Eli's Second Birthday Party

GUESS WHO TURNED TWO???

Happy Birthday to our sweet Eli! I love how head strong and determined this little guy is. He is SO loving at times, but wow is he strong willed. I love it! Just like his Momma! He turned two on the 30th, but we had his party the 24th. We did a bubbles theme with bubble machines and lots of bubble toys. It was a hit! It rained the night before, and finally cleared a little about 1 hour before the party was to start. I was sweating it! We kept it small and simple this year, because I honestly didn't have time to plan anything elaborate after we got through Tessa's surgery. I'll make it up to him next year.

Here he is evaluating the bubble machine:

Mrs. Gen and Hank
Best buddy Aidan. (Our neighbor)
Best buddy Marley. (This is the kids babysitter Mar-Mar)...She is part of the family that's our fabulous Charlotte family! (AKA neighbors across the street).
Eric's sister Lindsay, her husband Brian, and their two girls Lacey and Nora, were able to come to the party! We were so excited!!! They live in NY, and had been in Atlanta the week before. They changed their plans a little to come party with Eli, and meet Miss Tessa.

And this is why cousin Lacey had to change clothes before getting in the car to drive to Buffalo:-) The bubble machine was a hit.

Grandpa with Mrs. Anna and Mr. Bob. They are the kid's third set of grandparents, who live across the street. They are our Charlotte family!
Why does it appear Eli is eating the bubbles, and Drake is laughing?
Reese came to play!
Eric and Aunt Lindsay. (Yes, they look like twins; they're not. Eric is around 7 years older.)
Nora had to show her Daddy some of the bubble toys.

Sweet Anna came to play.

Who knows what Eli wanted here...
Our beautiful niece Nora.

Daddy to the rescue...the sandbox needed a refill.

Tessa has the cutest birthday party bow EVER!
Uncle Brian was giving Nora some smooches.
He wanted to get to those cupcakes!
Daddy lit the candles for us.

Blowing out his two candles. (There were three, until we remembered he was in fact, only turning two!)
Our sweet boy's cake!
These two were pretty pumped about the cupcakes, cake, and ice-cream.

Drake loves to walk the dogs.
Love my girl in her shirt, eating a pop-pop!
Happy kiddos!
A little bit of blue sky peeked out at us.
It started to rain as soon as we got to the park. There is a big umbrella we sat under, and I got this cool shot of the rain coming down.

Eli's First Haircut

This beautiful boy just had his first haircut about a month ago. He has since had it cut shorter so it stands up a little better. You'll see what I mean if I ever get to blogging Charleston.

Pre-cut:

The back pre-cut:
Big sister supervised.
And big brother refused to get his cut.
Eli wasn't too happy about it at first.
But then, they busted out the lollipops.
He had a taste...
And all was well!

Eli!

Found these old papers, and wanted to get this info recorded into the blog! That way when I print our yearly blog book, I'll have it forever!

At Eli's visit on 4-28-11...

Weight 17 lbs, 9 oz. Less than 3rd percentile

Height 28.5 3-5%

And at his 15 month appt

Weight 18 lb 7oz. Less than 5th %

Height 29.75 in 15%

Our BIG boy turns two March 30, so there will be those numbers to record before we know it!

Eli- My big boy!

I can't believe our BABY has gone and grown up on us! We just celebrated 19 months with him:-)

At his 18 month check up, he was 18 lbs 14 oz (less than 5th percentile), 30.25 inches(5th percentile), and a head circumference of 18 inches, also 5th percentile.

His stats follow right in his big brothers footsteps! Eric was a small child, so I guess our boys are just taking after their Daddy. Dr. Dorsey, our fabulous pediatrician, says they are just fine, but they get to stay on whole milk, and have all the butter they want! Which they enjoy- they love butter!

Eli is becoming a little chatterbox. He loves to say bye, baby, all done, no, mama, dada, and lots of other words. He is so cute leaving school everyday, he has to wave and say "bye" to his teachers numerous times. Eli is at our church's preschool every Tuesday and Thursday, and LOVES it. He goes right on in his room to his teachers, which is so opposite from Drake. He'll walk right in, and start playing and eating. It's kinda funny he's so social and happy there, b/c we jokingly say that Eli simply doesn't like people. He's actually just quite attached to

me and Eric, except at school.

We have a great time playing at Mommy and me gymnastics on Ssturday mornings, and we are starting swim lessons in January. I want him to be comfortable in the water by next summer, since my parents now have a pool.

Eli obviously is too young to understand what it means to be getting a new sister, but is SO sweet kissing her picture every night. My heart is aching about leaving my sweet boys for two weeks. It is literally making me nauseated if I think about it too much, so I try not to.

Eli is super active and agile, and must do every.single.thing his big brother does. It's super duper cute. I can see them becoming friends, and it's simply adorable.

Eli!

The kids are at their grandparent's, so all of you out there in blog land are finally gonna get some pictures and updates. And just maybe I'll finish blogging about our Disney trip that was 3 months ago:-)

Here is sweet Eli in the last month. So stinkin' cute! This picture is from the carousel at Concord Mills.

He found a way to entertain himself while I cooked dinner. Two entire shelves of the pantry got cleaned off, but dinner was made!

Sweet Eli-bo-beli

We call our littlest little Eli-bo-beli ALL the time. I'm not really sure why, we just do. He has suddenly turned from a baby to a toddler. I cannot believe how fast he is growing up right before our eyes. He is 13 months old now! At his one year old checkup, he was in the 3rd percentile for everything. He's obviously following right in his big brother's footsteps when it comes to be small.

Eli waves, claps, and is chattering away. Drake didn't do those things quite as purposely at that age. However, Eli is just now walking really well, compared to Drake walking by 11 months. It's funny to me how different they are developmentally. Eli's wave is the cutest thing. He moves his fingers so slowly and deliberately, as if to not mess up the wave goodbye. Dr. Dorsey got to see him in action; he waved and said "bye" at his checkup.

Our peds office does 15 and 18 month checkups, so we'll see more of Dr. Dorsey soon. Then we'll have everyone on the YEARLY schedule. I can't wait. I know Tessa will have to go more frequently when we first get home, but hopefully they'll all be on the same schedule within a year. Eli has also become a major Daddy's boy!!! His molars are coming in, so he's been waking up during the night this week. Eric gets up now, since I always did it to breastfeed. After about ten minutes, Eli was still crying, so I got up to check on them. I took him and all was well.....until Eric walked out. Eli LOST IT. Completely. Eric had to come back. My sweet thing loves his Daddy. I'm so glad they have that bond now, since I always get it immediately with breastfeeding.

I just wanted to take a minute and brag about my sweet baby. I sure do love that stinker! I thought it was time he had an update all to himself!

Eli's First Birthday Party!

Eli turns one on Wednesday, and this year has flown by as usual. We had his party this past Saturday, and really enjoyed celebrating with family and friends. It was MUCH smaller than Drake's, and I enjoyed it much more. I actually got the chance to talk with everyone who came. Unfortunately, Eric's parents both came down with the dreadful stomach virus and were stuck in our bedroom. We felt so awful for them! Eli (and Drake) really enjoyed the cake and cupcakes. As you'll see, Eli's party was a sock monkey theme. It was fun to do!

Eli had great fun playing with his monkey balloon the morning of the party

Favors



Do you remember Eli when he was this teeny tiny? He was only two weeks old, and had the sweetest squishable lips!

If anyone is looking for a science project with their kid, here is a good one. What is heavier, rain or helium? The answer- Rain! It made all the balloons look deflated:-(

Adorable hat.
Poor monkey balloon.
The party favors were sugar cookies decorated as sock monkey's. Nope, didn't make those either. Our friend from church, Bricklend did. She did the cakes as well, and I'll be happy to pass her info along to those in the Charlotte area.

Sock monkey fabric for the tables and highchair courtesy of my Mom, the fabric queen.

Cupcake wrappers and toppers from etsy:-)
Our friend Bricklend made the cake and smash cake- she's crazy talented!

Cute centerpieces, from the same etsy shop where the highchair bunting and photo banner were from. Check her out- Inspired by Owen.
LOVED his shirt with a sock monkey, a "1", and his name. So super cute! Another etsy find of course.
He decided that a nap was in order for the first fifteen minutes of the party.
Happy Birthday to our little monkey!

Singing to our sweet boy

Drake was a big fan of the cake and "cup-cups"
His smash cake was so big we ended up cutting over half of it, to serve.
Loving his new toys.
A bit overwhelmed by all the new and fun stuff. He's settled right into it now- loves playing with them all!
If you were wondering where our boys get their gorgeous eyes from...

Above: Marley, our neighbor and babysitter extraordinaire!

Below: The hat that was simply adorable, but I forgot to put it on Eli until the party was over.