Nascar, Pool Parties, and Pole Dancing

Dale Jr, Watch Out!!

Mommy and Baby in the Pool.

As you can see, Elena LOVES her pool!

And, contrary to what the picture below might indicate, she is not headed for a life of exotic dancing. She just happened to be naked baby as she just got out of the pool, and she just happened to pull herself up on the umbrella pole. We thought it was funny.

Sharp Objects Don't Taste Good

Saturday morning started off just like any other -- Elena and I got out of bed, left DRL and Dog Sister sleeping soundly, and went downstairs to have breakfast. She crawled around while I cut up a nectarine and got out some Cheerio's. I scooped her off the floor, put her in her high chair and put breakfast on her tray. She eagerly gobbled up the nectarine, but seemed to be having some trouble swallowing it. I patted her back, she gave a little cough and then a little cry, and she reached for another handful. A moment or two passed, and the second handful was followed by more of the same -- she started gagging while trying to swallow. This time, though, she made a huge fuss and started flailing her arms and crying. She wasn't choking, as she was still able to breathe, but she had something stuck in her throat. I hurriedly got her out of her high chair and picked her up. I held her, and she started throwing up orange/red tinted spit. I assumed this was nectarine and saliva-which at first it was. I did a finger-sweep, hoping to find the culprit, but instead managed to induce more crying, gagging, and arm-flailing. Then, more vomiting, and suddenly - the orange disappered and only red remained. I realized that now there was blood in her vomit. {Insert PANIC}. I screamed for DRL - Twice. Thanks to the fan, the humidifer, and our super solid no-noise-is-getting-through-these-puppies door, the screaming failed to rouse my slumbering husband. I ran up the stairs, threw the door open and screamed for him to get up becuase our baby was throwing up blood and I needed help. ( A little melodramatic, yes, but hello....have you met me?) He jolted out of bed, ran downstairs in a frenzy, swooped her throat while I patted her back and out came the little round metal screen from our kitchen sink's broken aerator. Somehow it fell onto the kitchen floor and of course - being that she's a baby and must taste everything - ended up in Elena's mouth. The frenzied shoving in of nectarine pushed it into her throat at which point her esophogus attempted, with all of its might, to expel the foreign invader. Hence the vomiting and the gagging and the difficulty swallowing. The edges, being razor sharp and all, probably cut her throat up as she was trying to get it out - thus, the blood. She fell asleep after all the craziness, and was mostly fine for the rest of the day. I however -- was mostly a nervous wreck. I had convinced myself that she was crying to tell me that she was bleeding internally and that I need to hurry up and go the hospital already and that I am such a horrible mother. Turns out she was crying because she's a baby, and that's what they do.

Eat Your Veggies

I get email forwards rather frequently - and most of them are silly, or kitschy, or sentimental. But this one is actually pretty interesting, er fascinating. In college, I was lucky enough to find myself in a nutrition class - I happened to like the professor, had taken a class of hers the previous semester - and she talked me into the course. Turned out - it was one of the greatest and most educational courses of my collegiate career. I don't know that I've retained as much knowledge - in such a whole form - from any other course. So thank you Vickie Smith! I hope all you readers enjoy this as much as I did.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiatinglines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrotsgreatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and isred. All o f the res earch shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and areindeed pure heart and blood food.Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape lookslike a bl ood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are alsoprofound heart and blood vitalizing food.A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, uppercerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut arejust like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three(3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, theylook exactly like the human kidneys.Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foodsspecifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls itfrom the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletalneeds of the body.Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target t he health and function of the womband cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today'sresearch shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balanceshormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents c e rvical cancers. Andhow profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocadofrom blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemicalconstituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science hasonly studied and named about 141 of them).Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase themobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcomemale sterility.Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemicindex of diabetics.Olives assist the health and function of the ovariesOranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammaryglands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and themovement of lymph in and out of the breasts.Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions helpclear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears whichwash the epithelial layers of the eyes.
A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and
dangerous free radicals from the body.

Interesting Statistic: Obama has spent 52% of his time in the Senate campaigning for a higher office. Now - I don't particularly care for John McCain - but I don't know that I can, in good conscience, vote for someone who has spent more than half of his time at his current job interviewing for a new position. Hopefully when the whirlwind of excitment surrounding his campaign dies down, America won't be caught licking its wounds and cleaning up debris.

Making Good on a Promise

Here are some photos from the past month.
They are posted in no specific order.
Enjoy!

Me and Teddy Mills

Elena, Ella Eng, and 2nd Cousin Teddy Mills. Yes-they were all crying.

Trying to stand all by herself.

Our nephew Logan being cute.

"I See Camera!! Me Eat Camera!"

Peek-a-Boo!

A good place to rest....

First bike ride.

I love Bath time!!

Sitting pretty.

First time with scrambled eggs. And yes, she and Pinky are plotting to take over the world.

Baby Mozart

Rubber duckies aren't just for bath time.

Alphabetic distractions
(these magnets were purchased in the off chance that she would go for the magnets rather than dog sister's food bowl. No such luck).

Get me outta here!

Baby Beluga

I started singing the Raffi song, "Baby Beluga" to Elena a few months ago, and now she lights up whenever I start even humming the tune. Little did I know that it would come to be so fitting a song to sing. She LOVES water - any water. Out of the tap, on the floor, in the dog bowl, the pool, the bathtub...you name it - she wants to sit in it. I have a feeling come winter, the bathtub will become a swimming pool and be used for quite a bit more than just a bedtime bath.

DRL purchased a bike trailer for his birthday with some gift money - and we've been taking family bike rides in the evenings when we're all home together. This is yet another thing that Elena just can't get enough of. If she's cranky, or fussy, or bored, or tired -- all we have to do is sit her in her bike trailer and go for a cruise. She's all smiles afterwards (this is especially handy right now as she is currently working on ALL FOUR of her top front teeth. Yes. I said ALL FOUR. At once. Aren't you jealous of us?!?!) I don't know how we'll manage come snow season. Maybe she'll like being pulled in a sled...

She crawled all the way up the stairs last night for the first time. And, all the way through her big, scary giraffe tunnel that I bought her. I think she's coming to like it! Our baby is definately on the move. She thinks she can stop in the middle of the floor and just stand up. But she's not quite there yet. She's got to work on cruising around the furniture a little more and then maybe she can start standing w/out help. I keep trying to remind her that there is a process she must follow doing the whole "learning to walk" thing.

She has also learned how to sign the word "more." She doesn't quite understand the exact context of it yet, but she can sign it - so that's a start. Now we're working on "all done," "milk," and "eat." And maybe we should teach her "water!!"

I have a TON of new photos -- so "July in Pictures" will be coming soon -- I PROMISE!!

It's "E"lena...

Elena had her 9 month well baby visit yesterday and we happened to bump into the Dr's nurse - of the same name - in the hallway. She asked the name of our cute little dumpling, to which DRL and I promptly replied "Elena." She responded with, "Well, I'm "E"lena, and it's nice to meet you." DRL and smiled and continued on our way. Later on in the evening DRL asked me how we pronounce our darling daughter's name -- if we had decided on "E" or "A" as the phonetic tone of the first letter. I said that indeed, we did name her E-lane-ah, but we get lazy and tend to say it fast and it sounds like Ah-lane-ah. I'm sure it's something she will spend her life correcting people on. Just like DRL does with the spelling of his name, and I do with the proper pronouncing of mine. But for the record, it's a long E.

For those who into this type of thing, here are her stats:
Weight: 17lbs 4ounces (10th percentile)
Height: 26inches (10th percentile)
Head: 18 inches (90th percentile)

She has also reached all of her 9-month milestones. Waving bye-bye, crawling, understanding the word "No," responding to her name (regardless of which way we pronounce it).

The Family Pelton recently purchased a new camera -- so I have many great photos to upload. Help me find 20 minutes, and I'll share them with you!! (In other words, photos to come...be patient).

That's the news for now. Futher updates as they happen....

Independence

Elena had her first sleep-over at Grandma's house on Thursday, and boy did they have fun!! DRL brought her to meet Grandma in Scandia (that's halfway between her house and ours) on Thursday morning and we went out to Grandma's place on Friday morning to pick her up. She slept through the night and didn't make too much of a fuss while she was there -- considering she's teething, has an ear infection, and spent her first 24 hours without any boob to suckle. She was rather clingy to Grandma, and therefore wasn't too affectionate to Papa Al, but other than that, things went off without a hitch. Great-Grandpa Beaver gave Elena her first popsicle, which she loved, and she spent the majority of her time sitting outside watching the hummingbirds come and go.

And for those of you wondering, I did great, too. I thought I was going to have a rough go of it -- having my daughter gone for the first time and all -- but it turned out to be, well, rather enjoyable. My first experience with letting go wasn't as bad as I had envisioned, and this holiday weekend turned out to have a second reason for DRL and I to celebrate independence.