Yeah Mama! Yeah Dada!

Today we had a glimpse that Spring MIGHT be around the corner. We're supposed to have beautiful weather this weekend before it drops back down into the 40s and 50s next week. I love Chicago, but 6 months of winter is a bit much. However - there is something about the first warm days that really puts you in a good mood - Charlie was so smiley today:

He is a big bubbler...
Eli was in a great mood too and loved being out in the back yard. He collected some rocks and lined them all up, and counted them (as shown in the first video below). Eli's voice seems to get louder as each day passes, as is shown in the second video. Earlier I was helping him blow bubbles and he got so excited and yelled, "Yeah Mama!" Later he was watching Ben juggle the soccer ball and started to say, "Yeah Mama!" but realized he was actually cheering for Ben and switched his cheer to "Yeah Dada!" He also loves any counting that leads to "BLAST OFF!" so you'll hear that too.
Eli Counting Rocks
(the videos do work, despite the vertical lines showing up for the time being):

Eli Counting 1-10 at 22 Months from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli yelling Yeah Mama! and Yeah Dada!

Yeah MAMA! Yeah DADA! (Eli at 22 Months) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli Videos

Eli was being really hyper and funny tonight when we were playing in the basement. Here are a few quick videos of his craziness :)

Hyper Eli, Running Around (watch how he runs with his elbows sticking out):

Eli is FAST at 22 Months :) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli Motions "Come Here" - (in the last few seconds - watch his fingers, it's funny):

Eli Motions "Come Here" - at 22 Months from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli Sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Eli Sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at 22 Months from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli Sings the ABCs:

Eli Singing the ABCs at 22 months from Sarah on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Today we had Stake Conference - here we are outside the church:

Eli looked so handsome, all dressed up

Here he is, showing a little attitude:
After most of us took a nap this afternoon, we drove up to my parents' house for Easter dinner. Here's my dad, sporting a beautiful apron, holding Charlie :)
My parents had a wooden Noah's Ark set that Eli loved playing with. It was really cute to watch him name all of the animals - I think his favorites were the penguins and the giraffes.
My parents hid some Easter eggs in the backyard, so we hunted around for them (but it was freezing!! Where the heck is our Spring weather?)

Back inside, Eli and Charlie had fun playing with Gram:

I love Charlie's smiles!

And his funny expressions:

Cute feet with long toes:

Here's Eli with the ark: Eli is talking so much now. Some of the things he decides to say are pretty funny. Last week we were making BLTs for dinner and Eli saw me cooking the bacon and yelled, "I want bacon!" - before then I hadn't realized how much he liked bacon. Then when we were in Cleveland, Eli saw Rachael cutting a piece of leftover birthday cake and declared, "I love cake!" and wanted some.

Eli also says "I want to reach it" or "I want to open it" quite a bit. Today he had an opinion about which socks he wanted to wear (of course they were athletic socks with soccer balls on them, but oh well! I figured no one would see them when we were at church). It's so interesting seeing your little boy grow and have his own opinions about how things should go...

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Eli's nursery leaders put on a fabulous Easter Egg Hunt and invited the nursery and primary kids. Here we are before the hunt, enjoying music from Keenan and his ukelele.

Here's Eli outside, finding some eggs:

It was pretty brisk outside and Charlie wasn't very happy to be out in the cold.
Ben with the boys:

Eli wasn't the fastest egg hunter out there, but he still got a nice stash of eggs and had a lot of fun!

Eli and the Easter Bunny

I took Eli to see the Easter Bunny last week, pretty much expecting him to like the bunny from a distance, but not up close...

But I was surprised to find that Eli LOVED the Easter Bunny! It was hard for me to pry him away when his turn was over.

Road Trip to Cleveland

Last Tuesday, the boys and I joined my friend Khania and her kids on a road trip to Cleveland. We all piled into her Jeep Commander, crammed all of our junk inside (amazing how much stuff I needed to bring for a baby and a toddler), and we were on our way.

We were going to go visit our friend Rachael, who lived here for a few years while her husband was in business school.

Picture of the Chicago skyline from the highway:
So this is pathetic, but I hardly had time to take pictures while we were there - the only time I really pulled out my camera was while I was showing Rachael my 50mm camera lens - taking pictures like these:

So we made sure to take a picture before we left - here are Rachael and Khania outside of Rachael's pretty house. Rachael has three kids, so there were seven kids, ages 6 and under, under this roof. It was a little chaotic at times, but lots of fun. Rachael spoiled us with her famous mint brownies and yummy kettle corn, and her baby present (well, really a present for me) was a beautiful strap cover that she made for my Nikon strap.

Thanks for a fun trip, Khania and Rachael! We drove back yesterday and for the most part, the kids all were really well behaved in the car. Eli didn't nap while we were in Cleveland and was overtired, but I couldn't get him to fall asleep in the car, silly boy! I think it took us about 7 hours each way (with a long stop for lunch both times). We're happy to be home, back to the regular routine.

Charlie at 11 Weeks and a little of Eli too

Charlie is turning into a really easygoing, happy little guy:

Doesn't he just look content?

I love to look at his bright, clear eyes
He likes watching his big brother do silly things, like try to measure his head with the measuring tape

I love watching Eli when he is concentrating on something

And Eli can't make it through the day without having at least one of these:

Sweet Eli Has Returned :)

Eli slept until 8 a.m. this morning and has been in the best mood all day! Such a difference from yesterday. He even took a 3-hour nap today!

He got to color with markers after his nap And Charlie was so kind to me - while he was up for the day a little early (5:30 a.m.), he slept a little while we were out in the morning and then a nice afternoon nap, which overlapped a little with Eli's nap. A well rested toddler is so fun to be around!

A Day of Both Extremes - Fun with Bowling and TANTRUMS

Today started out so well... we went to a mom/tot bowling activity at a nearby bowling alley. You can't beat unlimited bowling (shoe rental included - though they didn't have shoes small enough for Eli so he wore his regular shoes) for $5 for two hours. This is the cost for kids - parents are free!

I love that this place has the bowling ball ramp thing for kids to push the ball down the lane.

Eli had so much fun! He even got a spare and a strike. His total score was 95 - not bad for a 1-year-old, though he did have the bumpers. It was a little tricky helping him while holding Charlie, but it all worked out. He kept doing this sort of cheer kick as he watched the ball crash into the bowling pins.

These pictures look so happy, don't they? We came home at lunchtime and I tried putting Eli down for his nap, and he went BALLISTIC. The kid would NOT go to sleep or stop crying. He was screaming, crying, throwing his animals in the crib, and just being crazy. I went in a few times, tried reading more stories, sang songs, talked to him, tried a few bribes if he did take a nap... he wanted nothing to do with any of it.

Me - "Do you want to blow bubbles outside after your nap?" (he LOVES bubbles)
Eli - "NO."
Me - "Do you want to color with markers after your nap?" (again, he LOVES markers)
Eli - "NO." (more tears)
Me - "If you take a nap, you can have a skittle..." (he loves skittles and doesn't get them very often)
Eli - "NO."

I was getting so frustrated. At least on the days when he typically doesn't nap, he just plays in his crib for a while. Today he was an overtired mess. He kept rubbing his eyes, but was so worked up that he could not settle down for a rest.

Finally I took him out and we played in the family room and he did some coloring. Our neighbors stopped by with some plants that we're going to take care of while they are out of town. Eli was remarkably happy and well behaved...

...until we went down in the basement to play. His toys were frustrating him. The train track kept coming apart, so he threw the pieces. He got upset with his toy vacuum, but I couldn't figure out what exactly was making him so angry and he kept pushing it on the ground out of frustration.

But the final straw was when he took his big dump truck and dropped it on Charlie's forehead (Charlie was laying on a blanket on the floor at the time). He has NEVER done anything to hurt Charlie and I was so upset. I scooped up Charlie, ran upstairs from the basement so I could calm him down in peace, then went back downstairs to bring Eli up from the playroom. Eli again went ballistic and stood at the basement door, pounding on it, screaming, and hitting the doorknob in hopes that it would open (and yelling, "BASEMENT!!" over and over). This went on for 30 MINUTES.

Where did my sweet Eli go?? He never acts like this. I called my friend Carrie for any suggestions - her idea was to give him a bath. I carried him upstairs, put him in the bath, and he slowly went back to his old self, being sweet and playing nicely in the tub. We hung out in the bathroom for an hour (he LOVES baths) and he went to bed at 6:45 p.m.

After we put Eli to bed, I fed Charlie, gave him his medicine, and he promptly threw up ALL over me (and himself). I cleaned us both up, changed our clothes, gave Charlie to Ben, and went to the movies to get a break. Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful!

Sad the Weekend is Over!

We had a fun but productive weekend, doing yard work, running errands, playing with the kids, and enjoying being together. Monday morning is almost always hard - Eli wakes up crying for DADAAAAA and it takes a little bit before he's adjusted again to the weekday routine.

Here's Charlie still getting used to the bumbo seat - he likes it for very short amounts of time. You can sort of see the dimples in his chubby cheeks...

I usually get the boys dressed first thing in the morning, but on Sundays I leave them in their jammies until right before church. I can't get enough of the matching pjs :) I thought it was funny - when I put Charlie in the bumbo this morning, Eli ran over to it and said, "Cheese!" I had to run and get my camera since he was actually eager to take a picture.

Love these boys!

Charlie at 8 Weeks and Eli at 22 Months

Eli has become very resourceful when I'm busy feeding Charlie, changing him, etc. For example, here he is helping himself to some snacks:

And Charlie is a big 8-week-old now :) I brought him in to the doctor today to check his lungs once again because he STILL has a bad cold. Everything is fine, according to the doctor. There is no magical cure. And Charlie is up to 12 lbs, 4 oz. This was Charlie's ninth visit to the doctor's office in his 8 weeks of his life. He has been sick for 7 of the 8 weeks. I asked if this seemed strange, and the doctor said yes, but it's just a bad virus. It's not RSV because he isn't wheezing, so that's a good thing.

Last night he was so stuffed up and had a hard time breathing through his nose. He also kept coughing on his phlegm. He and I were up from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. That is a long time in the middle of the night - I am going to bed EARLY tonight... I swear this kid lives on very little sleep. You wouldn't know it by looking at him though!
He slept for a long time this morning while we were out and about. Then he was awake from 12:30 p.m. until 4:15 p.m. He did doze off hear and there, but every time I put him down, he woke up a few minutes later. Now he's asleep on my lap. I think we're going to have to go run some errands so he'll stay asleep for a decent nap.
We had an outfit change midday because Charlie threw up all over the place. As my mom put it after experiencing some Charlie spitup the other day, "It's like a fountain." Here's Eli, who did not nap the last two days. Today he actually fell asleep, but he woke up early because a neighbor had some construction going on that was VERY loud. Oh well. He can be really sensitive when he doesn't get enough sleep.
Eli will be 22 months tomorrow! His favorite phrases of the week include:

"I watch it"
"I did it!"
"Read it!"
"I throw it!"
"Eli's" (or Mama's or Dada's when he sees something that he associates with us)
"A Mama!" - when he sees a woman in a book or magazine
"A Dada!" - when he sees a man in a book or magazine


Most common youtube requests from Eli:
Elmo potty time
C is for Cookie
Elmo sleep (Elmo and Andrea Bocelli)
Hamburger! (Grover and the hambuger)
I Love You (Barney song)

It's really hard getting a cute (and happy) picture of both boys... :)

I'll keep trying though!