Eli has been growing up so much over the last few weeks. He is making all kinds of sounds: mama, dada, ball, shhhh, elmo (or very close to it). He loves watching Sesame Street and gets really excited when Elmo's World comes on, he does the sign for touch down, and loves his baths. He is still very little, about 20 lbs and really short for being almost 1 year. He just got over an ear infection and really nasty sounding cough, but doing much better now. He is finally starting to sleep in his own bed and sleeping through the night. Last night we put him down in his crib and he slept all night without anyone putting him back to sleep and was still out when I left for work this morning!!! Enjoy some wonderful pictures of our little bundle of boy.

You see him here with his new favorite toys. We will sit him down in this box and zoom around like a race car. And here is his real toy car that he can ride on and walk with.

I love this kid. Here I am working on teaching him to share his toys with me.

Eli the Magnificant!!!

Here is my beautiful baby boy. Everyone seems to think this picture is kind of funny, but for some reason it is by far one of my favorite pictures of Eli as a newborn.












I love when babies find their feet so I have been waiting for a picture like this for months!!!

Here is my cute little snow bunny out in the snow for the first time. I tried to write Merry Christmas 2007 around him to make a Christmas card, but he got very upset that I left him in the snow for more then a breif second to take this picture.

A couple weeks ago as I was feeding Eli he suddenly discovered that he was capable of spitting and with every bite of carrots and peas I gave him most of it ended up spit all over my face. The first time he did it I was really taken by surprise especially since I was sitting rather close to him - I was covered. And this other picture is the fun we had immediately following the spit explosion.

Bath time has become so fun lately since Eli really enjoys taking baths now. He splashes and kicks water everywhere. The other day when he was in the tub I gave him the sponge to play with for just a moment and it wasn't but a second when I realized he had eaten a huge chunk! I take it away and quickly check his mouth for lime green sponge and found nothing. About 5 mins later he stops playing, gives me a strange look, and throws up. It really scared me, but then I looked at what had just come out and there I found that huge missing piece of sponge, perfectly intact. As soon as that was over he continued playing in the water like nothing had even happened. Oh, the joys of motherhood.

Happy Holidays

This was Eli's first Christmas and it was wonderful. We were able to work it out so that we could see all of the extended family as well as make it home to have our own Christmas together. Eli of course had no idea what all the fuss was about opening presents.
Of course we would hand him one and begin to open it hoping he would be interested in trying to rip into it himself, but he simply wanted to chew on the bows. Having a child makes Christmas feel completely different. Of course it was exciting to get my own presents, but it was far too much fun to watch Eli play with his new toys or the boxes they came in. Enjoy these pictures from our first Christmas with Eli!!! Eli is almost 9 months and we are guessing he is somewhere around 19-20 lbs.

Happy Feet

Eli's first Halloween was oh so cute. He went as a penguin which we found last minute and thought it was perfect! We didn't go trick or treating, but we made it to the grandparents' houses to pay a visit. Eli tried his hand at giving out candy, but each piece only made it as far as his own mouth. The kids didn't seem too interested in those pieces.... hummm... Joe and I decided last minute to find costumes to wear and we went as Grease characters, even though we really didn't look much like what we had hoped. Anyway, we had fun and it was cute. Can't wait until next year when Eli will be excited about dressing up and going out.
Here are a couple pictures from Eli's first Halloween!

Wow, Eli is growing and changing so fast. So several things have happened since our last blog. Joe and I took Eli to his first Yeand family reunion at the cabin on Rough River in Kentucky. It was a 5 hour drive and on the way there he was crying quite a bit. But while there amoung the many nurses and mothers they managaed to get Eli to sleep in a pack 'n play by himself. It was amazing getting to 2 nights of sleep in the same bed as my husband without a baby crying all night. However, once we got home he decided he didn't like his pack 'n play. It was good while it lasted. A couple days after we got back Eli had a checkup for his surgery. Amy took the bandage off and it looked great. Then the same day he got his shots! He was so mad about that, but did a lot better then I expected him to once we got home.
He continues to smile more and more and is awake longer throughout the day. He is now 3 months old and still giving us quite a problem with the sleep routine. He does not want to be alone for long at all. So Joe and I are still switching off being next to him half the night each. Everyone keeps telling us different things on how we SHOULD be dealing with this problem and that we should just let him be by himself and cry. But it kills us to let him do that since Joe has to work in the morning and has to get some sleep and Eli doesn't give me a chance to sleep during the day so we are just surviving the sleeping issues for now.
In the past couple days he has started to stick his tongue out all the time when he's happy and it is so cute.

Eli Update: 13 weeks old, 12 lbs

Picture Update #1

Here are some more pictures if you can't get enough!

Got Milk?

Well, this has been quite a week. It started off bad with me running a high fever over the weekend through Monday. Then it was a busy week with getting ready for Steph and Tom's wedding running back and forth from Indy, doing nails, having lunches, rehearsal and dinner, then finally the big day. Joe and I turned over Eli to the grandparents for 2 whole nights while we remained in Muncie for the wedding extravaganza! It was both stressful and wonderful not having Eli connected at my hip for 2 1/2 days. So I went to get ready for the wedding at the church, I pumped twice be fore going out for the ceremony and of course I begin leaking in the dress before we even walk out. Thankfully, it was not going all the way through so no one could tell but me! Sitting in a wet dress through the whole celebration, then pictures, then the first dance and cutting of the cake I finally ran to the bathroom to pump and change into another dress I had brought just in case. As I stand in the stall my batteries die so there was no pumping. I change clothes and within an hour I had leaked all the way through the new dress and it was more obvious then the last, but I couldn't do anything about it so I didn't. Lesson learned: ALWAYS BRING BACK UP BATTERIES!!!

So on Sunday we trucked it home to prepare for the dreaded surgery. Bright and early Monday morning we made our way to St. Vincent's and with Eli now in his 4th hour of not eating when he normally he eats every 2 he was a very unhappy camper. The crazy surgent came in and drew a smiley face on his hernia. Eli was in and out of surgery in about 30mins. When he was brought to us he was so sleepy from the anastesia we were doing everything to wake him, but had no luck for probably a good 10mins or so. So, now we are home just trying to heal and he is doing much better then we thought as far as being upset. Here is a picture of Eli with his St. V's bear and his battle wound!

Eli Update: 10 lbs!!!