Tag archive for "Eliot"

Eliot

A Rockin’ Valentine’s

2 Comments 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

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

Eliot

Eliot and The River

Comments Off on Eliot and The River 09 January 2009

I thought y’all might enjoy these two quick, little notes…

I was on the radio this morning to talk about our story which was really cool. The River 102.3, a local Christian radio station, had me in studio with their morning show for about 30 minutes. They really gave me a great opportunity to talk about Casey and the quints and also to give props to all of the wonderful people who have been helping us prepare for the Quint Invasion. We’ll have the audio files on the website soon, but you can check it out here: http://www.theriver1023.com/cc-common/podcast.html. Thank you to Roxanne at The River for inviting me on the show!

We may never get to see our daughter, Eliot, again after this weekend. She went with a friend of her’s, Maddy Brown, to Maddy’s grandma’s farm. I can honestly think of no more fitting place for our crazy, little monkey than a farm! She is going to have the time of her life riding horses, chasing chickens, and running through the fields with wild abandon! We wish we could be there to witness the wildness, but her stories will just have to do. Please come back to us, Elle!

God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

It Comes in Waves…

6 Comments 19 December 2008

After a fairly quiet week, we had a lot of activity today which seems to be the way things go these days…really quiet for a few days, then a wave of activity before things quiet down again. So, here is a quick recap of the daily happenings in the Jones Life:

– Today, we passed another milestone – week 26!! The next two weeks are the most critical two weeks we’ve had to date…statistically, the survival rate skyrockets and the defect rate plummets during these next two weeks…say your prayers, please!

– The producer for A Baby Story called today and said that it looked like they were going to get the green light and that she was planning on flying in on Monday with a film crew to do two days of interviews and filming for “Act 1” of the story they were going to do on us. Very exciting!! However, at the end of the day, she called back and said that a last minute legal glitch has put everything on hold for about a week. She still thinks everything will work out fine, but can’t risk spending the money on flights, etc. until she knows for sure. Bummer, big time, but we think it will happen. Hopefully they’ll get it worked out and get a crew down here before Casey goes to the hospital!!

– We were surprised today by a friend of ours who has been collecting baby stuff for us through her work, the good folks at Humana! She brought tons of diapers, wipes, and other cool stuff! Not only has she been collecting from her co-workers, but she also sent out an email to one of their vendors who were hosting an office party at Humana’s headquarters, Austin Radiological Association, and asked them to donate. Apparently, someone at Austin Radiological knows Casey and rallied up three huge baskets of clothes, blankets, bibs, burp rags, etc…so awesome! Unfortunately, however we do not know who it is so if you happen to be reading this and you know who this incredible person is, please let them know how grateful we are! Thank you also, Ginger, for organizing this and bringing everything out to the house!!

– I had my paint crews start today on the nursery. They got the first coat of paint on everything and will be back on Monday to finish up.

– Another friend of ours called today to say she was headed our way with a high chair for us. That makes four high chairs…only one more to go!
– This weekend, my honey-do list includes cleaning and organizing the garage and a trip to Babies’R’Us to buy the cribs and bedding so we can start putting them together…yippy ;-)

– Eliot has had a great week topped off by two sleepovers at her friend Maddy Brown’s. Our friends, Stacy and Mike Brown have been so incredible and have taken care of Eliot several nights in the last month when I had class. They picked her up Thursday after school and will be bringing her back tomorrow morning. Lots of fun with the little girls, but I’m guessing the Brown family is worn out!!
I hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to a relaxing weekend!!
God Bless,
Ethan

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