A reminder :-)

We have a separate blog for sweet Tessa and our journey to her.

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Summer sprinkler Fun

These temperatures have required some sprinkler time! Eli hates it, Drake loves it. So Eli ends up hanging in the shade with his toys..... I can only imagine next summer when we have all three running around in the sprinkler together!

Fun with friends

Supper club for May was a Ryan and Michelles super cool loft in NoDa. This supper club ended with five of us girls (plus one guy "chaperone") going dancing uptown. Fun times!

Carmen and I went to the beach for a girls get-a-way, and it was heavenly. Absolute relaxation and laziness. I missed my boys, but a few nights away was perfect to recharge my batteries. And in turn, Drake and Eli had some quality time with their Daddy.


Last week was the Kenny Chesney concert with my girls. I don't even really like country music or Kenny, but his concerts sure are fun. And it's become a yearly tradition with my girls. Good times! The pics are from the Hipstamatic app on my iphone.

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!

Easter Sunday

I loved our Easter Sunday. It was so low key, and so much fun. We walked to church, and both boys did just fine in their rooms in toddler town. Our friends from lifegroup were keeping Drake's room, and said he only cried 3 minutes. And didn't have any accidents! Yippee! The message from David Chadwick was amazing as always. And the music- well the production team outdid themselves as usual. We got a new worship leader a couple of months ago, and he is wonderful. I don't really know why they added another person, but he's been a great addition.

We walked back home, and showed the boys what all those toys in their Easter baskets were for. THE SANDBOX! It was and still is, a huge hit. They could both just play out there all day. While Daddy played with the boys, and got everything ready to dye eggs. Drake didn't understand quite why we were doing it, but it was still fun.

I got Eli down for a nap after lunch, and Daddy decided to lay down as well. I tried to put Drake down, but he just screamed. So I tried something new. I told him he could lay with me in Mommy and Daddy's bed, but he had to be SUPER quiet since Daddy was sleeping. Well, unbelievably, it worked. Next thing I knew, it was an hour later, and we were all waking up. That was one fabulous nap!

It was 3 pm by that point, and we still had a few good hours of sunlight. Time to make a quick decision, and the choo-choo won out. We decided to take the train uptown, and go for an early dinner. There is a pizza place where you can sit outside, and see the trains coming and going. Well, on the way down there Eric's dad called, and told him the Sabres (Buffalo hockey for all you southern folks) were on. It's playoff time. Anyways, the pizza place was nixed for a Wild Wing Cafe, b/c Eric knew they would have the game. The boys didn't mind, and Drake got some wings. You'll see in the pictures how much he loves them!

Drake was about to hop out he was so stinkin' excited.

Pointing up to the tracks!

What is it Drake?
A CHOO-CHOO!!!!!!

Not our choo-choo, but Drake was still thrilled.

You can't even see Drake beside Eric, but I can assure you they were having a large time.
He has his Daddy's Buffalo blood. The kid can kill a chicken wing.
That's not a chubby cheek. That's an entire wing shoved in his mouth.
Blurry, but still super cute.
Now, onto the egg dyeing part of our afternoon....
Drake loved it!
BIG thumbs up!
He took this one to the sandbox, but it "bwoke". Oh no. Tragedy.
We each had an egg! Drake's was the pale yellow, so you can hardly see his name. Tessa's actually came out the brightest. Maybe to brighten my day and give me hope that this process will hurry along?
Now, onto the sandbox pictures:-)
Eating sand. He quickly figured out after day 1 that it wasn't advised. Or tasty for that matter.


Daddy introducing his boys to the sandbox.

The boys

Let's mark this down in the history books. DRAKE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!! I hope he doesn't regress now that I've typed this. Today was day three in underwear, and he's only had two accidents. Both were just a little bit of poop. He's getting there, and I'm thrilled!

Eli took his first step last week! He is getting braver and letting go of stuff, but only takes about one step before plopping down on his bottom. He's drooling like crazy, so I hope some teeth are about to pop through.

Drake has been super heavy with the hugs and kisses lately, and we are all eating it up.

Eli has a smile that lights up the space around him, and makes us all smile.

We are so blessed.