A New Blog Header, Exercise, and a Beautiful Day

I'm a pretty sentimental person, so I shed a few tears when I finally removed the Eli Love blog header! Silly me. Eli was just 4 months old when I started regularly posting to the blog and I really love the picture that was on the top of this page for so long.

BUT - I am excited for

The Adventures of Eli and Charlie

*I'm sure I will change the picture as Charlie gets a little older and/or if I can get a good picture of the boys together with both looking/smiling/etc. This will do for now.

It's been an interesting end to the week. My early morning college babysitter came the first day (Wednesday) and then was a no-show on Thursday!! I woke up at 7 a.m. (Charlie and Eli were still asleep) and waited for her and even tried her cell 30 minutes later, but she didn't answer. She emailed me later that morning to apologize (she overslept) and said this wasn't sure this would work out because she has too many commitments that keep her up late at night. Oh well! (she did say she could do Mondays/Wednesdays, but I don't totally trust her to wake up early on a Monday... we'll see about Wednesday)

So my extra sleep was short-lived. That's okay, because now it's the weekend and Ben is around to help.

But first - today we actually made it out the door at 8:45 a.m. This is a huge accomplishment. We went in to the sick call at the pediatrician's office to check out Charlie again (I've lost track of how many extra times we've been to the doctor since his birth, poor guy). I was concerned because all week Charlie has had his cough and at times would struggle while coughing, choking on his mucous. It scares me, especially at night.

Here's Eli, all ready to go:

I was happy that his pediatrician was there this morning and was the one to see Charlie, whose lungs sounded clear, thank goodness. Charlie weighed 11 pounds, 2 ounces today, so he's gaining weight just fine. As Dr. Andy put it, it's hard to be concerned when he's so chubby - his cold isn't keeping him from eating (you should see his arms and legs, it's hilarious on such a young baby). It is a little disconcerting that Charlie has this cough that he can't seem to beat (it's been five weeks now), but we're just going to keep watching him and hopefully he'll stop gagging on his congestion soon.

After the doctor's office, we went to a playgroup at the church, which was followed by a yoga/pilates class taught by my friend Jenna. She teaches at a nearby gym and was nice enough to teach a group of us - I am so sore tonight!! Yesterday I went to my gym for the first time in a LONG time and did the elliptical for 25 minutes - I thought I was going to die by the end (and went to bed at 8:30 last night because I was so tired from the exercise and not sleeping much the night before w/ Charlie).

This afternoon we went on a long walk and picked up a Homemade Pizza to cook for dinner. I love the sausage and carmelized onion pizza (my half of the pizza is cheeseless).

This picture below is funny to me because I picked up our mail right before our walk and Eli LOVED the Target ad that came today - there were some Elmo and Thomas the Train toys advertised that were so fun for him to look at. He insisted on bringing it in the stroller.

Charlie got a little restless toward the end...

When we were out near the shops walking around, I got all kinds of comments, mostly from elderly people. My favorite was an older man who held the door for me and asked if these were my kids (he said I looked like a teenager). We played at the park for a little bit before heading home. Eli loved going down the slide.

Have a happy weekend! I'm off to get some rest before Charlie wakes up...

3 Weeks Old

This picture is from yesterday, but today Charlie is three weeks old! He is still sick and congested, but he's slowly getting better each day.

I will be honest...the first three weeks have not gone by very fast. But last night was the first that Charlie actually went back to sleep after eating (and this just happened once, but that's ok) - I was SO happy!! The night before had been pretty awful - Charlie was up quite a bit and fussy, and I finally had to wake Ben up for help because I couldn't stay awake any longer (I really don't like doing that when he has to work so early the next day, but I felt like I was going to throw up - Ben was happy to help...).

Eli has been in a great mood the last few days, though he was a bit of a stinker and didn't nap yesterday. I left him chattering in his crib anyway and took a nap so I could function the rest of the day :)
Now that Eli is mostly healthy again, I tried getting a picture of the two boys together... but it would have been easier with another adult around to help.
Yesterday was another strangely warm day - 60 degrees isn't very common in February around here! I put Eli in the stroller and strapped Charlie into the Baby Bjorn and off we went on an hour walk through our neighborhood. I decided I was in dire need of my favorite blueberry muffin from a yummy place not too far from here, so that was a good destination (though I was pretty exhausted by the end). It was a fun first walk with the boys!
Here is a quick video of Eli playing with Charlie - I thought it was very sweet. He is genuinely interested in him and loves waving at Charlie. I think they'll be good friends in no time :)

I Heart the Weekend (and Warmer Weather)

It was another long night, but it was so nice to have Ben helping too.

Charlie was making some cute faces this morning:

And now he's snoozing on the couch...
Eli was a little grouchy at breakfast (he woke up a little early because he heard Charlie crying), but was happy once his stomach was full.

My parents came over this morning and watched the boys so Ben and I could run some errands and get out of the house. Eli was in a great mood when we got back. And another reason to be happy - it's 58 degrees!!! The snow is melting, as demonstrated in our alley. We can see GRASS!! It's a wet, slushy, muddy mess, but it feels so good outside.

Apple Picking at Apple Holler

If you have an aversion to apples, you may want to skip reading this post.

Otherwise, see below for lots of fun apple picking pictures from our visit to Apple Holler in Wisconsin! We went with the Fryers (their daughter Katelyn is in the wagon w/ Eli) and saw some other friends from church there too.

Eli loves apples just as much as his dad. I think Ben ate ten apples while we were going through the orchard. Eli ate two.


I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but it was a HOT day for apple picking. We were all sweaty and tired from being out in the bright sun. On the way home we passed a sign that said 88 degrees, but I don't know if that was really true (it felt like it though!!).



Eli had fun feeding the goat.

Ben juggling the apples

We split a 1/2 bushel with Craig and Lindsay, but it still is a TON of apples. I'm excited for apple crisp this week!

Eli fell right asleep on the way home. Ben and Craig went fishing before apple picking, and then spent the rest of the day fishing and had lots of fun. He was pretty wiped out by the time he got home though, since they left for the day at 5 a.m. Crazy fishermen :)

Beating the Heat with the Beach

The high is 92 today and early this morning it was already pretty warm. Eli was kind (as was dog lady who didn't get up at the crack of dawn) and slept until 7:15 a.m. - which was so nice since I had been sick in the night and didn't sleep very well. This morning I felt a little better, so I looked at the comments from yesterday's post and made a shopping list with all of the suggested foods. Thanks for your help! It was so nice to go to the store and have some new ideas rather than walking around aimlessly, hoping for a safe food to jump out at me. I now feel better equipped to combat the nausea.

After the store, Eli and I met up with our playgroup at the beach. I think Eli and I were the whitest/palest ones there - his belly is bright!

This is a portion of the group that came this morning. It was fun to be there with everyone!

Eli kept his hat on for the first half of our time there.

He LOVED the texture and colors of this towel (that wasn't ours, but a friend's at least) and did a sheep rug re-enactment, rolling around on it :)

A bunch of the older kids were building this big sand tower/castle, but the little ones kept them busy by climbing on it instead. I think Eli had a blast with the other kids! I'm glad I felt well enough to go - I spent a good chunk of time sitting in the shallow water, trying to stay cool. It really helps to get out and be around other people and keeps my mind off of not feeling well.

The Queasiness Comes and Goes...

We had Thai food and gelato last night - I guess not the best combo for me right now because I woke up feeling SO nauseous. I went back to bed as soon as Eli went down for his morning nap and slept for two hours. I woke up SO hot though because outside it's high 80s and humid today, so my place felt very WARM. (or in my extreme state today, I was roasting) I felt better thankfully after taking a cool shower and going to an air conditioned place with Eli when he woke up.

Now I'm back in my warm condo (I ran the a/c unit on turbo while we were gone to hopefully cool things off - but now it's off since Eli's sleeping and his door is closed where the a/c is) and I am feeling queasy again. The heat doesn't seem to agree with me right now either.

I thought the queasiness would be gone soon?? But it seems like it's been worse in the last few weeks. Let me know if you have foods that have helped curb your morning sickness, because everything I try (crackers, fruit, ginger ale, sprite, bread) does not agree with me. But not eating isn't great either.

Winding Down at the Park

Today our outside temperature reached 70 degrees -
for the first time in 6 MONTHS. No Joke.

Those of you in California, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania can all feel happy that you've already enjoyed some warm sunshine this spring. Those of us in Chicago, IL are finally joining you.

We celebrated by going to the park around dinnertime.

It was pretty windy, but we didn't care.

Eli wasn't sure about the wood chips.
And he kept staring at the bigger kids running around the playground.
Eli was pretty mellow by the time we walked back home.

I put Eli to bed at 7 and Ben left to play soccer with some friends. I have an article due tonight that I still need to finish up! But I'm determined to go to bed earlier tonight...