Twilight

This has been a Twilight week for me. I read the whole series this week during Eli's naps and after he went to bed. It was fun, and I was sad when I got to the last page of the last book! My favorite books were definitely the first and the last. We've been trapped inside this week (except for short runs out to the mailbox or to water the garden) with the cold weather back. It is snowing today...yuck! Poor Eli wants to be outside so bad. Eli can now point to his hair, tongue, and nose when asked. He likes to hit his head if you say "bonk", and sometimes he will think he's bumped his head and start patting it to get some sympathy. Brandon taught him to say "tee tee" last night. I've never heard him make a "t" sound before, so what the heck! It was pretty funny. If he screams and I say "shhh" he will do it back at me. He's doing a lot better with wanting to drink his whole milk out of a cup, so we're really working on distracting him from nursing. It's really hard and slow going. Believe it or not, he just decided to start clapping this week and finds it very amusing. I gave him blueberries mixed with pears for the first time yesterday and he loved them. I need to cut him up some fresh ones soon. My throat is a little red today, and I'm annoyed to death. If I get sick then Eli will definitely get sick. Just shoot me. At least we'd hopefully all be better by our vacation. I'm looking forward to a weekend where we finally have no obligations. Yay for weekends!

12 Month Appt.

Today was Eli's 12 month appointment. There is one word to describe it....DRAMA! He cried about everything. I could barely even get him on the scale to even get his weight. If anyone so much as touched him or looked at him it would set him off. It was so dramatic Brandon and I were laughing. Seriously. We had to pin him down for the doctor to even listen to his heart. He cried more over all the stuff that doesn't hurt than the shots! I could tell the doctor was impressed with all the words he's saying. The whole time she was trying to check him over he kept crying and sobbing, "ALL DONE!" "ALL DONE!". The nurse said that from 1-3 kids are horrible at the doctor, and usually at 3 they start cooporating better! We'll see! He weighed 18 lbs 7 oz (6%) and was 29 1/4 inches (25%) tall and his head was 18 3/4 (76%, he must have a large brain ha ha). We were hoping for 20 lbs so we could turn his car seat facing forward, but oh well. I was a little concerned about his height because people are always telling me how short his legs are, but we looked at his chart together and he's perfectly on track! I was glad to get it over with. I have a feeling it's going to be a rough recovery from the vaccines because they both were live viruses. He will probably definitely get a fever and maybe some other not so fun symptoms. I'll definitely be staying on top of the Tylenol for the next 24 hours! It got cold again this week, but I'm still enjoying the view of our back yard with our tree blooming a beautiful pink and a bush blooming white. They are giving me hope for spring.

Last few days....

Here's what we've been up to the last few days:
1. Computer keeps crashing, so no time to blog.
2. Warm weather, so trips to park, playground, and first shorts
3. Bought and read through book Twilight in 2 days...then went to the movie by myself today to escape
4. Brandon led worship....Eli didn't even make it through 1/2 an hour at church b/c he was traumatized by me leaving him in the nursery for 5 minutes and went ballistic
5. Craziest bed head yet!
6. Visited weird statues at Art Museum several times, which Eli loves
7. Tilled and planted the first part of our vegetable garden (asparagus, potatoes, and broccoli plants)
8. Eli's face met cement for the first time...just a little mark thank God!
9. Eli is teething again, so lots of screeching and tantrums today (especially when we'd bring him inside from playing outside)
10. Had a lot of fun with Granny!
11. Pulled out goldfish pond...no chance of drowning.
12. Brandon took Eli out shopping to give me a break (long weekend with Brandon being gone for practice and 5 hours of church)

Today the high is 84!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, we'll be outside all day. Eli's napping now, but after I feed him a healthy lunch ;-) we'll be headed to the park! I'm meeting one of my friends, Christina (who was my nurse when I had Eli), and three of her kids. I really miss seeing her. When you have 4 kids, it's often hard to do things with other people (especially when two of them are twins), so I rarely get to spend time with her. I'm disappointed because my sister and Joel were supposed to come today and spend a few days with us, but Becca came down sick. Tonight my cousin Ellen is playing a viola duet with the chamber orchestra at Friends. I'm really looking forward to it (especially because Brandon's staying home and babysitting). Yesterday we were all excited to go the Garden Show at Century II....let me just say...it SUCKED. It was the worst $22 I've ever spent in my life. Eli enjoyed the fountains, flags, and the stuffed dead birds on a stick, at least. I guess we were expecting more plants, flowers, vegetables, bird baths (of which there were none) and less JUNK. If you're looking for: jewelry, crafts, your teeth whitened, tons of massages, tours of Kansas, travel agencies, rock collections (okay so these were kind of cool because there were metiorites), mustard, soups, dips, steel palm trees, flags, car drawings, windows, siding, blah blah blah etc. by all means go to the garden show. If you're looking for flowers just go to Johnsons Garden Center.

We've spent the last couple of days recovering from a very busy and stimulating weekend! Eli definitely has been off schedule, but I think things are getting better now. We're still working on weaning, and it is going very well. He tried beets and strawberries for the first time. You can't give berries until after they turn one. He ate the beets, but LOVED the strawberries. I was just holding them and he would run and take a bite then run and play. I swear he ate like five. He's really working on words with "p" in them. Twice he's actually told me when he's pooped...seriously! Of course I praise him like crazy. He also tries to say "Top", "up", "boy", and "Spoon". One of the cutest things he says is "Oh MAN!" Brandon started saying that when he'd miss a basket playing basketball...Eli picked up on it really quickly.

Birthday Bash!

Eli had a wonderful first birthday party. Brandon and I made animal cupcakes to go with his "Old McDonald" theme. We made sheep, pigs, frogs, lady bugs, turtles, and mice. We had Raspberry Sherbet punch, a cream cheese/chocolate chip ball with graham crackers, strawberries and fruit dip, and ended up buying tons of pizzas for everyone for supper! It was a great party. Our guests included: My parents, sister and brother, and his friend Chris, Eli's closest friends (Horsts and Racchinis), Brandon's parents, and Brandon's sisters family (including our nephew Gavin). All of the kids played really well together. We opened up all the presents and let the kids play with all the new toys. They had a blast! We gave Eli his first cupcake. He was hesitant at first, but then ate a few bites of the frosting and called it quits. Brandon and I were wrong in our prediction that he would throw it on the floor! It was wonderful to have Brandon's family here from Texas. I was afraid they would have a horrible trip up (6 hours with a 3 1/2 year old) and never wnat to come again, but they had a really good trip and Gavin had a blast playing at "Cousin Eli's house" as he kept saying. I couldn't stop laughing last night because Brandon's dad fell asleep on the floor when we were playing in the basement and was snoring. Gavin just came out and said, "Papa's a pig!". His snoring did sound similar to a pig noise. We were all cracking up. Overall, everything couldn't have gone any better. Eli held up really well in all the stimulation and craziness. I was so proud of him!