Muffin man.........in training

As Eli explores new foods, so come new opportunities for me to get cute pictures.
This morning Eli had a muffin and half banana for breakfast. I might also mention that he had an english muffin with cheese for morning snack at school, chicken nuggets and veggies for lunch, applesauce for afternoon snack and black beans and sweet potatoes for dinner. The boy does love to eat!!

Yippeee - muffin

Yummm

Can't let any of it get away!

Feeding myself is fun

Traveling boy

Eli is a traveling little boy. This weekend we went to visit Tim's parents. We had such a nice visit and even found some time to relax! We left home early Saturday morning (about 7:30am) so we got to their house at a decent time and hung out for a while playing on the floor with Eli and just chatting about everything. Then Eli took a little nap before we went to visit Tim's friends Preston & Maria and their two boys - Ray and Thomas. Thomas is about 6 weeks older than Eli. The last time they saw each other, neither was big enough to know what was going on. This time they played and noticed each other. Saturday night, we went out to eat at Outback with Tim's parents. Eli ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and ate everything but the crust!! He was so good the entire time at the restaurant. We had several people say hello to Eli and tell him how cute he is. I think the helmet is a magnet. Without it, he'd be just another baby. :-) After dinner, bath time and bed. Eli slept pretty well last night. The only downside was he was up and ready for the day at 5:30 this morning. We kept him calm until 6am - the normal time he eats. Tim and his Mom took care of Eli and let me doze back off. It was soooo nice!! Had a relaxing morning of hanging out - Tim & I even made a quick run to Michael's by ourselves. Eli was so funny checking everything out. He wanted to touch it all. The straps on his booster seat kept him entertained for what must have been an hour! We headed home slightly after lunch so that we could get a few things done at home before work tomorrow. Eli was so good in the car down and back - 3 hours each way. We're lucky that he travels well. He had such a big weekend that he fell asleep about 20 minutes ago. Hopefully he'll get a good night's sleep and be ready for the week ahead.

Some pictures from our weekend.

Trying to crawl - not quite yet

I'd rather walk....just need help, for now

My new favorite trick - Upside down Eli

Riding the tractor with Grandpa

Playing with Thomas

Who me? I didn't do it

Look at my fun straps..think I can pull the chair down?

I'm a stinker!

Now I'm sweet

Love my Grandma and Grandpa

Alternative transportation

This afternoon was pretty neat. Eli & I used alternative transportation to get him home from school. I rode my bike to his school with empty trailer in tow and returned with Eli in tow. It was pretty cool to ride the bike for transportation. All the little kids at school were talking about Eli leaving on a bike. Hopefully I can do that on Friday afternoons if I'm able to get home from work early enough. Although it's only about the size of Eli's actual footprint, we did reduce our family carbon footprint slightly!

Have you lost weight? Follow the pregnant lady

So that title probably sounds confusing. Today was quite a funny day. This morning, someone in my office mentioned that it looks like I've lost weight. That was so nice to hear and started the day off pretty well. Then this afternoon before a meeting I was headed to the bathroom and offered to show another gentleman the way to go and he said, "Of course, follow the pregnant lady." To which I replied that I was not pregnant and had a baby last year. About this time, the large gentleman proceeded to try to backpedal and extract his big ole foot from his big ole mouth. It's a good thing that I was feeling good today and not completely self conscious or he could have ruined my whole day. Now it's just a good story.

On that note, got my results from the bloodwork I had done last week and everything is perfectly normal - no anemia, diabetes, thyroid issues (crap - I was hoping for an excuse!) and my cholesterol was great. Yippee!

Helmet update - Week 3

Had an appointment today to check Eli's helmet. Today marked 3 weeks that he's been wearing it. First, I have to say, Eli screamed the entire way to UNC. He must have been so tired of riding in the car seat after trip this weekend (he also screamed the entire way home too). Once we got out of the truck, he was Mr. Happy and so good for the visit. They took some pictures and some measurements and the progress is amazing. When we started, there was 5/8" difference in the cross sectional measurements of his head. Today, it's only 5/16" - difference cut in half in just three weeks!! He is making such good progress and it's very visible when we take the helmet off. We go back in two more weeks to have it re-checked. No major adjustments today except shaved a bit off the ear piece where it seemed to be aggravating his ear.

The best news of the helmet saga arrived last night via email. Found out that our insurance is covering it 80/20 after the deductible. We're paying 1/6th of the total cost. Woo hoo!!

Off to a party

This past weekend, we went to Evia's parents' house for a few days so that we could attend her Grandmother's 80th birthday party. We left early Saturday morning and drove down. We hung out for a bit at the farm before leaving Eli with Grandma & Grandpa and heading out to dinner.

Sunday morning we went on a family hike. We did about an 1-1/2 hour hike. Eli took a nap during it and Belle was pooped out after. We went back to the farm to have some lunch and clean up before going to the party. Eli ate half a turkey sandwich and some goldfish for lunch. He's eating so much little boy food now, forget the baby stuff!! We showered, packed up the truck and headed to the party. Of course there was a lot of yummy food but the most important thing...there was lime punch. Yummmmm!! There were quite many family and friends there and it was nice to see them. It sometimes takes a special occasion to get everyone together. We're just all so busy these days. After the party, I started thinking about what life will be like when I'm 80. Just think of all the stories you'll have to tell.

Blowing bubbles with Grandma

Feeding the goat

I want to get in there and play

Property of Grandma

Cute pancake boy

Uncle Billy teaching Eli to text

Ready to hike with Mommy

Family self portrait in the woods

Two Great Grandmas - the one seated is birthday girl

Eli's first kiss (from Reese)

He ate what?!

Eli is an eating machine. We've been letting him try just about anything these days. In Asheville, it was pancake. Now we're letting him have snacks and lunch at school. I trust his teachers and they know what infants can and can't have so I told them that whatever he wants, he can try. So here's what he's had:

Tuesday - an ENTIRE NutraGrain bar that he loved. Had some chicken and peas (and home food) at lunch but didn't like the slimy-ness of peaches.

Wednesday - TWO Blueberry muffins, little bit of cheeseburger and green beans for lunch (along with home food) and then some crackers for afternoon snack.

So you can see, he continues to eat like a champ. Last night he actually slept ALL night with no pacifier. Guess we're feeding that belly enough so he sleeps well. =)

He's doing very well at school and they told me today that it won't be too long before he moves up to the older infant room. There's more to do over there and he likes it when he visits there now. I can not believe how fast he's growing!!