Boardwalk Fun

After Eli and Grammy both got their new hairdos, we met my Dad at McAlister's for lunch (Audra, I finally got their signature sweet tea I've been wanting!). Eli has gotten so much better about eating out with us at restaurants. Josh and I haven't tried it alone, yet, but after this trip to S'port, I think we may be able to handle it. Eli sits so great in the highchair now and as long as you keep him supplied with puffs, he is one happy camper. Eli has also started to figure out that restaurants equal new exciting foods for him to try. We ordered our food and when it was brought to us, we all had a dill pickle spear on our plate. I LOVE pickles. Seriously, they're an addiction. When I was a freshman in college, my grandfather bought me a huge jar of pickles for Christmas. You would have thought I won the lottery the way I reacted over those pickles! Anyway, just like any good pregnant woman, I consumed my fair share of pickles, olives, banana peppers, and all other kinds of sodium loaded foods. I decided to give Eli a pickle so I could see what his reaction would be. I figured he would pucker up his lips, squint his eyes, and make a face, but this is what happened instead...


Okay, so you can't see the joy that was all over his face in this picture, but trust me, he LOVED them! In fact, right after this picture, he used his little chompers to bite off a piece of pickle, giving me quite a scare and prompting me to dig it out of his little mouth. He did that twice and after the second bite, I decided that pickles would have to wait for now. I'm too scared he's going to choke. Guess those pickles I ate when I was pregnant did have an effect on him. Too bad Poppy (my grandfather) isn't here to see this. He would have been tickled to know that his great grandson loved pickles just as much as granddaughter. :) Eli might have even gotten a big jar of pickles for his first birthday, too!

After McAlister's, we all drove to the Boardwalk for some shopping. The weather was so nice and I also wanted Eli to get to experience riding the carousel they had there. After all the excitement of the morning, Eli was sound asleep within minutes of leaving McAlister's and stayed asleep when we got to the Boardwalk and even when we transferred him to his stroller. I was convinved someone had switched my baby, because my child has NEVER done that. The moment you go to move him, he usually wakes up, but not this day!

This was Eli after we got to the Boardwalk. Still sound asleep! Woo Hoo!

We went to Children's Place and I picked up a couple of onesies (you can never have enough of those!) before Eli woke up with big smiles all over his face. His 30 minute power nap worked! Since he was in such a good mood, I decided to capitalize on that and let him ride the carousel.

Eli's first carousel experience was in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago, and he had fun, but after the third trip around he was pretty much done with just sitting on a tiger that didn't move. We switched up the game plan this time and I found an animal that did move. What says "We live in Louisiana and we're proud of it!" more than a crawfish? Eli didn't mind at all; in fact, he was so excited and surprised when he discovered that the crawfish moved up and down. This carousel ride went so much better :) I didn't want Grammy and Pop to miss out on all the fun, so Eli got to ride the carousel two more times with each of them. Can you say spoiled rotten? No, not really. He LOVED it and I'm so glad Mom and Dad got to experience it with him :) I bet the carousel operator was disappointed when we left. She probably looked at us and saw "SUCKERS" written all over our foreheads.

1st time around with Mommy on a crawfish

He did this with each of us. He wanted to see what made the figurines
go up and down. Maybe we have a little engineer on our hands :)

2nd time around with Grammy on a zebra

3rd time around with Pop on a horse

Pop rode on the horse and let Eli sit with him.
Eli took advantage of that and proceeded to do tricks.
"Look, Mommy! No hands!"

"I can ride backwards, too!"

We shopped a little more and then headed to Cold Stone Creamery for a yummy treat. Poor Eli, all he got was a bottle of formula that he didn't want at all, so he settled for some ice water out of a straw from Grammy. He really wanted all of our smoothies, but mine had strawberries in it and our pediatrician told us to stay away from those for awhile (just in case of allergies); Mom's was a coffee flavored smoothie and you all know that my child does not need any extra energy; and Dad's was some sort of cheesecake concoction that was loaded with lots of sugar. So, in the end, he had to settle for his water. He didn't seem to mind and his favorite part was when he got to keep a straw and chew on it. I bent down to get some of his stuff together so we could leave and this is what I found. How funny! I had Mom take a picture real quick so I could blog about it (everything in my world is blog worthy, I've come to realize).

Getting some sugar from Grammy

Eli was tired and ready to go, but I wanted to do the traditional fountain picture that everyone does when they're at the Boardwalk. Unfortunately for me, all Eli wanted to do was to climb in the fountain, so those pictures didn't turn out quite so well. I'm smiling though :) I settled for a couple of pictures under this tree and these two turned out cute. If you look closely at the last picture, you'll see a family to our left. They were doing fountain pictures, too, when one of their kids actually fell in the fountain completely! Notice they are all staring at something? That would be their daughter's shoe that was about to go off the waterfall in the fountain. When we left, they were debating who was going to go in the fountain to retrieve the shoe. Why, oh, why, do I have images of me having to retrieve my SON from this same fountain one day? :)

I had a death grip on him because he was fighting so hard to "get" the water!

"Umm, can I go in now?"

"Mommy, why are you smiling?"

A Very Busy Saturday (LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PICS)

Saturday was chock full of activities for our whole family. I have so much to blog about that I decided to do chapters in this one post. It's really long, but there are lots of pictures for those of you that skip the words and go straight for the pics :) Don't worry, I don't mind. I do it sometimes, too!

Chapter 1-Getting Ready for the Day

Eli woke up Saturday, after spending his first night away from his crib, in a wonderful mood. Mom purchased a crib on the go for Eli. It's a little smaller than your average crib, but bigger than a bassinet or pack-n-play. I tried my hardest to keep him on his nightly schedule and he went down without a fight, but was very restless most of the night. I don't know how much of it was due to being in a new place with new sounds and smells or if it was due to the fact that he is still teething and was just a little irritable because of his gums. Around 3 AM, he woke up and had a very stuffy nose and felt warm to me. I took him to the bathroom, suctioned his nose, and took his temp. He was running a low grade fever, so I gave him a half dose of Tylenol. He also seemed hungry (odd for him), so I fed him about 3 oz. and put him back in his crib. He seemed to do much better then and woke up a little later than normal Saturday morning feeling much better. Mommy actually got to sleep in until 7 AM! Hooray!

Josh woke up early to go golfing, so while we waited for him to get back, Eli had fun playing with Grammy and Pop. Just like all boys, Eli was very interested in the TV remote. Uh oh! There may be fights in the years to come between my two boys over who gets control of the remote. I guess it's a good thing we have two TV's!

Now which button changes the channel?
I want to watch cartoons!

After playing and taking his bottle, Eli was pooped and took a long nap on Grammy's bed. I barricaded him with pillows on all sides, so he wouldn't roll anywhere and checked on him probably 12 times during that 1 1/2 hour nap! I was so happy that he was actually staying on schedule :) He woke up in a wonderful mood and spent about another hour playing on Grammy's bed. They sang "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", he showed her how he could sit up like a big boy, how he can push himself up on his legs, and how he is a little roly poly! At one point, Uncle David, my mom's brother, called to let us know they were on their way to come visit and Eli got to talk to him on the telephone.

Mr. Sleepyhead when he woke up from his nap.

Showing off how he can sit up!

Silly boy!

Playing with Grammy

Talking to Uncle David

Chapter 2-Meeting His Texas Family

Eli played a little more and soon was tired again, so I took him to Mom's room to try to put him down again, but in the midst of me trying to do that, Josh got home, my Dad came in from outside with the dogs, and David, Stephanie and their kids arrived. A nap was out of the question now! Eli heard all that noise and he popped his head up and started wiggling around trying to see where it was all coming from. I resigned myself to the fact that his second nap of the day would have to be in the car and we went to meet his Texas family. Stephanie couldn't wait to get her hands on him. Ever since he was born, she has been keeping up with him on the blog and has sent a care package full of goodies for him every month. I am so glad these two finally got to meet! He also got to meet his cousins Samantha and Emily for the first time, too. (David and Stephanie's oldest, Katharine, couldn't make it because of work, but we hope we see her sometime soon!) They gave Eli his Easter basket and I must have been out of my mind because I have zero pictures of it! It was so cute! They gave him a Mickey Mouse Easter basket with a set of bath ducks and a book inside it. He really loved the Mickey Mouse on the front of his Easter basket and started reaching for it immediately. Thanks for thinking of him, Stephanie!

Chapter 3-Meeting the Easter Bunny

David, Stephanie, and the kids could only stay for a couple of hours because they needed to get back home before the bad weather moved in, so they adapted their plans to fit ours. I really wanted Eli to get his picture made with the Easter Bunny at the mall, so we all loaded up and went there first. We got there a little early and saw that the Easter Bunny was away tending his garden (or so the sign said so), so we went to Baby Gap to shop until he came back. I've been wanting to find Eli some baby sunglasses, but he decided he wanted Pop's instead! He looks like Mr. Joe Cool here :) I've also been on the hunt for a cute hat for Eli and while we were in Gap, Josh spotted this golfing one. We tried it on Eli and he looked so cute! I can't wait for him to go golfing with his Daddy in his hat :)

Mr. Joe Cool in Pop's sunglasses

Eli sporting his new hat.

We noticed that the line for the Easter Bunny had started to fill up, so we quickly made our purchases and hurried to join the others in line. The wait wasn't that long and before we knew it, we were next. Josh and I had been watching all the kids before us and how they reacted to seeing the bunny. Most of them screamed and cried, so we wondered what Eli was going to do. I'm not one of those people that have to have the perfect smiling picture; I actually think it's funny to have pictures of your kids screaming when they first meet Santa or the Easter Bunny. You'll always remember it for sure! I was prepared to tell the lady behind the camera to just get a picture that was in focus no matter what he did, but Eli showed us all that he was big and brave. He sat there like a champ and smiled at his Mommy and Daddy (who were making BIG goofballs of themselves making silly noises and faces trying to get him to give one of his "Eli smiles") It worked and in less than 5 minutes we had his first picture of him with the Easter Bunny. I was so happy that Josh and I got to celebrate this "first" with Eli. We waited so long for him to arrive, and now we can't imagine our lives without him in it! He is such a joy and every day is so much fuller with him in it :)

Family Pic :)
I love these two boys so much!

Waiting for the Easter Bunny in Pop's arms

Cheesin' with the Easter Bunny

Hey Mommy! This is fun!

Are we done yet? I've got a schedule to keep!

See you next year, Mr. Bunny!

Chapter 3-Eli Meets Brody

When I first found out I was pregnant, I decided to start a blog since my family lives away from us. This way they could keep up with what was going on in our lives and my pregnancy and still be involved. After I started my blog, I started frequenting other blogs of friends of ours and then would go to their friend's blogs from their sites. One of Josh's childhood friends, Jamie, had a blog about her little girl Olivia. I had always read about Aunt Cheryl on Jamie's blog and one day while going through Jamie's Blog Roll, I noticed that Cheryl had her own blog. I was so surprised when I went to her page and saw that she was pregnant, too! From that day on, I visited Cheryl's blog as part of my daily computer time and I loved watching as her pregnancy progressed. She was several weeks ahead of me, so I always loved reading hers because I got a preview of what was going to happen next. Her little boy Brody was born exactly 6 weeks before Eli. I have so enjoyed watching him grow up on the computer screen. He is so full of energy and Cheryl always captures the best pictures of him. Cheryl and her family just happen to live in the same town as my parents, so when I knew for sure we were going there for Easter. I contacted her to see if she wanted to meet each other and each others little boys in person. She happily agreed and said that she would invite Jamie, Olivia, and the rest of their family as well. She also invited one of her and Jamie's good friends, Diana. Strangely enough Diana was one of my high school friends that I graduate with 10 years ago this May. WOW! What a small world it is!

We got to the Boardwalk and I immediately spotted Cheryl, Brody, Jamie, Olivia, and Jamie's mom, Mrs. Debbie. It was hard to miss Cheryl since we both have the same stroller (purely by coincidence). Brody was fast asleep in his stroller. He had decided to not take a nap all day and had finally fallen asleep in the car on the ride over. Cheryl was trying to make that nap last as long as possible. Gee, a baby that doesn't want to sleep and just wants to play all day...does that sound like any other baby you know? :) These two little boys share so many of the same characteristics; it's uncanny!

Brody finally woke up and we introduced the boys to each other. As you can see, Eli couldn't wait to get his hands on Brody. Eli is really into reaching and grabbing things right now and, in his mind, Brody, Brody's clothes, and Brody's shoes were fair game! Poor Brody! He didn't seem to mind. Next time, I'll make sure Eli plays nicer. We took TONS of pictures. It was so much fun to finally meet the people that I had been reading about for so long. We are going to try to get together this summer when Eli and I come visit my parents again. I imagine, by that time, both boys will be crawling, so a relaxing play date it definitely WON'T be, but it will be lots of fun!

It looks like Eli is trying to push Brody out of the picture.
Maybe he was just trying to get his attention....let's hope so!

Brody, where'd you get those jeans?

Jamie, Olivia, me, Eli, Cheryl, and Brody

Gettin' some love from Mrs. Debbie

Eli's new friend, Brody

Cheryl and Brody

Me, Cheryl, Diana, and Jamie

Brody gave Eli a gift from Gymboree since he knew that there isn't one where Eli lives.
He got 2 music CD's and a thing of bubbles. Thanks, Brody and Brody's Mommy!

If babies could talk....
Eli: Hey! That's my Mommy!
Brody: This kid better quit pushing me....

Chapter 4--Eli Goes Shopping

After all that excitement, Eli was very hungry and so were the rest of us. We decided to take a break and eat lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. This was Eli's first sit-down and order restaurant that he had ever been to, so I was curious to see how he would do. I had the waitress bring a glass full of hot water to warm his bottle (since he will only take a bottle if it's REALLY warm). Once his bottle was warm, he ate and was OUT! He slept for a little bit, long enough for us to order and at least start on our food, before he decided to wake up and put on a show. He was still so very sleepy but he wanted to play so much more instead. I resigned myself to the fact that, once again, his nap would probably be in the car, but at least he would have a nap.

Woo Hoo! My first restaurant! Give me a menu!

He loved meeting David, Stephanie, Samantha, and Emily and went around the table to all of them and gave out lots of hugs and sugar. I hate that they couldn't stay longer, but we're going to see them this summer. Eli's going to be so big then! All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to David, Stephanie and the girls. They wanted to get back before their oldest daughter got off work later that night. Eli gave them goodbye hugs and then we hit a few stores before leaving the Boardwalk ourselves.

Uncle David trying to pass the bill to Eli.

Uncle David, Aunt Stephanie, Samantha, Eli and Emily

Stephanie and Eli

Emily, can I have just a teeny tiny taste of your ice cream?

Giving Stephanie some good lovin' before she has to leave

We stopped at Gymboree, Osh Kosh, and Carter's and I was able to pick up lots of cute clothes for Eli. This kid is growing like a weed! He's only 5 months old, but any kind of one piece outfit has to be a 9 month if it's going to fit him in the length. Carter's was having a huge sale, so I was able to rack up on several cute outfits :) Gotta love bargain shopping! I also found Eli a pair of cute baby sunglasses at Gymboree. Now his pretty blue eyes will be protected when he goes to the golf course with his Daddy. Finally, it was time to go home. It had been a long day, but our little man had done SO SO well. We were so proud of him! We got in the car and before we were even on the interstate, he was sleeping soundly.

He was so tired at this point, but REFUSED to sleep.

Eli with his first pair of sunglasses.

Chapter 5- Bathtime and Bedtime

Eli was so exhausted from his busy day, so when we got home he played with Uncle Caleb for just a little bit before Mommy sent him to the tub. He had the best time playing in the tub with his new ducks from David, Stephanie and the girls. Do you think he was hungry? :) I didn't bring our bathtub, so Mom and I improvised by sticking him in his Bumbo. It worked so well, I may have to try that at home. Mom thought it would be fun to see what he would do without the Bumbo and, I think, we may have a swimmer on our hands! He had such fun crawling around in the tub. After his busy day, Eli was asleep in minutes and didn't hardly stir at all that night.

It was such a beautiful and memorable day. I'm so glad that we were able to spend it all together and have fun, especially since Sunday was not going to be so pretty in the weather department. Stay tuned for the Easter post!

Playing with Uncle Caleb

Bathtime! Check out those curls!

Mmmm, this duck tastes good!

Cute little hiney :)

Practicing sitting up in the bathtub