18 months

Eli on his first day of nursery. He did pretty well. He can say his teacher's name (Sister Wooden) and he is doing well with folding his arms and doing the motions to "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock." He needs to work on sitting still and sharing though.


Running with Emmy and Mazee at the splash pad. He loves them! One of our favorite things he does is his own version of pat-a-cake. He pats it a a little, then he rolls it a lot, then he throws it in for "Emmy and me! and Mazee." I think he thought the "and me" part said Emmy, so now he just made up his own version (so that he and Mazee get cake too I guess).



One day I found him reading to himself, very sweet.

He decided to put my mesh grocery bag on his head like a hat and then ride his hippo.

Just wanted to post a few pics and comments about Eli as an 18-month old. The pics tell a lot, but there is one other story I wanted to tell to demonstrate his gift of gab. The other day, in the waiting room at the doctor, he went up to a random stranger and asked her, "How are you?" She said, "Fine, how are you?" So he replied, "Great." We had been working on that convo lately, but it cracked me up.

Baseball & Scarey Food

Last week we went to the Driller's game because my brother David and his buddies were doing the mascot race. It was a nice evening and we were all having fun until my brother and his friends came out dressed like a hot dog, a taquito, and an egg roll. Derek and I were taking pics, so my Dad had Eli. We were in the stands, but as soon as Eli saw them he freaked out. He was telling Dad, "No, no, don't like it. Bye bye bye bye, home." He was appearently terrified of the overgrown food. We went to see David when they were done and even though Dad kept Eli at a safe distance he was very worried about Mommy, Dadders, and Grandma getting to close. David took off his taquito suit, but Eli was still leary. That night he woke up a lot, I guess with nightmares and since then he will randomly say, "Hot gog, scare me." I guess this does not bode well for any future Disney trips or anything. Poor little guy.

Summer Happenings

 

We've been going to the lake quite a bit. Eli loves watching his Dad on the "b-board."

For 4th of July, we had a few people over for a BBQ. Eli played basketball with Jesse and football with his uncles before watching the fireworks. The fireworks we watched were awesome and Eli loved them!


We've also done lots of swimming and splashing at home and with friends.

Last , but not least, we hang out at home. One day we fed breakfast to the stuffed animals and then Eli decided to walk around the house in his play shoes. Another day, all he could think about for like half and hour was sticking ear plugs in his ears. He tried to do it himself, but was having trouble, so he kept saying, "Mommy, Mommy, ears, ears." I would put them in and then they would fall out two seconds later and the whole thing would start over. He is such a good talker. He tells me what he wants to eat and what he wants to do. This morning he told his grandparents happy anniversary and the other night when Derek was wiping his hands and face after dinner, he told him, "Nope, stop." Another funny one, the other day we layed down together cause I was tired, so he offered me his paci. I told him no thanks he could keep it, so he said, "Try it."

Pics from our trip, finally

For those of you who don’t know, we went to visit Derek’s family in Australia & New Zealand the last part of May.  When we got back we moved right into our house, and have been a little busy, so I’m just now getting around to updating the blog.

Eli sitting in the luggage cart at the airport.  He was such a great traveler!  He pushed his stroller all around the airports, made friends with random strangers, slept well on the long flights in his basinet, and watched DVDs when he was awake.

 

Sylvie playing with slime

Bros and kiddos

Sylvie and Conor are both great big cousins and Eli watched everything they did.

The Milo twins

Eli feeding the kangaroos

Derek with the two cutest boys ever

Cool kids at the park

Derek’s parents live right by the beach, so it was nice to walk and jog on the beach in the mornings.

Eli and Conor eating ice cream.  They both have a major sweet tooth.

Sunday dinner

Nana helping Eli with his swimming togs and Greg with the boys at the pool.

Whangarei waterfall

 

Eli checking out Nemo

 

Eli chillin’ with Poppy and a butterfly on his head

The guys at the petting farm

Conor & Eli driving a tractor and Eli petting a sheep.  He now knows that they say ba-a.

Eli playing with Uncle Ryan and bowling with Dad

More bowling pics (doesn’t Conor look tough)

Last morning walk on the beach.

 

Family pic

Nana & Poppy with the boys

news from the pacific

Just thought I would do a quick update. We had fun in Australia (despite the torrential rain) and now we are enjoying NZ. Here is a link to a pic of us "cuddling" a koala. http://photo.koala.net/2105003663en.htm


It was actually kinda scary, but feeding the kangaroos was really fun, Eli and Sylvie both loved it. Here is one pic of that, but I'll add more pics later.









In other news, Eli is finally walking!! He just really started yesterday and he has taken up to ten or 12 steps. He thinks he is big stuff now. And, of course he continues to add to his vocab. Some recent additions are Horse, toys, thirsty, please, and Wallaby, but he can pretty much repeat anything we say.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday we had a successful garage sale and then spent the evening together. On Sunday we spoke at church and we got to spend lots of time playing with Eli, who has finally started taking some steps. We also got to talk to Doug in Argentina, which was lots of fun. He's doing great and getting lots of bullseyes, ha ha. My boys were very good to me as you can see. Eli picked the little purple flowers himself.







This is Eli eating some of the pie my Dad made us. He did the cooking last night and it was yummy!

Love & Sanding

This is when we were in the middle of sanding, which took us 2 1/2 days. Derek did most of the work, but I did help quite a bit on this project, unlike the shower, which was all him. He is a stud and I love him! It was hard work, but fun to work together. Thanks to Mom, Heather, and Joey for helping with Eli.







This is the finished product (I think). We think it looks really good.


I better give a shout out to Derek's awesome shower too or I'll get in trouble.



Before and After