Eli at 10 months

Eli turns 10 months tomorrow and I can't believe I have not done these kinds of posts more often. I've been meaning to update just about Eli for about 5 months now. Oops. I do keep track of all this in a baby calendar for him though, it's just easier for me to pick up a pen than get on the computer.

Anyway -- this poor little guy doesn't get nearly the attention he deserves in our blog. Here are his (almost) ten-month stats:

Height: 30.5 inches

Weight: 19 lbs

Number of teeth: 5

Crawling: yes! Our earliest mover. Started right about 9 months.

Favorite things: Food. People. Drinking water. His hands (thumbs especially, they're a new discovery for him). Waving. Music,singing, dancing. Noisy/musical toys. Getting attention from people, especially Hannah and Joshua. Bathtime. Making people laugh. (Lately his favorite way to do this is by taking the wet wipe I'm using to clean off his face and stuffing it into his mouth. Hannah and Joshie think this is pretty funny.) Toy cars.

Doesn't like: Bedtime (most of the time. He's a pretty good sleeper, but hates being put in bed.) People trying to put things in his hands. (If you want to give him something, you have to lay it down in front of him first and he will examine it and decide if he wants to pick it up or not. He's always been like this.) Putting things in his mouth (this even includes little finger foods -- he will pick them up but not EVER feed them to himself, we have to do it. Obviously this is great for the most part, but it makes teething extra hard because he won't chew on anything to help himself feel better).

Eli is such a cute little goofy baby. He's still very easygoing and likes to just explore, but doesn't get into trouble. He really only gets fussy when he's tired, and then he starts in on this awful whiny moan. And doesn't let up until he goes to sleep. So we try not to let him get to that stage, for everyone's sake. :) We all LOVE Eli and can't imagine life without him. Joshie especially is still loving to take care of him -- he wants to feed him (solids and bottles), get toys for him, take baths with him, "babysit" him (which is usually watching him through his toilet-paper-roll "telescope" when I have to leave the room), share cars with him, etc. They are going to be such great little buddies, I'm excited to see how they start playing together in the next few months.

I like to think I will do this post again at the end of the next month but really, it will probably be a birthday post next time! Man that is going by fast. We love you Peli!

Happy Birthday Hannah and Happy Easter!

Well, Hannah's gone and had another birthday (didn't we just barely celebrate the last one?) and she got to have a long drawn out celebration this year. She has two neighbor friends that have birthdays the same week as hers (actually one has the same birthday), so we had to have her party about a week and half early. The day before her party, she and Joshua got to go to an indoor playground called Kidventures where they got to dress up and play in a castle, a fire station, and a disco dance floor complete with mirror ball!

The next day, a few of her friends came over and we had pizza and a delicious "sunflower" cake made by the lovely Rebecca (yes, this is Seth writing).

Then on Hannah's birthday, we took cupcakes to Hannah's class which were a big hit with the kids. Hannah chose the Corvette Diner for her family birthday dinner (just like last year) that night and decided to wear something a little more formal.

Sadly, the birthday celebration had to come to an end (goodness knows she begged to keep it going), but then came Easter. After church, we came home and made a delicious Easter meal: Rebecca's delicious homemade mac and cheese, green beans and parsley, honey-glazed ham and Hawaiian sweet rolls. Unfortunately, someone accidentally turned off the oven (sabatoge!) and the ham was not ready in time for the kids to enjoy. We leave you now with some family photos of us in our Easter Sunday best. Enjoy!

Just look at these little angels!

Family Videos

We have a few family videos to share. The first is a video of Hannah performing with her Heartlight aerobic dance team. It's an afterschool dance program and Hannah loved it. They performed at the Spreckels Organ Pavillion in Balboa Park last month.

Next we have a video of Joshua quoting his favorite line from the Cosby show, where Elvin tries to imitate Cliff (Bill Cosby): "Why don't you two get a job and get out of my house and you will see me do some major dancin' on your face!"

Finally, we have Eli learning to crawl a few weeks ago. Cute little baby!

Travelogue Part II

So, to recover from my non-vacation, Seth's parents came out to visit last weekend and we got to go away and spend a night in Coronado, at the Hotel Del! It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to have 24 hours without children -- we got a super fantastic massage, had a delicious dinner courtesy of Marshall -- thank you Papa! -- and slept 9 HOURS STRAIGHT! I didn't wake up until 8 a.m. Wow! It was great. Then we had a great breakfast and I took a nice, hot bath before we checked out of the hotel.

It was so relaxing I felt like I was drugged the rest of the weekend, til Monday afternoon. I just could not "wake up". I guess that's my body telling me I'm too tired from getting 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep every night for the past 7 months, in addition to child care and as much tango as I do. Go figure. Unfortunately, while Oma took charge of the kids Monday -- my last chance for freedom! -- I went into exile (reading out at the pool) for a little too long and got FRIED! I have a terrible, excruciatingly painful, probably 2nd-degree sunburn all over my body. Small price to pay for being along all afternoon, right?

We relaxed so much while on vacation, I didn't even bother taking a picture. But last June, Darlene stayed with the kids for a night while we visited Coronado. We didn't stay at the Del that time, but took a picture outside it, so I thought I would finally post that. (Thanks Dar!) I'm sooooo relieved that I didn't look like that this time around! And thank you, thank you Oma and Papa! Mama needed the break! Ready to come back yet??? :D

Travelogue

I am pretty behind in this, but about a month ago my sister Tiffany and her husband Robbie adopted a darling baby boy! Eli and I took a trip out to Vegas to visit them and help them out with the new baby and moving to a new apartment. Daxton and Eli had a great time checking each other out and Tiff and I of course had a blast stuffing ourselves with junk food, watching I Love Lucy, and playing games. (Robbie joined in on some of the junk food and game playing). :) We also enjoyed not getting dressed or leaving the house for 3 days!!! (At least I enjoyed that!) Can't wait to do it again -- next time WITHOUT any of my kids! I adore them and Eli is a great baby, but he was teething and not happy to be in a strange place at nighttime, so I did not get any sleep. And he was kind of a whiner during the day and needed a lot of entertaining, which is not typical for him. Still, I am so glad I could come and thanks for all the fun, Tiff! and Rob! And Daxton of course!

You can tell how tired I am by the way I look in this picture! :P

That weird-but-cute baby to the left is never happier than when another child is crying his head off. He grins and giggles like a little goofball when someone else is screaming. ? :)

Look at your own risk!

I have been spending the last few days scanning all of our old non-digital photos onto the computer and it has been really depressing to see how awful most of them are!!! Oh my gosh. I have always known I am not very photogenic and not very fashionable either but I never thought I looked THAT bad! Holy cow that's embarrassing. I came across this picture of when I was first pregnant with Hannah....I look SO frumpy! Not much I could do about my Humpty-Dumpty pants (except buy a more fashionable pair of maternity jeans I guess), but my shirt was WAY too short (but who can tell when you're pregnant? Everything looks long enough from the top view!) I like to think that if we had had a digital camera and I saw this picture as soon as it was taken, the picture and the shirt would have been gone in that instant!! And the shirt would have been replaced with one long enough to cover up the Fred Mertz look from the pants. So anyway, I would like to formally apologize to anyone who ever had to see me looking like this on a regular basis, and thank all of you wonderful people for still being my friends!!!!

Ok I cannot believe I am going to share this picture with anyone -- everyone! -- it should totally be destroyed. (The picture is crooked because I had too much scanning to do to care particularly that they weren't all perfectly straight. But obviously that's the least of this picture's problems!!!)

More of the same...

I promise this is not going to be the only topic of this blog for the rest of my life, I just need to get it out of my system! I guess the reason I can't think of anything else to say is because this IS my life...all day, every day...Joshua spelling random words out, and The Cosby Show.

Joshie likes to copy words and phrases he finds in random places around the house. I don't have pictures of all of them, but in addition to this Disney one, we've also recently come across such things as "White-Rogers" (the brand name on our thermostat...minus the hyphen of course) and "Guthy-Renker" (the company that produced my Pilates videos, again minus the hyphen).

Obviously since his whole life revolves around the Cosby show right now, he likes to write out things pertaining to that topic...above is his very own phonetic spelling of "Vanessa"...pretty good for a 3-year-old!!!! He's a genius :)
And he has officially changed his name to "Cosby" and has to remind us every day that his name is NOT Joshua, it is Cosby (well, one day it was Mary Ann, from Alice in Wonderland...)

...and unfortunately I did not get a picture of this one, and it felt like cheating to redo it myself, but I came across a word in the living room that said "INOCOSBY"......"I know Cosby!" His reaction when I read it out was so cute...giddy and a little embarrassed, like he simply could NOT resist any longer the temptation to spell out his deepest fantasy, and was SO excited to see it there but, at the same time, embarrassed to have it there in the open for someone else to see. He cracks me up.

...and before I forget, he said the funniest Cosby quote the other day. I was coming down the stairs and heard him say, directed at Seth, "Why don't YOU...get a JOB...and get outta my house!"

Someone save me, this one's starting already!!!!!