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!