Elena Joy

I had an awful realization this morning... My baby. My last baby, Elena, is so not a baby anymore. I nearly sat on the nearest piece of furniture and cried. I sweetest, tiniest, terrible-ist nursing baby, is no longer a baby. She is a little girl who loves to run and jump, race and climb. She loves to pull hair, scratch faces, and give kisses. She is the most innocent antagonize-r. Lacey will be screaming and the second I turn around all I see is Elena rubbing her arm, which Lacey quickly informs me she had just had her eye balls scratched out. It's true and not exaggerated one bit.

 

Sadly, Elena suffers from and will always suffer from, Fourth Child Syndrome. Not to be confused with Youngest Child Syndrome, which she may suffer from too, but I'm not willing to admit that yet. What is Fourth Child Syndrome you ask:

In short, it is when one mother has four children in five years and five months and can no longer keep up with individual calendars, journals, personal notes, scrap books, milestones, and a blog post to document every adorable thing on the planet.

 

And quite frankly, I'm sad about it. Really sad. And I hope some day she will know that I tried, really hard, to keep up, but I was drowning. I might blame her for being a terrible nurse-r, but it isn't really her fault. We wanted her and needed her and she makes my life a Joy, but I just couldn't do it all anymore.  

 

Elena Joy was so perfectly named. I find it funny, when you meet someone and you think, "their name fits them!" Well, I find that to be true with Laners. Her name fits her. I think she probably hears, "Elena Joy you crazy girl," about 50 times a day. And she is. The good crazy though. She's crazy fun, crazy cute, a crazy good jumper, and singer, and smile-r, and and and and......I could go on and on. She really honestly brings Joy into our home. The kids love her and dote on her. She loves bed time and will run down and tuck the kids in bed, after doing so, she will climb in bed with Kevin, pull the covers up to her neck and hope that if she does not make eye contact with me that I may just leave her for the night. It is so sweet and so adorable.

 

In the last five days, (I know, Cody has been gone every single one of them!) Elena's vocabulary has grown leaps and bounds. She has had a handful of new words each day, not all of them are real words, but they are words she is using to identify different things. It makes my heart skip a beat each time she rattles off a new one. Some of her newest:

-num- (gum)

-Chip

-Juice (which would mean drink)

-Coat

-Beeeee (Blanket)

-Baby Puppy (Two words, but always said one after the other. She loves her baby and puppy and must sleep with them.)

-More

-Up

and one of our favorite that is not new, but she uses all day EVERY day

-Moooe- (Which would mean NO!)

-DOH- (Which would mean, Please, Thank you, and you're welcome)

She also used her first complete sentence this week. It may have been in the middle of watching Paddington at the theatre and ten decibels too high, but adorable non the less.

"Mom, I'm STUCK!"

 

Speaking of Paddington; it was an absolutely adorable show. We all enjoyed it.... Some of us more than others. As I mentioned before, Cody has been out of town for five days. The day before he left Elena Started throwing up and filling diapers like no body's business. The day that he left Kevin started a goopy round of pink eye, an ear infection, and a cold. Rude, right? Well, after spending a lot of time alone, at home, we needed to get up and out on Monday. I did hair most of the day and sat down on the couch about 3:15. I was looking for something fun for us to do and everything was closing before we could get there, with the kids huddled around me, we decided to hustle our buns out the door in fifteen minutes to make it to see Paddington on time. (Side note, I managed to shower, get ready, and with the help of Kevin and Julia we were all in the car pulling out at 3:28. When I thought it would be a good idea to grab the mail and sunk into a sopping wet snow pile up to my knee and had to run back into the house to change my socks and shoes. Still made it on time! High Five to us!) When we paid to get it I purchased a popcorn, Swedish fish, and a bottled water (with a flip cap). My first mistake was handing the bottle of water to Elena, because now it was hers and all hers! I divvied up the popcorn into smaller bags, along with the fish, and everyone was happy. About 30 mins into the show is when Elena yelled, "Mom, I'm STUCK!" About 45 mins into the show is when it got crazy! Kevin needed a drink, so I tried to pass the water, when Elena started screaming,  Moooe, Moooe, Moe, Moe, Moe, MINE! I couldn't get her to stop so I scooped her up around the belly and tried to crouch forward to not disturb the viewers behind us, when she simultaneously tightened her grip on the opened water bottle and created the most beautiful of water falls, everywhere, Might I add. Thankfully, Kevin took the brunt of it like a champ, and did not complain once. I took Elena into the hall for a talking too, explained the water bottle situation, to which she said, "Moe, Mine!" I told her, No, it's everyone's, we are sharing, and we're going back in to the movie and you have to give Kevin a drink or I'll spank your bum, so which she gave me a big smile and said, so sweetly, "Moe, mine!" We went back in, she handed the water bottle to Kevin and all seemed well again. Elena was now standing at my feet, in between Julia and I. She was digging in the popcorn bag going to town. When she turns to me and obviously has some lodged in her throat, but is making no sound. I lean her over and pat her back to no avail. I finally resort to the full on hymleich when she spits out a bunch of popcorn, that she must have breathed in. I pull her up on my lap, it seems to be fine when she starts to lean over and I instinctively held out my hand and she threw up in it. Eww! In the theatre!!! Thankfully, right at my feet was a brown paper bag I had brought that I'd been throwing all of our garbage in, I dropped the contents of her stomach in there, wet wiped, and sanitized my hands. She then laid in my lap for the rest of the movie. OH man! It was quite the experience though. I made sure when the movie was over to not turn around and make eye contact with the people behind us. But, as we were leaving, they lingered in the hallway, and as my luck would have it, it was a couple of Kevin's classmates. Thank you Elena, for making Paddington that much more fun!! ;)

 

Anyway- I'm going to go finish doing the dishes, that's what I was doing when guilt rushed over me that I've done so terribly recording Elena's day to day milestones.

I hope you always know how much I love you Elena. You were exactly what I needed, when I needed it!

XOXO