Crazy Bears/Packers Game

Last night the Bears beat the Packers in overtime (Go Bears!). That's pretty exciting (sorry Rebekeh, my friend who grew up in Green Bay), but the thing that got me was the amount of bare skin exposed to the elements last night! Check out these pictures from the Chicago Tribune:

Is that shirtless fan out of his mind?? Last night it was a whopping two degrees, wind chill -13 degrees. I think he was just really drunk. It was the coldest Bears game EVER at Soldier Field.

Rebekeh and her sister actually had tickets to the game, but wisely stayed home. It would have been so miserable to be outside for that long, no matter how bundled up you were!

And of course there were lots of tough guys on the football field with bare arms. Crazy, crazy crazy. Ben wasn't feeling well last night and went to bed early, so I ran out later in the evening to do the last of my errands before our next round of snow (we woke up this morning to more snow, and it's not supposed to stop for a few days).

Sometimes I really wish we had a car with four-wheel drive... Eli and I got stuck in the alley yesterday afternoon, just as I had feared. I hacked away at the snow for a good 15 minutes before a neighbor drove in, saw me struggling and helped dig me out - with the help of her metal shovel and some sand. Winter is not starting out so well!! We are guaranteed a white Christmas though, so we'll try to stay on the bright side :)

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