Enjoying Eli

With a short amount of time left before baby #2 arrives, I'm trying to spend lots of quality time with Eli. He loves picking out books to read and we'll go through a huge stack in one sitting. He also loves playing with trains and looking at the pictures of all of the different Thomas trains (we have a paper that came with one of his trains that shows the whole collection).

Today I went to the doctor - I'm still just 1cm dilated (same as last week), but now I'm slightly effaced. So that's all good news! I have plenty of Braxton-Hicks contractions and have had some cramping this week, but there is no indication when this baby will decide to make his appearance. It's fun to wonder what our second little boy is going to look like - will he be just like Eli or totally different? Will they look like siblings? Will he have blue eyes, blonde hair? I think Eli realizes the baby is almost here (we definitely talk about it more).I'm happy to say he has been much better about napping lately, which is a huge relief. But he is getting more bold too - climbing on things more... And finally, the air is so dry in our house that we often shock each other with static electricity (not on purpose). Eli loves to say, "shock" - and I think it's so cute because he says it with a Chicago accent - "shahhk" or however you would write that phonetically. And since I love to complain about the weather - the actual temp right now is -4 degrees. Wind chill is -23. The sun is shining brightly though, which makes it not seem quite as bad. Some parts of our house are pretty cold - the closets, the family room (which was an addition at some point), and our kitchen nook must all have zero insulation, because they are chilly - especially the floors and walls.

I should be writing my article due next week, but I think I'm going to go climb into my warm bed and take a nap instead :)

Eli, Ben & Elmo Break Dancing

Happy New Year! Aunt Babz sent us this jib jab video and we thought it was really funny - Eli loves being in a video with Elmo!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Fun Christmas Day, Icy Christmas Night

Favorite Eli phrases from Christmas:

"I'll play with it"

"Let's open it"

"I shut it!"

He said those those things over and over... it was really cute.

A few more pictures from Christmas Eve:

Davey gave Eli a manatee stuffed animal - Eli of course loves it and had to sleep with it last night and tonight. It's cute hearing Eli try to say manatee.

My parents, Davey and Gram all spent the night at our house last night, and woke up around 8 a.m.


Below - here we are on Christmas morning opening stockings. We started around 10:15 a.m. and it was nice to have already showered and be ready for the day. I'm sure this is the last year we'll have this luxury - as Eli gets older, we will be back to opening gifts in our pjs :) We spent the next 2 1/2 hours opening presents in a relaxing way.

Eli had fun opening gifts and was very deliberate about enjoying each one.

I gave Gram a cake carrier (wrapped in the package she has on her head). My parents gave her that purple/yellow scarf from Emerson College.

Aunt Babz sent this stuffed Thomas train pillow - Eli loved carrying it around and talking to it.

This was the year of the trains - we gave Eli some Thomas trains, some Ikea trains and track, and my parents gave him a few trains too. He LOVES "choo choos" and we had fun playing with them later in the day.

Eli and my dad right before dinner

Davey and Gram

About to start dinner - we had roasted chicken, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, asparagus, and salad. We made a yummy drink to go with it (Squirt, Cran-rasberry juice, and rasberry sherbet mixed together) and it was delish! I felt like I was going to pop when it was over.

This is part of our mess of holiday cards on the radiator - Eli loves looking through them and especially enjoys pointing at the cards with photos.

Davey gave Eli this Elmo piano book - this was also the year of Elmo-related toys. We gave him a stuffed Elmo (not a talking one) and Elmo sticker book, and my parents gave him an Elmo board book. Eli loves Elmo so much! ("Ha ha!" is his name)

Later - Eli and Bumpa (my dad) reading books together

All in all, it was a great Christmas. The biggest part of Ben's present to me is he is going to paint the third bedroom this weekend (it's currently a VERY bright yellow, which I really dislike). I'm still trying to figure out what the new color is going to be.

Unfortunately, the day ended on a sour note...my family was getting ready to head home, so my dad went outside to get their van and pull it up to the door. All of the sudden we heard a yell, and Ben ran to look outside and saw that my dad had fallen. He had walked down the alley, which was basically a big sheet of ice, slipped, and hit his hip and shoulder pretty hard.

So...the night ended with a trip to the ER. My dad fractured his scapula, or shoulderblade. Luckily, his hip is fine and he didn't break his arm. He'll wear a sling and probably be in a lot of pain, but it could have been much worse.

Here's a video with some highlights from yesterday - you'll hear lots of "I'll play with it"


Eli's Christmas 2008 from Sarah on Vimeo.

Conversation with Uncle Munkle

Here is a quick clip of Eli talking on the phone with my brother Davey (Uncle Munkle). Davey tends to ask Eli some random questions, and their conversation was so typical that I had to grab the camera. Here is just a little taste of what they talked about... (I took this video with our compact camera - Eli thought I was trying to take his picture - and posing with a very cheesy "cheese" face, which made me laugh). Also, Davey works part-time at Dick's Sporting Goods, which is why he was referring to the store in the video.

Eli is 19 Months!

Happy 19 months Eli! He has been SO much happier the last few days. It's really nice having the old Eli back after a miserable time with the ear infection. We woke up to about a half a foot of snow yesterday, and I don't think it's going to melt anytime soon, unfortunately. Tomorrow's high is only 4 degrees! Yuck. At least Eli has a puffy coat to keep him warm :) I laugh every time he puts it on because he looks like a big piece of chocolate candy in that brown coat.

Here is my happy boy today as we were driving home from a friend's house. I don't think he's left the house in a few days now because of our cold, snowy weather. It's a good thing I didn't venture out yesterday by myself with him... last night we left him with a babysitter, and Ben and I got stuck in our very snowy alley a few times. There is no way I would have made it in or out of our garage by myself (Ben had to shovel the snow around the tires multiple times). It's crazy that they don't plow the alleys!! It makes driving in our little Altima quite the adventure.

Here are my favorite things about Eli right now:

• He still LOVES Elmo and calls him "Ha Ha"
• He always says "Hi!" and waves to his various stuffed animals
• He always needs his frog snuggly toy to fall asleep and calls him "Kiki" - we think it's sort of like froggy? He says, "Hi Kiki! Hi Kiki!" when we put him in his crib and they are reunited :)
• He loves to run around the house, then stops and says, "Fast!" because he is proud of his speed
• He is pretty good at playing with his toys independently for small chunks of time
• He loves to give me and Ben hugs and kisses, and is always happy to stop what he's doing and give me a hug if I ask for one
• He still loves anything related to trains