Movies, ringworm, a virus, and the chicken

On Christmas Day my family decided that we would go see Marley & Me. It's pretty much tradition for us to go see a movie that day and we hold to it! So, the big difference this year is that Wes and I have a one year old, named Eli... I'm sure I've mentioned him before :) and he has never been to a movie. We load up, drive to the theatre, and get settled for the 5:05 showing of Marley & Me. Eli is doing good, he's eating crackers and fruit but you could tell that he's getting really sleepy. He still takes two naps. Once the movie begins he is passed from my aunt down the row until he gets to me. Yep, he's really tired and keeps crashing his head into my shoulder trying to go to sleep. After a few minutes of this, it's just not going to happen. Wes, being the incredible husband and father that he is, says that I don't need to worry, just sit and watch the movie and he'll take Eli. 

Wes packs up Eli's stuff, takes him to the car. From texts I get throughout the movie, Wes played some jazz for him, changed a poopy diaper, fed him the rest of the crackers, Wes ate the last cracker, sang some songs, drove him around, and then finally Eli went to sleep. Thanks honey. I love you!

Eli has these spots on his back every once in awhile that feel really rough. They are the same color of his skin and basically they are just little dry patches. He started getting one on his lower back after Thanksgiving but I didn't think too much about it and just put extra lotion on it. After time went on, it started getting a little red, and then it started looking like a faint little circle... now I was getting concerned obviously. We ended up taking him to the doctor and we all pretty much agreed that it was probably ringworm and to put antifungal cream on that spot everyday. ew. ringworm?? are you serious? where in the world would he get that?! so... gross. My child has a fungus. His doctor said it's pretty common and there is no way to tell where he got it and it's not that big of a deal. but still. ew.

Wes, my sister Amy, and my brother Josh (who is home from London for awhile. yay!) and I all drove back home from Austin yesterday. I woke up with a little sore throat and wasn't feeling that great but was in "go mode" and wanted to get home. So after the drive, which was awesome because there was no traffic on 35!!!, and once the car was unloaded I started feeling way worse. I went to the family clinic by our house and my strep test was negative so the doc said it is probably a virus and that's that. boo on that.

Last night we were feeding Eli some sort of chicken/veggie/pasta something and I noticed that Eli was holding a little pack of food in his left cheek. The more I fed him the more I could tell that he was segregating the chicken from rest of the food and just holding it there! After a few more bites he spits out all of the chicken onto his shirt and wanted more food. I fed him some more, he did his chipmunk thing and stored some chicken off to the side and well... just take a look...

Catch up

Eli met Santa

We took Eli to see Santa at the Gaylord Texan. It was SO fun and he loved it!! He did so good! I know the picture lady was just trying to get the stock "smiling facing forward" picture but there were so many cute ones that she missed! Like Eli pointing at Santa and smiling or sitting in his lap and just looking up at him like he was a giant toy. She only took three pictures and didn't get the best shot, but it's ok. He had such a fun time! Yay for Santa!

Whole milk and Facing forward

Yes, Eli is drinking the real deal now. I put it in his bottle (which we're trying to get off of by the way... we found those Nuby sippy cups that have the spout the same texture as a bottle nipple for transition. love them!!) and he took a drink, looked at it, looked at me, and then kept on drinking! so sweet... and we were finally able to turn his seat around. Thank goodness because his long legs were all crunched up against the seat the other way! So... he's really one now. I have to believe it. 

Master Jennifer

My sweet friend Jennifer (who starter her Master's after me... ahem...) graduated with her Master's to be a Diagnostician. We couldn't make it to her actual ceremony, so Sarah had the idea to throw her a celebration dinner! I said great, I'll bring the salad and cake (which turned out to be pie) and you do everything else. Perfect! So, we did that and had so much fun! Sarah's daughter (who is 2 by the way) took pictures of us and they are really good!! impressed? Congratulations Jennifer!! We are so proud of you!

Christmastime

I love Christmas. I love that Jesus came. I love that He loved us so much that He died for us. I love that He was a baby and grew and walked and ate and drank and was human. Getting together for the holidays is so much fun and we love getting to see both sides of our family, but sometimes I just need a minute (actually more) to sit back and soak in what I am actually celebrating. I feel like as I'm typing this, I'm in the midst of that minute. Thank you Jesus. I love you. 

Merry Christmas dear friends! 

Par-tay!

Oh my gosh.. Eli's birthday was SO fun!! We had such a joyful time celebrating his first year! Thank you so much dear friends for coming!! I know it meant so much to us and Eli loves you all! He got the perfect gifts! lots of books, some bath toys, some guitars, some clothes, some Toms, some pajamas and a piano! Isn't that so awesome?! Eli did so great and partied like a rockstar until 9:30 pm! whoa!!! :) Thank you for all of your birthday wishes guys! He will love seeing this stuff someday!

Happy 1st Birthday Eli!

I seriously cannot believe it's here. Eli's first birthday. I feel so many things right now! I'm so excited, I'm so proud, I'm so in love, I'm so humbled, I'm so shocked, and I'm a little sad to know that one whole year has passed by. It's about 8 am right now and this is when I got the call that they wanted me to come into the hospital at 12:00 noon to start the induction. I go in at noon, get hooked up to IVs after getting settled and they start the process. About 3 hours later I wake up to starting to feel just some minor contractions, the put in some light pain medication and say the next time I wake up I'll need an epidural. They were right.

I wake up probably 3 more hours later to some more intense pain... still not that bad and I say, let's go ahead and do this epidural thing. Epidural in, and it's time to go back to sleep. :) About 4 hours later, the nurses have been a little concerned that Eli's heart rate had been dropping (remember that you saw that too Kelli?) and they were about to put an internal monitor on his head to see what's going on. My doctor just happened to be there to check on me (it's almost 10:00 pm at this point) and so he himself got ready to put the monitor on Eli, he's goes to check me and says those words "hmm. You know Amanda I don't think that is his head." I said, "really?" He said, "let's get a sonogram done." So, they wheeled in the machine, I got to see my sweet baby again, and sure enough, he was breech. I said, "So what does that mean? When am I going to have him?" He said, "in about 30 minutes" and they prepped me for surgery. At 10:39, he was born! It was so exciting, and such a blur... 

Tonight is his party. Of course there will be pictures! 

We love you Eli. 

we can cook again

The kitchen is finally done! Meaning... it's been painted, new countertops, new sink and faucet, new backsplash and I love it! We still haven't been able to put everything back together (as you can see in the pictures, but it is so nice for everything not to be leaking or torn up or anything! yay!

Before

After

Before

After

We only ran into a few minor problems during the process:

1. The countertop installation workers probably showed up high to our house

2. They cut the hole for the sink too big even though Wes gave them the template, which they refused to use

3. We found this out when Wes and my dad tried to put the sink in and all 115 lbs of it almost fell completely through

4. They got fired after that snafu

5. New people came and brought us a new countertop

6. The tile guys came and took a really long time getting it done, even though I think it was more than they thought it would be... they had to rebuild some walls

7. We didn't look at how much space was needed to put in the microvent and turns out we had them put the tile up too high

8. My dad had to learn to drill through tile

9. My dad had to go back to Home Depot to get a better drill bit and some how caught my house on fire in the process

10. My mom and I put out the fire and had to leave because of the smoke

11. My sink started leaking today

But! All in all it turned out great! Do you like it?

An imaginary friend?

Does Eli have an imaginary friend? An imaginary friend that is a bully?? Today Wes and I went to Target to get a present and I noticed something on Eli's ear as I was running him into the store since it is FREEZING outside! When I got him in and all settled I looked closer and his ear was cut! Wes was finishing his lunch in the car so when he came in I showed him and he was shocked! What I think happened is that Eli cut his ear with his nails. I have to cut his nails all the time and sometimes they end up with sharp corners. His nails are so tiny! It's hard to get it all! His ear kind of looked like it was sliced open. Since Eli loves to pull on his ears and hair I am thinking that's what happened. 

I really don't know but it totally freaked me out... I don't like not knowing what happened! When I gave him a bath tonight I was cleaning the wound and he didn't even flinch. Then when I started to dry him off it starts bleeding

 everywhere... which I know is because it's near the head and those always seem to bleed the worse. But... I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach. 

Then! Wes and I were playing with Eli on the floor and I noticed his toe! It seems that his

 pointer toe (I have no idea what the right name is) but his pointer toe is damaged!! Part of his toenail is gone and the tip of his toe is all red! What is happening?????? This story is out of order, because I cleaned that really well also in the bath and he didn't seem to care. Strange... and annoying. 

Eli's newest adventure is reaching as high as he can. He loves sitting by the back door and playing in that little area for some reason. Now, he has a new idea. He tries to reach the door knob, which he can, and messes with the lock. He can't quite reach it as well as he would like so he now climbs on top of the fire place and attempts to lean over to the door knob to reach it. awesome.

And to end this lovely post, I would like you to view a video. Eli really loves books, which is funny because he doesn't really like to sit and read with you, he just really likes to read all by himself with you near him. He's so sweet. Now, many one year olds (or almost one year olds) know several words. That is all well and good, but my son knows a whole different language. Jealous? Well, you should be. ... now if we can only figure out which language it is...