That Elijah is just amazing! And yes, I did mean to say 5 out of 4. He is so amazing that we had doctors beating down our door just to be in the survey. Plus, if you count Mike as a doctor, well, the numbers just start getting pretty high!
Anyway....back to our amazing boy. He had his 1-year-old check-up this week. I hate to admit that in a prideful way I enjoy taking Eli to the doctor. For the most part he doesn't mind it either, it's just the shots part we both struggle with. Other than that, though, I do enjoy showing him off--especially to an expert like a baby doctor.
(Yes, sorry, this is another mommy-rambling about my oh-so-perfect baby boy. Enjoy!)
One thing I like is being able to see other parents and sort of compare Eli to other 1 year olds. We know he is pretty darn smart, but with the first kid it is sometimes hard to tell what is normal for his age. Every time we see other parents they are always amazed that he is only one, usually becuase of how well he walks. I mean runs. This kid is a MOOOOVER! He is on the go and has the whole, "this is my body and I know how to use it" thing mastered. The doctors also agree, and sympathize with us. It's fun to have a little kiddo running around, but it is also hard to keep up with sometimes too. But mostly fun.
At Eli's 1-year-old visit he is now 30.5 inches tall and weighs just 19 lb 12 oz. This means he is still tall and skinny (75% height/10% weight). He is saying a handful of words now, and is learning new ones every day. Even the words he can't quite remember or say yet he'll try to repeat whenever we say them to him. The good ol' doc said this is more akin to a 15-18 month old. And then he followed that up with a hearty "Good luck. You're boy is smart, that'll be a challenge." :) I am sure that is true, but Eli is just so fun becuase he gets so much of what is going on. Our biggest challenge right now is trying to decide which one of us he gets his looks from and which one of us he gets his brains from.
I know, he gets them both from me. ;)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Mullet No More!
So, I have a confession to make. Eli already had another first this week. I know I was sad that his firsts are all over now that he is one and has experienced a full 365 days on this earth, but I have to admit that there will be many, many more firsts to come in his adventure-filled life.
One first he had on his 366th day of life--his first haircut. Eli hasn't really had a lot of hair, but he was born with a nice little smattering. Most of the top of his home-grown head warmer wore off, but he kept the old man hair around the back. Not surprisingly, this grew. And it grew, and it grew, and it grew. And while he did start to get a new little bed of seedlings around his whole head, the baby hair held strong and became quite long. Long enough for people to point out his mullet "flapping in the breeze" as Uncle David likes to put it. So, finally, we decided it was time to give him a hair cut.
This is a pre-haircut picture from a few days earlier.
We didn't want to tackle this new first for two reasons. One is that it really is all the hair he has, and I didn't want to cut it off. I was afraid he would look completely bald if we did. The other reason is that Eli is very mobile now, and neither Mike nor I was looking forward to wrestling him down to trim his hair. It turns out mommy was wrong on both accounts. First, Eli looks ridiculously cute with his new buzzed 'do. And second, he actually LOVED getting his hair cute. He thought the thing was funny and just sat still in my arms while Mike shaved it all off. Now Eli is mullet-free and, dare I say, even more adorable than he was before!
*On a side note, I think Mike wanted to keep the mullet so that Eli wouldn't make fun of him for having a mullet himself back in the day! No one is buying that it was cool in Alaska or at that time, but Mike is sticking strong to that story.
One first he had on his 366th day of life--his first haircut. Eli hasn't really had a lot of hair, but he was born with a nice little smattering. Most of the top of his home-grown head warmer wore off, but he kept the old man hair around the back. Not surprisingly, this grew. And it grew, and it grew, and it grew. And while he did start to get a new little bed of seedlings around his whole head, the baby hair held strong and became quite long. Long enough for people to point out his mullet "flapping in the breeze" as Uncle David likes to put it. So, finally, we decided it was time to give him a hair cut.
This is a pre-haircut picture from a few days earlier.
We didn't want to tackle this new first for two reasons. One is that it really is all the hair he has, and I didn't want to cut it off. I was afraid he would look completely bald if we did. The other reason is that Eli is very mobile now, and neither Mike nor I was looking forward to wrestling him down to trim his hair. It turns out mommy was wrong on both accounts. First, Eli looks ridiculously cute with his new buzzed 'do. And second, he actually LOVED getting his hair cute. He thought the thing was funny and just sat still in my arms while Mike shaved it all off. Now Eli is mullet-free and, dare I say, even more adorable than he was before!
*On a side note, I think Mike wanted to keep the mullet so that Eli wouldn't make fun of him for having a mullet himself back in the day! No one is buying that it was cool in Alaska or at that time, but Mike is sticking strong to that story.
Elijah's First Birthday!
February 15th marked the last of the firsts for Eli. It was his first birthday. While I have loved watching him grow up and learn new things every day, I have to admit this day was a little bitter sweet for me. I was so exited for him to be a 1-year-old, but also am a little sad he is running full steam into toddlerhood. Anyway, enough of my mommy-blubbering.
Eli's birthday was awesome! We had both sets of grandparents down for the event as well as Mel and Carol and their kids. Uncle David even managed to get away from work for a little bit. This little Eli sure is loved!
I think my favorite part of the day was when Hailee and Connor took turns handing presents for Eli to open. They were more excited about them than he was. They were both such little helpers. They even started to play with Eli, trying to show him how some of the toys were. It was adorable!
The party itself was pretty low-key, except for the food, of course. If there is one thing Mike knows (and he sure knows a lot) it is how to make some delicious desserts. We actually used a boxed mix and frosting for the cake. *gasp* I know, that is almost unheard of when Mike bakes, but there is a reason. It was William Sonoma stuff that we've been waiting to use when we have a group of people. We had a group of people, we wanted chocolate cake, and the rest is karmic history.
To go along with this taste bud festival of cocoa, Mike made some home-made ice cream. I haven't mentioned it before, but I am in love with our ice cream maker--and no, I don't mean Mike. Technically he is my ice cream maker, so yes, I do mean him too. But I'm also talking about our Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment. That makes some of the best ice cream I have ever had--and trust me, I've had a lot of ice cream. Not even ColdStone (which I LOVE) could hold a candle to what this thing makes. I don't think we'll ever buy ice cream again.
Apparently I am full of tangents. Back to the Birthday Boy and his fabulous party. We got Eli a trike for his birthday.
I have been really excited about this becuase he loves being outside and I can tell the stroller is losing its allure. I was surprised he can already sit and hold on to the trike without a safety belt or anything. We've only used it around the house so far, but are looking forward to taking it out for a spin this weekend (Eli has been sick this week, so he hasn't been doing much but napping, drinking juice, and snuggling with his mommy and daddy). Along with the trike he got spoiled with all sorts of presents, including a basketball hoop, which I think I may have gotten more for myself than for him. Oh well, so far he is loving ALL of the toys he was given.
Thank you to all who came and made it a wonderful day for our little guy!!
Valentine's Day
This past Sunday was, well, in the words of Liz Lemon: a sham created by greeting card companies to reinforce gender stereotypes.
All I have to say is thank you greeting card companies becuase we all had a wonderful day! Although, to be fair I was uber pregnant last year and ended up having a baby the very next morning. So considering my situation, pretty much anything was better than last year. And this year definitely was better. Eli and I sneaked out to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory earlier in the week to buy Mike some caramel apples. He absolutely loves these, and becuase there isn't a store close to us it is a truly caramel delight when he gets one (or two).
Mike really surprised me with some leis from Hawaii! He got one of the same leis that he got for me when he proposed. I love flowers and especially loved this. Not only are the flowers beautiful and the house smells wonderful, but these flowers mean something too. Yep, I'm a romantic sap, and I was very, very happy with them!
The truth is it was really a Valentine's week, well weekend at least. The flowers had to be shipped here (did I mention they were from Hawaii?!!) and they arrived on Friday, so that's when I got them. I had picked up the caramel apples earlier in the week, and already having my flowers, decided I should probably just give them to Mike on Saturday. I'm also really bad at waiting to give a gift to someone when I know they will really like it. Then I got surprised again on Sunday when the Valentine's fairy showed up and left a box of Godiva chocolate covered strawberries and fruit cups ). Yum...yum!! Again, thank you greeting card companies!
All I have to say is thank you greeting card companies becuase we all had a wonderful day! Although, to be fair I was uber pregnant last year and ended up having a baby the very next morning. So considering my situation, pretty much anything was better than last year. And this year definitely was better. Eli and I sneaked out to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory earlier in the week to buy Mike some caramel apples. He absolutely loves these, and becuase there isn't a store close to us it is a truly caramel delight when he gets one (or two).
Mike really surprised me with some leis from Hawaii! He got one of the same leis that he got for me when he proposed. I love flowers and especially loved this. Not only are the flowers beautiful and the house smells wonderful, but these flowers mean something too. Yep, I'm a romantic sap, and I was very, very happy with them!
The truth is it was really a Valentine's week, well weekend at least. The flowers had to be shipped here (did I mention they were from Hawaii?!!) and they arrived on Friday, so that's when I got them. I had picked up the caramel apples earlier in the week, and already having my flowers, decided I should probably just give them to Mike on Saturday. I'm also really bad at waiting to give a gift to someone when I know they will really like it. Then I got surprised again on Sunday when the Valentine's fairy showed up and left a box of Godiva chocolate covered strawberries and fruit cups ). Yum...yum!! Again, thank you greeting card companies!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Our Fourth Dog
Eli is absolutely adorable and we are amazed by him every day. I know I say this all the time and I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but it is true. He is so smart and so happy and so full of life. I just sit and watch him and am amazed at what a not-yet-one-year-old can do. Now that he is perfectly mobile, he enjoys exploring our house and does a very good job playing on his own. Well, mostly on his own. What this really consists of is him chasing the dogs around a lot or going into their room and playing (terrorizing) with them. He's even started eating their dog food, and I mean he eats it all the time. He wants so badly to be a part of their little pack that I think he is pretty sure this is just what he is supposed to do. The problem is that he's so fast and constantly wandering around the house that I couldn't keep him out of their room to get him to stop. He would go in and immediately put a handful (really two pieces) in his mouth. Then he would fill up both fists with food, knowing I was on my way to get the food out of his mouth. As soon as I pulled the gnawed on pieces out he would stuff one of his handfuls in his mouth and just smile at me. As disgusting as this is, it is also so cute to see him wanting to play like that. But don't worry, I don't think he realizes just how stubborn his mommy is. After a few days of "Eli, no puppy food." I found a way to put it up out of his reach and still keep it accessible for the dogs. Within minutes, I kid you not, it was minutes later, he was getting in to something else--the dogs water dish! And yes, he was not only splashing in it, and standing in it which he really seems to like doing, he was also watching the dogs drink out of it and tried that our for himself. There really are no words--the video says it all.
Waaaaay Behind
I'm still way behind on posting so I'll just summarize the weeks between Christmas and now.
The week after Christmas we went up to Payson for a day to spend time with all of the Cox family. It was so nice to see everyone and enjoy some more yummy food. If you haven't noticed yet, I really like food. :) On the way home we got into a bit of an accident--and by that I mean we hit a deer. It was late and dark and thankfully no one else was on the road or anything. I think it was a pretty traumatizing experience for all of us, but we are so blessed that none of us were hurt and that Keith and David could come rescue us.
For New Year's Eve we had Mel and Dave and girls come over. We all played RockBand and ate a lot of food and just had a fun time hanging out. Although, I have to admit I was getting pretty sleepy around midnight time. I think we all were. That's about when I go to bed anyway, but I was sure ready for it that night.
New Year's Day was Julie's open house up in Chino Valley. I had been talking to Jules and really wanted to go, but with the events of the week I just wasn't sure what to do. I did have a rental car by then, though, and late the night before Mel and I realized we could fit all three car seats back there. We both were not sure if we were going to go up though--I was pretty sure I would but Mel had also had a long couple of weeks and was pretty sure she would stay home. She called me the next morning just as I was getting ready to leave and we all jumped in the car and headed up there. It was so nice to see Jules and a lot of the family that was there, but it was hard on Eli and I too. This last trip did us in. I ended up getting a really, REALLY bad cold and cough for a few weeks, which I generously passed on to Eli and Mike too.
Also during this time Eli and I decided it was time to wean him. He was really ready for it and was taking bottles quite a bit already, but I don't think I realized the emotional impact this would have on him. Since the last of December he has had a really hard time sleeping--he pretty much refuses to sleep unless he's in my arms. With him being sick and everything I've let this happen, but this week we decided it's time to change him back to his old ways. He used to LOVE his crib and sleeping in there. While I'm sure he doesn't love us for it, we are letting him cry it out until he puts himself to sleep. The first day or two was kind of hard, but he's actually adjusting to it pretty well now. The hardest part is that he is just so happy to be up and with us, even when he is tired. We feel so bad putting him back in his room and making him cry when he is being so good out with us, but we know he needs sleep. Right? This is the best thing, right? I'm still trying to convince myself of that. :)
Let's see, I finally got my car back, and then they took it back, and now I have it back for reals. It took about 5 or 6 weeks in total, and a lot got replaced, but the car is in one piece again and will hopefully continue to work like new for us.
In Eli news he's got his two top teeth now. That was also going on with him being sick and everything else, and he sure let us know about it. But they are through and now he is working on a couple side ones.
Well, that's a pretty condensed version of our January, but really, we were just sick and trying to get my car back the whole time. I don't think anyone really wants to hear those stories anyway.
The week after Christmas we went up to Payson for a day to spend time with all of the Cox family. It was so nice to see everyone and enjoy some more yummy food. If you haven't noticed yet, I really like food. :) On the way home we got into a bit of an accident--and by that I mean we hit a deer. It was late and dark and thankfully no one else was on the road or anything. I think it was a pretty traumatizing experience for all of us, but we are so blessed that none of us were hurt and that Keith and David could come rescue us.
For New Year's Eve we had Mel and Dave and girls come over. We all played RockBand and ate a lot of food and just had a fun time hanging out. Although, I have to admit I was getting pretty sleepy around midnight time. I think we all were. That's about when I go to bed anyway, but I was sure ready for it that night.
New Year's Day was Julie's open house up in Chino Valley. I had been talking to Jules and really wanted to go, but with the events of the week I just wasn't sure what to do. I did have a rental car by then, though, and late the night before Mel and I realized we could fit all three car seats back there. We both were not sure if we were going to go up though--I was pretty sure I would but Mel had also had a long couple of weeks and was pretty sure she would stay home. She called me the next morning just as I was getting ready to leave and we all jumped in the car and headed up there. It was so nice to see Jules and a lot of the family that was there, but it was hard on Eli and I too. This last trip did us in. I ended up getting a really, REALLY bad cold and cough for a few weeks, which I generously passed on to Eli and Mike too.
Also during this time Eli and I decided it was time to wean him. He was really ready for it and was taking bottles quite a bit already, but I don't think I realized the emotional impact this would have on him. Since the last of December he has had a really hard time sleeping--he pretty much refuses to sleep unless he's in my arms. With him being sick and everything I've let this happen, but this week we decided it's time to change him back to his old ways. He used to LOVE his crib and sleeping in there. While I'm sure he doesn't love us for it, we are letting him cry it out until he puts himself to sleep. The first day or two was kind of hard, but he's actually adjusting to it pretty well now. The hardest part is that he is just so happy to be up and with us, even when he is tired. We feel so bad putting him back in his room and making him cry when he is being so good out with us, but we know he needs sleep. Right? This is the best thing, right? I'm still trying to convince myself of that. :)
Let's see, I finally got my car back, and then they took it back, and now I have it back for reals. It took about 5 or 6 weeks in total, and a lot got replaced, but the car is in one piece again and will hopefully continue to work like new for us.
In Eli news he's got his two top teeth now. That was also going on with him being sick and everything else, and he sure let us know about it. But they are through and now he is working on a couple side ones.
Well, that's a pretty condensed version of our January, but really, we were just sick and trying to get my car back the whole time. I don't think anyone really wants to hear those stories anyway.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Christmas
We had a wonderful Christmas at home this year. Thankfully Eli sleeps in right now, so I don't think any of us got up before 9am Christmas morning. Who knows how long we'll be able to sleep in on Christmas day, but I'm guess it's not going to be very long. This is only our second Christmas together, but we have a few traditions. One is that we read Luke 2 on Christmas morning. Eli played and I listened while Mike read to us. Then we went crazy with the presents! I think we had tons of presents, although our Christmas was much shorter than the ones I had growing up. It took hours for all 10 of us to go through our presents. Mike and I have been very blessed so far in our lives and are grateful for all we have been given. We feel grateful we could give each other special surprises, and of course, this year the big deal for us was Eli's first Christmas.
I was surprised that Eli was not as into opening presents as I expected him to be. Of course, he had no idea what was going on, but I thought he'd like to tear the paper and play with it. Nope, he was more interested in the presents themselves--and not always his own! :) One thing he really liked was a specialty cheese grater I got for Mike. I don't know why, but he liked carrying that one around. Eli got a lot of toys, the big deal (for me at least) was the push and ride Tonka truck. We actually gave him this at the beginning of December. I'd been planning on getting it for him for Christmas, but realized he wouldn't care when he got it and he was definitely ready to use it. He still loves the toy and likes to put some of his other toys inside and drive them around--especially his My Pal Scout stuffed animal. Mike surprised me with some books I'd really been hoping to get and lots of cute clothes. He is definitely the hip one in the family (clearly I'm not hip becuase I don't think people even say hip any more!). I love getting new clothes and love that he does the shopping for me too! I surprised Mike with a Playstation 3, which he didn't know about until earlier that week. I did a good job hiding it and keeping it a secret until we decided to get the Rock Band game, then I had to 'suggest' we get it for the PS3 becuase eventually we'd have one, right? I think that tipped him off.
After our festivities we had Mel and Dave and the girls over as well as Mike's mom and dad. We all had such a fun time hanging out, playing Rock Band, and then eating the delicious Christmas dinner that Mike made. I know, how did I score a guy who likes to shop, has great taste, and loves to cook amazing food? Who knows, but he's going to have to start shopping in a larger size if he keeps all this up!
I was surprised that Eli was not as into opening presents as I expected him to be. Of course, he had no idea what was going on, but I thought he'd like to tear the paper and play with it. Nope, he was more interested in the presents themselves--and not always his own! :) One thing he really liked was a specialty cheese grater I got for Mike. I don't know why, but he liked carrying that one around. Eli got a lot of toys, the big deal (for me at least) was the push and ride Tonka truck. We actually gave him this at the beginning of December. I'd been planning on getting it for him for Christmas, but realized he wouldn't care when he got it and he was definitely ready to use it. He still loves the toy and likes to put some of his other toys inside and drive them around--especially his My Pal Scout stuffed animal. Mike surprised me with some books I'd really been hoping to get and lots of cute clothes. He is definitely the hip one in the family (clearly I'm not hip becuase I don't think people even say hip any more!). I love getting new clothes and love that he does the shopping for me too! I surprised Mike with a Playstation 3, which he didn't know about until earlier that week. I did a good job hiding it and keeping it a secret until we decided to get the Rock Band game, then I had to 'suggest' we get it for the PS3 becuase eventually we'd have one, right? I think that tipped him off.
After our festivities we had Mel and Dave and the girls over as well as Mike's mom and dad. We all had such a fun time hanging out, playing Rock Band, and then eating the delicious Christmas dinner that Mike made. I know, how did I score a guy who likes to shop, has great taste, and loves to cook amazing food? Who knows, but he's going to have to start shopping in a larger size if he keeps all this up!
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