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