The other day when we were at Babies R Us stocking up on supplies, Brandon let Eli loose in the toy section to play with everything. Guess what the two things he picked out were? "My Daddy and I" book....his favorite at home, and this big ball that is his favorite at home. Brandon also showed him this ridiculously expensive Elmo just to see what he'd do and he loved it, then he hit it. We picked out a doll for a birthday party we're going to and Eli immediately kissed it. Actually, I can't keep him from kissing the "baby" or trying to steal its bottle or ducky so I wrapped it. He just loves babies! I was laughing my head off inside when I overheard this little girl, who was riding around on this pink tricycle, ask if she could have it. When the mom responded that she already had one at Grandma's house the little girl whined in despair, "But this one matches my clothes!" The difference between boys and girls :-)

Breaking news yesterday was that Cessna had decided they needed to lay off 4600 people. It was a bit shocking, but Brandon wasn't escorted out so we're taking that as a good sign. They are talking about furloughs starting in March. We'll see what happens. Everything is just starting to get crazy. Our best friends all work at Cessna, so we're all worried for each other. Cessna has always been a lot more stable than the rest of the airplane companies (Boeing is laying off 10,000 people), so we've been thankful for that over the years! I take back every bad thought I had when Brandon told me they weren't giving out "cost of living" raises in March. I'm just glad he has a JOB! I keep thinking about how stressed I would have been if this had all happened last year...me 9 months pregnant. I'm thankful the economy held off one more year for me :-)

Run Eli Run!

Eli still loves reading books. I keep forgetting to count how many books he picks out for me to read in a day, but it is a LOT! He can easily recognize his favorite books in the bookshelf even if I try to disguise them (Hey...if you'd read "My Daddy and I" a million times you'd be hiding it too). I rotate a stack of books out in the dining room too, so we have a couple book stations. When we read "The Foot Book" Eli tries to mimic me making a pig sound. It's really adorable and comes out as a growl. It is the first animal noise he's tried to make. He won't do it for any other pigs in any other book or toy, but just the Dr. Seuss book. I bought Eli toddler crayons for Valentine's Day. They are big and round for an easy grasp. Hopefully he's not like his father who always informs me of how much he hated coloring as a kid. Who hates coloring? What a wierdo! I have successfully changed the order of Eli's bedtime to make it easier for me to wean him. Now he nurses, has his snack, bath, teeth brushed, pajamas, prayer, and bed. Now anyone can put him to bed and he doesn't associate going to sleep with nursing. Yes!

We're iced in today, so I may start getting cabin fever and go crazy. I am so ready for Winter to be over. It has been extremely mild compared to last year, but I still despise the snow and ice. I don't even take a chance driving Eli around if it's bad because of all the crazy drivers here in Wichita. I'm really looking forward to Spring when Eli can start running around outside and play on his own at the park. Brandon's boss is retiring in March and they are dissolving his position, so we're kind of waiting to see how crazy Brandon's work load is going to be here soon. Luckily with his job he can never bring anything home, so this place is still a sanctuary! Before his boss retires he has to use 3 days of comp time he's built up. He's going to take a 4 day weekend for my birthday (Feb 14), so we can go to Minneapolis to celebrate. My parents had offered to babysit so we could go out and celebrate both my b-day and Valentine's day, so I'm sure we'll head to Salina at some point and take them up on the offer! Eli just loves to explore all day, so he'll enjoy being at my parent's house getting into everything.

What a weekend! We were sad Brandon's mom couldn't come up, but look forward to seeing Brandon's family at Eli's first b-day party next month. My parents came and spent the night and my mom babysat Eli, while my dad came with us to the show at Borders. Our concert went really well. It was a small space, but more than 60 people sat or stood listening and drinking coffee. A ton of Brandon's coworkers/boss etc. came, which was so neat! All of my family in Wichita came as well as friends and perfect strangers who just happened to be in the store. We had a lot of people write their e-mails down to be notified when the CD is out. I was so relieved to hear that my mom and Eli had a blast and no issues putting him to bed. A funny thing occurred while she was babysitting. Yesterday, Eli was really being very verbal and trying to copy a lot of what we were saying. He said clear as day, "Poo Poo Potty" laughed hysterically and then said it again "Poo Poo Potty". Isn't that so funny?! Every time he sees us going to the bathroom I always sing this crazy bathroom song I heard on Super Nanny once that he loves. I guess he picked up on a few words :-) My parents were amazed at how well he's communicating now. He's truly able to show you by pointing what he wants and where he wants to go. They also got the biggest kick out of his first attempt at a tantrum. He balls his fists and holds his breath grunting and turns extremely red. It is really hard not to laugh. He mainly does it if you won't take him upstairs to see the stupid gorilla mural. That gorilla needs to die. For some strange reason he wouldn't drink his milk out of his sippy cup for my mom and kept pointing at a glass on the table (sort of a goblet/wine glass), so finally my mom just put the milk in the glass and he drank it right down. He really knows what he wants and keeps trying until you get it! It makes life a lot easier for us to know what he wants! He likes to go to the refrigerator and look at everyone's pictures. He can point out a lot of our family members in pictures. He also likes to look at his baby pictures and he kisses and hugs "Baby Eli". Today we had all of my entire Corman side over for Hog Wild Barbeque. Eli had pulled beef for the first time and loved it! We're really loving all the new things he can do, wrestling, and just enjoying the start of the toddler times. Ask me again in a few months I may have changed my mind!
P.S.-His second top tooth is about to break through....about time....maybe soon I'll be able to ditch the mesh feeder I've been stuffing with ice and letting him gnaw on!

Last night we went with our bible study to do some service projects at the church. The women sanitized toys in the nursery and the men mopped and cleaned windows. Of course we had all the kids with us in the nursery. We would clean a toy and they would get it dirty again....big surprise. Eli actually had fun for about an hour even though it was past his bedtime. He ran around with the kids playing with toys. At one point, he was trying to get to me and pushed his friend Ethan down. Just a nice jab to the chest. Ethan is such a sweet kid and used to his older sibling, so it didn't even phase him. If the same had happened to Eli he would have been screaming his head off. They have completely opposite personalities, that is for sure. If there is something in Eli's way he "moves" it. It definitely could become an issue, and he might need some work...or some manners ;-) Eli and I enjoyed the beautiful weather this week. Unfortunately, it has gone cold again today. We took Rica for walks every day and enjoyed the fresh air. Tomorrow our band is playing at Borders Bookstore/Cafe on the west side of Wichita at 21st and Maize at 7:00. Should be fun!

squatting...

Eli's new past time is squatting...ha ha. He has decided it is fun to see how low he can squat before he starts to lose his balance. He also likes to hold onto something and squat to look underneath it or just to view it from a different angle. It just looks so cute with his little butt sticking out. I'm going to have to try and catch him in the act with the camera. I noticed a few times when he got mad he squatted down whining/crying. I think that might be his version of a tantrum. It's so funny. The last couple of days he rediscovered crawling. He hasn't crawled even once since he learned how to stand up on his own. He definitely won't crawl on the main floor, but in the basement he's crawled a couple times playing with toys. Yippee no head injuries :-) He loves to go upstairs and see the weird gorilla mural that's on the wall in the room that will someday be his room. Right now it's just storage, but he sure loves that weird gorilla. Crap. I was hoping to paint over it. Now he's in love. We're probably stuck with it.

Eli announcing his new president...

We think Eli's started teething on the second top tooth. I'm dreading it! He woke up a ton last night, but wasn't very cranky today...so we'll see! Brandon was one of 3 people out of the 15,000 that work at Cessna who had to work today :-( It was kind of a bummer, but Eli and I had a fun day taking a long walk and an outing to Starbucks and Babies R Us. He met a girl friend his age who may have been a foot taller :-) Poor Eli! Eli had his first chicken nugget today. I've been trying to think of things I can make that we can all eat and was curious to see if he could handle chicken nuggets. He loved it! I barely have any baby food left in the freezer. I am kind of sad to stop making it. He's doing so well with feeding himself. For lunch he had a grilled cheese, and it just seemed strange. One month and he's a year old and officially a toddler. I feel like I left the baby stage several months ago when he started walking. This first year has FLOWN by! I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow and he'll be 18 and headed off to college and I'll be thinking the same thing. He still LOVES to play ball. It doesn't matter what kind/shape/size he will play ball for hours. Rica always tries to get in on the action. They definitely entertain eachother. I'm really glad he'll be raised with a dog. I hope he loves animals as much as I did as a kid. There's barely an animal I didn't have growing up! So much fun!

Yesterday my cousin Ellen watched Eli for us while we practiced for an hour. It was so sweet of her because she knew ahead of time he probably would have separation issues. He actually did pretty well for her. Just some crying every once in a while between distractions. This morning we our band led worship at Mosaic Church. They don't have a worship leader/band right now, and we wanted to bless them with some music. It went really well and the best part was that my brother stayed with Eli at our house and they had a really good time with NO crying or separation issues. I had Will come an hour before I left and he played with Eli the whole time, so it was less of a shock when I left. I put Eli down for a nap before I left. I think I was gone 2 hours, and when I came back Eli showed one little moment of excitement and then went back to wanting attention/playing with Will. He even cried when Will left! What a relief! The whole key is keeping him so distracted/busy that he doesn't even have a chance to miss me.

Crib fun!

Eli finally figured out that he can stand up in his crib. It's funny to us because he's been able to stand up on his own, without holding on to anything, for a while now but still had never tried in his crib. The other day I laid him down for a nap, and in the monitor I saw him so proud of himself running from one side of the crib to the other and playing with his aquarium that he has in there. I went in the room and there he was holding onto the side jumping up and down as high as he could go. Believe it or not he hasn't tried it at night and it hasn't affected his naps. It has been so cold here lately, so I haven't gotten Eli out much except to go to bible study and finally the store yesterday. Eli had fun playing with the kids at bible study. It was so cute because our friend's daughter who is 3 was singing along during worship and she just kept saying "Lord, Lord, Lord." Adorable. Both her and her brother (16 months) were lifting their hands copying. Eli just kept wanting to play the guitar. We borrowed Ethan's little guitar and Eli strummed along with the music. He loves guitars. Yesterday, Eli and I went to Babies R Us to get some gear. It was nice because the temp actually rose above 10 degrees for once :-) Eli loved seeing a newborn behind us in line. He loves babies.

Let's play FARM!

The tip of Eli's top tooth has finally came through, so he slept better last night. I'm not looking forward to the other top tooth, but I'm sure it's lurking waiting to torture us all. We had fun yesterday playing "monster" where I crawl around chasing him and he laughs and laughs and tries to run. He's able to understand so much, so playing is more and more fun. We like to play "farm" with his Little People Fisher Price farm set. Yes...finally imaginative play! That's my cup of tea....barbies, dolls, doll house, house, tea party, dress up etc. Okay, with a boy, playing farm is probably as close as I'm going to get. Please give me a break from playing with balls, airplanes, and running around like a wild man. At least I can give the animals and people voices :-) It's interesting to me because Eli really does seem to get it. He really likes playing farm and opening and shutting the gates, doors, and silo. He's learning to share as well :-) He likes to hold out whatever toy he's been chewing on for me to "taste" it. Adorable. Of course we encourage "sharing" as much as possible. I especially find it amusing when he's playing with his dump truck and he wants to give me a taste of the fake pile of dirt. Yummy! He's discovered how to take his arms out of his shirt. It cracks us up!

Eli and I had a great day yesterday. His teething pain didn't kick in until the afternoon, so we enjoyed a normal fun wild day. I forgot to mention that you can say to Eli, "Where do we go to go pee pee in the potty?" and he will run and take you to the bathroom toilet. Isn't that hilarious? It is so cute. He can take you to a lot of places in our house or point to them if you just ask. Here's some pictures of Eli in his Converse shoes...Chucks as we call them! Rebecca gave them to me when I was pregnant and I've been dying for him to fit into them! We found out yesterday that they are laying off 2000 Cessna employees...the Subway jab doesn't seem so funny anymore. We should find out in the next couple weeks. Hard times!

Eli and Luke

My sister is here to interview for an internship in Wichita, so Eli has loved having his Aunt Becca here and his Uncle Will (who came to babysit so we could go to lunch)! Eli has just started having separation anxiety. It's frustrating because he's never had it before, and all of a sudden it's just showing up. I know it's a phase that most babies go through in the toddler transition, but I just hope it doesn't last long. I'm going to try a bunch of little tricks to try and help it, but mostly it will be waiting it out. He just has a hard time handling separation from Brandon or I...so at least I can still go out as long as Brandon is home. Brandon celebrated his 8th year anniversary at Cessna this week. I'm so proud of him. It has been a wonderful job and he loves working there. In the news, it came out today that Cessna is going to lay off 1000 more people this spring. A little nerve wracking, although Brandon has always wanted to work at Subway :-) We got our final CD back from mastering! It sounds great! We're totally thrilled with the quality and how it all turned out in the end. Just have to finish the artwork and it should be done in the next couple months.

Eli standing up

Standing...teething.....baby Luke etc.

Yesterday, my mom and brother came down to spend the night, and give their support to my Mitchell relatives who's grandpa just passed away. My dad came down today for the funeral. Eli loves his family! My mom kept saying "Elijah James Judson" and Eli would always look really fast and laugh. He thought it was hilarious. I hardly ever use his full name or call him "Elijah", so it always took him by surprise. My mom commented that he's laughing/smiling/expressive more now that he is walking around on his own. He changes a lot in just a couple weeks. He kept running to show off for my dad. This first year has been amazing as far as development goes. What a miracle! It was neat because my mom was here to see him stand up on his own for the first time (without holding on to anything). He discovered today how to stand up from a sitting position and stand up from crawling/stomach position. He brings his legs up so his butt is up in the air with his palms flat on the floor and slowly leans back and up until he's upright. The look on his face is priceless. He's SO proud of himself. My life is basically over. My days of getting things done with him crawling around playing with toys are GONE! The second I would put him on his stomach to crawl he would pop right back up and take off running. I'm curious to see if he'll ever crawl again. I did manage to keep him sitting for a while today because he's teething. His upper right tooth is coming through, so he enjoyed gnawing on anything and everything today.

I got a glimpse of what life might be like if we had another baby (don't worry NOT anytime soon). My cousin Megan and her husband brought their baby Luke over. Eli was OBSESSED with him. He was sleeping in his car seat and Eli just wouldn't leave him alone. He would run to the car seat and I would pull him away to keep him from touching/waking Luke up, and Eli would cry/whine every time I took him away. It was so adorable. I've never seen Eli with a newborn. All of our friend's kids are older (although one of our friends is about to have another baby) and I'm curious to see if Eli is just as in love with him as he was Luke. Even when people were holding Luke, Eli was just enamored. It was precious. Brandon is at the WSU basketball game with Will...in the student section. It's probably the only place where Brandon would be considered an "old fart" :-)

We went and got Eli's new car seat Sunday. What a relief. It is a convertible car seat(Evenflo Triumph Advance LX) that will take him up to 50 lbs. Of course I researched for hours :-) looking for the best one. This one is in the middle as far as price range and ranked in the top 5 right up with the extremely expensive ones. Right now we still have to keep it reversed because he isn't a year old or 20 lbs....but he is close (18 lbs right now). We tested it out on a trip to the grocery store last night, and it was AWESOME! He can see out the back and side windows and I could see his little eyes just taking everything in. Although Eli is pretty small for his age, the infant seat was just getting too cramped. We can hardly get him in the straps with his heavy coat on, which has been totally annoying. He liked playing with the box...another fort! Rica liked it too! Eli is walking all on his own now. I just follow him around all day avoiding catastrophes. We play "find the stairs/couch/Eli's room/coffee table/high chair/etc." game all day. He just goes from one thing to the next. I have discovered if I need a break that he will sit for as many books as I'm willing to read. As long as I let him pick out which ones. So cute!

A couple of long days....

Eli's cold is getting better. He doesn't even have a runny nose anymore, but still has a bit of a cough. Now, I have to somehow convince him he doesn't need to be getting up every 2 hours in the night anymore....that should be interesting. Yesterday, I almost killed Rica. I put Eli down for his afternoon nap and she started barking after 5 minutes and woke him up and I never could get him back down. I was defeated! Today we had my cousin babysit while we had band practice for 2 hours. She called me towards the end that he was crying, so I rushed home and put him down for a nap. She stayed while he slept and we ran off and did another band photo shoot. We borrowed an old couch from our church and stuck it in the woods. It was sweet. Eli started crying for us again when he woke up, so we bundled him up and my cousin strolled him around while we finished up. My poor cousin....she was a trooper! I am so exhausted. This has been a long week. Eli has been waving HI and BYE whenever we want him to. We started laughing today because we said, "Wave bye bye to Mama and Dada" and he turned and waved goodbye to the babysitter before we'd even left. That should have been a sign :-) Brandon got a haircut and shaved for the first time in a week. He no longer looks like a homeless man, which is nice. I've been working on Eli being more "gentle" with the dog. I've now taught him to pet her with his one little finger. He can only do so much damage with one little finger. It's so cute. He just strokes her legs/feet with his little pointer finger. My brother Will and Brandon bet the fish in our pond would die during this winter (b/c it has frozen and thawed so many times because of the weird weather). The lady before us said they'd survived two years without her ever even doing anything (they have a self feeder plant). The picture says it all. I'm kind of relieved because by this spring I want the darn fish pond emptied and filled with potting soil so Eli doesn't drown and we'd all been arguing about what to do with the fish. Poor fish. Check out Eli's wild hair during his bath...he has a LOT of hair!

Sick week...

There hasn't been much time to write between Eli being sick and all the projects we tackled this week. Brandon's never had this much time off before, so we have totally enjoyed it and I'm not looking forward to his return to work! Eli still has his nasty cough, but his runny nose isn't that bad. Until last night, he was sleeping okay, but finally his cough caught up with him in the night last night and I had to hold him upright for a while to get him to stop coughing. A few times a day we've had to make trips to the steamy bathroom to help him stop coughing. Yesterday morning he threw up all over me when he couldn't stop coughing, so I called the doctor and we brought him in, just for her to check him over, since the office would be closed today. He just has a virus, but she listened to his chest and lungs carefully and gave me tips to try to help him get the gunk out and what to keep an eye on. For the most part he acts like he feels okay. We (most of this was Brandon) organized the storage room, changed all the door knobs and locks, put in a black ceiling fan/light in the nursery, and a lot more little projects my foggy brain can't remember. We did enjoy one warm day where we bundled Eli up and took him to feed the geese along the river. We've really enjoyed having my brother staying with us. He's helped us out a lot with Eli! Brandon bought these gel bubbles that his mom uses with our nephew, and Eli loves them. They don't pop very easily and last way longer than most. Eli says "Bububububub" for bubble. It is so cute. He remembered doing bubbles last night in the bathroom and when I took him in there this morning for some steam he started in with the "bubububu" hoping for some fun! (that one picture with his lips together his him saying "bubble")

Good news: Our CD was sent off to be mastered! Finished product coming soon!