Teething

Can you see it?  The tiny spot next to my thumb?  That's a tooth!

Chewing on the new "Chewable teething pacifier" that her daddy just bought.

 The house is total chaos right now.  We have about 75% of our stuff packed for our move on Saturday.  Packing, however, is slow going with a baby underfoot.  While she was chewing on my finger this morning, I felt something hard.  So I opened her mouth and looked in.  What did I discover - a tooth breaking through the gum!  (And maybe a second one trying to peek through right next to it.)  Lots of people were asking if she was teething early (she will just be five months old on Saturday) but I thought she was just drooly and liked to chew on stuff.  She had been like that probably since she was three months old.  Usually in a good mood, Eliana didn't seem like the fussy teething baby that I heard about.  Hopefully all her teeth come in this easy!

Photo Shoot

I think she looks like a baby model in this picture!

This was my baby blanket when I was a little girl.  Now Eliana gets to enjoy it.  Made by Ginger Grandma, aka G.G.

We had some professional photos done by VanDonohue Photography and they turned out great!  Here is a sampling of some of my favorites.  It was so hard to choose a sample because I loved so many of them.  She is 4.5 months old in these.  By the way, I highly recommend Joe and Adam for kids photography.  They did a great job of making Eliana laugh, and we had a really good time.  I think Eliana has a budding career as a model.  :)

News from the Bonds

So much has happened the past few weeks.  Here is a little summary of our lives lately.  David is all done with school and has been a stay at home dad for the month while I work.  He washes cloth diapers, makes me meals, and even makes the bed.  I could get used to this!  Last week David, Eliana, and I took a trip to Columbus.  We got the keys to the house we are renting so we went to check it out and met our neighbors.  While in Columbus I had a couple of job interviews.  I accepted a position at Nationwide Children's Hospital working in the Pediatric Infusion Clinic.  It is an outpatient clinic that does all types of infusions except chemotherapy.  Mostly they do meds for chronic illnesses in childhood.  One really nice thing is the hours - 8 to 4:30 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  No holidays, no weekends.  I finally will have hours like a normal person!
Eliana is still as big as ever.  At her 4 month appointment, she weighed 15 lb 7 oz (between the 75th to 90th percentile) and was 26 in long (97th percentile).  I took her to the breastfeeding support group on Tuesday and she was up to 16 lb 1 oz.  While we were there, she made a new friend named Ellie (short for Elliot).  This little girl was five months old and super cute!  We sat the girls up looking at each other and they both smile and cooed and reached out and held hands!  All the moms loved it.  Then Ellie grabbed Eliana's hand and started sucking on Eliana's thumb.  Eliana was happy to share.  It was seriously one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  Other developments, she has rolled over a few times from tummy to back and finally rolled over from her back to tummy this week!

We move in just 9 days.  Columbus here we come.

Baby Legs

Eliana say, "Why must you dress me in the most ridiculous outfit to go for a walk?

Eliana says, "Scratch that earlier statement.  THIS is the most ridiculous outfit."  She's wearing a white onesie (unbuttoned), a Winnie the Pooh bib, Thirsties diaper cover, and her Baby Legs leggings.  I would like it known that David dressed her.

Hanging out with her best friend Leo.

Baby Legs are a brand of leggings that we got as a freebie with a cloth diaper purchase.  I think leggings like this are popular with cloth diaper wearers, although I am not exactly sure why.  Maybe because the cloth diapers are too bulky for regular pants?  Or because they don't cover the cloth diapers so you can show off your cool covers?  For whatever reason, they are a growing trend in the cloth diapering world, so Eliana decided to model hers the other day.  Cute, huh??

Happy Mother's Day!

This was how I was greeted on Mother's Day morning.

Naked baby with presents for mama!

I know this is a little late. I actually started this post on Monday after Mother's Day, and I am just now getting back to it!  Things have been crazy with finding a job and preparing for our move to Columbus!  So, two weeks after the fact, Happy Mother's Day!  Eliana picked out a beautiful pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings for me.  Even at a young age, she has very good taste. 

Dr. David Bond, M.D.

 David graduated from IU School of Medicine this morning.  He is officially Dr. Bond now!  Eliana and I are so proud of him.  This is the end of one chapter and the start of a new one!

A picture of the big screen as David got hooded.

Eliana was the best behaved baby at the graduation ceremony.  Not only did they hood all nearly 300 medical doctors from his class, but also all of the masters of health science and PhD. students had to be hooded too.  That was probably over 500 people.  So it was a loooong ceremony.  But no crying from this girl!

David in his hooded splendor.

David with his parents Roy and Gloria.

And now with his brothers Roger and Ray.

After graduation, the Doctor went to his parents' house to celebrate.  We played Euchre with his family.  "Team Fire" totally dominated the game!

Eliana sleeping on Grandpa Roy.

Last night at around 10pm Eliana fell asleep, so we all went to be around that time.  At 10:45pm Eliana starts moving around in bed.  Then we hear her sucking on her hands.  I ask David, "Do you think she is awake or just moving in her sleep?"  Then I hear this really long, loud fart.  Yep, she's awake!  We were both cracking up.

Counting my blessings

Today David had an oncologist appointment and it made me think of how things have changed over the past three years.  May 15th, 2009 David asked me to marry him.  A few weeks later, he found a lump on his neck and suspected the worst.  June 30th he was told that he had lymphoma and our lives took a very different path than what we had been planning just a month and a half ago.  He started chemotherapy in August and thus began the very difficult battle of survival.  We didn't know if we would be able to get married, if David would finish school, or if he would even be here three years from now.  But look at us now.  God has blessed us beyond measure.  In March of 2010 David was told that he was officially in remission.  He was able to start back in medical school around that time.

June 5, 2010 "Two became One" and we got married!

We moved in together in this awesome apartment in Fountain Square.  David supported me as I switched jobs from St. Francis in the Adult Critical Care to Community Hospital in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. 

January 2, 2012 we welcomed our precious daughter into the world.  Eliana is a beautiful 4 month old now.

This past Saturday David completed the Mini Marathon in 2 hrs 10 mins.  How's that for a guy who used to get winded just walking around after getting radiation?

And next Saturday David will be graduating from IU School of Medicine and then beginning his residency at Ohio State.

How incredibly far we have come.  Three years ago I don't think I could have pictured all of this.  Two and a half years ago I used to lay with David after his chemotherapy when he was passed out from the drugs, just watching him breathe.  I prayed that he would keep on breathing.  In and out.  That's it.  But God has given us so much more.  I definitely couldn't have imagined all the joy we would share along the journey that has brought us to today.  As we were walking out of that oncologist appointment today with David receiving a clean bill of health, I just felt overwhelmed with emotion and with gratitude for the blessings God has poured on us.  And I thanked Him for always being there with us through it all.

Squeakie

 

We get to have rambunctious conversations like this every evening!

4 Months Old!

Crooked smile

Oops, fell over

I know, this post is one day late.  The NICU has been super busy this past week which means I have been busy.  Yesterday they called to see if I could come in early to work, so I didn't have time to take and post pictures.  But here they are now!  After her pediatrician visit tomorrow, I will let you know how big she has gotten.

Daddy's Girl

This is love.

Over the weekend all of my immediate family including significant others and myself went on a road trip to Pennsylvania for my cousin Mary's wedding.  We loaded up my parents, husband, sisters, brother, fiances, boyfriend, and baby into a fifteen passenger van and embarked on a twelve hour drive to a hotel in the middle of Amish Country (kinda sounds like the premise for a comedy, doesn't it?).  Now Eliana is not normally a treat to ride in the car with as her carseat usually induces screaming.  Multiply that times 12 hours in a car with 10 other people and you can imagine the fun we had!  However, David did find a way to keep her quiet and happy for a little while.  He fed her her first solids!  David was eating a sourdough pretzel and Eliana reached for it and put it in her mouth like she does with everything.  Surprisingly enough, she seemed to like it and it calmed her down!  So we let her keep gumming it.  She actually consumed a fair amount of the pretzel by gnawing on it until it turned to mush and then eating it.  So while I wasn't planning on starting baby food for a couple more months, looks like Eliana has already developed a taste for big people food.

Pictures

Love this smile!

She loves sucking her thumb.

Chewing on her peacock.  Thanks for the fun gift Brie!

Little tummy time for Eliana.

In school!