4 Little Monkeys in a Bed, 1 fell off and...

So we have struggled since Lizzie was born to get her to sleep, that is no secret...but now it is the littlest monkey's turn. Maybe teething, maybe her digestive system adjusting to new foods (namely solids in general), maybe getting used to yet another "home"/place/people/routine.... don't know, and at this point don't care as long as we can figure it out and address the issue. She has been up every four hours morning, noon and night to eat despite our best efforts and is keeping all of us up.


The worst of it is that Lizzie can't cope with it at all. Every time sissy lets out a cry, Lizzie comes unglued and begins an even longer session of whimpering, crying and even waling, just in case Daddy and Mommy missed Ellie's "little cry".

In fact often if we just let them go Ellie will cry for sometime and then stop (even go to sleep at times) and Lizzie will still be going until finally she wakes her sister back up and they begin again. This happens with them in separate rooms, the same room, with Daddy and Mommy trying to comfort them both down while they are still in bed, with one being held while the other is in bed, doesn't seem to matter.

Today Allen has his first exam, so last night we did all we could to get whatever sleep we could salvage. At the end of the day Lizzie ended up in bed with us, and we "only" had to get up at midnight, 3am and 7am for Ellie. Please pray for us. Allen and I are going to sit down this afternoon and prayerfully decide our next plan of action (since this plan has failed as have others). If you have any advice/thoughts/questions/comments/personal stories/you get the point, please leave them we will take what we can get at this point.
Thanks
Momma Monkey

PS I wish our monkeys would start sleeping again, they look so cute and peaceful when they do :-)

crackers and bologna

Ellie had a cracker for the first time today and loved it. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, but is slowly getting the concept (of course a few more teeth might help :-) ).
Lizzie is loving her bologna. She forewent her much loved pizza for the option of a slice of bologna. That should fatten her up in no time :-)

2 years go by so fast

Our little Lizzie turned 2 yesterday! It is amazing how quickly a little one grows. Only two years ago our little girl was just being diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot and pulmonary atresia. Less than 2 years ago she had her surgery. Today she spent her time running, climbing, laughing and getting into trouble only a true 2 year old could find. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZIE! We are so blessed to have you in our family. You are a wonderful daughter, incredible sister and a bright spot in the lives of all who know you as we do. We love you sweet girl and hope that 2 is even more fun than 1 was.

Birthday fun

124-2438_IMG, originally uploaded by allenthehusband.

FamilyHutch on Flickr

Now that we have hi speed internet, we can post big groups of pictures to Flickr, not just onesie-twosies here to Blogger (though we will continue to put pics here on the blog). So, check out our Flickr account. We've also put the link on the sidebar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/familyhutch/

1st day of class

Well, posts on Day 13 and 14 are still to come, but today was my first day of Greek 1. Went well. Big class, but a laid back environment. Fortunately today's class was stuff I was familiar with thanks to prior tutoring. That should last me one or two more class periods. I like it. Weird and good to be working at home though. Cause I was out of the house for a few hours. And that's it.

Also of note, Ellie slept through the night last night. From about 8:30 to 6:00 this morning. Woo hoo!

Ellie Sleeping

Just a quick note that we started teaching Ellie to sleep thru the night last night. She cried from about 12:30 or so til about 1:15 and then went back to sleep. We woke her up at 9:00am.

Whoa.

Praise the Lord.

Day 14

Move-In Day! We tried to move in this morning at around 9 or 9:30 and were able to get the keys, but when we showed up to the apartment it had furniture and other items in it and had yet to be cleaned. Come to find out the painters got in here late and were in process of painting around the front door when the guys came to remove the furniture, etc. so they weren't able to do it and ended up not coming back right away since they thought we were coming 2 days from today (originally that was the date we had given and the switch wasn't fully communicated to all parties involved). So we began moving in once the apartment was ready in the afternoon. Thanks again Dad and Mom H for all of your help getting us into our new home. We couldn't have done it so quickly and smoothly without you! So now we are in...up to our ears in boxes, but in.

Day 13

IKEA!
We spent the day at IKEA getting as much furniture and "stuff" as would possibly fit in our sable (with 2 adults and 2 kids) and a Ford F250 with the extended cab. We couldn't get everything (after all we sold everything so we were trying to replace a 2 bedroom apartment worth of furniture, kitchen supplies, storage, and other miscellaneous items...all at one time!). We had never before been to IKEA and boy was it crazy. Thanks Dad and Mom Hutchison sooooooo much for patiently going on that very long and tedeous journey with us as we spent hours to decide on all of the various items we would purchase. Thank you also for helping us out with some of the many purchases we made.

We were able to get a ton of things:
a bookcase
computer desk
floor lamp
another bookcase
coffee table
(2) side tables
silverware
plastic kids bowls
platic kids plates
eating set for Ellie
dish towels
tea towels
(2) desk lamps
floor mat for under the office chair
office chair
kids hangers
(2) hanging toy storage tubes
(4) storage containers on wheels
(2) small dresser type things
drying rack for dishes
tupperware set
3 mixing bowls with lids
large drinnking glasses
small drinking glasses
storage bowls
colander
utensil set of 3 (for teflon pans)
utensil set of 4
large decorative basket (I am a sucker for those)
cutting sheets
measuring cups
measuring spoons
ice cube trays (2)

And that is all that I can remember, but our total was around $500.


Update: we returned to IKEA 3 days later and just about completed furnishing our new home

Day 12

Short day of driving from NY to Littleton, MA. Massachusetts is gorgeous. There are more trees here than in Oregon. I'm not kidding. It's unreal. And the town we're staying in was established in 1715. Whoa.

Turns out that Gordon Conwell was painting our apartment today and will be doing final cleaning tomorrow, so we can't move in til Wednesday (like originally planned). So, kinda bummed about that, but it is nice to be in the state now and to have had such a laid back day today (we all got naps today!).

God has been very gracious to us on this trip. No car issues, gas prices have been reasonable, we didn't get on each other's nerves too badly. We've been able to see good friends and family, see a beautiful countryside and take an amazing trip. All by His grace and love. To Him be the glory.