End of week 3... all's well.

The last couple weeks have been good. Challenging at times, but good. Elliot, Tiffany and I are all becoming well acquainted. Mom and Dad spend our nights passing her back and forth, talking about different calming techniques, the variety of things that stimulate her, and whether or not we think 'Is she really smiling?!?!', or if that face was simply caused by gas.

Last weekend we took a trip to Sioux City for a day to visit family and friends. We went to Nana Pat's house for some good "grandma time". While we were there, she helped Tiff clip Elliot's fingernails, which grow like weeds and are razor sharp. (Tiff is very happy that Elliot inherited her nail beds)

She seems to handle nail trimming a little better than our pug, Simon.

Nana Pat went with us over to Great Grandma Shirley's house. Great Grandma Cambell got to meet her 21st great grandchild. Like any proud great grandmother, as soon as she found out we were headed over, she lit up the switchboard with an array of phone calls. Shortly after we arrived we were joined by Aunt Janet, Aunt Connie, Uncle Don, and Cousin Diane. Don and I had a good talk about motorcycles while everyone else fought over who got to hold Elliot and help change her diaper.

While we were there we got a good picture of daughter, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Four generations of women from the Janssen-Newell-Harms-Kelly-Cambell family (long story for another blog...). It was a pretty good afternoon.

From Great Grandma Shirley's house we headed over to a birthday party. James and Jen Beacom invited us over for their son Liam's 2nd birthday. He's quite a charmer. Many of our friends were invited as well so we got to see a lot of people all in one stop. Elliot got passed around like a hot potato, and didn't seem to mind it a bit. This allowed Tiff and I time to eat with both hands for once, which was nice.

Elliot got to meet quite a few people for the first time that day, including some "extended family", Pops and Deb Beacom.








All in all, it was a really nice day trip. Before heading home we went back by Nana Pat's house where we hung out with her and Grandpa Rory for a couple hours before heading back home to Sioux Falls. This weekend we're heading back down to Sioux City with all the dogs to spend the night. Nana Pat and Grandpa Rory are going to watch Elliot and the dogs while Tiff and I go see the Sioux City Roller Dames take on the Sioux Falls Killer Bees in a mid-western tough girl battle royale on wheels!

Below you'll find a few more pics from our trip.

Great Aunt Connie

Great Aunt Janet

Liam and his cake

 

Bella VS. Cake and Ice Cream

 

Liam's sister, Grace.

Liam digging into his presents

Mariana looks on while Liam opens presents

"Children make you want to start life over."  ~Muhammad Ali