My Waterloo Days

Jumping Around

The PARADE

Dancing to the music.

(Josh fell asleep and slept through the bands and the honking of the firetrucks)

Eli LOVES marching bands. That is the one things he wanted to see.

Some people near us had this dog and Eli really liked it. He asked to "take a picture of the dog" and I convinced him it would be better if we took a picture of HIM with the dog.

Eli with his CHEESE face, and Josh being sleepy before the parade started.

Memorial Day

Eli LOVES marching bands and since Dan and Ginny were playing for a Memorial Day program we went to watch and support.

The Pacifier Fairy

We decided that it was time to have Eli give up the pacifier. We don't have any problems making up reasons for the pacifier to go so we decided to use the "Pacifier Fairy." The general idea was that we put the pacifiers in a bowl in the evening, and in the morning the pacifier fairy would have come, taken the pacifiers and left Eli a present. It is working so far (we did this Friday night.) Eli still asks for his pacifier before bed or nap time, but he doesn't get upset when we don't give it to him.

Eli checking out the window looking for the Pacifier Fairy.

Eli got a new hat, some golf clubs, and a box of candy.

Trying out the clubs.

Star Trek

I'm not the best at getting images, but this weekend we've been hanging out with Morgans family and his dad mentioned he wanted to take Shari to the see the new Star Trek and wanted to see if we wanted to come and leave our boys with Dan and Ginny. It is hard to turn down free babysitting so we went with them.

I have never been a Star Trek fan. I don't think I have ever seen an entire episode/movie of anything Star Trek. I didn't really have anything against it, but I also didn't think that it had anything going for it.

I REALLY enjoyed this movie. It was great. I realize that if I knew more about the beginning Star Trek that the characters would make more sense to me, I would probably have gotten a few more of the subtleties. But I was satisfied with the movie as it was.

Now for the question, should you try and see this in the theater or wait for it to come out on video. I don't know. I enjoyed it in the theater but I don't really think it was necessary.

ONE

Josh finally has gotten his first tooth. He was a little jealous of his cousin who already has Two teeth (and the cousin is 3 month younger!). Anyway, today I was looking to see if he had any teeth popping up and yes he did.

You can't see it in the pictures, but I couldn't help but show off my baby.

Say aah!

I love that he smiles trying to crawl to me!

Happy boy!

Potty Present

Eli has done wonderfully learning how to use the toilet so tonight we took him to Walmart and let him "pick" his present. (We had already decided what we were getting him). He was very excited.

Opening the present.

Cheese for mom!

First try!

Eli and his chart. Morgan made this LARGE chart for him.
There were more than 200 spaces.
He would have filled it long ago, but we didn't always give
him stickers, and since Eli placed them, some spots
have more than one sticker on it.

Haircut!

I finally did it! If you follow my blog you would know that in FEBRUARY I said I was going to get my hair cut, etc. Well I finally got it done this week and I just love it. It is so nice to have a change and Josh hasn't been able to grab and pull it, or eat it at all this week. Horray for short hair!



I finally did it! If you follow my blog you would know that in FEBRUARY I said I was going to get my hair cut, etc. Well I finally got it done this week and I just love it. It is so nice to have a change and Josh hasn't been able to grab and pull it, or eat it at all this week. Horray for short hair!

Outside

Climbing the ladder at the playground

Eli going down the slide...I told him I was going to take his picture as he went down, so he held onto the edge so he could stop for his big photo!

Josh isn't sure where sunglasses are supposed to go.
Eli, the cool cat.
Getting ready to throw his frisbee.
Great form! I tried to get a shot where you could see the Frisbee too, but that is just too difficult.
We found a mother duck and her ducklings walking around our backyard so we had to go check them out.

Go Reuben!

Reuben graduated and now he and his family have moved far, far away. We went down to Coralville to celebrate with them and took these last pictures with them.

Humbled & Grateful

I have just been blog-hopping, finding people I sort of know and reading what they are up to. What I found humbled me. So many people are going through really difficult things and my life is relatively good right now. In fact, my life has been relatively good for most of my life. I wish I knew these people better so that I could offer my help, my shoulder to cry on, my support, what ever they needed.

Plus, I was talking to my Mom today and through the conversation it came up that one of my best friend's (from home) mom was really sick with cancer. I knew she had cancer, she's had it for several years, but I didn't know how advanced it was and how poor her body has become. Her spirit is doing great, she feels good, no pain, and is out doing things, but she is living on a miracle right now. And who knows how long it will last.
I feel bad, because in my emails with this friend, her Mom's health has never really come up. Looking back, it seems like all of our emails are more on the superficial side. I love my friend and don't really know what to say. I wish I could be there with her.

By writing this some people might say that I am opening myself up for a major trial. I hope not, I'm not sure I am as strong as the others I see. I guess the true title for my post should be GRATEFUL. I am so grateful for my life and the blessings I have. I'm grateful that my family is healthy. I'm grateful that we are able to pay our bills and many student loans. I'm grateful my husband loves me and tries to make life easier for me, and appreciates me and the little I do. I'm grateful for friends. I'm grateful for the beautiful world we live in and the amazing colors and animals that are all around us. I'm grateful that I know how to cook and am comfortable with trying to recipes.
I'm grateful that Eli is such a good kid. That he's potty training well, that he goes to bed without much fuss, that he helps me clean up and wants to help me with Everything. I'm grateful he is eating so well lately. I'm grateful that he loves music and likes to sing Primary songs.
I'm grateful that Josh is learning to sleep on his own and sleep longer through the night. I'm grateful that he loves me and smiles when he sees me. I'm grateful he is learning to crawl and growing, discovering new things.
I'm grateful for my family. For my brother who is getting married soon and his fiance. I'm grateful for my sisters for sending me sweet notes, and being so generous to me. I'm grateful to my brothers for their friendship and protectiveness. I'm grateful to my MIL for her kindness and acceptance. I'm grateful to my FIL for raising such a wonderful son.

I'm starting to cry as I write this. I have so many blessings. It has been a long time since I have written them out like this, and I could go on but I don't think people really want to read this post. I guess this one is more for me.

Movies

Seven Pounds - ***
Great movie! Morgan and I really enjoyed it. We didn't know much about it, and I preferred it that way. This is a serious drama though, so you need to be in the mood for it to be able to enjoy it. It was a little confusing at first because there were 3 different time periods that you were dealing with.

Fred Claus - **
I didn't watch much of this, but Eli and Morgan enjoyed it. Nice little Christmas flick. My favorite scene was the "Brothers support group" it had such stars as Bill Clinton's brother, one of the Baldwin brothers, Silvester Stalones brother, and maybe others but those were the main ones.

Because I Said So - *
Not worth seeing, I wouldn't recommend it.

Over Her Dead Body - **
This was okay. Nothing special, but it was fine.

UP

Josh is continuing to grow. Yesterday he started pulling himself up to standing!

HUNGER

Eli must be going through a growth spurt. He is ALWAYS hungry. I feel like I have a teenage boy. Eli will wake up, eat breakfast and an hour later tell me he is hungry. Today he had 3 bowls of cornflakes and still was asking for more.

We've never really had this problem before. When I was meeting with a nutritionist she asked what I did when Eli asked for food in between meals...what snacks I gave him. I thought about it and said that he never really asked between meals unless it was close to meal time (within an hour) then I would just have him wait. Now I am constantly trying to think of healthy snacks I can give him to tide him over.

Insomnia or Imsomnia?

A quick note I just noticed that my first title to this post was iMsomnia - just further evidence to how tired I am.


It started on a dark night about two weeks ago. Morgan was out of town for a work retreat. It was quiet, peaceful until a scream pierced through the night.

We have not had a good nights sleep in what seems like forever. Eli has been waking up in the middle of the night crying, calling for us. We've let him sleep on the floor in our bedroom. A couple of nights ago I woke up because I was squished and I thought Morgan was hogging the bed. When I looked over I find that Eli is in the middle. I figure Morgan must have gotten him and let him sleep in our bed and I didn't wake up for it.
In the morning Morgan asks something along the lines of why I let Eli in our bed when only the day before we had decided to let him sleep on our floor when he was going crazy. I looked at him and said, I didn't bring Eli into bed, I thought YOU did.
That's right. Eli woke up on his own, and had to have climbed Over top of one of us to get in the middle of the bed.

Luckily that hasn't happened again, and we've got him to stay in his own room the last two nights. Unfortunately Josh is on a no-sleeping kick too. I just don't know what to do about Josh. He wakes up crying, if I hold him he will immediately relax and start going back to sleep, but the moment I put him in his crib he'll wake up crying again.
We've decided to try to teach Josh to go to sleep on his own, hoping that will solve the problem. (Plus he needs to learn how to do it anyway.) Today he cried for 45 minutes, slept for 20 and woke up crying again. I finally caved and put him to sleep because he was so tired and cranky. Even then he didn't sleep for long, but at least he woke up happy!

Pacifier?

The Helicopter

I had to take Eli and Josh to our last Relief Society meeting because Morgan was going to be gone. Eli got to make a paper helicopter. He absolutely loved it! Here he is showing it off.

Eli and the helicopter.

Going around and around.
More spinning.
Crash landing!