Merry Christmas and Then Some

We've had a very eventful week in the Anderson house. Like everyone else, Christmas obviously brings travel and family time. But we've had a bunch of other stuff going on too.

The week started off with Eli pulling up for the first time on Tuesday. We were home together and he did it several times throughout the day. So now we get to move things even further out of his reach. Then Wednesday, he cut his first tooth. It's pretty funny because usually babies get their front teeth first. But not Eli. His is on top and on the left side of his front tooth. You can't see it at all unless you pull up his lip, so he doesn't look funny. But we still like to joke about it and call him White Fang :) His top and bottom two feel like they should come in any time, so hopefully he's not the one-toothed wonder for long!

We also got some pretty sad news on Wednesday. My old church's pastor, John Hastings, passed away. He was a wonderful man and a very gifted minister. He was my minister for about 10 years and also married Aaron and I. A lot of what I know about my faith I learned from his sermons. Our close-knit congregation will miss him very much. As will his dear wife, Millie. Please pray for his family and church during this tough time.

Thursday was spent with Aaron's family. We had way too much food and fun. Aaron's baby pictures were brought out and there is no question who Eli looks like! Aaron might've been slightly bigger, but they still look SO similar. We had a great day together, and he only got slightly spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Anderson :)

Christmas morning brought more snow and even more excitement. Before our drive to my parents even began, we had to push our car out of the gas station in De Soto because we got stuck in the snow. Then, after driving two and a half hours to my parents, we thought we were in the clear. But with only a mile and a half to go, we came to a stop. Luckily, we didn't actually get stuck, but the car in front of us did. And we couldn't get around the car, due to the large snowdrifts. So we had to wait for them to get pulled out. Unfortunately they couldn't get out until my aunt and cousin were pulled out of another drift about a half mile down the road. So.... about 15-20 minutes later (while I'm sitting in the backseat in between Zoe and the carseat- holding Eli), they got the car pulled out. We made it through that drift okay, but then had to drive through the field to avoid the drift my aunt and cousin got stuck in. Needless to say, it wasn't your typical Christmas morning.

Overall it was a good week. There were definitely ups and downs to it. But the holidays always remind me to count my blessings. I have so much to be thankful for: my family and friends- especially my wonderful husband and son, our health and happiness, financial stability (even though it's not a lot, at least we have jobs!), and even my sometimes-annoying dog Zoe :) The list goes on and on. So a belated Merry Christmas everyone! Try to remind yourselves what you have to be thankful for too. And be safe if you're traveling!

First snow!

I've been trying to keep the camera handy lately since it's Eli's first holiday season. And today provided an excellent reason to take some pictures. We got our first real snow. And even though the high for the day was only 11 degrees, I was determined to go outside for just a few minutes and take some pictures of him with the snow. I uploaded them all to my facebook, along with some others that we've taken in the last week. Enjoy!

Here's the link. Hopefully it works....

The Day Finally Came

I officially have a crawler! Eli no longer occasionally crawls a couple steps forward. He's figured out how to full-blown crawl, all the way across the room. I can't decide if I'm more proud/excited or scared. I think I'm leaning towards scared, though, since life as I know it has changed forever. No longer can I set him down and walk away expecting him to be in the same place when I come back. Time to get the baby gates out and seriously child-proof the house.....

Catch Up

Ok, so it's been way too long since I've posted anything. In my defense, we've been crazy busy and Eli and I have both been sick the last week. But I'll try to catch up on all the big goings-on lately since I know my 4 followers are dying to know :)

Eli crawled for the first time last Thursday (11/5) and sat himself up from the crawling position the very next day down at Grandma's house. He hasn't really replicated either action more than once or twice since then. But is more active all the time and continues to test his capabilities.

I started working for a local daycare last week (again why I've been so busy). It was definitely time for me to find something part time and this was ideal for what I've been looking for. I work 3-6 in Eli's classroom and have the option to sub for other teachers when they're sick. So it allows me to have a normal morning/early afternoon with Eli like always and then go in later in the day. Plus I don't have to worry about paying my whole paycheck in daycare for Eli since it's free for him. The only downside is that the subbing days are very sporadic and can be last minute. Like when I went in last week expecting to work 3-6 all week and ended up working 9-6 Tuesday-Thursday. Needless to say, Eli and I were a bit worn out and weren't really eased into the idea of working/being at daycare very slowly. Also probably why we both got sick.

In the midst of all this chaos, we trekked down to my parents' last weekend for my friend Sumre's wedding. We headed down Friday morning to help set up the reception hall and stayed through Sunday. The wedding and day were beautiful. And Sumre, of course, looked gorgeous. We had a great time with all our friends. And both sets of our parents were also invited to the wedding. So Eli got spoiled by all his grandparents in one day. I didn't think I was going to be able to wrestle him away at the reception! :)

As I said, Eli and I have both been sick the past week. Eli was diagnosed with Roseolla and I apparently just have some sort of viral infection. But it's kept both of us pretty tired and coughing lots since last weekend. We're definitely ready to get better! I was up coughing from 1-2 last night and I heard Eli waking himself several times as well. It's times like these that I'm so glad he puts himself back to sleep instead of relying on us to put him to sleep every time he wakes up!

On top of all this craziness, we have the regular every-day stuff to look forward to. Aaron decided this week was the right time to rearrange our garage?? We have friends moving this weekend, and others having an engagement party (that we can't go to since we're sick). And all sorts of other things to contend with. But, so is life. Sometimes you just have those weeks that you feel like you're surviving, rather than enjoying or living. But hopefully we'll get all better and have a wonderful upcoming holiday with family and friends!

Just Another Day and Week

Nothing too exciting or noteworthy has been going on with us lately. Just the everyday stuff that keeps us busy. Eli's still not crawling, but he's sure trying. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Or he'll inch forward with a leg, only to nosedive because he can't seem to figure out how to move his arms forward. :) And it's like he knows there's something more that he should be able to do, but he just can't get it. So he gets frustrated sometimes and fusses. I'm really hoping that's not a sign of what's to come! Because I have no idea where he would get that from- frustration from not being able to pick up something new immediately.... I'm sure it's only a matter of time, though, now!

We're looking at a relatively busy week/weekend coming up. Thursday Aaron and I are taking Eli to Scott Hazelton's middle school football game in Lyndon. We promised we'd go to at least one game of his, and this is the last of the season. So hopefully the weather is nice since we can't go to a different one instead! Aaron wants to try and stain our deck this weekend and may take Friday off to be sure to get it done this weekend. Saturday is the De Soto citywide garage sale. So we're trying to figure out if we want to try and have a sale ourselves, or just visit some of the neighboring ones. This weekend is also Maple Leaf in Baldwin, so I'd like to head over to that at some point in time. And then Sunday is our little cousins'-- Cooper and Jackson-- birthday party at Deanna Rose Farmstead. So we're in for a full weekend! We're really looking forward to the birthday party, so we can see family that we don't often see. Plus, it's supposed to be in the 60's that day, so it should be a great day to be outside!

Happy Boy

Eli laughs at the funniest things. And last week Aaron was playing with him on the floor, and he started making a funny sound at him (like all people do with babies:). For some strange reason, Eli thought it was hysterical! Aaron tried to make him laugh with the same noise the next day and a couple days later, and he's not at all amused by it now. So I'm glad that I grabbed the camera and videotaped it the first time! Also note Zoe looming in the background, trying to figure out what's going on. This is because ANY time I get the camera out, she looks for the flash. So it's sort of impossible to take any pictures of Eli without Zoe around. I'm serious. If I turn on the camera, it makes the slightest little humming noise when the lense extends- and she can hear it from upstairs and comes running. Anyway, here's the little monster laughing at Aaron's silly noise. Enjoy :)

Half Birthday

Eli is 6 months old today! He shares his half birthday with his Grandma Anita :) I can hardly believe it's been half a year since he's come into our lives. Sometimes it seems like he was just born yesterday and other times it seems like he's been here for years! The past couple of days he's starting sitting up for extended periods of time on his own. And he's also been able to stay crouched in the crawling position (whereas before he would just immediately fall back down when I would try to prop him up). And I've also started putting the cutest little shoes on him (due to the fact that it's been cooler and he always takes his socks off:). So our little boy is already growing and learning so many things. And if we're lucky, he'll continue to scare me to death with how much he can do....

Friends

Eli and our dog, Zoe, are great friends. Zoe lays down on the floor next to us and tries to lick Eli while we're playing. Eli pulls her fur whenever he gets a chance. It's a good thing they've got going on. Today I managed to catch some of their "playtime" on camera. For those of you who don't know my dog personally, she's what you might call "special". :) She's such a lover of everyone, but she's learned to entertain herself by now. And when the sunlight makes reflections on things (anything from the tag on her collar to a mirror) she chases it. And it just so happens that one of Eli's toys on his bouncer has a mirror on it. The end result is what you can see below. Eli was obviously loving every minute of it. Then again, he also entertains himself fairly well and probably would've been doing the exact same thing even if Zoe wasn't there......

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

There are some people whose daily lives are not affected by the weather. People who work in offices, schools, hospitals (or anywhere inside) or gorophobes... However, there are also those of us whose moods and daily routines are greatly dependent upon the weather. While my day isn't as drastically affected as a farmer's, I'm definitely guilty of being happier when it's sunny and gloomier when it's rainy. That being said, it rained for most of the day today. But I didn't let it get me down! I watched the weather early this morning and saw that the rain wasn't supposed to move in until 9. So Eli, Zoe, and I went on our walk at 8 and we had a wonderful time. Eli has started sitting in his stroller without the carseat, like a real big boy! It was his first time being able to actually see what we're walking towards and he seemed to really like looking around at everything. So that was a nice start to the day.

And then later on, I just got lots of stuff done around the house so that it wasn't too depressing that we couldn't go outside. I played a lot with Eli too. He's getting to be more and more fun to play with since he smiles and laughs so much. He's also developing funny new facial expressions that I can't even begin to describe. Well, I take that back. His latest sort of looks like an old man without his dentures. Sort of a smile but with his lips pressed together in a straight line. It's hilarious :)

Fun Times

My past week has been pretty busy and fun. It started off last Thursday with Aaron and I going to see Chicago at Starlight. We had a really good time and it was a good show. Aaron didn't like it quite as much as last year's show we went to. But Fiddler on the Roof was a really good show. And Chicago had NO set or costume changes. So it took a little more to keep you interested in some of the longer songs. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson got to watch Eli for the night and he had his first sleepover without mom or dad. I can't say I wasn't a little upset by this... :) I obviously trust Richard and Anita implicitly. It was just sad to not have my baby there when I woke up Friday morning! We were at their house by 8:00 the next morning to get him. And he didn't seem to have suffered any major damage ;)

Then the weekend was also eventful. I went home for my friend, Sumre's, bachelorette party that I was hosting. We all had such a good time and I was in desperate need of a girls weekend. Unfortunately, the pool day was less than sunny and it rained for a good portion of it. But we still had a good time hanging out. I'm just glad the sun came out for a little bit! That night we went out for a nice dinner and then to the local bar there in town. It was pretty low-key, but lots of fun!

Aaron took care of Eli at home in De Soto and said everything went fine. I think he was pretty ready for a break by the time I got home Sunday afternoon, though. And I was definitely ready to see my baby!

Overall, a very fun week/weekend. But it's nice getting back to the daily routine of being home with Eli and Aaron.

Pictures

After trying a couple different times to figure out how to add a whole album of pictures (and obviously failing), I'm going to try a different route. I think anyone can view this facebook album by following this link. Since I update my fb profile pretty often, I figured it would just be easier this way. So anyway, here are the latest Eli pics. Enjoy!

Click here to view the album.

Catching Up

I was reading one of my parenting books and it specifically says that eating cereal does not make your child sleep through the night. But I would really like to write the author and tell them that my child had rice cereal for the first time last Sunday, and it was also the first time he slept through the night. Incidentally, he's also had cereal every night since then and he's also slept through the night every night as well. Correlation perhaps? I don't believe it to be a coincidence... Obviously, Monday was a big day in the Anderson house. Waking up at 6:30, not in the middle of the night, was glorious. Well worth the trouble of scraping each bite of cereal off of Eli's face and putting it back in mouth about five times. But since then, he's really started eating better- opening his mouth and swallowing and everything! I'm just so surprised that my son is a successful eater. Oh wait.... I think he may come by that honestly :)

Other random tidbits and things that have happened lately:

~Saw the new Harry Potter movie. I was very excited that Ali came up to see it with me and it was probably the best Harry Potter yet. I had just reread the book previous to seeing the movie. So I obviously knew a lot was left out. But overall it was good. I just wish they wouldn't have added in a whole new scene that wasn't in the book. If you don't have time to include everything in the book, why add new stuff???

~I recently read The Count of Monte Cristo. I'd been wanting to for quite a while. And since it's one of my favorite movies, I had high expectations for the book. However, I think that for the first time ever, I prefer the movie to the book. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book. I just thought the movie's ending was better than the book's. Quite surprising.

~Aaron and I are going to play in a co-ed softball league that starts this Sunday. I'm pretty sure we're going to be terrible. But it's more for the socialization. So it should be fun.

There's No Place Like Home.... Except Colorado

Eli and I have successfully survived our first "vacation." I use that term loosely bc although it was technically a vacation, Nebraska and Colorado wouldn't necessarily be my dream vacation. Fun places to visit, but I'd maybe opt for the Caribbean.... Anyhow, we went with my parents to visit both of my brothers. Neither of them had met Eli yet, and my parents try to make the trip once a year or so. And they invited us, so I figured we'd tag along. I mean, hey- who wouldn't want to take a 4-month old on a 14 hour car ride? :)

To summarize the entire week would take a whole lot of typing. So I'll just hit some of the highlights.

-Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes were so much fun, as always. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I've been there. It's always different from previous visits. This time we saw lots of elk, a couple caribou (or so my dad claims they were. I could only see the antlers), and one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen. It was a double rainbow that you could see in its entirety (see photo above). It truly was a once in a lifetime experience that more than made up for the rain we had to endure earlier in the day. I only wish the picture would do it more justice.

-Eli did great in the car. He didn't really fuss at all until we hit McPherson on the way home. I think by that point in time, he was pretty sure he was tired of his carseat. And I couldn't really blame him. I was very tired of being in the car myself.

-It was great seeing family and getting to spend time w/ my brothers who I rarely see anymore.

-The weather in Colorado was BEAUTIFUL and really made me miss living there. 70's with a nice breeze was wonderful! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see any of my old friends from Denver bc we only drove through it on our way back. And it was at 10:30 in the morning on Wednesday. Not the most ideal of times to meet up with people.

-My baby niece, Brooke, is absolutely adorable. She has such a fun little personality and is seriously cute. Her "monster face" made me laugh every time and really made me look forward to when Eli is 9 months and doing more fun things.

-I braved driving while in the park while it was pouring down rain. Normally I don't mind driving in the mountains, but I really don't enjoy driving in the rain. But seeing as how my mom doesn't even like riding in the car at high elevations and my dad was riding w/ my brother, it was either me or Eli. I thought I might be the safer bet :) Anyhow, it went fine and we didn't fall off any cliffs. Even if my mom thought we were going to. Her job was to sit in the back and entertain Eli. But since he slept for the majority of the day, I'm not too sure that she didn't get the better end of that deal....

But even though I we had a great time, I was definitely ready to be home. It wasn't really difficult w/ Eli. He really was good. Just a change in his normal schedule, which any parent can appreciate. And I was ready for him to sleep in his own crib and me in my own bed. Plus, we may have missed Aaron a little. I know he was ready for us to be home. He claims that Eli put on several pounds while we were gone. And while that is most definitely an exaggeration, he is quite a bit "huskier" than b
efore we left. His little legs are starting to get pudgy!

Long Weekend

Well it was back to the daily grind for Aaron today and back to normal for Eli and me. Luckily, Aaron had Friday off so we had a three day weekend today first. Got lots of stuff done around the house on Friday- all the normal weekend chores, grocery shopping and whatnot. That way we could come back from my parents' on Sunday and just relax. Turns out, it was a great plan. Bc we were both exhausted by the time we got home!

We drove down to my parents' early Saturday and spent the day at my grandparents' pool. Saw lots of family and friends and really had a good time. The only bad part was that Eli didn't really feel like taking a nap for a majority of the day while we were there. Turns out 3-month olds aren't really fun to be around when they haven't napped all day. Who knew? I was so looking forward to playing in the pool with him too. But he was NOT having any of that. Aaron tried to put him in and he just screamed the whole time. Thankfully, Grandma Sherry was nice enough to take care of him for quite a while so I could relax by the pool while Sumre, Amanda, Ali and Ross were there. Thank God for Grandmas!

Unlike Saturday, Eli did great on Sunday. We got up early and went to church and lunch. And he blabbered a little during communion. But no real crying! He was, of course, kidnapped for a while by the Hazeltons. I pretty much plan on never having him for an entire service while I'm at my church at home. But that's fine by me. That's what church family is for :)

Also, I forgot to report last week that Eli and officially rolled over. He went from his stomach to his back last Monday. And today he rolled from his back to his stomach. Both of these were fairly accidental and have yet to be repeated. But at least he's strong enough to accomplish it once! I'm a little scared for when he's able to do it at will..... That's all for now. Not much planned for the week. But the weekend will be interesting since I'm hitting the road w/ my parents to visit my brothers. Please pray for us as we'll be traveling MANY hours in the car w/ Eli.

Chatterbox

Eli has started talking more and more lately. Lots of fun when we're at home and can talk back and forth. Not so much fun when we're in Old Navy and people are staring.... :) Anyhow, I caught a little bit of it on camera late last week. This is just a short clip of what he tends to do for upwards of 5-10 minutes. He especially likes to talk to himself while we're in the car too for some strange reason. Who knows why.





Not too much else going on. We had a good weekend. Saw some of Aaron's family on Saturday, which was fun. Having 4 little boys under the age of three in one house was pretty entertaining. I acted as a gas station attendant and tower builder for the little guys while they were riding their tricycles and it was a lot of fun. I forgot how much I miss being around kids that age. I'm thinking that family functions will probably get more and more rowdy as the years go on and we have all these little boys running around :) Something to look forward to for sure.

Father's Son

I knew there was really no hope of my child being normal. While Aaron and I do our best to appear as much, we're hopelessly odd when no one else is around (and sometimes when other people are around:). Anyhow, it's now been confirmed that Eli is doomed to be just as weird. Because over the weekend I found the one thing that calms him no matter how worked up he is. Anyone want to venture a guess??? Anyone? Well, let me tell you what my odd little duck likes. It's the vacuum. Yes, I said the vacuum cleaner.

I accidentally found this out when I put him in his swing on Saturday. He sort of needed a nap, but was being fussy. So I figured if he wasn't going to nap anyway, I'd just get my vacuuming done (thank you Zoe for all the hair on our floor). And once the vacuum was turned on, he IMMEDIATELY stopped fussing. I'm talking instantaneously calm. I finished vacuuming the living room and turned off the vacuum and the response? Whhhaaaaa! So I turned it back on and vacuumed the "dining room". Thankfully by the time I finished with that, he'd fallen asleep. But seriously, who likes the vacuum? It could only be the son of my OCD husband who vacuums constantly. I think it made Aaron love him even more, if that's possible. Bc it means Eli's just as quirky AND I now vacuum every day. *sigh* My husband and son are so strange.

If this is what June feels like.....

It is SERIOUSLY hot outside. I know that bank clocks are rarely accurate. But when I just drove past the bank, it said 104!!! And it was at 8:00 at night! If this is what the second day of summer feels like, I'm very scared to see what the next couple months have in store for us. I don't really want to be shut up inside all summer! But who takes a 3-month old outside when it's this hot out???

On a separate note, the latest baby update is that Eli is frighteningly active. I'm afraid he's going to be crawling sooner than we'd like- which very scary. He's pushing himself onto his knees during tummy time and trying his hardest to scoot. I think he's going to give us a run for our money..... He also "talks" to us more and more each day, making funny noises just to hear himself. It makes me smile every time, especially when he and Aaron have conversations with one another :) He's also sleeping in his crib instead of his bassinet in our room. Not through the night yet, but that's our next main goal. Slowly but surely.

Do-Over

So, it's been over two years now since I've entered the lovely world of blogging. Consequently, I can't even remember my old gmail address and/or username and password I used to use for my blog I started when we lived in Colorado. :) As a result, I've decided to just start a new one altogether. I'm sure I could just ask my mom or another friend or family member for my old blog address, but I'm bored and feel like doing it now- at 11:00 on a Saturday night. So we're just going to get a fresh start and this time I'm sure my blog will be filled with pictures of my son instead of my puppy. Funny how life changes on you...

But from here on out, I'm sure I'll post lots of random stuff, including baby pics. I figure it's an easy way for people who aren't on facebook to keep up with my life. So stay tuned as I begin to personalize the page and add things while Eli is napping or Aaron and Eli have both gone to bed and I'm getting some much-needed "me time."