Hot Fun in the Summertime

It's actually cooled down just enough that it's pleasant to be outside again, so Eli and I have not spent every evening this week huddling in the living room with the air set on 69 degrees. The young sir loves to be outside, so much so that when i pick him up to take him in he has a full body tantrum. I don't even know that I'd be capable of twisting about and flailing as he does, but isn't it true that their bones are still a little rubbery? My bones have no rubber left. Sad stuff. Wednesday night we hung out with neighborhood kids and mom's in the backyard and it was very fun, I enjoy belonging to the mom club.
While the other kids were running back and forth from one kiddie pool to another Eli decided he was too good to get wet. So he practiced his soccer skills.
And swept the pavement with the neighbor's broom. You can't keep the kid away from cleaning implements. He did eventually get in the water and it was hilarious to see his little diaper sagging off his bum afterward. If it weren't for his dipes Eli would never keep his pants up.
Eli is still very into being read to.
And sometimes he reads by himself. Upside down.

Recently I've been giving Eli dessert after dinner. I mostly do this because it keeps him in his high chair a bit longer so I can actually finish my dinner. Usually it's fruit but sometimes I give him empty ice cream cones:
He hasn't a clue that something should be in there. And I love that about him.

Eli is often mesmerized by the spinning of the wheel on Wheel of Fortune. And no he doesn't always stand that close to the tv.
Eli loves boxes. From now on any packages I get he gets the box.

All of my diapers from the spree have arrived, I think these are my two favorite. They're from Berry Imperfect Designs like the monkey pirate one.
Snails!
As you can tell Eli also loves it.
And I refer to this as his Guns'N'Roses Diaper. Very fetching.

Five Places Where I Wouldn't Last Five Minutes

1. Prison
2. A nunnery
3. The military
4. A slaughter house
5. Cheer camp

1 or 2 Things Eli Knows For Sure

1. Dancing is fun.
2. Voldemort is scary.

dream prize

I want to win this! Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Summer in the City

Yesterday I spent a good portion of my work time calling our home bound elderly consumers to let them know what to do in the extreme heat Pittsburgh's experiencing the next few days. This needed to be done because it's fucking hot here. It's hot as balls, hell, hades, can be, the sun, etc... Pick a cliche, apply it. It's sure to be true. Last night I wore a skirt to the Farmer's Market because all my Capri's were dirty and I couldn't stand the thought of emerging from the air conditioned tomb of my house wearing long pants. Tuesday night when the heat wave began in earnest I went to Rite Aid, bought shaving supplies and used them immediately upon returning home. This meant that Eli got to amuse himself by putting things in the toilet; it was worth it to wear Capri's without looking like a yeti. Besides he only put objects that were too big to flush inside the bowl, he's a very considerate little guy.


Eli got a new diaper from Berry Imperfect designs, whom we'd never tried before. We love it and have ordered two more. It's very cute, patterned with pirate monkeys, but E wouldn't hold still long enough to get a decent picture. Since he's starting to outgrow his mediums, after 10+ months of use, I've been on a diaper buying jag. Like most of my shopping jags it's gotten a wee bit out of control. But don't fret Internet the very real fact of my brokeness has stopped me in my tracks as of this afternoon. I've been trying to buy some one size diapers; that way if my period decides to do as I say and go the fuck away so that a tiny life may begin growing inside me I'll have diapers for the prospective newborn to wear. So, hey body! stop being a jerk--love and kisses Emily.

Thanks to the proximity of the weekly Farmer's Market and the high cost of meat Eli and I (and occasionally Aunt Zanne) have been eating a very veggie rich diet. It's delicious and I'm walking away from dinner feeling healthy. Usually I walk away from dinner feeling like I may hurl because I ate so much more than necessary. Viva La fresh food!

Here are a few pics of the boy, just in case anyone wanted to see some.
Eli in the bath after eating my squash laced fresh spaghetti sauce, as you might be able to see he got it right up his nose.
I gave him the empty thin mint box to play with. He doesn't know it's empty at this point and is waiting for me to swoop in and snatch away his forbidden treat.
I think he was in mid sentence here. He gets very emphatic when talking baby talk.
Oh, how does Eli love swatting flies. He inherited my blood lust for extinguishing the world of insects.
The love of cleaning must have come from someone else. Still I hope it holds over to when he can actually lend a hand with the cleaning.

Illness, Blackouts, and General Disarray

This weekend did not go as planned. Jason and I were supposed to have a date night Sunday night and then get our marriage license for ye olde courthouse wedding on Monday morning. Unfortunately the little Sir woke up from his nap with a nasty fever and much nastier throwing up on Sunday before he was supposed to go to grandma's house. He was lethargic and pitiful and there was no chance of him being anywhere I wasn't. So, no marriage license at our house. Oh well, we'll get it done someday.

Thankfully Eli's feeling much better. I think the crux of the problem is that he has like a bajillion teeth coming in all at once. I think this because he keeps putting his fingers in his mouth and screaming bloody murder. It's very very sad, babies should not have to experience pain or sickness. The fact that they do is further proof that the world is unjust. Eli did manage to have some fun last evening after being numbed by: infant Motrin, teething tablets, a Popsicle (a rare indulgence) and a cold wash cloth to chew on. He invented two new games; the first of which involved putting all of his animal crackers from their tub into a paper bag and then back again. He did them one by one and was very focused. The kids loves to organize, we may have a Mark Sommers on our hands. The second game was a modified sort of croquet with the flyswatter and his softie ball. To me it seemed a lot more fun than animal cracker storage but who am I to judge.
Eli Saturday morning pre sickness.
Eli yesterday afternoon getting the very last cracker out of the bag.

Then last night around 11 our power went out. Half of my neighborhood was blacked out. You may not know this but I'm absolutely terrified of the dark, I used my cell phone as a flashlight and stumbled outside where a lot of my neighbors were also stumbling around. Thankfully someone lent me a lighter since I literally had 100 tea lights and nothing to light them with. I decided the only way to cope til Jason got home from work was to make it light enough to read. So I lit 32 candles in my living room.

Pretty huh?

Of course the lights came on about fifteen minutes after Jason got home. He said it's because the power company knew he wanted to play his PlayStation. I hope you can feel me rolling my eyes as I typed that.

3 Days of Fun

Delightfully Jason and I were both off Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the long 4th weekend. On Friday Jason slept late and Eli and I got up and experimented with the new camera which is very very similar to the old camera.
Eli thought the old camera looked tasty and decided to chew on it a little. I'm not letting him chew on the new one, I can't spare another $200 any time soon.

That night we went to my mom's house for the annual 4th BBQ and backyard firework's extravaganza. My little brother was in town for the weekend (yea!) and he was having fun chasing Eli around. Last time he saw him he was walking but not running and not baby babbling nearly as much. Personally the thought of not seeing Eli every single day makes me very sad, of course our situations are a bit different. We ate a lot of non healthy American patriotic type food and Eli enjoyed all the new toys grandma had bought to keep at her house.

Eli used Uncle Marty's nifty hat to entertain the hippies in attendance and was very brave while daddy and the boys were setting of the little fireworks. They were pretty loud but he didn't cry, he just sat on my lap in his fancy rocket ship pajamas and watched everything with big eyes.
One of the cool things Grandma Ros bought was this purple sand, baby Truman looks good against a purple backdrop. We got home late and Eli fell asleep in the car seat, he didn't wake up when we got home and went straight into the crib. Of course the cat jumped in his crib and woke him up at 5:30 am. She's luckily I didn't declaw her right then.

Saturday night Jason and I went to a party sans Eli. We never go out like that together and it was very nice, we drank alcohol and went swimming and I marveled at the drunkenness of his friends. I've been a mom for so long I'd forgotten anyone could or would drink that much. We got home very very late even though we knew that an early morning was waiting for us.
Jason didn't greet the morning with much cheer as he'd eaten 4 platefuls of curried goat the night before. Combined with all the beer, lack of sleep and a two hour car ride to my family reunion in Maryland misery took over.
Since Eli hadn't eaten any goat he felt fine. He spent a good 30 minutes of the ride having a conversation with someone.

At the reunion Eli fell in love with this little girl who we're somehow related to, she's my 3rd or 4th cousin, maybe? He would have followed her to the ends of the earth, or at least up the slide, he climbed right up it like a little monkey. I was duly impressed.
The immediate fam! Neither baby was happy about standing still for this picture. I tried explaining to people that if you want a good picture of Eli it's going to have to be an action shot. Boy just don't hold still anymore!
Marty had a good time on the playground as well, I know it doesn't look like it but he really has put on weight since he moved to Charlotte. He looks a lot healthier than he did before.
This is me with my Great Aunt Helen, she's 4'9 which means I'm over a foot taller than her. As you can probably tell, I look like Godzilla. My grandma is about an inch or two taller than Aunt Helen so I tower over her as well, and have since I was about eleven.

I guess Eli was still pretty tired from the busy fun filled afternoon because when I went home on lunch break I found this:
Jason said he was playing and just laid down and passed out. Poor little man.

17 Months

Hey Eli did you know you'll be 17 months old tomorrow? That means you're a month away from being a year and half. Never has time gone faster. Just yesterday you were in my belly slipping an embryonic foot betwixt my ribs and pulling until something popped. Now you look like this:
Where'd this toddler come from? People have been asking me about potty training a lot and my first reaction is "Are you crazy? He's a BABY! You can't potty train a baby." Then I realize that you are getting to that age and I'm terrified (what if I screw it up and spend the next 18 years washing your sheets every morning) and sad that you're such a big boy. Also, last night at the restaurant you decided to feed yourself with the spoon. And you did a pretty OK job; sure you turned the spoon upside sown at the last minute almost every time but you get the basic idea. You'll be fully self sufficient in the blink of an eye.
You're getting cuddly again. It's extra sweet now because when you crawl up next to me on the couch I know you really want to be there. Certainly if you didn't want me to hug you there would be shrieks of terror and horrified wiggling to the floor. When you get scared or hurt you come running at me full force and I love that you think mommy can fix anything.
You're really into reading now, which I'm thrilled about, hopefully it will lead to you talking a bit more. When you want me to read you a book you throw it right at my head since subtlety isn't yet your strong suite. In case you're wondering your favorite book seems to be the Teddy Bear Counting Book (One teddy bear all alone, two teddy bears on the phone, three teddy bears all in blue...) I have it memorized and don't even look at the pages anymore. Also for whatever reason the hexagon is your favorite shape, maybe it's because of the bees on the page but you go ballistic and squeal and hit the book with your hand. It could not be more endearing, Sir.
Some woman heard me call you sir last night in the restaurant bathroom while I was desaucing you and remarked from her stall "Did you just call him Sir? Well, I've never heard that one before." She said it in a very pithy tone. Clearly she has no imagination and her kids are called princess and buddy. Eli you are very lucky that woman is not your mama.