Busy Boys

I never realized how busy a toddler can be until I had a busy one of my own. Eli is always moving and getting into things and playing and climbing and grabbing things off tables and counters I didn't even know he could reach! His business is great in the respect that he seems to find more toys to independently play with, either that or just having a big brother around makes playing with toys so much more fun.
The boys are at the point where they're starting to really play with and talk to each other. I always catch myself stifling a laugh when I hear the conversations they're having. Usually X is asking Eli a whole string of questions, which Eli usually responds to with "Ya...Yep...Ya....Ya...". He sounds so agreeable! (not the case with most things!)
Eli is a huge chatterbox so it's really cute to hear him ask Xander for things or for "help! help!" when he gets a toy stuck or can't reach a book. He is 16 1/2 months already and has been putting two word sentences together for the past month. He often says, "Help, please" or "No, thankyou" along with a lot of "Hi, Xander!" and "Hi momma!" or "Hi dada!".  I'm continually amazed by his vocabulary and every once in a while he suddenly points something out that I didn't even realize he knew the word for. He also just started "counting" and will fill in numbers as we count to 10, and trying to sing his ABC's.  I've got to get some of this stuff on video before I blink my eyes and he's suddenly a tall almost 4 year old like my Xander!!

Xander is growing like a weed. We've been monitoring his height on a growth chart in his room and he's grown almost an inch in the last month alone. He's very excited to cross the 42inch mark, which I believe is the height to ride a lot of rides at places like Disneyland. We talk about Disneyland a lot lately and even though I'm fairly certain he'd be totally freaked out by the giant characters trying to hug and wave at him,  he still talks about how badly he wants to go there. We told him we have to wait a little bit longer so Eli can get a little bigger, too.

In the meantime, we'll go to Big Al's :)

.....and cover ourselves with temporary superhero tattoos......

God knew what he was doing when he gave me little boys, even busy ones ;)

Silver Falls Park

In our quest to explore what Oregon has to offer, we took a day trip to Silver Falls Park on Friday. This beautiful park with 10 waterfalls is just over an hour away from our house. Xander was very excited for "waterfall park" and the falls did not disappoint any of us! Every time we'd turn a corner and see a different waterfall, Eli would point and yell, "Wow!". Xander said more than once, "This is awesome, guys!"

The weather wasn't the best for hiking but we threw our rain coats on and made the most of the sun breaks. The boys were troopers and I don't think I heard a whine out of either one the entire trip! One of our very best friends, Steve, was visiting for the weekend and we were glad to have him join us for many reasons but my back and knees were very thankful for his help hauling Xander up the steep part of the trail!

It was truly a wonderful day and made me even more excited for the summer ahead!

Momma Is Racing

I never liked running when I was a kid. It hurt my lungs. It hurt my legs. I always felt slow. I purposely did javelin in high school track because that was one of the only events that didn't require running.
A few years ago when I'd hear of people training for marathons I could only see images of hard core marathoners with sunken in cheeks and skeleton like frames. I just didn't get it. I thought anyone who wanted to run for fun was crazy.

Then a few things happened that started to change my mind.

I joined Stroller Strides the winter after Xander was born. I started to make exercise a part of my life and I met a group of amazing mommas. I started to see another side to running. The some of moms in my group were training for races. They didn't have 0% body fat and look like skeletons. They looked strong and healthy and excited to be running. It started to change my thinking about running and who a runner was.

The major turning point for me was Meghann. She is one of my best friends in the entire world and suddenly she was running! She wasn't a runner but she was running. In fact, she trained for and ran two HALF MARATHONS. I was amazed, proud, inspired.....jealous.

Jealous? I couldn't believe I was jealous. She was getting in amazing shape and she was really enjoying running and running races. I loved to hear her talk about her training and what race she planned to run in next. Meg always sounded so great when I'd talk to her post race. She was inspiring me, the only problem was I was pregnant with Eli. I wanted to see if I could do it, too. I liked the idea of a challenge.

Then, to top it all off, my sister, Shayla, started running. She has asthma and was battling through some horrendous headaches from some jaw issues but she still managed to train for and finish a half marathon! With an awesome time, I might add.

Now I am proud to call myself a runner and just last weekend completed my first ever race. I ran the 8k (4.97 miles) in the annual Shamrock Run here in Portland. It felt great and the adrenalin of running a race is awesome! My time was better than I expected and I ended up finishing 1266 out of 4000 or so women who ran my same race. One of the best parts was knowing those that inspired me were either running right along with me or cheering me on from the sidelines. Or, in Meghann and Shayla's cases, waiting for a post race call to Montana and Colorado :)
I can officially say that I am hooked! I feel great. I've lost the baby weight. And most of all, I'm healthier.


Here are a few pictures of the Shamrock Run. Jason, Xander, Eli and my mom and dad came downtown to cheer me on!  Sadly, I didn't get a picture with mom&dad but I was so happy that they extended their stay a little bit to see me run my first ever race.

It was so cold and rainy that day that I had to wear a bunch of layers, hence the bulging rain coat.

The action shot! Jas tried to take of picture of me on the homestretch to the finish line but this is all he managed to get :)

Eli and Xander under the rain cover 

Here I am with one of my fellow Stroller Stride mommas and 8K finishers, Liz! We were pretty dang proud of ourselves :)

12 months

I had almost forgotten how much I love this stage of transitioning from babyhood into wobbler/toddlerhood. Every day Eli is saying a new word or copying a new sign. It's so wonderful to see him start to understand a little of what I'm telling him and be able to express his needs better to us.

This past week my parents were here to celebrate Eli's birthday. We all stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge waterpark and had a great time. While we were there he really started trying to communicate with us. At one point Grampa was holding him and they were trying to find Jason and Xander in the sea of people. Eli leans over to my dad, grabs his face, turns his head and they points and says, "dada! dada!". He found Jason in all those people and pointed him out to my dad! I was pretty amazed, but yes, I'm biased :)

Then later in the week when we were back home Grampa, once again, was holding Eli. Eli is suddenly very into dancing and loves bouncing up and down and waving his hands to the music. He apparently really wanted to dance at that moment and leans right in front of Grampa's face and says, "Ga-pa, daaah (dance)!" It was pretty hilarious. 

Last night he was apparently finished with his dinner because he pushed the food off his tray, signed and said "all done" and then signed bath. This boy knows what he wants.

I just can't believe the ways he gets his point across to us. A few months ago I was worried he'd be a late talker because he wasn't much of a babbler! Boy was I wrong!

For my record, more than anything, I wanted to list the words he is saying: dada, hi, ball, bye, hat, all done, bear, dog, bird, cheese, cracker, shoe, nana, Xander, grampa, gaga, car, bus, choo choo, milk

Signs he's using: more, drink, eat, all done, bath, bird, ball, fish, cracker, please, thank you, car

Now walking, is another story.....

I've decided most kids are either talkers or walkers. Mine, most definitely, are talkers. Eli, like Xander at this stage, is still pretty wobbly and I don't see walking in his near future. I'm attributing it to that big Johns noggin :) You can't deny it. His head is 95% where his weight and height are now right around 50-60%. 

I'm anxious for him to walk though so hopefully in the next month he'll take those first steps and be a confident walker by summer time!

 

Happy 1st birthday, Eli!

Our sweet Elias is 1 year old today! Time flew by faster than I could have imagined this year with our family of four. I can remember so much about this day last year and I caught myself reliving my labor and Eli's birth multiple times today. It was such an exciting experience and I hope I never forget all the little details of that day.

We took the family, including GaGa and Grampa Larry, to The Great Wolf Lodge water park to celebrate and we had a great time. Eli loved splashing and crawling around in the water and Xander had a great time playing with all the water squirting toys and fountains. Thanks to GaGa and Grampa, Jas and I also had some fun riding the big waterslides! We even sneeked Uncle Steve in to the park to have some fun on the rides.

Eli & X wearing their "wolf" ears

my water baby

After we were all thoroughly worn out from the water park, we headed back home for birthday dinner and cake. When Xander turned one, I made him a cake that looked like a giant wheel of cheese. He was a very picky eater and cheese was one of the only things he would eat. Eli, on the other hand, will eat just about anything and in large quantities. I decided to honor his appetite for all things food, I would make him a giant hamburger cake.
Here is the final result. I was pretty pleased with the result.

Eli seemed to approve of his cake and loved eating the "sesame seeds" off the top.

He also appeared to enjoy the taste of his birthday cake!

We had Auntie Anna, Uncle Jason, cousin Elliot, GaGa, Grampa Larry and even Auntie Shayla via ichat here for the cake eating fun.

We love you so much, Eli! You are the perfect addition to our family. Happy birthday, baby!

Belly laughs

Big brothers are hilarious!

Growing Fast

Eli, 11 months

The boys are growing so fast. Eli will be walking soonish, I hope, and Xander is growing so fast his wardrobe can't keep up. I found myself uttering things like, "What?! I just bought you those pants, Xander!" and "Your shoes can't possibly be tight already!" in the past few weeks. Xander is well beyond babyhood and toddlerhood and is in full fledged preschoolhood now and I'm both excited and not ready for all of it.

Suddenly girls are coming up in conversation. Xander came home complaining to me that one of the girls in his class "kept wanting to hold my hand all day long!". I tried to explain to him that she probably just likes him but he looked at me like I had three heads. He also seems to have a little crush on a 4 year old girl at Stroller Strides and talks about her a lot on the days we've gone to class. The other morning I found him pouting against the wall in the gym after class and I asked him what was wrong. He said, "Mom, Ana said she didn't want to play with me!". So my response was, "Ok, then find someone else who wants to play, honey" which he quickly responded, "But mom! I LIKE Ana!". Oh the drama already at 3 1/2!

For Valentine's day Xander drew me this picture that he titled, "Xander Loves Mommy". Melts my heart! He drew it all by himself and the thing that looks like a cross is actually a big X for Xander.

11 months old

Big little mister. Big bubba. Chubba chubba choo choo. Chub scout. Little brother.  Booty.
We call this sweet, funny little boy many things but in just one short month we'll be able to call him a one year old. 11 months has absolutely flown by for us. I seriously feel like it was just a few months ago that I was dragging Xander out on long walks every afternoon in an attempt to get myself ready for labor. Now Eli is crawling around, pulling up on everything and starting to cruise along the furniture. Before we know it he'll be taking those first steps.
He has also started to really try and talk. As of now he says "hi" and "ball" and is trying to say sock, bear, hat, shoe, kitty, dog and just started saying making a "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...dddddddaaa" sound when he sees Xander. He also signed and said "all done" a few days ago, which amazed me. I thought he had said it the day before but until he repeated it the next day I wasn't sure I heard him correctly. I love this stage when they start talking. It's my absolute favorite time of babyhood turning into toddlerhood.

So, here's to 11 months looking forward to the big one year birthday!

Eli LOVES to wave and say "haaaa" to everyone we see! It's absolutely adorable and it makes me smile every time. It doesn't matter if we're in the line at the grocery store, at the mall, at the doctor's office, he's always smiling and greeting people. My little social butterfly :)

New favorite past time: using anything and everything, including his hand, as a phone

Demonstrating his new trick of blowing kisses

I had such a hard time getting Eli to sit still for pictures this month! Xander helped a little.

Doesn't Eli look like such a big kid sitting there next to Xander? I love his crazy hair wingers.

Love the look on his face in this one. I think he was mid yell.

teething like a mad-man

Dog kisses

Gross! But pretty cute and funny to watch.

Karate Begins

I've tried to get Xander interested in many things over the last year or so and it's been a struggle. We tried a tumbling class, a sports class where they tried a different sport every week, a hip hop dance class and a soccer class. It seemed like he would be semi excited about the activities after the first class or two but from there on out I would literally have to drag him to the car, occasionally even kicking and screaming, to make it to the class. I would have to beg and bribe and sometimes even call Jason to try and talk Xander into participating in class. I had become so frustrated about the entire situation that I gave up and didn't even sign him up for any classes this late winter/early spring session through the rec center.

Then we decided to try karate.....

A few months back, Jason and Xander were standing in the line at Xander's favorite restaurant, Chipotle, and they started up a conversation with a lady in line. This woman (Sensei Danni) seemed great with kids and started talking to the boys about a Little Tigers karate class that she teaches just down the street. At the time X was barely 2 1/2 so we filed it away for the future, occasionally throwing the idea of karate class around now and again.

A few weeks ago as I was driving past the area where the karate studio is located, I noticed their phone number hanging in the window in bright neon. I decided to call and we were invited to watch a class that weekend.

Xander was pretty shy when we watched that first class and refused to even go out on the mat with the other kids. I was frustrated and figured karate was going to turn out like the other activities we had tried. Then later that afternoon he started bringing up karate in our conversations and even started quoting some of the Karate Creed that is said at the beginning and ending of each class. He said something along the lines of, "bringing out the best in myself".

After a little talking we convinced him to actually go out on the mat and try to do the next class. Luckily, Jason came home very early from work to help me with Xander. (He always seems so much more adventurous when daddy is around. Which is both wonderful and frustrating at the same time.) He gave it a try and just a few days later he broke his first board with a heel strike and earned his white belt! Now two weeks later he is begging to go to karate on a daily basis and seems to be loving it. I even heard him telling one of the four year old girls at Stroller Strides, "I go to karate, you know" hands on his hips nodding and an adorable smirk on his face.

So, I think we've found his "thing" for the time being. He really seems excited about all of it and we really like the entire package that karate offers. There is a lot of talk about being the best you can be, self confidence,  healthy lifestyle, respect, etc....the list goes on and on.

Here is Xander with Sensei Bryce just after he broke his board and earned his belt!