Elijah's first photo shoot

We set up a few photo shoots with Elijah on Sunday, it was great fun and Bronwen took most of the photos. I think she did an amazing job, there are so many photo's that I love. I just need a weekend to start Elijah's scrapbook now. I'm just posting a small selection here (yes this is a small selection lol) and I have put 2 big albums on my facebook, so you can all look at them there :-)

Who do you think your looking at ????

Look what the stork brought us

Starting to grow eyelashes

My cute little boy

Big brother Jonathan

I love this one

Very tender moment

One of my favorites

Let me tell you a secret.......

Another busy week

As always life is busy in the Howley household. Last weekend I went to Dublin with Elijah, it was his first road trip and we got on great. I fed him and settled him into his car seat and got on the road and he slept the whole way and only woke up as I pulled into the car park in Ikea. I fed him in the car and then popped him into the sling and went into Ikea and got a bite to eat as Elijah slept away. After my lunch I changed him and gave him another quick feed and then popped him into the sling and had a good browse and a bit of a shop....well it would be rude not to lol!!!!

Alex and Elijah

After Ikea I went to Gertie's, I was so excited about her meeting her Godson. I pulled up outside her house and as I lifted Elijah out of the car she came running out of the house. It was so good to place Elijah in her arms after all the months of sickness and worry. Gertie had gone through every step of it with me and for the two and a half weeks I was in hospital and in labour she was there for me and for the week that Elijah was in the neonatal, that was by far the hardest week.....she was there, for every high and every low. She listened to me crying down the phone and cried with me, I can't thank her enough for all she did for me. She helped to keep me sane and for anyone who knows me, you know how hard a job that was!!!!!

Alex and Elijah

So it was a bit emotional for us when she got to hold Elijah at long last. But a happy emotional, if you know what I mean (See I typed that instead of putting iykwim because Iona wouldn't know what I meant lol)

Lewis, Dara and Leila were trilled to see Elijah and Leila kept saying she thought she was dreaming. They all got a quick hold of Elijah and I took some photo's

Matthew

Donna came over for dinner and to meet Elijah. It was great to see her and we had a lovely dinner and got to chill and catch up. We made plans for the following day, the reason I had gone up to Dublin. There was a fundraiser for my friend Petra and I wanted to support it. You can read her story here http://www.petrastrust.webs.com/ . I know Petra from the craft site http://www.craftsupplies.ie/ and we have talked online for a few years now, but we never met face to face. It was great to meet her face to face at long last and the day was a huge success. Petra gave Elijah a beautiful cardigan that her Granny knit, I love it. I put it straight on him and the colour so suited him......Thank you Petra and Thanks you to your Granny :-)

Riona and Elijah

Sunday morning before heading off to the mega craft fair, Riona called with Matthew and Alex to see Elijah and he was awake for once. I got some photo's of them with Elijah. I love the one of Riona, he was looking up at her and cooing. Isaac loved the one of Alex :-)

Leila and Elijah

Gertie, Leila and Elijah

Dara and Elijah

Lewis and Elijah

Oh no who made who cry !!!!!!!

Ed and Elijah

Samuel and Orla

On Tuesday morning I met Orla and Tracy in Mahon point for the Cuidiu coffee morning for breastfeeding week. It has been years since I went to a Cuidiu event and it was great to meet up with a few old faces. I got this photo of Orla before we went into the coffee morning, Samuel loves his new sling.

Tracy took this photo of Orla and me with Samuel and Elijah as we were comparing their sizes lol!!! I love it, just look at the size of my little teddy bear :-)

On Wednesday morning I went to Middleton for a La Leche League coffee morning for breastfeeding week. I was a bit early for it as it was pointless for me to go home for half an hour after dropping Isaac to school, so I had breakfast there and it was just yummy. It was held in the Moca cafe and the food is lovely there. I was just starting my coffee when some of the mums arrived. It was a great morning and again I caught up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while and of course the few I see every month. Orla and Samuel arrived half way through and Samuel as always was full of smiles.

Birthday girl Shar

Thursday morning was a busy one, I dropped Isaac at school and went to the village hall to help set up for the childline breakfast. We had a lot of helpers this year, which was great. It was a mad manic morning, but full of fun....the kids had a great time and loved it. The most kids we had at one time was 72. Elijah slept away in his car seat through most of it and woke when Isaac group came in much to Isaac's delight. He loves showing off his little bro as he calls him lol!!

When we had finished the breakfast morning, I went into the library for my knitting group. Elijah had woken up so I fed him and swapped patterns. There was a great turn out, we have taken over a big section of the library now. I settled Elijah back into his car seat and ran to pick up Shar. It was Shar's birthday and I was bringing her to Gazebo's for her lunch, we met our friend Theresa Pio there. It was the last day of Gazebo's and a lot of people were there to support their last day. We had a lovely lunch and Elijah slept through the whole two hours we were there. It was really nice to catch up with the girls and relax over lunch and not have somewhere to rush off to. We picked Isaac up at 3pm and he was trilled to see Shar and ran to give her a birthday hug. We dropped Shar home and picked Benjamin and Sophie up from school. Elijah was still asleep when we got home so I did a bit of sewing. I've made a quilt for Elijah to lie on in the playpen and I've got some of the bumper made too......I just need some time to finish it now.

Waiting for breakfast :-)

Childline

Isaac all ready for the childline breakfast

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary, 22 years ago today we made that huge leap into married life. It is hard to get my head around the fact it is now 22 years ago.......wow that is a life time ago. We are still living in the same house, it is now a bit bigger and we have pulled it apart and put it back together a few times, in fact we are doing it again!!!! We have 6 wonderful kids, that fill our lives with so much happiness and joy and one brainless dog!!!! We are very lucky and very happy with our lives, I just hope the next 22 years are as happy and as wonderful and the years gone by. I could go on, but I'm getting ready to get on the road as I'm bring Elijah to Dublin. We are staying with Gertie tonight, I can't wait for Gertie to meet her Godson Elijah and get lots of photo's of them. Tomorrow we are going to the mega crop/fair for Petra, I'm sooooooo looking forward to meeting up with everyone again.

I know what your all thinking, yes it is my anniversary and I'm heading to Dublin without my Husband......How Rosemantic is that. Well it is probably why we are still together after 22 years ha ha ha ha!!!!!

Play date :-)

Today baby Samuel and baby Oscar came for a play date with little Elijah!!!

Of course they had to bring their Mums Orla and Tracy with them lol!!!

It was great to see them and see how much Oscar and Samuel have grown, Elijah has a lot of catching up to do. But no doubt it won't be long before they are getting up to mischief together :-)

Oscar, Samuel and Elijah

Seated in order of age :-)

Oscar, Samuel and Elijah

Due date

Today is Elijah's due date, he was four weeks yesterday. I still find it hard to come to terms with the fact we have him here and all is well. He is a huge part of our lives and I can't imagine life without him, he is our little ray of sunshine. The health nurse called today and weighed him and he is now 8lbs 3 1/2 oz, even though this is a great weight, he still looks tiny. He is filling out the 5lb clothes and starting to fit into the 7lb clothes, I even put on a new born babygrow on him today and it looked fine on him. Isaac took this photo of him being weighted. Isaac really loves his new camera and is getting so much use out of it, he still takes my camera every now and then to take a few shots (as he says lol) he told me he might become a photographer when he is older

Footprints

I was yapping away on the phone this morning with Gertie when Theresa arrived with a bag of clay!!!

In minutes she had made a plaque and we were pressing Elijah's foot prints into it. He wasn't to impressed with the whole thing, but we managed to get his prints and Eugene wrote his name and date of birth on the plaque. Theresa will dry and fire it for us, isn't it great to have friends who do these wonderful things........Thanks Theresa :-)

Eugene was on lates today, so he did the school run this morning and spent the rest of the morning finishing Elijah's cradle. He made a fab lunch for me and Theresa and even gave us desert......we were spoilt!!!!

Footprints

Eugene had planned on making a cradle for Elijah and was going to start it the weekend I ended up going into hospital!!! So alas it didn't get started and with me in the hospital for nearly 4 weeks and Eugene up and down every day, well it was put off for a while. Things were of course a bit hectic when I got home and with loads of visitors and Eugene doing everything and waiting on me hand and foot, it didn't get started for a week or so. But it was so worth the wait, Eugene did ask if I wanted to buy one on the way home from the hospital......it would have been so easy to pop in to Mothercare and pick one up. But of course it wouldn't have been the same or as special. Eugene is so gifted and has amazed me over the years with things he has made, I knew he was going to make a fantastic cradle and of course he did :-)
Isn't it fab.......Eugene is so talented :-)

Here it is, I'm so trilled with it and I'm sure Elijah is going to love it. It has a lovely rocking motion, it is just perfect :-)

End view of the cradle

I think he is getting a bit bored of me taking photo's lol!!!

Look at those big eyes......!!!!! He looks so tiny

I think he likes the Winnie the pooh bumper :-)

He has a lot of growing to do to fit the cradle!!!!!

Isaac singing "You are my Sunshine" to Elijah and rocking him :-)

Just another hectic week

Elijah and baby Arwen. Arwen is just 4 days old in this photo and Elijah was a day off being 3 weeks and yes she is bigger then him lol. This was taken last weekend when we went to Kilkenny to visit Eugene's niece Grainne and her new baby.

Last night I took Elijah into the bath with me for the first time, he has only got bathed in his tummy tub up to now. He loved the bath and really got chilled out, Sophie took loads of photos of him and got this lovely one of Eugene drying him off......I love the intent look on Elijah's face

Well life is good here in the Howley house, Elijah is growing everyday and getting so cute. We had a busy week last week, on Monday the health nurse called to weigh Elijah and have a look at me. Elijah had put on a pound and a half an ounce in just a week !!!!!!! The health nurse was trilled with him and he now weighs 7lbs 9oz. He is thriving and I can see him growing everyday. On Tuesday I took Elijah to the mother and baby/toddler group and we had a great time. On Wednesday I took him to the knitting group in Middleton and he had loads of woman cooing over him. Thursday I took him in to the library for the knitting group and Thursday night we went to Douglas for another knitting group. I've managed to finish a jumper for Isaac and a cardigan for Elijah and I'm nearly finished a jumper for Elijah. I must start a few toys for Christmas soon. On Friday we went to Cork for the La Leche League meeting, it was great to be able to show off my little Elijah to everyone. Yvonne gave me a beautiful crochet cardigan and hat she had made for Elijah and Jane was in a sports shop in Paris when she heard the news that Elijah was born and she bought him a lovely present from there. We got lots of parcels in the post this week and even got one that had gone to Iceland by mistake lol!!!!! Thank you to Tracy, Donna, Pat & Kelly, Noelle and Marjorie, you are all so kind. I loved everything and in case your wondering which parcel went to Iceland, it was the one from Pat and Kelly.....it went from America to Iceland and then to Ireland lol!!!

Ireland is very clear on the parcel...but it still ended up in Iceland LOL!!!!

Today we went to the commitment ceremony of baby David. It was a lovely service and I really enjoyed it. I loved their choice of songs for the service. Bronwen got a few nice photo's, I didn't even pick the camera up.....must get back into taking photos again :-) Elijah just slept through the whole ceremony, even when he got passed around for cuddles!!!!

The lovely Lewis family.......Seth, Jessica, Daniel and baby David at David's commitment ceremony this morning

Elijah in my arms sleeping through everything

David....how cute is that face :-)

Daniel and a gingerbread man...yum yum :-)
Mervyn and Elijah