And He's One

Eli turned the big One on Friday.  We had such a busy weekend that I didn't even have time to take the standard 12 month picture in the chair.  I planned a big huge birthday party for Eli.  It just felt right to have every one over and celebrate my babies milestone.

Eli and Adam woke up to this birthday surprise in the hallway.  I hung streamers and balloons.  Eli loved it and it was fun to walk through all weekend.

 Dad made Eli's favorite breakfast treat- lassi's (mango yogurt smoothies).

 And of course we sang Happy Birthday to our Little Man.

I sent squeeze strawberry applesauce to Eli's daycare class as a birthday treat and his teachers assured me that all the babies loved it.   Daycare sent home a helium balloon attached to some puffs.  There was a pink and a blue balloon at daycare, because Anna's 1st birthday was April 27th also!

I had some birthday crafts to finish up before Grandma and Grandpa showed up and turned my craft central room back into a guest bedroom, so Dave took Eli to the grocery store after we ate pizza for supper and Adam watched some cartoons.  Eli really loves getting out of the house.  To finish up Little Man's special birthday we gave the boys a bath, which also happens to be an Eli favorite activity.

His birthday party was on Saturday, but that will have to be a whole separate post.

Eli You're a Dirty Dish

I forgot to put a bib on Eli and we had mashed potatoes with our dinner, so Eli was a mess.  Adam told Eli that he was a dirty dish.  And then he decided that we should put Eli in the dishwasher to get clean.  I opted for giving him a bath instead.  Although Adam is full of lots of interesting ideas.

Tomorrow Eli turns one.  His party is on Saturday, but I have a few Birthday surprises ready for him tomorrow.

Naps

We struggle with naps on the weekend with son #1.  It takes him the better part of an hour to fall asleep and once he's asleep he can sleep solid for 2-3 hours.  A lot of times we'll be in the middle of that hour it takes to get him to fall asleep when Eli needs to take his second nap of the day.  And two awake boys in a room that's only semi-dark leads to two awake boys yelling and squealing at each other.  So on Sunday when Eli needed a nap and Adam hadn't fallen asleep Dave allowed him to come lay on the couch and watch the Twins game with him. And this is what happened.

Awake happy Adam on the couch cuddling with the dog.

And then the next thing Dave new both Brockway and Adam were snoring:

For a long time he's been insisting on changing into his jammies before nap time.

Almost 1 Checkup

We got a call from day care on Friday that Eli had a fever.  His well child check up was scheduled for Friday afternoon with our doctor, so it became a well/sort of sick child check up.  His ears were clear and everything else looked good, so we got the "it must be a virus" verdict.  Eli's teething- his canines are coming in.  But his fever was 103 on Friday, which is a little high for teething, but since then we haven't seen a fever.

Not only was Eli sick for his well child check, but he isn't one so for both of those reasons we had to forgo the shots (darn right).  But the stats are still in and I'm feeling like my peanut is finally growing.  Weight 19 pounds 11 ounces- 26th percentile, height 29 inches- 22nd percentile and head 19 inces- 96th percentile.  Eli's bucket car seat's height limit is 29 inches so we need to get a new car seat.

I've been prepping for Eli's 1st birthday for more than a month now.  At first it was pinning ideas on pintrest, but lately it's been just a ton of crafting.  We're having a "Little Man" themed party next Saturday and I'm really excited about it.  I can just picture all the little kids running around wearing the tie shirts I made.

Eli's New Trick

Eli can climb up onto Adam's bed all by himself.  It took him a little while to figure it out the first couple times he tried, but now he motors up there like it's nothing.  And once he's up there he throws blankets off the bed, rolls around, pretends to sleep on Adam's pillow and then tries to get down again (mostly head first instead of feet first).

Picnic Lunch

I got a text from our friends this morning asking if we wanted to meet in the park for a picnic lunch.  I asked Adam if he thought that was a good idea and he said yes.  So we packed up a color with some hotdogs and hamburgers for grilling and biked to the park.  We found a shady spot to set up a blanket for the two younger boys.  Although Eli basically was hanging out everywhere except on the blanket.  And the two big boys maned the grill and Adam and Nathaniel played on the playground.

It's too early for the park bathrooms to be open.  So the Big Boys had to water a tree.

Our bikes.  Dave and I agree that we want to bike more this summer and the Wike is going to make that possible.  We may even try and use the bikes to do the daycare drop off and pick up and going to work.

Preschooler

In March Adam started transitioning to the Preschool room.  The transition was a little rocky and one week he had to take a break from the transition and just hang out in the toddler room all week, but starting in April Adam moved up to the preschool room for care.  He told me earlier this week, "I live in the preschool room, I used to live in the toddler room."  I've noticed a couple of things since the transition:
1.  He uses please and thank you a lot more (although I have been trying to work on this at home too)
2.  There is a lot more tattling on little brother or Brockway.  "Mom, Eli pushed me.  Mom, Eli's playing with Brockway's toys."

In the fall he will start preschool classes (after he turns three).  I think Adam's been ready for the step up into the preschool room for a while now, although I will miss my boys being so close.  The toddler and infant room are connected.

Easter Sunday's Best

We got all dressed up for Easter Sunday Mass this year, so when we got home we took some pictures before changing out of our fancy clothes.  I love the cousins and how well they played together:

My handsome almost one year old.

We had a great weekend at grandma and grandpa's house for Easter.  I took 403 pictures- I can't remember the last time I took that many pictures, but there was so much to photograph.

The boys all napped at the same time two days in a row.  On Saturday Dave and his dad went golfing, so us ladies had a deck party.  It was so relaxing and we all had coffee drinks with a little "fun" added.  Right as I took my last sip I heard squealing.  Eli woke up and then woke up Adam and they were having fun yelling to each other.  And of course James was up too, because who can sleep through two boys squealing?

Besides dressing up for church on Sunday there was finding Easter baskets.  Eli's basket was hiding favorite secret passage between the wall and grandma's chair:

And Adam's was up high, so high grandpa had to help him get it down from the top of the TV stand: 

Hippity Hoppity

We're in Wisconsin visiting Dave's family for Easter.  Grandma Denise's daffodils are blooming and beautiful.

We got a in a good visit with Great Grandma Marge.

The Easter Bunny dropped some eggs in the back yard today while the boys napped (tri-fecta of naps two days in a row- we're so lucky).  

So after snack the boys got baskets and went to work finding all those eggs.  There were cheerios in my Little Guy's eggs.  And the Big Boys got candy.

So Hippity Hoppity have a Happy Easter!

Weekend Adventures

We desperately need a gate on the bottom of our stairs in the basement. I purchased a gate when Adam was a baby, but never installed it because we were able to teach Adam to safely travel down the stairs at a fairly young age. Well that and when you only have one kid it’s easy to keep track of them. Two kids are a lot more of a challenge. So we finished up our lazy Saturday morning with lunch and then packed up the kiddos to go to Menards to get supplies for the gate install. Menards is clear on the other side of town, so on our way home the kids fell asleep. In an impolsive urge Dave and I decided to drive into Eden Prairie to go to Costco. Several food samples and hundreds of dollars later we started heading back home when again we had an impulsive urge to go out for dinner at Bucca’s.
Going out for dinner with the boys was so much fun. They behaved well and Dave even had to switch places with Adam so Adam could sit next to his brother. Adam looked right at Eli and said, “oh Eli, I love you.” And when Eli reached over his tone changed and Adam said, “DON’T Touch my plate!”
 
When we got home we took care of Brockway and then made a quick run to Target and then to the video store.  After we put the boys down Dave and I got to watch a movie.  It was such a great Saturday!

11 Months

Stats:
Well 1 more month and you, my little baby will be 1 year old.  It's so hard to believe it's almost been a year since we met you for the first time.  I took you to the doctor three times a week ago, but I really can't remember exactly how much you weighed or how long you are.  I think you were 20 pounds.  Hopefully it will be a few weeks before we go to the doctor for your 1 year well baby check up (meaning please stay healthy until then).

Teeth:
Eli you're finally getting more teeth.  I can see the tips of your top front teeth just coming in.  So I guess that means you have four teeth now.  You used to let me brush your two teeth with no fussing, but lately it's been a struggle to get a tooth brush in your mouth- especially when I try to brush the two new teeth.

Feeding:
You love to feed yourself.  We started letting you have a spoon this last month and you love it and understand how to make it work.  Most of the time you eat what we eat just chopped up into small pieces.  You still nurse/have a bottle 7 times most days.  And I'm ready to give up the 11 PM or midnight feeding, but you're not showing any signs of giving it up any time soon.  I think we're down to 9 bags of freezer milk, so we'll have to start supplementing with formula at daycare, but we made it a long time with only mamma milk at daycare.  Your crazy feeding schedule looks like this:
7 AM - Mommy feeds you
8:30- Breakfast finger foods/cereal at daycare
10:30- bottle
11:30- lunch puree and finger foods
3:00- Snack of yougurt & bottle
5:30- Mommy feeds you
6:00- dinner (what ever we're eating chopped up)
7:30- bedtime snack of applesauce and rice cearal
8:00- Mommy feeds you
11:00- Night time nursing

You've also started drinking out of a sippy cup recently.  After you take a drink you get a big goofy smile on your face and then you go "tsk, ahhhhh!"  Like the drink was especially delicious which makes us all crack up, so you do it more.

We ordered a kids meal of mac and cheese for you and Adam to share at BWW on Wednesday night.  You ate almost the whole bowl and we had to order chicken strips for Adam to eat.  Most meals you out eat your brother.

One more funny food story.  Yesterday we all went to Costco and they have double carts so you and Adam got to sit right next to each other.  Costco on a Saturday is basically Food Sample City.  And most of the samples we're going straight to you and Adam because you were both hungry after your nap.  I grabbed a piece of turkey bacon and put a tiny sliver in your mouth and gave the rest to Adam.  Adam was taking his time biting and chewing the bacon, so after you finished your bacon you reached over and pried the rest of the bacon right from Adam's hand and put it in your mouth.

Talking:
You talk all the time now and make noises when playing with trucks.  When I ask you to wave bye-bye, you will wave and say bye-bye.  You yell Ad-ah (Adam) and something that sounds a lot like Brockway.  Most of the time I can tell you understand what we're trying to tell you.  You like the sound of your voice when you yell and make noise, which makes church hard, but the nuk and cheerios help you stay quiet.

You love to stick your tongue out and make noise as you move it back and forth.  I need to get a video of that little trick, because it is so cute when you do it.

Awesome Stuff You're Doing:
I can't believe how strong you are.  If you want to you can almost pull your whole body off the floor using your arms.  You can also push yourself up to standing from sitting in the middle of the floor.  You stand unsupported for so long periods of time playing.  You can take steps, but haven't figured out walking yet.  But you can almost catch Adam crawling.  This morning you were chasing your brother and the two of you were having so much fun playing.

I love that you still cuddle into me most of the time when I hold you.  Even though you're mostly go-go-go when I hold you you still act like my little baby and snuggle into my neck.  Changing your diaper and getting you dressed is nearly impossible.  You don't have time to sit still and every time we put you on your back it's only a matter of seconds before you're on your belly crawling away from us.