Eli's new found freedom

So I think Eli figured out that he has a whole new level of freedom now being out of the crib. The 1st 2 days were great but I don't think he had come to realize that he could actually get out of the bed any time he wanted to. Well, he has figured it out now!

That being said it hasn't been that bad. Monday morning I found him in the glider just sitting there waiting for me to come get him. Nap time on Monday didn't go very well but I had a dentist appointment during nap time and Nanny was babysitting and in charge of nap time. Eli has learned that he can get away with stuff when he's with Nanny and he takes full advantage of that. Eli never went to sleep for his nap on Monday and when I got home from the dentist his room was a wreck! Eli went to sleep that night with no issues (but of course he would he was exhausted from not napping!)

Tuesday morning I never heard Eli get out of his bed but finally heard him making noises at the baby gate at the top of the stairs. Nap time didn't go that great on Tuesday either but I don't think it had that much to do with the bed. Eli came down with something on Tuesday and I don't think he could sleep very well. He did manage to get a little over an hour nap. Nanny was also baby sitting on Tuesday so that I could go to the dentist again. But this time I made sure Eli was down for a nap before I left. I also think Eli gets to excited knowing Nanny is there to nap. He loves his Nanny so much. Tuesday morning I told Eli that we were going to meet nanny at 10 at the mall (this was at about 7:30 in the morning). He immediately got up and went to the door and started saying go, go, go! I had to tell him it wasn't time to go see nanny yet and he had to wait, then he started crying nanny, nanny, nanny.

Last night Eli started running a fever of 101. So he went to bed very easily and was out until 10pm when his fever broke. But it didn't take too long to get him back to sleep after that.

This morning Thomas and I have no idea what time that little boy woke up. When Thomas went down stair he saw Gymbo at the gate (Gymbo goes to bed with Eli). Then Thomas came back up stairs for something and Gymbo was gone. While Thomas was doing stuff down stair before he left he could here little feet running back and forth. I got up and went down stairs around 6:20 and heard nothing on the monitor. I started my breakfast and took the monitor into the kitchen to listen for Eli. As I was cooking I could hear every once in awhile banging. I just figured it was the pipes from Thomas' shower. A few minutes later I heard a crash and a toy airplane taking off. I thought we had an intruder! I never heard Eli make a noise on the monitor so I assumed he was still asleep. As I slowly went up stair to find out what the crash was I found Eli playing in the game room. That boy had been up, since around 5am (I'm guessing) and never bothered to let either of us know! Oh yeah, I also found a whole brand new bottle of ibuprofen dumped out on the glider and it was not the dye free stuff either. (I had the ibuprofen set up so I could give him another dose if he woke and needed it, will not be doing that again. Thank goodness he didn't drink it!)

Nap time went fine today but he was still a bit worn out from being sick yesterday. He slept for a little over 3 hours and woke up once but I was able to rock him back to sleep. When he was finally wake from his nap I found him sitting in the glider. Tonight Thomas put Eli to bed and When I went to check on the boy I found an interesting site....

Prayer of Jabez

This mornings sermon was on the prayer of Jabez (1st Chronicles 4:9&10). Check it out at http://www.fbctw.org/fbctw/sermons.

It is so amazing when you get a message at just the right time and speaks to you so deeply. The sermon was basically about that it is ok to pray for things for your self, it doesn't mean that God will say yes or that you wont have pain or challenges but that it is alright to ask God for things. I know a lot of times we feel very selfish to pray for things for ourselves and I have been struggling with that a lot lately. I have been going through a miscarriage for the past several weeks. When Thomas and i first found out that we were most likly going to lose the baby we prayed and asked others to pray for us that we would have peace over what ever way the pregnancy was going to go. It turned out that yes I was going to lose the baby and we had a great peace about the whole situation wash over us. We know that Gods plans are the best plans. It's not to say that we don't morn the loss of this baby it's just that we are at peace and we know God is in charge and has something special in store for us what ever that might be. The thing about this miscarriage I am struggling with is how long it has been taking. Even though I lost the baby my body still thinks it's pregnant which means I get all the symptoms of the 1st trimester pregnancy. I get very tired easily and still get nausea. The doctor had led me to believe that I could take some pills and then everything would be over in a few days and then a little while longer for the hormones to be completely gone. Well it is taking a lot longer than that. I have been getting very frustrated with being worn out all the time and always feeling sick. I kept telling myself that God is trying to teach me patience and just to be patient and this will pass. This morning I could here God talking directly to me through Dr. Bruce's words. God was saying, "Kristen, ask me". I could hear the Lord telling me to ask him to take away everything I am going through. I really can't remember the last time I heard the Lord talk to me so plain and clear. But of course that was still not enough to get me to stop right then and there and pray. During the invitation I was thinking about one of the things I really miss about Gateway Baptist church was the alter call that they had at every service. As soon as I finished that thought Dr. Bruce said come to the alter to pray! Of course me being as stubborn as I am didn't get up and go to the alter to pray. I finally did get on my knees and pray right there in the pew. I prayed and asked God to please let me be threw with this miscarrage and to be done with feeling sick and tired. When I got up and cleaned up I could hear the Lord say, " See child, don't you feel better?" Not only did I feel better because I felt a burden lifted but for the 1st time in many many weeks I stopped feeling sick. It's amazing what God will do for you if you will just ask. I don't know why we as Christians have such a hard time asking God for things for ourselves.

God has really been trying to get my attention a lot here lately, through Dr. Bruce's sermons, VBS, and Even the movie The Book of Eli, I can just be so stubborn! Finally Lord I'm listening.

Family weekend

This weekend we just spent time together as a family. Saturday was suppose to be a Eli/Daddy day but things don't always turn out as planned. We had a slow start getting going Saturday morning but mid morning it was decided that Eli and Thomas would go hang out together and leave me to my own devices. So I got Eli dressed and ready to go, handed him off to Thomas and outside they went. Not two minutes later they were back in the door, the car wouldn't start. Note to everyone reading, if you let a 21 month old boy play in your car make sure all the lights are turned off when ya'll are done. Thomas doesn't drive to work so the car has been sitting with it's lights on for a long while. Needless to say the battery was completely dead! So Thomas pulls my car out to give the car a jump well, after several try it was decided that the battery was too dead to be jumped. So now the morning of daddy fun with Eli turned into lets take car of the car. While Thomas got the battery out of the car and got things cleaned up I took Eli for a walk around the block. While we were walking a wasp decided that it wanted to check out Eli's stroller. And if you know me you know my irrational fear of wasps and bees. I was so proud of myself, I saved my son before running away. After Eli and I got back from our walk we decided to all go and take care of the battery since I had some errands I need to run and would have been carless if I stayed home.

So off we went to Auto Zone, they will test and charge your battery for free. While we waited to charge the battery (couldn't test it until they charged it) , we went and ran errands and had lunch. And of course for lunch we went to Chick-fil-A. I know a lot of kids have a ton of McDonalds and ask for it every time they see the arches but my kid wont even know what McDonalds is. I think I can count on one had the times Eli has even been in a McDonalds. But when it comes to Chick-fil-A that's a different story. I think we go to Chick-fil-A at least once a week and I think my son is getting a strange relationship with cows. Right now the toy in the kids meal are these little white cows that you can decorate with stickers or color on. We now have 3 little white cows and every time Eli sees them he goes moo. The other day he had the cows, one in each had and was yelling moo, moo, moo, moo, moo for several minutes when I finally looked at he look up and me and went moo. I think he was trying to get my attention =-) On Saturday after we were finished with lunch we got into a bit of a sticker war with each other (the stickers that came with the cow)

putting stickers on daddy!


daddy's stickers


A sticker on Eli nose




After lunch we went back to Auto Zone and picked up the battery fully charged! We didn't have to get a new one, yea!! Next we headed home for a nap so Eli would be fully rested for Evann's birthday party that afternoon. We had a great time at Evann's Birthday party where we had more Chick-Fil-A! That makes 4 times in one week!!! Oh well at least its some good chicken! After the party we went home and took the front off the crib but that's in another post. While we were getting Eli ready for bed a huge storm blew through. So we all stood at the back door and watched the storm. As we were watching the rain come down I said, "we should thank God for the rain" and Eli signed thank you!

Sunday morning is like most Sundays, we made it to church and Sunday School which were awesome but I want to talk about church in another post. After Church we went to IHOP for lunch. It was crazy busy so things took a little longer then normal. I was so proud of Eli, he was great! When a waiter brought out our drinks I told Eli to say thank you and Eli signed to the waiter thank you. The waiter was real nice and asked what the sign was for your welcome and then signed it to Eli. After lunch and nap Eli and I were going to go with Thomas to watch him play football. We all decided to go together since it was all the way in Conroe. But as we got to Conroe we got notified that the games got rained out. So we decided to go over to Incredible Pizza for some pizza and playtime. I love that place especially when it's raining out side. The buffet is pretty cheap and so are the games. Eli is also at an age that he doesn't really need to play the games to have fun. So we only spent 3 dollars on games and rides and Eli play for a little over an hour!

Eli has been really into Toy Story stuff lately. He has never seen any of the movies, but his diaper bag is a Toy Story back pack. So Thomas and I thought we should get the 1st Toy Story from Netflix so Eli can see it. Sunday night we decided would be a good time to watch it. When we asked Eli if he wanted to watch a movie the 1st thing out of his mouth was, "pop corn". We watched the movie and Eli made it through all but 20 minutes of the movie (we'll finish it tomorrow). He was really into the movie for a lot of it.

I love family weekends like this. Even when they don't go like originally planned as long as we were together we have a blast!

No more crib for Eli

The other day while we were playing in Eli's room, Eli showed us that he could climb out of his crib. We went ahead and left the crib up that night to see what would happen in the morning. The next morning Eli was still in his crib like always. I think that he just wanted to let us know that he could climb out of the crib if he wanted to but why would you, that's a lot of work, mommy will just come get me out in the morning anyways. Even though, Eli did not climb out of the crib we would feel a lot less nervous if we would just change the crib into the toddler bed. So last night Thomas removed the front of the crib while Eli "helped". After Thomas was done with the conversion Eli had a great time playing in his new bed.




Eli had to go get all his animals and put them in his bed. And then lay on top of them.






I think he likes his new bed.


I guess he got board of the bed and decided to go get the bouncy chair and bring it in his room and play with that for a while. Eli was enjoying playing i his room and his new bed so much we had a bit of a fight just to get him ready for bed.

So last night was the first time Eli was in a bed he could easily get out of. He did great. He never got out of the bed until morning. In the morning when I got up I came downstairs to listen to the monitor so I could hear what would happen when Eli got up. When Eli woke up I could hear him moving around and then all of a sudden it got quite so I decided to go up stairs to see what was going on. Eli had takken everything out of his bed and then climbed up into the glider in his room and was just sitting there waiting for me.

Today was the true test of how Eli would do in the toddler bed, nap time! Again he did amazing. My plan was to rock him to sleep and then put him in his bed, well Eli want nothing to do with being rocked to sleep. So I put him in his bed and told him to not get out of the bed. He didn't go to sleep but he never got out of the bed! I went up there twice to tell him to go to sleep and both times he was just playing in his bed with his animals that were already in there. He did finally fall asleep for nap time, but that has been normal lately. So it looks like our little boy is done with the crib. I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Random Eli stuff

I've been kind of slacking on updating the blog so I thought I would just put some random stuff Eli has been doing.

Ever since we had Julie over with her 2 boys Eli has loved playing in his tunnel again. I think we play in it every day and he hasn't wanted anything to do with it in about 6 months before Timothy and Ty played in it with. Of course every time we play in it he asks for Timothy and Ty. Eli also thinks it is hilarious to pretend to stick his finger up his nose and have me tell him to get his finger out of his nose. So, that's what he is doing in this picture.



Eli loves to color, well he loves the idea of coloring. He usually only last about 2 minutes coloring. Before he's done with it. I love our patio because it gives us the perfect spot to color outside. We have giant rolls of blank news paper. (by the way the news paper will give you those rolls for free, they are remnants but there is a lot of paper for a remnant.) But I can spread the paper out on the patio poor the crayons or makers out and let Eli go to town. When Eli colors he has to have one thing on everything he colors, a boat. He wants me to draw a boat on every thing. In this picture we are coloring right after breakfast in the cool of the morning before leaving for VBS.


Eli just loves that he can stretch out on the bottom step of our stairs.


Most of the time Eli is very good about picking up his toys. This evening we were playing in Eli's room and Eli had a great time throwing all his animals in and out of the crib. When it was time to go and get ready for bed Eli started cleaning up with no fight. I wanted to post this for myself in the future years when I can't get him to clean his room.


Eli saying Einstein



Eli saying, night night and I love daddy

VBS at First Baptist Church The Woodlands

This whole week Eli and I have been going to Vacation Bible School at First Baptist Church The Woodlands. Wow, what an awesome week! I haven't worked a VBS since I was in high school. I am so happy that I worked VBS this year it was an amazing experience. The theme was High Seas Expedition so everything had a nautical theme to it. The sanctuary was made to look like a big sail boat.

The way VBS works at this church is that we break the kids up into small groups of about 5 to 10 kids. Those kids have one adult leader called a shepard and the shepard usually has one assistant shepard. I was a shepard this week. I was blessed to have 2 assistants in our group because on Monday there were 10 kids in our group so the extra help was greatly needed. Then we take the kids to different rotations through out the day. We would start in the sanctuary with the opening ceremonies then go to Chatterbox Theater where we would talk about God sightings and watch a short video about Chatter the chipmunk and his adventure. It was very interesting to explain to the kids the difference between a God sighting and a prayer request. I still don't think my kids got it. My favorite God sighting for one of my kids was that her dog had puppies, (I thought yes, she got it) and then she said that the mama dog rolled over on one of the puppies and killed it. I hope though that they did take a little from it and might be looking for different things that show them God.

After Chatterbox Theater we would go to Crafts. All the crafts were so much fun. The 1st day me made a picture frame and then took a picture of all the kids and at the end of the week I put the picture in the frame for them and they go to go home with a picture reminder of VBS in a cool frame. The next day we got to decorate sailing hats. Eli even got to do one!

On Wednesday we made these really cool poppers. I made one with the kids to help show them how to do it and Eli loves playing with it!

Friday was my favorite craft day. All week we have been collecting offering for the people in Ethiopia. Through World Vision, for just $25 you can by stoves for families in Ethiopia. To go along with those stoves we made blankets for the orphans in Ethiopia.

This is a picture of my group working on a blanket for the orphans. They weren't too into making the blanket but while they were doing it I tried to talk to them of how blessed we are here in the US and how simple things like a blanket so kids don't even have. Hopefully they will remember making the blanket and remember how blessed they really are.


After crafts we went to rec. Which was my favorite because they would run the kids around and get a lot of their wiggles out! Perfectly right after rec we would get a snack. Our last rotation was Bible study. My kids loved Bible study, all day they would ask me, "when are we going to the Story Lady". I just loved that they looked forward to going every day. I would also ask them through out the day what the previous Bible stories where and they would remember very
well.

This is a picture of my group at Bible study. The lesson was on the crippled beggar outside of the Temple that was healed and how this was a life changing thing and how he went and told everyone what had happened just as we should share with everyone the life change we go through when we except Jesus into our lives.

After Bible study we would go back to the sanctuary for closing ceremonies. Before everything would start the kids were allowed to go dance on stage. Yes, that's right, dancing in a Baptist church! We would do the chicken dance, the YMCA and another one I don't know the name to but here is a video of the kids dancing to it.


I was totally blessed working VBS this past week. I look forward to being a part of it net year too. I pray that all the kids will remember what they learned this week and if they don't already know the Lord will come to know him personally. One very interesting thing about my group of kids, is that I only had one kid that actually goes to our church and then he only goes when his grandmother can take him. I just love what a ministry FBCTW has to The Woodlands area.




On Friday after VBS the church provided lunch (of Chick-Fil-A, yumm) to the workers. Eli got to get a few quick hits on the drums while we waited to eat and he thought that was awesome!

4th of July!

Yesterday we were in Bastrop and today we were in Baytown! Yesterday Eli got to spend time with the Mullinnix side of his family and today he got to spend time with the Leavin's side of the family (my mom's side).

We started the morning off with kolache and doughnuts. Normally Eli will not touch the kolaches and only eat doughnuts but this morning he would only eat the sausage out of the kolaches and not touch the bread or the doughnuts. Whenever I think I understand Eli's eating habits he goes and changes them. Just like yesterday when we were eating BBQ, Eli wanted a slice of bread. Normally Eli will not eat bread unless it has peanut butter on it and even then he will lick the peanut butter off and get ride of the bread. But yesterday he ate 2 whole slices of wheat bread. He just loves making a liar out of him mom! We did miss church this morning, the choir was sing a special this morning and I was sad to miss that.

After breakfast we headed down to Baytown to Granny's house. We got to spend the day with my Granny, Aunt Leona, Uncle Gorge, Mom (Nanny), Dad (Papa), My sister (Laura), Laura's husband (Danny), Angie, Joey, Hunter, Taylor, Luke, Issac, Natalee and Josh. It was so much fun to spend the day with family. It's also really nice because Eli has so many older cousins, grandparents and aunts and uncles to watch and play with him that his mommy got to have a break and spend a lot of time visiting with my sister. But because of that I didn't get to take many pictures today. The kids (with Joey) were shooting of some fireworks and Eli just loved it and wanted to be all in on the action. I was so shocked that it didn't scare him. They finished shooting off all the fireworks they had sometime before we ate lunch and after lunch Eli kept asking for something by saying bom, bom, bom. We couldn't figure what in the world he wanted. Finally I figured it out, he wanted to shoot off moreEli has so much fun playing with his cousins when it was time to go home, after being there all day, he did not want to go!

We headed for home around dinner time. So Thomas and I decided that we would go to Sitar for dinner. Sitar is an Indian food buffet. I was so shocked at how well Eli ate and acted at the restaurant. Eli would try all different types of Indian food. Of course he loved the Naan. We also got Eli a Mango Lassi. A Lassi is a yogurt drink that is either drank sweet or with salt. Obliviously the mango one is sweet. Eli loved it. He called it a smoothie so we explained to him that this was not a smoothie but a lassi. From that point on he loved saying the word lassi. Eli also loved dancing to the Indian music that they had playing while we were eating dinner.


Eli chowing down on some yummy naan. The cup next to him is his mango lassi that he loved!



I was trying to get Eli dancing to the music but of course he just wouldn't do it for the camera. So instead I got video of him shoving a whole piece of naan in his mouth.



Still trying to capture the dancing and Eli still not dancing for the camera. =-)