First Bite!

...and that's what she thought of it :) She actually did pretty good-she ate about 3 spoonfulls. A good first start!

6 Months Old!

Can you believe this happy little girl is already 6 months old? I certainly can't! She is such a good baby, it has made time fly. Some things she can do at 6 months...she can roll from back to belly...and has ONE time rolled the other way.

She can sit up on her own, though I usually have pillows around her in case she falls.

She sleeps all night, and takes 2-45 minute naps. Sometimes mommy gets lucky and she naps longer, but not usually. Especially since I have stopped swaddling her...she seems to be waking up easier. In face, the past few nights she has woken up (awaken, wok-t up? The correct grammar would be appreciated here, Leah ;)) in the middle of the night to play for about an hour. She doesn't cry, she just talks...REALLY loud. Loud enough to make me turn the monitor off. Bad mommy...

She loves to watch her brother play, and giggles so hard at him.

She just recently has grown more attached to her pacifier, but will suck on her fingers if she can't find it.

We're still going strong with cloth diapers, and uses about 7 a day.

She is still only nursing. I think tomorrow she will get rice cereal for the first time (you can be sure to see a post about that!)

She is such a content baby. She will sit and play for a long time while I get ready, or do something else. As long as she can see someone she's familiar with, she's happy. The only time she has a hard time is in the church nursery...we usually get paged at some point in the service. BUT, that's a pretty tricky time, because it's nap time, and she's tired. She also lately has not been making it through childcare while I am teaching, so the last 15 minutes of class have involved me teaching while holding (a very heavy) baby. BUT, if that's the hardest I've got it, I certainly can't complain!!

I think it's fun to compare what my two kiddos look like at the same age, so if you also think it's fun, you can see Eli at 6 months old. Can you tell they are siblings?

The Weekend

After a week of sickness we had a fairly eventful weekend. It started out with teaching Eli to share...just kidding. That kid doesn't share :) Saturday we we went looking for tile...we went to 3 different tile stores...still looking. Then we headed to a friends house. It had been a very long time since we had made over to their place. It was a nice evening...except for the fact that Eli was rather cranky. Oh well. He enjoyed getting attacked by his uncle :)

This is pretty much where Eli spent most of his time-with the very pink car track. It was a pretty cool toy-he loved it. He loved it so much, however, that he wanted to do nothing else, and threw a fit if he had to get away from it. Oh well...at least he wasn't playing with dolls, right? :)

Apparently Eliud enjoyed getting attacked...

We left relatively early because we had church the next morning. It was fun to be together and eat delicious pizza, and catch up with friends though:)

Sunday after church we went to another tile place and then to Edgar's parents house. Mom had made lasagna and then wanted to take the kids to the manatee viewing center. I had been fighting a sore throat, and had been up most of the night with kids that can't seem to sleep, so I stayed behind and laid down with Leah and we took a nap :) Everyone else went over, though. This is Eli looking for a manatee...there weren't any :( I guess the best time to see them is earlier in the year. From what Edgar said, though, Eli still had a blast running around.

Eli & his Abuelo :)

Whatta stud. (He's ready for baseball season to start!!)

The manatee gang...minus Eliud. I assume he was the one taking the picture :)

We headed for home around 5:30 and had a quiet evening at home. Busy weekend...but fun!!

Some more tutu!

While I already posted my favorite picture from our little 'photo shoot' HERE, these are some more of my favorites :) Enjoy!

Something tells me this will not be the last time we play dress-up!

If you're not sick...SWING!

After a week of sickness on Friday we decided to head to the park. Eli finally had a day without a fever-YAY! I think he was anxious to get out-though I think he LOVED the week of TV that he got :)

Eli loves the swings, as I have stated before... ...Leah seems to enjoy the swing as well. While we were there there was also a homeschool group that I ran into. The boys in the group were running around with 'light sabers' fighting off the evil in the world...reminded me of many TTS (Traveling Through Space) adventures that we had as kids. It also made me realize that one day Eli will be running around with sticks, fighting off evil, and defending the galaxy...it's funny to watch boys be boys...play hard (though a bit dangerously) and have so much fun running and yelling as hard as they can. That is coming... I was able to talk to one of the moms in the group for quite a while about the group. Who knows...maybe one day we will join...if we decide that homeschooling is the right route for our kids. We'll see...thankfully we have a couple of years before we have to make that decision :) Eli came home exhausted...he fell asleep at 12:30 and didn't wake up until 4. Apparently chasing big boys around the park is tiring. He did manage to stay up until 10:30 pm, though...crazy kid. At least he gets his sleep at some point during the day...

Playing with 'Gods'

Eli loves flanelgraph. Ever since I told him the story of Jonah using it, he wants to play with it all of the time. It's pretty funny...there is one character he says is God, and one that is Jesus. Whenever he wants to play with it he says 'I want Gods'. So maybe he thinks all of the characters are God. Who knows...but it's super cute :)

I thought I'd put a video of him playing. Inevitably in his play time, Chicka chicka boom boom enters the story...if you know the book at all (I have every word memorized...we read it a LOT) you'll recognize his story. The funny thing is, he often is putting the characters 'up the tree' as he tells the story, and then says 'Chicka chicka boom boom' as they all fall...

Enjoy my little storyteller ;)

Pretty Girl!

...and a happy one too :)

Five for the price of one...

Okay...so this one post really should be five, but I just don't have the energy to separate them out, so I'm smashing them all into one picture loaded post. (Ryan...you will be glad to know that I really AM trying to avoid using blog as a verb. I think of you every time I almost type 'I blogged that' or 'I should blog that'. Just so you know)

Part of the reason I have not been blogging, I mean, posting as often is I've been somewhat without a computer. Edgar just wiped our laptop clean and is in the process of re-installing everything. I think we had a virus or something. It wasn't working well. Or maybe it's just Vista. Who knows. But I haven't had the laptop, and still don't have photoshop. These pictures are cropped kind on wonky because of that...

Tuesday, March 15 These first few are just a couple of my cuties.
Eli loves giving his sister kisses :)

Leah is not quite this chunky :) She's sitting in the bumbo seat...I love this dress on her :)

This is where Eli stands waiting for his daddy to come home. It's pretty cute. They BOTH get excited when daddy gets home. And quite honestly, so do I ;)

Thursday, March 17

The weather has been SO gorgeous here. Thursday night we ate yummy grilled pork chops (you thought I was going to say chicken, didn't you?) on the back porch. This is still one of my favorite spots in our house...

Friday, March 18

On Friday Krista & I finally got a chance to get over to the children's museum. It was fun to get over there again. This time, however, it was SO crowded. It was a little stressful trying to chase Eli around while taking care of Leah with a billion other people around, but thankfully Krista helped me out...a LOT.

Oh...and aren't Katie's glasses adorable?!

Eli dancing...

He found this area where you can make a road and drive the cars on it. He loved it and played there for a while...until another kid came along and he realized he had to share. He's really not good at that yet. So we left...and as soon as we left the little boy left too...so we could have stayed I suppose, but mommy was ready to move on :)

We headed downstairs to the water area. This picture made me laugh...Krista's always trying to catch a picture of her busy girl :) That'll be me very soon, I'm sure...

Eli & Katie playing in a 'tug boat' area.

Leah got out and joined the fun too :) She's sitting up pretty well now-she just needs occasional assistance. The star fish is helping her a bit here...

Friday Night

Same day...but this is a whole different set of fun :) After the museum Krista and I took the kids to my house and we ate lunch and just hung out for a while. After a few phone calls, Eric, Leilani, Isaac, Eliud & Edgar joined us :) It was a VERY fun, improptu get together. We got pizza (by the way...the chicken from Dominos is a waste of money. Just sayin') and hung out. Then the kids went to bed and we played some games. Eliud & Krista had brought 'Wits and Wagers' and we played a few rounds of that. Very fun.

Then Eliud brought out Edgar's birthday present...it was a game called 'Would you Rather' and was basically different scenarios that you had to choose between...like 'Would you rather be on a ferris wheel during 1) an earthquake or 2) an electric storm.' Then there were challenge spaces that were basically activities meant to embarras you...and make you laugh a lot.

Eric had to drink water like a cat...Edgar filled the cup intentionally low. Nice brother.

Sorry Krista. Krista had to keep a (rather large) spoon in her mouth for 2 turns. Not terribly embarrasing...but hard to keep from drooling.

Ummmm....yeah.

Eliud had to guess who was who just by feeling faces. We got laughing pretty hard at this one. Like how the only blindfold we could find was a pair of Eli's pj's?

We laughed a lot and had a lot of fun.

Monday, March 21

On Monday the kids and I headed downtown to ride an old fashioned trolley that goes through the downtown area. It was pretty fun. We met up with some other moms from the mommy group I'm in, and spent the morning riding it. It took just under an hour to get back where we started from.

Eli was pretty excited when we got on, and loved it with the whistle was blown :)

Afterwards we went to lunch and then headed out.

That's when the real fun began...at lunch right before we had left, I had given Eli a french fry. On the way home he fell asleep, and when we got home it looked like he had thrown up all over himself. I quickly realized he had just kept the fry in his mouth and had drooled it all over himself. Gross. By the time I cleaned it up, he was awake, so no nap for him. The day went on fairly normal, but at dinner he was kind of cranky, and wouldn't eat. We got in the normal 'If you don't eat your dinner, you don't get anything else' routine. He didn't eat. I went to clean him up. He was hot...Took his temperature, and he had a fever. Booo.

SO, I cancelled my class on Tuesday, and made plans for watching TV with Eli all day.

Eli woke up around midnight and his fever was a little over 101. Not terrible, but I thought it might be keeping him up, so I gave him some Motrin. He was up until 1:30...not because he was sick...because he was playing. Grrrrrrrrr. Then Leah woke up at 3:00. I hate nights like that. Tuesday morning his fever wasn't too high, but it kept creeping up all morning. At noon it was 102.8...so I gave him some Motrin and it came right back down...then went back up..and up, and up. At 4 it got up to 105. Kinda scary. I called my mom (cuz that's just what I do when my kids are sick...) and she told me to put him in the tub and get him cooled off. Kids with high fevers don't like baths...just sayin'. I gave him some more Motrin and called the doctor. We got in to see the doctor and she thinks its Strep...so he's on antibiotics. Today he had a fever off and on-it basically would come back as the Motrin wore off. He took a gigantic nap this afternoon, and is still awake at 10...I just checked him a bit ago, and his fever is back-but only 101, so not too bad. More Motrin :) Maybe that will help him sleep.

And that brings me to this moment. I ran tonight, so I need to jump in the shower and then go to bed.

Sorry for the long post. And really sorry if you don't like to read long stories about fevers.

One last thing...okay, maybe two. A couple cute things Eli said today...

Today he was watching Dinosaur Train on PBS and he looked and me and said 'Look mom! A Tyranosarous!'

At dinner he was eating a red popsicle. He said 'I LOVE red! It's deLICious.'

I love that kid.

Good night!

Plant A Flower Day

March 12 is National Plant a Flower day. Did you know that? I did not...until this year :) My friend decided to celebrate...and even though we celebrated on the 14th, the spirit of the day was there :) (Jennifer, I will refrain from saying that we celebrated on pi day...even though that is such an important day for math nerds like me. I thought you would appreciate the omission...oh wait...) We went over to Wendy's house where she had soil and sunflowers ready to be planted. This is her beautiful daughter, Rosemary.

'Got my pot! Ready to get dirty!'

'I know I've got some dirt in here somewhere...'

Eli didn't join in on the festivities. He found a magnet board with magnetic letters on it. That's where he played most of the time...so I planted his flower for him.

I think you missed your pot...

That's better :)

Planting a seed.

Seeds need water!

Leah and Xander chilled out in the pack 'n play together. They are destined to be buds :)

Once the flowers were planted the kids played on the play set.

We ate lunch...

...or tried to anyway :)

We had such a great time-Eli & Leah had fun playing, and I had a great time talking with all the moms. Can't wait to see if Eli's sunflower will actually grow :)