Playing in the snow

Last week we had a few inches of snow on Christmas, and then got a few more inches on Thursday, so Elijah and Daddy got all bundled up went out to play in it. It was the first time Elijah could actually get down and play in the snow, and we had fun watching him figure it out! He was a little stiff in his giant snowsuit, so "playing" mostly involved walking around and falling down. But E had fun until Mama decided his face was too cold!

Update

Here are a few recent pictures that I've been meaning to post:

Wearing the cool sweater that Bobbi made.

Talking to Bobbi on the phone and telling her about his dump truck.

Elijah loves to play the piano at Nana's house.

Sleeping

and more sleeping

Elijah opens his gifts

Here is a rather long video of Elijah opening a few of his presents - mostly for Bobbi & Papa and aunts and uncles who sent presents but didn't get to see him open them. Thank you to all of you! Elijah had a great time unwrapping his gifts, and is enjoying all of them. This year both the wrapping paper and the presents inside were fun! Here's how it went ...

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a joyful and blessed Christmas. We had a lovely day of food and fun with family, and we all enjoyed watching Elijah, who was a little more involved and aware of what was going on this year. We woke up to an entirely unexpected snow storm and a beautiful white Christmas! Here are a few pictures of our day.

It snowed all day!

Elijah opening a gift with Patrick's cousin Becky

More cousins

Check out some fun cousin pictures over on Piper's blog. Thanks, John!

On naps, poop, colds and other fun stuff ...

Elijah and his Nana

I've been trying to blog lately, and mostly starting but not finishing. So here is one huge post about a bunch of random things, combining all of my unfinished musings. =)

Baby, it's cold outside...
It's been pretty chilly here this week, so we have to get all bundled up anytime we go out. We got a few inches of snow here earlier this week, and some more today. And now it's freezing out. But we still have things to do - groceries, doctor appointments, the usual. Elijah has been pretty good about it, but the mittens are a trial. Here are a couple of pictures of his lovely hat hair this evening!


Napping ...
Elijah is a napper. He just sleeps a lot - most kids his age have made the move to one nap a day, but E loves his morning nap and so we stick with two. He's still sleeping 12 hours at night, about 2 hours in the morning and 1 or 1 1/2 in the afternoon. (Yes, I am very thankful!) He usually wakes up happy and ready to run in the morning, but in the afternoon he sometimes needs a little time. The other day he woke up in a funk (yes, a Post-Nap Funk, or PNF for those of you who didn't spend too much time with me in college). Crazy bed head, sleepy eyes, and fussy. (And I was not feeling well at all.) He was grumpy but wanted to be held, so we sat on the couch and watched a couple of minutes of Oprah. (No, we do not generally watch TV. E watches about 10 minutes a week of his very cool Classical Baby DVDs so that I can safely trim his fingernails, toenails and/or hair as necessary. I definitely don't let him watch Oprah normally - give me a break though, I'm sick!) Elijah sat very still on my lap (what!?) and clapped when they applauded on the show and when it was over, he waved and said "bye-bye." He is such a cutie, even (or especially!) with PNF.

Poop, diapers and feeling pukey...
I do not recommend using cloth diapers when you don't feel well. Elijah has been pooping 3-4 times a day (especially smelly and gross, too) since I've been feeling sick. A huge, smelly, poopy diaper is not a good way to kick off a day when you're trying to prevent being sick. It's a great way to trigger a day of feeling miserable. Who can blame me if I want to use disposables sometimes?

The common cold ...
We had a couple of rough nights this week. It reminded me of Elijah's ear infection earlier this year, so I took him to the doctor. No ear infection, thankfully, but he does have a cold - runny nose and all. So, we are to watch him for signs of things getting worse, and push fluids. Elijah loves water, and since he is sick, I've been giving him some juice as well. The kid just drinks and drinks and drinks, and I change a lot of diapers and sometimes wet clothes. Ah, joy! While we were at the doctor, they weighed EJ again. He now weighs 24 lbs 12 oz - another big gain! The doctor said it was great. We'll find out in January at his 18 month appointment how tall he is, and what his percentages are. Hooray, Elijah!

One big day...
Thursday we had a big day. We got up in the morning and rushed around to get to Elijah's appointment with the doctor, and then rushed home in time for his morning nap. When he got up, we ate lunch and ran to the grocery store. Unfortunately, my being sick has not been good for everyone else around here. I haven't felt much like cooking, and food generally grosses me out. Therefore, we were completely out of everything edible. But for the last few days, I've been feeling a little better, so I ambitiously made a list and Elijah and I went on a marathon grocery run. We got home, and while Elijah took his afternoon nap, I carried lots of groceries up three flights of stairs and did some chopping and measuring. Then when Patrick got home, I made an actual, no mixes or boxes involved, dinner. I was pretty tired! I went to bed at 8 pm. It was a big day!

Cousins

Check out a great video of Piper and Elijah taking a tubby on Piper's blog! The kids had a lot of fun together over the weekend. Elijah gave Piper a hug a few times - very cute, but they do end up falling over usually. Piper loved Elijah too, although he still isn't sure that he wants her to touch him. They tried to figure out how to play together, and did pretty well some of the time. Piper really enjoyed watching Elijah - he moves around so much! I'm sorry we don't have pictures of them to post.

There and back again

We really enjoyed our weekend out west. The drive took longer than normal (due more to the ski traffic, though the roads were not great) but we got there safely. The kids had fun playing together and we enjoyed a relaxing weekend spending time with John & Linde. And we got home again just in time - we're getting more snow today!

Winter storm watch

We are getting ready to drive over to the western slope of Colorado tomorrow. Patrick is assisting the Admissions Department at DU by helping them interview high school seniors as part of their application process, so we all get to go visit John and Linde and Piper. It is usually a beautiful drive, and we always have fun visiting there. We've been getting a little nervous, though, as we've been watching the weather for the past few days ... There's always a chance for rough weather when you're driving across the mountains in December. We haven't had too much snow yet this year, but apparently we're about to get some. Today they posted a storm warning for the mountains for the weekend, starting tonight.
Don't get me wrong - I love snow. Just yesterday we were happily singing, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." (Elijah and I have been listening to the easy-listening radio station in town that plays all Christmas music all the time in December. The kid loves it!) But I have to echo the sentiment of the song - snow is wonderful as long as you can stay home and eat popcorn by the fire. Snow is not good when you're driving all day.
This could turn into a tough trip.
Update: Patrick got us a 4WD vehicle for the weekend, making John & Patrick (and my dad) a little less worried about our drive. Nice job, babe! =)

Uncle John & Elijah (last December) wearing their Carhartts. Nice pants!

Preggie blues

Not that I want to use this blog to complain, but since many of you all have asked ...
I am still not feeling well. I'm feeling sick most of the time, hungry most of the time (not a good combination!), congested and not sleeping very well. Thankfully, I'm not throwing up too often, as long as I keep eating every half hour or so. Some days are better than others. Basically, I'm looking forward to the second trimester and hopefully feeling better at some point, as well as sleeping better, looking pregnant instead of just chubby, and being able to keep up with Elijah a little better. At least this can't last forever! Thanks for asking and praying.

108th Army Navy game

Go Navy! Beat Army!
The game started at 10 am MST. We're watching for Cameron - let me know if you see him. My brother John and his wife Linde are in Baltimore at the game - how fun!

Here's an article from Military Times about the game where they interviewed Cameron (they call him Richard) and other prior enlisted players.

Update: Navy won and Cameron did dress for the game - and even got to play for a while. Hooray!
Navy 38 - Army 3

Update #2: Check out some more Thanksgiving pictures and video.

Go Navy!

Here are a few pictures of Elijah in his Naval Academy gear. The big Army-Navy game is this weekend - hopefully we'll catch a glimpse of Uncle Cameron on TV (if he dresses)! Elijah was not cooperating with our plan to get a picture, so most of these were of him leaving the frame - here are the best ones!

Elijah is so strong!

Sorry, Dad, gotta run!

Elijah and Uncle John in their matching sweatshirts.
This picture is not an indication of how much Elijah likes Uncle John, but rather of how much he loves having his picture taken when he wants to be playing!

Elijah is such a big boy

Elijah is growing up, and I am reminded of it several times a day now - he's always doing something new and fun. I have to remind myself that he is still a baby sometimes! Lately, E has been making a transition to using covers in his bed. He's been using a pillow for a while now (the doctor recommended trying the pillow when raising one end of his mattress didn't work out - he would always just scoot down to the other end). He looks so grown up and his crib is looking more and more like a big boy bed. Plus, I think it's cool that he finally gets to use his quilt!
Another thing that he does that is new (and totally cracks me up) is to request to wear hats. He used to hate wearing hats, and now he does it for fun! Check out his 90's-cool look today! He put this one on by himself.

The rest of the weekend

In addition to Thanksgiving, this weekend we celebrated my cousin Johanna's wedding. It was great to see so many friends and family! It was a busy few days, but everything went well. On Friday, Patrick and Elijah got to hang out with Grandpa and Uncle John and Piper and watch football. I had brunch with Johanna and friends, helped out with some set-up for the reception, and got to spend the afternoon with my good friend Kristi, who was home from Texas for the wedding and Thanksgiving. In the evening we had dinner at my parents' house with some of our cousins who came out for the wedding.
The wedding was on Saturday morning. Patrick and I went early to help finish setting up while Elijah attempted to take a nap at Nana's house. (As a side note - E takes his nap in the basement bathroom at Nana's house because it is actually dark and has a nice loud fan. On Saturday morning the pack 'n play was apparently too close to the toilet paper ... no napping happened, but Elijah shredded an entire new roll of tp and decorated the mesh sides of his bed.) The wedding was beautiful and went very well. Patrick was the Master of Ceremonies and did a great job managing the reception. Kristi and I took care of the cake - cutting and serving and all. A lot of other people helped make the day wonderful. It was great to see so many people come together to make it a great celebration. After the wedding, many of our family came to my parents' house for more time together.

Me with Kristi and the happy couple - Sean & Johanna

The little man at the wedding

My boys - aren't they so handsome!?

Little man in his suit

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a very good but very busy week here. (I'll post more about the rest of the week later.) We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with my parents and two of my brothers, Stuart and John, and John's family. It was a really nice, fairly relaxing day (as relaxing as preparing Thanksgiving can be), and everyone said that the food was good. I can personally vouch for excellent mashed potatoes and gravy and, of course, Dad's famous apple pie is always wonderful. Unfortunately, turkey totally grosses me out right now, but maybe by Christmas I'll be ready for feast food again. Patrick took over making Grandma's pumpkin pie for me this year, and it turned out very well - John had to have seconds.

John, Linde and baby Piper were here all weekend. We had fun watching Elijah and cousin Piper playing, if not together, near each other. Piper is getting around on her own now and pulling up to stand and walk along things, so they were much more interactive than they have been before. Here are a couple of cousin pictures from play time on Friday.

Come on up here and play!

Cute girl

Piper shares Elijah's issues with pants that won't stay up. What a pain!

Elijah and Grandpa hangin' out, watching the CU game.

Funny Faces

So I am up with Elijah this morning. I decided to take a few pictures, and some of them turned out pretty wacky.

Some News

Elijah is going to be a big brother! I am 8 weeks pregnant, and we've had two good ultrasounds to confirm that everything is OK and the baby is where he/she belongs (hooray!). I've been feeling sick for a few weeks now (I refuse to call this "morning" sickness - all day every day sick is more applicable), but the doctor says that is a good sign. I am due on June 26th. We are so excited!

Playing

Elijah is really good at playing on his own and we think he's very funny to watch. Since learning to walk, he's been really energetic and goes all over the place while he's playing. Here are some pictures of Elijah playing last night.

Nice shades, dude!

And here's a video ... yes, he falls pretty often. I don't know what he's doing with his tongue, but it's funny!