It has been a year!

Well, today deserves a post! Elijah turns 1! I will post pics of our trip to the Zoo for the special occasion later!

5 Reasons I love Elijah
1. He is my son!
2. Oh my goodness....his laugh so cute!
3. And those curls!
4. He looks like his daddy (I think think his daddy is pretty cute!)
5. Cuddling is one of this favorite hobbies!

Eli First Hair cut!

Ok, so this really did happen back at the beginning of April. But as my faithful (as faithful as you can be) blog readers know, I have not been very consistent with the whole bloging thing! So with out delaying any more, let me tell what I remember about Eli first hair cut!
I was disappointed to learn, when I moved away from Chicago, that not every corner of this country has a Cookie Cutters or a kids friendly hair place. Cookie Cutters is awesome! The often have a big slide kids can play on while they wait, cool chairs to sit in and TV to watch to help keep them still and occupied while getting their hair cuts. And since Alex started getting is hair cut at 3 months, someplace like this was wonderful for him! He enjoys getting his hair cut! But here in small town USA, no such place. But 20 mins away, in the big city, there is a Cookie Cutters! So, on a Thursday morning, we quickly ate breakfast and packed the kids up and off we went to get hair cuts!

Here is Eli before! Such a sweet face!

I love that my boys enjoy getting their hair cut!

He enjoyed watching some Diego also! No tears with no morning nap!

Here he is, looking ohhh so cute!

Here is Alex after his hair cut. He was loving the slide and was very sad when we had to leave.

We may not be making that trip again anytime soon. I may just have to find some place a little more local and not a kid friendly, but I am sure that will do a fine job. If we find ourselves in the big city again and the kids need a hair cut....maybe will will stop in!

Our mornings!

So have you ever wondered how Alex and I spend our time in the mornings while Eli takes his morning nap. You are about to find out (if you have not wondered, you can just skip with post!) Alex often desires a mid morning snack so we often find ourselves at the kitchen table eating a snack. Well, on this fine morning, I was skimming through the paper and I let Alex pick out a section to read also. And if you look closely you can see what section he chose! Dave would be proud, he wanted the sport section!! He went through several sections of the paper (not a long attention span!) He was so cute and I was lucky enough that my camera was close by! He is so much fun to hang out with on those lazy pajama mornings!

Here is a picture of Eli waking up that morning in his room. For those who have not heard, we turned our two bedroom apartment into a three bedroom apartment by making our closest Eli's room! Notice my shoes on the floor. I gave Eli my space in the closet. So I had to find someplace else for my clothes that was hanging in the closet. I have not found a new home for my shoes! His first night in this room was his first night he slept through the night!!!

Easter

Oh my! So much time has pasted since I posted last, I do not know where to begin. I think the Grandparents would love to see Easter pics, so I will start there!

It was a wonderful Easter! Our Church had 3 services that morning, so Dave had to get up early to get everything ready. The boys and I did not get up till later. We went to the last service. With the boys still so little, we are not always at church all morning. I still like it when Eli gets to nap in his own bed!

I love this picture. I made Alex a Easter Basket (thanks mom for the bucket, I never got out to buy a basket) and he was not interested in sharing it with Eli. Eli was not even allowed to touch it. I wanted a cute picture of the two of them with the bucket in the middle. I arranged the contents very carefully so you could see what was inside. But as you can see, I did not get my picture! But that is a price expression on Eli's face!

After church, we headed over to Marysville to eat lunch with the Family. It was wonderful to live close to family again! And Alex always enjoys going to Jonathon's house to play. In the evening, we eat dinner with our house family. Our landlords (who live in the apartment behind us) invited us to eat with them! So we had two Easter dinners and some great company! Gone are the days of having no one to celebrate holidays with and we love it!

On the Eli front, ohhh the things he is getting himself into. Cabinets, trash,baskets and Alex's toys!
Do not worry overanxious mothers out there! As soon as I took this picture, I quickly put the camera down and then put Eli on the floor. He is no longer safe on furniture for any amount of time! We actually caught this little man crawling a couple times yesterday. He would get about three or four knee steps and then fall on this tummy. Amazing, he is getting so big! He also has figure out how to roll from his tummy to his back (yes, both of my son's have been late rollers!). But has yet to figure out how to roll back to this tummy. This is an important step to learn for a tummy sleeper! We have had some bad nights and nap times these last few days. At the rate he is learning things, this will hopefully not last long!

I hope to get around to post some more things later!

Music to our ears!

Da-Da-Da. That is what this cute little boy says now. We heard it the first time Tuesday morning and he has not stopped since. He loves practicing his D's! If he keeps this up, he may catch up with his brother. Since Alex was delayed in many areas, when Eli reachs a milestone on time we think it is amazing. He must be advanced!!

Someone is paying attention

So nightly after Alex brushes his teeth and we put his tooth brush away and then go through the contents of the cabinet and name everything. The other night Alex was a little confused that there was a shelf empty, so he quickly put his tooth brush away, closes the cabinet and turns off the lights. I then asked him to put his stool away but instead he stood outside the door telling me something. Though Alex is saying more words everyday, he will still babble when he has a lot to say. I asked few questions trying to figure out what he was saying and I was totally getting it wrong. So I tried"go get it" (hoping that he was telling me about something he wanted), and he takes off to my room. I follow him into the room and see him run over to Dave's toiletry bag and he picks it up and takes it back to the bathroom. He opens it up and takes out the contents that belong on the empty shelf. He then puts it all away in the cabinet, puts his stool away, takes the toiletry bag back to the room and off to bed he goes.

What did I learn from this experience
1) Alex pays attention to detail
2) He likes things in their place

Who's child is this? Not mine! Who knew I could have a child who is into details and likes things a certain way!

Out of my kitchen

My son loves my banana bread and I love it because I can make it Alex friendly and it uses up the ripe bananas in my freezer. I am including a picture of my most recent loaf for all to enjoy! I even had fun taking the picture. It has been a long time since I have played with my camera! The reason I am posting about his is because I am a little excited about this loaf. Not only did I make it Alex friendly but it is also a little healthy! I am not saying that it is healthy...just healthier. Therefore you do not feel so bad when you eat 1/2 the loaf in one sitting. So what did I do differently? I replaced 1/2 the AP Flour with whole wheat flour, oil with applesauce and added little more banana to make up for only putting in the egg white. It is a little denser then usual (I think because I did not use oil) but the taste is the same! And the important part is Alex loves it as you can tell from the pic!

Brotherly bonding

Alex loves to watch videos on Dave's computer. So often before bed Alex will watch a video and this night Eli joined him! How cute!

This is for my mom!

So the story goes.....when I was a baby, I loved my pacifier upside down! My mom would put it in the correct way and I would turn in upside down! Apparently it runs in the family.

This is a new milestone in Eli life. He can now find his pacifier and put it back in his mouth and sometimes it is upside down. Sometimes I find it upside down when Alex puts it back in his mouth. I loves to be helpful!

The six months mark!

My Elijah is now 6 months old. I was hoping to do this post on the acutal 6 month mark (Jan 8th) but then life happened! So let us recap what Elijah has accomplished in the first 6 months of his life....

1. He cried for the first 3 months and smiled for the second 3 months
2. The boy grabs everything in sight. The other day I was trying to drink something while holding him....he apparently wanted some also! Needless to say, I was wearing some of my drink by the time the drink of done!
3. He ate 3x each night...2x each night...and now 1x each night. We are getting there!
4. He moved from Illinois to Ohio
5. Elijah found his brother and loves to laugh at him.
6. SOLIDS.....loves it!
7. Can ride in a car without crying.
8. He can sit up for a few seconds before falling over.
9. While on his back, he can turn himself 360. (He is following his brother footsteps and has not rolled over!)
7. The #1 thing he has accomplish in the first first six months is staining every single onies he owns!

I am closing this post with pics of my boys at six months! They are not twins anymore!!

It starts with a small step

I would not say that this is a New Year's Resolution because I have been trying to do this for awhile. But I have decided to share it with you! Two things I have been trying to improve upon in my life is eating healthier and being more green. Two things that I think are important to do as I think about what God has given me and what I am responsible for in the life.

Before I was pregnant with Alex, I considered myself a fairly healthy person. Then I became pregnant and I was all about fat and calories!!! The more the merrier! And who wants to exercise for two? Not me! So here I am two kids later and deep in bad habits! For those who have interacted with me for the last two years know that try to stay away from High Fructose Corn Syrup (evil stuff!). That was my small step to get healthy after Alex was born. To my credit, two years later I still away from it. Now my I am adding whole wheat flour to everything I bake! I substittute half of the AP Flour for WW Flour. I made chocolate cookies the other week this way and I could not tell the difference! This week I made corn bread this way. It did taste a little different but I like the difference. I just feel better about giving it to my family!

So what am I doing to be greener??? One, I do not go anywhere! But that is really not because I want to be greener, just a part of life of being a mother of two! When you kids naps twice a day, it does not give you much time to get out! I am not using as much gas and less pollulents in the air! So that is a side benift and helps me feel better when I feel like a trapped animal! What I AM trying to do is reduce my "disposibles" in my kitchen. You know, your paper plates, paper napkins, plastic cups, paper towels, plastic zip lock bags. I would not say that I am going to elimate them (for sometimes you just need convince) but I do need to reduce my use of them. I was getting in the habit of putting most of my left overs in zip lock bags instead of using storage containiers and that is something I need to stop doing.

So there it is...the next two steps I am making in my life and I hope they become a good habit that cancels out some of my bad habits! For I am positive that there bad habits that I will alwasy cling to!!

I am adding a picture of Eli just because you sometimes just need a dose of baby to brighten you day!

Yum-0! Single grain cereal.

Eli got solids for the first time this week. He likes it better then Alex did. We got tears from him. Dave captured the moment with pics. Enjoy!