Last pre-baby Elna post.

I was working on this post before I went to the hospital to have Harriet, so it is the last post of pictures of our little family of three.  I have loved being a mom to just little Elna these past 22 months—she is a fun, sweet, and delightful little girl. 

I love Elna’s morning hair—it seriously always looks awesome!  Here she is eating her morning snack.

Elna loves putting on her own clothes and usually over the clothes she already has on.  We like the layered look at our house.

I could take pictures of E every night when she’s sleeping—such a sweet girl! (especially when she’s sleeping!)

About 38.5 weeks

Elna loves her baby dolls—here she is holding one of my baby dolls from when I was a young girl.

A lady at Costco had her pet macaw out front while her husband was inside getting the bird some frozen yogurt.  He is perched on my arm in the picture above—he was actually quite heavy.  Elna was pretty fascinated.

Wearing her high heels that Gaga Fae gave her for Christmas—she obviously feels very fancy and grown up as she walks around with her phone and purse.

Taking a very important call I’m sure.

I just saw this picture that Brian took.  He took it before he left for work.  We woke up just a bit later and Elna loved all of the light and how it danced around the room when I tapped some of the prisms.  It was an especially beautiful morning with incredible light.  I’m glad Brian thought to take a picture.

Chocolate chip pancakes on a Saturday morning.  Brian is the pancake maker in our family and we love it!

Elna really loves books—I’ll often find her reading to herself books that I have never read to her because they have too many words for her.  She is very funny to watch—she is always very serious about it and will often “talk”, making up words to the stories.  It’s really very cute.

Celebrating Pi day with Shepherds Pie and a Chocolate Coconut freezer pie.  Yum to both!

I woke up about a week before I had Harriet with some pretty intense contractions—Brian took off work thinking it was the big day and then nothing happened.  We went to a mall to walk around and try to get the babe to come but with no luck!  Elna had fun though!  After mall-walking we went to our favorite restaurant right now, Veggie Grill- yum!

Elna eating oatmeal by herself—up until just a few weeks ago I always fed her her oatmeal because it just seemed too messy to give her that control.  Now that I have another baby I’m glad I handed that job over to her.  She definitely gets messier, but that’s okay!  Elna also loves playing with her fridge magnets.

Admiring her freshly painted toenails.

For about a month Elna never got out of her big girl bed at night or for naps, but then one day that all changed.  It was about a week before Harriet was born and it involved lots of crying and some sleeping on the ground by the door.  Sad!

When all you eat is oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast, Lucky Charms on St. Patrick’s Day is pretty exciting!  I love cereal!  Brian doesn’t really.  So far, Elna seems to take after me.

We were anxious for Harriet to come before Brian’s parents left for Hawaii for 10 days.  She was due on the 19th and they left very early on the 21st.  We were determined to get her here by the 19th so that Elna could spend the 2 days we were in the hospital with her grandparents and have the smoothest experience possible.  Besides the mall walking that we did a week before she was born, I also started doing long, brisk walks more frequently during the week before she came, and we went on a pretty steep, fast paced hike a few days before she was born.  Here are some of the pictures from that hike to Wahkeena Falls:

I also took castor oil and molasses Sunday morning (March 17), which induced contractions for most of the day.  I even went to the hospital because the contractions were 2 minutes apart for so long.  I wasn’t dilated enough, so they sent me home.  The next day, Monday (March 18), I took even more castor oil.  Even though I took double what I had taken the day before, I hardly had any contractions.  A little discouraging.  Monday afternoon, right before I left for my doctor appointment (at which my midwife sent me over to the hospital to have my baby), I came into the kitchen, to this mess—made by Elna:

While I was getting ready for my appointment, Elna had pulled her stool up to the counter where my castor oil and molasses were, unscrewed the oil and accidently (I hope!) dumped all of the remaining oil all over the counter and her shirt, and was eating molasses out of the jar with the spoon when I finally came into the kitchen.   She keeps us on our toes!