Spring Fever

Today I'm having a hard time not breaking into song. On the way to work I had a five minute conversation with a stranger who was waiting for the bus, the whole city appears to be in a good mood. I think I know why:
Just look! Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

This is pretty good too, I guess, but it's not five consecutive days of warm weather that allow me to escape toddler cabin fever.

On Sunday morning I gave Eli his very first lollipop. He liked it, that face was because he thought I'd try to take it away. Do you think his hair's getting a little out of control?

We had a couple nice days last week too so young sir and I went for a few walks around the field of bloom. Mostly he enjoyed being out of the house.

But he also really wanted to dart into the street and when I wouldn't let him (I know, I know mean mommy!) he threw himself onto the sidewalk and had a fit.

I think he looks a bit like a dying cockroach.

Cheese Face

All the talk on the news on Thursday and Friday was about this big storm we were supposed to get. More snow accumulation that Pittsburgh has seen in years! Below you can see Eli in this big snow:
That's right not even enough to cover the grass. And this was taken on Saturday when it rained all day, cold wet annoying rain. Since we're experiencing some major winter blahs and cabin fever at my place I decided to take Eli out anyway; and just hover over him with an umbrella while he played.

As you can see he liked it. Yesterday morning we walked a few blocks down to get brunch and he insisted on only walking on the parts of the sidewalk where there was snow. He's much more of a fan of the winter weather than his mama.

See that ridiculous face? That's the face that Eli makes now when he sees the camera. I'm pretty fond of it and plan on taking a lot of snapshots so that when he's a sullen teenager I can remember what his smile looks like.

Pictures, Followed By A Healthy Dose of Whinging

We were supposed to go Saturday morning to do Christmas pictures, but Friday night Eli had a fever followed by some nasty intestinal nonsense (these illnesses are the only time i hate cloth diapers). The photo appointment got cancelled for the second time and I still needed pictures for Christmas cards; last years cards got sent out without pictures and that WAS NOT HAPPENING THIS YEAR. So, Sunday afternoon we had a photo shoot. I bought at a backdrop and prop at the dollar store by my house. Then I tried to get Eli to hold still and let me take his photo. That was harder.

This face was solicited by Jason telling him to hold still. Adorable but sad.

This was my dollar store prop, a tissue paper tree from 1987! So awesome! And so completely destroyed now that Elijah got his hands on it. I may go over and see if there's another one and pack it away for safekeeping. It could be worth a lot of money some day...

I took over 135 photos, if you're interested you can see a bunch of them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilycleone/ChristmasPhotoShoot#. Monday morning I narrowed it down to three pictures and ordered cards from CVS.com. If you read this chances are good you're on my list and you'll be getting a card, I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Now is the time for people who don't want to listen to me whine or just don't care about my issues to stop reading. Close the page. OK.

My period is almost two weeks late. And as of Sunday morning pregnancy tests are coming back negative. This is bullshit. I'm feeling a lot better about this than I was last week thanks to my baby board friends and Jason happily letting me freak out at home but it's still irking me. How am I supposed to try to conceive when my body can't get it together? Through the magic of the Internet I know tons of other women are going through the same thing I am and engaging in the same crazy behaviors. Said behaviors include: obsessively peeing on tiny sticks, pulling said tiny sticks out of the trash hours later to make sure they're still negative and becoming all to familiar with the phenomena of evaporation lines http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3093/2732979251_5a2b92d359.jpg?v=0. That's what happened to me on Friday, I was sure that the very very very faint line on my test was a positive. But no it's just a stupid test defect. The tests shouldn't do that, it's mean. It taunts ladies whose hormones are very clearly already out of whack and it makes me want to write pithy emails to people. When I think of the money I've spent on pregnancy tests I'm a lot ashamed. I'll actually save money by getting pregnant. Well kind of... Anyway I'll be happier and that should count for something.

Christmas!

I love Christmas. I think I told everyone this last year but as annoying people is my thing lately I will state it again. Yea Christmas! I love buying people just the right present and I love decorations and I love cookies and fruit cake (I ate an entire fruit cake when I was pregnant, like 10 lbs of candied cake) and Christmas music and TV specials. I love crowded stores and salvation army buckets and fake Santas. I am obnoxious in my love for this over commercialized holiday; just ask my not so festive husband. Though I think he's coming around a little, he said that the tree looked really nice. One of the things I'm most looking forward to as a parent is Eli getting older and getting mommy's holiday spirit. He "helped" me decorate the tree this year.

Eli was refusing to look at the camera during our little photo shoot. I hope that during our official photo shoot on Saturday morning (yes it was supposed to happen last Sunday but I'm a terribly horrible no good very bad planner--some people are like that, even in Australia) he gives good face.

The finished product! Blogger is still publishing my pictures out of order and I just don't care enough to fix it.

Putting the star on the tree as Audrey Hepburn looks on. I initially tried to get Eli to do this but young sir wasn't cooperating, like a lot of things he'll probably be more into this next year when he's almost three.

My favorite face.

T-Rex! Every time I go to Target I find something else fabulous. You may think that they're paying me to rave about them but I just do it out of love. Though I certainly wouldn't say no to them endorsing me in gift cards.

I have maybe half of my shopping done and hope to finish the rest of it next week, well before Christmas Eve! As for what I want it's out of my hands but I'll happily accept books, Starbucks gift cards, fancy tea or the fabulous coat from my previous post as a substitute.

And I'll happily listen to this song a gazillion more times before January 1st http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA8UHeoYHQM don't pretend you don't like it! It's charming.

New Look

I decided I didn't like my old template at all and I'm going to try this one out. Today it suits me. I have a lot to say but I'm not sure if I want to write it out here or how to phrase it if I should so I'll just put up some new pictures of Eli.
He really likes wearing grown ups shoes, here he's trying to put on the crocs that Grandma Nora sent daddy, he's having a hard time of it without using his hands.

That's better! He stomped around in them for about fifteen minutes and was perfectly contented. He likes to pay dress up.

Talking to my mom on the phone with his excellent after bath hair. When it's curled like that I can never fathom cutting it.

Cloth diaper butt! Baby's got back...

He wasn't mad here, I just caught him mid-holler. He's rocking out and my trashed living room is proof.

So...

I really really suck. To distract you from that; look Eli!
Jason took this picture while I was at work. When I got home yesterday afternoon we had this conversation:
J: You should go look at the camera
Me: Why?
J: I took pictures of Eli you're not going to like two of them.
I took that to mean that they were going to be pictures of Eli smoking cigarettes, hanging out with strippers, drinking mountain dew, or wearing a disposable diaper. Thankfully Jason was just referring to Eli wearing daddy's Dolphin's hat. I mean it's gross but Eli makes it look good.

Big bear wrestling!! I brought my giant bears down from Eli's bedroom (they were presents from Jason when we were dating) the other day and he's decided they're excellent wrestling buddies. When he gets older maybe I'll get him one of these like his Uncle Marty had, http://www.tias.com/stores/gift/pictures/wwf1a.jpg, if he's lucky.

And I got new hair! I love it, it's the same color as Dencey's so that when I swap her for Eli it'll be easier to convince the cops that she really belongs me.

See how cute Dencey is? And she does not have the hissy fits that Eli's been having on a daily basis. Eli likes to abuse his adorable cousin by pushing her down. And then laughing. Mommy doesn't find it as funny as he does.

Of course then he does something like decide that he wants to wear socks on his hands for an hour and completely redeems himself! The kid infuriates and delights me.

General Malaise

I've been an exceptionally bad blogger. I'd like to make my apologies and excuses.
-I quit doing the casserole thing because it was a very calorie heavy venture, a lot of food was getting wasted, and I'm not the best with follow through.
-I've had an incredibly annoying cold for 12 days now. It fluctuates in severity but I haven't felt 100% for quite some time.
-I am broke and fretting over affording Christmas. I love to go over the top with presents and that's just not seeming like a possibility this year so I'm vexed.

See what a pout fest I am? It's best that I haven't been blogging. Here are two pics of Eli who's also been battling the never ending cold so please excuse the bleary eyed boy.
Eli decked out for a walk in the cold. He's wearing mommy's hat. It does look fabulous on him but I've since acquired to boy appropriate hats for him.

Eli loves football. The other day when Uncle Cory was visiting Eli fell asleep clutching his football. Not even two and already full of testosterone.

My picture taking has also been lacking. Eli was doing something incredibly cute the other day and I didn't have the energy to get the camera. Send vitamins.

I Didn't

Make a casserole on Saturday. I couldn't stomach the thought of cooking. But look how handsome Eli is
hanging out in the awesome Piggly Wiggly shirt grandma got him in Myrtle Beach. I had a very similar shirt when i was 18 and I loved it almost literally to bits.

Matchbox cars are Eli's new obsession, he likes to line them up then very carefully move them back and forth while making car noises. He's such a little macho man.

Climbing into his toybox so that he can climb on top of it.

And wearing Aunt Suzanne's hat. He knows how fetching he looks in accessories.

Accesories Make the Man

I'm not going to just post recipes, this blog will still be used for Eli updates and general bitchery.

You know who's cooler than Eli?
No one... No one.

Remember When

Eli last October at 8 months old, no neck and no teeth.
Eli this weekend : )

How time doth fly when you're having fun.

Picture Pages!

Guess who takes a lot of pictures and assumes people are interested in them?
Eli wanted to show you the proper stance for throwing a baseball.
Could someone please send the kid some toys? He's really really bored over here.
On Thursday I took off work to go to Phipps Conservatory with my sister-in-law and niece http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/. Both kids were on their best behavior even though they were confined for the protection of the flowers. Eli loves to pick flowers. And then crush them in his tiny hand and throw them to the ground. Probably they frown on that there.
It's absolutely gorgeous. Amy was saying how she always dreamed of being married in this garden, it would be a lovely place to be wedded.
I told Eli we were in the jungle. He said "oh yeah? if this is the jungle where are the monkeys?" Can't get anything past that kid.

For some (really fabulous) reason there were flamingos everywhere. The ones above are having a cocoa steam bath. I was jealous.
Chocolate flamingos shipwrecked.
Eli was also really good at lunch afterwards so I let him look at the fish. I am a very nice mother.
He hasn't quite grown into his ears yet...
Still he's pretty damn cute. That's his catcher's stance, he'll hand you a ball then run across the room and hunker down in preparation. Natural born athlete.

On Saturday we babysat for Dencey. She's pretty cute too with her sweet red head. Sadly it seems like Eli's starting to get jealous of her again and doesn't like when she drinks out of his sippy cup or when I pick her up. My mom assures me it's the age and that he'll grow out of it.
Mr. Baseball rocks his baby bell bottoms.
On Sunday we went to the Andy Warhol Museum http://www.warhol.org/ much like our trip to the Carnegie Eli was riveted by the art.
They have an exhibit with a ton of Popeil Brothers stuff that I wanted to take down and carry home.
How I wish that I could have competed for the title of Miss Kitchen Gadget!

There is nothing not to like about that.
Clearly I need a Veg-O-Matic. http://smarterthanpancakes.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/veg-o-matic.jpg
Also I need all of this kitchen ware. Feel free to start looking on Ebay.
Eli woke up in time for the balloon room. He was into it.

Suzanne found her favorite kind of art.
This picture was the last one I managed to get on the gallery floors before being chastised. Which sucked because there were a lot of fabulous things to snap.
Eli contemplates a life as a pop artist.
Eli has exactly one toy gun. The orange squirt gun in this picture. He loves it, I once saw him dig every single toy out of the toy box until he found it. Not sure what that means. Also note that I was watching What Dreams May Come which always makes me cry. It's one of the few Robin Williams' movies that I enjoy.
Smile.