the new boat! It's beautiful, and though it seems a little small for the amount of crap we always have to lug around for two kids (hopefully that'll get better as they get older), it was fun to spend time out on the water in a non-police boat actually built for passenger comfort.

Sgt. Gary Berdinski at the wheel trying not to be "in charge" for once...

There we go! Finally got a "smile" out of him!

Ellison had to be safe too, but her life jacket was a little too big.

Nana and Ellison enjoying the sun

After a little while, Ellison started falling asleep, so we put her down for a nap while we finished cruising Muskegon Lake. Can you believe she actually slept?

Thanks for the fun Mom and Dad!

BIG days at the DeGraaf house...

First, Loki had to have a bath due to unexpected bowel issues in the basement. I should have realized how much hair was going to come off during the brushing when virtually none came off during the bath... Since when did we get a second dog?



Doug is growing pumpkins and tomatoes in our garden. Check out this freakishly big tomato!

In addition to Loki needing a bath and brushing, laundry also had to be done. I do believe that this is every article of clothing that exists in our house. Luckily with Doug's help, it didn't take that long to put away.

Talking with Nana!

Ellison is getting more and more interactive day by day. She loves to make noise (typical girl) and is very expressive. One day while my mom was over, Ellison had a lot to say about the plans my mom was making for her...

My funny kids...

Okay, so in these pictures, Ellison isn't that funny, but she IS aDORable! I was trying to get her to smile for the camera, and she kept sticking her fingers in her mouth, causing this shy-but-cute pose. I guess she is funny because the wider she smiled, the farther she put her hand in her mouth!

One finger...

Whole fist...

Garrett is more and more like Doug everyday... at least he tries to be. When Doug was shaving the other day, he got so upset because he wanted to shave too. So Doug gave him some shaving gel to put on and he was happy.

They grow up so fast, don't they?

Random Summer Fun- July '09

Doug's favorite part about Ellison's bath is her hair afterwards. Her hair gets so fuzzy after it's been washed and dried. Doug did the honor's of bath time...

Then, we had to get the fuzzy head shots...
Both Garrett and Ellison love standing up at this age!

I walked in one morning to wake Garrett up and found him sleeping like this...

We visited Mimi and Papa camping in Holland State Park and Garrett wanted to try his cousin Nathan's two-wheeler with training wheels.

Ice cream with the cousins: Carmen, Shelby, Madison, Nathan, and Garrett

Madison, Nathan, and Garrett

Garrett is really into wearing my shoes, especially if their sandals or flip-flops. These are my heeled sandals...

Auntie Gwen came home last weekend to visit, and bought Garrett a special gift- big boy underwear! After his bath one night, we put them on him to see his reaction...

He didn't pee... this particular night.

Yesterday I put the underwear on him starting after he went pee in the potty. He went downstairs to play with his toys, and about a half hour later, he starts coming up the steps saying, "I sorry, Mama. I sorry, Mama" over and over again. I thought, "Oh, no. What did he do?" He told me he peed in the basement. I checked his underwear and sure enough, the front was wet, but just a little. So I made him sit on the potty, but he didn't go anymore. We got some dry underwear on and he went back downstairs to play. Not 5 minutes later, Garrett is coming back upstairs saying he's sorry again. I tried putting him on the potty, but he screamed and cried. He didn't want to sit on the potty. So I just put a diaper back on him. If I can't even get him to sit on the potty without a tantrum, there's no point in trying the underwear. After getting a diaper on, we went downstairs and looked for the pee. I couldn't find anything. Twenty minutes later, Garrett comes upstairs again yelling, "I found my pee, Mama!". We did find a puddle on the floor that I had to clean up. The joys of potty training...

First day back...

Well, I had my official first day back to work yesterday. It went okay. I felt like my brain was in a fog all day. My usual routine that my brain is currently wired for is wake up, change diapers, feed Ellison, feed Garrett, play, eat, naps, change diapers, feed, play, change diapers...etc. But suddenly having to think about where drugs are in the pharmacy, remembering all the little details of things I have to do to get my job done... well, let's just say I was a little foggy all day.

I was a little concerned about pumping at work since I've never done it before, but it worked out okay. The only real problem came when daycare called me at 2pm to say that Ellison wouldn't take a bottle and hadn't eaten since I fed her at 7am! I started getting really worried because I only packed 2 bottles, and they had to dump 1 because she wouldn't take it. If she didn't take the second bottle, they'd have to dump that one too. I had to work until 5:30, and I didn't want her going 4 more hours without eating! So they tried a third time to give her the bottle. Sarah, the assistant director, told me later that Ellison fell asleep with the pipe in her mouth, and they snuck it out and replaced it with the bottle. She protested a little at first, but finally started sucking it down.

I was pretty upset at work. My boss was GREAT about it. She had no problem with me leaving work to go feed Ellison. I knew that if she didn't take the bottle, that's what I would need to do, but I still felt bad leaving work, especially since another coworker just left sick. Luckily Ellison finally ate, and I stayed at work.

Now that I'm home with Ellison and I know she's okay, I can take a couple days to recover before I have to go back. Thankfully I'm only working two days a week!