Hey Universe...

Right now I'm not entirely pleased with you. To perk myself up I will watch this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNCe37JmcP8&feature=related
approximately 800 times. When the video's worked it's magic I'll update the blog.

Where-in I Reveal Information You May Not Want To Know

Consider yourself fairly warned.

In my on going quest to give Eli a sibling I've been seeing a fertility doctor and having some tests done the past month. I've had a regular exam, two blood draws, and on Wed and Thurs a sonohystogram and a hysterosalpingogram. Everything was normal until yesterday when the HSG showed that my left ovary is one big mass of adhesion's. That darn left ovary just don't work y'all. And you know I'm not freaking out about it. Actually I feel pretty OK, at least I know that there is something wrong and I know that it's not something so drastic that I'll never have kids. I do still wish it had turned out Jason was broken just for the joy of taunting the love of my life. The love of my life who was very sweet yesterday afternoon, he took Eli out to lunch and to pick up his paycheck so I'd have quiet house to rest in (the HSG was not the most comfortable of tests) and he let me know that he thinks maybe it's cancer. Don't worry, it's not, Jason thinks that everything is cancer. If I get a bad cold he wants to take me to E.R. it's kind of adorable in a way.

So I'm not really sure where we'll go from here on the baby making front, I have a big meeting on March 7th, but I am fairly certain that Eli will not be an only child. And that makes me happy and a bit less frantic.

On Valentine's Day and Two Year Olds

On Saturday, when Valentine's Day actually occurred, Jason worked a double. Last night we decided on a whim to have a belated date, and since it was a whim we didn't have a babysitter lined up. But we figured that Eli had been good all day, no meltdowns and he'd had an early nap. We thought "hey he'll like getting out of the house!" So delusions in order we walked to the sushi/hibachi place near our house that we've been meaning to try.


Possibly things would have gone OK if first thing Jason hadn't walked him over to see the pond full of goldfish and koi fish (fyi when I think about how I almost named my child Koi I blush a little and blame those powerful pregnancy hormones that I hope to experience again some day soon). Eli is very into fish and after getting a gander at these lovelies there was no way he was just going to sit passively in his high chair. We put him in the chair, gave him sippy, goldfish crackers and a toy. He was pacified until our food came which is how it usually works. I gave him a cucumber roll and his chopsticks, he loves chopsticks and this usually does the trick, sadly I underestimated the lure of the fish pond.


Our Valentine's Day dinner was eaten in shifts, one of us would eat a few rolls while the other would stand with Eli and keep him from leaping into the pond to be at one with his new friends. Trust me when I tell you it was very romantic. And when we put his coat on and Jason picked him up to leave he let out a mighty shriek that guarantees that if we ever go there again it will be sans toddler.
Toddler Eli may be just as adorable as infant Eli.

But infant Eli was a lot more pleasant to take out in public.

2!

Dear Eli,

Mommy is having a hard time believing that you're already two years old. I'd swear on a stack of bibles you were just born about five minutes ago. One was a big year for you sir.




At first you didn't seem that thrilled to be one.
Maybe you were just mad that mommy was taking pictures of you instead of getting you out of your bed.

But then we gave you cake and you decided that maybe being one wasn't all that bad.

At the beginning of the year you still had no neck, you were also very cautious with your new found walking skills. You went very slowly and very seriously and nary a bruise did you get.

You and daddy took a lot of naps together. Probably you and daddy are at home napping right now while I type this.

You were adorable in the bathtub and didn't hate having your hair washed nearly as much as you do now. Perhaps that's because you had so much less of it then. Also you weren't so likely to pour big cups of water on the floor.

Sometimes you declined to smile for the camera. That was OK.

You went to the zoo and loved the aquarium.

Being a curious young man you decided to try a taste of your sand box. It may look like you weren't thrilled with it but you kept eating it all summer long.

Around May you went through a brief phase where everything was a cape.

And you took a lot of naps in your car seat and woke up to find yourself at Target. I think this makes you a pretty lucky boy. I wish I could wake up at Target a few times a weekAs it got hotter you had a lot of fun playing outside. I never realized just how precious those afternoon hours of play were until the cold set in this winter.

You visited Aunt Jennie at the Daily News and posed for some fancy photos.

In honor of our nation's independence you doffed your hat.

And mommy was delighted to find out you had inherited her love for swatting flies. Nothing cracked you up like seeing mommy trying to squash a bug.

This summer you drank a lot of pool water. Luckily you didn't get salmonella.

You napped very very hard.

And you laughed a lot because life is very funny when you're one.

We got you a ball pit and you were crazy about it, just check out the look in your eyes. That's one crazed expression. Sadly it barely lasted a week before it popped but you still have all those balls. And quite the arm to go with them. I figure by the time you're three you'll be pitching for the Pirates, they could use some talent.

You had your first sushi.

And got very good at using a fork.

On a second trip to the zoo you weren't particularly interested in anything.

But you sure loved running around. You're pretty fast for having such little legs kid.

Throughout the year your face lost most of it's baby roundness and you just got more and more handsome.

Mommy found you especially charming when you were sleeping.

A trip to the Goodwill yielded your first tricycle. Your feet didn't quite reach the petals but I have high hopes for this summer.

You started eating apples like a big boy.

We visited the Carnegie Art and Natural History Museum.

And the Andy Warhol Museum. Clearly you're already really into art.

Fall came and you loved playing in the leaves.

At Halloween you were a fetching kangaroo.

But you found trick or treating exhausting!

Eli you're a funny kid, you make mommy laugh every single day.

And you're so good looking that it hurts.

You were slightly more into Christmas this year. But not enough to really get it yet. I'm fairly certain that you still have no idea who Santa Claus is or what he does. Thanks to The Nightmare Before Christmas you may refer to him as Sandy Paws for awhile.

I made you endure a pretty long Christmas card photo shoot.

Fairly sure it wore you out.

This year you did a bang up job opening up your presents.

And spent the day looking nerd-tastic.

January seemed extra long this year, but you didn't seem to mind.

In fact you love the snow.

Maybe you'll be the first winter sport enthusiast in the family.

Eli you are a handful. You're naughty, defiant and willful, you drive mommy and daddy crazy and test our patience daily. We firmly believe that you've been completely in the terrible twos for quite some time now. Thankfully you're also smart, funny, sweet, cuddly and loving. I think we'll keep you around; and maybe try to slow time down a bit.

Spaces!

I swear that I am putting an extraneous amount of spaces between paragraphs and blogger is just ignoring them and lumping all my words together! It is infuriating me.

Monday, Monday

I don't know if you're aware but the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Superbowl this year. This is a BIG deal. When I walk to work I pass houses that have been decorated in support of the team.

I love this window. It makes me smile every morning. I'm going to celebrate the Superbowl by eating. I'm making football food, chicken wings, buffalo dip, potato salad and cornbread. If, God forbid, the Steelers lose at least my stomach will be full of fatty goodness.

Saturday while my landlord was addressing the problems with my plumbing Eli and I went to run some errands with Suz, on the way back Eli fell asleep in his seat. He didn't budge when we brought him in and slept like this for over an hour.

When he does decide he feels like napping he naps hard. Yesterday we both fell asleep for over two hours which was fine with me this weather saps my will to do anything but eat and sleep. Hibernation mode.

My plumbing is finally fixed and I can flush my toilet, run my sink, do dishes and laundry to my hearts content. Unfortunately he had to literally sledgehammer up the cement floor in my basement and I now have two fairly good sized holes down there til he gets back to fill them. My main concern is that bugs are going to get in. Bug invasion terrifies me even when my house is not holy.

I've been getting a lot of reading done and can wholeheartedly recommend The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, American Wife and The Corrections which I haven't finished but already love. There are six more books on their way to me from Amazon, I bought two besides the corrections at Goodwill and I have a few from Christmas waiting to be read. Also I fully intend to buy more with my tax return. The original plan was to buy two more bookshelves, now I'm thinking three might be a safe bet. Have you seen my dining room/library?

I'm Looking Forward

To not having to wear these boots anymore. I want to be able to wear my flats without getting my feet soaked and frozen. There's a few more months yet before that will happen and it's starting to wear on me.



Eli and I have been having a lot more inside time than what we'd gotten used to, luckily this change has coincided with his attention span getting a lot longer. Eli's a movie fan.

Here he's watching Aladdin and clearly something very serious is taking place on screen. The Land Before Time continues to be his very favorite movie; he's started making dinosaur noises and the other day I caught him making the same faces as Sara the tricerotops. Since Eli's so attentive now I've decided it's time for him to see his first movie in the theater! I'll be taking him to see Coraline http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3n67BQvh0 don't worry, Eli does not scare easily.

The young sir is also enjoying this weather a lot more than any of the grown ups in his life.

The Christmas sled is a hit. I exhausted myself running around the yard pulling him behind me. He was laughing and after a few passes I was gasping for breath. My throat got that raggedy feeling that's reminiscent of running the 60 yard dash in gym class. Mama's out of shape.

This really was the most snow we've had in years and I'm glad Eli had some quality outside time, cabin fever in a not quite two year old is not attractive. This kid has a whine that makes me want to drive a screwdriver into my brain.

My basement plumbing has STILL not been fixed and I get more annoyed every day. I just want to do laundry without going to the laundromat. I despise the laundromat. When I was 20 and lived in the Northside I would put off doing laundry for as long as humanly possible; sometimes I'd buy new stuff to delay the trip longer. But eventually we'd have to go so at two or three a.m. we'd venture to the 24 hour laundromat in Oakland and use a whole row of washers. I always liked those trips once I was there, so warm and the big comfy couches and lots of magazines I'd never read before. The two tiny laundromats in Bloomfield offer none of those charms and there's the added joy of Eli who finds the washers and dryers fascinating but loves to touch everything. All of this rambling is basically to say that if my landlord does not get my plumbing fixed this weekend I'm going to murder him.