Furlough

Yesterday, Brandon chipped out a piece of tile to try and find a match for the basement. I thought it might be a disaster trying to find the exact tile, but we totally lucked out. The "experts" found our exact tile in the first 10 minutes we were at the store! Praise God! Since it didn't take very much time, we headed to the mall so Brandon could get his hair cut. I didn't realize it until yesterday, but EVERY time Brandon takes Eli to the mall he takes him for a ride on the carousel. Great. This is something I can't do because of my motion sickness. Anyway, Eli now expects to ride it. He rode with Brandon and cried the second it stopped. We had to tell the horsies "bye bye" to get him to even leave it. I let him just walk around the mall until Brandon was done. He had a total temper tantrum melt down at the fountain. The whole issue was that he wanted to get IN the fountain. Watching it wasn't enough. Sheesh. He barely had taken a nap because of teething pain, so it wasn't a good day to be seen in public ;-) It was quite comical though. Finally today he's better. The teeth came through so fast. I can see them both easily and clearly now. Yippeee! Brandon forgot his lunch this morning, so it gave Eli and I an excuse to go visit him at work. Of course Brandon loved showing him off to everyone and all his coworkers were adoring him and trying to stuff goodies into his mouth. "Can he have a Cheetoh/Cookie/blah blah blah?" HELL NO :-) I am a health freak. Someone did manage to give him a piece of chocolate chip cookie when I wasn't looking (they'd obviously asked Brandon). He's never had chocolate before, and thought he'd died and gone to heaven. That guy was his new best friend. It was so funny! The whole company of Cessna is doing a 4 week furlough this summer. Originally, Brandon's group was going to be the only people still working. I was a litte dissapointed because I was hoping for some family time to travel, paint Eli's future room, fun family outings, and other projects. As of today his group is going to furlough too, just in a different way. They are going to furlough two people at a time, so there will still be people working and customers being helped. Brandon and I have to decide which 4 weeks of the summer he wants off, and they don't have to be in a row. I literally was jumping up and down when he told me. To me the time together and the help with Eli is worth WAY MORE than the money! He has to take one week vacation, one week unpaid, and two weeks unemployment money. Fine by me! We'll definitely go to Plano, TX once to be with Brandon's family and hit Tulsa as well. I'm really looking forward to summer!

Rain Rain go away!

Brandon stayed home from work yesterday and cleaned up the mess left over from 6 inches of rain in one night! He ripped out the carpet in the basement family room area (luckily the guest bedroom carpet was fine) and threw that and the padding away. He got all the nails etc up and got fans running on the concrete to dry everything out. Today it's dry finally. We're just going to extend the tile that's already in most of the basement out into the family room. Basements were not meant to have carpet (we knew this was inevitable when we bought the house)! I'm already missing the family room downstairs...it's a good distraction for Eli when he wants to nurse. Oh well, we have a contractor coming today to give a proposal, so hopefully we can get it taken care of soon. Eli is trying to say new things every day. This week he's started mimicking a cat's meow. If you ask him what a cat says he'll make this extremely high pitched sound with his lips pressed together. He got his 8th tooth in the past couple days. Poor guy. It is NOT fun having two teeth come in at one time. He's never had two come in together like this. He has been extremely whiny and difficult. Things have been better today. He spends a lot of time trying to chew everything in sight. The mesh feeder filled with chopped ice has been a life saver. It really is the only thing that gives him instant relief. I'm really looking forward to these two little bottom teeth finishing up their torture!

Tornadoes, Swine Flu, Flooding

I think the world might be coming to an end :-) Last night we had at least two tornadoes in Wichita. One was 12 miles west of our house!!! We have a weather radio and that thing was going off like crazy. The first time it was just a possible tornado and Brandon was making fun of all the drama. About 20 minutes after coming up from the basement there was an actual tornado. You should have seen Brandon's face when they said it was 12 miles west of downtown Wichita. He wasn't making fun of me then! Eli had fun reading books and playing in the basement all evening! Next came the flooding. We had over 5 inches of rain last night. I've never heard that hard of a rain fall for so long. It was crazy! I knew our basement was doomed. Most basements get damp, but no basement in Riverside can handle 5 inches of rain. Our carpet is soaked in the family room. Brandon is down pulling it up and throwing it away. I'm not going to deal with this again and I'm paranoid about mold. We're just going to tile and get a large carpet like rug down there. Next, is the swine flu. We have had 2 cases in Kansas. We'll see if we survive the week ;-)

Puddle loving!

Thursday night I went out to eat with my best friend Courtney and got gelato. It was a wonderful break! Courtney bought Brandon some hilarious bacon flavored toothpicks. We could not stop laughing; they were SO gross. Nothing like sucking on a pig to freshen your breath! Brandon took Eli swimming at Cessna. He had a blast because it's a zero entry pool, so he can walk around and play on his own. They were in playing/swimming for an hour and had turned into raisins and Eli still cried when he took him out! He's a fish! Here's some photos of another example. We were watering and a puddle formed. Eli thought he'd died and gone to heaven playing in it. He was literally trying to swim in the puddle. It was hot, so it was a perfect game to play. He got soaked and muddy from head to toe! We went with my cousins to the park and had a picnic last night. The guys road their bikes over and went riding afterwards. Eli had a great time playing with Granny and actually threw a ball back and forth with a little boy a few months older than him for a long time. After Eli went to sleep, the guys went and got us cherry limades and we hung out on the porch talking! Great night! My mom brought down a ton of perenniels and flower seeds from her garden to fill in some spots in our front yard, which is all a flower garden. I'm loving this weather!

Eli and I got to break out the shorts yesterday! It actually got like 85! Eli was watching Rica and laughing hysterically, and I realized he'd never seen her pant with her tongue out before. He seriously stood there laughing at her after our walk for a really long time. Eli is finally transitioning from two naps to one long mid day nap. I am SO excited! I hated being stuck at home all day because of naps. Before, I could only go out right at noon in between his two naps (which is rush hour and crazy everywhere), but now I have all morning to run errands and can go again after his nap if needed. I love it! We have just had a great week this week with weaning. Yesterday he only nursed morning, noon, and night. Trust me, that is an improvement. It was just like it clicked and he's finally ready. I'm so excited! Brandon took Eli to the park while I went annuals shopping. I got Wave Petunias, Red Salvia, and Cosmos. I added some zucchini and yellow squash to the garden as well. I bought Eli a little blow up pool to play in this summer and ordered a sand box. I wanted a natural looking one that would blend in with our flower gardens etc. in the back yard. This was the best looking one I could find! He's going to love the little pool. Yesterday he played with a bucket of water (and got soaked of course) for a really long time and had a blast splashing and throwing stuff in the water.

Eli's 7th tooth came in yesterday on the bottom. It seems like the bottom teeth have come in easier than the top. I'm hoping he still feels okay today. He started getting really whiny last night. Teething is tough! We went to the garden center and loaded up on more veggies. So far we have: red potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, beets, broccoli, cucumbers, sweet peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, okra, a couple strawberry bushes, and spicy peppers. I'm going to back today for the huge annuals sale and will probably pick up some squash. We have this one section we're not even using in the back, so I think it would be a good vine area. We're kind of testing to see what will do well in the area we have and then will expand on those veggies next year and cut the others out. Ah, I love gardening! Eli loves playing outside while I weed/water etc. I'm praising God we put in a sprinkler system last fall! Best money spent!

Here are some photos from our fun weekend! Eli and I took Starbucks to my friend Tanya this morning, so Eli could play with her son Seth. Eli had a lot of fun playing with all the new toys/balls. He's really cautious and quiet around other kids, but really likes being with them and playing with them. I feel FREE from stress finally. For the past few months I've been working on getting the CD completed, booking, etc. and I'm finally done with everything! Eli and I have been celebrating by just having a TON OF FUN!

Rocking the World ;-)

We have officially released our CD "One More Song" with a concert last night at our church. We had a great turnout and sold around 100 cds. It was a really fun show, and everyone in the crowd seemed to have a great time and really enjoyed the music. A ton of people had us signing their cds, which always feels weird to me, but I guess I should get over my embarrassment! My mom, and Amy Racchini baked a ton of cookies that everyone enjoyed and we had a big free coffee bar with like 7 different choices. Everything went perfectly! A big storm started right as we got playing and you could see flashes of lighting constantly through the windows, so we had an extra light show! As soon as I get some pictures back I'll be sure to post some! Hard copy cds are available for purchase off of our website now: www.emilyjudsonband.com and www.cdbaby.com. Digital downloads of the album are available on: digstation.com, amazon.com, lala.com, tradebit.com, Itunes, and Napster.

Yesterday morning we had to be at the church for a few hours setting up, and I was worried how Eli would do without me (considering he usually screams his head off), but it seems that he is perfectly fine without me as long as he is with my family or Brandon's family. God I wish they lived here! He had an absolute BLAST having both our families here. He was showered in attention and was constantly showing off. Brandon's mom stayed home with Eli from the concert while he slept, so she could spend time with him, which was a huge relief for me not to have to worry about him. I guess when both our moms were doing the bed time routine with him he kept pointing to what was next...he would point to his toothbrush, his book, etc. I guess they were cracking up. He even started pointing to his crib after his book until they put him in there. So funny! It was a wonderful weekend! I am finding success with coloring. He points up to his crayons several times a day wanting to color...SCORE! He also is trying to say "purple" and "please". We have been working on putting different colored objects on this color mat he has, and he's pretty accurate when it comes to blue, purple, and green. Whereas, yellow, orange, and red need some work! I'm looking forward to wonderfully warm weather from here on out. The forecast for the next two weeks is above 70 and some 80s. I'm looking forward to transplanting some flowers from my mom into our front yard (which is all garden) in some spots that were damaged when we had a sprinkler system put in. Oh, how I love outdoor projects!

Coloring

I am so excited that Eli is finally starting to figure out how to color. I have chunky toddler crayons, and we've been doing "art" every day. He really likes it, but usually just gets a couple scribbles and calls it quits. I'm hoping to make it a tradition to do some sort of an art project or craft every day (my mom always did that with us). Brandon and I have been crazy busy getting ready for our CD release concert this weekend. I sure hope someone comes ;-) ;-) We are all excited because two members of our band got engaged this past week. They are both getting married in August (I think we'll all be taking that month off). I'm so happy for them. All the more to celebrate on Saturday! All of Brandon's family is coming up, so we're excited to see everyone. Has it already been 2 months since Eli's birthday party? Crazy! Eli and I have been playing/walking outside every chance we can get this week. He could seriously live outside! It's wonderful! Last night Eli threw a noodle with sauce on it and it stuck to the wall. I look over and Rica is eating it off the wall. Oh my word. She seriously cleaned it up completely. No cleaning for me....ha ha!

Eli loves to play "guns" with my Dad. He even says "Pow" now. A lot of people are weird about allowing their kids to play guns, but no matter how much they try a boy will turn anything into a gun (stick, broom, finger etc). It's been amusing to me to see this with our friends kids over the years. His other favorite game with my family is hide and seek. He always starts yelling "EEEEK" when he wants to play. He'll come find you all over the house, but his favorite place for you to hide is the closet. When my sister or mom come into our house he immediately demands for them to play hide and seek and starts yelling "EEK, EEEEK, EEEEEEEEK" until he's beet red.

One Year Pictures!

My mom was kind enough to scan Eli's one year picture and our family picture. I love that Elijah is holding my hair in it. It will always remind me of all the times he's played/tickled/pulled my hair during nursing.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter with family, even though we were still all trying to recover from our vacation. A very funny event happened to Brandon on Friday. After eating with my cousin and family at River City Brewery (where Eli and I enjoyed some awesome mushroom Mac N Cheese and I drank their awesome homemade root beer), Brandon was too exhausted to go to a movie so he opted to put Eli to bed while we all went to a movie. He had just taken Eli's clothes off for his bath and turned around for a minute and smelled poop. He turned back around dreading what he was about to see. There was Eli covered in poop. It was all over his hands, toes, face, and he had drug it on his feet across the floor. When Brandon picked him up to throw him in the bath Eli swiped poop on Brandon's face. Seriously! So glad I wasn't here to clean up that mess! Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we celebrated Easter with all the Corman family and relatives here in Easter. Brandon was brave enough to grill chicken and burgers for such a big group. It only took him 1 1/2 hours to finish all the grilling needed :-) It was a great party! Eli got to see his cousin Luke again. Luke was crying one time and I told Eli he was hungry, and Eli first held out his arms to hold him then guided my cousin who was holding Luke to his room and pointed to the glider where I always nurse Eli. It was so cute. Eli was taking care of him. Today at church Eli was dancing like crazy to the music and kept saying "more" when they'd finish.

Haircuts

We took Rica to the groomer last night because it's finally getting warm enough for her to have a schnauzer cut and not her fuzzy winter coat. I could not stop laughing when I got her "report card". First of all, I always take her to Petsmart and they've never even given me a report card before. They just always tell me how horrible she is. This report card had A through F. You can guess which one Rica got....F! Next to the F it said, "I was a Little Devil, but my groomer still loves me." I guess I shouldn't think it's funny, but I do. Eli also got a short hair cut yesterday. His shaggy do was just getting too long. He did so well! I was armed with books and snacks and kept him busy. He didn't even mind the buzzers. We just would warn him saying she was going to "tickle" him. They were impressed, and I was so proud of him. He looks so much older and more like a little boy. It almost makes me sad. Rebecca and Joel came up for Easter weekend. It's so great to see them since they didn't make it to Santa Barbara. Nothing like a fire on your plane to ruin the trip! Eli was happy to see them and chased their dogs around like crazy. My cousin Sam lives like a block away from us, so they are going to hang out there after Eli goes to bed each night. We had some funky weather this evening. Brandon and I had both commented that things were looking a little weird. I decided to take a nice relaxing bath and read a magazine...I was so excited. I literally get in and am in there for like a minute and the tornado alarm goes on and it starts hailing. I yelled for Brandon to take Eli to the basement (which he already was), I jump out, pull the drain, throw some clothes on and the alarm goes off immediately and everything came to a stop. What the crap? I knew something was fishy because my own weather radio didn't go off but the city one did (when normally my radio is always a few minutes ahead on storms/tornadoes). So much for my nice relaxing bath. It was kind of funny though. We got Eli's one year pictures back and our family pictures back. I will have my mom scan them next week and I'll put them on here. He looks so cute (of course)! I took Eli to the Christian book store to try to find a book on the Easter story for his Easter basket (all the contents of which I already bought before our trip so I wouldn't be stressed out). I was appalled that I couldn't find ONE single kids book on the death and resurrection of Christ. I know it's kind of a gruesome tale (but what bible story isn't...Noah's Ark where God kills everyone on earth, Daniel in the lions den, Jonah getting swallowed by a whale, David and Goliath etc.). I settled with a flap book of Noah's ark and an awesome story about Elijah and the Widow for Eli when he's older. Of course any book about the prophet Elijah I HAVE to have!

California....

Here are some memories of California:

1. Went to Carpinteria State Beach many times (because it was a couple blocks from our hotel)
2. Walked the Salt Marsh
3. Flew kites on the beach
4. Saw the world's largest Torrey Pine tree (seriously, it was huge)
5. Hiked twice to see the Seal/Sea Lion rookery-it was wonderful to watch them swimming and nursing their pups
6. Brandon and Will went whale watching and almost got thrown off the sail boat it was so choppy
7. Watched dolphins at the beach
8. Walked the pier and wharf in Santa Barbara (Eli liked watching the skaters in the skate park)
9. Visited with my grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle at their beautiful house overlooking the ocean
10. Eli loved swimming in the cooled down hot tub
11. Eli also loved the automatic doors in the hotel and would throw his hand out and use his "powers" to open them
12. Eli loved playing with lemons off my aunt's tree and trying to destroy her beautiful landscaping
13. Ate amazing Mexican food (Brandon was thrilled to eat tomales his favorite) and eat a cut of beef that only is popular in California called Tri Tip (my uncle Bill grilled it and it was incredible)
14. Eli threw up all over himself in the car on the curvy drive up the mountain to my aunt's house (overfed him right before we left...I will never eat pasta with peas, corn, and carrots again)
15. Went to the SB Zoo and Eli rode a train for the first time. He loved it! He loved the penguins and flamingos
16. Celebrated my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary
17. Eli enjoyed counting to three with Aunt Cathy...he still will hold something up and squeal "EEEE" for "Three"
18. Survived flying with a toddler. Enjoyed everyone's comments of how cute Eli was and how good he was on the flights from Denver to Santa Barbara and the return. The flights from Wichita to Denver and vice versa were not so good, but people were still gracious.
19. Loved staying in the adorable beach town of Carpinteria and walking down the main drag with surf shops etc.
20. Eli loved the ocean and couldn't get enough of the waves washing over his legs.
21. Overall, a wonderful trip and can't wait to go back!!!

We're Home!

We arrived home late last night from Santa Barbara. Eli is so tired he's still sleeping and on California time, so it's going to be interesting to try to adjust back. We had a marvelous trip and both Brandon and I were so sad to leave. We felt like we could have stayed through the week easily. Eli was a total trooper on this trip. He adjusted well to everything. Of course he had his whiny moments, but overall it was awesome! By the end of the trip he absolutely loved the beach and the ocean. He loved the waves washing over his feet and legs. We flew a kite on the beach, which he enjoyed as well. We came at a perfect time to see the seals and sea lions in a cove at the beach with all their babies. It was so fun to watch them swimming and nursing their pups. We enjoyed watching 8 dolphins swim right in front of us at the beach, as well. Brandon and Will went whale watching on a sail boat, but it was so windy they didn't see much besides seals, dolphins, etc. It was so wavy they actually almost went overboard a couple times and had a blast! My aunt and uncle were so nice in letting us use their house for naps because they live on the side of a mountain overlooking Santa Barbara and the ocean. We were able to relax with our family and enjoy the beautiful views. We got to visit with my cousins and grandparents. It was wonderful to see everyone and we appreciated Megan and Bob making the drive down from San Francisco to visit and my cousin Meredith up from L.A. More details to follow!

California dreaming

We made it! The first flight was a little rough as we were figuring things out, and Eli cried/whined a bit. The second flight he was so tired he zonked out immediately and slept half the flight. With snacks, toys, and books we were able to keep him entertained for the 2 hours flight without a peep! Of course Santa Barbara was beautiful the second we stepped off the plane, and we were so thrilled to have survived plane rides with a toddler! The weather was beautiful. We checked into our hotel, and while I took a nap Brandon took Eli on a walk to the salt marshes enjoying the flowers, fish, and birds. The beach is a couple blocks from our hotel, so we took Eli for a quick run there before bed. He was intrigued. He definitely ate the sand....there was no stopping it because he got some on his hand. Today we are going to take some more walks in the adorable area by the beach with shops and surf shops. We'll go to my aunt's house tonight for a barbecue and enjoy the beautiful views of the ocean from their house.