We're Back! Aloha!

Well, Jon and I are back from our sunny vacation in Hawaii. We had a wonderful time, and will post some of our adventures later, but I've got over 500 pictures to wade through first (I can just hear my brother-in-law, Jeremy now. Even I don't know how I managed to take that many!). :) Here's a taste of a few of the sunsets we saw . . .

Elijah was with my sister-in-law and brother while we were gone, and then Jon's Mom had him for the last part of our trip. She brought him back to us on Wednesday morning, after Eli being away from us for 11 nights. And man did I miss my baby by that time! I was so ancy that morning it was unbelievable. I'm glad Jon and I had the chance to be away together, since it was very relaxing and refreshing, but 11 days with no Eli is a long time!

We had talked to Eli on the phone a few times while we were gone, but the last time I heard him I was quite sad - he didn't sound like what I remembered at all. It was kind of surreal seeing him again - he looked so tall and like he'd grown so much older! He smiled when he saw me and then ran away to explore all the things on the porch. He seemed happy to be home though, and very happy to be back to his slide in the living room. Eli didn't say anything at all for a while, but eventually said "bus" and "crash" as he slid his toy bus down the slide to crash at the bottom. :)

After just a bit of being back together it was just like old times. By the afternoon he was hugging and kissing me and chatting up a storm again, but not liking when I would go in to another room. When Jon got home Eli was very happy to see him, and then ran away from him too (whew, it wasn't just me!). :) He had a lot of fun playing with us after dinner though - and loved his presents from Hawaii (a truck with a surfboard on top, a few matchbox cars, a Veggietales DVD, and a Hawaiian shirt - okay, he didn't seem to care about the shirt, but he liked the cars!).

I've got the blond hair to be a surfer,
and now the board and truck too!

Eli's looking snazzy in his Aloha shirt!

Since we've been back Eli's been a little attached to me - not wanting me to leave the room, crying when I dropped him off at nursery for MOPs today, wanting to play with me EVERY minute, and wanting to play with his cars underneath my legs (not next to me, it HAD to be underneath my legs!). I've been pretty happy to oblige all the playing since I missed him so much, but the leg thing got tiring after a bit. :)

I'm pretty comfortable under Mom's legs playing with my cars.

I think Eli's punishing us (well, mostly me) for going away though, as he's been throwing mega-tantrums almost non-stop. He's screaming at diaper changes, getting dressed, at mealtimes, at naptime, any time I have to stop him from doing something, etc. Screeching at the top of his lungs is actually a more appropriate description of the sound he's making. And if I leave the room to ignore it he just follows me and keep screeching! Today he wouldn't eat lunch and went straight to nap at 12:30, after screaming about one thing or another for over an hour. Whew, I'm tired! I think the screaming is just him adjusting to being back with us and letting out the emotions of missing us, but I sure hope it is a short-lived phase and he goes back to being our laid back super happy boy again! Despite the screaming, I'm still really glad to be home and back with Elijah, especially when he looks so cute napping . . . :)

He could scream all day and I'd still love him, he's so cute!