Things I love right now.....

Every day there seem to be little moments that make me think "oh I love how Eli does that" or "I love how cute he is when..." so I thought I'd capture a few things that I am loving right now.

1. When Eli wakes up each morning, in the absolute sweetest voice he says "Hi Mommy"
2. He's all about Mommy hugs right now. He will run to me, I scoop him up for a hug and he just falls into me. He tucks his arms under his body and while moving back and forth goes "Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm" - yes good hugs!
3. Words, words and more words - Eli narrates our drives anywhere. He points out cars, trees, dogs, people and tells me about them. It's amazing how much of a vocabulary and understanding he has right now.
4. Love of books - Tim + I love to read and Eli loves for us to read him stories and he also likes to spend time "reading" himself. He will tell us all about the pictures. It surprises me how many titles of books he knows. Favorites right now include 'Wild About Books', 'Danny and the Dinosaur' and the ever favorite 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'.
5. "Please Bob Bob" - although we try to limit Eli's tv watching, he's so cute. He will ask "Please Bob Bob" and then look for the remote. He loves Bob the Builder - guess it's only appropriate in our house!
6. Pitter Patter of not-so-little feet - Eli runs everywhere he goes right now. To the bathroom to brush teeth, to dinner, to throw away trash, to go outside.....you name it, he's running. It's so sweet to hear his footsteps. 
7. "Blankie" and "Papi" (pacifier) - when it's bed time or nap time at home, Eli goes on a "Blankie" and "Papi" hunt. He knows that they're only allowed when he's on the bed so sometimes he will just sit on the bed with them or occasionally he'll try to escape to another room with blankie in tow. 

I'm sure there are many other things if I thought much harder but these are a few that I enjoy every single day. He is changing and growing so much that there will probably be a new list next week - that's why I wanted to capture these now. 

13 years with Belle

Happy 13 year Anniversary Miss Belle - we've been through a lot together and I love you, my sweet dog!

a very Happy Mommy's Day

The best part of Mother's Day happened just a little bit ago. Eli actually told me "Happy Mommy's Day". That coupled with a hug made me melt and topped off a great day. It still seems strange to me that I'm actually celebrated today where I have always celebrated my wonderful Mom and wonderful Mother-in-law. 

So here's my special day in review. Tim took Eli on a bike ride at Umstead first thing to give me some quiet time. I was able to have a mug of hot chocolate and read the paper, do a few house things and then read some of my book. When they finished their ride, I met them at Bob Evans for a late breakfast. It ended up being lunch by the time we were seated and eating. Eli did so great with the wait and eating. Back home we took naps and then Eli + I went for a walk to meet Carol + Ryan. After some playground time, we walked back to our house and Eli + Ryan played. I managed to get in over 2 miles walking so I was very happy with that. The boys ran around playing for a while and then we let them jump on the trampoline next door. Ryan had to go home for dinner and we had a nice family dinner ourselves. 

Now it's nice and quiet again - Tim is putting Eli down for bed and letting me just chill. I would say that I wish every day were Mother's Day but around here, it kinda is. Tim is so great to me and does a lot to help out. He's so encouraging when I get upset about some little thing (Eli, work, whatever) and he jumps in whenever I need a hand. We said a long time ago that we're the tag team champions of the world - and we really are. I just hope we're ready for tag teaming two boys!!

Mommy loves her sweet little boy

Sharing Mommy's water - he kept saying "cheese" to Tim so he'd take our picture

Haircut, 1st lollipop and airplane treat

This has been a very busy Saturday. Tim took Eli on a bike ride this morning, we went to the grocery store, had lunch and naps and then ventured out to get Eli's hair cut. He did so great this time. No screaming or tears - he got annoyed some but overall did great. His good behavior earned him a lollipop and star sticker from the hair place. We think he grew up several months by just getting his hair cut!! After that, we went to the airport observation park where Eli loved looking for airplanes with Daddy, pretending to be an airplane and watching them take off / land. A little BJ's trip and then we settled in at home for the night. We had originally planned to go camping tonight but with the stormy weather, we decided to wait. Not too much fun for Eli's first camping trip to be stormy and rainy. We'll try another night - or even just set up the tent in the backyard. 

Big boy eating his prize lollipop

Pretending to be an airplane on the runway with Daddy

Looking for airplanes

About to take off

Hi Mommy! We're having fun up here!

Let's Go Canes!!

Last night Tim + I were lucky enough to be given great tickets to Game 4, 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Hurricanes were playing the Boston Bruins. It was really fun to be part of the excitement and energy of the night. I tried to capture some video on my camera but nothing could do justice to the noise level and energy in the RBC Center. It was insane and there were soooo many people! It was a fun night out - could probably be considered a date night for us, we don't do those often!! 

A big thank you to Carol for letting Eli hang with Ryan so we could go. Having tickets was only part of the equation and Carol made it possible for us to have a fun night. 

A few photos: 

1st period brawl

Evia + Tim - can't believe we took a night out for ourselves!

Final score - Hurricanes 4, Bruins 1 - GO CANES!

Wish I were on Ellen right now

Happen to be working from home right now and Ellen is doing her Mother's Day expectant Mom show. So much cute stuff - wish I were on there, she's giving it all away to the audience!! Gets me very excited for baby again. =)

Pajama Day ....... and a pajama fashion show

Today was pajama day at school. I LOVE pajama day as I absolutely love finding cute pjs for Eli. Here's a picture of him before school as well as other random pj photos.

Let's go, I'm driving! Wearing "Daddy's My Hero"

Monkey Man pjs

Mom's All-Star

Super Hero

"I'm the Boss"

30 week update for 2.0

Had my 30 week doctor appointment today - I'm on that 2 week cycle right now. Pretty uneventful - urine sample, weight (oh the joy!), blood pressure, hear the heartbeat and measure my tummy. Finding the heartbeat was a little nerve wracking for me. Usually it's on the right side but today it was to the far left and I got worried that doc couldn't find it. Measurements - well, I'm measuring at 32 weeks right now. Amazingly enough, I looked back at my blog entries when I was 30 weeks pregnant with Eli and things are EXACTLY the same. Crazy huh?! If that holds true, my original prediction of July 4th may be dead on. The good news is that it was an uneventful appointment; I go back in two weeks.

Uh-oh Boo Boo

This morning started off great. Eli slept until 6:30am, we had a nice family breakfast and then Tim got the bike ready to take Eli on a bike ride - giving Mommy a little bit of quiet time. And then........

Eli went running down the driveway and fell down. He wasn't able to catch himself so he hit his head smack on the concrete. It scared me pretty bad. He took quite the tumble and as you can see from the big goose-egg on his head, it was a rough little fall. We tried to ice it but he didn't want much to do with that. Of course, I did some reading to see if we needed to go to the doctor (and called a few neighbors too!). He didn't have any of the "serious" symptoms that warranted medical help so we just watched him all day. I became overprotective Mother and didn't want him to fall again. We spent some quality calm time together after it happened, had lunch + a nap, ran some errands and then had some play time with Ryan. He seems to be doing well and doesn't even really know that he has a big knot on his head. I feel so terrible about it. I know it won't be the last time he gets hurt but it hurt me so bad to see him cry and in pain. Poor little fella!

Gorillas, Giraffes, Zebras....oh my

WARNING - LOTS of pictures ahead

So many animals, so much fun. Today we took Eli to the NC Zoo and had a great time seeing all the animals. Eli's animal vocabulary definitely got a workout! It was also great that Grandma + Grandpa C and Uncle Billy met us at the zoo and spent most of the day with us. We started the day in the Africa region and then made our way to the North America side seeing gorillas, chimps, elephants, zebras, giraffes, ostriches, bears and so much more. I'll try to illustrate through pictures.

Riding the tram through the zoo to the Africa side. Eli loves buses so it was fun to ride one. 

Eli + Mommy watching the big gorilla

Gorilla x 2 - they were HUGE!

Eli spent most of the day riding on Grandpa's shoulders. He was definitely Grandpa's boy today! 

Grandpa, Eli + Uncle Billy riding the lion

Eli really enjoyed watching the chimps. They put on a good show for us. 

Eli put on his own monkey show for us. =)

So funny to see the chimp with his own "blankie". Several of the chimps fought over said "blankie" - very funny to watch.

This older chimp came right up to the window and sat in front of all the kids. They had a blast watching him rock back and forth, scratch his feet and touch his face UNTIL.....

He showed all his teeth. That kinda scared Eli a bit. 

Enjoyed watching the ostriches, giraffes and zebras. The giraffes were Mommy's favorite. (We even picked up a stuffed animal giraffe for the jungle nursery.)

Fell in love with this sign - Mama's in charge!

Family photo op on the rhino. 

Love my Pop Pop, Maw-Maw and Uncle Bill

Ride 'em Eli!

Watching the elephants. 

I was very excited for Eli to ride the carousel. He seemed very excited to ride the crocodile with Daddy beside him. That didn't last long....

As soon as it started moving up and down, Eli got upset and wanted off. 

But he did LOVE driving the safari jeep with animal passengers.

Grizzly bear

Eli loved sitting on all the statues

Riding the leaf slide with Grandpa

Eli loved to "dig dirt" with Grandpa. They pretended to be planting a garden in the Kids Explorer zone. 

Family picnic outside the park after viewing all the exhibits.

Dirt play required an outfit change. Eli loved the yellow wiggly worm Grandpa bought him. He ran around for a while throwing it all over the place. 

One last photo before going home

We weren't off the zoo grounds five minutes before this is what we had in the backseat. Eli was so good all day and enjoyed every second at the zoo. He was sooooo tired by the time we left about 1:45pm.