Do You See What I See?

I see Eli's FIRST tooth looking at me!!!

Can you see it??? It is the bottom left front tooth. :)

Teeth sure do come in slow! I could tell where this one was going to come through over a month ago and then we waited.. and waited.. and waited. :) I am glad he finally has a tooth. We went and visited Marc's grandmother at her apartment over Christmas and one of her neighbors walked up to Eli, gave him a big toothless grin, and said, "Honey, you look just like me!" It was pretty funny to me, but I think Eli was a little distressed. :)

I am learning lately about how quickly kids watch and mimic what you do. I am also learning that everything we teach Eli may become his new favorite thing so we better be prepared. A month ago Marc and I were out to eat and it was getting late when Eli was starting to fuss. I started pulling up water in my straw from my cup and putting the straw in his mouth for him to drink. He loved it and now he goes CRAZY when he sees my cup at restaurants with a straw! I have not done it anymore and am hoping he soon forgets about it. :) Last week I was playing with Eli and started sticking my tongue out and making a funny noise. He quickly picked it up and it is his new favorite thing to do. Here is some video I have of him in bed the other night making the noise (well acutally it is more like audio since it was dark in his room and you can't see him in his crib). He just cracks me up. :)

Eli's Yodel from Stephanie Carrigan on Vimeo.

Is it Spring Yet?

We are enjoying our Friday so far, but I am not looking forward to the weather forcasted for tonight and tomorrow... snow in spring??? The zoo was so crowded yesterday when I passed by (because it was in the 60's!) and I wish the weather would be warm enough for us to visit this weekend. :( Even though it is going to be a cold weekend I am so glad that Marc has the entire weekend off! He doesn't even have to go in and round in the mornings. I think he is looking forward to sleeping in for a change. :) I would love to sleep in as well! Eli has had a tooth SLOWLY coming in over the past 2 weeks and has been waking up in pain at night as well as early in the morning. Marc and I have been taking turns with him. We have tried Tylenol, Motrin, Baby Orajel, and teething tablets but nothing has seemed to help much. Last night we didn't do anything and he slept until 7:30 this morning. Ha! Go figure. :) He turned 11 months this week and we can't wait to celebrate his first birthday in a month. With that will come some changes, including switching rooms at his daycare to the 1-2 yr. old room. Eli LOVES his teachers so much but definitely has anxiety about other new people so I am a little nervous about how he is going to do with the change. There were three rooms to choose from, but we decided to put him in the room where his best friend James is going to be going in the next few weeks when he turns one. Eli and James play so well together and I thought a familiar face might help him out with the transition. Eli's teachers have been getting him prepared for the big boy room over the past month. He is now only eating table food at daycare and mostly drinking his formula out of cups. He still gets a bottle before his nap and before bedtime at home. He is also down to just one long nap a day. I found out yesterday that in the 1-2 yr. old room the kids nap on cots instead of in a pack n play. I just picture Eli continually trying to get off his cot to go play with toys. :) We'll see how well he does with that one in a month!

I got Eli this sleeper at Target last week. I love their baby clothes sale rack. You have look through it every time you are in the store because they don't always have cute stuff or stuff in the size you are looking for but when you find a good deal it is the best! I got this for $4. Pretty good!

Have a great weekend!!!

Walking Around

Here is some video from this weekend of Eli walking. He is doing so well! He is turning 11 months this week and will probably be running by his first birthday. Ha!

I have been working on getting Eli's birthday invitations ordered over the past week but have had the hardest time getting a good picture of him in his birthday shirt. He is NOT at the age where he wants to sit still in a chair and say "cheese" for the camera. Actually, when he sees me pull the camera out I think he intentionally looks the other way and ignores me. These were some pictures I got of him from this weekend in his birthday shirt. He looks so big wearing that big #1! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Good memories for sure!

Eli wanted to practice some of his dance moves for his party.

Time to Paint

One of the first things we decided we were going to do when we bought our house two years ago was paint the outside. The color choices were not our favorite, and we couldn't wait to change them. Well, here we are two years later and still with teal gutters and trim. Yes, teal. We decided to do some home improvement projects with our tax return this year and are finally getting serious about getting the house painted. We should get the rest of our estimates this week from a few painters and then will pick one to go with. I have been looking through paint color samples this past week trying to decide. I think I am going to have to buy several sample cans and paint small areas first before I decide. This is a big committment so I want to make sure we like the color! It is not unusual for me to fall in love with a color on paper and then hate it when it is finally up on the wall (just ask my dad and Marc about this one!). We are probably going to go with something in the beige or tan family with cream for the trim. Anything other than teal should do wonders for our curb appeal (sorry if any of you have teal houses, it just isn't my favorite color). :)

I showed Eli some colors I liked.

He wanted to take a look for himself.

What about this color mom?

I reminded Eli that we no longer wanted to be the most noticeable house on the street and that pink probably wouldn't help us out with that.

Then we had to take a break because all the decision making was stressing Eli out.

I reassured him there are many more difficult decisions in life than picking paint color.

It will all be ok. :)

Weekend Wrap-Up

Marc was moonlighting in an ER 4 hours away all weekend and the housing didn't work out for me and Eli to join him so we hung out, just the two of us. We had fairly nice weather which allowed us to get out to one of our favorite spots. There is a park really close to our house that has lots of geese and ducks to feed. The last time we went was last fall and I knew Eli didn't remember it, so I was excited to take him back to see what he would think. Marc reminded me before we left of how aggressive the geese were last time. I think he was afraid they were going to attack Eli. Once I got there, I became a little nervous myself. You could tell they were hungry! I couldn't believe how quickly they surrounded us, and I certainly did not bring enough bread. Good thing they didn't want us for lunch. :)

Just as I ran out of bread a man pulled up and got out of his car with a big bucket of corn kernels for the birds. They went crazy!

Eli loved it!!!

We left the geese and ducks and walked around the park to a nice playground that I knew Eli would enjoy. They finished this playground last spring and it is SO nice. It has that really fun rubber ground which makes it so colorful.

There were so many kids! Eli really loved watching them all run around.

He was a perfect fit in the baby swings! This was his first time and I can't wait to take him back with Marc sometime soon.

Little Giraffe

Here is a video of Eli playing with some of his snack cups. This is one of his favorite things to do lately on the kitchen floor. I think he likes the clip-clop noise they make. He looks like a giraffe to me when he is on all fours walking with these cups! :)

Messes

(Warning: this post may not be for those with a weak stomach)
Oh the messes a baby can make! Some of the funniest memories I have with Marc in Eli's first few months involve cleaning up all those baby messes. I remember when he pooped in the bathtub for the first time, sprayed the wall by the changing table with pee, and squirted poop 3 feet away from his changing table to the opposite wall when Marc lifted up his legs during a diaper change. Oh the laughs we had! The joys of parenting. :) Lately, Eli has been a wiggle worm with his diaper changes. He tries to flip over and crawl away. He also puts his hands everywhere which is such a problem with the messy diapers. I have come to learn you can either hold both his feet or both his hands by yourself, but not both. Today I was holding his feet and cleaning him up and putting the dirty wipes in the diaper by his feet. Then, all of a sudden Eli started reaching for his diaper. I had his feet with one hand and a wipe with the other hand and I couldn't act quick enough. At that point everything went into slow motion as Eli grabbed a handful of poopy wipes and smeared them all over the wall beside him and I began frantically yelling NO still without a free hand. Gross. Gross. Gross. Too bad daddy wasn't home to help out with that one. :) I eventually got things sanitized, cleaned, and then re-sanitized and went in to fix Eli's lunch. The pictures below clearly show that today was just meant to be a day of messes. Beef raviolli with spaghetti sauce may not be on the menu for a while. Ha! :) He is such a cutie pie even when he is messy. I think he has figured out that if he makes a big enough mess during his meals that we take him straight to the bath tub!

And this was after clean-up #2!

Eli and I went to Babies R Us this afternoon to stock up on what else, diapers and wipes. We also spent some time in the toy aisle checking out some of the "big boy" toys for his upcoming birthday. He liked this Little Tykes piano a lot. It was really loud and most of the people in the store were staring at us, but Eli was sure having fun!

Well, we hope everyone has a great weekend. Hopefully, you all are enjoying the first signs of spring like we are with 70 degree weather! Aaahh!