15 months

Elias had his15 month appointment yesterday. He's a moose. 98th percentile for length at 33 1/4" and 75th for weight at 24.6 pounds. All in all he's doing well. The doctor said they want 5 - 10 words at 18 months, so hens right on track. Apparently Haidyn was quite advanced with her speech. And my doctor told me to stop comparing the two. :)

Trouble!

Now that the flu is mostly behind us, I can get caught up on my posts. Yes, that's right, the flu made its rounds through our house. At least this year it was a little early and not starting on Christmas Eve.

So to get back to my title of trouble... It's all Eli. He has found out that he can push a dining room chair any where he wants and climb up and reach things he shouldn't. He's quite proud of himself.

Cookies!

Haidyn had some of her friends come over and bake and decorate cookies on Saturday. They allhad a good time! They did have to take a few play breaks throughout the day, which was good for me because I was able to to a quick cleanup. :)

They all loved Haidyn's gingerbread house, so they decided that's what they'll do next year. :)

Snowflake

Our elf on a shelf, Snowflake, has made an appearance and after sneaking out each night after we're all in bed to go see Santa, she comes back and hides in a new spot. Haidyn has a lot of fun looking for her each morning.

Gingerbread house

What a fun project we did today! We made our first ever gingerbread house! Now anyone that knows me even remotely will know that I bought a kit and didn't actually bake my own gingerbread house, but we did put it together and decorate ourselves. Haidyn is currently eating the sprinkled snow. I don't know if the house is going to last until daddy gets home from work.

Tree lighting

Elgin had their annual tree lighting ceremony Saturday night. Santa made a visit and just as cool a that was, we got to see two of his reindeer, Comet and Cupid.

Christmas tree

We went to cut down our own Christmas tree this year. Both kids, and mommy and daddy had a good time! Even Santa was there too!

Fall Fun

I better get moving and post my fall pictures before winter arrives!

The kids had a great time playing in the yard! There's not many things better than jumping into a big pile of leaves!

Trick or Treat

I've been meaning to download my pictures off my camera, but haven't had a chance yet, so you're just going to have to deal with what I got on my phone. Haidyn didn't know I was taking her picture while we were sitting at a red light on the way to Will's house. And Eli was just running around the house before we went out. Not the best pictures, but I didn't get a chance to take many. I had Eli in the stroller and Haidyn and Jordan literally RAN from house to house for hours. I had a hard enough time just trying to keep up with them. Eli didn't get out of the stroller much, but Jordan was nice enough to share her fruit snack she got at one of the houses with him. Once we were back at Wills, the custumes came ripping off and they were running around playing together. So not much of a photo shoot opportunity for me.

Santa's Village

I took Haidyn to meet one if her friends at Santa's village. It's a small amusement park geared toward the little ones. Not only did I find out she loves roller coasters.... She's also a natural on a horse. I thought for sure she either wouldn't get on, or would freak out and be ” that kid” and that they would have to stop everyone and get her off. I was pleasantly surprised. I also found out she likes cotton candy, likes the tilt o world, hates parakeets and REALLY hates goats. :)

Pumpkin

We finally got around to doing pumpkins. I gotta say, I love these little push,ins instead of carving. :) although I think Haidyn wants to carve our other one.

This is Haidyn's masterpiece.

Pumpkin Farm

I took the day off work and took the kids to Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm. They had a blast! Between seeing all the animals... going through the cornstalk maze, the jumping pillow (for Haidyn, Eli will be old enough next year), climbing on everything! ... It was a great time! And it ended with buying a big ghost frosted cookie. :)

Bye bye

We were playing in Haidyn's room and Eli grabbed her play purse, put it on, and said ” bye bye” and walked out of the room. He's so stinkin cute.

New park

We went to a new park in Huntley last weekend. The kids loved it! They had play shops (Eli liked the barber shop), a huge sand pit and lots of things to climb on. Other than cement sidewalks, the ground was covered in foam, so for my clumsy girl and boy who's just learning to walk, it was perfect!

Happy Birthday Elias!

We've made it past 7:07pm, so Elias is officially 1 year old! He's got a touch of a cold (runny nose), so he was a bit cranky today, but otherwise I think he had a good birthday. He's walking TONS now. We're calling it, he's officially walking.

Going for a walk

Haidyn and Eli were playing in Haidyns room while I was working in the kitchen. I heard them come down the hall.

Me: ” What are you two up to?”
Haidyn: ” I'm taking baby for a walk.”
Me: ” You don't have a leash on him, do you?”
Haidyn: ”Yes.”

Guess what Eli can do?!

Sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out how to rotate it.

Big kids!

The two of them are sitting on the couch eating cereal watching cartoons. When did they get so big!

Eli is sick, been running a fever since yesterday. Haidyn says she's not feeling well, but I think she just wants some attention. We'll see how she feels a little later today.

This is a boy...

Who slept for 11 hours straight! 7:30 - 6:30. I had to capture it on film since there is a really good chance it may never happen again. He was actually happy when he woke up, but got mad that I was taking pictures and not picking him up. I guess he didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. :)

Park

How do you spend Labor Day weekend when you have two small children? You go to the park! Fun time had by all!

Spaghetti

I don't think this picture requires any explanation. :)

First day of school - PK4

Haidyn was very excited, and just a little bit nervous about her first day. All her old friends from last year are here and one new one. I think she'll have a great year!

11 months old!

Can you believe it's been almost a year?! Eli is growing up so fast. He cruises the furniture, climbs on everything and gets into everything. He's still so sweet and likes his snuggles, if you can get him to stop for a minute. He can say dog, out, up kuh (which is cat) and door. Although they all sound quite a bit alike. :) He can make the dada and mama sounds, but still doesn't make the connection to us.

It took all day and he was in his jammies before he was still long enough for me to not get a blurry picture.

Quiet time

I'm working from home today and Haidyn told me she wanted to play with Eli in his room. I figured it would give me a few minutes to get some work done without being interrupted. Then I realized it had been quite some time and it's been quiet. This is what I found. I love that they can play together! Even if they do make a mess.

Chop chop

Haidyn wanted a drastic hair cut..... And she got it! She loves it!

Climbing

Look what Eli does ALL the time! Climbs! He loves that little chair, he's forever climbing up on it. He's pretty close to being able to climb up onto the couch from it.

Don't mind the bare chest... Daddy gave him raspberries and didn't put a bib on him. I came home to a half naked baby. Anyone want a pink shirt that used to be white? Men.

Oh Haidyn!

My silly girl has my grace, or lack thereof. :( Last week she fell face first on Jens driveway, messing her nose up pretty good. Lots of bandaids and neosporin, it's just about healed. So what does she do? She tripped in the hallway at home and went face first into the door trim. So now she has a mark from the top of her forehead, through her eye and down her cheek. It's starting to heal, the black and blue eye is just about gone.  I need more bandaids, we're going through them pretty quickly lately!

10 months old!

We lost our baby. He's a big boy now! He walks really well with a push toy, just a matter of time and he'll be off running on his own!

I think he thinks Paisleys name is out. He says it quite frequently when he sees her. I do tell Paisley, constantly, OUT! when Eli is in his high chair. Funny, Haidyn called Paisley Kong when she was little, guess Eli had to have a fun nickname for her too. :)

Signing

If anyone has any doubts about Eli keeping up with his sister in the ” smarts” department, you can put them to rest. The other day we were eating breakfast and Eli was playing with a few pieces of toast and says, ”alldone,” and makes the sign. I repeated all done and he did it again! I text Jen and ask if she's been teaching sign language to Eli. She replied that they do a lot of sign there because one of the two year olds isn't speaking and the therapist wants him to sign to help communicate. Eli picked it up!

I'm not really sure what words he can speak. It's still pretty garbled and nothing is consistent. He'll say Hi-ya for Hi sometimes. He's said Alldone, as in one word. He says something like Come and makes the hand movement, like you would do for come here. He makes up a lot of words with the H sound. I think he's trying to say Haidyn. :)

Under the water!

We went to Lords Park pool today. Eli of course had fun splashing in the water, but the big shocker is ...... Haidyn went down the big slide all by herself! They wouldn't let us go down together, so she went down one and I went down the other. I couldn't get over to her fast enough, so she went under. She was a little freaked out and didn't want to do it again, but it didn't stop her from wanting to jump into the pool from the side. Yay!

Sibling love!

It's so good to see that Haidyn and Eli play well together. :) And this is only the beginning. I can't wait to see how they are together when they're older!

6 teeth

Elias has a mouthful now! Four on top and two on the bottom. You'd think he'd sleep better now that they've popped through. Oh well, I should just give up on the whole sleep thing. At least he's cute. :)

Fourth of July

Eli celebrated his first fourth of July! We went to the Elgin parade and both kids had a good time. I'm very surprised Eli was as good as he was. It helped that we were smart this year and went early to save seats in the east side of the street so we were shaded instead of roasting in the sun on the west side like we usually do.

Now we're home and enjoying the air conditioning. It's a HOT one today!

Who's a big boy?

Eli is! He pulled himself up at the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. :) He loves the kitchen! I think it's because there are a TON of things there and he can put them all in his mouth and he doesn't get yelled at. I'm surprised Haidyn lets him play there, she can be a little territorial with her things. But overall, she's a great big sister!

9 months old

Eli had his 9 month appointment today. He's 29” long and weighs 19lbs12oz. That puts him in the 85% for length and 50% for weight. He's right on track!

It was very hot today, so we ”opened the pool.” Eli loved it! He was crawling all around, splashing and getting his face wet. We definitely have a water baby! Haidyn, not so much. She's back in swim classes and is doing well, so hopefully that will help.

And now Eli has four teeth! One of his top front poked through today. So many changes with our little boy lately!

Standing

Someone should be sleeping, but it appears a certain little boy figured out how to pull himself up and stand. Guess it's time to lower the bed!

And what seemed important yesterday, now dulls in comparison, but I'll share the news any way. Eli has his third tooth! A top canine came through yesterday and the other is really close. His two front aren't ready yet, so I think he's going to have fangs for a little while. Can't wait to get a picture of that. :)

Summer Camp

Haidyn has her first day of summer camp today. She's going with her friends Will and Jordan. And they're having a field trip already. They're going to Build ABear. I think she's going to have lots of fun! Can't wait to hear all about her day!

Workshop

Haidyn has gone to Mr. Wendt's two times now. He's one of the Sunday school teachers and runs a workshop from his home every other Saturday. Haidyn made a race car the first time and a bird house and feeder yesterday. Daddy helped hang them up today.