Recovering

We've been sick for too long... I'm starting to go stir crazy! On Tuesday afternoon I got sick with a horrible stomach bug (that I hear has been going around). Tuesday night Andrew came down with it, and on Wednesday/Thursday Elena didn't feel well. Thankfully Elena didn't have the full blown version--no puking! Yay! But anyway, I've been feeling better since Wednesday/Thursday, and Elena has been feeling better since yesterday, though not at complete full strength. But Andrew still doesn't feel very well--it's been hanging on for him. And needless to say, I'm getting pretty sick of being in the house and sitting around. But that's what you have to do to get well.

Yesterday and today Elena and I felt well enough to go outside, and today I snapped some pictures with my phone. We walked over to the tennis courts with her shopping cart and some balls, though we didn't stay long. She liked kicking the big ball around, but after she tried to sit on the wet bench and Mommy wouldn't let her, she got too fussy to stay. So we put the balls back in the cart and headed towards home.



In the parking lot she found a pile of leaves that she enjoyed tossing in the air. It was so cute. :)


Then in front of some apartments she found some bushes with a few red leaves that she was picking off, haha.


We got a picture together, although the little stinker told me she didn't want to smile. It looks a bit like a smile that we got, though.


Driving the cart home. A pair of ladies stopped after they had gotten their mail and told us that seeing her driving her little cart was too cute, and it made their day. Yay for a cutie pie. :)

23 Weeks and Trucking

I'm now 23 weeks pregnant--more than half way through! Olivia is growing and moving more and more. She likes to stretch out and poke my organs, already! According to baby center, she's about the size of a mango, and she can hear us now! (We had trouble getting good pictures this time--sister was hardcore teething and not happy to let Mommy be in a picture alone or smile for the camera. Oh well!)

Her sister certainly gives her something to hear--Elena talks, hollers and yells all day! She has toned it down a little, I think, but her inside voice is not yet a reality! She is learning more and more words, and she is getting better at copying sounds. She still uses her old standbys, ba and da, for just about everything, but she has been trying more complicated words like "peaches" and "itsy bitsy spider" (which comes out "is bis" or "isee bs pie") She can say "cheese" and "eyes" really distinctly, along with "dada." Some words she says backwards, like "hot"--it comes out "tah." We are STILL working on getting her to say "mama!" She calls me "baba," sadly, though if I ask her to say "mama" she can sometimes say it.

Elena loves to play outside, and now that it's not so freezing cold, we've been going on adventures every day. We enjoy walking behind the tennis courts to pick up seed pods to throw in the pond, and going to get the mail. She loves to zoom around and around the circular mailbox hub jingling the keys. I love to take her inside the tennis courts--it's like a giant playpen! I can sit down and let her run around without having to worry, unlike anywhere else within Elena's walking distance of our apartment. She loves to run and throw her tennis balls around--and this last time she also enjoyed taking a break to read Mommy's magazine. :)

Andrew just started playing in the church basketball league last week, and he's doing great! At least, better than he expected, so we are feeling good about it. :) He's enjoying getting out there and exercising, and I'm enjoying watching--though I don't catch too much of the game with Elena and the other spectators to distract me. :)

We are enjoying the calm before the storm right now--pretty soon we are going to have to start packing and getting ready for the move. The only thing found amiss in the the house inspection (the water pipe to the house) was fixed and the inspection was finished to our satisfaction, and we are moving forward with our loan. We are hoping to close early March and move March 20. We are pretty excited about it! I took these pictures of the front and back of the house since I didn't think the ones in the listing were that great. Mine didn't turn out great either, haha, due to the the time of day, but you can get a better picture of the back yard especially. :)

From the back of the back yard

Looking right


Looking left

Right side yard

Outings!

Elena and I spent Monday afternoon at the Henry P. Leu Gardens and Tuesday morning at the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford--what a crazy blast! We have an annual pass to the Leu Gardens which has a reciprocal agreement with the zoo (which is also technically a Botanical Garden), so we are looking forward to doing this a lot more, though maybe not so close together!

The Leu Gardens are so beautiful, and Elena enjoyed riding around in the stroller,

and running around--though you can guess which she preferred!

Elena really likes benches, and she found plenty of those in the gardens!  She sat on a bench to read the map, but after that she mostly didn't want to stay sitting on any bench long enough for a picture.  :)

 She enjoyed touching the flowers and was gentle most of the time, haha. 

 

Another fun thing for Elena was the two fountains--especially running around them.  :)

We had a very nice afternoon at the gardens, though after taking two loops of the whole place, 

we were both pooped when we got home!

Then Tuesday morning we went to the zoo with some of our play group buddies!

This is the first time we've been to the zoo here, and Elena loved seeing all the animals!  

In the picture above, the kids are looking at the giant tortises eat their breakfast.  They got to feed the goats some breakfast, thanks to Ruthie's Nana!  Elena fed him quite a few times, but after her fingers got nibbled she didn't want to do it again for the camera--I don't blame her.

 

 Some of Elena's favorites were the birds, of which there were many varieties!  The emus (they looked like birds to her, haha) were right near the fence.  She kept sticking her finger through the mesh, which I was continually putting a stop to!  

 

She knows what the sheep says!

We have recently started doing the snake noise, which she loves, so she had a blast in the snake house.

It was too cold for the elephants, so we didn't get to see them.  We'll have to go back some time when it's a little warmer!  All around, it's a great zoo, and I think Elena really enjoyed it, though it was a lot to absorb at once for a kid who is usually just excited to see the birds or squirrels outside our house.  :)  We had a really fun time, and we're so we got to hang out with our friends!

Valentine

What a Helper

Elena Grace loves to be a helper! Here is a video of her helping her daddy eat his chips and salsa. :)

Growing

Here at the Hyer house we are growing fast!

Elena is looking more and more like a little girl, especially when she's around her newest little friends! We have been visiting Emmett Guajardo, brother of Elena's friend from church, Ruthie, and we saw little Natalie Hamby last night. I've been so happy to have these chances for Elena to be around new babies--she was not too thrilled about me holding Emmett the first time, but she seems to be ok with it now as long as it's not for too long. She especially liked baby Natalie--maybe it's a girl thing. :) We have been practicing being gentle to babies with her baby dolls, and she has done great with Emmett and Natalie too! Here we are with the Guajardos when Emmett was five days old. :)


For the first time we painted Elena's toenails this week! She was so patient while I did her "pretty toes", and she didn't touch them until they were dry. What a big girl! It surprises me when I see them, haha, but it's so cute for her to participate in such a big girl activity.




You can see how Elena's toes bunch up--isn't that funny? She came out with all her toes overlapping, and they still haven't fully relaxed. I wished I had baby toe-separaters! :)

Elena had a great 15-month visit to the pediatrician, all's well. She is growing along the same curves, at 25 pounds, which is 90th percentile, and still off the chart for height! She stood on the big scale all by herself, I was so proud. :) And she did very well with her shots this time. She cried for a little bit, but as soon as she couldn't see the band-aids anymore and was holding her bear, she calmed right down.

Elena has been improving in all her skills, especially running and throwing now that we can play outside again. She loves to put on an old hat of mine, grab the keys and tennis ball and head out! It will be so nice when we have a good yard for her to play in.

The other growing Hyers are me and Olivia, and we are growing fast! I'm 21 weeks now, and she is about the size of a banana, haha. Olivia is kicking more and more, especially in the evening when I'm laying on the couch. She kicks her sister sometimes, too, when Elena sits on my lap to read a story, though Elena doesn't notice it yet. I am wondering how long I will have enough lap for her! It's been so fun to feel Olivia more and more, and I can't wait until Andrew feels her move for the first time. Her little kicks and punches make it so much more real that we will have a new little one in our arms before we know it!



Along with the growing Hyer family, the growing Hyer business is taking over the townhouse! So we are moving forward with buying a house! We have a contract, and we have chosen a mortgage lender. The home inspection is tomorrow. We are really praying that this is the house God has for us! Here are some pictures from the listing. :)

Front view

Entryway and living room

View of the built-ins in the living room

Kitchen