Dear Computer

Why must you torture me?  Why must my operating system lock up on the week that Jason is on travel and I have an entire week of evenings to myself to blog and load pictures while he's gone?  Why do you hate me???????????

Love,
Shilo

12 Months

So I do realize that I have yet to post any of my Halloween related pictures and videos.  They are coming, I promise, but between the ear infections, ear tubes and birthday parties, we've been a little crazed to say the least.  In the meantime, I though I would post a little bit about what the Duder is doing these days.

At 12 months:

• Weighs 20 lbs (15th % - woohoo we've jumped out of the tenth!), 30 1/4" (25th%), and his head is in the 75th percentile - he's a very smart munchkin ;-)
• He loves bath time.  Absolutely loves it.  He plays with his little bath toys and kicks his little chubbo legs and slaps the water.  I feel like I'm having as much fun as he is!  And he loves to try to drink the water out of his cup when I try to rinse his hair!  We also recently got this Boon Flo Deflector and Spout Cover and at first he was a little unsure, but now he thinks it's hilarious to stick his head and arm under the little waterfall.
• Is a little walker.  He started taking steps a couple of weeks ago, but all of the sudden this past Saturday he just decided that he would rather walk instead of crawl.  It's amazing to watch this evolution!  And he laughs hysterically everytime he gets from one point to another.
• He has always been all boy (he loves being thrown up and held upside down and wrestling) and it is definitely continuing in his toy choice.  He loves playing with cars and trucks and balls.  He loves throwing the balls, especially if the dogs are there to fetch it.
• He has 5 teeth with another one trying desperately to make it's way out of his gums.
• He finally said mama on his birthday, but is very sparing in his use of it (little stinker!)  and we're pretty sure he's saying Ellie.
• We have been working on sign language, but the only one he will do regularly is dog (wonder why?)
• He had to get ear tubes put in on his birthday - yes, his actual birthday.  Not what we had imagined as a birthday gift, but in actuality, is probably a better gift than anything else we could have gotten him.  The little man has suffered horribly with ear infections over the last few months and after talking to several doctors and specialists, we realized that tubes would be his best option.
•  Will eat anything.  Literally anything.  He still loves Cheerios, but his favorite by far is string cheese.  Anytime we bring it out he starts saying "na-na-na-na!" and jumping up and down.  There really isn't anything he won't eat though and isn't afraid to try new things.  For now, we've escaped any picky eating tendencies (knock on wood!)  He even loves vegetables!
• Is working on the sippy cup.  He will drink a whole cup of milk, but it takes about two hours instead of the ten minutes with the bottles.
• Has gotten into the habit of throwing something when he is done with it, whether it be his bottle, his sippy or his paci.  We're constantly on guard and have gotten very good at diving for things.
• Refuses to wear a hat (although this has not stopped me from buying hats)  He just pulls them right off.  Not sure what we're going to do through the winter months.
• Hates having his nose wiped.  He acts like it's the worst form of torture.
• Absolutely loves music.  He got a guitar for his birthday and "plays" it while dancing to the beat.
• LOVES his books. 
• Loves being tickled and playing peek-a-boo
• Is still not a great napper.  He is sleeping an average of 12-13 hours at night, but fights the nap everyday.
• Still gets comments about what a happy baby he is.  People are constantly asking "Is he always this happy?"  And lucky me gets to answer YES!  He really is a mellow, good-natured little dude.
• Is the most amazing baby I have ever met, if I do say so myself!  :-)
  
  

Deep Breath

The first birthday party is over and it was quite the success if I do say so myself!  Of course, I consider anything a success that brings our friends and family together to fill a room laughter and the sounds of little squealing and giggling and screaming and running.  I promise pics will be coming.  I'm just taking a moment to breathe :-)

One Year

One year ago today my world was completely rocked.  From the moment Elijah entered my life, I was changed forever.  I cannot imagine ever feeling worthy of this amazing and beautiful gift that God has given me.  I thank Him everyday for entrusting me with this precious life.  I have never felt more joy, fear, pride, compassion, exhaustion, awe and above all love, than I have these past 12 months.  Happy birthday my beautiful boy!!  While the weeks leading up to this day have been filled with emotions ranging from excitement to sadness, today I am so completely joyous at the blessing of your first year and so incredibly excited to watch you continue to grow and learn and spread your joy to others.  xoxo

Massachussets Fun!

A few weeks ago we went to visit our dear, dear friends the Cruz family.  They moved off to the Northeast three years ago and we have been lucky enough to be able to visit them every year since.  It was so amazingly special to get to meet their littlest Charlie and to introduce them to Elijah.

We decided to make the same trek we did last year and fly into JFK and then drive up.  It's a beautiful drive anyway, but at this time of year, it was absolutely gorgeous with all the changing foliage!

We decided to take a quick drive through the city before we headed up to Massachusetts.

City skyline.  Love the place.

Yes, I was taking pictures from the car window :-)

Love the city architecture.  I would love to live here one day....

Catching Jason off-guard - always fun.  I know he looks really annoyed in this picture, but he really wasn't :-)

Empire State Building

Mom, are we really here?

Yay Court!

Elijah was seriously obsessed with Oliver's stairs.

Look at me Mama!  I'm climbing!

Mer and the duder cracking each other up.

Hi Uncle Kevin!

 

Boys and there noodles

Noodles in the hair!  Still not sure how this happened, but it was pretty dang cute!

Silly boys!

Woo hoo, stairs!

Here I go!

Eli and Charlie, the best of friends.

So cute together.

I want to kiss those cheeks!  And look at those little lips!  This kid is gorgeous!

Trees!

On Saturday we took a trip to one of the little towns by Court and Kev and paid a visit to the Children's Discovery Museum.  It was located in an old Victorian house and was absolutely darling!  As you'll see, the kids were not the only ones who enjoyed themselves ;-)

BFF's playing trains

Elijah was very interested in everything Charlie did.

Here Charlie, would you like some train tracks.

Jason in the side shot showing the boys how to put the tracks together.

Look mama!  (please note Jason playing in the background).

And Jason playing in the overhead ball maze...

Whoa, what's happening up there?

What is that stuff?

Look at this Mama!

Scribble, scribble.  Drawing is fun!

Watching a video with Dada.

Look at this Charlie!

Look at this Eli!

Cool!  A sandy beach scene!

These giant satellite looking things were actually two giant sound conductors.  In the picture below you can see how far away we were from eachother, but all you had to do was whisper and the other person could hear you.  See, science is cool!

Love my silly fam.

Once again,Jason playing with the displays :-)  And liitle E looking around like, "seriously"?

Steam machine

Mer making her drawing.

The duder making his drawing.

This mirror was absolutely hilarious!  We could not stop laughing.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

Just an example of our dorky sense of humor - This "Big KMart" has the smallest sign I've ever seen.

Matching jammies!

"One of these things is not like the other." :-)

The theme of this weekend was trying to get these three to all look at the camera.  You can imagine how many times that happened.

Sibling love!  So sweet!

So cute

Cracking each other up again!

Hello Charlie

Hello Duder and your toofers

Toy heaven

Elijah discovered the walking toy and couldn't get enough.  We have since had to buy for our house. 

Love this girl!

Hi Oli!

I have no idea why he's making this face, but it cracks me up.

Swings!

Weeeee!

Appreciating my new kicks while hanging in the grass.

The following is a pictorial story of our effort to get the kids all in one picture while looking at the camera:

After an amazing weekend with the Cruz's, and a tearful goodbye, we headed out to Boston, because Jason had a meeting.  While he did his thing, the duder and I took a walking tour of Cambridge.  

We stumbled on this little cemetery

 

I thought these headstones were really interesting.

We kept walking until we hit the Harvard campus.  it was gorgeous!  The common was covered in trees that looked like they were on fire with the red and yellow leaves.  I thought it was really cute they way they had all these different colored tables and chairs set out so people could sit down.

I miss this!!

This is a lecture hall.  No, I am not kidding.  This is the exterior of a lecture all.  Below are the interior pics.

Can you imagine going to class her everyday!

No clue what this building is, but thought it was gorge with the ivy.

Darling little Lutheran church.

After a few hours, Jason finished up his meeting and we headed to get something to eat.  Let's not talk about the fact that we drove into Boston and then decided we wanted to get something to eat in Cambridge and then missed the parking garage about three times as we continued to circle the block.  

We grabbed a bite to eat at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage.  This burger joint is a Cambridge landmark and our good friends the Aslans ate here a few weeks before us, so we figured we'd give it a try.  While they didn't rave about the burgers, they did rave about the shakes and oh...my...goodness were they right.  Malted Reese's Peanut Butter.  That's all I have to say.  If I could get them shipped up to us, I would do that.

Even duder wanted some!

Thank you to the Cruz's for having us, for hosting an awesome party on Saturday night and for just being you.  We love you guys and miss you like crazy!  Can't wait for next year's visit!!!