The Smith Family Adventures

This summer I am working as a fourth grade teacher at a summer school program called AASK. It is the same program I have taught at for the past four years. It’s really great as a mom because the program is only five weeks long, and it is mostly half days. I decided that I want to stay home with Elias the rest of the year. I’ll never get these moments back. But this summer school program is a really good way for me to stay in the game teaching-wise and I really believe the program is life changing for lots of the kids.

I was really nervous to leave Elias since I have never been away from him for more than a couple hours since he was born. My dad is taking care of him, and my mom is able to be there some of the time too. Elias loves my parents and is really comfortable staying with them. He is in good hands. But I have to admit I cried a little in the car on the way to work on Monday.

For the most part I really enjoyed myself this week at work. But there were times when I wondered if it was all worth it. I’ve decided I have to be my own person too. I have to pursue my interests and my dreams. How else will I be a good example for Elias?

It was a hard week in that I got behind on lots of things. Especially things like laundry and keeping track of the finances. I’ll probably just have adjusted to having so much less time and then the program will be over. One week down…four to go!

On another note…we got some portraits taken today. Here is one of my favorites:

Our Family

It might just be my imagination….but I think Elias has given me “the look” a few times. What do I mean by “the look”? I mean the “I know you don’t want me to be doing this but I’m doing it anyway and I’m seeing how you react” look.

Example #1: Elias has figured out how to take off his bib. He does this often while we try to feed him solids while giving “the look.”

Example #2: Elias is fascinated with the cat food (which is still on the ground because we haven’t figured out another solution yet). He crawls very excitedly towards it…stops and turns around to look at me with “the look” then crawls excitedly (and sometimes laughing) closer to the cat food.

Is this my imagination? It seems like 8 months is kind of young for that kind of thing.

Even though it makes life more difficult for me….I am loving watching Elias grow into his own personality. It is so fun watching him discover that he can move on his own. He has figured out that he can move around objects if they are in his way. He has figured out how to crawl over small objects. He is growing and changing so fast!

Elias standing!

Elias has been trying to pull himself up on many things around the house lately. He has succeeded a few times. Here is one time that I was able to snap a picture quick enough. Nathan and I were both cooking dinner. I think he was grilling chicken on the porch and I was making salads and cutting a pineapple. Neither of us could really watch him close enough since he gets into everything now. So we put him in the play pen. From the kitchen I heard his little excited laugh and looked to see what had made him so happy. I saw my little boy’s face peeking up over the rail of the play pen. He looked so proud.

Elias and I were lucky enough to be able to go to OMSI yesterday as the guest of a friend who is an OMSI member. Even though I’ve been there many times leading kids on school field trips and a couple times just for fun with Nate, I had never been inside the toddler play area. I was amazed! There is so much to do there. We could probably go ten times and still not see everything in that one room. Most of it is geared toward children who are a little older than Elias, but there is a baby section in the back corner which is perfect. He can grow into the rest. Elias had a lot of fun and I did too. Thanks Stacie!

Here are a few pictures. I had to use the flash because it was a little dark in there so his eyes were pretty squinty or closed in most of the pictures. Poor little guy. Here are three pretty good ones:

We reached a fun milestone yesterday. Ever since I started taking Elias to story time at the library, I’ve been looking forward to when he could crawl. For the last ten minutes or so of the story time, the babies get to play and interact. However, Elias couldn’t crawl so we were always just stuck on the outside playing by ourselves.

That changed yesterday because now he can crawl! He was in there on the parachute having fun with the other older babies. One little girl who was 10 months kept taking every toy he found from him. I kind of felt bad about it, but I just tried to make sure there were plenty of toys around to play with. One little boy kept screaming out of excitement at seeing Elias, but instead of being happy, Elias got scared by it and needed some brief comfort from mommy before going back to playing. Elias really enjoyed crawling over to the mirror and playing in front of it as well.

It was bittersweet, though. I had looked forward to it for months. But it makes me think about how fast time is flying and how I’ll never get back those moments of his tiny babyhood. They live in my memory only. I’ll just have to enjoy each moment as it comes.

Well we finally had a weekend with nice weather! Nathan and I kept saying things like….”Here we are still wearing rain coats in June….Who’d think you’d need a fleece blanket in June…” and so on. We didn’t have to say those things this weekend!

Here is Elias playing with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa lured him with some toys.

Elias and I got an early start to our weekend by visiting Grandma and Grandpa Bartle while Daddy was still at work. Elias had a lot of fun playing with his toys at Grandpa’s house. He also loves playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa behind the couches, and he explored their house a little with his new-found crawling skills. He thought the cords and wires in Grandma’s office looked especially interesting, but luckily there were plenty of safe things for him to play with in other places. Grandma even cleared off the bottom shelf of her end table to put books for Elias. Friday afternoon I also signed Elias up for summer reading at the library and bought propane….and errand which surprised and impressed Nathan greatly.

Then Friday night we got to spend time with Uncle Scott and Auntie Kristy. We had them over for dinner. Elias enjoyed playing with them very much. We are so blessed to have so much family who live close to us.

Practicing standing with Auntie Kristy

Elias having fun at the park with Daddy

Then on Saturday, I had a Stephen Ministry retreat. It was the first time I had been away from Elias for more than a couple hours. I was glad that Nathan was the one to take care of him. Elias loves Nathan so much, and Nathan is a very good Daddy. The retreat was really fun, and besides the much needed adult interaction, it provided some time for me to be with myself. I did find myself thinking of Elias a lot, though. I’ll miss him when I work this summer. Nathan and Elias got to go to the park and spend some time in the sun. They enjoyed their boy time.

Today after church we just had some family time at home and relaxed. Then since the weather was holding out for a little longer, we decided to have a picnic dinner at Pittock Mansion. The view was quite nice and Elias enjoyed playing out on the grass after his dinner. Here are some pictures from today:

Elias crawling in his cute island outfit that Uncle Scott and Auntie Kristy brought back from Hawaill when they went on their honeymoon.

Elias showing off his feet at Pittock Mansion

Elias is much harder to take pictures of these days because he is always on the move.

Elias and Mommy enjoying the view and the nice weather

Elias is 8 months old today. We are so proud of him. Today was special because Nathan had the day off so we got to be together as a family for an extra day. We wanted to take it easy so we mostly hung around home, but we did go up to the rose garden for a little bit. The roses aren’t blooming yet, and it is not really stroller friendly so we decided to go back for a longer trip later in June. Here are some pictures of Elias on his 8 month day.

Daddy's jeans are too large.

Nathan and I are both doing Weight Watchers. I wanted to finish losing some of the baby weight I had gained, and Nathan decided he could lose some weight as well. But mostly, we wanted to learn and practice healthy eating habits since we would like to teach them to our children when the time comes. Since my mom is a receptionist for weight watchers I knew that it was a good way to accomplish losing weight while also learning healthy living habits. We started in the beginning of February.

We have both really had some success. I’ve lost 67 pounds since Elias was born! Although you can’t really say I’ve lost 67 pounds on weight watchers since Elias was 8 of it, and I had a lot of water weight. But after I reached my pre-pregnancy weight, I lost about 25 more pounds. Being a nursing mother has also helped me lose the weight faster. I’ve reached my goal.

I think Elias thought we were crazy, but he had a lot of fun trying to fit into Nathan's jeans.

Nathan is very close to meeting his goal. He’s lost 36 pounds all on weight watchers. Which brings me (finally) to the point of this post. Nathan’s clothes are all way too big. We bought him some new work pants and shirts along with new belts. But his jeans and weekend wear have not yet been replaced. He looks so ridiculous in his old jeans. I thought it would be funny to see if Elias could fit in his jeans with him. Nathan reluctantly agreed to try it. Elias did pretty much fit! It’s time for new jeans…but Nathan wants to wait until he’s reached his goal.