Elijah's signs

Elijah has been making up some of his own signs lately. Yesterday I tried to get some on video. Normally, he just does this spontaneously, when we're reading or whenever he thinks about it, so it's hard to catch it on video. So, if this is a little staged, I'm sorry! =) EJ has little motions to signify gorilla and buffalo (from Eric Carle's Head to Toe), train, and bath (from Sandra Boynton's The Going to Bed Book). He didn't want to do the train for the camera, but I'll try again sometime. His motion for buffalo is basically to bounce up and down, since moving his shoulders is a little too specific right now ... Enjoy!

Five years

Wow, five years! Yesterday was our fifth anniversary. It's gone by so quickly! They have been five really good years. (I will not add Patrick's comment here - funny, but so inappropriate!) We've been blessed in so many ways, and had some really good times.

Thanks to my parents, we got to celebrate with a little grown up time. Elijah is staying with his grandparents until tomorrow. What a great gift! We went out to dinner and to see a movie, and had fun talking about the best parts of the last five years. I think we'll stick it out for another five.


Our wedding day was such a great day - everything went well and we really enjoyed it. The weather was fantastic and the day intensely pretty - I remember thinking that everything was so perfectly beautiful and that it must just be that I saw it that way because I was so happy. It was kind of fun afterward to find out that other people thought it was an exceptionally beautiful day, too, and to see the pictures and see that I wasn't making it all up. (Thanks to our great photographer who captured the colors and everything so beautifully.)

All my boys =)

Afterward, we were totally exhausted, but in a good, happy way. It was so fun and exciting to be starting our lives together!

One other great thing about our wedding day is that we got to spend it surrounded by people that we love. Girls, I love you and miss you each so much!

Cute, wet kid

Here are some pictures of Elijah after his bath ...

the wet, spikey hair

Here are two of the four top teeth ... so hard to get a picture of them!

A long day

Yesterday was a long day. Actually, it started Tuesday night. Elijah didn't sleep well, so no one slept well. On Wednesday we were all tired and no one felt very good and that never helps. Then some of that tired, dragging feeling just spilled over into yesterday. It's not that it was a bad day - we had some fun and ran some errands and there was nothing too horrible about it. Elijah didn't nap well (is he getting a new tooth? is he coming down with a cold or something? is it just a funk? I don't know!) and was a little more clingy than usual, and on Thursdays Patrick doesn't get home until after Elijah goes to bed. For some reason, that extra hour and a half is really, really long. And there is something about doing Elijah's whole day by myself that is hard. It really makes me appreciate Patrick's help when he's home! So I just had one of those days where I'm wondering what I got myself into. Anyway, at this point I can't remember what happened Wednesday, and what was yesterday, but we had one little incident ...

Elijah woke up sounding kinda hoarse, but seemed to be feeling fine otherwise. I wanted to make sure he got plenty of fluids for whatever was bothering him, so I made him some very diluted juice (he usually only drinks water or milk) because I thought it would be a treat and he'd want to drink more. He did - he drank 1 and 1/2 cups of juice and 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk. Hooray! Then he took his morning nap, and when he woke up, everything was WET! Apparently the morning's fluid intake was a bit too much for his daytime-sized cloth diaper, and he leaked like he wasn't even wearing a diaper. Two blankets, the sheet, pillowcase, the mattress pad, and all his clothes from t-shirt to socks were wet. So then it was a race to see if I could get the mattress pad washed and dry and back on his bed before his afternoon nap. Yikes ...

Elijah, version 2.0 (in all new, dry clothes)

Just a couple pictures

Elijah was playing at Nana's house and wearing a cute outfit from Colleen (and Lew) on Sunday. Cute stuff!

Some pictures

Fun with food!
Cute, messy boy
Here are the bottom four, Bobbi - I haven't been able to get a picture of all eight teeth yet

Feeling better

Elijah is feeling much better. Yesterday he ate and slept big - hooray! I even had to go in and wake him from his morning nap (so he could take an afternoon nap), and I took the opportunity to get a picture of the sleeping baby. He's so cute! We're so glad that he's feeling better and catching up on the sleep that he lost last week when his ear hurt. It's nice to have EJ back to his happy self.

We went suddenly from summer to fall on Sunday, and yesterday morning was actually chilly! Elijah spent the day readjusting to long sleeves, long pants, and socks. It's been such a long time since he's worn them! He sat and played with his sleeves for a while after I dressed him - apparently they felt pretty strange. He also had to practice walking in his socks and not stepping on his pants. How funny!

Welcome back, happy boy!

The Scottish/Irish Highland Festival

On Saturday, we went up to Estes Park for the annual Longs Peak Scottish/Irish Highland Festival with our friends, Erik and Rebecca. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. Elijah spent most of the day in the backpack, but did very well. He even took a little nap! (It's shocking and cause for great joy whenever EJ sleeps somewhere that is not his own bed.) Patrick's shoulders were very tired after he carried Elijah for most of the day, but we're glad that it worked out. It was fun to walk around and see all the exhibits, booths, dancing, bands (bagpipes, drum corps, and the Marine Corps Band as well as folk singers and rock bands), and dogs. The people watching at the festival is always entertaining as well! Patrick got to drink some Irish beer and he tried some haggis for lunch. (I tried it in Scotland and was quite content to settle for a plain hamburger!)

We were thankful that Rebecca remembered to bring in her camera (ours didn't do much good in the car all day), especially because she is quite a good photographer. Here are a few pictures of our day. You can see them all here, at Reb's album. Check them out!

Oh, happy Patrick!

Elijah really enjoyed seeing the dogs

A happy boy in the backpackSleeping babySome of the fantastic scenery and one of the bands

Back to the doctor

Well, we had a rough night last night. It took EJ a long time to get to sleep, and then he was up and crying most of the night until 3:30 am. The way he was acting made me nervous enough to call the doctor this morning, even though he woke up and was his usual, cheerful self. He was coughing (with a bad, full-chest congestion sound) last night and occasionally this morning, so they had me bring him in. It turns out that in addition to the little cold that's making him cough, he has an ear infection. Poor little man. So, I elevated his mattress a bit and gave him a firm pillow to prop him up a bit for his nap (lying down makes it hurt more) and hopefully he'll be able to get some sleep.

On a more cheerful note, they weighed Elijah today while we were at the doctor's, and he's gained some weight! I guess the weight-gain diet has helped. Since he's back up to his normal growth curve, we don't have to take him back again until his normal 18 month check up. Hooray, Elijah!

Reading and helping

Here are a couple of pictures of the boy, just doing his normal, Elijah stuff. He loves to read and spends a lot of time looking at his books on his own. He loves being read to as well, and most days we read every book he owns at least once. He also has begun asking for the same book (which ever one we are currently reading) over and over. Evidently, Elijah has also been growing lately - he is now tall enough to reach things on the table, counters, and the washing machine. He is delighted to be able to help me put clothes into the washer, and I think it's so cute to see him stretch up on tip-toe to toss things in. I've also been finding the clothes from his hamper and any clothing he finds on the floor in the washing machine.

"Reading" out loud to himself

Emptying his hamper to load the washing machine.

Tribute to the old flips

Last week, Elijah and I were out and about with my mom - we went to lunch and then to Kohl's for a couple of things. It was a fun day, except that my old favorite flip flops died. I was very sad because I loved my flips and all the memories that went with them, and because it is very hard to walk in broken flip flops! Thankfully, Kohl's had some flip flops on sale, and I got a new pair, but I will miss the old ones - they were pretty special for a pair of old flips!

There are many things I could say about my old flips - how comfortable they were and how they never gave me blisters, even after a long winter of never wearing them, how I wore them all through last summer when I was pregnant and nothing else fit - it could really go on and on. But since I'm sure you all don't really want to hear me go on endlessly, here's the one best thing. Eight years ago, I returned from a summer backpacking around Europe with very sad feet. It was a wonderful trip, but I only had one pair of sandals that I wore the whole time. After some interesting experiences, including wading through rivers of a mix champagne, flour, raw eggs and various condiments at the festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain, my shoes were gross. But they were all I had, so I kept wearing them. When I arrived back in the States, I spent a week in Pennsylvania visiting friends and attending a wedding before I came home, and I still only had that one gross pair of shoes. I arrived at my friend Erin's house, and the first thing we did was to go buy a pair of new flips so I could get out of those yucky Europe shoes! (Thank you, Erin!!) Even if I hadn't gotten eight happy years of comfortable wear from them afterwards, I would love those flips just for that week and the relief of getting out of the old sandals. I'll miss you, little flips!