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