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A Special Bond

5 Comments 18 October 2009

A friend of ours did this side-by-side comparison after Casey posted some new pics of the babies on Facebook and I had to share. The picture on the left is Eliot when she was somewhere between 6 and 9 months old. The picture on the left is Lila on her 9 month birthday. The similarities are striking! Not only is it cool to see the two girls look so similar, it’s also adds another piece to the Eliot/Lila bond that began before the babies were born. Here’s a run-down of some of the events that have us very excited to watch how the relationship between the two girls develops over the years:

- When Casey was pregnant, one of the babies always got up underneath her ribs on her right side and caused her considerable pain. Every time this happened, Eliot said that it was Lila who was being the trouble-maker.

- When I took Eliot up to the NICU to see the babies for the first time, we had not assigned any of their names yet. At that time, they were just babies A, B, C, D, and E. As I was holding Eliot in my arms and walking around to each of their cribs she didn’t have much to say, seemingly overwhelmed by the experience and trying to reconcile the images in her head of a newborn baby with these heavily wired, hooded, sunglass wearing little alien creatures that she was now being told were her new sisters and brother. When we got to Baby D, she immediately pointed to her and said, “This one is Lila!” We had no idea at the time how we were going to assign the names we had picked out, but clearly this one had to be Lila!

- To date, Eliot has given one baby a nickname and she gave it to Lila the day she came home from the hospital, christening her “Lila Bear” the moment she saw her that day.

- Both Eliot and Lila were born with umbilical hernias that went away on their own after about six months. None of the other babies had one of these.

- Everyone who sees Lila (and there have been many, many people!) has said that Lila looks just like Eliot from the very beginning. Even people who have only seen the two girls in pictures from the blog have commented that they look exactly alike. I guess the picture above is the final verdict!

Who knows what all of these connections mean, but Casey and I can’t help but feel that there is a special bond between these two little beauties…can’t wait to see what’s next as the relationship grows!

Here are some other pics that were taken the day before the annual Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma. Texas took the title once again!!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Eliot

Eliot’s First Week of Kinder, The First Walk, Boot Camp Update and Other Random Notes

3 Comments 30 August 2009

I just wanted to give a quick little update on all of the happenings of last week since, as we have become accustomed, everything has changed about our days and once again we have a “new normal.”

Eliot Begins Kindergarten…The biggest change this week involves the little princess, Eliot McKenna, who started Kindergarten on Monday, which, with this being our first experience with having a child in public school, apparently changes just about everything in the rest of a family’s life! Here are the highlights:

- Eliot LOVES just about everything to do with going to big girl school…except getting out of bed at “night”! She is not used to getting out of bed before the sun comes up and on the first day of school as we were preparing her breakfast and getting her ready to go, she asked, “why are we doing morning stuff at night?!” Hilarious!
- Talk about loving the whole experience: as she crossed the street with the help of a crossing guard for the first time, she exclaimed, “That was totally awesome!”

- She loves PE, but is really looking forward to going to the library, which didn’t happen last week for some reason. Hopefully this week she’ll get to go!

- She is also not a fan of the 30 count rule at the swingset…each kid on the swings has to count to 30, then let the next kid go after that. Obviously, that is not a popular rule!

- She is all about riding her Razor (scooter) to and from school every day like all of the other big kids…too cute!

- On Tuesday, before she discovered the Razor phenomenon, she wore her new tennis shoes which, according to her, make her run really, really fast. I’m not kidding when I tell you that little girl sprinted the entire way to and from school that day to show how fast she was!!

The First Walk…We finally took our first walk today with the whole gang, something we’ve been looking forward to for quite awhile now. Casey, Eliot, and I used to take pretty regular walks around the neighborhood, but have had to put those on hold since Casey went on bedrest nearly a year ago. For whatever reason, we decided today was finally the day to get the babies out on the road for a little stroll. I don’t know if it was the heat or the newness of being in a stroller or if that little demon that shows up in our house from time to time to torment us, but the babies did not enjoy the experience one bit! You’ll notice in the picture above that four out of five are very eagerly expressing their displeasure with this whole walk idea! There was at least one baby crying…no, check that…screaming is a better word for it…the entire time we were out there and usually it was two or three that were…uh, yeah, SCREAMING!! Regardless of that, I’m glad we got them out there and knocked another first off of the list…maybe we’ll wait for cooler weather before we try that one again!

Boot Camp Update…I am very happy to report that we have logged significant victories in the battle for house control! The babies are just no match for the classical music, the soft, cuddly sleep sacks, the warm, frothy goodness of a bottle of formula, many talented baby-helpers, and two very determined parents!! For much of the month of August, we have managed to get them all down no later than 9:30, with at least two of the babies (one of them is always Britton, Baby Bright Eyes) getting up in the middle of the night for a little snack bottle. But for the last three days it’s been closer to 8:30 with only Britton getting up. It may be too early to stake this claim, but, what the heck, VICTORY IS SWEET!!!

And finally, a couple of random notes. Britton is the first to be able to sit up without any help…see the picture! She’s awesome…doesn’t even do the baby-forward-lean to do it! We now feed them all cereal two times a day, mixed with green beans for dinner…hmmm, yummy! Jack and Ryan are not fans of the cereal, but Lila loves it and the two B’s, Brooklyn and Britton are pretty ok with it all. Actually, Ryan the Lion pretty much screams her entire way through her bowl of cereal!! Ryan seems to have all of the necessary skills for doing a real crawl, but hasn’t figured out how to coordinate it all just yet. She’s soooooo close!! Last note: I begin school again tomorrow so say your prayers that I’ll somehow remember how to juggle this madness once again!!!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Eliot

Happy Birthday, Eliot McKenna!!

1 Comment 14 July 2009

Eliot turned 5 years old today…we can’t believe our baby girl is all grown up now!!! Well, I guess “all grown up” is a relative term – I guess grown ups don’t put on singing shows for their parents while wearing a princess night grown and singing to “A Whole New World” from Aladdin like Eliot did last night. And I guess most grown ups don’t request pumpkin pie for their birthday treat or pout for half an hour because one of their party balloons floated away while unpacking the car. And I would have to say most grown ups do not spend their evenings drawing pictures of their family, complete with rainbows, sunshines, smiley faces, and Daddy’s spikey hair.

But she’s definitely not the tiny six pounder who came into our lives five years ago today and instantly turned our lives upside down for the first of many times to come! She’s not the little one-year-old that I used to call “Two-Toofers” because of the two front bottom teeth that she flashed with every smile. She’s also not the toddler who used to run around the house on her tiptoes, used to use my stomach as a trampoline, once spread diaper rash cream all over her face and her stuffed tigers face because they had a rash, and each night at bedtime was never satisfied with just one book. And she’s not the four-going-on-thirteen-year-old who developed a taste for independence early on in life and made sure everyone around her respected that freedom. Nope, as all who have kids know, the changes come fast in the first years and with them new joys and an almost equal amount of headaches – headaches that only appear when you forget to laugh first! We’ve loved every minute of it, Little Miss Sunshine, and can’t wait to see what the next chapter in our lives brings!!

Happy Birthday, Eliot! We love you!

God Bless,

Ethan

www.JonesLife.net

Eliot

A Rockin’ Valentine’s

1 Comment 16 February 2009

As has become our annual tradition on Valentine’s day, Eliot and I went to Build-A-Bear to find the perfect bear to add to her collection. I started this tradition for her first Valentine’s and we’ve been every year since. In years past, it’s been a lot of fun for me to watch her take it all in and try to get her to understand what was happening. Every year she did better than the last, but she never quite got the concept which made for some fun times. This time was cool because it was the first year that she really knew the program and fully understood what she was there to do. The result was one very fluffy panda bear named Spots and one very happy little girl!

As you can see from the pictures, I decided to add a little adventure to our annual Valentine’s tradition. Once the Build-A-Bear mission was complete, off we went to The Main Event where they have an incredible indoor rock climbing facility. Eliot had tried to do climb one of these walls about 18 months ago at one of our church events, but she was way too small. I really don’t think she was officially big enough to do this one either, but the staff didn’t check her and we didn’t offer it up. As you can probably also tell by the pictures, what she lacked in size, she made up for in attitude…there was no fear in her as she attacked these 30′ walls!!

On the first couple of tries, she got stuck after she got about 1/3 of the way up on the vertical walls so I moved her over to one of the angled walls. She quickly scrambled her way to the top and rang the bell! After that, there was no stopping her. She handled about five of the different walls, including two that were vertical and one that had a pitch change about half way up. She went for an hour non-stop – I had to drag her off the wall when our time was up!!

To understate it just a bit – I was one proud daddy! Not so much with how well she did, but with the spirit she carried as she took on this new challenge. I didn’t tell her anything about what we had in store for the day so she knew nothing about the rock climbing walls until we got there. When she saw the walls and realized what we were there to do, she was all in. She didn’t get frustrated when she got stuck and she even ignored my attempts to coax her over to some of the easier walls. She simply said, “I just have to try, Daddy. As long as you try, you can do it, right?” Though not 100% accurate in her statement, I was bursting when she echoed back to me one of the many lessons Casey and I have tried to teach her from the day she was born!

I’ve always been a little cynical about the most pernicious of the Hallmark holidays, but I’ve got to say I am now a full fledge convert to the ways of the Valentine. To put it simply, Valentine’s ROCKS!!!

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

Eliot

Mama and Big Sis Visit the NICU

5 Comments 18 January 2009

Casey and Eliot finally got to meet the new additions yesterday afternoon. Eliot got to go first – I took her up mid-afternoon for her visit. She didn’t have a whole lot to say, but you could see the wheels spinning in her mind. She was excited, for sure, but not certain what to think about these five little things -they don’t quite look like babies she’s used to seeing! It will be very interesting to watch as she processes everything that happens over the coming days, weeks, and months.

Casey and I went up around 7:00 last night for Casey’s first visit. She was pretty emotional when she saw the first one, Baby A. As she went around to each of the bedsides and talked to them all, the tears were replaced with smiles as the nurses debriefed her on their condition. She was a little scared to touch them (as was I at first) because they just appear so fragile and tiny!

Here’s one quick story about the day of delivery I haven’t yet had a chance to share. After the babies were born and I had gone up to the NICU to see them for the first time, I went back down to the recovery room to check in on Casey. At that point, I hadn’t seen her since I left the operating room with Jack to make the transfer upstairs to the NICU. When I walked into where Casey was, with tears in her eyes, she asked if the babies were ok. With adrenaline still coursing through my veins I exclaimed, “yes, they’re doing great!” She responded with the pleading emotion I think any mother would have in her heart given what she’d just been through, “Really? You’re not just saying that? They’re really OK??” By that time, both of us were a mess of emotions and the tears were rolling as I told her, “yes, sweetheart, they’re all ok.”

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

Older Entries »

A Special Bond

Eliot’s First Week of Kinder, The First Walk, Boot Camp Update and Other Random Notes

Happy Birthday, Eliot McKenna!!

A Rockin’ Valentine’s

Mama and Big Sis Visit the NICU

The Jones Fam

News Wire

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