Growing up

Yesterday we got Elijah a toddler bed to move into before his little sister comes to take his crib. Now we just have to get a mattress pad and decide when to start the big transition. Elijah seems to love it so far - he spent the evening climbing all over his new bed last night, but we'll see how he does when it comes to sleeping in it!

Here is E sitting in his tall chair, "reading" his Bible (or just looking for elephants). He is getting pretty good at climbing up there, and today even made a good attempt at climbing back down. Elijah is getting so grown up!

Playing

Here is some video of Elijah's every day playing, with some of his favorite toys. I had a little trouble getting video while I was playing with him - the last clip is of him playing with his dump truck. Enjoy!

Little cowboy

This morning, Elijah chose his cowboy boots (since Mama finally got his snow boots put away when he wasn't watching) - after trying Daddy's boots first. His own boots are still about 5 sizes too big, but that didn't seem to bother E. He ran around in them all morning without tripping or falling down!

Ready for the rodeo!

Ridin' the range (in his PJs) - yeehaw!

Camouflage

My brother Cameron asked me to find some of his old camouflage uniforms (that he donated for a future quilt project) for something he is working on at school. Patrick pulled them out for me the other night, and Elijah (of course) had to put on a "coat." E loves to wear any adult-size jacket like a king's robes and sweep around the room very seriously. Here he is trying on Uncle Cameron's Marine Corps camo. (Cam, your tapes are coming - hooray!)

Some fun pictures

Yesterday Elijah's outfit included a necktie with snow boots. Too funny!

This kid is getting so grown up.

And more hats ...

Going for a walk

We had such nice weather this weekend - it was actually warm enough to go for a walk. Elijah walked on his own for quite a while and had a great time. We went past the duck pond and were lucky enough to see a big group of ducks close up. Elijah was excited to hear them quack! After Elijah got tired, he enjoyed a ride in the stroller. It was so nice to get out and spend some time all together.

Big boy walking

Ducks! Quack quack!

Walking with Daddy

Elijah's day

Here is how Elijah's day went today.
7:10 am - Good morning, Elijah! After sitting in his crib happily for a minute with his pacifier (which was returned to him from the floor where it had been tossed while he was waiting for me to come in), Elijah noticed his cowboy hat and his snow boots and decided that they were worth getting out of bed and giving up the pacifier.

E spent most of the morning playing (and drinking water here) in his pajamas, snow boots and cowboy hat. He is quite obsessed with his snow boots, and is very funny trying to run around in them - they are a little clunky.


8:00 am - Breakfast: milk, oatmeal, and then scrambled eggs with sausage and green onion. Yum! After breakfast Elijah got dressed, and was very sad that he had to take off his boots and hat to do so. Boots and hat were returned afterward and Elijah went back to playing happily.

10:00 to 11:00 am - Outing to the fabric store with Mama. Elijah read his monkey book in the car on the way (Elijah "reading" to himself - "no more, monkeys, no more!"), and we saw fabric with lions, tigers, zebras and giraffes at the store. It was very exciting.

11:00 am - Lunch: milk, mac & cheese with turkey and peas, apples, and a few Cheerios. Elijah is getting much better at pronouncing Cheerios - it used to just sound like "chew," but now is a much more recognizable, "chew-yee-o-yo." It makes me laugh to hear him say each syllable (even the extra one) so carefully!

Eating lunch - still wearing the snow boots

11:30 to 2:00 - Nap. Hooray for nap time!

Afternoon - Play time. I actually got to talk on the phone while Elijah played very well with little help - and he didn't scream or try to take the phone away from me! Wow! He also played with his tool bench, did his animal puzzle, read books, and practiced taking lids off and back on various containers. We made the rounds of the pictures in the living room and either named or pointed to all the people. Elijah remembers every one. Elijah and I checked the pictures on his friends' blogs and looked at the new pictures I took today. We named and tickled lots of body parts (elbow and neck are current favorites) and both gave lots of kisses. It was a pretty normal, good day!

Surprise - it's a girl!

We went for my 20-week ultrasound tonight. We were excited to watch baby move around and see her heart beat and and little fingers and toes move around ... wait, her? Patrick and I were both surprised at the end to hear, "It's a girl!" We were both expecting a boy, but are getting used to the idea of having a girl, and getting excited about it. Hooray! (Sorry about the blurry picture.)

I've been tagged ... again!

My friend Amanda tagged me and the simple instructions are just to write six things about me. This was a lot harder than it sounds! Here they are (in no particular order):

1) I don't sleep very well. I never have. People tell me that it will get better now that I'm in my 30's, and maybe it will when I'm not pregnant or nursing, but while I'm pregnant - worse. I'm tired.

2) I am about to be a bridesmaid for the 8th time. (Congratulations Kristi - hooray!) I've been so glad and honored to be there to help and support my friends each time. This is the first time I've been pregnant, but I think it'll be fine. My dress is just bigger this time!

3) I'm a little nervous about our upcoming ultrasound, mostly because I'm excited to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I'm a little nervous about the possibility of having a girl, just because I don't have a lot of experience living with girls and I'm nervous about messing up. I also will have a lot more to do to get ready if we're having a girl, and I'm not sure what kind of quilt I'll make if it's girl. But I'll be excited either way (once I get used to the idea)!

4) I make quilts, and mostly I really enjoy it. I like figuring out a design and doing the patchwork and seeing it come together. I don't like ripping things out, and the quilting part gets tedious sometimes - I always feel like I should be done already! But then, when it is done, it's all worth it.

5) I am not generally very good at dealing with change, but I am trying to work on that. Mostly, when I don't know what to expect I get worried about all the things that could go wrong.

6) I love photographs and photo albums. I have been concentrating on sewing for the past couple of years, so I have quite a stack of pictures piling up, but I am excited to get to them soon. We have pictures all over the place around here. I had to move some to protect them from Elijah's growing reach and I was so sad that I had to lose seeing them all the time.


There you go! I have never been a huge fan of asking people to do things, but ... Jackie & Erin, I'm tagging you, if you want to do it!

Reading Bear Books

Elijah loves his bear books (Polar Bear, Panda Bear, and Brown Bear, all by Eric Carle). Honestly, some days I'm relieved when they get lost for a while under the couch, just so I can go a few hours without reading them again! But E just loves all the animals, and I think it's cool to see him learning to say the names and make the sounds of so many of them (not too clearly yet, but he's getting there). Here's a couple of videos of us reading the bear books - a couple of times he runs off to find the piece of his animal puzzle that is the same as the animal in the book. He's always doing things like that. (Yes, "ai-ya" means elephant.) On Tuesday E was playing with one of his baby toys, a big stuffed block, and discovered a cartoon picture of a turtle (which hardly even looks like a real turtle) on the block and said, "tuh-tal,"and came running to find the turtle in the panda bear book. He had never seemed to be paying any attention to that turtle before, but I guess he was!