Christmas Is Coming

Adam knew what was in the big box and he was sooo excited to put up our Christmas tree today.  We were going to put up the tree on Saturday, but my parents have came out to help every year since Adam was born.  So to keep the tradition alive we waited until today.  Adam put up the first ornament, as well as many others near the bottom of our tree.

We tried to get Eli to help, but he just chewed on the balls and got glitter everywhere.  So instead we dressed him up as the tree.  Pretty cute, but he doesn't stay put long enough to make a good Christmas tree!

I couldn't help myself- I put the boys in  matching outfits.  I've been waiting for Eli to fit into this adorable shirt!

7 Months

 Eli is seven months old.  And taking his monthly picture is starting to get harder.  He was so tired when I took this picture that I couldn't get him to sit up strait or put his arms down.  So this is what I got.  This last month he got his first two little teeth, he started army crawling fast and he learned to sit up on his own.  He goes where he wants and there isn't much we can do to stop him.  He adores his brother and I'm pretty sure his first word will be Adam.  When he see's Adam he squeals and Adam's toys are way better than anything he has in front of him.

He's still our happy easy Eli.  My biggest complaint is that he still doesn't sleep through the night and wakes up once or twice to eat.  I keep waiting for that to change, but I only get a random day here or there where he sleeps all night long.  Twice this week he went to bed screaming and wouldn't stop yelling after two minutes like normal.  When we went to get him he made it pretty obvious that what he wanted was food and by food I mean solids.  Sooner or later sleeping all night will happen and then I will be one happy mamma.

Hockey Practice

We went into the cities yesterday again to spend time at my parents house with Matt and Shar.  The boys both love the toys at grandma and grandpa's house.  Even our crazy moving Eli stayed in one place to play with the new toys and Adam got to play a bubble popping ap on Shar's smart phone.  It was nice to spend some extra time with my brother and sister in-law.  

So today was a day to hang out at home.  My boys were cuddling on the couch together and even though it looks like they were watching the TV that's not what they were doing.  We listened to Christmas music all morning long.

There was lots of time for petting Brockway too.  

With the coffee table removed from the center of our living room there is a lot more room for a hockey game.  And today Adam and Eli had their first combined hockey practice.  I couldn't get over how interested Eli was in Adam playing hockey, so we decided to let Eli play too.  Adam spent some time trying to teach Eli that the puck was for hitting with the stick and not for eating.  Be patient Adam, he'll figure it out.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for a hockey player, but I'm pretty sure I already have one:

Or maybe I have two:

I finally finished my second pumpkin hat for Mr. Eli.  Now I just have to make one a little longer for Adam.  Adam is in love with the hat and I think it's because he watched me make it.  I tried to put them in the hat box in the entry way and Adam said "No, the hats come upstairs."  And then he proceeded to wear them on and off all day.

What I'm Thankful for

Two happy and healthy boys spending time with their Great Grandparents.

A baby feeding himself turkey dinner!

Unseasonably warm weather allowing trips to the park.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Eli's 6ish Month Check Up

Thwap, thwap, drag.  Thwap, thwap, drag.  "Sarah, where did Eli go?  No seriously, where is he?"  I scanned the living room, dinning room, kitchen and made a mental note that the gate was closed before looking down the hallway to see two little legs disappearing into the bathroom.  This baby of ours can cruise!  He gets where he wants with a very efficient army crawl- leg drag maneuver.   We thought our house was baby proofed, but our ways have relaxed as Adam got older.  There are things that can't be out while Eli is on the loose right now.  I don't know what we're going to do with that tree...

Today we took Eli to his six seven month check up.  I think I rescheduled his appointment 4 times before we actually made it in to the office a month later.  He's our little squirmy wormy and it was extremely difficult for his doctor to look into his ears, mouth and eyes.  Eli was flailing his arms while grabbing at her computer mouse and papers - he is just too interested in everything to sit still.  He's also our little shrimp- his height is 26.25" in the 14th percentile, weight is 17 pounds 6.4 ounces (34%) and his head is 17.75" (82%).  He did pretty good with the shots and even smiled at the nurse before she left the room.

I know he's got some Schwed in there because look at that rockin double chin (my mom thinks his looks are more 'skala- like the babies in my dads family).  And on Monday I noticed a second little nubbin appearing on the bottom.  Two teeth!

Look A Likes?

I know mom's of twins who claim their kids look nothing a like, but they're identical and no one can tell them apart.  Really I don't see a lot of similarity between Adam and Eli.  I thought that Eli would look like Baby Adam, but the first time I saw him I knew he never would.  Check out six month picture of Eli followed by six month Adam:

Okay, maybe they have the same nose?

Washing Hands

Dave and I were busy getting ready for work this morning in the kitchen when we heard water running.  We both ran to the bathroom to find Adam standing on the stool washing his hands.  He can reach the faucet and just decided to clean his hands on his own, because they were sticky.

Last night he was acting like he had to poo.  So we talked him into sitting on the potty and he did a number 2 right there!  I think it might be time to revisit the potty training and undies.  He’s 3 months older and a lot more self aware.  Plus one in diapers is enough!

A Little Tooth

My little Eli has a tooth poking through on  his bottom left side.  I'd say he's too young, but then he did eat pieces of bread and macaroni and cheese for supper.  I'll let him have a couple teeth... if I have to.  The tooth is probably the reason Eli was obsessed with his giraffe chew toy lately and why he came home from daycare with a cloth bib covered in drool.

And just in case you wondering, no bread and macaroni and cheese are not what we typically feed Eli.  I had to bowl after work, because I'm in a bowling league.  Dave picked up the Little Men and decided he would take them home, but Adam asked where I was and Dave told him bowling.  Adam immediately said that he wanted to go see the bowling game, pins and score.  So I had just finished throwing the ball down the lane and turn around to see my three favorite guys just walked in!  We ended up eating dinner at the bowling alley and Eli ate little pieces of what we had.  It was a nice family outing.  Thank goodness, because we didn't have a single toy or the diaper bag!

Second Child

You can tell Eli's my second child, because pictures like this don't exist with Adam.  But Eli was being so funny, he would smile- laugh a little and then it would turn into a long drown out whine with the sad faces.  He's so animated Dave and I just laughed while I snapped photos.

Pause for dramatic effect:

And then back at it again:

He was just trying to tell us that jammies and bed time sounded like a great idea.  So Dad took care of Eli and Adam and I went for a walk in the cold wind with Brockway.  By the time we came back Eli was a sleep.

These pictures remind me that we moved our coffee table out of the living room and right now I'm loving all the extra space it gives the boys to play in.

And a little Adam story.  When you ask Adam what his Mommy's name is, he says Sarah but when you ask him what his Daddy's name is, he says Papa!  I love it!

Eli 6 month cuteness

Here are just a few of the professional pictures:

Mondays and Tuesdays

Mondays and Tuesdays are extremely busy days in this family.  We have Eli's ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Education) class on Monday and Adam's ECFE class on Tuesday.  It's great to spend some time focusing on each boy individually.  Adam especially loves his class and comes home in a really good mood most Tuesdays.  Tonight was no exception.  I set Eli down after he finished eating and before I new it Adam had brought him one of his prized Little People sets to play with.  He was teaching him how to make noise and it was just too cute.    

Fall Decorating

Last spring I went a little crazy making decorations for spring/Easter and I thought it was just nesting before Eli's birth, but this fall all I wanted to do was decorate and craft again.  Maybe it's a mom thing- that's what I'll blame it on.  Adam helped me make a fall leave wreath.  I've had the supplies for this project for years, so I'm happy it's finally done and hanging on our door.

I save some of Adam's art projects he's made at school and this pumpkin windsock is among my favorites from 2010.  I like it best when you can see that Adam really worked on it versus sitting next to his teacher while they do all the work.

I got this idea from another blog when I was searching for fall themed craft projects to do with the boys.  It turned out a little different than the way I had imagined thanks to a little creative hand printing from Adam, but I love it even more this way!  The yellow was from Eli and I used a canvas so it would hang up easy and hopefully keep through the years.

And the knitting bug has bitten me bad.  First it was just I have to make a pumpkin hat for the boys, but now I find myself doing random searches for knitting instructions for just about anything.  The hat turned out so cute, but it's a little to big for Mr. Eli and to small for Adam.  So two more pumpkin hats might be in my knitting future.

Happy Halloween

I found some really cute pictures from last weekend and Halloween night.  (Okay the first picture of my little animals was taken by the Hutchinson Photography club- you can see our neighbor Ethan in the next stroller over)

Below is my little pumpkin from PumpkinFest on Saturday.  Catching a natural smile is always something to celebrate and put up on the blog with Adam.

Happy Halloween.  Our family trick or treated with a group from my work.  Dad had to work late and I didn't feel like taking both boys out by myself.  Grant is one of my coworkers kids, but he is also 3 months older than Adam and they have been in daycare together since the start.  They're pretty darn cute.  Grant crawled on my lap and when I went to take this picture he ate my pizza.  Ha- serves me right!

Happy Trick or Treating.  Adam did really well and got pretty into it this year.  I still had a hard time getting him to say "Trick or Treat", but he would say thank you.  At first we were trying to keep up with the big kids that were running from house to house and then I looked back and saw Grant and Emmett 6 houses back slowly plugging along with a couple parents.  Much better to trick or treat with the two year olds- who cares if we hit up the first houses twice?

Daddy met up with us when we were almost done.  Good thing too, because that bag was getting a little heavy with all that candy.

My little Penguin only made it through half the trick or treating before he got really still and I noticed he was napping.  I think my Adam Penguin did the same thing two years ago.

I had fun trick or treating with the group, but I missed handing out candy in our neighborhood and taking Adam over to our neighbors houses.  Next year we'll do Halloween at our house again.

Spooky Sprint

I think we should have won the costume portion of the Spooky Sprint this morning!  Oh well I still had fun dragging my little zoo animals to my 5k race.  My pie in the sky goal for the race was 25 minutes and maybe I could have done that had we not gone to Michigan last weekend and I took from Tuesday to Monday off from running.  My official (un-chip timed) time was 26:13 which was almost a minute better than my 5k in August.  I was trying to keep up with my neighbor, but she finished in 24:35.  That's way faster than my legs would let me go.  Next year with a little triathlon cross training I will hopefully have a personal record.

After some lunch and a shower we headed back outside to go to PumpkinFest at the new Winery in Hutchinson.  That's right my little town is becoming more and more classy, but PumpkinFest included waiting for a cow to poop on a square and chucking pumpkins into a field.  There were lots of cute art projects for Adam to make and we got to taste some wine.  I do enjoy Halloween festivities and our Saturday was choked full with them.