Randomness

is the title of this post for a reason. Just lots of little things going on here, most of which won't be too exciting, but a few are interesting enough to make me want to write them down!

SPRING!!! Though here tomorrow, we took advantage of the weather yesterday to spend an afternoon at the lovely oceanfront. Ahhh, yes, a moment that I think to myself, "I never want to leave the beach." Remind me of that in September when we've been there a total of FOUR times, or something like that. It sure is lovely, though, and I will miss it someday. Elyse loves having the breeze blowing in her face, and she decided she doesn't like to touch sand. She stayed mostly on her towel with her hands off of the surface, so as to remind me that she wasn't a fan of the sand. Having said that, she did manage to eat a goldfish cracker coated in sand. She was a great sport, and I hope she will love the water when it comes above freezing temperatures. BRR! We picked up Daddy on the way home and had frozen yogurt together, which topped off the perfect afternoon.

TOYS!!! My sweet neighbor surprised us with a "Little People" dollhouse for Elyse. It was waiting on our porch for us yesterday. She claims she is cleaning out her playroom, but I think she's seen my pitiful lack of toys here and took pity on us :) Jordan set it all up for her before he went to work this morning, and she is having a blast with it. She's definitely not at the point where she's playing "house" or anything, but it is fun to watch her rearrange the furniture. Our neighbor also gave us some backyard toys, and Elyse (though frightened at first by the car) has really taken a liking to them. I'm so thankful for Irene and her generosity to us. Her granddaughters love to come visit :)

FOOD!!! Today marked the first day that Elyse fed herself a bowl of cereal. With a spoon. By herself. With milk and everything. I almost cried. She was quite proud of herself, and I don't blame her. I still have a hard time chasing down the final cheerios in the bottom of my bowl!

WORDS!!! Anything Elyse says these days is hard to bank on. Once in a while, she'll just come up with a "word of the day" and fail to use it for days to come. It is fun to hear her say them, though, even if it's for just a day :) We've had "bye-bye," "yummy," "bum-bum," "baby," and today was the phrase "be happy." I really hope the "be happy" sticks around, because it's like a MadGab phrase. Very funny to hear!

GLASSES!!! Last week, we seem to have had a small breakthrough with the concept of Elyse wanting her glasses. I went to get her up from a morning nap, and she greeted me by squinting and pointing to her temple, the "sign" for her glasses. I about lost it with excitement. *Knock on wood* Ever since that moment, Elyse has done SO much better in keeping her glasses on. We've had several days when they've come off only when Jordan or I have taken them off! This has been revolutionary for my day to day (okay, I might be overdramatizing) routine, as I am no longer forced to follow her around the house to do glasses patrol. YAY! We're praising the Lord for a great follow-up visit, too, with the ophthalmologist last week. He gave us great news: Elyse's eyes are responding perfectly to the glasses, and at this point, we don't need to head down the path of patching and surgery. She is one of the few "baby" cases that he's seen that is purely farsighted. We're thankful that she can see so much better with her glasses. On that note, they're broken :) Somehow, the part that wraps around her ear is broken. Hmm... I wonder how that could have happened? :) Yes, we resorted to taping it. Yes, she looks nerdy. Yes, it was actually Jordan's idea! Yes, we'll get them fixed on Monday.

BABY!!! We've spent a little more time working on the concept of "baby" with Elyse, but she still has no clue. She has about 2 months to get her little mind around it, because this little baby is going to arrive eventually! I'm 30 1/2 weeks now, and I've been feeling great. Other than an achy back (still hoping Elyse will get on her feet and move soon), I have felt just fine. I'm so thankful for our new little girl, and we are SO excited to finally meet her! I'll admit, I'm already kind of intimidated by this 2nd girl... memories of my sassy ways have started to haunt me, but I hope that will bond us in an even greater way :) Emily delights in kicking my ribs most of the day, and I love knowing her little feet in there will soon be kissable! She is definitely an active baby, and she's kept me up parts of several nights squirming around. I try to use those moments to focus on praying for this little girl and her sister, that they would find the only true source of joy in life.

Well, that about sums up what's going on here. As you can see, it can definitely make Elyse quite sleepy :)