Catch Up

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything. Over a month.... Whoops! Well, as you can guess, a lot has happened in the last month - the biggest being Eli's birthday. We had lots of family and friends help us celebrate and it was a lot of fun. Eli was only slightly overwhelmed at everyone staring at him while he ate his cupcake (or poked at it) and opened his presents (or watched me open his presents while he played with tissue paper:). But it was a great day and we're so thankful to have so many people care for our little boy.

We also had a fence built in the back yard in March and we are LOVING it. No longer do we have to take Zoe out on her leash. We can just open the back door and let her out. We're also able to play fetch with her in the back yard while pushing Eli in his swing. Both Zoe and Eli are thoroughly enjoying that. So that was sort of a big deal around our house.

Eli's no longer crawling at all really. He's a full-blown (dare I say?) toddler. *sigh* How did this happen? In spite of the sadness at no longer having a "baby," we're both so excited to watch how Eli grows and develops on a daily basis. He seems to understand more and more of what we say. And he is constantly babbling. No truly identifiable words are repeated. But he's said "mamama" and "dadada" on a regular basis for a while. He's also stuck on "baba" right now, which turns out sounding like a combination of "baby" and "bye bye". So, we'll see when he decides to really start talking. It's a process. And it's so hard to focus on that when he's got so much exploring to do!

Eli also had his first x-ray last week :( He got his finger smashed in a door at daycare on Friday afternoon, so we had to take him to urgent care to make sure it wasn't broken. After a long couple hours, they told us it wasn't brokren - thank God. But it still looked terrible all weekend and into this week. Unfortunately, I think his poor nail is infected. So the whole process isn't really over yet. But we're just thankful it wasn't worse. It's a really heavy metal, outside door that it got shut in. So it definitely could've been worse.

Well I think that's about it for now. I'll make more of an effort in the coming weeks to be better about posting. I know all 5 of my readers are impatient to hear more of our exciting life :P

Busy Little Weekend

We're so excited that the weather's finally getting nice again. Poor Zoe has been feeling really neglected since we hadn't been giving her too many walks in the cold weather. But yesterday we finally went on our first family walk of the season. It was so lovely to reacquaint ourselves with the neighborhood. See what people have done to their houses and yards in the past few months (the ones that aren't on our normal driving route). Eli was pretty curious too, taking in all the sights and sounds that he hadn't experienced in about 5 months - and I'm sure didn't remember. And then when we got home Aaron was VERY excited to fire up the grill for the first time this year and make us some hamburgers. Eli stood against the door the whole time, looking out at Zoe and laughing hysterically. So I'd say it was a good day, all in all.

My wonderful husband also finished hanging a bunch of pictures last night while I watched the Oscars (that he had no interest in). And we also got a bunch of laundry and errands accomplished over the weekend as well. Add to it that we hung out with some friends and played poker Saturday night - and I won! And we had quite a nice little weekend. Let's pray that the nice weather sticks around bc we're tired of this yucky winter stuff! Let us get outside and get some fresh air!

To quote my nephew, "Oh dear...."

Pretty grainy, but you get the idea. We're super excited but terribly frightened all at the same time. I hear that's sort of what parenting is all about.... :P

Trouble....

Eli took his first step last Thursday. He won't be a "walker" for a little while yet. But I have a feeling we're in for it now!

Oh, and I couldn't figure out how to get this video right-side up, but I thought it was funny enough to put on sideways :) The Hazeltons gave Eli this monkey as a Valentine's Day gift and he was scared of it at first. He'd hold on to one of us while watching from a distance- lol. But he's obviously warmed up to it now since "dances" to it every time we turn it on.

Random

Just a little life update for the past couple weeks. As always, the Eli update- he's got four teeth now and is getting more. And he now pulls up and "cruises" around objects. He's also discovered that he likes climbing the stairs.... I obviously keep a close enough eye on him that he doesn't get past the first step without me being there. But I let him climb, out of curiosity, to see how far he could go. And the little booger climbed clear to the landing (I nearly died). So the babygate investment is priority #1 at this point in time. Before I was just worried about the stairs going down to the basement. Not anymore!

I've been working quite a bit lately, as a pregnant co-worker was put on bedrest. But I don't mind too much. It's nice to have the extra money and Eli still loves the center. So it's not too bad.

I'm looking forward to getting to see my friends this weekend when Kara comes into town! Poor Aaron is going to be overrun by females, with 5 girls staying the night Friday. And I sort of forgot to tell him until last weekend.... :) He'll survive though. Eli might not ever be put down, but Aaron should be fine ;)

I haven't posted any pictures of Eli for a while, so I thought I'd include one. He grows so fast these days that it's hard to remember to keep a current one on here.

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....