Mirror Mirror on the wall....

Whenever we put something on Eli, he always runs to see what it looks like in the mirror. I was secretly hiding with the camera because he would run and want to wear Brandon's hat and then come and check himself out in the mirror. He's so funny! We're having a much better day today than yesterday. Eli was SO cranky because of teething. I peeked in his mouth today and wow...it sure looks painful! Today he still showed me that his teeth are hurting, but is much less whiny and having a lot more fun. He has been up at 5:30 every morning b/c he wakes up hurting and can't go back to sleep. These are his first molars and the first teeth that he doesn't want pressure on as they are coming through. Usually he starts gnawing on everything when he's teething, but this time he even cries if I put my finger in to feel. I introduced Eli to chalk yesterday morning. He loved it. We decorated the sidewalk by the back door. He was covered in chalk from head to toe. Messy but fun! My dryer is finally fixed...woo hoo! I'm pretty pumped about that. Becca and Joel are coming tomorrow to spend the night with us before all of us head to the farm Thursday. Eli is going to be SO excited when they get here. I'll be getting him pumped all day tomorrow ;-)

MOUSE!!!!

Friday night we had Horsts, Racchinis, and my mom for dinner! We had a blast! The kids all played....NOTE TO SELF...there is a reason why you should have more than one kid. They ENTERTAIN EACHOTHER! It's amazing how little I have to do when other kids are around. It would be totally exhausting to never have another kid because I'd always have to be Eli's entertainment. The guys took off to fly Brandon's glider airplane early evening, and us girls traded when they got back and took off for a girls night at Starbucks. (I put Eli to bed before I left, so Brandon just had to help wrangle the other 3 kids in the basement). My mom mentioned that right when she got here her car started stinking and she couldn't figure out what it was. It did smell kind of nasty on our way to Starbucks. We had fun laughing our heads off and headed back after a couple hours. We were discussing that it really smelled like something was dead in the car or under the car or something. Right as we parked in front of the house I said, "Whoever finds the dead critter gets a prize!" Literally 5 seconds after I said it Tanya started screaming her head off and clawing at the door trying to get out (unfortunately it was locked for some reason). Turns out there was a dead mouse RIGHT at her feet (that we didn't notice because it was dark already). It was so gross and SO funny. We still are laughing about it. Mom gave Tanya a prize! Amy was brave and used a baby wipe to throw it out onto the street. What would we do without baby wipes? Mom parks her car in a barn at night, so it's no surprise that something snuck in there. We'll forever be joking about that night. Very memorable!

Everything is breaking down around here. Brandon had to work like crazy the entire furlough fixing everything. We're going even greener that's why we have the clothes hung on a line in the back yard....uh...I mean our dryer is broken. Brandon also got to fix the mower and the string trimmer. Luckily we bought a warranty on the house appliances when we got the house, so the dryer should get fixed. We played at the Kansas Grown Farmers Market Saturday morning. It was an amazing farmers market and it was packed! I can't believe I've never been before. We'll definitely be there on Saturday mornings from now on. It could have been a disaster because all the instruments and sound system were acting up because of the heat/humidity, but God really blessed it in the end. We ended up selling like 30 cds and getting a lot of tips! A lot of the vendors also donated produce and baked goods to us. It was so sweet. My mom was amazing and came down to babysit a teething toddler for us during HARVEST! She definitely gets the grandma of the year award. My dad should get an award too for letting her come! You can see that we got the room finished finally! Six gallons of paint later ;-) I got these huge chalkboard airplane/cloud wall murals to put on the wall for Eli and I've already found this antique bi-prop plane bedding to get someday. Who knows when he'll actually move up there but at least we're ready. Eli has been saying some new words lately. "Bread", "E-I-E-I-O", and "HOT!" He says "HOT" and puts his hand up if his food is warm and when he gets in his car seat. We cool the car down before he gets in but the buckles are still warm. It's so cute. He still loves for me to ask "Where's Jesus?" and he starts patting his heart and we say "INSIDE!" He'll want me to ask it over and over again. He still says "AMEN" when we pray before bed. So precious. Looking forward to getting ready for our huge CORMAN FAMILY FOURTH OF JULY BASH! It's our favorite holiday on my Corman side. We are having a party at my parents house this year. Eli has been getting some serious farm time in!

We've been crazy busy trying to get Eli's future room done. I've been collapsing in bed at night exhausted (and I've barely worked on it compared to Brandon)! Painting in heat...not fun! Pictures to follow because it's almost done! We had my cousin Sam over yesterday for supper and then all went to Cessna's pool to escape the heat. It was definitely refreshing; Eli loved shooting baskets with the guys. He also liked watching us all go down the slide. Eli's second bottom molar finally poked through. He seems to feel a little better today. Teething tablets have been helping him sleep during his nap and bedtime. He is getting better and better at helping me clean up. If he throws food he now helps me pick up the pieces off the floor and put them in the trash. He also throws the junk mail in the trash for me. He really likes using a cloth to "clean". If he spills water on the floor while he's drinking he'll squat with a cloth and clean it up. So cute! I hung out with my friend Courtney during his nap yesterday. We went and got pastries and coffee at Panera for lunch ;-) She came back with me to the house and Eli woke up while she was here. He got in serious show off mood. He kept doing this funny scrunched up face smile and running as fast as he could. Major flirting going on. Brandon was cracking up because he's not usually here when Eli goes into flirting mode with my friends. Tomorrow night we're having our friends over for dinner. I'm looking forward to some fellowship with some of my favorite people!

Paint paint and some more paint

Brandon started painting Eli's "big boy" room upstairs. What he didn't realize is it's the room from hell to paint because almost the entire room is trim/windows/doors/closet/cubby holes etc. Basically, almost the entire room has to be painted by HAND! GAG! There seriously are like 8 windows and barely any wall and it is a large room. We are on our 3rd can of paint and it is obvious that the trim and walls are going to take THREE coats to hide the gray color that it already was and the ugly murals. This is just the primer people! I've been squeezing in time during Eli's naps and after he goes to bed. We are in a heat advisory all week (105-110 degrees). Needless to say, we've been out on walks to the park/playground around 6:30 a.m. to beat the heat. We've been able to get quite a bit of outside time during the early morning. Brandon took Eli to the library yesterday and finally got the puppet show schedule figured out. Twice a week at 10:30. Perfect! We're going to take Eli tomorrow to see how he likes it. Cool and free :-) Brandon has been teaching Eli all sorts of things while he's been home this week....like screaming....oh great!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Here's what we've been up to the last few days:

Friday: Took Eli to Cessna's pool. He "swam" for an hour. Brandon and I took turns swimming laps (okay I just swam one and thought I was going to die), while Eli played ball in the shallows. He loved laying on his stomach and pulling himself with his arms through the water. There was another little boy there who came up and hit Eli twice and kept stealing his ball even though he had his own (seriously, I wanted to lay the smack down ;-)) The dad didn't say a word. Some parents SUCK! We had a blast though! Eli also nursed for the LAST time at noon before his nap. We're done for good around here! He's done great, no issue going down for his naps without it. I'm only a tiny bit uncomfortable.

Saturday: I helped my friends with a shower for our bass player and friend Dave Racchini's fiance at our church. It was really fun to fellowship with all of my women friends. Very refreshing! Brandon took Eli to the McDonalds play place (of course we don't actually FEED him fast food, but Brandon likes taking him to different play areas when he's babysitting). Several times he said "mama" and Brandon could tell he missed me. When I got home he just kept snuggling/hugging/kissing me saying "mama, mama, mama, mama," it was so precious. Molars should be making an appearance soon....I can feel lumps now on the bottom! Eli loved playing in the puddles outside during a break in the rain. We have gotten hammered with rain the past couple days. After Eli went to sleep, a friend from church came and babysat so Brandon and I could go out to a Japanese Grill (Sumo) and have an awesome meal/evening with my best friend Courtney and her boyfriend Matt. It was so much fun! Our babysitter had to spend the night b/c it was storming so hard when we got home. Luckily I ALWAYS have the guest bedroom/bathroom ready to go downstairs in case someone needs to use it.

Sunday: Brandon led worship at church. Eli LOVED playing with the kids in the nursery. He seriously didn't want to leave. It's getting better and better each time we take him. He didn't even whine or look sad at all when we left him this morning. He just took off running to go play ball with some other kids. YAY! At lunch, Eli was purposely pouring milk in his eye and laughing hysterically over and over again until I noticed what was going on and took his cup away. Oh boys! Sometimes I'm just baffled. Eli picked out Brandon a superman musical card a few weeks back and was excited to play with it after Brandon opened it. So cute! We just enjoyed my Grandma Buck's enchilada recipe for supper! Yum! Brandon decided he's not going to shave for this entire week of furlough. I swear he almost has a beard and it's been like two days. Sheesh and GROSS!

Mommy's helper

We had a fun day today with all my family. They came down to have dinner at my aunt Cate's house and visit with my great uncle and second cousin who were passing through town from Arizona. Eli soaked up all the attention and played his three favorite games with my parents all day....BALL....BOOM....and SEEK! My dad was kind enough to lounge around during Eli's nap so my mom and I could run to Johnson's Garden Center (our favorite place in the world) and Pier One. Mom brought me down some more transplants from her garden to fill in some places in the front. Every time she comes down or we visit we steal flowers. It rocks! We got our first grape tomatoes out of our garden. Yay! Eli is going to have tons of fresh veggies this summer. Because it has been over 100 degrees the past few days, Eli and I have been playing outside from about 6:30 a.m-8:30 every morning. We take our long walk with Rica and play ball outside all morning while it's cool, then hunker down inside all afternoon. He has been able to cool off in his baby pool, and today my parents, Will, and Brandon took him to the fountains to play while I helped my friend Tanya ice some cookies for a bridal shower this weekend. We all went to my aunt Cate's for dinner and Eli LOVED playing in the fountain in her back yard. By the time I left, he was soaked and covered in mud from head to toe. What is it with BOYS? They always find the dirtiest and most dangerous past times. It just blows me away. So much fun, though! He loves to get the title of "mommy's helper". He'll practically do anything I say as long as I ask him if he wants to be "mommy's helper". It cracks me up. If I ever see a kid's broom set, I will snag it up because he just loves helping me do big people things. Today he had a blast carrying our neighbor's newspapers from the sidewalk and putting them up on their porches. He was so proud of himself that he was "helping" the neighbors. As you can see in the video, he loves helping me "clean" daddy's guitar.

I came up with a solution that will give me peace of mind in the next year. I am getting everything together to get my substitute teaching certificate, so that if Cessna furloughs for a long chunk next year I could work a couple days a week during that time (while Brandon watched Eli) to help around here. It's the only temporary job I could think of that I could do in an emergency situation. That way I don't have a freak out ;-) I'm such a control freak...I have to have a plan in place in case of disaster :-) I have NO faith...it's rediculous.

Eli...can you say FURLOUGH!!!!

As most of you know Brandon, as well as all of Cessna, had to take 4 weeks of furlough. Brandon's first week starts next week. We spaced them throughout the summer where we would need time off (Harvest, to go to Arkansas, Kansas City for my friend's wedding etc.) They announced recently that they are going to do another round of layoffs (Brandon should be safe from these) and more furloughs. Brandon has to take 3 more weeks of furlough this year. We're going to take a week a month starting in Oct. and hopefully get one of them by Thanksgiving for when we go to Texas. That's a total of 7 weeks, but luckily Brandon will use 4 weeks of his vacation to ease the financial burden! I'm really worried right now that Cessna is going to go under or have to do really long furloughs (like a year or more). I've had a few freak outs, but am reminding myself that all will be okay no matter what happens. Hey, as long as we've got each other that's all that matters! I've been taking out my worries on my oven...baking and cooking! I made whole wheat pancakes last night to freeze for Eli for a breakfast option, bran muffins (all bran, granola, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, craisins etc.) to freeze for breakfast, meatball sandwiches for supper, lasagna, chicken and rice, and the list keeps going on and on. If we're on the streets...at least we won't be hungry ;-) ;-) Eli is definitely going to enjoy all the family time this summer/year! We're going to have a blast and definitely take advantage of the free time!

Farm and Festival fun!

We had a fabulous weekend up in Salina/Minneapolis with family. We played Thursday night at the Smoky Hill River Festival in front of a crowd of a little over 10,000 people! It was fun! Eli ALWAYS cries if he sees us on stage, so he wasn't too happy. Here are some of the fun highlights of the trip:

-Eli played frisbee, ate his first sno-cone (Brandon snuck him that one without me knowing), clapped to all the music, and played with cousin Jadyn at the River Festival (He also fed Jadyn half his supper with a fork and his fingers, so cute).
-Brandon and I enjoyed seeing all the relatives at the festival and one of our favorite groups Mingo Fishtrap. Brandon watched Eli while I looked at the crafts and art with my mom/sister/cousins/aunt! Brandon also ate a million corndogs, and we all enjoyed homemade ice scream!
-We hung out with Becca (Bepa, as Eli calls her), Joel, Will, Sam and my parents all weekend.
-Eli rode the four wheeler and mower with my dad and loved it
-Eli loved the kittens I discovered in my dad's shop. He kept trying to kiss them and meow at them, and even brought them a toy as a gift to share. So precious! He loved petting the cats while we were there and chasing all the dogs.
-Eli didn't go to sleep until 10 (normal is 7:30) the first night because he was SO excited to be at the farm. He also would wake up at like 4 every morning ready to go....luckily we were able to get him back to sleep every morning and by the end it was fine.
-Both car drives were AWESOME with the car seat turned forward. So much easier!
-Brandon and Will rode dirtbikes while Joel and Sam rode the four wheeler. They came back covered in mud!
-All the guys made fun of Mom, Becca, and I for playing Farm Town on facebook.
-Eli just adores all the family. He always wants to play "guns" with my dad and ball with my mom. He gave everyone kisses the whole trip.
-Once again Eli loved roaming around in the wide open spaces of the farm. He was laughing his head off running and DIVING into the tall weeds. Luckily he didn't get chiggers!
-Today both Brandon and Eli got harvest haircuts! We're preparing for a HEAT WAVE!

BUP!

We had a lovely evening with my best friend Courtney and her boyfriend Matt. Eli LOVES Courtney (she works at the golf course two blocks away, so we visit her once in a while), and he had a lot of fun playing ball with Matt. We could not stop laughing because I tried to get him to say Matt and he laughed really hard and said "BUP!". He has never said this before and thought it was really funny. Today I was talking with him about Matt and Courtney coming over last night and every time I mentioned Matt he said "BUP!" and would start laughing hysterically. He's so funny! He has a great sense of humor. Elijah loves "secrets". He always gets really excited if I tell him a secret and always smiles and laughs at whatever I say. We cut up an entire watermelon last night with dinner...Eli's dream come true! He had watermelon running down his face, arms, hands...everywhere! What a joy he is! I'm so excited to head up to Salina today and spend time with the family at the festival this weekend. I'm counting down the minutes :-) Oh, I almost forgot. Brandon is the first responder for his whole floor at work. He basically stays up on his CPR and other medical response training to be prepared for an accident or emergency at work. They implemented this after a man committed suicide in one of the bathrooms/break rooms at Cessna a couple years back. So far, he's been lucky enough to not have to use his training, but yesterday someone came running up to him saying one of his coworkers was unconcious passed out on the floor. By the time he got to her she was unconcious for the second time. There was nothing he could do besides try to keep her awake/talking until EMS came, but I think it definitely shook him up a bit. Besides being extremely embarrassed she ended up being okay. Hopefully nothing serious will ever happen! Yikes!

We have been out of control busy the past two weeks! Ug! It has been a lot of fun, but tiring. Monday night we had dinner with our neighbors. We've been wanting to have them over for a long time, and finally got the chance. We had a great time! They are a fun couple, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with them. They are expecting a baby in January after trying for over 2 years, so we're excited for them! Last night we had a quick band practice to time the three songs we're doing tomorrow night at the Smoky Hill River Festival up in Salina. They do a Festival Jam where they have like 16 bands play 12 minutes worth of music. Luckily, our three songs were exactly 12 minutes. I don't want to be the rude ones that go over ;-) Eli came with us to practice and ran around the church sanctuary playing with a couple balls I had brought. For some reason he was scared of the drums. He would come to the stage at a quiet part and the second the drums would come back in he would start running as fast as he could to the back of the sanctuary. It was so funny. I had the cordless mic, so I could play down with him while I sang. He knows what church is and always responds with his version of yes (da) when I ask if he wants to go there. He is really excited to see all my family tomorrow. He gets very excited every time we talk about it and is ready to go :-) I just enjoyed lunch with my brother, and Eli had fun going on a walk with him. Tonight my best friend and her boyfriend are coming over for dinner. I've got Brandon grilling chicken again ;-)

We are still exhausted from our show on Friday night at Meads Coffee House. There were a lot of people there: friends, coworkers, church folk, and a lot of people scoping out bands for First Friday Music Crawl. We played from 9-11 with two bands opening up for us. A brother duo before us was awesome called Elliot Road. I will NEVER play that late again, though. I was tired and miserable all weekend because I didn't get to bed until after midnight. We had a really fun show because Brandon sang a bunch of songs too, and we had worked up some fun covers to play. I'm really looking forward to heading back up to Minneapolis Thursday for our gig at the Smoky Hill River Festival Jam. My sister and brother-in-law are coming too, so it should be a great long weekend with family and farm fun again. I LOVE Salina's river festival. I think Eli will love the children's tent! Brandon has been awesome this weekend kind of taking over for most of it as I have not felt good at all. I was not meant for staying up late, trust me! We're having our neighbors over for dinner tomorrow night, so I made my mom's raspberry cream cheese cake tonight. Fun fun! Tuesday, we have a quick band practice and Wednesday my best friend Courtney and her boyfriend Matt (who I actually studied in Mexico with a few years back...weird) are coming over to eat. Another busy week! Eli has been having fun at the park, playground, pool etc. I love outside weather!

UNCLE!

Eli's been having a good time with his Uncle Lance here. Last night we took him to the Cessna pool to play while Lance did some laps. He loved watching Lance swim laps and would wait and wait for him to come up for air. They have an awesome zero entry pool, so he can just run around playing; we love it! He loved the mushroom fountain. He's really good about getting water in his face. Brandon took off work today, so first thing this morning we took Eli to the zoo. We have a great zoo here in Wichita. Eli's favorites were the gorilla and the penguins. We got some great really close views of the animals. They all kept coming to the glass to see us. Brandon turned Eli's carseat around to face forward. He was SO excited. The whole drive to the zoo he just laughed and laughed because he could see Brandon driving and actually see a lot of stuff finally. It was great! He's been a bit cranky because of teething the past few days. When the doctor looked in his mouth she exclaimed that he was getting molars! Oh the joys of teething! I guess we were right that he was teething after all! Tomorrow we play a show at Meads Corner Coffee Shop. Luckily it's not until 9, so I can put Eli to bed and then have someone just stay here while he sleeps. I love that my job usually happens after he's asleep!

15th Month Appt.

Today was Eli's 15 month appointment. I'm always so nervous the morning of it because it's pretty much like a final exam for me and torture for Eli ;-). Eli did about as expected; he cried quite a bit, but did tell the Doctor a lot of the words he can say. It was cute. Here are the stats: 20 lbs 12.8 oz (5%), 29 3/4 inches (6%), head 19 (73%). At least he has a large brain ;-) Here are the 12 month stats for comparison: 18 lbs 7 oz (6%) and was 29 1/4 inches (25%) tall and his head was 18 3/4 (76%). I really thought he'd grown more in height, but I guess not! She said we can turn his car seat around now, which is a relief! Also, we've been trying to decide lately whether he just has an outy belly button or if he was starting to get a hernia (several of my friends kids have them behind their belly buttons and it's no big deal). She said it's just an outy, so that was good. I'm very glad it's over with! We're enjoying having Brandon's brother Lance here. Brandon has tomorrow off to spend the day with him!

Fountain of Life

We took Eli to the fountains at our park last night. It was hot and crowded, but he LOVED playing in the cool fountains. As you know he is a water fanatic, so it will be a great free retreat for us this summer. It was a little dangerous because it was so crowded, but that's what we get for going in the evening! Brandon's brother Lance is coming to stay for a few days. Brandon was able to get Thursday off to spend time with him, so I'm really glad about that. I think Eli is teething. He has been gnawing on everything and been extremely cranky. I can see two red bumps on the bottom, so I'm waiting to see if anything is going to happen. I was next door talking to our awesome neighbors who are finally expecting after trying for like 4 years. She is really sick, and as I chatted with her while she laid looking miserable on the couch I thought....we go through this multiple times? Are we out of our minds ladies?? Joking, but gosh it sure brought back memories of me throwing up and blacking out with my head stuck between the toilet and the tub (seriously every time I threw up when I was pregnant I passed out...later Brandon noticed I wasn't breathing at all when I threw up and all it took was reminders to breath to solve the problem. My word. Can't wait!!!! We're all shook up here in Wichita over the murder of Dr. Tiller (the famous late term abortion doctor here in town, one of like 3 in the country that will still do abortions after 24 weeks). Supposedly, partial birth abortions are only allowed when the mother's life is in danger, but I'm sure lines are crossed. Nothing like being shot while you're serving as an usher in your church! Yes, what he did was wrong and horrible and I couldn't disagree with him more, but pro-life means all life is sacred no matter who or what age you are. Dr. Tiller was also a husband, father to four, and a grandfather to ten. The man who shot him has had mental health issues in the past and been a part of an anti-government group. It's an unfortunate event that casts a bad shadow on the pro-life movement, while fueling anger on both sides, and bitterness in the pro-choice movement. Bad all around!

P.S. My best friend Courtney just dropped by and brought me a latte and we shared a dessert bar....whispering and snickering while Eli naps...God bless her! She works at the golf course at the end of the street, so Eli and I dropped in yesterday. She gave him a used golf ball that he literally carried around all day like a treasure. I was so proud of Eli because her boss held his hand out several times to take the ball and Eli shared every single time without hesitation. For a toddler that's practically a miracle :-)

Yesterday, Brandon led worship at church. We had a late night Sat. because a church leader called us saying the pastor was sick and Brandon needed to play more songs. Needless to say, it was a little stressful for Brandon yesterday and I was stuck at home alone without help for 5 hours with a sick and cranky kid! GRRR!! It is rough for me when I don't get to go to church when Brandon's leading worship. It makes Sunday just like any other work day for me. I was relieved later when Brandon agreed to watch Eli while I snuck away for some alone time at a movie. I've been dying to see Angels and Demons (because I loved the book) and LOVED every second of it. I pretended to not know it was a 2 1/2 hour long movie...busted when Brandon reads this! Eli is still sleeping through the night even though he is coughing a lot. I hope he's better in a couple says because he has his 15 month appointment Wednesday. Brandon and I have been chuckling behind Eli's back because when he throws a fit once in a while he goes and watches himself in the mirror. Seriously. Our bedroom closet doors are mirrors, and he yells while standing in front of it. I've got to try and sneak and catch it on film. This toddler stage is hilarious! One thing that is NOT amusing to me is that he thinks it's funny to disobey and try to run down the driveway into the street. Most of the time if his ball goes in the street he'll wait for me to go get it, but once in a while he gets that gleam in his eye and I'm ready and waiting to stop him! Today I made him sit on the sidwalk while I retrieved the ball, so he wouldn't be able to run and later when his ball went in the street he just automatically sat down on the sidewalk. So funny!