Plane fun!

I was just wrestling with Eli and caught a glimpse of some pearly whites that snuck through without me noticing. I think that means Eli's gotten 5 teeth in the past two weeks! Seriously! I can hardly believe it. That means he has around 15 teeth total. Wow! We had a wonderful day yesterday. We skipped church out of exhaustion and instead went to the Wichita Air Show at Jabara Airport. They made the event free this year, so we were really excited to take Eli. Both of us figured he would pay attention for a couple minutes then be off running around. Not so! He literally sat still for 2 hours fixated on the aerobatics and yelling "MORE!", "HOT!", clapping, and waving at the pilots. It was amazing. He didn't want me to hold him, only Brandon. It was cute. They were sharing such a fun time together. Our friends the Horsts joined us and we saw the Racchini's too. All of our "enginerd" friends :-) Eli especially loved the cars/trucks with jet engines that would blow fire out the back. They would race the planes. It was fun! We were all cracking up because someone had made an out house with a jet engine. One time when it was blowing fire out the back it actually set the grass on fire. It was hilarious. It was the most gorgeous day imaginable. 75 degrees and partly sunny. I was a little nervous sitting against the runway because the whole time it just looks like they are going to crash. At the last air show Brandon went to at Osh Kosh there were two crashes. Luckily everything went great! An amazing time was had by all! I guarentee that Brandon will make it a yearly event for him and Eli. We're starting a week where Brandon will be covering a shift for a friend of working 9:30-6:30. It's going to be aweful. I had such a bad attitude when I woke up this morning. I'm just planning tons of outings for Eli and I this week, so I don't go insane!

Wedding Bliss...

We had a great time at our friend's wedding last night. We sang, and then got to enjoy a wonderful reception with all of our friends. We decided that Skye has the record for the most flower girls. Twelve to be exact. Her baby sister even walked down the aisle holding her brother's hand. It was so cute! Eli was GREAT for my cousins. He did cry when as I was leaving, but the second I was gone he was fine and had a blast. They told me all they did with him and were laughing at all the funny things he said etc. They said when they did prayers with him he wanted to pray for "Nana", "Dada", and "Joel". So cute! I am so encouraged that he's doing so much better with babysitters and really having so much fun playing with them! It really eases my mind.

This has been a fun and busy past few days! First off, my mom wanted me to tell a funny story about Eli on here. I saw him out of the corner of my eye get on the coffee table (which he knows he's not supposed to do) and stand up. Next time I looked over he was sitting in the time out corner. It was all I could not to just crack up. He put himself in time out. Well he understands the concept! Eli's cold has stayed mild, so it's been wonderful!

Thursday I was driving headed to help decorate the church in the morning for the wedding today and I got a call saying they were running an hour late. That pretty much ruined my chances of helping since it ran into Eli's nap time, but I was caught in a construction zone with no where to turn around to head home. I decided just to keep heading out East to some baby stores I never go to because they are so far away from where we live. I was so excited to get to go to some of my favorite stores. I get all the way out there and realize that all the stores don't open for another hour. I was so MAD! I just turned around and headed home. The morning was going so poorly and I was in such a bad mood that I decided to try and do something fun to turn it around. I caught a Panera out of the corner of my eye, so Eli and I stopped and shared a bagel. He had a blast. I let him sit like a big boy in the booth and kept telling him we were on a date and he was thrilled! It totally turned our day around for the better. That night Brandon and Eli got hair cuts. Eli did SO much better this time. The older he gets the better. He actually got a decent haircut since he sat still. I was sad to see they took the carousel out of the mall. Bummer! Eli's favorite stores to go in are Hot Topic (yeah I know) and Third Planet. Both scary ;-) Should I be worried?

Last night my brother came to babysit at 5 and put Eli to bed. Eli said "bye bye" as we were leaving and never thought of us again! What a relief! He was excited all day when I told him that Uncle Will was coming to babysit that night. He kept saying "Ba ball?!" everytime I mentioned Will. He always plays basketball with Will. We had a blast on our first date in a long time. We actually had our friend's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We went to Outback Steakhouse and had fun chatting and laughing with friends. We hit up Starbucks on the way home. What fun! This morning Eli got to play with our new neighbor his age Jackson. They are super cute together. They were walking down our way, so they stopped and the boys played for quite a while. They took turns pushing eachother in Eli's little car. I'm looking forward to more playdates together!

I had to put this video up here because EVERY SINGLE day Eli asks to watch it. He just starts yelling NANA! NANA! and never gives up until he sees it. The other night during prayers I said, "Who do you want to pray for?" not thinking he'd really understand, but I teared up when he said, "Nana!" Precious moments!

prison time might be in our future ;-)

Here's some more pictures that Brandon's dad took while they were here a couple weekends back! Eli's cold is still minor. He doesn't act any different just has a runny nose. He is covered in snot and so am I :-) I met some friends at the church today to help get the kitchen cleaned while all the kids played. Eli started crying the second we walked by his sunday school class. I had to keep reminding him we weren't going, so there was nothing to be crying about! Sheesh. Later we went to Cessna to have lunch with Brandon. Eli started saying "DADA!" as soon as we turned onto the road his office is. I thought that was awesome that Eli recognized it from so far away. We enjoyed a pot luck lunch that his department did. Eli especially liked the "Ba balls" aka meat balls. We are having serious tag issues around here. It is the ONE thing I forgot to change the address on when we moved (considering I only pay it once a year). Both of our cars are driving on expired licenses because my car they sent all the paperwork to our old house (which was returned and never forwarded.....the lady told me state mail can't be forwarded), so we never remembered it until Brandon got pulled over today :-) He has to go to court. Next time we talk to you it might be our one call from a jail cell. HA HA! It is 4 months expired. How is it possible that NEITHER of us noticed that? My word. Brandon's SUV is barely expired b/c I ordered the tag a long time ago and no matter how many times I've called they STILL keep sending it to our old house. You can ask Brandon, I've had a few freak outs over that one over the past month. At least I have the receipt for that one in the glove compartment, so we shouldn't get a ticket. If they mess up something one more time I'm going to blow a gasket people. Have you ever gone to the tag office. It's equal to HELL. Especially in Wichita. Here in Wichita there is always a HUGE line. Just plan on taking a 3 hour lunch ;-)

I've been so excited for this weekend. We're singing at our friend's wedding....which means we get TWO free date nights! We haven't had a date in a LONG time because of craziness. My heart sank this morning when I went to get Eli out of his crib and there he stood with a runny nose. NOOOOOOOOOO! I already have a babysitter for Friday, but don't have one for Sat yet. As long as his cold stays mild I doubt anyone will mind watching him, but you never know. We went swimming at Cessna last night for a fun outing. Eli sure loves water. He practiced jumping from the side into Brandon's arms. He really has no fear, so I think he'll be good at swimming lessons some day. Eli's upper right canine tooth finally came in. I thought molars were bad....whew. Three more to go :-) Eli is officially 18 months as of yesterday! I can't believe how time has flown by. I'm so glad we have so many pictures and videos to document all the wonderful memories and stages of his development!

We had an amazing week with family! The lack of posts is an affect of the FUN FUN FUN we had! Highlights of the week included:

-Celebrating my sister's birthday with all the Cormans at Abuelos where Eli ate everyone's food. At one point he was grabbing food off of TWO plates at once. It was hilarious. He also grabbed a glass of water and poured it all over himself. Luckily, I always carry an extra outfit in my diaper bag. Mom saved the day!

-If any of the family would leave the room Eli would start calling out for them trying to get them to come play. There were a lot of "NANA!" "JOEL!" "BEPA!" "BOOM!" flying around the house. He really used everyones names really well this trip. So proud of him!

-Joel stayed home and "babysat" Eli (while he was napping), so we could go to lunch. Went to the Tea Room with my sister, mom, and cousin Ellen. We wore boas and these flashing rings my mom brought. Classy ;-) We scarfed down their famous bread pudding and headed back to the house to scrapbook. I wish I would have taken a picture of the basement floor. You couldn't walk anywhere there was so much paper, pictures, stickers etc. scattered about. We all got quite a bit done on our scrapbooks. Bec scrapbooked their trip to Europe; I got a lot done on Eli's, and Ellen worked on her summer camp pictures.

-My mom jumped into the tub with Eli fully clothed. You should have seen Eli's face. They had a huge splashing war. Eli loved it! Even last night Eli was practicing his splashing...thanks a lot Mom!

-My mom took Eli out several times shopping. I thoroughly enjoyed the break! She said he did great and had fun. I looked out when they pulled into the driveway and there he his holding a new elmo stuffed animal and eating a piece of licorice. (keep in mind I am the anal no sugar person, so he doesn't even know what candy is) What are Grandma's for?

-Brandon and Joel went and saw the new Brad Pitt movie and loved it! Bec and I stayed home and of course worked on more scrapbooking :-)

-Will was in Colorado with his boss, so Mom and Joel took Eli to buy a tv, dvd player and snuck them into his apartment as a surprise when he comes home today! Can't wait to hear his reaction!

Things that have made me smile this week:

-Eli lovingly gifted our new neighbor (19 months old) Jackson with a prize acorn. It was precious. They really like each other. Future play dates to be scheduled!

-We were driving in the car when Black Eyed Peas song "Boom Boom Pow" came on the radio. Eli was in the back seat singing "Boom Boom Boom Boom". I mistakenly played the music video for him when we got home off of youtube.com Now he points at the computer a MILLION times a day yelling "Boom Boom BOOM!" wanting to hear it. Definitely his new favorite song. Fergie may be my new competition.

-Eli has discovered the beloved piggy back ride. Now, if he's walked on his own pretty far from home I can help get back faster by offering one. He loves it.

-After our walk in the stroller, Eli now likes to take walks up and down our street and has a blast looking both ways and crossing the street holding my hand. He can walk and walk and walk and never seems to get tired.

-This morning he was eating some dried fruit off of a plate I'd set on the bottom stair for him. I heard him move it and I said, "Eli be careful, you're going to break the plate!" I went and took it from him....turned around....dropped it...and it shattered everywhere. Yeah, seriously. It was hilarious!

-We've started doing a really short time out once in a while because we couldn't find anything to keep him from standing on top of the coffee table. This makes me smile because he absolutely just sits in the corner for like 20 seconds and doesn't move. If you know my kid, that's like a miracle. I'm really praying that time outs will work for us. It's really cute.

I have conquered another week of cranky teething (4 teeth coming in now). I definitely had some rough moments, but enjoyed a wonderful weekend with Brandon's parents. Eli gave his Grams and Papa a lot of kisses while they were here and enjoyed playing with them. They babysat while we had a radio interview in Newton last night, as well. We played some songs live, answered some questions, and the DJ featured the music from our cd for about an hour. It went great! You should all be jealous because Brandon's dad brought up a brisket from Texas and we enjoyed a feast last night. There wasn't an ounce of fat on that thing after Brandon's dad expertly cut it :-) It rocked! Even Eli scarfed it down! We invited Will and Sam over to share. Poor bachelors are practically starving to death ;-) ;-) ha ha. Brandon led worship at church this morning and Eli had a good time in the nursery. When I went to pick him up he was the only one still scarfing down animal crackers (no surprise there). He then proceeded to dance around a bit to the praise music and show me his Joseph picture he colored and stamped. The nursery worker told me he loved slamming the stamp down on the picture. I need to get him some kid stamps! I got all my scrapbooking stuff out to start on Eli's first year. I've made myself wait until he was this old, so I could just go back and pick out my favorite pictures. I would have had like a million books if I had done it as he grew! My cousin Ellen and I are going to start meeting once a week while Eli's napping and working on ours together. My sister and Joel are coming up Wednesday, so I'm really looking forward to all the family here. Becca and Mom are bringing their scrapbooking stuff too, so it should be fun! Eli keeps asking for "Bepa", "Nana", "Boom" (Grumpa), and "Joel". It's so cute.

Friends

I took Eli to the mall play place today and met Tanya (her husband Chris was Brandon's roommate for a few years before we got married) with her two boys Seth and Jesse there. I'd like to invite other homemakers to meet there once a week in the morning to let the kids play. It's a fun little area. Eli and Seth had a lot of fun. Jesse (6 months old) flirted with me like crazy while we chased the boys. At one point, Eli tried to touch Seth's hair but he kind of hit him in the process. I told Eli, "You need to tell Seth you're sorry." It was so cute; Seth says, "Yeah Eli, you better tell me you're sorry." I had to work hard not to crack up on that one. Actually, I'm usually having to bite my lip to keep from laughing whenever I'm around Seth. He's such a character. Seth is a year older and Jesse is exactly a year younger than Eli. Seth found a new use for Tanya's nursing cover...a cape. He wore it the whole way out of the mall. It was so cute! I've been combating Eli's teething canine crankiness with lots of outings. It is keeping me sane. He's completely over his cold at least. Without Brandon I probably would have gone insane!

POOP!

I have to add this video from tonight's bath. This is the first time Eli has pooped in the tub since he was a newborn. We couldn't stop laughing! Brandon, typical guy, of course had to focus on the poop a little too much...be warned!

It has been a tough week, thus not too many posts :-) Eli has started teething again with his canines starting to push through. I literally had to take this week day by day to keep from going insane. After 11 hours, I was ready for Brandon to come home and take over! I kept Eli busy with art projects and outings. We're working on painting an alphabet puzzle. His paintings always are hilarious because they are so many different colors scattered about. No matter what art we do...he ALWAYS touches his face with his dirty hands. I think he thinks it's funny. We went and visited Brandon at work and Eli played hide and seek amongst the cubicles. So cute! We've been having some crazy climbing issues around here. Oh my word. We took him to the mall play place the other evening and he had a blast with the other kids. He is so cute with other kids. Yesterday, I went to a cloth diaper party at my friend's house. Brandon came along to take care of Eli and hang out with his friend during it. There were a lot of kids Eli's age and he was great! I had fun checking out all the different types of diapers. I've always thought it would be fun to try the easy to use cloth diapers during the day(like the all in one, trim, organic, one size fits all, snap diapers). Basically no work involved besides throwing them in the laundry. I might buy a couple to use right before potty training. The problem with the disposables is that most kids can't tell when they've peed because they are so good at pulling the liquid away. I think it might help. We'll see. They could be used for future kids as well, so I'm trying to decide.

Wedding

Yesterday, was our viola player/friend's wedding. Believe it or not, it actually was an outdoor wedding at 1 in the afternoon (101 degrees). For several reasons, one being the heat, I had Brandon go to the wedding and Eli and I met him there for the indoor reception/dinner. I put Eli down for a nap an hour earlier and all was well. I am glad to know that I can do this easily for future events. We had fun at the reception. It was a very small wedding just family and a handful of close friends from church. It was so fun to watch Eli play with the other kids from our church. He played ball with two other boys and enjoyed the bubbles with the girls. This one little girl held his hand once and later punched him twice in the chest. Eli laughed. I'm glad he thought she was playing :-) After the reception, we were invited to a Chinese dinner. Eli was great throughout the whole afternoon. Made it a fun day! He loves Chinese food (rice, noodles, and veggies). Speaking of veggies, today he ate ALL the broccoli from our garden that I was going to use in a recipe tonight. I guess I shouldn't be complaining :-) He saw me cooking it and HAD to have some. What a funny little guy. Eli's very into climbing right now. About scares me to death. He can get up on a chair, so I taught him how to sit and get back down so he wouldn't be standing up on it. He tries to get on top of the coffee table too. Sheesh! He thinks it's hilarious. He giggles and giggles. During our "art" time he loves to put stickers on a paper and then color too. He's into mixed media ;-) ;-) Brandon and I were thrilled to find seasons 5 and beyond of the BBC James Harriot shows on netflix.com. This is by far my favorite old TV show. I love the books and am a huge fan! When my sister went to England/Ireland she went and visited his house/vet office. It was fun to find out that the show was filmed in the real place. I got Brandon hooked as well on both the books and tv show. We were raised reading the books and watching the shows every once in a while. It has been our nightly ritual the past few nights to put Eli to bed and enjoy a show!

We dropped my dad at the airport this morning. He's headed out to Tahoe to join my mom. Eli was thrilled to see my dad and showed him all of his favorite things. He played ball and kept showing dad his Elmo chair. It was hilarious! We moved Will into his new apartment this morning. It's awesome! It's just a tiny little Riverside apartment right across from my cousin Sam two streets over! I'm pumped to have them both so close. Eli loved running around "Will's house". I spent this morning weeding. It's impossible to work on the veggie garden with Eli around. I can easily do the flowers and play with him at the same time, at least. I re-organized Eli's future room upstairs. Right now it's filled with newborn and baby stuff. It's getting easier and easier to picture having a second child. I know it's going to be SO hard, but so rewarding.