1 Month Old

Eli you are one month old now. You marked your one month birthday with the huge milestone I've been waiting for, you started to smile. Last week you gave me a couple smirks when I was all by myself, but then on Saturday the day after you became one month old you showed us some real big smiles. And on Sunday in church you spotted your dad and me looking down at you in your little car seat and we both got the most beautiful full smile with a tongue.

I was not expecting you to be sick this young, but with having an older brother in daycare I shouldn't be surprised you've already had your first cold. You've had a stuffy noise for a little over a week and it's been no fun to listen to you try and breath. You've been taking most of your naps upright in your swing and at night sometimes you sleep in your bouncy chair. Dad and I are getting to be experts using the suction bulb to try and help you clean out your noise. Even Adam will get a Kleenex and try and help you wipe your noise when you sound extra stuffy.

You like being held, your nuk, eating and sleeping. Now that you smile I'll get to figure out more of your likes. I do know that you don't really care for tummy time or hanging out on the floor, so you spend most of your time in the swing or in some form of baby carrier. You're a really easy going baby so far just like your brother!

Coffee Play Date

This spring has been the cloudiest and it's starting to get to all of us. To cheer us up we decided to go for an adventure this cloudy morning. We packed up the kiddos not knowing entirely what we were doing or where we were going.We made a quick stop at Dunn Brothers for coffee and a muffin and then headed to the huge park behind the grade school. It rained last night so the park was wet, but in return we got the whole entire thing to ourselves.

Although Little Man did get a very wet butt from sliding down so many wet slides.

I enjoyed my coffee from the sidelines with Eli while Dave and Adam ran around on the playground. Little Man and Daddy wore matching plaid shorts and gray t-shirts. Dave dresses them a like so we can easily determine that they are in fact father and son.
Someone decided they needed a milk break.
And then he promptly fell back asleep.

I brought my point and shoot camera with instead of the big DSLR and I had tons of fun snapping pictures here and there without a care, but then when I got home and transferred the pictures over to my computer I remembered why I almost exclusively use my big bulky camera. Oh well I still captured our little Memorial Day Adventure!

Plus wearing a baby and holding a latte makes it hard to be a good photographer with a fancy camera.

ELI!!!

I've been picking Adam up from daycare most days. And normally Adam wouldn't be very happy to see me when he's either outside or about to go outside with the toddlers. But lately no matter what they are doing when I get there all I hear is "ELLLLIIII!!!" and then Adam comes running. I ask do you want to go home and he says yep.

The first couple times I picked up Adam he had to introduce Eli to his class. All the little toddlers surrounded Eli in his car seat and Adam stood proud repeating, "This Eli, Adam's brother".

Tomorrow I'm attempting my first trip into the cities with both boys alone. My brother and sister in-law are in town. I think we'll be heading to the zoo and then who knows what.

Cookie Monster Time

I've been wanting to make chocolate cookies since Eli was born. Like butter out on the counter ready for me to start mixing together the ingredients wanting to make cookies. But for some reason it took me until yesterday to finally whip a batch together. Than last night Adam and I baked them together. He was so ready to eat a cookie and I had to convince him to wait until they cooled off. When I told them they were cool and ready to eat he got really excited. It was "cookie monster time" he kept saying over and over again. He sure looked like a cookie monster after eating his cookie. Then Dave went and got a cookie, which Adam saw. I was like great now Adam's going to ask for another cookie, but to my surprise when he opened his mouth he said, "Daddy, cookie monster." And we both responded yes.

Tonight I offered Adam a cookie for dessert, but there would be no talking about cookie monster time despite my best efforts to bring it up again. Where do kids get these thoughts from and why can't we get them to say the same thing night after night when it's so darn cute?

Eli's Newborn Pictures

We went back to Renee from Dassel to do Eli's newborn pictures. We had her take a few of Adam for his 2 year pictures, too. I'm so happy with them- she did a great job. Below is the link to snapfish and some of my favorite shots!
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3734026002/a=15513476_15513476/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

The Waiting Game

I try so hard to enjoy every moment I get with my little ones the way they are right now. But sometimes I find myself dreaming about their next stage and how wonderful it will be when they are just a little bit older. Won't it be great when Adam isn't throwing tantrums all the time? I'm so anxious for Eli to look up at me and return my smile. But if they do move on to that next stage I will miss things about the way they are right now. Like how Eli makes the cutest mouse noises or the pouty face he makes when he stretches after eating or how he shakes his head when he latches. And how my Little Man, Adam adds an extra "L" into many words- like flower is said floler and how much he loves to give kisses and hugs. Someday my request for a hug and a kiss will be met with a not cool mom. I need to live for the way my boys are right now and stop wishing for them to move on to the next stage. Especially because in this current stage their interactions with each other are nothing but tender, someday I'm sure it won't be like this.

First Bottle

We introduced Eli to the bottle today. Eli had the same reaction as Adam did- oh nice milk in a bottle (I swear boys don't care how they get milk, just that they get milk). Watching Dave feed Eli for the first time was fun too. You'd think from how excited he was he had never bottle fed a baby before.

Then our little hockey player told us he needed to go poop on his new little potty and actually went pee! He's gone #1 on the potty several times before, but it's always us telling him he needs to sit on the potty. We told him over and over how proud we were of him and then he got a candy!

Above is Adam all decked out to watch hockey. We tried to turn on the Stanley cup game, but apparently the storms took precedence, so there would be no hockey watching today. Instead we played hockey!

This weekend was stormy. Yesterday it cleared up enough for us to get a few quick family photos outside and then we did the rest of Eli's newborn shoot inside. I can't wait to see the pictures. When we got home our friends Cory, Steph, Tom and Jamie came over with Bucca's and spent the evening visiting. Today I have the start of a cold, so after church we had soup and sandwiches and then everyone- the whole entire family took a much needed nap. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with my boys.

Itsy Bitsy

One of my favorite family activities is singing to Eli with Adam. He knows so many songs- ABC's, Rock a Bye Baby, The Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Dave's current favorite Take Me out to the Ball Game and of course the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
The Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout: Down came the rain and washed the spider out:

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain:

And the Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the spout again:

Eli was lying on the floor watching his brother sing (ok maybe he was just listening to his brother sing, but either way these are some of my favorite family moments).

Big Yawn

Dave and I are both exhausted after three weeks of this. More sleep is needed so I'm praying that Eli starts stretching out the time in between feedings soon. And Adam please, please don't wake up at night- be the rock star sleeper that you've been most of your life.

Actually if Dave and I would just try to get to bed shortly after Eli goes down at 9 we would probably feel a lot better. Darn DVR, comfy couch and good adult conversations are keeping us up past 11 PM. Then we only get a couple hours of sleep before Eli's up wanting to eat at 1 AM and then again at 4 or 5 AM. (Really Eli's a great sleeper and never had his days and nights mixed up so I shouldn't be complaining).

Goodbye Newborn Sleepers

I washed all the newborn sleepers and today I will be packing them all away in the tiny tote. I feel like it's too soon to be saying goodbye to newborn clothes, but he's so tall that 3 month clothes fits better.

Yesterday was the first day I cloth diapered Eli all day long. I'm happy to report that we didn't have a single leak or poop explosion! The more I cloth diaper the more I dislike disposable diapers. And I used to work in a Huggies plant! Right now I'm using regular old prefold diapers with a snappi instead of pins and a thirstie cover over top. When he outgrows the prefolds I'll switch him to modern cloth diapers like Adam wears.

My Boys

This is the reason I spend so much time with my camera glued to my face. Sometimes I get lucky and capture the sweetness of the moment.

Mother's Day Weekend

Dave's family came to visit over Mother's Day Weekend. It was a fun weekend that went way too fast. Lots of playing with toddlers and baby holding for everyone.

What's cuter than one boy in the bath- two!

Adam decorated the box containing grandpa's birthday present. It seemed like a good idea to keep Adam occupied for fifteen minutes, but I'm slightly concerned that it's a little too similar to coloring on the walls. So far he's stuck to coloring on paper.

Lunch at the hotdog stand- Adam ate two!

Picture of the mama's on Mother's day with the kiddos:

Me with my boys in there baseball hats:

First Day Alone

It's hard to believe that I've been to busy to do a really good post lately, but I have been. Dave was home with me the first week and then last week Grandma Rose and Grandpa Dave were here. My mom and I got two big projects done- we added black out panels to the curtains in the boy's room and the guest room and we finished the quilt I started before Adam was born.

Eli is two and a half weeks old already. He's a great baby. He smiles all the time in his sleep and it's the most beautiful smile. I can't wait until he smiles at us when he's awake. He's a nuk baby through and through. With Adam I waited until he was two weeks old to break down and give him the nuk, Eli got it the first or second day home from the hospital. He'll cry and wiggle a bunch and then you give him the nuk and he settles right down. Sometimes he'll just sit in his swing with the nuk and stare at a book or window or desk. I'm starting to notice that Eli's on a schedule already. He sleeps for a solid three hours most afternoons. This weekend we had the "double down" twice (where both Adam and Eli are napping at the same time in the same room). This weekend was pretty low key for us. My parents left Saturday morning. We got Adam and Eli down for their naps in the afternoon and Dave and I vegged on the couch watching our DVR and spending quality time with our laptops. Then the boys got up at four and somehow we got them both fed and ready for church at 4:30. Church was slightly more stressful with two boys and two sets of hands (and one set that is forbidden to pick up big brother for several more weeks) in the front pew. At the beginning of church Adam said, "I wanna go see Jesus" as he tried to get past my legs blocking the isle. We both told Adam, look he's right there on the cross, you can see him from here. I need to find a garage sale and get a bunch of happy meal toy type stuff, because new toys are the only thing that keeps him distracted after 40 minutes of church.

After church we went out to dinner at Applebees. I survived my first public feeding of Eli and Adam did pretty well. It was still raining after supper so we decided that a couple laps around the mall were in order. The only problem- our mall closes at 6 PM on Saturday! So we stopped at Walmart instead and got some dirt and flowers.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The whole family slept in until 8 AM. Dave went up and brought Adam down to our bed and I got Eli and all 4 of us cuddled for 5 minutes to start our day. We walked to Subway using our awesome double Phil & Teds stroller to get lunch. Then we went to three of the plant shops to get the flowers and veggies for our garden. We got a shorter double down nap when we got home- just enough time for me to plant two of my containers, so the rest will wait.

Thankfully last night Adam went down to bed at 8:15 with minimal drama. He's been difficult to get to nap and sleep for a couple of weeks now. His two year old molars are coming in, so hopefully once he's done working on them he'll get back to his normal self.

It was a great weekend and I'm really looking forward to my first week alone with Eli. My baby that gets noticeably bigger each night and is growing out of newborn clothes and fitting in to three month sleepers already!

Eli Keeps Rolling Over

Eli rolled over three times in a row tonight from his front to his back, so yesterday's rolling wasn't a one time thing.



And just in case you were worried here is a video of Adam and Brockway rolling over too.



Eli's umbilical cord fell off this morning, so tonight he got to take a bath with his brother. He loved floating around in the water!

Eli Rolled Over

That's right on Eli's two week birthday he rolled over from his tummy to his back during tummy time. We'll have to see if he can do it again. Grandpa and I were overseeing tummy time and grandpa said he's going to roll over and I was think yeah right, and then he got his head over his right arm and over he went.

He's looking less and less like a newborn everyday and more infant. Eli's not as good of a sleeper as Adam was, he usually goes 2 hours between feedings during the day and 4 hours at night. The exhaustion from two weeks of this is starting to set in. Thankfully Grandma Rose and Grandpa Dave came this week to help since Dave went back to work.

Last week at his one week check up his 19 3/4 inches long (not sure how he shrunk, in the 53rd percentile), weight was 7 pounds 5 ounces (36%) and 14 1/4 inches (58th percentile). He's been working hard at growing and at his two week check up he grew a whole inch (20 3/4 inches in the 85th percentile). Daddy won the prize for guessing Eli's exact weight of 7 pounds 10 ounces (46th percentile) and his head was 14.5 inches (71%).

Just Like Daddy

Two of my boys mowed the lawn tonight. One was a lot prouder than the other. Too cute!

Eli's Coming, Hide Your Heart, Girl

Dave and I had several girls names picked out before the big 20 week ultrasound, but we were struggling to find boys names that we liked this pregnancy. We had a long list of 10 boys names, but none of them really sounded right. Then we found the name Eli going through the baby name book and 2009 social security list of baby names and it just sounded so right. Our book says it's Hebrew for height. I liked that it was short and sweet just like Adam and it's number 90 on the social security name list (Adam was 74). We did keep the name secret from everyone besides Adam. I just love the way says his brother's name.

We didn't officially name him Eli until after my parents left the night of his birth and then I still had to finalize his middle name. So the next morning we told everyone Eli's name. When my parents came to the hospital they kept singing "Eli's Coming, hide your heart girl." I had never ever heard of that song, so today I listened to it and decided it's pretty fitting, Eli definitely stole my heart already!

And the 2010 Social Security list of popular baby names came out a few days after Eli's birth. His name is now #65 on the list- so it's gaining popularity. Oh well.