Dear Elijah,
Well, it’s been eventful around here. You are doing great! You are so brave and always trying to learn new things. Right now you are pulling yourself up using the furniture, and smiling really big every time you get on your feet. You always want to stand now. Sitting has become a terrible thing for you all of a sudden. You cry if we sit you down on your bottom. You would always rather be holding onto one of us, or a piece of furniture practicing standing. You let go all the time and stand all by yourself! Your longest standing time is 20 seconds! Way to go! You are seriously so talented. You JUST turned 8 months and here you are standing on your own. You even brush our hands off of you when we try and help you balance. The other day you thought you could walk, and you let go, took one step and down you fell. I leapt up from the couch so fast, but I was 1 second too late. You bumped your little head! But that didn’t stop you… Nope, you just kept trying to stand on your own. Let’s just say, you have been taking lots of tumbles. Hard for me not to be a hover mom, and I try to give you your space to learn, but it’s so hard. So I hover, and then give you space, and then hover, and give you space. Hahahaha… Hey, less tumbles that way. You are such a boy, you never let tumbling, falling, or hurting yourself get in your way! That’s my little man! (um…. You just said “dada”) Like right this second… You and daddy are playing and he kept saying, “dada…dada… say dada!” and you did… GOOD JOB! It’s very cute. You make so many weird sounds. When you and I go shopping you spend most of the time saying… “mama… mama… mama” because I’m always walking through the store telling you to say that to keep you entertained. I still don’t really know though, if you actually know what you are saying. Hahaha
Now to the not so good stuff going on around us… We had you sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago. You were sleeping so good, and it only took us 2 nights of letting you cry a bit. You would cry, I would come and rub your head, and then you would go back to sleep. After two nights of that, you were perfect! Sleeping all the way till 7:30am. We were so glad and thankful. Then one night the neighbors started blasting music as loud as music can go at 4 IN THE MORNING!!! 4am! They woke you up and you were screaming, and I felt so bad for you that I brought you into our room, and you were so startled that you didn’t go back to sleep for a while. Finally you fell asleep, but since you were in our bed, you kept waking up wanting to nurse! AAAAaaaagh, it was so infuriating! Not you, but the fact that now you were all out of whack because of very inconsiderate people. The following night, the same thing happened. Then the night after that, the music was not as loud as the voices coming straight through your wall. We stood in your room, and heard them very clear and loud talking very yucky, and not nice. So again, we could not put you in your own crib! Finally the last straw was they parked in the driveway blocking our space. This is not the first time they had done this, and everyone who lives here knows that you are not supposed to park in the driveway since it blocks all the garages. I was already so upset from the past few nights, that I looked at your daddy and said, ok babe, give me the number of our property manager, because this is just rude and ridiculous! We got inside of our apartment and I was standing by the door hanging up the keys when I heard the neighbors come out of their place and start talking about us. They overheard me say that to your daddy, and started saying very mean things, and basically that we can complain all we want, they will just get worse… So they planned on rebelling if we reported them. Ugh! Then they said some other stuff that did not sit well with me, especially being a mother. I broke down. I felt trapped in a terrible place with no way out. They were not here when we moved in, and ever since they have been here, it’s been hard to be neighbors with them. We smile at them, we try to say hello, we are considerate, but nothing works. They will not say hello back, they won’t look at us, and they are very inconsiderate. So now we are in a situation where we want to try and stick it out because we don’t want to make it even worse than it is. Your daddy has tried talking to them. He went and knocked on their door three times, and they refuse to answer. They have no interest in hearing what we have to say I guess. We decided it’s unhealthy for us to stay here next to people who do not care, and also people we cannot trust at all. We have no idea what they are capable of, and my biggest concern is your safety and your daddy’s safety. After the third time of your daddy trying to talk to them, I told him to not bother anymore, that we tried, we prayed about it, and now we just have to move on. You and your daddy keep me in good spirits, but I will be honest, inside it kills me every day that we are here having to deal with our walls shaking from music being blasted, every day having to be ignored by our neighbors, and every night having to keep you in our room not because it’s what is best for you, but because we have no choice. I keep telling myself that other people in the world have it way worse than us, and God will help us through it! God is so good. I know that praying is the only way I’m able to stand this. Thank God for our friends and family who have been also praying. I just get all worked up because as a mommy, I want to give you the best environment that we possibly can. I want you to be surrounded by positive people, and stuff. You know, all that jazzzzzzz… I’m quite protective, it’s my nature. So as of right now, you, daddy and I are searching for a new place to live!!! This means moving AGAIN! I don’t particularly like moving… But, I am thankful that we are able to move, and that our lease is almost up. Yay! Great timing God. We know this could have been a lot longer of a terrible situation, but at least it started getting really bad when our lease is almost up ;). Your daddy and I are trying to save money so that someday soon we can buy a house. We would love to raise a family in a house, and plan on someday, God willing, having more babies. To get you into a better neighborhood that may be more family friendly, we have to be willing to spend a tad more money on rent. Blah! Pretty lame! I told your daddy I would live in a studio apartment with half a kitchen as long it was mostly quiet, and the walls were a bit thicker than here ;). We happen to live on the one street in this area that is like the party street. It’s not just our neighbors, it’s all 3 of them, plus half of the block. I guess if they are all in it together and all of them live on this block to party, we should be moving along ;) haha! We have been looking at 1 bedroom places in areas we are more familiar with. I have no worries about going to a one bedroom at all, I think we can totally do it! I mean, we love each other, so tight courters are great! Haha… Plus, I grew up in a one bedroom place with my brother sister and my mom, and we had the best time! Your grandma slept on a bed that pulled out from the wall! So cool! I used to think that was pretty awesome. So in my mind right now, the smaller the better ;) Save money, buy later! It will be exciting when the time comes to buy a house! But for now we are praying and having patients until we feel God is leading us in that direction. We are in the middle of praying for God to help us find a good new place to live. We have hope that God will lead us to where we should be. We had to rent this place in a hurry and never got to inspect the area, and also were very unfamiliar with this part of San Pedro. Now we have more time, and can really investigate! Hehe… BUT, nothing can steal my CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!!! I mean this is a celebration of the best day ever! Jesus was born, and we get to think about just how awesome that day must have been! Angels singing, wise men traveling, bright star shining! AAAaaaah, it’s just lovely. Jesus is soooooooooooooo the reason for this wonderful season! We have been having the best time doing Holiday things, and walking through lights, decorating trees, and drinking hot cocoa. We have loved seeing your reaction to the brightness of Christmas. You laugh and love everything you have seen. You also got to watch your cousins in the church Christmas musical, and you loved it! You went to the dress rehearsal and the real show and you were bouncing along with the sweet songs, and watching all the kids, and also watching your daddy as a shepherd! Good stuff babe. Your first Christmas has so far been a blast, and it’s not even Christmas day yet! I’ll keep you updated on our apartment hunt and how we are doing on getting a move on… hahaha! I love you Elijah, and you are so very important to us. God will find us another place. Hopefully a place where we can once again train you to sleep through the night peacefully. ;) Hmmmmmmm, maybe I’ll move us into my old room at my parents’ house and all 6 of us can share one bathroom! Hahahahahaha! You know what’s crazy? As funny as that statement sounds, there used to be 6 of us sharing that bathroom in grandma and grandpas house. Yep, it was my mom, my Dean, my sister (your nina), my sister Maila, my brother C.J., my little bro Jake, and me… Wait, that’s 7!!! Oh no wait, Melissa lived in the back apartment at that time, so yes there were only 6 of us ;) Hahahahaha… You see, I can make anything work ;) Oh oh oh before I go, one of my favorite stories was when your uncle Jake, my little brother, was only 3 years old, and I was 17, we both had to pee so bad that we were racing to the bathroom. I was like, “No Jake, move, I’m going to pee my pants”, and he was pushing me and pulling my leg yelling, “Phee, phee, no, me first! I have to pee!!!” We were racing to the door and as we were trying to push each other out of the doorway, he slid between my legs, got to the toilet and did his thing… So not fair! Yes, I was fighting with a 3 year old, but he was just as strong and stubborn as I was. Hahaha… Ok, I’m done… Love ya!
