playing catch-up!

so...it's been awhile since our last post (june!). you'll have that when you have a baby...and no internet at home. it happens. eli is actually 9 months old...though i do not have a digital photo on my computer yet. he is quite fun, and pretty stinkin' cute (see below)! it's been a fun summer. we decided not to open our pool to save money and are giving it to some friends. we saved a lot of money and time with this decision! we've spent time with friends, worked, played with the baby (a lot!), spent time with family, went camping & boating (eli absolutely loved both!), read several books (cara, not ryan so much-www.goodreads.com!), watched several movies (a perk of my job), fished & golfed (ryan, not cara so much), scrapbooked (cara, not ryan), celebrated a birthday (ryan turned 28 in august) and enjoyed a lot of rest! september brought a whirlwind of busy days. i went to mackinac for work for 3 days, ryan worked in kentucky for 4 days, eli got his first ear infection, i went to a seminar in ann arbor for 2 days...we're just glad to be home, be well and be together!

[8 months-8.20.08]

[7 months-7.20.08]

[6 months-6.20.08]

five months

[may 20, 2008]

lifestyle reduction

so, my posts may be even MORE fewer and far between. ryan and i have elected to cancel our internet and home phone service to save money. i'm posting this from bigby's coffee. thank goodness for a laptop with wireless internet and free hotspots all over town!
eli's 4-month doctor's appointment took place since our last post. we've got a healthy baby! 18 lbs, 27" long. 95th percentile for both. big baby! he's so fun. we went for a family walk tonight around the neighborhood. eli loved it. we had him laughing in his stroller...what a blast.

4 months

sleeping baby!

i love going into eli's room to look at him while he's sleeping. he's just so precious...so peaceful...so beautiful. i just stare at him. and not because i like it better when he's asleep. i love when he's awake and playful! he likes to sleep though...sleeps through the night now (thank you, JESUS)...and i know he needs his sleep, which he gets, and is probably why he's such a happy baby! it's also nice to have a chance to get things done...or just chill on the couch and read a book (www.goodreads.com) or watch tv (another new the office tonight!).
[this photo was taken when he was 2 months old]

spring spring spring

we already have flowers blooming! they look like mini daffodils, but they have a different name...which i do not know. i nearly jumped in the air when i saw these...i just LOVE spring flowers. the bits of sunshine that we've been getting have been so wonderful! i just can't wait for spring to be here fo' real!

ryan and i enjoyed our "spring break" with eli. the week reminded me of my maternity leave. it was so nice to be home with my baby. eli enjoyed it too...he sure loves his mom and dad. he went back to daycare yesterday and was very happy to see miss cindy! while he was home, he got his first cold. ironic that he was home from daycare when that happened...hmmm... he's doing much better now...just a little congestion remains.

life is good.

flutter the butterfly

we have taken to naming eli's toys as he becomes acquainted with them. (side note: can you tell that i'm reading great gatsby right now? where did that sentence even come from?! anyway...i digress...) we got this from our friend marcy who has named all of her daughter alyssa's toys. ryan has really gotten involved as well! in fact, he named eli's current favorite - flutter the butterfly. flutter is the mobile on his changing table (thank you brooks'!)...and he LOVES it! my camera just cannot seem to catch his absolute delight with flutter, but here are a few to give you an idea...

spring break

it's spring break for eli! his daycare is closed this week, so he's home with mom through wednesday and with dad on thursday and friday. and what a beautiful weekend to kick off the week! it was so beautiful! eli and i took 2 walks on sunday - one with our neighbor and her daughter. he's decked out in his little hoodie sweatshirt - my favorite article of clothing right now (thank you, melissa, emily and alana!) we're hoping for some sunshine again today...it looks good so far. i really like my job, but it is so nice to be home with my baby!

3 months

taken on march 20...eli is 3 months old! he is very fun these days, smiling and laughing and making all kinds of very fun baby sounds. he is a fairly large child, growing out of his 3-6 month clothes already. he's sleeping very well...goes to bed at about 7:00 pm and gets up around 5 or 6 am. this is perfect timing during the week, but not so much on the weekends. we hardly care though when he breaks out in that huge grin when he sees us in the morning!

day day

daylen is 6 years old today! she's growing up so fast. what a ham...look at this face!
happy birthday my precious baby niece! we love you!

[playtime with dad]

we are SO blessed by this baby. i just had no idea that we would enjoy life with a child so much. ryan said the other day that he wishes we wouldn't have waited so long. that's crazy! who would have thunk it. eli is quite smiley these days...as the pictures show. he smiles with his whole face...it's gorgeous. i can't stop smiling as i write this, just looking at these pictures. he brings us both a LOT of joy.

harton

[eli harton maat with his grandpa]

eli is named after my dad...larry j harton. he's my "step-dad" actually. you would never know it though. he loves me like i've been his daughter all my life, and he's been my saving grace. he's an amazing man. i'm SO thankful for him. i just can't express in words how powerful he has been in my life. he's been my dad now for almost 10 years; he and my mom married in september 1998. i actually picked him out. it's true! he was the neighbor of my boyfriend at the time and we set them up! pretty crazy. it is because of my dad and mom that i have learned how to love and be loved...allowing me to be a wife and mom. my hope is that eli will carry the legacy of my dad, not just in his name, but in the way he loves and cares for God and for people.

the girls' birthdays

we spent the weekend in paw paw with my parents this past weekend. we celebrated my nieces' birthdays...penny was 8 on 2/25, daylen will be 6 on 3/19. they're getting so old! eli enjoyed seeing his cousins and his grandma lee and grandpa larry...and let's not forget sophie (my parents' dog)! we intended to come home on saturday but were having such a good time that we stayed another night. what a fun weekend!

[penny & daylen]

baby!

[eli & his papa singing the ymca...friday night after his first day in daycare!]

back to work

the time has come. after 10 weeks of maternity leave, i return to work tomorrow. eli and i enjoyed our last day of my leave today. he wore his 'property of mom forever' outfit in honor of the occasion. look how big he is! i'm so thankful for the time off of work to adjust to being eli's mom. it's been precious time with him. i also watched all 10 seasons of friends (thank you, jeremy, for letting me borrow them!), read 3 books and even scrapbooked 1 day! though it will be hard to leave eli, it will be great to get back to work. (i am an executive assistant at loeks theatres/celebration cinema.) i love what i do, who i work for and who i work with. eli will also be in good hands. he'll spend most of his time with ryan's parents' neighbor, cindy, who has an in-home daycare. he'll be with his grandma linda one day each week when she's not working, and next week, he gets an extra day with me!

two months

penny is 8!

my baby niece is 8 years old today! i cannot believe she is 8! 8 years old! i can still remember when she was born, and how she captured my heart. penelope jane is my brother's oldest daughter. she is a bright light in my life!

[penny with her uncle ryan a few weeks ago]

lots of love

happy valentine's day! a little belated, but better late than never!
eli is 2 months today! those pictures are coming soon - the one above was taken on valentine's day last week. eli and i celebrated the holiday of love with a trip to the doctor's office! he is a BIG healthy boy...14 lbs. 8 oz!! he has already almost doubled his birth weight and is in the 95th percentile. he's 24 in. long - in the 90th percentile. we are so thankful he's healthy! what a precious baby - we love him so much!!

mysterio predicts...

eli's auntie coko (my good friend nicole) gave eli a precious gift - information about his future occupation! my son will be a monkey wrangler! check out the website...www.wrybaby.com. thank you, auntie coko!

coffee

i love coffee. i mean, i really love coffee. my love began my senior year of high school when my best friend sandy and i decided that we would be coffee drinkers and purchased refillable cups at a gas station we went by everyday on our way to our college class. (this was before the days of starbucks on every corner.) i cut out caffeinated coffee from my diet while i was pregnant (for the most part), and missed it dearly. i'm glad it's back. and it is very much needed, given my lack of sleep these days. i like to think of it as my miracle drug. (the u2 song is playing in my head.) i realize that i really don't do well with interrupted sleep. does anyone? so, if you have interacted with me since i've had a child, and thought, "she doesn't seem like herself," i'm with you! i don't feel like myself! hang on, friends...i'll be back soon.

one month

eli's friends

one of our hopes for eli is that he will grow up with good friends and live well within community. we've been blessed with community, so we're hoping to get him started out with the children of our friends! last week he met alyssa grant who is a year and a half older than him and the daughter of tim and marcy. he also met payton and hudson brooks, the children of brandon and julia. payton is 2 years older than eli and hudson is just 9 weeks older. (unfortunately, we couldn't rope payton into the picture.)

alyssa and marcy found eli's nose.

eli and hudson

eli photos...2 weeks old

ryan is trying to teach eli how to hold his own bottle...his training seems to be working. :)

big night out

ryan and i had our first big night out! grandma and grandpa maat came over to watch eli. we had dinner at the melting pot - delightful! we had been there with friends before, but it is a really nice place to go with just a party of 2. we naturally opted for...the big night out...from the menu. we then went to see a movie at celebration. the beauty of my job - free movies! everyone i've told about our date has been surprised that we were able to get away when eli was just 2.5 weeks old. the beauty of grandparents living in the same town! we were able to go out again last saturday as well. we watched JUNO. what a top-notch movie. LOVED IT! i highly recommend it. i wanted to watched it again as soon as it was done. instead, we went home to our baby! this picture is of ryan and i in december of '06 - pre-baby - at one of our favorite places, billy's lounge in eastown.

benign!

what a beautiful word. the mass that was removed during my c-section was a benign fibroid. i'm ok! we got this news shortly after eli was born, but i just realized that i hadn't shared the news via blogger. i guess once we found out it wasn't a "complex mass attached to my ovary" - as we had originally thought - i stopped worrying. thank you, thank you Jesus!

happy 2008!

happy new year! we hope this year is full of love, health and life for all of you!
it is a new year for us...in more ways than one! what a change a baby brings!

didn't i say he would arrive before the new year? the power of positive thinking...

ryan and his boy watching football on new years' day

first family outing

to celebrate eli's one week of life, we took a little family outing on december 27. we hit the doctor's office - eli's first doctor's visit! he was given a clean bill of health! he has surpassed his birth weight and is doing really well. we also went to babies r us to pick up our new rocker and to costco to pick up formula. my how life has changed!

hospital photos

here are a few pics taken at the hospital. daddy loves his boy! ryan is an amazing father...and husband! i would be lost without him. he took such great care of me during my pregnancy, and now he's taking such great care of both eli and i. he is absolutely wonderful.

blogging about our bundle

baby eli has arrived!
eli harton maat
7 lbs. 9 oz. 20 in.
december 20, 2007 . 4:07 pm

i've always been the journaling type, and can type much faster than i write, so we thought it was time to join the blogger world, especially since we now have a little something to share with our friends and family!

we're so excited to have eli here! it's been a roller coaster of a few days...i'll include the short version. wednesday, i had a doctor's appointment with an ultrasound since i was measuring so large. the ultrasound showed a complex mass of a significant size (10cm) on my right ovary, causing the doctor some concern. she consulted with an oncologist and scheduled a c-section for thursday afternoon. they planned to take out the mass at the same time the baby was delivered. we were scared, but very happy with this plan of action...i've been saying for some time that he would be joining us in 2007! (his due date was 1/1/08) eli arrived safe and sound - very healthy little boy! and the good news continued - the mass was not attached to my ovary, as we'd thought. the mass was actually a large fibroid attached to my uterus, which they removed with no problems. they will be testing the mass, but the outlook is much more hopeful!

pictures will have to come later...i'm figuring this out, one step at a time. thanks for reading!