So much to update....too tired for much

Lots has been going on at our house the past few days. Eli & I went down to the farm this past weekend so Tim could work on painting trim in the new room and putting epoxy floor in his garage. Eli & I had a great visit with my parents and grandparents - pictures to come hopefully tomorrow. Tim painted like a mad man this weekend while we were gone, painting all the trim and base in the new room, doing the garage floor and reinstalling some shelving. Today the crews came to replace carpet throughout our entire house. Talk about house being upside down!! It was total chaos and now the work of putting things back together starts. We did set up Eli's big boy bed tonight and he had so much fun playing on it. So, for now, construction is 100% finished and we'll be posting pictures soon when things are cleaned up and more organized.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the marvelous weather!

Shirts for our boys....

Yesterday the "boys" got a package in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa N. In it were the cutest "I'm the big brother" t-shirt and "I'm the little brother" onesie. So much fun that we'll have two boys this summer! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Belle!!

Belle enjoying a Frosty Paws treat for her 13th birthday. My sweet old doggie.

Frozen waffles for breakfast.....still frozen

This morning I had prepared Eli a nice breakfast but when Daddy went to toast some French Toaster Waffles, Eli decided that he wanted one - straight out of the box! He ate the entire waffle, still frozen. Such a crazy boy we have!

Yummy waffle

Baking and Cooking

Snow day.....another day mostly inside.....what oh what to do. Bake and cook - what else?! I went into work this morning while Tim & Eli hung out and had a lunch date with Ryan. I got home during Eli's nap which allowed me to get dinner in the crock pot - yummy country style steak, good old fashioned Southern comfort food to beat the cold. As soon as I got it in and cleaned up, Eli woke from him nap. He & I baked chocolate chip cookies and had fun. He kept eating chocolate chips out of the measuring cup - he is so my child!! He wasn't interested in the dough, yet, and he didn't even eat one when we finished but he'll get there. We did have a lot of fun in the process though and practiced our counting and motor skills. Afterwards, some of the neighborhood kids came over to enjoy cookies and spend a few minutes playing with Eli.

Stirring together flour, baking soda and salt

Measuring and pouring brown sugar

Checking out what he'd put in the bowl

Mommy & Eli - I need to make him a cool boy-ish apron

Sneaking chocolate chips

And the crock pot of yummy country style steak and gravy - it was so good!

One thing I'm learning in this weather that keeps us inside is that I CAN do this Mommy thing. I'm growing into the creative Mommy who shares most everything with her kid (and soon to be kids). Eli loves hanging out with me no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I can still do all my normal house things, it just takes a little longer with an 18 month old helping. I'm letting go of some of that rigid personality and "have to do it now" attitude and letting Eli be a part of it. It's so much fun and I hope to continue to develop and grow into that Mommy I want to be.

Nature's Beauty

This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow and some very beautiful trees. It's a snow day for Eli so we'll see what kind of slushy adventures we can get ourselves into today.

Rainy day fun - painting Eli's new room

This is probably the most surprising blog post ever. For it to have rained ALL day, it has been one of our best days. The two main objectives of the day were 1) do our regular grocery shopping and 2) let Eli & Ryan have some fun painting the walls in his new big boy room. So let's go to the picture play by play.

Eli was up at 6am even though we were hoping for a more favorable Sunday wakup time of 7am but oh well. It was at least a night of straight sleeping! Muffins and applesauce for breakfast, along with reading the newspaper. Eli particularly enjoyed the comics. After that we headed to the grocery store where Eli was an absolute angel for me. He was charming ever single person in the store saying "hey" in his sweet little way and waving. Not one person turned him down and each one spoke to him. He even waved and said "bye" to a few of them as we walked away. Our grocery experience was quite lengthy because we had not been in a while and, can I repeat, he was an angel! It was great.

Reading the comics after breakfast

After groceries, it was time to do some painting. Carol brought Ryan over and we dressed the boys in oversized long sleeve t-shirts and got some small rollers for them. Tim thought I was crazy with the idea to let them play in blue paint but how often do you get the chance to paint a room where you're replacing the carpet in a week? I figured it was an almost one time chance to do this and Carol was on board with my crazy idea. So we loaded up the tray with "Soar" - a light blue paint that will be on the top part of his walls - and let them go to town. We also painted their hands and put little handprints on the wall; they even tried to paint the carpet. Eli & Ryan seemed to really enjoy themselves and they felt like such big boys. We had quite a few laughs with them and Carol & I both had so much fun watching. Tim was a little skeptical of my idea but he let me run with it and saw that the "damage" wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be.

Painting my new big boy room

Two crazy boys with paint rollers - watch out!

More Mommy More - need more paint

Ryan taste tested the paint and didn't like it very much

Sweet handprints on the wall

So after paint fun time, it was bath tub fun time. This was the first bath that the boys have taken together and it was hysterical watching them. They were splashing around and laughing a lot. I got a few videos of them that I'll try to get posted. We washed all the paint off their hands, ears, feet, toes, mouths - you get the idea - and then let them play more. It's going to be so much fun in a few years when Eli can take a bath with his brother.

Peek-a-boo

Catching the waterfall

After bath, it was lunch time and then naps. Carol & Ryan went home and we put Eli down for a nap. It didn't take him long to go to sleep and, although he only slept 2 hours today (instead of yesterday's 3), he woke up in a great mood. A little snack and it was time for more playing.

Eli's new yarn pet - I gave him a ball of yarn to experiment with

Yarn ball being unravelled

Tackling and wrestling Daddy

Playing airplane with Mommy

We did manage to squeeze a quick family walk around the neighborhood in before it got dark after the rain stopped and now Eli is asleep after this very busy day. I know it sounds crazy but I really enjoyed our rainy day and we've just had the best weekend. I think a lot of it is because I let loose of a lot of things and just flowed with Eli's mood and had fun being in the moment. This is something I'm really working on. Looking at him today, I realize how fast he's growing up.