State Fair

Early in August we took our first trip to the California State Fair. The real drive for this visit was actually to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert and we figured it gave us an excuse to check out the fair as well. It was of course a sweltering day in Sacramento, but there was lots of shade and lots of misters around so it wasn't too bad.

Monster Truck - very State Fair ;)

We went into the petting zoo section of the fair and saw these darling little piglets that had been born just days before!

I love that this little one fell asleep while feeding. Not to compare my child to a piglet, but it definitely did bring back memories of his early days :-)

In the farming exhibition, they were handing out big slices of fresh watermelon. It was so delicious on that hot day! Even the duder couldn't get enough of that juicy melon.

More, mama?

Sorry dude, it's all gone.

What?

I'm so excited to be at the fair!

We had to stay hydrated in all that heat.

Although some of us enjoyed playing with the water bottle as much as we did drinking from it.

I also got to see my first Derby Car exhibition. They literally just ram into each other until there's only one car left running...more of a guy thing I would say. :-)

The driving force behind this trip, as I said earlier, was seeing Weird Al Yankovic in concert. We got to sit really close to the stage which was so much fun! He is absolutely hilarious and so clever. It was a great way to end a wonderful family day at the fair!

If you're happy and you know it...

Clap your hands!

Hilarious

I think these two videos are absolutely hilarious!

This is so the Mountain House dads!

I don't actually own a minivan, but I still think it's hilarious :-)

9 Months

My little baby is 9 months old today! How did this happen? A little snapshot of what the little man is doing at 9 months:

• Weighs 17lbs9oz (he has his 9 month appointment next week so we'll know length then)

• Is a very good little eater. So far he has tried avocado, green beans, sweet potatoes, tofu, peas, carrots, apples, pears, mangos (his absolute favorite), peaches, apricots, string cheese, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, scrambled egg yolks, broccoli, cauliflower, cottage cheese, yogurt and of course Cheerios, which I think he might have a slight problem with. He seriously can't get enough of the Cheerios. The only thing he has not liked is banana. Please reference this video if you need a reminder. He likes cantaloupe but the few times we have given it to him he's gotten red blotches on his face, so we're holding off on melons for awhile longer. I have been able to stick to my original plan and have so far made all of his baby food. It's a good amount of work, but it's so worth it when I feed him and know exactly what's going in his little body.
  

• LOVES his dogs. Every morning Elle and I go in to get him and he immediately starts giggling as soon as he sees her, even if he woke up crabby. Anytime she comes into view he starts giggling actually. Can't get enough! Parker is his play buddy. The poor little thing, who is about the same size as the baby now, let's him crawl on him, grab his tail, his ear, his muzzle, jump on him, etc. and never utters a peep - no growls, no snaps, nothing. It's pretty amazing to watch these two animals with their little man. The love here is definitely reciprocal.

• His favorite toy is definitely his Fisher Price ring set. He loves to take all of the rings off and carry them around. He crawls with them, climbs with them. He actually gets mad when you put them all on the pole. He immediately crawls over and pulls them all off and throws them around. This alone could entertain him for quite some time!

• Loves music and bounce up and down to it.
  

• Is a speed crawler. I can't believe how quickly this kid gets around. He actually crawls with his left knee and right foot. I have a feeling walking is not too far in our future.

• HATES having his nose wiped. He screams as if you were torturing him.

• loves being read too, especially when he's getting sleepy. He loves touching the pages and grabbing at the images he sees. One of his favorites is Little Puppy, which his Aunt Cissy gave to him before he was even here. He absolutely loves grabbing onto the the little doggy finger puppet, while mommy makes little doggy noises.

• Giggles uncontrollably when you nibble on his chin.

• Loves giving kisses. Right now they are more like open mouth slobber fests on your cheek, but absolutely adorable!

• Loves bath time and his rubber ducky.

• Will feed himself a bottle, but still prefers that Mama or Dada does it.

• Loves glasses. He will pull them off your face if you're not careful ;-)

• Has figured out how to pull hats off of his head, even if they have a chin strap.

• Is still a great sleeper at night. He usually does about 11-12 hours. Naps are still not his thing. He would much rather stay up and hang out. We have to be very purposeful having quiet play time leading up to a nap, so that he gets the hint ;-)

• Constantly gets told that he is the happiest, chillest baby around. I would have to agree with that. We pretty much take him anywhere we want to go and are not worried about how he will do.

• Is the absolute and complete love of our lives.
  

Shopping is hard work...

Baby Jack-Jack

For those of you that have heard us call him baby Jack-Jack, hopefully this explains why...

Catching Up.

We have been busy little bees the past few months and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon. I've got a ton of pictures that I want to share, but haven't had time to blog about them, so I'm just going to share the pics and videos and try to caption them in a series of "catching up".

A few months ago I had the opportunity to get together with some of my girlfriends from high school at a park in Pleasanton. It was so much fun to see them and their little munchkins.

Mommy's personal hairdresser.

Sarah and Zoe; Michelle and Camryn; Brittany, Lucy, Clark and Brady (on my left); Me and the duder.

My beautiful bestie Sarah with Elijah and her gorgeous little Zoe.

The duder and his Sophie giraffe.

Eli and Clark were very good at sharing toys.

We've recently done a complete overhaul on the downstairs. We ripped up all the carpet and put down hardwood flooring. Loving it! We also put a couch and a loveseat in the family room, replacing the cinema seating we had before, and put up picture walls.

Ear Infections - boo!

My poor baby boy is in the middle of his third ear infection in a row, or possibly his third recurrence of the same infection. Each time we've finished the antibiotic he's fine for a few days and then we get hit by a horrible fever and it's back to the doctor. Now, we absolutely adore Elijah's pediatrician, but I would rather not see her every two weeks. This past weekend we got hit by the worst of all. He was a little fussy in the evening, but he hadn't slept well at daycare (which is his usual m.o.) so we thought he was just overly tired. We put him to bed and when I checked on him an hour or so later he was burning up. The fever registered at 102.6. We gave him some acetaminophen and placed cool cloths on his hot little body. Fevers are so, so scary when your baby is so tiny and even though 102.6 is very high in my opinion, it's not until 103 that we are supposed to take him in. So once his fever started to come down I put him back to bed, and continued to check on him throughout the night, alternating between acetaminophen and ibuprofen. His fever never got below 101. In the morning when I went in to get him, his fever came up as 104. I almost dropped on the spot. I immediately gave him some more medicine and covered him in cool cloths while Jason called the doctor. Luckily his fever started to come down fairly quickly and we were able to get him in to see the pediatrician right away. It is the most helpless feeling when your child is sick. All you want to do is take away there pain and discomfort and you can't.

Playing with the "baby in the mirror" in the doctor's office. His favorite is the paper that covers the exam table though!

After examining him, the doctor confirmed that he had a double ear infection. She then brought up the subject that I had been fearing - tubes. She said that they are now keeping count of his ear infections. If he has a total of 6, including the three he has had, in 4-6 months, they will seriously want to consider tubes as a treatment. I have talked to several mamas who have gone through this and they have told me that the procedure is very quick and they've had no negative side effects, but the thought of my baby going under general anesthesia just fills me with terror! We will keep our fingers crossed that these things clear up and we don't even have to consider it. In the meantime, my boy is still a happy little munchkin even in the middle of all his discomfort. This kid is something :-)

Birthday Celebrations Continued

For his actual birthday, we went out to sushi, pretty much our favorite type of food. I think that we could go to sushi everyday and not be bored and Elijah is certainly fascinated by all of the colorful pieces of fish and definitely with the chopsticks!

Forget Sushi! This table is delicious! (Thank you whoever invented these stick on placemats!)

Dada, I'm way to cool to take pictures with you.

Very happy birthday boy.

After dinner, we headed back to the ranch where a very special dessert was waiting along with our good friends and neighbors, Sarah, Cory and their little girl Ava. Several months ago, during the Livermore Wine Festival, we walked into the Nestle Tollhouse Cafe for a cool treat. While we were in there we saw a giant chocolate chip cookie cake and Jason commented on how cool it was. A birthday treat is born! So the day of his birthday I ordered him a cookie cake of his very own.

I love seeing him so happy :-)

Good job love!

The following weekend we had a few of Jason's closest friends over to barbeque and spend some quality time. It seems so rare that we can find time for all of us to get together these days. Life gets so hectic. It was so nice to just spend some relaxing time together and enjoy spending time and watching the kids play.

I got these amazing cookie cutters from William's Sonoma.


Sky brought this over for me. How cool is that! (Even though they spelled it wrong.)

Sarah prefers to stay behind the camera :-)

Best buds forever.

Yes, I know the cake looks like it was made by a 5 year old, but it was made with love alright? :-

I think Ava was more excited by the cake than anyone.

Pause

I need a pause button. If anyone has some free time and can invent a life pause button that would be great. My baby is getting too big, too quickly and I just need to pause for a minute. I don't want to stop, because I want him to grow and learn and experience all the amazing things this life has to offer, but I feel him squirming away from me already, too fast. Where did my little bundle of sweet sleepiness go? The little munchkin who used to just lay in my arms for hours and let me hold him while he slept? He's been replaced by a twisting, turning, crawling, almost walking incredible little creature who I love even more today than I did yesterday, which will be outdone by the love I fell tomorrow. Sometimes I feel as if I'm going to burst, physically burst, from all the emotion that this 17 pound little boy fills me with. I have found my purpose in life through this little man, but if we could just pause, just a moment....

Newest Member of the Dirty Thirty Club

I'm no longer married to a man in his twenties :-( My wonderful, amazing husband had his thirtieth birthday a few weeks ago. To celebrate, we spent a weekend in Carson City with family, which is always wonderful!

It's so fun to watch the two munchkins together.

I think Savannah just got a kiss from Elle :-)

Ellie hates being left out of the mix.

Hey Savannah, I wanna give you a little kiss.

No, don't go..

Elle Woods, can you believe him? :-)

Bath time!

Oh look, a box!

Boxes are the most fun!

Nanner, you are fascinating.

These two are too cute together.

Handsome Uncle B.J. He was in a wedding that weekend so had to head off shortly after dinner on Saturday.

Woo!

Hey Mama!

Eli, I love you.

Whenever Elijah is on the ground, Savannah wants to be as close to him as possible. She's perfected this by what we now call the "steamroll". She just keeps rolling until she's next to him and sometimes she just keeps going :-)

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

Where'd she go?

You did not, just say bedtime. Tell me I heard you wrong.

Just a few more minutes Mama!

How can I resist these faces?

There was much more fun to be had during the birthday celebration, but we've had very little sleep in this household the last few days (more on that tomorrow) so I am off to rest my head. Good night bloggers. Sweet dreams....