Not Me! Monday

I am addicted to reading MckMama's blog "My Charming Kids", you know MckMiracle baby Stellan! She has this "therapeutic" way of introducing Mondays into the world by being oh so brutally honest! She calls it Not Me! Monday. It always makes my day to hear her stories and after the Monday I am having today... I decided it was not fair to just enjoy her honesty, but to have some therapeutic blogging time for myself and officially begin my Not Me! Monday

To be honest I have surely I have not allowed Eli to play to his little heart's content with snot running down his face, because I was tired of wiping it for the millionth time today... nor have I wiped it with my shirt sleeve and keep on going like I used a tissue.

I definitely did not allow Eli to carry around a bag of baby carrots in his mouth because the cold carrots felt good on his poor little mouth that is cutting 8 teeth at one time. No that would have been dangerous because he could have bitten into the plastic.

Of course it was not me who allowed Eli to walk around our house buck naked as I cleaned the bathtub for his bath... no because that would not have been smart.

After looking high and low, in all the stack of papers in the office, in the car, on the counter, I did not ask Eli where my drivers license was like he would respond.

I most certainly did not eat chips with french onion dip more than once this week before 9am... even being pregnant that would be disgusting!

Nope absolutely none of these things happened in our house this past week!!!

my growing belly

10 weeks (yes my pants are unbuttoned... at least my shirt covered the evidence)


11 weeks (yes i popped)

wordbank

i figured i would update eli's word-bank for those friends and family that do not live near enough to hear his sweet little voice as often as they would like. it amazes me as he is starting to repeat what we say (which makes us now be really careful of what we say and how we say it... yes dad i still remember your little saying that would annoy me to death growing up)

Falling Leaves

So the week i was in hilton head & tampa was peak week for the vibrant leaves here in south carolina, but here are a few shots i managed to take when i got home. also it went from being in the 80's to 60's so we lost some of the pretty colors to frost shock as our nights have been as low was 26 degrees in october! maybe in for a snow this year. i might as well predict the weather... thats all they do on tv, but i hope i am right, even though the meteorologists rarely are :)

Autum days with Dada

so every kid loves dressing up in their parents clothes... eli loved wearing daddy's boots and cowboy hat!


dada is working on the lake so we took him lunch and enjoyed a little picnic by the water


swinging in our back yard


hanging out with blair in the back of the truck


this is a little older, but eli was helping dada water the grass (notice the "MONK" shirt... hmmm i wonder who he takes after???)

election & relatives

so forgive me... i have not had any way to upload my pictures to my (well its actually chris') apple computer and on top of it we had to battle with apple and get our new computer fixed over the last two weeks... so this is what you get for me not having computer & picture access... LOTS OF POSTS!

so eli was sporting the "i voted" sticker that my mama gave him... i was in hilton head on election day so i was unable to cast my vote for jacoby ellsbury (center-fielder for the boston red sox).


eli and i stopped in hilton head on the way back from tampa to see Great Grandma Pat (my dad's mother). even though eli was sick they enjoyed hanging out together!




of course Meme had to have her turn playing with eli... the fan was a big hit!

PIctures from Tampa

Rachel & Eli

My favorite food in the world is Ethiopian... it was the highlight of the trip!

In house babysitting... the ladies took Eli from the time we sat down and played with him the entire 1 1/2 hours we were there

This Ethiopian lady was Eli's favorite... they all called her Mama!

Rachel & I

Eli was wearing Aaron's "geek" glasses


Chickens walk around Ybor City... total cross-cultural moment for me

This older man made the cigars I bought Chris

LONGEST drive to TAMPA

I will NEVER (i know, "be careful of what you say") choose to EVER go on a road trip with a baby (and a sick one at that) by myself EVER again! Sweet Baby (well he now has to grow up quicker as he is not the baby of the family anymore) Eli was absolutely miserable the ENTIRE drive there and back! Honestly, without exaggeration, he cried, actually screamed for 16 of the 20 travel hours. If you could have been a fly inside my car you would have heard me tell God more than once that I was about to start screaming with Eli. My SweetPea had a legitimate reason for his unhappiness... he was accidentally given two doses of the flu vaccine instead of one flu and one chickenpox/mmr vaccine. Consequently the vaccine gave him the flu... and all the not so lovely side effects... fever (up to 104 a few times), cough, achy body, runny nose, sneezing, and a double ear infection. To top it off he is teething something ferocious in his mouth... 4 teeth are really close and 4 more not too far behind! He sure missed his Dada as he would cry for him. Somehow without getting a good nights sleep or long restful naps, we made the most of being with dear friends. We stayed most of our trip with a girl I met in Kenya and her husband then one night we stayed with some friends I have known for almost 12 years (from the good ol' CIU village days). Speaking of old friends, on our way down to Tampa we stopped in Jacksonville for a nice long "pit stop" so Eli could stretch his legs. During our little adventure we had lunch with one of Christopher's dearest friends from way back when. I have to admit talking on the computer is so very different than meeting face to face, so I was a bit nervous, but Kristen and I didn't miss a beat talking a million miles a minute during our 2 1/2 hour lunch and amazingly Eli did phenomenal, given the circumstances. We then drove to Shands Hospital, where a dear friend/brother of mine, Wyman Bowers fiance was in the ICU after a horrible car accident (more to come on her recovery). It was a joy to be able to give hugs and support to Wyman, Mr Det and Miss Polly, to see Dr. and Mrs Campbell, and to meet Ann Forrest Wilson's immediate family. Eli was a nice distraction to the sad and depressing hospital surroundings.