Where we are

A quick update so you know where we are and where we are heading!  Eliana is growing like a weed and doing new stuff all the time.  She has become very giggly, especially in the mornings.  (In fact, most mornings she wakes up laughing, not crying!)  David and I are both amazed by how cute and fun she is.  Of course, we are a little biased.  She really likes to stand when you hold her arms and she loves the "other baby" that lives in our mirror.  Being the beauty that she is, Eliana has several suitors.  There is Leo, the 10 month old who belongs to our friend Deanna.  She gets to hang out with him a lot because Deanna watched Eliana when I work.  Then there is Benjamin, a 5 month old whom she met in Mommy and Me yoga.  Ben is super cute but a little on the small side, so Eliana might be a little too big for him.  And then the other Benjamin, the 4 month old son of our friend Jessica.  Eliana is quickly gaining on Bennie too.  Unfortunately for her, Eliana is not allowed to date until she is 25.  So her suitors will need quite a bit of patience and dedication. 
David is finishing his last month of classes.  Right now he is taking sports medicine at an outpatient clinic.  This rotation has been really light, so we have gotten to spend a lot of time together.  He doesn't have anything for May and will be graduating May 12th.  At that point, he will become Dr. David Bond!  Five years of very hard work all paying off.
I now have my Ohio nursing license so I am applying for jobs in Columbus.  I would love to find something on day shift, but that is hard to come by!  Right now I am mostly looking for jobs in either adult critical care or in neonatal intensive care.  I'm not in too big of a rush to find a job yet because we have a little time before we move.
David and I went to Columbus several times and I think we have found a house to rent.  It is in the area called Victorian Village, which is full of cute older home.  It is withing walking distance to a big park, grocery store, and most importantly, the medical center at Ohio State.  If David felt so motivated, he could walk or ride his bike to work.  We will see how long that lasts though once it gets cold out...  I think we will be moving sometime in either late May or early June, depending on whether or not I find a job in the next few weeks.  It is so sad to think that in just a few weeks, we will be moving away from all the friends and family we have here.  I'm going to miss it so much!

Eliana chattering away

She's gotten so talkative lately!  If only I could understand what she is saying.

Bass for dinner

Earlier this week I sent David to the grocery store and told him to pick up a few things.  I only asked for 5 things which should have totaled less than $20.  When he came back from the store, he had bought lots of impulse buys (angel food cake, wine, a whole pineapple...), spent $65, and had only remembered 3 out of the 5 items requested.  I might have been just slightly upset with him.  David said, "Rachel, you know that's what happens when I go to the store.  I love impulse shopping."  (Perhaps he does this to get out of grocery shopping?)

So the next day, I had several errands to run and didn't have time to go to the other grocery store to pick up items for dinners for the week.  So David offered to go.  I was smarter this time.  I sent him to the store with a written list and David promised to stick to it.  He did pretty well, except for one item:

The list said "1.5lb tuna steak" but this is what he brought home.  A whole bass.  With scales and bones.  I asked David, "What were you thinking?"  He replied, "They didn't have any tuna.  They had halibut, but it was $18 a pound, and I knew after how much I spent on my last shopping trip that would be a bad idea.  So I saw this bass and it was only $4 for the whole thing!  Plus I thought you might get really excited about having a WHOLE fish, head and all!"  He was pretty proud of himself.  Oh David, that's why I love you.  Every day is an adventure.

The only problem - neither one of us knew what to do with a whole fish.  At least it was already gutted.  I looked up online about how to scale a fish, and it was recommended to do it outside otherwise you would be cleaning scales off of your kitchen walls.  But one trick that was suggested was scaling the fish submerged in water to keep them from flying.  So that's what I did!

De-boning it sounded even more difficult and required needle nose pliers which we of course do not own.  So upon the recommendation of another website, I just threw the whole thing in the oven.  De-boning is supposed to be easier once the fish is cooked.  After about 18 minutes, this is what we had:

Mmmm delicious!  David picked all of the meat off of the bass and we used it for our fish tacos.

Definitely an adventure.  Best part of dinner?  The beer we drank with our tacos.  :)

The remnants.

Bumbo seat

So these first three pictures were taken about three weeks ago.  Because Eliana is getting better head control, I tried her out in the bumbo seat to see how she would do. 

Although she got off to a good start, her neck strength quickly waned, and she started to tilt back...

...which resulted in this!

But now Eliana is older with even better head control.  So I whipped out the bumbo seat again.  And she did much better!  She could sit up for several minutes and keep her head in the upright position.  Although since she is not too interested in toys right now, she didn't have much to do in her seat.  So that might be something that is more fun later.  I didn't grab my camera right away to prove how good her head control is now.  But I did take the following picture.  When I showed it to David, he (sarcastically) said, "Wow, they should use this picture as an advertisement for the bumbo seat!  She sure looks like she is having fun!"

Love it!

Happy Easter!

Before church -- Seconds after this picture was taken, Eliana spit up all over David, requiring an outfit change.  You wouldn't guess from these sweet pictures the chaos Eliana can cause.

Bond Family Photo

David gave Eliana her first taste of candy.

 Christ is Risen, Alleluia!  We celebrated this joyous day by spending it first with my side of the family (with an Easter basket and TWO Easter egg hunts) and then David's side of the family (with a walk outside in the sun along with Mindy the doberman).  Today I have been doing David a favor by eating a lot of Easter candy so that he is not tempted.  I'm sure he will be very grateful.  :)

Lots of Pics

Looking right into each others' eyes

Bath time for Eliana!  She has been rather spitty lately so she has been getting some extra cleaning!  I will be very happy when she grows out of this stage...

According to my baby book, and both of Eliana's grandmothers, she has reached the "golden age" of infancy.  That magical time when the baby is cute and cooing and mostly sleeping through the night, but before she is mobile.  I would have to agree (except for the puking)!

Back to work

Cuddling with Mrs. Bear.

Love this pic!

So this past week I went back to work.  It was harder than I expected.  I thought that especially since I am working at night, I wouldn't mind.  Because Eliana would be asleep for most of the time I am away, I didn't think I would miss much.  Plus, it might be nice to get out of the house and have some adult interaction (although since my job is working in the NICU, my adult interaction still revolves around babies lol).  And while all those things are true, I still really missed Eliana.  All of the babies in the NICU reminded me of her.  That little boy stretching is just like Eliana.  This little girl rubbing her face looks like Eliana.  That boy sleeping with his mouth open is just how Eliana sleeps.  All of it made me wish I was home with my own daughter.  And I started thinking is work really worth it?  Eliana will only be this age for a very little time.  Each day that I miss with her will be one day that I can't get back.  If you had told me that when I first had Eliana, that just a few months later I wouldn't want to be apart from her for even a few hours, I wouldn't have believed you.  I thought I would need my own time, my own identity.  Now I find that what I want to do most with my own time is spend it with my daughter.  I wouldn't guess that I would so quickly morph into "Eliana's Mom."  Funny how kids can change you so much.  But for now work I must.  We will see what God has planned for me down the road, but right now I will be Nurse Rachel and Eliana's Mom.  That just makes the time I do get to spend with her all the more precious!

3 months old

Hanging out with Mrs. Bear in this pic

Eliana is three months old today.  She weighs 14 lbs 7oz and is 25in long (I measured her myself since she didn't have a pediatrician appt this month so it might not be the most accurate).  That's 90th to 95th percentile for weight and 95th to 97th percentile for length.  She smiles a lot, laughs out loud, squeals in delight, and in general is a happy girl.  David and I are so lucky!  What a joy she is in our lives.