I don't want diaper rash, Mom . . . is this enough powder?

Here is what happens when Mom forgets to close the top of the baby powder and then goes to the bathroom, leaving Eli to roam the upstairs. . .

Elijah gives himself and the chair a generous coating of powder!Uh oh, I'm caught!Maybe if I get off the chair fast Mom won't think I did it . . .Better yet, I'll run into the office and get away from the scene of the crime!

Happy Turkey Day!

For Thanksgiving this year we headed down to Ohio to visit with my brother, Scott, and his family. My parents and my brother, Jeff, and his family traveled down there too, so we had a full house! 8 adults, 6 kids, and 1 dog makes for a pretty fun weekend together. :)

We really had a wonderful time and it was neat to be able to spend so many days in a row together. The kids had so much fun playing together, and the adult "kids" (thanks to good weather and Grandpa and Grandma taking the kiddies outside often) were able to get some game-playing time in as well.

One of Eli's favorite things from the holiday was Dante the dog . . . he followed Dante around and tried to snuggle and sit by him whenever he could. And he liked Dante's cage too.

Giving Dante a kiss . . . aww

Following Dante around . . .


If we can't have a dog, Mom, how about a dog cage?

One of my favorite things from the weekend (besides shopping on the morning after Thanksgiving with Mom and Jill) was going to the Cincinnati Zoo. They were having Zoo Lights, with Christmas lights all through the zoo and special holiday light shows and displays. It was really pretty, and the Cincinnati Zoo is laid out really nicely too which makes walking it very nice. Eli wasn't too enamored with the animals at first, but then seemed more interested the longer we stayed. We could have used even more time at the zoo, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry so we headed home. And my camera ran out of battery pretty soon after we got there, so almost all the pictures are on Mom's camera. Guess we'll just have to come back again! :)


Another favorite was going to the park with everyone (except Aunt Jill who was grocery shopping) on Saturday. The park had a play structure for the kids, and also a skate park. The boys had their scooters so we all headed to the skate park after a bit and had some fun playing on the ramps. Eli liked sliding down them, and the boys (and their daddies) got pretty good at taking the scooters up the ramps.



While at the park Eli outran Grandpa to a mudpuddle and jumped on in. After that he had to wear Dad's shirt until his own dried again. Unforeseen benefit . . . Eli now had a "leash"!

While we were at the skate park I had the bright idea to use the timer on my camera to take a portrait of the family. I'm not showing the outtake where I couldn't get up the ramp and slid right back down as the camera went though! That one will remain in the private archives. :)

Now it's back to the real world though and I've got the post-holiday blues. I actually have to cook myself, my house is a mess, and it seems so lonely without my family and all the kids around. Eli's crankier too and I can tell he is missing his play companions. Mom just isn't quite as fun as all those cousins! We're looking forward to Christmas celebrations already and more family fun!

Messy Eater . . . A Year in Review

It's been a little over a year since Elijah started solid food, and I thought I'd do a retrospective of the messiness of our little one. He is definitely not neat, and even though he can use his fork and spoon quite well when he wants, prefers to just dig in and mush everything around if he can.

Messy already . . . and it's only our first solid food!

When spinach attacks . . .I'm having a pea and carrot facial, Mom. It's all the rage.
Elijah is seeing red!

I need to think about this for a minute.

Watch out, I'm going to get you with these dirty hands!

Mushing around my birthday cake! Squish squish!

Spaghetti is messy. I love it!

I've got a cottage cheese beard!

What happens if I just stick my face in this dirty container . . .

I get all dirty too!

And here is why Eli needs so many baths . . . he sticks his dirty hands in his hair after he eats! Silly boy!

Go Blue!

Go Michigan! Beat the Buckeyes!

Eli looking stylish in his Michigan football helmet hat.

On another Michigan note, former coach Bo Schembechler passed away today. A sad time for all Michigan football fans, but don't worry Coach, you won't be forgotten. We're raising another generation of Michigan fans who will remember you fondly!

Go Blue!

Mom, I'm on the phone here . . .

Can't I get a little privacy? I'm talking to my people, Mom.

Put it away, Mom!

I'm still fascinated by being with Elijah every day and seeing how he learns and soaks everything up. And sometimes I'm surprised by the things he does too!

Last week I was vacuuming the downstairs and Elijah became convinced that the vacuum needed to be put away. He kept pointing to it and saying bye-bye and waving bye-bye to it . . . but Mom wasn't stopping! He then went over to the front closet (where the vacuum is kept) and pointed to it, waving bye-bye. Mom still wasn't stopping! So Elijah opened up the front closet, ran over to me vacuuming, pointed at the vacuum, said bye-bye and waved, and then ran back to the closet and pointed inside. I was so surprised! Not only that he knew where the vacuum went, but also at the progression of his actions as he tried to get me to do what he wanted. The art of communication without many words is being perfected by Elijah!

Cuckoo

Elijah has developed quite an affection for clocks for some reason. When we're reading Goodnight Moon he has to point out the two clocks in the room (one on the mantle, one on the bedside table) on every page on which they appear. Don't even think about turning that page until he's done it either - he'll just turn it back until he points at each clock!

At Grandma Amanda's there is a cuckoo clock that Grandma got from Great Grandma and has hanging on her wall. Eli LOVES the cuckoo! He'll go and stand underneath it and point up, going "uh uh." Then we'll tell him how much time until it cuckoos again - and he'll usually come and look at it again at almost the exact amount of time that we told him. Grandpa Terry told him 20 minutes when we were there a few weeks ago and Eli went and played and then came back to the clock within a minute of it going! Then last week I told him 5 minutes and he came back at almost the exact time again! Kind of neat. Could be coincidence, or my son could just be brilliant. I'll go with brilliant . . . or maybe he's just cuckoo! :)

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

The last few times that we've gone over to Jon's Mom's house Elijah has finally been able to ride the rocking horse that Grandma has at her house. This is the rocking horse which Jon's Grandpa Don made for Jon's Mom as a first birthday gift when she turned one! The horse made it through her childhood, her two sisters, and then made it through Jon and Jeremy, with only minor repairs (a new tail, and the leather bridle is gone). It still has it's original paint job though and is so cute! Eli's not quite tall enough to reach the rockers on each side of the horse and get it going really fast yet, but I'm sure that he will be soon! He still loves riding it! Giddy up!

Cider Mill

Elijah, myself, Grandma Amanda, and Great Aunt Cheryl visited the cider mill near Grandma's house last month, and I never posted anything about it because I was too busy. But I found a pocket of time and thought I'd post about it now!

Eli and I were visiting Grandma so we could see Great Aunt Cheryl and Jon's Grandma following Jon's Grandma's back surgery (following all that?) and we went to the Franklin Cider Mill - Jon's favorite cider mill. It was a picture perfect fall day, and a great day for cider and donuts (well, any day is a good day for donuts, but you know what I mean!).

On our way up to the cider mill . . .

Elijah is quite the active toddler now, so we had to keep a close eye on him, but he sure had fun seeing all the new things at the mill. There is a stream with oodles of ducks and he really enjoyed watching them - and then trying to get them. Watch out duckies!

Come on Grandma, let me at 'em!

They also had big bins with decorative pumpkins, thoughtfully displayed at Elijah's height.

And then some BIG pumpkins too, which Grandma and I couldn't believe the prices on! I think I need to start growing pumpkins if they are going to sell for that much!

The mill is set on a bit of a hill, so Eli had to go up and down it over and over of course - keeping Mom on her toes. Jon and I have always enjoyed going to several cider mills, several times each, during the fall, but this trip ended up being the only one for us (Jon didn't even get to one this year!) since October was so busy. Hopefully next year we'll go to more. I'm not sure they'll be able to top the beautiful weather we had this year though - it really was just a spectacular fall day!

Great Aunt Cheryl, Grandma Amanda, and Elijah!

Adventures in Play-Doh

The tiny containers of Play-Doh that were marketed to pass out at Halloween were on clearance at our grocery store last week, so I picked some up to see if Eli would like playing with it. He didn't like the Play-Doh but liked the containers! Take a look at what he thought . . .

Hey, this stuff looks like fun!

Let's see what it does. I'll just give it a little poke . . .
Yuck, Mom! Have you touched this stuff before? It's gross!
Maybe I can use it to hold my crayons at least . . .

Hmm, these containers are kind of fun though.

Look Mom, I found my tongue!

Oops, I still had Play-Doh on my hand. Play-Doh tastes icky!

Don't worry, even though the Play-Doh was a bust I'm still having fun!

Ribbit

I couldn't resist - here are some more pictures of Eli in his frog outfit. :)

Playing on my slide and posing for Mom!
Why are my fingers all covered up?

Come on Mom! You've got to have your shoes on to go outside!