Rain Rain go away

Not a lot to report from our house this weekend. We've missed being able to go outside and run around. I did let Eli play in the puddles when we got home Friday afternoon but other than that, he hasn't really been out in it. I think we're fighting sick again. He's been cranky and not sleeping as well as normal (whatever our normal is) so I'm worried. It seems like a week or so after antibiotics are over, he gets something again.

We (mostly Tim) did manage to put some shelves and a tv in the new playroom. Also, Tim hung the valance in Eli's new room and I put the sticker decals on the walls. Lots of time spent in the new room - Eli loves it! This upcoming weekend Grandma C is coming up so Tim & I can empty the Pack-Rat that has resided in our front yard for over 2 months and get things back in order. Hopefully then and if the weather cooperates, I'll post some before and after shots of the house. I also finished my cross stitch project for 2.0 on Wednesday night and it looks really good. Will have to post a picture of that maybe tomorrow.

Hope everyone stayed dry and is healthy. We're looking forward to the sunshine coming this week. It can't come soon enough!

House update, Big Boy bed and Clothes for 2.0

House update: Carpet was installed yesterday. Not sure if anyone has ever had carpet in their entire house replaced but it was chaos! Such a mess moving stuff from one room to another. We're putting things back together now so complete house pictures will be coming soon! The playroom/bonus room is complete except for the doors. Tim took them down to stain them and they'll be installed later. We've moved some of Eli's toys in there (train table, rocking horse) so we're going to try to break it in tonight with his buddy Ryan. With all the work we've had done and all the painting Tim has done, it feels like we've moved into a new house. We love it!

Big Boy Bed: After they finished carpet last night, we set up Eli's big boy bed so he could see it. He absolutely loved it. He ran around on it (it's a full size mattress) like it was a big moon bounce. He then figured out to put the pillows on the floor and leap onto them. We'll start trying some naps in there this weekend and see how it goes. If nothing else, it'll be nice for Mommy & Daddy to take naps with him!

Clothes for 2.0: The last picture on this post shows some adorable onesies that I picked up at Kohl's. I was shoppping for pajamas for Eli and couldn't resist buying 2.0 a few cute things.

Carpet in the driveway - old worn out stuff and new squishy carpet
Tim's pretty, newly epoxied, garage floor

Eli trying to keep us from making up his bed

Hanging with Daddy

Yep, this is MY bed

Tumbling around, wrestling pillows

Such a big boy

Cute clothes for 2.0

ps - NOW I think I'm updated, whew....

Our farm weekend

As noted in an earlier post, Eli & I went to my parents house this past weekend to 1) get out of Tim's hair so he could work on the house, 2) to just get out of town and 3) to visit my parents and grandparents. We had a fun weekend and, as always, Eli LOVED the farm and seeing all the animals.

Friday night was a tough drive down for me after working all week - got to the farm around 10:45pm (I'm usually well into my sleep by then!). Since I was by myself and having had trouble with Eli going back to sleep after a drive before, I let him sleep in the big bed with me. That was such a great decision! We had a good night of sleep and it was the most precious thing to wake up looking at him and when he opened his eyes, he let out a big "HEY" and smile. Awwww.

Saturday was a busy day. Eli started his day outside checking on the animals, helping Grandpa give them water, watching Grandpa feed them and then he just had to go inside the chicken coop to see the "bock bock"s. We then went to visit Great Grandma C for a while. The funniest thing is that Eli has learned how to do Ring Around the Rosie. I've been doing it with him, he had my parents doing it with him and the best was when he got my Grandma C, his Great Grandma, to do it with him at her house. Don't kids just bring out the kid in all of us?! After that visit, we grabbed lunch and then went to see Great Grandma & Great Grandpa S. Eli was quite the handfull during all these visits. He wanted to touch everything that could break! So of course, when he got antsy, we went outside to play. It was so great watching him play in my grandparents front yard - where I played many many hours and remember Easter egg hunts and family celebrations. Eli also started playing in the dirt in their driveway, again something I used to do! Then it was back to the farm for a nice long nap - for Mommy too. Dinner was out to Pizza Hut with my parents and brother Billy. Eli loved being out in public and just charming everyone around.

Sunday morning I was worried about the time change but Eli stayed up so late, he slept really well. The day started with checking on the animals again - did I tell you that Eli loves the animals?! He also helped Grandma bring in some eggs from the chickens, he only broke two of them thankfully. We hung out for a bit playing and then Eli & I hit the road. We made a pit stop by IKEA (crazy number of people there! So overwhelming) and then Concord Mills for lunch. Lucky for me that Eli napped almost the entire way home from Concord.

We happily arrived home to see Daddy and all his progress. I think Daddy missed us but also appreciated the time to get stuff done. You'll have to stay tuned for pictures of the finished room!

Helping Grandpa water the animals
Hanging in the chicken coop

BIIIIGGG cheese face - love those overalls!

Great Grandma C

Great Grandma S

Great Grandpa S (isn't he the most handsome man ever? I love my Grandpa)

Stacking oatmeal cans with Grandma & Grandpa

Tractor boy - this wasn't really a ride on tractor!

The egg bounty

Grandma C and Uncle Billy

Starting the ride home - he has learned his feet can go any which way but front

A short time later snuggled with blankie -a nice quiet drive

So much to update....too tired for much

Lots has been going on at our house the past few days. Eli & I went down to the farm this past weekend so Tim could work on painting trim in the new room and putting epoxy floor in his garage. Eli & I had a great visit with my parents and grandparents - pictures to come hopefully tomorrow. Tim painted like a mad man this weekend while we were gone, painting all the trim and base in the new room, doing the garage floor and reinstalling some shelving. Today the crews came to replace carpet throughout our entire house. Talk about house being upside down!! It was total chaos and now the work of putting things back together starts. We did set up Eli's big boy bed tonight and he had so much fun playing on it. So, for now, construction is 100% finished and we'll be posting pictures soon when things are cleaned up and more organized.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the marvelous weather!

Shirts for our boys....

Yesterday the "boys" got a package in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa N. In it were the cutest "I'm the big brother" t-shirt and "I'm the little brother" onesie. So much fun that we'll have two boys this summer! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Belle!!

Belle enjoying a Frosty Paws treat for her 13th birthday. My sweet old doggie.

Frozen waffles for breakfast.....still frozen

This morning I had prepared Eli a nice breakfast but when Daddy went to toast some French Toaster Waffles, Eli decided that he wanted one - straight out of the box! He ate the entire waffle, still frozen. Such a crazy boy we have!

Yummy waffle

Baking and Cooking

Snow day.....another day mostly inside.....what oh what to do. Bake and cook - what else?! I went into work this morning while Tim & Eli hung out and had a lunch date with Ryan. I got home during Eli's nap which allowed me to get dinner in the crock pot - yummy country style steak, good old fashioned Southern comfort food to beat the cold. As soon as I got it in and cleaned up, Eli woke from him nap. He & I baked chocolate chip cookies and had fun. He kept eating chocolate chips out of the measuring cup - he is so my child!! He wasn't interested in the dough, yet, and he didn't even eat one when we finished but he'll get there. We did have a lot of fun in the process though and practiced our counting and motor skills. Afterwards, some of the neighborhood kids came over to enjoy cookies and spend a few minutes playing with Eli.

Stirring together flour, baking soda and salt

Measuring and pouring brown sugar

Checking out what he'd put in the bowl

Mommy & Eli - I need to make him a cool boy-ish apron

Sneaking chocolate chips

And the crock pot of yummy country style steak and gravy - it was so good!

One thing I'm learning in this weather that keeps us inside is that I CAN do this Mommy thing. I'm growing into the creative Mommy who shares most everything with her kid (and soon to be kids). Eli loves hanging out with me no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I can still do all my normal house things, it just takes a little longer with an 18 month old helping. I'm letting go of some of that rigid personality and "have to do it now" attitude and letting Eli be a part of it. It's so much fun and I hope to continue to develop and grow into that Mommy I want to be.

Nature's Beauty

This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow and some very beautiful trees. It's a snow day for Eli so we'll see what kind of slushy adventures we can get ourselves into today.

Rainy day fun - painting Eli's new room

This is probably the most surprising blog post ever. For it to have rained ALL day, it has been one of our best days. The two main objectives of the day were 1) do our regular grocery shopping and 2) let Eli & Ryan have some fun painting the walls in his new big boy room. So let's go to the picture play by play.

Eli was up at 6am even though we were hoping for a more favorable Sunday wakup time of 7am but oh well. It was at least a night of straight sleeping! Muffins and applesauce for breakfast, along with reading the newspaper. Eli particularly enjoyed the comics. After that we headed to the grocery store where Eli was an absolute angel for me. He was charming ever single person in the store saying "hey" in his sweet little way and waving. Not one person turned him down and each one spoke to him. He even waved and said "bye" to a few of them as we walked away. Our grocery experience was quite lengthy because we had not been in a while and, can I repeat, he was an angel! It was great.

Reading the comics after breakfast

After groceries, it was time to do some painting. Carol brought Ryan over and we dressed the boys in oversized long sleeve t-shirts and got some small rollers for them. Tim thought I was crazy with the idea to let them play in blue paint but how often do you get the chance to paint a room where you're replacing the carpet in a week? I figured it was an almost one time chance to do this and Carol was on board with my crazy idea. So we loaded up the tray with "Soar" - a light blue paint that will be on the top part of his walls - and let them go to town. We also painted their hands and put little handprints on the wall; they even tried to paint the carpet. Eli & Ryan seemed to really enjoy themselves and they felt like such big boys. We had quite a few laughs with them and Carol & I both had so much fun watching. Tim was a little skeptical of my idea but he let me run with it and saw that the "damage" wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be.

Painting my new big boy room

Two crazy boys with paint rollers - watch out!

More Mommy More - need more paint

Ryan taste tested the paint and didn't like it very much

Sweet handprints on the wall

So after paint fun time, it was bath tub fun time. This was the first bath that the boys have taken together and it was hysterical watching them. They were splashing around and laughing a lot. I got a few videos of them that I'll try to get posted. We washed all the paint off their hands, ears, feet, toes, mouths - you get the idea - and then let them play more. It's going to be so much fun in a few years when Eli can take a bath with his brother.

Peek-a-boo

Catching the waterfall

After bath, it was lunch time and then naps. Carol & Ryan went home and we put Eli down for a nap. It didn't take him long to go to sleep and, although he only slept 2 hours today (instead of yesterday's 3), he woke up in a great mood. A little snack and it was time for more playing.

Eli's new yarn pet - I gave him a ball of yarn to experiment with

Yarn ball being unravelled

Tackling and wrestling Daddy

Playing airplane with Mommy

We did manage to squeeze a quick family walk around the neighborhood in before it got dark after the rain stopped and now Eli is asleep after this very busy day. I know it sounds crazy but I really enjoyed our rainy day and we've just had the best weekend. I think a lot of it is because I let loose of a lot of things and just flowed with Eli's mood and had fun being in the moment. This is something I'm really working on. Looking at him today, I realize how fast he's growing up.