Our Big Boy

Well, Eli is eight-months-old already. He's a joy. He's a handful. Here are some quick things about him...

• Still scooting around on his belly by pulling with his arms and pushing with his right leg. His left leg is always up in the air, like a periscope.
• He's pulling up on toys now to get on his knees. Kinda cute.
• He's working on FOUR teeth right now. All at once. Ouch.
• His hair starting getting longer, just in the last month or so. You can see in some of the pics below the curly "wings" on the side of his head.
• Eli LOVES water. He "swims" around the bathtub like a fish. We broke out the baby pool a few weekends ago, and he was lovin' it. I can't wait to get him in a real pool, although I'm not sure he'll be okay with just sitting peacefully in a baby float!
• He is very inquisitive and likes to see how things work. Instead of playing with a push toy, he will turn it over and examine the wheels and the battery compartment. Instead of playing with the things in a drawer, he will open and close the drawer a million times. He will crawl over to a door and swing it open and closed, open and closed and just laugh b/c it's "so funny."
• Changing his diapers and/or clothes is like a WWF match. He is a strong little booger and does not laying still.

Looking back at the list above, it's funny, because all of those things are complete opposite of Charley! It's amazing how God made us all so unique, and it just stands out more when you have siblings so close in age, from the same parents, and they are so different! And a lot of things are "physical" things....it will be interesting to see how different their personalities are. Here are some pics of the sweet-heart boy!

Our Big Girl

Charley turned two last week, which is just nuts! We can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday, and now she is a walking, talking little girl. I'm trying to the think of ALL the things that have changed since a year ago. Well, for one, she was just learning to CRAWL a year ago. She was much shorter. As was her hair! Check out these pics for a comparison! Where'd all the baby fat go?!

Charley still LOVES Eli and actually calls him "Eli" now. It sounds like "E-yie," which of course is super cute, and a step beyond calling him "baby." He still pulls her hair (all the time), and although it majorly hurts, she doesn't seem to resent him for it (yet).
Charley's working on about FIVE teeth right now..Painful! Three of the two-year molars and the two upper canines. Once these guys are in, that should be it for a long time. Yay!
Well... we certainly do love and cherish our Charlotte Rose and hope and pray that the Lord will do wonders in her heart, that she may serve others and love Him one day!!
Stay tuned for Eli's eight-month update!

Let's Give'em Somethin' to Blog About

I really have nothing to blog about. Well, that's not exactly true. Maybe I just don't feel like blogging. I have a really long story I could share with you regarding my flight back from Chicago last weekend, but I really don't feel like recounting it. Let's just say, never fly into Charlotte late at night, amongst tornadoes and a gum-smacking middle school basketball team, and expect to make your connection back to Greenville. I guess I can't blame the delay on the basketball team, but they sure made the flight seem ten times longer.

I could also blog about how we totally "went there" and bought a minivan. Oh yes we did. I can now drive entirely too fast through neighborhoods and think it's okay because I'm a soccer mom and have places to be.

I could also blog about how my six-month-old is basically crawling, and I am not cool with it. Charley didn't crawl until 11 months (actually, an exact year ago), so I had four GLORIOUS months of her just sitting there and playing contently. Eli is skipping that stage, and I am IN FOR IT. Homeboy is already getting in to stuff he shouldn't, and we need to majorly baby proof. Ug. [P.S. Even though I may sound like a whiny ungrateful person, I am ALWAYS thinking about how the Lord has been so gracious and the fact that our children are here and healthy is a beautiful miracle. I don't ever want to take for granted that they are here and that they can walk (or crawl) and talk and sing and whine etc etc etc. I love them and they are a gift. Okay. End of disclaimer.]

What else? D is heading back to Kenya soon. I will post more about that another time.

Hmm...what else? Oh. Charley is talking more and more each day and is becoming more and more in tune with the world around her. For example, she had a splinter in her hand the other day, and I was telling D about it at the dinner table. Charley, on cue, stuck out her hand and showed Donald the splinter and said, "Oh no!" Yes, that seems majorly insignificant, but we are used to having babies who just sit there and aren't used to having them contribute to the conversation. And thus it begins...

Here are the kids on Easter Sunday...

Happy Easter! "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died."
Galatians 6:14

Mobile Uploads

I finally took the time to put all the pictures on my phone on to my computer. Here are some of my favs from the past 18 months or so...

I'm so cute!

 

Charley and Maggie worn out from a shopping trip in Gaffney.

 

Poor dog.

 

 "What you talkin 'bout, Willis?"

At a Clemson Basketball Game.

Peek-a-boo! 

At a wedding last summer.

Charley hanging out in Eli's room right before he was born.

Welcome, Baby Eli!

The two sweeties. 

First Smiles!

Gotta love Holly Wild!

Under the mobile together.

"So what?! We're holding hands. And??"

They held hands for about two blocks and when I came around front to take a picture, they both looked at me like I was crazy.

I think Sadie likes this!!

I'm a cutie too!

Check out these two pics... Charley and Eli look nothing alike!

My Cooking Show

On my cooking show, we will make a cake, and there will be two kids and a dog in the kitchen with me. At least two of them will be covered with flour by the end of it, and the other one will be fussin' for a bottle (hopefully during a commercial break). I will not have all the ingredients already separated into neat little bowls, and as a matter of fact, I will probably be missing an ingredient. I will then decide to either cancel the whole ordeal, substitute if possible, or mobilize the troops and brave a trip to BiLo. Since, afterall, this is a cooking show, I can't cancel, and I'm sure it will be someone's nap time soon, so going to the store won't work. Okay, so we will need buttermilk, but I will just have to add something to my regular milk to make it... buttery(?). Cream of tartar? Nope, don't have any. Lemon juice? White vinegar? Aha! Let's try it. So now I will preheat my oven. I will turn around to catch the one-year-old with her hands in the eggs... up to her elbows in slime. After a good scrub down, I will hand her a spoon to help stir, which instead will be used as a drum stick or just plain mess maker (flour everywhere). Did I mention that I will not exactly be smiling at the camera? I may be smiling, but not at the camera. I will probably be too busy looking at the recipe 15 times because I will not be able to remember "how much vanilla?" and "did I already put it in there?" When everything is ready, there will not be a perfectly baked product waiting in the oven to impress my audience. I will actually have to wait 40-50 min for the thing to bake, and in those last ten minutes, I will be checking it every two minutes, because I will have no idea if 40 min is sufficient or if we will end baking for an hour. By the way, instead of checking it with a toothpick, I will be using a steak knife. It will be the closest thing within reach, as I keep everyone away from the oven. 53 minutes and the cake will be done. There will be at least three dirty bowls and at least 36 dirty utensils, or so it seems. There will not have been time to wash everything during the baking time because the babies needed food or naps or diapers or clothes that didn't have flour all over them. But of course, tending to these things will be much better than washing dishes anyway. Are we still rolling? Probably not. And we haven't made the icing yet. BUT, even though I won't have an audience and neither Oprah nor Rachel Ray will be impressed, I will have made a cake for my sweetie with help from my angel, who will surprisingly wake up from her nap, pointing at the glorious finished product and say, "Dada's Cake." And it will all be worth it. Not to mention eating the dern thing. Mmm.

Nie Nie Moon

I've always been a little creeped out by the pictures in Good Night Moon. I'm not exactly sure why. I just am. I never owned it growing up, but I'm pretty sure it would have given me nightmares. Why is the "little old lady who was whispering hush" just sitting there knitting, watching the little bunny in the bed? And why doesn't she take the "bowl full of mush" to the kitchen when she leaves?! And there's a mouse in the room! I mean, even though you are a bunny and maybe bunnies don't squeal at the sight of a mouse, don't you care that the mouse is peeking over the side of your "bowl full of mush"? Cooties.
Before you get offended by my critique of this beloved children's "classic," I will have you know that I actually LIKE reading the book with Charley now. I really, really do. It's grown on me since Eli received it as a gift at the hospital, and we read it nearly every night. Charley likes pointing out all the little things in the pictures (including the mouse). She even noticed the freaky little dolls on the bookshelf and the nobby-legged jraf (giraffe). The best part is the room darkening and the moon rising. "Nie Nie, Moon!," Charley exclaims. Now even the real moon gets a "nie nie" from Charley when she sees it. Presh.

5 and 21 mos

Elijah B. is five-months old!! Here's an update on his sweet little self:

• Eli is a very happy baby. He is my smiley boy. All smiles most of the time. Thanks to his schedule, he is very predictable and rarely cries.

• He loves loves LOVES his sister. Whenever Charley is in sight, he can't keep his eyes off of her and grins ear to ear.
• He is a biggin'. Eli weighs 20lbs and is 29 inches long. Charley was that size around 10mos (and she was considered big for her age!). I'm a little sad that he can't wear cute six-month outfits and stuff
• He has had a bad cough since January 17 (but who's counting?) and is now on a second round of antibiotics, this time for an ear infection. The first time I'm not even sure why he was on it. I just had to trust the doctor. Needless to say, we are sick of coughs and runny noses around this place. Or as Donald would say, around this piece.

• I mentioned this before, but Eli has a very sensitive gag-reflex. This makes it hard for him to swallow anything without vomiting. This is REAL fun when giving him antibiotics twice a day for twenty days. He also vomits if he starts coughing and gets gagged. He has thrown up twice in public due to coughing, and you better believe people looked at me like I was Satan. "How dare you bring your baby with the stomach bug out in my presence?!" One lady made me so mad that I wanted to tell her it was Swine Flu just to get a rise. But...WWJD?... I didn't. Anyways, because of all this, Eli is delayed on eating food. We tried the rice cereal at four months, but it didn't happen. I tried it again last week, and it went better, but not great. I am trying not to be fearful and worry too much about all this. I'm hoping he will grow out of it like many babies do.
• His newest trick is smushing up his face, which makes him look like a Sumo Wrestler. Hilarious. He had me in tears earlier I was laughin' so hard. I'm gonna try to get it on video.

Charley is changing before our eyes. Learning more words and phrases everyday. It is so amazing to watch (and sometimes amusing).

• She loves helping with Eli and playing with him. If he's missing a sock, she will say something like, "Ut-Oh. Baby's sock!" and then will go get one out of one of her drawers to put on him. It's usually pink.
• She still calls Eli "Baby." Donald and I have tried to limit our use of the word, and say "Eli" as often as possible. She called him "Lie" one or two times several months ago, but "Baby" is her preferred name for him. It's kinda cute now, but we don't exactly want a boy whose nickname is "Baby." Trying to break the habit while they are still young.

• Charley might have a future in Speed Eating, along side Kobayashi. She has been made fun of at two separate birthday parties for eating her cupcake in like 4 bites, in under a minute, while it takes other kids 10 minutes and 30 bites. She is not great about chewing her food completely, and crams the next bite in as soon as she swallows. We are working on slowing her down.
• She loves playing the piano. She likes to look at the piano music and turn the pages, like she can actually read it. Cute!
• Her hair is now longer than mine (but you wouldn't know it because of the curls). When wet, her hair is down way past her shoulders in the back and way past her chin in the front.
• Charley loves being outside. Swinging on the "wee" or sliding down the "wee" are two of her favorite things.
• Her favorite foods are any type of fruit, cheese, yogurt, oatmeal, broccoli, beans, oh, and waffles. I'm not quite sure why she'll eat broccoli but not peanut butter or a hamburger. She is missing out. I'm sure that won't last. I'm hoping that won't last. The girl needs protein! (and mom needs an easy food to feed her!)
• One of my favorite things about being a mother of a toddler is finding things in randoms places where they don't belong. For example, Charley's Lambie was missing for a day, until I spotted a big lump under a rug. And I will often find un-used diapers in the trash (I usually catch her in the act). In her mind, it's logical to put Lambie under a rug (a blanket) and diapers in the trash.
• After a six month hiatus, Charley has two teeth coming in. The two canines on the bottom (the pointy ones). I suppose the top ones will be next. Fun!

I know so much will change in the upcoming months with both kids, and it's so crazy to think that [probably] by Christmas, Charley will be speaking in full sentences and Eli will be running around chasing her. However, I am in no hurry for these things to happen! I am grateful for each and every day I get to spend with them and love their little quirks. What a joy motherhood is. Exhausting, but joyful. Thank you, Lord, for this gift!