My New Full-Time Job

So here we are, trying once more to toilet teach Eli. This time we are much more serious about it, I think, and I am already ready to give up. I'm not going to, yet, but this is driving me nuts. I still have no idea if he realizes when he needs to go to the bathroom, he knows after the fact, but who knows any more.
I had my first experience this evening getting peed on. Ah, the joys of motherhood. Hopefully we'll get this down before too long.

I want Candy!

I am really in the mood to snack on candy right now. All of the boys (Morgan included) are sleeping, there are all sorts of candy options for me...M&Ms, Skittles, Peanut Butter Fudge, Candy Canes, Pringles Salt and Vinegar chips (I know they aren't exactly candy but they are one of my favorite treats.)
However, I have decided to finally do something about all of the baby weight I gained and part of my weight loss plan means limiting my candy intake and drinking more water when I feel hungry. So now you know.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the boys, Eli's eyebrow in particular. And as Jamie mentioned to me I forgot to say how many stitches. Eli ended up getting 2 stitches, not alot, but it wasn't a big cut to begin with.

Eli sledding with Dad. (I was too late getting outside and they were done, Eli wouldn't get back in the sled, but he did give me a smile.)

Morgan took this picture, I'm not sure what to say about it. Its funny though, so I thought I'd put it on.

We finally let Eli take a few pictures with our camera. Can you believe that we held out until he was 2 1/2!


And finally the eye. The first picture is right before we went to the doctor on Friday and the second was taken Saturday night before bed.

The Eye

I suppose that everyone needs to have one of these stories sooner or later of children getting injured. Today is our day. (Sorry, no pictures tonight, but I'll get some on later.) I think the best way to tell this story is with Morgan talking to the nurse to find out if we should go in to the doctor.

Nurse: Is this Melissa
Morgan: No this is Morgan,
Nurse: Is this the Lasley's
Morgan: Yes, I'm her husband.
Nurse: So what is the problem with Eli?
Morgan: I hit him....
Nurse: Uh...
Morgan: With a Frizbee.
Nurse; Oh.

So Morgan, Eli and I were downstairs playing a little bit of disc golf. Josh started crying so I went upstairs to check him out. As I am changing his diaper I can hear Morgan through the vents say, "Look out, Eli." And then the crying.

I don't really pay too much attention to it. After all, this sort of thing has happened before. But then as they are coming upstairs I hear Morgan say something about blood. Now I know it is a little more serious. So I meet them in the kitchen to find that Eli got a disc to the eyebrow and it has split and is bleeding.

We got the bleeding under control pretty quickly and called Covenant to find out if we should take Eli in to get stitches or glue the eyebrow together again. They took our information, and had a nurse call us back...hence the above phone call.

Eli was really good at the clinic. He was happy by this time and just playing around and checking his computer (a fold-up brush from the diaper bag). He didn't really like sitting still while Morgan held him with a topical numbing solution but we read a book and sang some songs.

When the doctor and nurses came back in to do the actual work they wrapped him up like mummy or a baby burrito. We decided to stay in there with him, to comfort him as we could. He cried at first when they used a needle to numb him some more but we got his pacifier out and he calmed down. We let him have some fruit snacks for being so brave afterward.

Then when we got home we got him ready for bed, read scriptures, brushed teeth, etc. And Morgan told Eli that he was sorry again and Morgan went to time out for hitting Eli. Eli helped me set the timer and he talked to Morgan once it went off. Really Morgan did the talking/apologizing. Now Eli is asleep in bed with the stickers he got from the doctor.

Kindermusik

Eli, Josh and I started a Kindermusik class this week. I think that it will be a lot of fun, especially for Eli. He was talking about it all day afterwards. It took him a little while to get into the activities/music. They sing a 'hello' song where each kid picks an action to sing hello to, and Eli was just watching the kids, hanging on to my arm and kind of scowling.

One of the first kids chose jumping, so I got up and started jumping (the only parent to do so) and then Eli realized it was fun and jumped and did most of the other actions as well. He is really quite a character. It is probably just because I am his Mom, but I think he was one of the most expressive kids there. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let someone else decide.

Fun and News

We had friends over! Our friends, the Ortegas came up and spent Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon with us. Josh really liked checking out their daughter Isabella and Eli and Isaac had a pretty good time playing together.
Both of the boys are into roaring, but when Eli would Roar at Isaac he would get scared and Eli would like ans do it over and over again.
We were also able to play some fun games, Reuben killed us at Five Crowns and Eli surprisingly won Greed, and even watched a movie!

Josh and Isabella

Josh is rolling both ways!
Josh has started pushing up on his hands/chest recently and I am sure that because of that he is now able to roll both ways, back to stomach and stomach to back! It was really exciting actually seeing him do it for the first time last night. (we missed his first roll). And while it took him a while just to repeat the first roll he has been rolling several times today. Horray! My baby is growing up and learning.

Josh pushing up on his hands.

Finally, Vanity.
I took this picture just a few minutes ago, after Josh rolled over again. He rolled right into the end of the play pen and found the mirror then spent a few minutes checking out the handsome boy. It is so cute to see babies checking themselves out. :)

Josh and the mirror.

Snow and Cold

Eli getting ready to go outside. Serious bundling up needed.
Eli happy to be outside. (Morgan was shoveling).
Eli has been able to go outside once or twice (to play) since we've gotten back from the holidays. But it has been much too cold to really have a lot of fun. Both he and I are pretty wimpy when it comes to the cold. But this week looks like it is going to be a lot warmer so hopefully we can have a lot of fun playing in the snow.

Insanity

I just thought I should let everyone know that it is -16 degrees Fahrenheit right now, with a windchill of -37.

Tomorrow's high is -8.

4 Month Check-up

Where has the time gone? It is hard to believe that Josh is already 4 months old. Here are his stats:

Head: 17.5 inches, 90-95%
Height: 27.25 inches, 95%
Weight: 14.4 pounds, 25%

The doctor was happy with his growth, said that even if he was eating more he probably wouldn't weigh anymore. Not all kids have to be super chubby, right? I asked the doctor about Josh sleeping through the night and he said that it would be fine. So I think I will work with Josh on getting him to go through the entire night. He has slept through a couple of times, and more often than not when he gets up to nurse he falls right back to sleep.

Josh has had a cough and after Dr. Sims listened to his chest he thought that Josh might have bronchiolitis. So now we have a nebulizer and medicine to give to Josh ever 4-6 hours until his cough goes away. Hopefully he will get better sooner than later.

I Love Good Reads

So, I joined goodreads.com because one of my sisters-in-law sent me an invitation or something, I don't really remember. And I have only half-heartedly done anything about it. But I do read what some of my friends have put on their lists, and read their reviews. Because of that I was introduced to the book Garlic and Sapphires, a very funny autobiography of a New York Times restaurant critic. I have now been completely converted to the joys of Goodreads and will continue to check it out to find other books I need to read.

Josh's First Haircut

Last night we gave Josh his first haircut. Morgan has been bugging me to let us cut it for some time now. I think he may have started talking about the haircut while we were still in the hospital after Josh was born. (Morgan is very in to haircuts.)

So after talking to Morgan and making sure that this was really more of a trim (using the scissors and not the buzzer part) I agreed. We've been meaning to cut it since we got back from Utah, but the timing was never quite right when both Morgan and I were home, free, and Josh was awake.

Here is the Before picture.

Eli was very interested in being a part of the process, we finally had to let him get in the tub too so he could stop climbing all over Morgan. I'm not sure it helped, though.


Here is a shot of Josh after the haircut. We just trimmed by his ears, his bangs (only a little) and cut the back so that it wouldn't be going over his collars.


You can't see this last picture very well, but this is Josh and Eli holding bags of their first haircuts. Josh's you can barely see the hair in it, but it was everything that I could pick up after cutting. Eli's hair is obvious and, believe it or not, that wasn't even all of his hair, just a few locks that I picked up from the floor. Granted, Eli was two months older when we cut it, but I think he was just a hairier baby.

New Year News

Eli playing with a bucket. I have a picture with Morgan wearing the "hat" too, but decided to spare him the embarrassment.
Josh with Estel and Doris his third cousins (I think). They are sort of like another set of grandparents for Morgan.
Eli and Josh in the tub together.


I decided to let the boys take a bath together, or at least at the same time. We don't do it every time but I think that Eli really seems to enjoy it and Josh just likes to get clean. It takes a little more preparation and I leave Eli in the tub while I'm getting Josh dressed but so far, so good.

Other news, we had a great time with Morgan's parents for New Years. We decided to come home Saturday, thinking it would make Sunday easier for us (Henry was blessed Sunday in Ames.) Unfortunately Saturday night Waterloo and the surrounding roads were completely covered in ice. The news-people said it was suggested no one travel in highway 20 and Cedar Rapids police said not to travel unless it was an emergency. Dubuque had had 50 - 100 accidents already and it wasn't even 6am when we were checking everything. So add the weather craziness to the fact that both Eli and Josh had not been sleeping well that night - Eli had a terrible diaper rash - and we decided not to go to Ames and just stay home and try to recouperate.

Now we are doing well and are looking forward to starting a family music class on Wednesdays. Morgan is back to work, even going in early, and Book Club is starting up again, something I always look forward too.

I've got to go, Eli is calling for me through the baby monitor. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Today is the first day of 2009. To me, years seem to go by pretty quickly now. I think part of it is because I don't really care. I'm not one to focus on my age, or especially aging one more year. Yes, I'm 26, next year I'll be 27, that's just the way it goes.

Anyway, we had a fun evening. We came down to Morgan's parents house and I decided to stay up until midnight. (I often go to bed earlier here, rather than stay up and talk.) But I knew we would be here for a few days and I would have time to nap if I wanted to. (They have a super dark basement and I am actually able to take naps:)!).

We ate a lot of food: pizza, soda, candy, chips and dip, sparkling juice, and more. We also played a great game of Puerto Rico (MORGAN WON for the first time in a while.) Then we watched the movie Hancock.

Now for my review. I actually really enjoyed this movie. I had heard that there was this "unbelievable" plot twist toward the end that just ruined the movie. I will have to disagree. The twist wasn't that 'out there' Morgan and I kind of guessed a fraction of it. There was definitely some effects that were over the top and didn't make sense, but this is an action flick...they thrive on catastrophe. Anyway, I would recommend this movie. It can make you think about right v. wrong, and how love can mean different things. Lots of fun.