"Pooptastrophe"

This morning we had a "pooptastrophe" Brandon and I were super excited that Eli had slept in until almost seven, which is a miracle in this household of early risers. Brandon was getting ready to leave for worship practice when I went in and discovered a very happy Eli covered in poop, all bedding covered in poop, one of his stuffed animals covered in poop, and poop caked on his fingers. I first stripped him and attempted to clean him up a bit, but decided after like twenty wipes it was pointless and had him run butt naked to the shower. Brandon watched him in the shower while I dealt with the disgusting mess. Luckily, I had just bought some Oxiclean which came in handy. It was kind of amusing once the disaster area was cleaned up and Brandon was rushing off to practice. Eli and I still made it to church and had a great time. This must be the week for poop disasters. At the women's brunch I went to at church yesterday, my friend Tanya was telling me about her horrible morning Friday when Seth took his diaper off and rubbed poop all over himself, and then she came in to find him rubbing his poopy butt all over the carpet. Hmmm....the boys must be scheming behind our backs. I really enjoyed the fellowship with friends and other women at church yesterday while Brandon and Eli had a father son morning running errands and playing. My parents gave me a pot roast last time we were there, so I cooked that up with some vegetables and we had my brother over for dinner. Eli had fun playing with Uncle Will. I'm looking forward to the start of "birthday month" as I'm now calling February. Lots and lots of birthday parties to look forward to!

SEEK!

Yesterday, Eli was bringing toys over to put up against my belly to "share" with Cora. He then put his mouth up to my belly button and yelled "SEEK!". HE wanted to play hide and seek with her. How cute! I asked him if he wanted Mama to hide first or Eli...and he said "BREE!' (what he calls the baby). So my belly got to play hide and seek. Last night we had some friends over from church. They have two little girls and a newborn. Eli had a lot of fun playing with them. He was especially thrilled when they initiated hide and seek. Oh the joy on his face! Addie, who is a year older, kept telling him, "Eli...pay attention!" It was killing me. Get used to getting bossed around by women, son. We're supposed to get 6-9 inches of snow tonight, so Brandon is pumped to get to take Eli sledding this weekend. I'm so glad Brandon likes the snow and cold...he gets to take the kids for outside Winter activities! HA HA!

Guitars rock!

What a blast we had this weekend! Wedding dress shopping with my cousins and aunt was a blast. We may have been at David's Bridal for 3 hours, but there was a lot of laughter keeping us going. Ellen found a beautiful wedding dress and all the accessories and we eyed bridesmaid dresses. Considering both Megan and I are 6 months pregnant, I don't think trying dresses on was an option :-) We're going to go back this summer after the babies are born to get a better idea. We hit up Red Robin afterward for burgers and fries. I needed "girl" time SO BADLY! YAY! Then, last night we went to our friend Josh's birthday party. We all surprised him! It was so much fun. Eli's friends were all there, so he had a great time playing with the kids. For not being in daycare/preschool I'm pretty happy with the way he gets along with kids. I was always a little worried about that. He shares very well (of course he has his little moments) and really enjoys the other kids.

We spent Friday and Saturday outside! Oh it felt wonderful. The high was pretty close to sixty with the gorgeous sun shining. Eli and I played ball, sand box, chalk, did some yard work, and took walks. Even just those two days were so refreshing to me. I think I can survive Winter after all! As I look at the forecast and see snow, highs in the 20's again, etc. I'm just going to remember these two days and what Spring will bring!

Since we haven't been able to go church in like 2 months from sickness, I was scared for how Eli was going to handle being back in the nursery. Of course he threw a crying fit when I dropped him off, but I waited outside the door for a couple minutes and could hear he had calmed down and was fine. When we picked him up he was munching on a snack and so excited to show us his art project, which happened to be a picture of the prophet Elijah being fed by the ravens (a bible story that he loves). I was laughing so hard when we got to the lobby because he kept yelling "bread" and pointing to his picture. I realized they had glued a tiny cracker in the raven's claw. In a flash, he had ripped off the cracker and it was devoured. Oops...a little glue won't kill him right? He also had some pink marker on his face. I would love to know whether he marked on his face or another kid did. So fun to get to go to church again! Praise God!

Potty pictures ;-)

I may or my not have had a freak out this week over being imprisoned and lonely from sickness for two months :-) Eli just has a cold now, so I can take him places but not around other kids. I miss my friends and church so much! I'm just holding out hope for spring and health. Brandon's been thinking up evening activities we can do to escape. When the weather's been decent Brandon takes Eli outside while I cook dinner, which has been nice. We ran to Target the other night and I was thrilled to get Eli's birthday party supplies. I can't wait for his guitar themed birthday! I think I have pretty much everything for it now. Invitations were sent out the beginning of the week, so all is good. Yesterday, we went and ate lunch with Brandon. Eli sure loves Cessna and visiting his Dad. We also went on an outing to Barnes and Noble and read Eli some books. Eli wanted me to take some pictures of him snuggling his Wolf stuffed animal and sitting on the big potty and his little potty. So cute! What a boy! I'm 25 weeks along now and getting BIG. I would say the baby is considered "viable" meaning they would try to save her if she was born. I got a bag of girl clothes from Brandon's boss. It is wonderful to start getting clothes and sorting through them. She told me she has many more for me! Can't wait! So grateful! I'm really looking forward to a break tomorrow when I got wedding dress/bridesmaid dress shopping with my cousin Ellen tomorrow. I'm going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding next New Year's Eve. Cora will be 8 months by then and Eli almost 3....crazy!

The farm was a perfect get away for our weekend. Eli had a ton of fun soaking in all the attention from his grandparents and his new surroundings, and I was off my feet more than I've been all year. My foot is feeling a million times better. It doesn't really even hurt when I walk, praise God! The two hour car ride up to my parents is a breeze for us now. The older Eli gets the easier it gets in the car. Now we're going to throw a baby into the mix :-) My mom had a going away dinner for our friend Saturday night, so my brother came up for the feast. Eli enjoyed playing b-ball outside for once and spent some time petting the cats and swinging in the swing my dad made for us when we were babies. He also suckered my parents into playing hide and seek and monster with him a lot. We came home a night early Sunday night because we could tell Eli was getting sick again. This is not a joke! Glad we did because that night the little seal, I mean boy, started the barking cough. Luckily he only had that croupy cough for one night and now just has a runny nose and cough.

We were able to squeeze in trying out a double stroller I've been eying. It's the Sit and Stand Plus. It allows for a baby carseat or regular seat in the front and a regular seat or a little seat in the back for the toddler. The toddler can either sit or stand while riding. I figured since Eli's getting to the age where a lot of kids like to walk, he would like being able to stand while riding. I was right! I pushed him around in the store letting him stand and he kept saying MORE! We'll definitely be getting that stroller whenever I can find it on sale! I can't live without our walks, so I want to make sure I can get outside with both kids easily.

I brought home a bag of my baby clothes to sort through and wash. There's a few things that are still in good enough shape to put Cora in (especially for some comparison pictures) and the rest I'll let her use as doll clothes. It was fun to look through and see outfits I recognized from pictures etc. Girl clothes are fun! All the stores finally have their Spring and Summer baby clothes out, so I've been drooling looking at all the cute dresses!

Baller!

We've been doing some fun outings with Eli in the evenings this week to survive the cold! We had a strangely warm day yesterday and all the snow/ice melted. What a relief to see some green grass underneath it! We took Eli to the mall play place, Pure Entertainment activity center, and outside yesterday to do some chalk and go for a walk. The big boy bed is still going very well. It only took 10 minutes for him to fall asleep yesterday and he didn't get out of the bed. What a relief that this transition was so easy! It definitely was the encouragement I needed. I found out on Tuesday that I have a neuroma in my foot. It's basically a ball of messed up nerves between my metatarsals. I'm trying a little bit of physical therapy, but it's not easy to fix. The only other solutions are cortazon shots and lastly surgery both of which I can't do until after the baby is born. I'm praying that the physical therapy will work! It's a relief to at least know what the issue is. I was so relaxed after physical therapy and my back felt so great, I'm really looking forward to it again today! I'm a few weeks away from my 3rd trimester. Wow! I start two week appointments in February. This blows my mind. Cora is still my little mover and shaker. She is kicking, punching, and moving a LOT. It's fun to feel her so often and I'm easily able to sleep through it. I'm really looking forward to Eli's birthday party and my shower in a month. I had to move it earlier in February because of some conflicts, so it's going to be February 13th and 14th. I'm really glad I already ordered all of his guitar themed supplies online earlier this week! Big sigh of relief! I think we're ready to take off to the farm tomorrow for a 3 day weekend away! It will probably be the last time I'm able to travel. Can't wait!

Big Boy Bed!

Well, yesterday we decided to take the crib apart and move it into our room. We then moved Eli's twin bed in place and prepared for the worst. He did seem a bit concerned as we were taking the crib apart, but did climb up on his big boy bed excited. We do have the crib assembled but covered with a blanket in our room (out of sight, out of mind...right?) Last night it killed me to put him in that big bed. I didn't realize it would be so hard to see my little baby in that big old bed. (Brandon even commented that he didn't think it would be so hard, so I felt better!) I did feel better that we put the guard rail on it so he wouldn't fall out. We did his usual bedtime routine and left him sitting in the bed...he let out a little whimper...and I just about died. We watched the video monitor with anticipation as he laid down and...went to sleep. No big deal. He didn't get up until 6:30 this morning! Victory! I figured night time wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I was worried about nap time today. I put him in his bed for nap a little later than usual hoping that would help. It was a kill watching him in the video monitor. He got up and down off his bed several times testing it out. Then, he sat and rocked in the rocking chair. Next, he laid down on the floor and looked under the crack in the door saying, "Mama?" Then, he played with some toys and pulled some books down off of the book shelf. I couldn't contain myself when he was sitting on his bottom on the ground spinning in circles. I did go in there twice and put him back in his bed. Finally the second time (after about a 1/2 hour of messing around) he laid down and went to sleep. Score! It was just comical. I called Brandon laughing and recounting all the things he did. I have a feeling we might have a little bit of an issue every day, but hoping it doesn't get too bad! My baby is a boy and soon to be man...yikes! Ha ha...God help me!

Thief!

Eli had a lot of fun having Ethan and Lillie Racchini here last night to play with. He did a lot better than expected sharing his toys etc. The other night in the shower he wanted the razor, so I took the blade off and gave it to him and he started pretending to shave his face just like Dad! So cute! Today, as I was making lunch I heard giggling and turned around to see that Eli had stolen my piece of pizza off of the kitchen table and was running around proud as can be munching and laughing. It was hilarious! He was so excited that he'd stolen my pizza. I was able to catch a couple of photos of the proud thief! We decided last night with all the band members to work things up acoustically and work on writing new music every week at our house for the next couple of months. We plan on adding a new drummer after the baby's born and playing every once in a while. Should be good!

May 4th!

I had an OB appointment yesterday. It's so cold here (wind chill -20) I made sure to have Brandon come home and watch Eli while I bundled up to brave the cold! Everything with Cora is looking great. Good heartbeat, good weight gain and measurements, etc. I even got a call from my doctor's office this morning saying they'd scheduled my c-section for May 4th at 11:00 a.m. I have to check in at 9:30 a.m. and no food or drink after 1:00 a.m. the night before. WOW! This definitely makes it feel VERY real! I am kind of glad it's late morning because I will be able to spend some time with Eli before I leave, which is important to me. The only bad thing is...how in the world am I going to make it until 11 without food or drink? Yikes! My c-section with Eli was first thing in the morning (check in 6), so it was no big deal. I'm sure I won't be sleeping very well, so hopefully I can eat a snack before 1 a.m. to help tide me over. I'm hoping I make it to this date without going into labor, but we'll see. Last night I snuck out and got coffee and scones with my cousin Ellen. We had fun talking wedding plans! After I got home, Brandon headed over to my cousin Sam's house for the UT game. He never gets to watch football, so they had fun! Tomorrow night we're having a pizza band night with our band friends and deciding what our plans are, considering our drummer is stepping down to pursue other things, and both our guitar player's wife and I are having babies in May. Hmm...might be some changes!

We had a blast with my family this weekend! Eli was in heaven making everyone play hide and seek with him and ball! We went out to eat a lot and hung out with my other Corman cousins and aunt and uncle. My mom brought us all funny gifts from my "almost grandma" Josephine that died this year. Memorable items that we would laugh about. It was nice to tell funny stories about her! My brother got us a Fluval fish tank for Christmas. We set that up and got four glowfish (neon pink and green). Eli named them, "Mama", "Dada", "Mimi", and "Dada", although he mainly calls them "Mimi" and "Pink". So cute! We've had a few rough nights with Eli coughing every five minutes, but last night was finally better. Could we all possibly be on the mend? I don't even dare to hope! On New Year's Eve we all watched The Blind Side. FABULOUS MOVIE! Definitely one of my favorites of all time and a completely true story too! I would recommend this movie to everyone. I've been having severe foot pain in my left foot. You'll see me limping around the house most of the time. I have an OB appointment Thursday, so I'm hoping for some suggestions. I had feet pain with Eli, but nothing like this! I'm learning to live with it, though. Yesterday, I really enjoyed working on baby stuff and nesting. I cleaned out Eli's toy bins and sorted through the toys. I even went ahead and pre-washed a bag of towels, sheets, and changing pad covers and sealed them tightly in a trash bag. In a few weeks, this baby will be considered "viable". I can't wait to get to that point and breathe a little easier. I'm on my 23rd week already. With all the holidays this pregnancy is flying by! Only a few more months and Cora shall make her debut! Can't wait!