Tickles my dog

August went by so fast!! Eli is walking/running everywhere. And is at that point that he wants to go, go, go, not be held. He has been busted several times jumping on the couch and in his crib. Does he hold on to anything to jump? NOOO! He enjoys the falling part too much! No fear! He is so funny to watch in the blow up bounce house because he just rolls his eyes upward and falls backward, loving every minute of it. If you are not right on top of him while on the playset, the next thing you know he's trying to slide down all by himself.

He has tinkled for the first time standing up, which was funny. It's like he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Having a son is giving me some insight into my husband's male psyche...Eli has found his weewee. It is obvious when he's found it in the tub because he just stares off into space with this blissful look on his face. Anytime the diaper's off, his hand goes right for it. And I put him in the back of the truck naked the other day and his weewee accidentally brushed the side. He turned and smiled at Scott and then continually bent his knees and leaned forward in order to make his weewee touch the side again and again. All three of us were cracking up watching him. (above pictures: Eli drowning himself with the water hose; Eli playing hide and seek; Evi playing golf in a princess dress and crown...gotta love her flare!)

He has learned the power of the cry...getting what he wants.(sometimes!) And has become pretty clingy to mom and dad when around other people. He goes down easily for naps and bedtime as long as he has his Mickey (mickey mouse head with blanket). And so far still sleeps in his own bed....

Which leads me to his sister. She has been sleeping with me (or Scott when I'm gone). And I have decided that I wasn't going to fight it. She'll sleep in her own bed before she goes off to college, right? I just keep talking up being a big girl and almost being 5. So maybe she'll just do it on her own like giving her nuby cups. Besides, she'll be shopping for her own wedding dress soon enough. (she's wearing mine in this picture)

I took her with me to my dentist appointment because she has one in September and thought she might want to see what it's all about. She was fine until the girl asked her to come out and push the button to take my picture (trying to get her out of the room for xrays). She stood up with her back plastered to the wall and refused. She ended up crying hysterically and I could not calm her down. There was office right across from the room I was in, so I just sat her in it and let her scream and cry until the girl was done. (she probably never moved so fast to take xrays in all her life!) After that, Evi finally calmed down. And of course when we got home she wanted to play dentist.
(this picture of Eli is in tribute to his name, "LoneStar", and yes, it was empty!)

Speaking of playing, anything she sees on tv, she wants to play. Right now we play a lot of "American's Got Talent" where she is interviewed by a judge (us) and then sings her heart out, (her lyrics are great) or dances. And then expects us to respond like the judges do on the show. Eli has joined her a few times, always wanting to be in on the action. (see videos below on the blog site) She also likes "Wipe Out" and "Minute to Win It".

This last week of August Evi started pre-school again. It is at the same church school program that she has gone to the last 2 years. Her classroom is 8 little girls!!! Can you imagine the drama, and nonstop talking those poor teachers will have to endure!? She's done well with drop off though. After our drama at the dentist the day before, I was a little worried about going to school. She was a little clingy but once she was in the room and saw her old friends, Julia and Lily Star, she was set. See 'ya mom, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out!

Sweet cousin Mila had her first birthday too. She basically schooled Eli on how to eat your first birthday cake! We drove down on Friday, which both kids did really well. Had a ball on Saturday at the party. Evi and cousin Lucas played HARD! Then the drive back on Sunday. Eli did not enjoy it so much. But we did stop again at Turner Falls, which both the kids really enjoyed. Seeing as it's only 1hour and 15minutes from our house, we'll have to do it more often.




Conversations with Evi:
To her Daddy:
EVI: DADDY'S KNOW THIS MUCH (holds her hands apart about the width of her body)
AND MOMMY'S KNOW THIS MUCH (holds her hands as far apart as she can)

Eli's a Walkin'!!

This is a little late, but I wanted last month to be all about Eli turning 1. Anyway, in June we went to Lake Texoma for a Nease family reunion. Evi had soooo much fun. There were so many cousins her age and they played until she just couldn't function any longer each night. She loved going out on the lake. And thank goodness for the swim lessons. It would have been an entirely different experience if she had still been afraid to get her face wet! On the way down, we went to Turner falls and swam at the falls. Eli was white trashin' it, being butt naked in the water. (we didn't have our suits on originally because we weren't sure what to expect) We ended up going down river a little and sitting on rocks with the water flowing around us. Eli loved it!
Our next stop was the Arbuckle Wilderness drive through. We fed the animals which both kids enjoyed. Although the camels & llamas were a little pushy. At one point a yak came up to Scott's window while Eli was in his lap. Once Eli saw the yak, he couldn't back pedal fast enough. But as long as the windows were rolled up, he was very brave!

At the end of July we went to Frisco, CO with Scott's family. We had a wonderful time and it was a nice break from the Oklahoma/Texas summer heat. But boy do you burn quick when you're a little closer to the sun! Scott and Evi went a couple of days early, which meant I had a couple of days with just the boy. It was quite nice, and my house was pretty clean! Back to Frisco...We did the Alpine slide in Breckenridge, and Evi was able to do the bungee trampolines many times. She even accomplished a back flip! She had tons of fun with her cousins in her bounce house that we sent from home, and shopping the farmer's markets. One night, in the middle of the night, she asked me if we could move into the house we were staying in when we move someday... I'd say she enjoyed the vacation. Poor Eli was just along for the ride, literally, in his stroller. And made the vacation a little exhausting for his parents. It's just hard to vacation with a 1 year old who won't walk alone and can't communicate yet. All he wanted to do is climb the stairs where we were staying. We worked really hard on walking while waiting for our flight in the airport. But even still his legs and tops of his feet looked like he was another ethnicity! They were so dirty.

But finally success!!! Eli is walking! Not so much walking as running really. He still prefers crawling if he's in a hurry. When he first took 15+ steps, he was like a ping pong ball bouncing off the walls of our hallway. Then he went face first into the wall. Wasn't too happy about that one! I almost worry that he enjoys the sensation of falling just a little too much. He likes the rush! (there is a video of him waking on the blog site if you get this in email)
And he can say "Hi". He puts any phone or phone-like-object up to his head and says "Hi!".

Conversations with Evi:

GiGi: Girl, you're a broken record, and you don't even know what that is!
EVI: I KNOW WHAT A BROKEN RECORD IS GIGI! IT'S WHEN YOU GET A TROPHY!
(and there is no arguing that logic, you do get a trophy when you break a record!)

1 Year Old!!!

Eli's first year has come to an end! I can't believe it! He's non-stop! I always tell people the difference between the sexes is: my daughter doesn't stop talking and my son doesn't stop moving! Seriously, he never stops. He won't just sit and watch a tv show, at all! The only time he sits still is when he's drinking milk, and even then his leg is usually kicking or hand slapping on you or himself. Even asleep he is all over the bed. Every time I check on him, he's in a different position, facing a different direction. It's amazing.
And he already eats more than his sister does at any given moment of the day. But while his sister walked at 10 1/2 months, he still won't walk on his own. He's all about holding your hand and walking though, but the moment something happens that he's in a hurry for (like discovering an open door) he drops you like a hot rock and speed crawls out the door. Both of his knees have rough spots along with the tops of his feet. He can crawl up the slide and rock wall of the playset pretty much on his own. And seems to think his mouth is a suction cup to aide in his climbing capabilities.
He already enjoys rough housing. One of his favorite things to do is to have a pillow fight on the bed. If you won't do it with him, he'll do it to himself.
He has an obsession with the toilet, and toilet paper. Can't find Eli, check the bathrooms. And he likes to hide (anything that will fit) under the entertainment unit in the living room. Or if it's really flat, he'll slide it right under the rug. He had a remote to a ceiling fan last week and I still can't find where he hid it!! My little pack rat.
He goes down well at night and usually sleeps pretty well (and in his own bed even...his sister still doesn't do that!). And is pretty much down to just one big nap in the middle of the day.
At his 1 year check, he weighs 23.13lbs, is 29 1/2in. He's averaged out on weight & height. Like his sister, he took of quick and then leveled out.
He has 2 teeth on bottom (crooked like his sister's), and 1 getting ready to burst through on top. He's a lover, Eli loves to give kisses. Nice, big, open mouth, wet kisses, after which, he mimics the kissing noise we make. He likes to say "uh-oh" when he drops things, which is pretty much a favorite hobby of his. And while he can sign "milk" and "more", he usually chooses not to.
We had his first birthday party the weekend after his birthday. I thought he would love being able to dig into his own cake seeing as he has been awfully demanding about how quickly I spoon cake into his mouth in the past. But I guess that personal cake was just too big and overwhelming. He just looked at it. The next morning I gave him a cup cake, and still he just stared, until I broke it into pieces. Then the shoveling began and his eyes lit up and he was covered in icing!
And while he is a little bit of a mommy's boy, he's got nothing on his sister in that department!

Performances

Poor Eli...he is already getting the second child treatment. First of all, he sleeps in his own bed (hopefully I'm not jinxing that by saying it!) Second, for the first year of Evi's life I took weekly pictures of her naked in the bath to show how much she changed in that first year, printed them and put them in a photo album. I just realized the other day that I haven't taken Eli's weekly picture since February!!! And have printed none!!!! In my defense, I am working my butt off right now! But still, sorry Eli!
And speaking of work, I have been trying to work 5 three day trips a month, which is 15 days away. And I feel like I just can't get ahead on anything I want to get done at home. While Scott is totally picking up his share of the domestic duties, I still refuse to let him do the laundry (won't be folded the way I like and he doesn't know where anything goes AND he would probably bake my clothes to death in the dryer). Nor do I like to let him do the grocery shopping. He would end up buying things differently than I would. For instance, I look at ingredients, and will choose something organic or without preservatives even though it's more expensive because it is in my children's health interest, and he will look at the price difference, and cancer be damned, he's buying the cheaper! :)
I realize this is being a little controlling on my part. Just can't help it!
Now back to my children...I like to call this little tale PoopGate, 2010...I was changing Eli's diaper, and as usual he rolled away as soon as the diaper was off and took of crawling (since he is showing no desire to walk) as fast as possible, which is amazingly pretty damn fast. As he crawled away, I just thought "look at that cute little bottom!" Then Evi and Scott came in the room and Scott just kept telling me that Eli was going to wet the floor, which I always dismiss because, who cares, it's just tinkle. And I swear he crawled but maybe a minute before, and Scott says, "he's tinkled......no, I think he's pooped!" And sure enough, he's standing at the train table stepping in it trying to figure out how to get out of it and instead just mashing it into the carpet and between his toes! It was nasty! I had to just get us both in the shower. But I got the easy clean up, Scotty is the one who cleaned the carpet! Then a couple of weekends later, I had let him crawl away again at my mom's. He was standing by his exer-saucer and Chacha said, "woo, smells like somebody's got a stinky diaper", not knowing that Eli was butt naked on the other side. Diaper, what diaper? And sure enough, there was a huge pile of poo. It looked like a large dog had laid it. It was amazing! And stinky!!!
Eli had a well baby check recently, and was over 21 pounds (kept putting hand on the wall, so I'm unsure of his exact weight) and 29 1/2 inches long. So, average for weight, and a little tall for his age (which won't last long I'm sure!) and of course the noggin, extra large! His first tooth has come through on the bottom with the second right behind. He still has no desire to walk. And since he is already mobile, I wish he'd walk just so hands wouldn't be as dirty. It is amazing how nasty his hands, knees and tops of his feet have been when we traveled!
(This is a picture of Eli finishing off the milk from Evi's cereal bowl.)

Evi has been in swim lessons this week, and oh, what a difference a couple of days make! 2 days ago, she was afraid to get her face wet even in the tub. Today, she was having a tea party under the water in the pool! Her swim teacher is a genius!
She also had her gymnastics olympics and ballet recital recently. She did great at both! I was a little nervous about the ballet recital seeing as she usually doesn't do well in new situations. But she did really good, a natural really! (teehee) She was one of the few in her large class who actually followed the teachers and did the dances. Gymnastics was better than last year. Last year she refused to participate as soon as she saw all the parents in the room. This year, she would do her routines, but didn't want to get on the podium for her trophy. She said she didn't want everyone to clap for her. Which made me question whether or not she was actually my child!

Let me warn you, there are several videos at the end. 3 from gymnastics, 1 from her ballet recital and Eli's first dance performance!


Conversations with Evi:

in airplane flying into San Antonio:
EVI: WHERE ARE WE?
Me: San Antonio
EVI: I DON'T SEE ANY SAND...

Her swim teacher was going over pool rules, like not running and not diving into the shallow end
Teacher: why wouldn't you want to dive into the shallow end?
EVI: BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO GET MY FACE WET

10 months

Another month down, I can't believe Eli's already 10months old and has been to Disney World 3 times already!!(more on Disney later!)
Scott's been Mr. Mom for a month now and I have to say, I really like having him around so much! And I think he rather likes it too! He has even gotten pretty good at keeping up with the housekeeping part of the stay-at-home parent!
When I came home from one trip he made the comment that he felt like every time he had any down time from the kids he was picking things up...welcome to motherhood Scotty!!!
And I am enjoying working again too. My job is so easy, commuting to and from work is the hardest part. This last time I left I made jokes about how well adjusted everyone has become. When I used to leave for trips Scott & Evi would walk me to the car and wave as I left. Now Scott doesn't leave the couch and Evi hardly looks up from whatever she's playing with! Glad to see I'm missed! HAHA!

Evi has actually had a little bit of trouble adjusting. She cries even easier than before, God help us!! And is a perfect angel when I'm gone, but has more fits than usual when I'm home. She has even cried out of the blue a few times a school recently.
Eli has developed his abandonment issues too now. On one of my trips I had to leave him with Gigi, Chacha and Tooti. Scott and Evi went to Tampa to hang out with his sister and family. They were making a trip to Disney and I knew it would be too hard for Scott to do things with Evi if Eli was there too, so sadly we abandoned him. But ELi was Chacha's buddy! Chacha put him down for naps and bed..I now call Chacha the baby whisperer! (and he loved every minute of it!!) But when I returned, I couldn't leave Eli's sight without him panicking. He'll never trust me at mom's house again!!


After my trip, Eli & I met Scott and Evi in Tampa and made a run to Disney, yet again. (I know you're all wondering how we can afford this with Scott out of work, we bought never expire passes when we went for Evi's birthday last year, we fly there for free, have a free place to stay and a car to use-thanks to Kristi & Michael, so how can we not go?!?!?) We knocked out 3 parks in 9 hours!! And Scott dubbed me the Disney Nazi since I'm all about getting our money's worth when we visit and dictate the plan for the day. We got to do each of Evi's favorite things since we had already experienced the parks and new what we liked and where it was. But we were exhausted by the time we left that night. At one point when Evi and I were running to the last of our rides I looked at her eyes and realized how tired she was, when I asked if she was tired she said, "yes, but I'm having fun". And that's all that matters!
Thanks to my work, we also have a free years pass to Busch Gardens/Sea World.
We made it to Busch Gardens Tampa for one of the days too. It was fun and very kid friendly. Evi & Grace rode one of the rides that is just a straight drop (which is my favorite) and loved it! I know Grace looks scared to death in the picture, but I assure you, that is a look of pure excitement!

Eli is basically saying his name, even though he doesn't know what he's saying. It's so cute. We'll sing "E-li, Key-li" and he'll mimic the vowel sounds "E-i, E-i" So basically he has his vowel sounds down, "HEY! E! I! OOOO! Uhh" . And he finds gravity highly entertaining. He is also very interested in the light sockets. I never had to cover them with Evi, I have a feeling I'll have to now. And he is just plain exhausting! I swear he never stops, NEVER!

I have officially stopped nursing, which is bittersweet. It's nice to have the freedom, but there have plenty of times that whipping a boob out would have been much easier than having to make a bottle. But it was hard to keep up with me working full time now, and the airplane lavs are not the most enjoyable place to spend 10plus minutes in with suction cups in action. Luckily Eli doesn't care where or how he gets the milk, just that he gets some...typical man!
Evi started soccer this last month too, sort of. It's at a local church, and consists of 30 minutes of practice, a devotional, then a 30 minute game. The first week she sat on the side and pouted, which is pretty typical of her in new situations. She doesn't like change the first time, but after that she usually does okay with it when we talk about it before the next time. But now she's had 2 rain outs, and was in Tampa for the another. Hopefully at some point she'll actually get to experience it before the 6 weeks are up!




Conversations with Evi:

EVI: MY MOMMY SAID I CAN EAT THIS CUPCAKE IN HERE
Daddy: You have a very nice mommy
EVI: YEAH, SHE'S STARTING TO BE...

A flight attendant had stopped to talk to me on the plane, Evi asked why she did. I explained to her that this is what mommy does when she goes to work and you could see it all click that she understood that this was my job,
EVI: SO YOU FLY THE PLANE?
Me: (short pause) Yes :-)




After a long day with her cousins, and the 15 minute fit the entire drive home, she says this through tears:
EVI: I WANT TO GO TO BED FIRST, I'M MORE TIRED THAN ELI...I'M 117 TIRED, HOW TIRED IS ELI?
ELI, HOW TIRED ARE YOU?
HE SAID 1, SO I'M MORE TIRED!!!!!

EVI: WHEN I HAVE A LITTLE GIRL I WANT TO NAME HER ILENE
Me: That's a good name
EVI: AND I COULD NAME THE OTHER ONE EASTER EGG
Me: You can't name someone "Easter Egg!" although, I guess Easter could be a good name...
EVI: AND "EGG" WOULD BE THE MIDDLE NAME! AND I COULD NAME ANOTHER ONE "CHRISTMAS!"



I called home from a trip:
EVI;WHERE ARE YOU?
Me: I'm in Las Vegas
EVI: WHY IS IT LOST? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET OUT OF THERE?

While video chatting with Evi at home and me in a hotel
EVI: IS YOUR COMPUTER BEHIND MY COMPUTER? YOU KNOW, IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM, BUT RIGHT BEHIND MINE?
Amazingly, she made video chatting an even harder concept than it really is!!

Big Changes

What a month we have had!! At 8 months and 2 days, Eli started crawling. Then at 8 months and 4 days he decided it was time to stand up with the furniture and try to cruise! Seriously! Just slow down dude!! It's been almost a month and he still hasn't figured out how to get down from standing, on purpose. And his crawling shows me just how nasty and dirty and our floors really are (damn dog hair). But boy can he get around! He also has signed "milk" and "more", but not with any consistancy.

We went on spring break with my family to North Lake Tahoe, Incline Village. I, in all my travel wisdom, only purchased tickets for Scott & Evi (with Eli as a lap child) and thought I would just get the extra flight attendant jumpseat and fly for free. WELL...we got to the airport that morning and another flight attendant had beat me to it! (it's first come, first served) And of course, the flight was full. So I watched as the plane flew off without me. Needless to say, Scott was not happy with me. He tried to divorce me via text, but I told him he couldn't since he needed my insurance! In the end he survived, and the kids did too. I, on the other hand, couldn't even make it into Reno, so my poor parents spent one of their vacation days driving all over Nevada and California since they had to meet my family at the Reno airport and then pick me up at the Sacramento airport! (They had to bring Eli with them since I didn't bring my pump and my food bags were ready to explode! But, mom had feed him half a bag of cheese crackers to keep him happy in the car seat and he had no interest in nursing when he got to me!!! It was painful!)

Evi took skiing lessons and loved it! She was so cute to watch. The last day I borrowed Mali's gear and went skiing with Evi & Scott on the bunny slopes. And that little turkey was trying to jump! No Fear! There is a 5 minute video of her attached to the end of the blog. She was very upset when it was time to go home.


Another big event happened this month...Scott finally quit his job!! I have been trying to get him to quit working for the horrible boss he worked for for years, and now that I'm back at work, he's finally done it. Which makes me the bread winner and Scott a kept man! And yes, the thought that I am fully responsible for my family financially is a little stressful! But I am excited for Scott to be able to spend a lot of time with his kids while they are little, just hopefully he won't enjoy being Mr. Mom too much, I do want him to earn an income again (hopefully, in the not to distant future!) So I am now back at work full time. I am interested to see how Evi adjusts to this. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic since her daddy will be home with her more. After all, he is the fun one! And I feel comfortable with it because Evi won't let him get away with anything! I called in from a trip and the first thing Evi said was, "Mommy, guess what, Eli fell off the bed!" Needless to say, I asked to speak with daddy. Evidently he jumped in the shower since both kids were into the tv and asked Evi to watch Eli. He quickly learned that Evi's idea of "watching" is literally just watching him crawl off the bed, the yelling, "Daddy, Eli fell off the bed"!!!!!


We are on our 4th cold as a family in about 4 months time! 2010 has not been a good year for us in the sniffling, sneezing, coughing department. And with this last one the kids had a bad cough that just kept getting worse. So after 6 days, I finally took them into the doctor and they both had bronchitis!! My poor babies! And then I had to leave for work the next day. So Scott finished his last day at work only to go home to sick kids. But as I told him, that's parenthood for you! It's called being a dad! (and luckily he's a REALLY good daddy!)

Evi-isms
"Boner Points" = Bonus Points

Conversations with Evi
Gigi: OOO la la, Ma-dame!
Evi: GIGI, YOU SAID DAMN!

First solid object found in Eli's shew-wee:
red hair rubber band

8 months

I can't believe Eli is already 8 months old!!! That in just 4 short months, he'll have been here a year! It's crazy! He is on the verge of crawling. Just does a lot of belly flopping at the moment. But he is so ready to get into things! He can back up and turn 360's like a pro! So far he's following the same time line as his sister, I found him standing in his crib this week. Needless to say, we lowered the bed because with the size of that noggin, he'd go over the edge with one glance down! And he has given me another cold!! Why is it my infant keeps getting the colds first and not the child that's in school?

I worked my first trip this month!! It was only 1 night. It was hard, on me mostly, but a little rough for Scotty and Eli too. Evi was actually a very good girl! And Eli did good too, until time to sleep. Then Scott said he woke up, a lot. And finally woke Evi up at 6:30am crying. And Evi sat up and said "Eli, what's wrong? Come cuddle with me!" She's such a sweet big sister! One night, Eli ended up between Evi and I in the bed.(I know, I know, more on the co-sleeping topic later!) I woke up to her holding his hand at one point. I wish I would have been awake enough to put forth the effort of getting a camera for that one!

Evi (and Eli) had her 3rd trip to Disney in a little over a year this February. I thought we were picking a great time to go, but it ended up being a winter break week for those suckers who live in the far north. Oh well, it still wasn't as bad as going during Christmas holidays (NEVER AGAIN!) We spent a long weekend in Tampa with Scott's sister Kristi and her girls. Unfortunately is was cooler than I expected, but still warmer than OKC!!

I forgot to mention last month that Evi has finally given up her Nuby sippy cups for milk! I know, I don't know what's more shocking, that she had to have her milk in a specific sippy cup until the age of 4, or that she gave it up without a fight! She asked why the "nipples" were always breaking, and I explained that it was because she was a big girl and really should be drinking milk out of a big girl cup (which to her, means a lid & straw). That was all it took! No bribing, no fighting, no crying, just "ok", and all the Nubys were gone! So now we are working on Evi sleeping in her big girl bed...yes, again!! After all my heavy bribery, I let us fall back into the habit of her sleeping with me. (mostly because i just want to sleep, but also because I know 10years from now she won't want to be near me!)
We had the same talk about being a big girl and all she could say was, "what about the monsters?" I tried the "they aren't real" explanation, but she wasn't buying it. So instead I found one of travel mouthwash bottles from a hotel and told her it was monster-be-gone, and that monsters didn't like the smell of it (but fairies did), and we poured a little in a spray bottle with water and told her to spray her room. She sprayed Eli's door too, so obviously, she really was worried about monsters! The next issue is the waking up crying that her legs hurt. Growing pains, I assume, but she has them more nights than not. And I know it's not just to get me to put her in bed with me, because she still does it when she's already in bed with me. Would it be wrong if I gave her tylenol every night? just in case?

Conversations with Evi:
Me: let's call your daddy again, he didn't answer when I called earlier
EVI: HE MUST OF HAD BLOCKS IN HIS HANDS
Me: blocks, why, because he builds things?
EVI: YES, HE BUILDS WITH BLOCKS
(so she thinks Scott goes to work and plays with blocks all day! :P )

this next one is a little personal, but too funny not to share!
setting: airport bathroom, "doin' my business"
EVI: IT'S STINKY!! MOM, ARE YOU GOING SHEW-WEE CAUSE IT'S STINKY?
she tries to open the door, and I'm giggling and trying to get her to be quiet and keep the door shut
EVI: CAN I GET OUT OF HERE? IT'S STINKY!!!
and of course, none of this is quiet, but it was too funny!