Elena at (almost) 18 months

It has been a while since I've updated about Elena. She is growing so fast! What a little person she has become. In preparing for this post, I've been browsing through pictures and I've spent the last half hour looking at pictures from when she was born and from her first few months. That all seems like so long ago! She was SO little, and now she is getting so big! Elena is so much fun to have around and to watch learn and grow. We love her so much!

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Today, I had quite a scare with her that made me even more thankful for my precious girl. I think it's the reason that I sat down to write this very lengthy post tonight - she's been on my mind a lot...

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Elena and I were driving home this afternoon, I was talking to Eric on the phone while waiting at a light to turn left, when I heard a little noise in the backseat. I turned around to see what it was and saw that Elena had thrown up. A good amount of throw-up. "Dang," I thought, "Poor girl!" I looked forward quickly again to check on the traffic. (WARNING: detailed description of gross vomiting coming up- don't read it you're eating or feeling queasy or easily grossed out.) Then, I turned around again to look at Elena again and saw her in her carseat, SPEWING vomit, face red, not breathing, eyes bulging. At first I thought, she was just throwing up again quickly like the first time. But, then, it didn't stop. It just kept coming. And she kept looking worse and worse and still wasn't breathing. I swear, she was throwing up for at least a minute to a minute and a half straight - not stopping. It wasn't normal throwing up where you throw up for a few seconds and then breathe, heave, and throw up again. It was like someone had turned on a faucet - she just sat there gagging, not breathing, mouth open the whole time while it poured out. It was absolutely unreal. I have never been so scared before. I was stuck in traffic on a busy road, not able to get to Elena to help her, and watching her look worse and worse and watching an unending stream of vomit. I have never seen anything like it! I seriously thought I was watching her die in front of me. It was awful - I can't even describe what was running through my head and what I was feeling. I didn't know what to do to help her - it just wouldn't stop and she was choking. At some point in my panic, I told Eric to hang up and call 911 (not the smartest plan since he had no idea where we were, but hey - I wasn't quite all with it). Finally, I had the presence of mind to sweep in her mouth/throat [yes, I stuck my hand in her mouth with vomit freely flowing... the things we do because of love :)]. I think that helped to clear her throat a little because about five to ten seconds later, she stopped vomiting. She started breathing again. And crying. Which were good signs. I was finally able to make a left turn and pulled into a parking lot, where we regrouped. I was shaking so bad. Then, later tonight, she threw up two more times - once little and a then a bigger one, similar to this afternoon, but not as bad (in the car on the way up to Danny and Kristi's shower, so we turned around and went home - sorry guys!) She has kept water and a few bites of food down for the last 5 hours and seemed to be in better spirits when we put her down for bed, so we think she's on the mend. It was so weird though. She seems to have gotten a rather sudden, intense, but thankfully short-lived stomach virus. Probably nothing to worry about, but it was so scary at the time. I'm so thankful she was ok! Those frightening moments reminded me just how very, very much I love her!

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Anyways... probably more than you wanted to know... moving on....

In about two more weeks, she'll turn 18 months old. Hallelujah! A fun age because every day seems to hold some new development that we discover. And a blessed age - because it means she gets to go to nursery! It's been many months now since she would let us sit through any meeting in church. :) (Thankfully, our amazing nursery leader approached us a few months ago and said that we could start bringing Elena to nursery for playtime and snack time. I consider her something like a living saint. There is a special place in heaven for her, I'm just sure of it!)

Some things about Elena:

• most everyone tells us that she looks a lot like Eric (hooray!)


• she is VERY social and waves and says hi to everyone. when we are at the grocery store, at church, or walking down the hallway at my work, she stops people in their tracks, laughing and amazed, at the little person running up to them waving and shouting, "hi! hi! hi! hiii!"


• she loves to talk on the phone


• she is SUCH a girl, as Eric always says, shaking his head. :) you'll often find her running around with a necklace, purse, cell phone, and wearing a pair of my shoes



• she is a busy little girl and sometimes can't stop doing all of her important things to sleep, so we find her asleep in odd places, like her high chair
  
• she LOVES her cousin Jo


• she loves to be a big girl and copy the things we do: i.e. put on (and pretend to put on) lotion, rub her hair in the shower like she is shampooing, if she see me shaving, she tries to put her foot up on the side of the shower like me, help me put away dishes, help me put laundry into the washing machine (one of her favorite games at the moment), "cook", etc.


• she has Eric's impetuous, contagious, totally bewitching smile and the little twinkle in her eye that goes with it. i love it! it's one of my favorite, almost indescribable things about Eric and i love that i see it in Elena, too.


• her idols are the girls on my colorguard. seriously, i'm pretty sure we've created a monster. one of her favorite things to do at home is to play with the miniature flags one of my previous captains bought me and to have Eric and I or cousin Jo play with her. and when we are at school, she runs around and tries to dance with the girls, picks up their sabres and tries to twirl them, etc. she loves them! and thankfully, they love her! :)


• she loves to examine things and see how they work and if she can make them work like we do, like turning the light switch on and off, and spending fifteen minutes at a time trying to figure out how the buckles on her carseat and high chair work. although i'm pretty sure this is common for most toddlers, i also think that she gets this from Eric because, well, if you know Eric, you know that that has definitely always been the way he is :)
• she is learning tons of new words every week. it is SO cute! i love that she is starting to be able to communicate with us in words. pretty much, it makes me melt and i can't refuse her anything. the other day she was supposed to be sleeping and i heard her calling out, "mom! mom!" over the monitor and it just made me melt. :)
  
• she is such a good little mommy to her dolls and stuffed animals. she gives them pats, covers them with blankets, cuddles them, tries to feed them, etc. the other day, we had a couch cushion laying on the living room floor and she went over and grabbed a willow tree statue that we have on a table (thinking it was doll, i suppose) and started carrying it around. then, she went over to some family pictures and made it give a kiss to the people in the pictures, then she laid it on the couch cushion, went to her diaper bag and pulled out a wipe, and then went over to the "doll" and put the wipe over it like a blanket. :) i think that she is going to be a great big sister.

And lastly, some dang cute videos :) This is an age that I have decided is much easier to catch on video, then in pictures - partly because Elena is always on the move, partly because they are cute activities that you want to see, and partly because she is so inquisitive about the camera that she will not hold still for pictures. So, here are a bunch of videos - mostly eye candy for the grandmas. :)

Elena feeding her bear... (I think she also says a few words in this video - its from a couple of months ago, so she's changed a lot, but it's really cute anyways!)

Elena "cooking"

Elena demonstrating her impressive verbal skills :) She wouldn't sit still for me to take a video, so there are only like three words on this one. I'm trying to get a better one and will post it if I do.

Elena eating pizza like a big girl. This made us chuckle so hard!

Love this little girl!