A girl and her princess tent

Eliza has a pink princess tent. She loves it. I would venture to guess that she prefers her tent over almost every other procession. She uses it not only as a place to play and pretend, but also as an escape. She will use her tent as a sanctuary from mom trying to change her diaper, put clothing on her, brush her hair, correct her, or just because I may have LOOKED like I was going to do any one of those things. At any given moment, she will run to her room and dive into her beloved tent.

At least once a day she will come up to me and ask me to come with her (by pulling or pushing my body in the direction she desires me to move in). I have come to expect that the place she is taking me to is her tent. As soon as I get to her door she will quickly dive into her tent. When I crouch down and stick my head in the tent, Eliza immediately says "More, more, more, more, more!" indicating that I need to bring more of my body into the tent. She will not be satisfied until my whole body is in the tent with her. Thank God I never grew bigger than a 12 year old.

The really funny part is she does this very same thing to Chris within seconds of him walking in the door after a long day of work. Chris loves to make her happy, so he willingly obliges her desire for company INSIDE her princess tent. I have caught this precious activity on film and I feel its my moral obligation to share it with my friends and family. ;)

 

 

In the spirit of equality, Chris captured me inside the tent with Eliza also. So I will post it, even though its not as funny seeing my feet sticking out of the tent as it is seeing Chris' body spilling out of the tent. But, gotta be fair. ;)

 



First Gotcha Day!

Friends and family,

It has been one year since we officialy adopted Eliza Kathleen Sheehan. Wow. Where did the year go? Also, how did my life have any meaning before she came along? It's crazy to me to think that we had any real joy prior to Eliza's existance. I know we did, but it all seems to fall short now that Eliza is here.

May I share with you what I have learned over this past year? Adoption is wrecking. That sounds bad, right? Well, it's not. Adoption has wrecked all our preconceived ideas about family and what it "should" look like. Adoption has humbled me before the grace of the living God. Adoption has taught me that life isn't clean and easy, but life is full of wonderful messes that God is eagerly desiring to redeem and make new. Adoption is my tangible example of God's grace.

I'm so in  love with my daughter. She is the butter to my bread, she is the creamer to my coffee, she is the frosting on my cupcake, she is salt on my pretzel, she that sassy pair of pumps that makes every outfit look spectacular, she's is JUST what every day needs to make it exciting. We are blessed to have her and are so humbled that we can call her our very own.

Happy 1st Gotcha Day, sweet Ellie Kate!

Cousins

One thing that I am greatful for is family. It truely is the greatest blessing one can carry with you throughout life. Familial relationships are hard work, you have to sometime agree to disagree, but they are so rewarding. I grew up with one sister and zero extended family close by. My parents would make a huge effort every other summer to make sure we were able to go to Kalamazoo, MI to see our grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. It was seriously the highlight of my childhood - being surrounded by my mom's loud Puerto Rican family. The chaos was wonderful. There was never any lack of some kind of drama, wonderful drama! My sister and I loved it and still do to this day.

I love my cousins. Every one of them. They are really some of my best friends. We would play for hours together. They feel more like brothers and sister than cousins. What a wonderful gift. I don't think there is anything that we wouldn't try to do for eachother. It's a comradery that is uncommon among friends but so natural among family.

Eliza was able to really spend time with four of her wonderful cousins these past two weeks. I was overwhelmed with joy as I saw Eliza easily and without hesitation fall into the wonderful chaos of cousins. Anna Kate, Eliza's oldest cousin, especially took her under her wing. It reminded me of my relationship with my oldest cousin, Erin. She would always look out for me and she was always interested in including me. Anna Kate did the same for Eliza. Heart warming. We did a lot of swimming with the cousins and Anna Kate would float around with Eliza and hand her toys, talk to her, give her kisses, and sing her songs. I was so humbled to realize, once again, that Eliza would not have had such a growing up experience if God and not chosen to place her in our arms. Yes, we love her desperately, but her extended family loves her too! Not that I ever doubted that fact, but now Eliza is a part of the dynamic, not just a baby who sleeps, eats, and poops. I'm so grateful God saw fit to let her add to the Sheehan family dymanic. I'm so grateful to have a family who undoubtedly treats her as their own. It's really cool.


Here are a few pictures. I was silly and forgot my camera most of the days, but we did manage to snap a few.

Morning conversation

Twirling

Catching up

Okay, so here's the highlights of the last three (wow) months.

1. Kathleen, Chris' mom, came to visit. It was a wonderful time with her. I, unfortunately, was pretty sick the entire time. But the silver lining is that I was able to have such a wonderful woman around to help me when I just couldn't do something that needed to be done. Eliza LOVED every moment of having Grandma around. Thank you, Grandma, for being okay with rolling with the punches and making your visit so wonderful. You are and were a Godsend.
2. Eliza and I went to visit Mike, Bryn, and Carrissa in Renton, WA. Seriously, the best and most refreshing vacation I have ever had. Of course, it did help that I was spending day in and day out with one of my very dearest friends in this universe. That's always refreshing, right? While I was there, I was able to sneak away and spend some much needed time with one of my other dearest friends, Merrily. She lives in Puyallup, WA, a convenient 30 minutes away from Renton. I was blessed by all the time I was able spend with dear women in my life. Talk about refreshment at it's best.
3. Chris and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. Yeah, I know, that went by fast. I was kind of surprised that we were at our sixth anniversary. I thought for sure it was our fifth. After serious questioning, I realized that we have in fact been married for 6 years and the reason I totally forgot about our fifth anniversary was because we were the new parent of a three month old. Everything goes into a time vortex the first year of parenthood. Chris took me and Eliza on a day trip to the mountains and then took me to a wonderful dinner that evening. We had a great time celebrating our love and commitment. I really like being married to Chris. :)
4. Well, I guess there really isn't a fourth....

Here's some pictures to prove to you that we lived that last three months. :)

 Loving on her Sissy Rissy in WA.

 Eliza did  A LOT of sleeping in the car. She was a champ!

 Mike looks a little crazy here but what other face are you supposed to make when you're making Jet noise? Exactly, that's the only one. Eliza L.O.V.E.D. playing with Uncle Mike.

 More sleeping in the car.

 While we were away from Daddy, I had a stash of pictures that I printed off right before we left. Eliza, at any given time, would ask for the picture and kiss it. So precious.

 Eliza got a lot of time on Uncle Mike's shoulders. She loved the altitude difference.

 Eliza also learned to push the stroller. She now goes up to any strangers stroller and tries to push it, regardless of whether or not there is a child in the stroller. Makes for some awkward apologizing when your daughter unknowingly attempts abduction. 

 Loving from her Aunty Bryn.

 Eliza's first hair do. I've got to work on my hair doing skills...

 Picnic in the park on our anniversary.

 Tossing rocks in the stream. 

 We surprised my mom for her birthday by taking a day trip to Albuquerque and whisking her away for a day at the zoo with her kids and grandbaby. We had a great time and my mom was SO SURPRISED.

 Looking at the animals. 

 This picture was taken right before Eliza face planted into the ground. There were a lot of tears and even a little bit of blood. We're definitely in the "Always have a bandaid around" stage.

 Las Cruces got some glorious rain. We took the opportunity to let Eliza experience a right of passage, playing in mud. She loved it, which I wasn't expecting because she usually doesn't like being dirty.

 Chris snapped this shot. It think it does a very good job of capturing her "tude" (attitude). The girl's got spunk for days. 

 Boy was I glad that Dad was there to play in the mud with her, otherwise the messy job would have been my responsibility. 

Eliza in her new "sunnies" from Grandpa Joel and Aunt Suzi. Hip hardly covers her coolness. ;)

Happy girl.

This is just a quick post, but I wanted to remember Eliza discovering purses for the first time.

Every once in a while, I will let Eliza dig through our closet. I've found that it can be helpful, she has unearthed things that I thought were long  lost. Today I was trying to brush my teeth and wash my face and Eliza took it as an opportunity to "dig" in the closet. She came out with an old purse of mine which contained an old wallet. She was thrilled, literally, there was joy all over her face. She has been playing with the wallet and purse all morning - zipping and unzipping it, taking things out and putting things in, putting the strap over her shoulder and taking it off her shoulder. It's so sweet to see her feminine little heart, something that I have prayed earnestly for.

And She's Off!

Walking is definitely not her preferred mode of transportation, but she is warming up to it! This is the farthest she has gone!! Hooray, Eliza! You are such a brave little walker!!!!

"You are My Sunshine" First Birthday!

With Eliza's first birthday approaching, I became extremely urgent about having a party in honor of our daughter. Why? Well, I'm pretty sure if I didn't have a party to plan, I would have gone into some sort of clinical depression (don't judge). I am convinced that first birthday parties are for the mother and the mother alone. When I mentioned the idea to Chris, he knew that it was necessary, absolutely necessary, for a mentally healthy wife.

So needless to say, I threw myself into the planning and decorating of this party. I worked inside of the allotted budget and came out the other side with a party for my darling daughter, that she will never remember, except through pictures. I am fully aware of the absurdity of having a first birthday party, but I NEEDED to have one, needed. Here are the picture of the day in honor of Ellie. We had fun!

We'll start with some party details.

I was brave and made the cake. It was a strawberry cake with lemon frosting. Yummy!

Cake Topper.

Yes, I made cupcakes too. I saw these cupcake liners and just had to use them!

The banners were made from an old pillowcase set that Erica and I found at a local Thrift Store. They were exactly what I wanted! I was thrilled!!!

This was probably one of my favorite decorations. We have it hanging in our living room now.

I HAD to have mason jar cups and paper straws. HAD. TO.

My mom and sister Anna were responsible for putting together my vision. They did a great job! Just look at that table. Lovely. Thanks Mom and Anna!

The entire room. :)

Yep, you are not mistaken, I required that we all matched. Not perfectly, but we needed to "go" together. Also, it made a cute picture!

My family. God had truly blessed us!

Eliza with Auntie Anna! They love each other.

Event highlights:

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Eating Cake for the first time! She loved it!

Loved it until we had to clean her up. . .

Dad cutting the cake for guests. I like that his tie is thrown over his shoulder. He is pretty good looking.

Opening Presents!

My mom made this beautiful work of art for Eliza's birthday. She drew the pictures on the outside of Eliza and her mother Ellie. Both Ellie's share the same birthday!

Playing with the loot with all her friends!

Playing with daddy. I love how much they love each other.

I know, I went over the top, but I loved every second of it!