I don't want to leave

My first work trip since the kids were born (let's face it it's only my second work trip of my career).  I'm a little sad to have to say goodbye to the boys, but I know Dave will do a great job taking care of them.  And when I get home we leave for Houghton and a much needed vacation!  Winter Carnival, snow, skiing and hockey.  Plus time with both grandmas and grandpas.

Second Thoughts About Room Sharing

The boys have been sharing a bedroom for several months now without much of an issue, but Mr. Eli is starting to stand in his crib and our attempt for a double down nap didn't go so smoothly today.  We could hear Adam laughing and Eli was jumping around in his crib entertaining his brother.  We pulled Eli out of the room and let Adam fall asleep.  When we put Eli back after we were positive Adam was asleep Eli stood up to try and get Adam's attention and when he realized he was asleep he sat back down dejected.

Eli started waving this weekend.  And I think there is something really cute about capturing your 9 month old digging in the pots and pans.

9 Months

When you try to take a 9 month picture without Dad's help this is what you get.  A baby that is happy and smiley and sitting perfect then you pull your hand away from his body and put the camera up to your face and capture this.  A baby completely turned around or nearly crawling off the chair.  Such a cutie, but so completely unable to sit still.  And he thought he was so funny.

Eli is nine months old.  Stop.  How did my little baby get so old?  He’s cruising and sometimes crawling, but mainly army crawling when he really wants to get somewhere.  He still only has two little teeth on the bottom.  

He loves his big brother more than anything.  A couple of times Dave and I both swear we heard Eli say “Adam.”  You ask him to say Adam – “Eli, can you say Adam?”  And he just smiles and laughs.  Eli spends the second half of the night in our room in the pack and play, because he’s still getting up twice to eat.  So this morning I brought Eli up to the boy’s room to help wake Adam up.  We started singing Rise and Shine to Adam and he partially woke up, so then I put Eli in Adams bed and Eli crawled on Adam and started to give him kisses and Adam put his arm around Eli.  It was so precious.

Eli wants what Eli wants and most of the time that is no diaper change and not to be on his back.  We try to distract him with new toys, socks, singing songs, making faces and all Eli wants is to roll over and to not lie on his back.  I think Eli could be the spoke model for Kimberly Clark’s Slip On Diapers.  I don’t know if they make them in a size 2?  Speaking of size 2 diapers, dispite Eli’s small size we have to put him in size 3 diapers at night otherwise he leaks through a 2.  To me that means he’s eating too much at night, but apparently Eli doesn't care.

Eli's eating everything and I mean everything.  The other morning he had red drool down his chin when crawling around on the floor.  Dave started freaking out about what he could have possibly eaten.  I realized pretty fast it was a piece of dog food.  He was still working on chewing on it and breaking it down when I fished several chunks out and he was not happy I was taking his food away.  So we put him in his high chair and feed him eggs and cheerios- a much better breakfast for the baby.  We mostly send the typical pureed baby food to daycare, but at home most of the time Eli eats what we eat just cut up really small.  Like tonight he had chicken and sweet potatoe fries.  

Eli's 9 Month Stats

We took Eli in for his nine month check up today.  It was the fifth time I've been to our clinic in the last two weeks.  Eli is doing awesome and hitting all of his developmental milestones.  The only surprising thing that probably shouldn't come as that big of a surprise is he's not going to be a basketball star.  He's only 27 inches in height- that's the 8th percentile.  Such a shorty.  His weight was 18 pounds 0.6 oz- 24th percentile and his head is 18 inches with is the 74th percentile.

Eli's new favorite place to play is by the railing.  He was just playing back there by himself for the longest time, so I finally walked around to the other side to snap some photos and he just kept laughing and laughing at me every time I asked him what he was doing.

Oh and yes that big green thing behind Eli is the Christmas tree.  Between everyone getting sick, Dave's long hours at work and just plain being busy we haven't put it away yet.  Don't judge the woman who had a 105 degree fever last night!

PS- Adam and I are getting healthy.  We both only had a couple of low fevers today.  Below 100 doesn't even require medication for us anymore.  I'm on antibiotics even though my second culture came back negative for strep.  Apparently my tonsil looked that awful.  As my husband said after I opened my mouth wide with a flashlight shinning in, "Thanks, I can't un-see that!"  I guess there are some things that don't need to be shared in a marriage.

Viral Tonsillitis You Stink!

No really tonsillitis stinks literally and figuratively.  It's like Adam and I have strep throat, except antibiotics don't work.  We've been lounging around the house for three days and I don't feel any better- in fact my eye is getting red and I may be feeling worse.

We went into the urgent care clinic on Monday and the doctor did a strep throat culture on me and told us it was negative and most likely viral.  Then he warned me that the sore throats like we have are taking 3-5 days to clear up.  All I thought was oh, Adam will be sick all week.  Great!  Never even crossed my mind that he was talking about both of us.  Here I am on day three wondering will I ever get better?

But when the fevers are at bay from Ibuprofen or Tylenol Adam and I try to have a little fun together.  Like fishing in a boat.