Another zoo day!

Monday Eli and I meet up with Melissa and Caleb at the zoo. What a beautiful day for the it too. Eli had a fun time showing Aunt Melissa around the zoo. at one point Eli decided that Caleb had a much cooler "ride" then him and had his Aunt push him around in Caleb's stroller so I got to carry Caleb around! Silly boys!


Our first sighting of wildlife at the zoo


Lazy lion, I was hoping we'd get to hear him roar but he was taking a cat nap!


Sweet Caleb


Eli watching the Jags


This jag, thought the boys looked like a tasty snack!


The four of us at the elephants




Lazy cheetah


Funny little Meer cat.


These were 2 funny orangutans that were entertaining us


A monkey watching monkeys!


Caleb at the monkey exhibit


Sweet little baby monkey


It's Rafiki!


Caleb really wanted his mommy's sandwich!

Sunday at WBC

This Sunday we decided to take Eli to Waller Baptist Church. It was the music minister's 30th anniversary at WBC so we went to show our support. Eli had a great time charming the ladies in my mom's Sunday School class. But during the lesson Eli started Mooing and would just start getting louder and louder wit his moos. So Mom and I took him out and let him run around the church while we waited for Thomas and Papa to get out of their class.


Nana and Eli


Eli being goofy


Eli running down the hall at the church


Thomas and Eli upstairs in the Family life Center


After church we went to the Mexican restaurant for lunch. In Waller there is really only one Mexican restaurant so the name is not needed, I don't even know the name of the place. Well Eli was having such a good time with his Papa that he wouldn't even let me put him in the car. We finally got him in the car by having Papa put him in and sitting next to him on the way to the restaurant.




Eli messing around after lunch (we had some friends sitting on the Patio that he was trying to get their attention)


Eli actually climbed up on the wall all by him self, Papa just came over to make sure he didn't fall off.

Peek-a-Boo fun in the car!

Daddy day and the Easter bunny

Wow we've had another crazy busy fun week! I love the fact that Thomas is home for a while. We are getting so much time with him. Eli is so attached to his daddy, I'm not looking forward to when Thomas has to travel again. At least it's not for at least another month.

I need to make sure I update this blog more regularly, so much has happened this week but now I can't remember what's happened. On Friday I had MOPs and usually I take Eli with me. Eli does not like going to MOPs, I don't know why. He doesn't mind going to child care at the gym, at church on Sundays or for Bible study on Tuesdays. My only guess is that since MOPs is every other Friday he's just not use to it. Well this time Thomas said that he would keep Eli with him all morning so that he doesn't have to go to MOPs.

It was so nice to go to the meeting with out worrying about Eli and having to hear him cry when I drop him off. Of course when daddy is on duty the little booger sleeps in till 8:30. He's been waking up for me around 5:30 for most mornings this week! The boys had a great morning together, they went to the mall and played around then came home for lunch and nap. Friday night was our quarterly Sunday school fellowship. The church provides free child care for that evening. We left early to drop Eli off at the church because usually traffic is so bad on Rayford that it takes for ever to go the 4 miles to the church. Of course this time it didn't take us hardly anytime to get there so we just hung out in the car till they opened the doors. Eli loves playing in the car. I couldn't believe it, when we doped him off he just walked right in and acted like it was nothing. The issue is that the drop off is right at Eli's bed time and normally he will be crying because he wants to go to bed. Our class decided to go bowling for our fellowship. It was so much fun, Thomas and I haven't been bowling since Eli was born. We did not bowl well at all and our arms were killing us after the 3 games we played. I thought my had was going to cramp up and stay that way, right before we let to drop Eli off I piped 15 cup cakes for Saturday so my hand was already hurting before bowling!


Because of Eli going to Kids night out on Friday he didn't get to bed until 10pm. But he still woke up at 7 on Saturday, which was good because I was going to have to wake him up at 7:30 anyways. He was tired from the time he got up, but in a pretty good mood. We had to get to the Prayer Garden at the Woodlands Methodist church for our Easter pictures. Eli was pretty corportive except he wanted to play in the water. After pictures we went to Market Street to run some errands and then get brunch before we made our way to the play group Easter party. When we got there Thomas and I decided we need coffee so off to Starbucks we went. We got Eli his own strawberry banana smoothie. He loved it and would not let me touch it!

But of course he dropped most of the smoothie in the check out line of Borders. After that we had brunch at La Madeleine. Of course Eli ate nothing but we were smart this time and didn't get anything just for him we decided we would share ours with him. After brunch we made our way to Lake Conroe for the Easter party. It was so much fun. We had an Easter egg hunt, baby chicks and ducks and the Easter bunny made an appearance!

Eli hunting Easter eggs


Eli's little Friend, Jackson, hunting Easter eggs with Eli


Checking out a really cool egg with a car in it! Eli loves cars


Eli is obsessed with vacuums. This was the little girl's, Avery, vacuum. And it's all Eli wanted to play with. If he played with another toy he would hold on to the vacuum and play with it.


My decorated cupcakes. The are carrot cup cakes made in egg molds and decorated to look like Easter eggs, I think they turned out nice.


A group picture of all the kids at the party and the Easter bunny. Once some of the kids relized the Easter bunny was behind them they ran away crying.


This is Avery's pink car. If Eli wasn't playing with the vacuum he was playing with this car.


Eli and the Easter bunny. I couldn't believe it but Eli was not scared of the Easter bunny, he was terrified of Santa.


Eli on the way home from the party. He had such a great time!

Before bed we read Eli a story and Eli learned to say Cluck cluck for chickens!

Cookie Monster!

This morning Eli and I went to the Gym and then to Weight Watchers. We decided that instead of staying for the meeting we would head on home because all 3 of us were going to Incredible Pizza for lunch with some friends. This worked out great because now I had time to change and get some things done around the house before we needed to leave. I decided that this would be a good time to make up a batch of cranberry, chocolate, nut oatmeal cookies and thought Eli might be able to "help" me. I needed to smash up the chocolate bar and thought Eli might be able to do this so I gave him the bar in a plastic bag and a hammer. He actually did a pretty good job. He seemed to enjoy watching me measure the ingredients and mix everything up. He knew we were making cookies so he was excited. He was also very excited when I let him lick the beater and spoon!







After our cookie mixin we headed out to Incredible Pizza. When we got there Thomas and I discovered that Eli learned a new word, Go. Eli wanted to go in and we were waiting for a few people to show up and all of a sudden Eli starts yelling, "Go, Go, Go, Go"! Eli also discovered the train at Incredible Pizza. He did not want to get off.



After nap time we had some family play time. Eli was getting a lot of use out of his new learned word. Every time he say his big dump truck he would yell "Go, Go, Go" and run to it and drive it around the house.

Eli is also starting to sign thank you. I'm not sure if he really gets the concept though. Some times he just starts signing please and thank you at the same time. Either way it's really cute!

Today was the first time that Eli responded with words when I asked him something. Eli was sitting on the counter pointing and grunting about something so I asked him "what do you want?" And he responds, "Cookie"! He was pointing at the cookies sitting in the pantry! I can't wait to see what he does tomorrow!

Fun Filled Week!

My plan for spring break was to lay low and just wait till things got back to normal. It sounded like a good plan to me. I don't know what happened to my layed back week but it got jammed packed!

Wednesday or Saint Patrick's Day was a blast. Eli and I started our day at the gym and then made our way over to Gymboree where Eli was a crazy man! Then we went and picked up Nana from the mall so we could head over to Pot Bellies for lunch. After hanging out at Market street for a bit we took Nana to Berripop for some frozen yogurt. By the time we were finished with our yogurt Eli was pretty much pooped and we took Nana back to her car and we went home for a nap!





After nap Thomas Eli and I hung around outside until dinner and then went back outside until bathtime! it was such a fun day!

After a fun filled Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday we went visiting on Thursday. My mom came and picked us up so we could drive down to Baytown together. We went to go visit my Granny and take her to lunch. Once we got to granny's house we decided to go over and visit with my aunt who was watching Eli's closest cousin (in age), Sean. we let the boys play together while we visited.





Eli was having such a good time playing with Sean that he went right past his lunch time without stopping! We finally went and got lunch an hour past when Eli normally eats. I have to take Eli to play with Sean more often. After lunch I thought we would take Eli over to San Jacinto Mall to let him run around a bit before we headed on home. I was hopping to get him all tired out so that he would pass out in the car on the way home. Nana took him on the carousel while we were there.





After the carousel we headed for home. My grand plans of getting Eli to sleep on the way failed to include the Nana that sat next to him in the back. She kept playing peek-a-boo with him. And when I said something to her about keeping the boy awake she goes "well he started playing with me first!". So Eli finally fell alseep when we were only 20 mins from home. And of course when wee got home he woke up and wouldn't go back down for a nap!

Friday I decided would be a good day to take Eli to the park since Saturday was suppose to be raining. After the gym Eli and I made our way over to Northshore park. We played around on the equipment while we waited for our friends to show up. We had a good turn out, Rhonda, Bill and Jack, Carolina and David, and Clare and Chloe all came out to play in the beautiful day! Thomas even came and joined us. We also ran into 2 other Gymboree paymates, Grayson and Reagan. By the time we decided to leave, the park was so packed that there was no parking spaces and it took us 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot! Eli played so hard he passed out quickly in the car on the way home. After nap we took Eli to run errends in Spring and then treated him to Chick-fil-A, which he loved because he loves cows and was mooing all over the place! When we came home Eli and Thomas spent the rest of the evening on the patio until bathtime.

On Saturday we decided that since it was going to rain all day we would take Eli to Nana and Papa's house to spend time with them and Granny. We had a fabulous time! Granny was chasing Eli around the house and every time "circle" Eli would run to me to get "away" from granny. I was kind of his home base! He would also grab a bit of yogurt for energy. It was so funny, I wish I would have gotten pictures of Eli playing with his granny. On our way home Thomas and I stopped by Academy to see about getting some lawn chairs. We went down one aisle that had toy animals that made noise. Eli picked up a dinosaur and pressed the button to make him roar and of course Eli started roaring too. But then he started walking like a dinosaur like we have seen Mono do on Yo Gabba Gabba. It was so cute. When we got home Thomas asked him to walk like a dinosaur and he did it again. Of course I didn't have my camera and when I do he wont do it. Eli also learned to baa like a sheep. Except his baa sounds more like ahhh. Eli also learned to say boo which comes out baa. We are learning that Eli says a lot but you just can't understand him. Thomas and I are starting to decode some of it.

This week Eli has started a new routine with his daddy. He has a second breakfast. He will eat all his oatmeal that I feed him when I get him up but then when daddy gets up and fixes his breakfast Eli has to eat some of that too with daddy!


Yum, Daddy's bagel


don't think your getting this bagel back!



Tonight when I went to check on Eli this is what I found

A wet Tuesday

Today it decided to rain all day, but that's ok because we had fun anyways! Today Grandma, Aunt Melissa and cousin Caleb came over. Eli did a great job entertaining Caleb.


Before Eli went down for his nap today we all had lunch together. I made chicken salad. Eli use to like chicken salad but of course today he wouldn't even try it. All he wanted was a chip, after fighting with him for about 10 minutes trying to get him to eat anything I have an epiphany, I used a chip to dip the chicken salad and Eli loved it. He ate all of the chicken salad and was even just eating the chicken off the chip and reusing the chip to get more chicken. I will have to remember to use the dip idea to get him to eat!

Thomas and I had a great time visiting and playing with Caleb. The boys even took a nap at the same time. Of course Eli was in his room and Caleb slept right in the middle of the living room while we were talking.

Since it was raining I decided to take Eli to open gym tonight to expense some of his energy. When we got there, there were 2 other kids there close to Eli's age. He had so much fun playing with them. Then a little 10 month girl came in and she just loved Eli. She would follow him all over the place. Eli had a blast with her. A few minutes before we left Eli's friend Reagan showed up and Eli just went crazy! Eli has missed playing with Reagan over the past couple of weeks, since Reagan burnt his arm. It was so cute to watch Eli try to play with all the little kids!



Just too sweet for words!

Parks, Parks and more Parks!

Yesterday Thomas pointed out to me that in less then a week we have been to 4 different parks. We have taken Eli to Spring Creek UD park (in our neighborhood), Bear Branch park, Town Green park and Fox Run toddler park. Today Eli and I went to the park at Indian Springs and on Friday we might go to Teddy Bear Park or Northshore. We are a family that likes parks!


Eli at Fox Run Toddler park


Thomas playing at the Toddler park


Eli playing with rocks

Eli is a picky eater. A lot of time we have to fight with him to try new things. We couldn't even get him to try cotton candy. But in the past 2 days we have had 2 wins. Sunday after church we took Eli to a Chinese buffet for the first time and Eli wanted to try an eggroll. He then ate the whole thing. I can't believe he wanted to try it with out me prompting him. Then tonight for dinner I made turkey muffins (it's like meat loaf just made in muffin tins), mashed potatoes and baby peas and he ate almost everything I put on his plate.

Eli's yummy dinner


yum yum good!



Eli loves cookies!

This evening Thomas decided to take Eli outside to work on the flower beds. Eli was a good helper.

Sweeping up for daddy


Thomas working hard!


mowing the yard for daddy


getting acquainted with the lawn mower!


Trying to get away from all the yard work!