8 Years!

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary! Ben and I got married in the middle of our junior year at BYU, in between fall and winter semesters, in the beautiful Bountiful Utah LDS temple. It was a wonderful day! One of the funnier moments included me locking our only set of keys (I had lost the other set that week) in our car at the luncheon, so Ben and his brothers spent a good chunk of time trying to open the door with a hanger through the window.

It snowed the day before our wedding and it snowed the day after, but we really lucked out on the actual wedding day. Our reception that night was up the mountain at Snowbird, so we were lucky the roads were clear and it wasn't TOO cold... though I'm not sure what I was thinking having short sleeves in the middle of December :)

Today, our weather wasn't as cooperative. The temps were in the teens and it snowed all day long - we may have up to six inches by tomorrow morning. We had planned on getting takeout tonight, but bagged that idea since we didn't want to drive on the roads that have yet to be plowed (and figured delivery would take forever).

My parents are watching Eli for us in a few weeks so we can have a nice dinner in the city, so we'll celebrate officially then. It's funny how before Eli arrived, we usually planned some sort of quick getaway, whether it was staying overnight in Chicago or San Francisco (depending on which family we were spending the holidays with that year). Tonight we're just as happy to spend the evening at home, with Eli tucked into bed and the snow falling outside (Ben's out shoveling as I'm typing this).

It's hard to believe we have been married for eight years - I feel lucky to have such a sweet husband and darling little boy!

Eli's gift to us was that he was SO much happier today!

Yesterday he was moody, grumpy, sad, throwing fits, etc. because he didn't feel well. I took lots of deep breaths to get through the day. :) Today the antibiotic finally worked its magic and we had fun playing all over the house. These pictures were taken in the basement. (It's currently painted a really awful beige color - let me know if you have any color suggestions. I'm hoping we'll paint it in the near future...)

Later when we went upstairs, he looked in the third bedroom that currently has a ton of baby clothes spread out and organized all over the floor... he ran in, threw his arms up and said, "WHOA!" I'm not going to show a picture of what that room looks like right now, but his reaction is a good indication...
Last night I went grocery shopping at 10:30 p.m. because I knew the snow was coming and didn't want to drag Eli out in the cold. After I got home and finished unloading the groceries into the house, I could barely feel my nose and lips - it was that cold. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little warmer so we can go out and enjoy the snow.

Happy anniversary sweetheart!

The Joys of an Ear Infection

Eli has had a miserable couple of days - I know the pictures on Friday make him look happy, but he was still fighting a bad cold that he has had since last Sunday. Over the last few nights, he woke up multiple times in the night crying pretty hard. On Saturday, he spent much of the day crying or hitting the sides of his head out of frustration - it was so sad!! Then this morning at 5 a.m. when I was up with him once again, it clicked in my head.

Eli had an ear infection.

Hello!? He'd had a week straight of a congested cough, runny nose, fever, and his head was hurting him... Why it took two bad nights for us to figure it out, I don't know.

Ben had things he needed to do at church today, but Eli and I stayed home and I took him to the doctor, who confirmed that Eli's left ear was infected, the right ear had fluid in it, and his throat was red/sore. Poor little guy!! Thankfully, we filled the prescription right away and Eli had a full dose of the antibiotic by tonight. I also was more diligent about giving him tylenol and motrin throughout the day.

What a difference! I took these pictures tonight with my old point and shoot camera, so the quality stinks, but I can't believe how much happier Eli was! He woke up this morning screaming, so this was a major improvement. I'm hoping tonight is more restful for all of us. By this time last night, Eli had already woken up crying two times, so that's a good sign.

Eli is pretty possessive of his Spiderman couch - anytime Ben tried to put his head on the couch when Eli was off doing something else, Eli would run back over, move Ben off the couch, and laugh because he had it to himself again. Ben couldn't resist teasing him though, and put his head back up on the Spiderman couch anytime Eli ran away from it.

Darn. I just heard him crying! I spoke too soon. It probably doesn't help that it's super windy outside (making the windows rattle). Tomorrow our high is 14 degrees, wind chill below zero (the forecast shows the worst of it will bring us down to -10 degrees for the wind chill, because the wind could be gusting 20 to 30 mph). This is WAY too cold for December! I expect this more in January and February, but December isn't usually THIS bad.

Think warm thoughts for Ben tomorrow as he commutes by train and then has a long walk to his office. I made him promise he would wear a coat, hat, gloves AND scarf - he hardly ever brings the scarf, which I think is nuts. I'm a firm believer in covering everything but your eyes in weather like this.

Poor Eli. He's still crying, so I'm going up now to check on him. We may still have another long night ahead of us...

Practicing for Baby

The sun is shining so brightly that it made me want to take some pictures of Eli this morning while he was playing in our house. Chicago winters can be very gray, so I'm thankful for today's bright blue sky (the downside is it's 18 degrees outside, wind chill: 5 degrees - BRR!! Winter clear skies often = chilly, chilly temps)

It's hard to tell in these first pictures, but Eli spent a good chunk of his time holding this baby doll. I got this for him a few months ago so we could talk about babies and get him excited about the one on the way. Granted, we're having a baby boy and this is a girl baby doll, but I don't think it's a big deal to an 18-month-old :)

I don't think Eli has any clue how much life is going to change in six weeks, but I'm glad he was being sweet with the doll! It's good practice.

Eli the Clementine Thrower

I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. Throughout the time at the store, Eli went back and forth from saying "hold" because he wanted to hold whatever I was putting in the cart and "hold you" because he wanted me to take him out of the cart and hold him. Needless to say, the trip at the store took longer than I was planning.

I came home feeling rushed to finish a meal I was making for a friend and not having time to put most of the groceries away. Ben was stuck coming home on the train - the signals went out systemwide, so they weren't letting the trains go due to safety reasons (his 25 minute ride home took an hour and a half). I tried to get Eli to eat dinner while I was cooking, but he finished in record time and was not interested in staying cooped up in his booster seat for very long.

Once he was free, Eli pulled all of the clementines out of the box and started throwing them around the kitchen like they were balls. He thought it was SO fun and was laughing so hard. Then he had fun putting the clementines in a pile and stacking and compiling the groceries that were still out.

These pants are pretty big in the waist! They were falling off of him all day long, poor guy.

And no, we don't drink Coke - I bought it for a Cafe Rio pork recipe that I'm hoping is better than my other attempts. What I really crave is a true Cafe Rio burrito, but I'll have to settle for this, 1,200 miles away from the nearest location. :(

Eli was in such a good mood last night! We picked Ben up from his late train at 7:15 p.m., then came home and ate dinner while Eli continued throwing the clementines and running around us while we ate. He didn't get to bed until 8 p.m., and gave me the nicest gift this morning - Eli didn't start yelling Boppy until almost 8 a.m.! (I think he was up earlier, but played quietly in his crib for a little while) That was the nicest thing he could have done for his tired, third-trimester pregnant, still-battling-a-yucky-cold mom.

It's now 9 a.m. and all we've really accomplished is reading books, eating breakfast, and getting Eli dressed. I'm still in my sweats and enjoying a slow, happy start to the morning. Sometimes you just need days like this!