Houston...we have a potty!

At last!!! I have a free minute to sit and catch all of you up on the excitement that has been going on here at home.

So much has happened since Mother’s Day. Potty training, a virus, repeating words, cutting new teeth and an Astro’s game.

I will begin at potty training…clearly the most fun topic to discuss! At 17 months old I knew we would get a few crooked looks when we said we were going to begin potty training. As a first time mom I never know when it’s the “right time” to try something, but I had a feeling that Ellie was ready to start sitting on the potty herself. We purchased a fancy singing toilet in hopes that the positive affirmations would speed up the potty training process…we were right! Or maybe we were just lucky that our little chicken was ready to potty like a big girl. Soon after we began and after several “potty singing sessions” with mommy and daddy our little miracle was going on the potty at least three times a day. About a week after we began Ellie was not only doing number one, but she upgraded to doing number two on her singing potty as well! Boy, was I unprepared for that one! It never occurred to me that she would poop in a toilet that I wouldn’t be able to flush! After calming myself down and bringing in the heavy duty germ killers we were back on track and there was nothing I couldn’t handle. UNTIL…one early Wednesday morning.

On this particular day we woke up and followed our typical morning routine. Wake up, talk, get out of bed and head to the potty. Ellie was sitting on the potty when something awful came out of her tiny body. This was the beginning of what would turn out to be a very nasty stomach virus that would also affect daddy. By the next day Brandon was coming home from work early (a first for him) and Ellie was very cranky. By the weekend we had called the doctor three times and I was fearing a hospital visit due to dehydration. Fortunately, we remained calm (after calling Uncle Chris and Aunt Charlette) and kept the fluids coming. After three baths and 15 diaper changes on Saturday we were glad to see things calming down on Sunday. Ellie was a champ through the whole illness and by the following Wednesday she was back to normal. This was the first time Ellie has ever been so sick and let me tell you that I could wait another 18 months for it to happen again…actually I would be okay with waiting forever for her to be that sick again! Through this whole ordeal Ellie seems to have cut another tooth. A molar that is! So now we are up to 8 teeth…not many for an 18 month old!

In addition to cutting new teeth and learning to potty like a big girl, Ellie Grace is a talking machine. I listened to all of my friends say that one day she would wake up and she would just start repeating everything we say. True! In the last week Ellie has started to talk and repeat every last word we say. Ask her, “Ellie want to go to the pool,” and she will say, “pool.” It is so much fun! She is very articulate when she speaks as well. She can say her long vowel “e” very well. So words like eye, bye, mommy, daddy, me, all sound so clear. There doesn’t seem to be a letter that she has a problem with. She says please and thank you to get what she wants…most of the time! All in all we can’t believe how big she has gotten. She is absolutely amazing and every single day with her is a blessing for us.
Brandon got a very nice surprise on Saturday. We were given a set of tickets to the Astro’s game and we ended up taking Ellie Grace with us. This was SO exciting for Brandon…his little lady and her first baseball game! Believe it or not, she LOVED the game and was a dream child in the seat. We were 16 rows from the dugout so she could see all of the players up close as they were warming up. Truly, I don’t know who was more excited…Brandon or Ellie Grace. It was a great game and so much for us as a family. Uncle Mike and Bobby joined us and it made for a SUPER day!

All of this excitement and fun has brought this week very quickly. I can’t even believe that this is the week of our biggest nightmare. I can’t even begin to describe how it feels. I honestly have to keep reminding myself that this is real and we will have to face Thursday – the day “it” happened, Sunday – the day we turned off Bennett’s machines, and Wednesday – the day we buried our angel. I imagine I will have to remind myself to breathe this week and to try and sleep and wake up and eat. It is a true blessing that we have Ellie as she is one of the only things that will keep us going this week. There are indescribable amounts of fear, sadness, and guilt that we will be riffling through as we approach this “anniversary”. Your prayers are much needed and appreciated during this difficult time.