Toddler Room

Today was Eli's first full day in the Toddler Room at school. He did pretty well for his first day but still has a little adjusting to do. He ate well and slept well - whew! He's doing pretty good drinking from an open cup but did need some help with that. He spilled quite a bit on him and wore different clothes home. He's been having sleep issues the past few nights and waking up a lot. Hopefully he'll be worn out tonight from all the new stuff that he'll sleep well. We've got our fingers crossed!

Uncle Jeff

Sunday afternoon, Evia's brother Jeff and his girlfriend Erin came by to visit and see Eli. Jeff is working in the area so it was fun for him to come by and help Eli keep working on his t-ball skills (thanks for the toy Tina!!). I vividly remember both my brothers playing baseball growing up. It was also very nice to meet his girlfriend.

Teaching Eli how to hold the bat

Erin, Eli & Jeff

Hanging with Ms. Belle in her bed

A fun day for all - Thanks, Grandma C!!

Last night Grandma C got here just in time to see Eli after bath and put him to bed. She read him lots of stories and got some snuggles before putting him down. Tim got up a few times in the night but Eli slept until 8am. We have not been in the bed until 8am since he was born!! That was a great start to the day. Pancakes for breakfast and some play time before Tim & I headed to Southpoint. We felt guilty for not going on a bike ride but chose to spend some leisurely time together instead. We did a little shopping, had lunch, went to see 'Burn After Reading', hung out at Barnes & Noble and made a quick stop into Babies R Us. We really enjoyed the day. The movie was interesting. If I were a movie critic, my two words to describe it would be "bizarre" and "random" but we really enjoyed it (does that make us bizarre and random?!). Eli & Grandma had a fun day of playing and they even took a nap together. Grandma C, thank you so much for coming to visit and watching Eli for a while. We all had a fun day!

Playing baseball with Grandma

Gotta love Grandma =)

Family pic

Eli helping with laundry (the room is not THAT messy). I dump clothes out so he can help put them in the washer. It's our fun little game.

Helping Momma with laundry

My Favorite things......today

Today Eli & I stayed home together after he was sent home from school again yesterday with diarrhea. He hasn't had any problems today so hopefully he'll be able to go to his new class on Monday. We've had such a great day together and some of the sweetest things happened. I started thinking about my favorite moments of the day (these are in no particular order):

- Eli will now bring a book to me, turn around and back up until he's sitting in my lap for me to read it to him
- If I'm laying on the floor, he'll come up and flop on top of me just laughing
- This afternoon he put his head on my leg and gave me a zerbert!
- We went on a walk through the neighborhood and I would ask him to wiggle his toes and he'd stretch his feet out and move his toes. I asked him to wiggle his fingers and he stuck his hands out and moved his fingers. He's starting to learn body parts - it's so neat to watch him learn.

I'm very happy that he & I had a great day together (Tim is too!). Grandma C is coming up tonight to spend some time with Eli & give us a break. Not sure what Tim & I will do tomorrow but I know we'll come up with something. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Spoon feeding

Tonight Eli worked on using the spoon and feeding himself. I was so excited; he did quite well. We used mashed potatoes to get him started and it added a whole new element to dinner for him. He ate a ton of potatoes and was so proud of himself. And, of course, I have pictures!!

Maybe we could just get him bubble-wrapped

This is exactly what I've been thinking lately. Eli took three hard falls over the weekend - one in the exercise room that left a knot on his head, one down two stairs onto the landing (carpeted) and the third was trying to climb up the stairs and he slid, hitting his noggin' on the hardwoods. I swear we really are good parents and watch our son! You want to give them freedom to explore and then you just can't stop them fast enough sometimes. Eli wants to do so much more than his 13 months will currently allow. But I must say that we're over the sick bug in the house and we're happy - bumps and bruises and all.

Bye Bye

Eli is pretty good at "bye-bye" these days. Sometimes he's stingy and won't do it when you want him to but I caught a quick one on video yesterday. The cutest!

Just hit the play button - the video's there.

LEED AP

(a little Mommy news)

This morning I took the LEED exam.....and PASSED!! This was an exam for work and revolves around Sustainable Design and Building. Now that makes me a LEED AP - LEED Accredited Professional. My current project is trying to achieve LEED Silver Certification so it's good that I passed. I have been so stressed the past few days with all the ickiness in our house and trying to study. Eli seems to be doing better and now I've passed the test so we can relax a bit and celebrate.

"for meeting all the requirements of a first haircut with courage and bravery"

Yesterday Eli seemed to be doing pretty well so to get us all out of the house, we took him to get his first haircut. We went to Snip-Its. I had heard different things about Snip-Its but we had a good experience. Eli sat in the chair like a big boy and proceeded to eat animal crackers and watch tv while a nice lady, Gospel, cut his hair. He did great until it came time for the final buzz with the clippers. He didn't like that one bit! That part didn't last long and he was sporting his new hair cut like a big boy. She saved me some of his curls in a little bag and gave Eli a certificate of bravery for his first hair cut. It was pretty fun.

So here we were thinking Friday night was a fluke and Eli was ok. Boy were we ever wrong. He did the same projectile vomitting at dinner last night - this time at our house. He wasn't very interested in eating so that had us worried. He was restless until about midnight and then slept like a champ. We were a little worried when he didn't wake up at 6:30am like usual but we figured he was just super tired. He finally woke at 8:30am and I went in his room to find the most horrible smell. The diarrhea came back and was everywhere in his crib. I called Tim for reinforcements and we tag-teamed the clean up. We were worried about the vomitting and diarrhea (this was new for us) so we went to the doctor today. She said it was probably a continuation of the tummy bug we had before and we're just dealing with it. No milk, lots of carbs - anything we can get him to eat, and as much sleep as he wants. We're going to see how tonight and the morning pans out before we make a decision about school. Doc said if there's no more vomitting and no diarrhea, he could go. We're hoping his tummy is on the mend. This stuff is not fun!

Waiting for my cut

Eating animal crackers

Best picture I could get of the big boy haircut

The fastest restaurant exit......ever

Remember before you had kids, you'd be out in a restaurant and see some family with a kid. That kid would make a mess, make a lot of noise, or just something. You'd feel sorry for those people. Well, tonight we were "those people".

We decided to go to Wildflour since we haven't been out to eat in ages. Eli seemed fine. He sat in his seat, ate some goldfish and tried to grab the salt / pepper and anything else off the table. Tim & I managed to eat our salads and start on dinner. And then it happened. Eli threw up like he has never thrown up before. It was projectile vomitting and it was a lot. Must have been a solid 20 seconds worth. All over me, all over his chair, just everywhere. I grabbed Eli and his things and headed for the door. Tim took care of things at the table (trying to clean up, getting the rest of our things, paying for dinner) and then met me at the truck. I can not even begin to describe how gross I smelled. I stripped Eli down to his diaper for the ride home but it wouldn't have really been appropriate for me to do the same.

His school told me when I got there to pick him up today that he'd had 2 bad diapers and they tried to call me to send him home (it was only about a 1/2 hour before I got there so we were ok). Looks like the diarrhea tummy bug has reared its' ugly head again in our house - this time affecting both ends. Eli & I just snuggled (post-shower / bath) and listened to soft music until he fell asleep. And now, we wait. We're hoping he sleeps well but have no idea what to expect. If you didn't know all this, you'd never know he was sick. He's still smiling, happy and silly as ever.

Each day as a parent brings some new experience. I could have waited for this one though!

Vocabulary Explosion

Eli is a talking, laughing, walking, silly boy these days. And we LOVE it!
Yesterday he came home from school giggling, running around the house and making silly noises. I love his laugh and smile and the silliness. No matter what, you can't help smile when you're around that!

We've also had a big explosion in his vocabulary over the past two weeks. His first word a while back was "dog". Now we've added: duck, truck, book, bye bye (with a wave), uh-oh, box, block, ma ma and da da (knowing us, not just babbling) and last weekend, he called Grandpa C "pa pa". He is learning and growing fast!!

Got a letter from his school today that he is transitioning to the Toddler Room (he's kinda bored in his current class). He's been spending some time in there and getting adjusted. He no longer has a crib at school - sleeps on a cot. Takes one nap a day. Is working on drinking from an open cup. No longer takes his pacifier at school. I looked at the new classroom today and the kids have so much more free space and things to do. There are some organized activities - circle time, stories, etc. They also get to spend more time outside. Eli is going to love it! We love his current teacher Ms. Katie and will REALLY miss her. Hopefully his new teachers will be half as great. Right now Eli is visiting the classrom and will start transition the week of 9/22 and will be there full time starting the week of 9/29. I'm hearing from the Moms of some of Eli's former classmates that the kids are much more tired after a day in the Toddler room. Hard to believe he's a toddler already!!

Birthday Celebration at the Farm

Yesterday we drove down to the farm for one last birthday celebration for Eli. We left town around 8am and were lucky to only drive in the rain for about an hour. Once we got closer to the farm, it was sunny and blue skies. Eli did pretty well traveling down. We ate lunch once we arrived and then the three of us took a nap before all the family came over.

Grandma (my mom) had our family over for a yummy dinner and cake / cupcakes / banana pudding. It's always great to have an excuse to get everyone together and have good food. Good food and family - two of my favorite things!! Of course, we also had my Grandma's lemon lime punch (it's not a celebration at our house without punch). Eli ate so well last night - country style steak, rice, chicken and dumplings, lima beans, green beans, oh the yummy southern comfort foods! My mom had cooked up a feast and we all enjoyed it.

Eli also got a few more birthday gifts. He's starting to get the hang of opening things up now. That was fun and then we all went outside to visit the animals. The men watered the cows and everyone just hung out. Eli loved being out there with them. He was constantly in motion and trying to climb everything. He climbed on top, completely on top, of the picnic table and stood up twice. We have to keep an eye on him because he's really fast.

We hung out for a while this morning with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Billy and then headed home after snack time. Eli traveled really well this trip and we had a great visit. Guess it's now time that we wind this birthday season down. =)

Great Aunt Val helped me drink my punch

My first taste of banana pudding...yum

My very own farm!!

Watering the cows and goats - one of the guys!

Eli - ALWAYS in motion these days

Poop, Poopie, Pooped

Poop: What a lot of our conversations are about right now
Poopie: In Eli's diaper......a lot
Pooped: Mom & Dad

We're dealing with a tummy bug going around right now. Eli had a fever of 101.4 Sunday afternoon and wasn't feeling so great. He started having some poop issues that night. Monday was a holiday and we dealt with it all at home. Tuesday, didn't seem to have a fever so he went to school - had a low grade fever all day and a rough day at school. Bad diaper rash and continuing poop issues, Tim kept Eli home yesterday and took him to the doctor. Apparently, this is just going around (I've heard this from a lot of my friends too) and it has to work itself out. Today tried school and got the call at 9:30 that he had to come home. Tim picked him up and did Super Daddy day #2. Tomorrow I'll stay home with him and hopefully by Monday he'll be back to normal and can go to school. Aside from the poop saga, life has been a little crazy getting back to work after a week off - including an unexpected visit from my new boss. He showed up on Tuesday and was here until today. Not a bad visit at all, just unexpected and I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted this week. Now having to stay home tomorrow will put me a little further behind. Fortunately my new boss and old boss know that Eli comes first and they're understanding / supportive that I have to do what I have to do.

We have managed to have a little fun and I wanted to post a few pictures. Did an urban hike to the lake Sunday before everything hit and fed the ducks. Eli has been feeling good and acting normal so it's been good that he hasn't been cranky.

We're supposed to go to the farm this weekend to celebrate Eli's birthday with my family. Hopefully the hurricane won't hit us hard and the drive won't be too bad. Looking forward to seeing our extended family and having another yummy celebration. Hope everyone else is healthy & happy!

Ready for our urban hike

Feeding ducks with Daddy

Picture wall - a staycation project

Cutie pie tonight before bath