Weekend at Grammy and Pop's

This past weekend, we traveled to visit my parents for my dad's big 50th birthday bash. Oddly enough, Josh and my dad have the exact same birthday, just 20 years apart. Josh was turning the big 3-0 and Dad was turning half a century (that makes him sound like a geezer!). We left Saturday morning after Eli's mid-morning bottle and just like we thought he would, he went right to sleep and slept the entire 3 1/2 hours to my parents house. He's such a great traveler!

We got there and it was time for Eli to have some lunch before he went swimming. I attempted feeding him in my old high chair again, but as you can see, he decided to make it a challenge for me. I guess standing up and eating was much more fun for him! What you don't see however, is the picture of what the kitchen looked like after his little hand slapped the bowl out of my hand and landed all over Grammy's brand new kitchen cabinets. He was quite happy with himself; Mommy laughed, but didn't enjoy the clean up very much.

Messy boy!

After his lunch, we got him ready for the pool. The glasses we bought the last time we were in Shreveport are no longer working now that he has figured out how to yank them off the minute I put them on him. I think we're going to have to invest in some Baby Banz-glasses with a band that fits around the baby's head like ski goggles-if he spends lots of time in the pool these next few years.

"I'm ready for the pool!"

Grammy bought Eli a little float to help keep the sun off his head, but Eli is against leaning back and relaxing in the pool, so I had to help shade him the whole time he was in the pool. Eventually, he got tired of the confinement and I let him out to swim with Mommy for a little bit. Don't worry, he was coated in baby sunscreen!

Mom and Dad love animals and have even acquired another one...my brother, Caleb, adopted this black lab named Meg, and she has joined the other fur kids. She loved jumping in the pool and fetching this giant frisbee. After a couple of dives, she decided to get out and see if Eli would throw her frisbee for her. Unfortunately, his hand-eye coordination skills aren't quite that develped yet, so she had to settle on just sniffing him a little. He was taken by surprise as you can tell.

"Who's sniffing me?"

It wasn't too long, before Eli was tired of the pool. One of mom's friends gave her these little kid loungers for Eli, so we wrapped him up tight in his towel and let him chill by the pool for a little bit. He loved watching Uncle Caleb and the fur kids, Sophie, Annabelle, Max, and Meg, swim in the pool. He thought that was great fun, especially while chewing on his sunglasses. Can you tell we're still teething?

"Ugh, Mommy! Take these off me!"

After relaxing a little bit, he got in the pool for one more dip with Uncle Caleb. By this time, he was so tired and was ready for a nap, so he didn't stay in long at all. He did have quite a surprise when the fur kids jumped in to see what Caleb was holding. He wanted out of the pool quickly after that. After some good lovin' from Mommy, he was ready to go in and take his nap. He knew he needed to be well rested for Pop's big birthday bash in a couple of hours.

Swimming with Uncle Caleb

The fur kids checkin' out Eli

"Get me outta here!"

Laughing at Daddy behind Mommy

Chillin' by the pool

Safe and snug in Mommy's arms

Eli took a long nap and was in a great mood when the guests started arriving for Pop's 50th birthday celebration. Dad got lots of great gifts, some gag gifts (that he'll probably actually use!), and lots of fun wishes for the next 50 years. Everyone had a great time! Josh and Joshua, my brother, manned the grill for the party and grilled some very tasty chicken and burgers. Those that were brave enough had some crawfish. I'm normally a huge crawfish lover, but these crawfish were the hottest crawfish my mouth has ever tasted. Josh peeled me some (I couldn't touch them since I was holding Eli...hot spicy crawfish and babies don't mix well) and after about 3 I couldn't feel my tongue anymore. That was the end of the crawfish for me! Eli enjoyed being passed around to meet all Grammy and Pop's friends, but in the end he decided he'd spend the rest of the night in Daddy's arms before turning in for the night.

Dad's walker

Joshua and Josh manning the grill

Eli and I bringing Pop his special cane

Showing off his special cane in honor of his 50th birthday.
It squeaked every time it touched the ground.

Eli and Josh

The HUGE universal remote control that Mom gave him as a gag gift
that he actually programmed to use.
I guess he really did need it!

Lots of old people humor in this book...

Every handyman's dream card--a gift card to Lowe's

Cool clothes for a cool Dad/Grandpa

Dad's first letter from the AARP

We all came inside once the mosquitoes made their appearance (gotta love Louisiana!) and Josh opened his birthday gifts. He got several gift cards that I think he's planning on using for some much needed golfing supplies. It was such a great night. I'm so glad we were able to spend it with family and friends.

Josh with all his birthday cards

The next morning, Grandma came down to visit before she headed off to work. Eli loved on her and gave her kisses before she left. Then he decided it was time to check out Pop's computer. At home, he's never allowed on ours, but you know that grandbabies are allowed to do whatever they want at the grandparents house, so he had free reign. He hit the keys and slapped the screen and had a grand time surfin' the net.

Eli and Grandma

Surfin' the net

Chillin' on the couch with Grammy

Before too long, it was time for our family to load up the car and get ready to leave. We all loaded up in the car and headed to Posados for some yummy Mexican food before getting on the road for the trip home. Eli was such a big boy and sat in his high chair the entire time we were there. He didn't even fuss until about 10 minutes before it was time for us to go. It was great! Maybe we can actually start to venture out to restaurants again now :)

Sitting in his high chair like a big boy.

Grammy and Pop tried to tempt Eli with some ice cream, but he wasn't having any part of it. He remembered that Dr. Russ told him no cow's milk until he was 12 months, so he showed some incredible willpower and resisted the ice cream cone. Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and Pop didn't show as much willpower though, and all made sure to get their free soft serve vanilla cone before leaving. Pigs, I know! I'm sure Eli will be joining us in a few months. Our whole family loves ice cream, so I don't see why he is going to be any different.

It was such a great weekend and Eli did very well on the ride home, too. He slept most of the way and the rest of the time he played with some of his toys and books. It was a fun weekend, but a busy one and we were glad when we finally made it home. As Dorothy says, "There's no place like home!"

Eli being tempted to eat ice cream (not really, they were just playing)
I told them that they can take him to Dairy Queen
on his first birthday if they want though :)

Time for Questions/Answers

In response to the amazing amount of comments (I need to post stuff like this every day. WOW! I've had a lot responders!), I thought it would be appropriate to answer the questions that I know you guys are dying to ask and only one person did....I knew you'd be curious, Audra! :)

1. Were we trying to get pregnant again?
Yes and no. We knew we wanted to have another baby after Eli, someone he could play with and be close to. We also knew that we wanted them to be close in age. We didn't expect to get pregnant the first go around since it took a lot longer with Eli. Trust me...we were just as surprised as all of you!

2. How far apart will Eli and the new baby be?
About 15 months. Yeah, we're going to have two babies :) One for each of Mommy's hips.

3. How far along are you?
I went to the doctor yesterday and since I wasn't keeping track like I used to it was hard to narrow down exactly when I got pregnant. Sometime around the beginning of May from what they could tell by the baby's size. I'm 6 weeks pregnant--very very early. We actually got a positive pregnancy result from a home test when I was only 4 weeks. We caught this one earlier than Eli. Everything looks good so far. The baby is exactly where it needs to be and we even saw it's tiny heartbeat moving up and down. I'll go back in 2 weeks to check on it again before I start my monthly appointments.

4. When is the baby due?
Since the baby only measured 6 weeks yesterday, they are guessing that the due date is around February 1st. Now I'll have a baby with a birthday a month before Christmas and a baby with a birthday 2 months after Christmas. We'll definitely be pinching pennies then :)

5. Are you going back to work?
Not sure yet. I'll stay home 12 weeks at least with the new baby and then we'll go from there. Eli is going to go to a new sitter's house in August, but once the new baby arrives, he'll be home with me.

6. Do you want a girl or boy?
Part of me wants a little girl and part of me wants a little boy. If we have a girl, then we have one of each and we could potentially be finished having kids. If we have another boy, it'd be great for Eli because he'd have a brother that would be really close to him for playing, but I'd probably want to try again to have a girl. I've made the decision that I'm stopping after 3 boys though! :)

7. What was your first reaction?
Shock, surprise, elation, followed by an immediate prayer of thanks to God. We may not have "planned" this baby, but He's got a plan for it already in the works!

That's all the questions I can think of right now. We are very excited about this new development in our life. We're so happy that our family of three is turning into a family of 4! WOWZERS!

After hearing the news that he was going to be a big brother, Eli decided
he better read up on new babies. It's been awhile for him!

Wordless Wednesday

7 Months Old

Ever heard the expression, "The days are long, but the years are short"? After Eli, I have discovered how true that statement is. Every month, I am amazed at how the time has gone by so quickly. I think back to when Eli was little and how all he did was lay and look at the world around him. I remember nursing him and how he fit so perfectly across my stomach. I remember thinking that there was no way that he would ever fit into anything other than a newborn diaper or a newborn sleeper.

Now I am amazed at how many clothes I pack away at the end of every month that he didn't even get a chance to wear or wore only once. When I rock him to sleep, his legs now stretch all the way across my stomach and touch the arm of the recliner. Now instead of just laying and looking at the world, he ACTIVELY explores it...and has the bumps and bruises to prove it!

No matter how much he has changed and grown, one thing has stayed the same. Josh and I are completely smitten with this little boy. He is the love of our lives and makes us so happy. We are so thankful God chose us to be his parents :)

Now for the montly updates:

Sleeping: Eli is doing really well sleeping at night. He usually goes down for the night between 7 and 7:30 and will usually sleep until 5:30 or 6 the next morning. He'll wake up every now and then, but if he can find his pacifier, he'll go right back to sleep. He loves his little lovey-a brown furry blanket-that his cousin Jordan gave him before he was born. He takes his little hands and just rubs the blanket back and forth until he falls asleep.

Eating: Eli is doing much better with the bottle. At one point the doctor suggested taking him off baby food until he started accepting the bottle better. We did that for a week and then I started re-introducing baby food to him again, one meal at a time. Right now he gets a bottle about 5 times a day, usually around 5 ounces at a time. His last bottle before bed will usually have 6 or 7 ounces in it, but that's the only time he will ever take that much formula. He's not really interested in holding the bottle himself; he tries to every now and then, but he usually ends up chunking it across the room. I'll admit that there have been a few times that he really needed to eat, so I popped in Baby Praise and fed him on the Boppy pillow while he watched it. Sometimes a mother's got to do what a mother's got to do. He still LOVES baby food. I don't think there is a flavor he doesn't enjoy eating. He hates rice cereal, but LOVES eating oatmeal. I've tried the multi-grain, but he's not a fan of it just yet; we'll keep trying.

Naps: He'll usually take a long morning nap and a long afternoon nap every day (when I say long, I mean 50 minutes to an hour). The rest of the day, he'll take two or three 30 minute cat naps and be perfectly happy when he wakes up.

Likes:
-REALLY REALLY likes Mommy right now
-LOVES his Daddy
-watching Baby Praise
-playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed
-crawling over whoever is on the floor with him
-pulling up
-listening to Mommy sing silly songs
-his Lion puppet, his monkey, and his toucan (they all make noises and he loves that)
-NUK pacifier (it's great now that he can put it in his own mouth now)
-chewing on anything and everything
-cameras, iPhones, computers, and remotes
-being outside and especially touching grass
-paper (he's most recently found the magazine rack and enjoys trying to rip them to shreds)
-LOVES being in just a diaper
-catching bubbles (thanks, Cheryl and Brody, for those AWESOME bubbles from Gymboree!)

Dislikes:
-being rocked to sleep, even when he's exhausted and could fall over any minute because he's so tired
-confinement, especially the carseat (he's learned to arch his back when I put him in there and it makes it quite difficult to buckle him in)
-getting his diaper changed (it's quite a challenge now to put a diaper on him because he twists and turns so much)
-getting dressed (see above note about twisting and turning)

New Accomplishments:
-pulling up (he's so proud of himself when he does this in his crib. His whole face lights up from ear to ear)
-crawling (he can take 2-3 solid steps and then reverts back to the army crawl/lunge
-cutting his four top teeth....all at the same time! POOR POOR BABY! I see all four white spots up there and I can't even imagine how bad his little gums hurt. His hands do not leave his mouth these days and he is constantly looking for something to chew on. I pray they break through the surface really really soon.

I can't wait to see how much my little guy will accomplish this month. Maybe I'll be able to add some babbling and even maybe a "ma-ma" or "da-da" to the list. We've been practicing and we'll keep practicing until I hear those sweet little words :)

A Very Busy Week

This has been a very busy week for our family. Eli has had many new experiences and has learned some new tricks, too! I was going to do several posts on each experience, but I decided to forego that and instead do one long post :) Those of you who don't like to read all my many words, you may begin skipping to the pictures. You're welcome! :)

This week our church is having Vacation Bible School and Eli and I are having so much fun! Our theme this year is the Boomerang Express (a train that goes around Australia). It's been so much fun learning about Australia, learning the lingo, singing the songs, and watching about 150 kids learn more about Jesus. I am a co-director of our church's VBS, so Eli has been coming with me every day this week to VBS. He's loving every minute of it! Usually, he starts off his morning in my little "kangaroo pouch" (A.K.A. Baby Bjorn carrier). He loves being able to look out at all the kids, especially all the pretty girls. He's such a little flirt! He helped me earn my nickname, AMANDAROO, because of him being in his "pouch" all the time. After our opening songs, Eli spends the rest of VBS in the nursery playing with the other babies. He's doing great there, except for he doesn't really sleep. There's so much going on and the 4 and 5 year olds are just 2 doors down from the nursery, so it's hard keeping them quiet, especially when they are having so much fun. It's okay though, because everyday Eli comes home, drains a bottle, and promptly goes to sleep for at least an hour. WOO HOO! I love VBS for that reason alone :)

"AMANDAROO" and Eli

Since it's summer, I've been trying to let Eli have lots of new experiences. Monday we went to the pool. I've already blogged about that experience. He loved the pool and we will definitely be going back. Tuesday afternoon, he tried out his new "pool" I bought him. My blog friend, Audra, posted pics of her boy Drew playing on this water-filled mat that squirted water. She gave me the link for it, but when I was at Wal-Mart the other day, I ran across this one and thought we'd try it out. I slathered Eli in sunscreen, put on his swimsuit and hat, and we went outside to play in the water. He had an okay time. He's not in love with it, yet, but I think he will enjoy it eventually. He was really tired at this point and pretty much just wanted Mommy to hold him. I did get him to sit and play in the water for a couple minutes before he decided he'd had enough.
We're going to be using this a lot this summer, I hope!

Eli LOVES touching grass. Let's hope he's not allergic like his father!
So far, so good!

I tried my hardest to get him to smile.
He just wanted to look at everything outside.

Not only is Eli having lots of fun experiences this week, but he is learning something new almost every single day. I guess I can say he's crawling now. He's not going all across the room, yet, but he definitely is taking two or three solids steps before he goes back into his army crawl. He enjoys sitting up so much though, that now he'll "crawl" about two steps and then he pops up into a sitting position, and it just keeps repeating. We are definitely realizing that our house is not "Eli proof" and already he has heard the words "No" lots of times. He is so nosey and wants to investigate everything he can get his tiny little hands on. He is just growing up so fast!

Speaking of growing up fast, this afternoon I placed Eli in his crib to play while I hung up clothes in his closet. All of a sudden, I hear a squeal of delight and turn around to see my little man STANDING UP in his crib! Yep! We're officially pulling up now. WOW! That happened so fast. He was so proud of himself, too; it was so cute to see his whole face light up every time he pulled up. Josh's mom said it won't be long before he's crawling over the crib bars...oh goodness! I don't doubt that my little monkey will figure that out very soon as well.

My little monkey :)

Eli Hits the Pool

Some dear friends of ours from the church, Art and Vera, have a pool at their house that they let us use during the summer. Every summer since I've lived here, I have gone to their pool to relax, read books, catch some rays, and exercise (okay, mostly the first three, but I thought I'd throw the exercise in there just in case I sounded like a bum!).

Today Eli and I went to the pool for the first time. I knew that we wouldn't be able to stay very long, but I wanted to see how he would do in the water. I went by Wal-Mart this afternoon and picked up a baby float for him, sunscreen, and a beach towel and then we went home to get ready to head to the pool.

We got there and I put him in his float. It took him just a few minutes to get acclimated to the water, but once he did, he started having a great time! Josh and I are going to try to go back later on this week with him after the big crowds have left the pool (we're not the only ones that enjoy Art and Vera's pool...they are GREAT about sharing!). I can't wait to spend many more summer days with my boy at the pool :) I LOVE SUMMER!

Scoping out the pool, looking for hot chicks...

One cool dude!

My favorite wide open mouthed smile!

He seemed to enjoy his little float.
Now if I could just figure out how to get him to lay back and relax!

Whew! Long day at the pool, Mommy. Time to go home and eat!

Mammy's Book

Last week, we invited Mammy and Uncle Clare over for dinner because Eli had a special gift he wanted to give Mammy. After dinner and his bath, Eli gave his gift to Mammy. I took all the pictures of Eli from when he was at Mammy's house those four months and turned it into a photo book. I wanted her to have something so she would remember her "Boogerhead" (my dear husband gave him that nickname and it stuck...I'm going to hate it when he's a teenager and is known as "Booger" Wilson!) Mammy was so shocked when she saw the gift, but she loved the book! It was such a special moment :) We've been so blessed to have Mammy and Uncle Clare love our little man :)

Here are some pictures from Mammy's book from Eli.