The many faces of Eli...Mellow

I don't know that I would call either of my children mellow. Both of them seem to have a little fiesty streak (or maybe a big fiesty streak in Lily's case)! But, in comparrison I would say that our little Eli is a bit more on the mellow side. This is a pretty classic Eli face when he's just feeling mellow and checking out everything going on around him. And this is most likely the face that people will see when we are out and about. And he does great when we are out. In fact, he's often much more fussy when we are home than when we are out. He loves to be where there is lots of noise and where he can just sit back and watch people and everything going on around him.

The many faces of Eli...Laughing

About 3 and a half weeks ago (while we were in Wisconsin) Eli laughed for the first time while Joe was playing with him. I missed it, but heard a little giggle out of him the following day at my Grandma's house. About two weeks ago he laughed for the first time for me and I just fell in love with him all over again. Now he is laughing everyday. He laughs when I kiss him or tickle him around his neck or ears, when I blow on his belly, or when I play bicycle with his legs. And today he laughed at Lily as she was jumping on the couch! Is there anything better than a baby's laugh? And in case you are wondering- he is smiling in this picture because I was telling him how cute he is (he's a sucker for the compliments)!:)

The many faces of Eli...Growing

Eli had his 4 month doctor appointment the other day. Wow, four months already! Our little man is growing and isn't quite as little anymore! At 15 lbs and 12 oz he is in the 75th percentile for weight. He's also taken quite a jump in length and is now in the 90th percentile (no wonder he doesn't fit in most of his footie pajamas anymore)! And obviously taking after his father's family (not like my large melon head) he's only in the 25th percentile for head circumference! Our little man is on the grow!

The many faces of Eli...Smile

Eli has the widest, sweetest, most adorable toothless smile I have ever seen!

Introducing the many faces of Eli...

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting to my blog as often lately. Don't worry, it's not because I've lost interest and it's not because I'm sick (which is what my parents thought). It's because we have been having problems with our wireless internet provider (Joe is working on it). It's because Joe kicked Lily's big, pink ball into my soda spilling it all over my laptop (it's been fixed and I just got it back today). It's because I'm using most of my "free" time to spring clean our house (I haven't done cleaning like this in probably over a year- maybe more). It's because Eli is still not eating or sleeping well (and I'm exhausted). It's because this month has been CRAZY! Crazy as in two and a half weeks of traveling in two different states. Good times with faraway friends. Lots of work. Crazy as in two sick kids and one sick husband. One overnight hospital stay with our babe. Rearranged travel plans. Incredibly unhelpful airlines. Crazy as in my mom almost burning down the house while we were there. One peanut allergy reaction. And filing a police report because we thought all of Joe's gear was stolen from our truck at the airport. Crazy as in a baby that is now waking up multiple times a night. Cleaning our entire basement and refinishing half of it. Sorting through baby clothes and preparing for a yard sale. Crazy as in spring cleaning. Crib adjusting. Love language learning. Budget thinking. Birthday planning. Mini van shopping. Swing set browsing. Broken phones and a broken microwave. Crazy as in our dog that jumped out of the truck window (while it was going 30mph) to chase a squirrel. You know...that kind of crazy. Oh man...I'm exhausted. So I realized today that I am a full month behind on the pictures that I am posting. So I thought you should know why. I will get to them eventually. But, it's probably going to be a bit yet because I am determined to finish the spring cleaning (and I'm not even half way yet). So in the meantime I thought I would introduce you to some of the many faces of Eli. I took some pictures the other day and caught some pretty good expressions from our little man. So here is the first one. Tune in over the next few days for a few more!

Animal Kingdom...The Parade

Eagerly waiting for the parade to start (with some of the Litchfield kids)

Minnie Mouse- her favorite!

Below: waving to Mickey

Okay, so the tree of life wasn't a big hit. Thankfully the Mickey Jammin' Jungle Parade was! In fact, I think that it was Lily's favorite part of the whole day! With colorful and exhotic floats, muscicians and dancers it was perfect. Not to mention that Lily got to see pretty much all of the Disney charectors up close! In our attempt to get to another attraction we actually ended up seeing the parade twice- which happened to be a lot of fun for all of us! This made the whole day for our little girl- and thus for us too!

Animal Kingdom...Tree of Life

At the center of Disney's Animal Kingdom is the Tree of Life. I have to admit that it's pretty incredible. Not only is it huge, but it has all kinds of animals carved into it's trunk. I can only imagine how long it took to make this tree. It's pretty impressive from far away and it's even more impressive up close (where you can see the animal carvings). Unfortunately what was inside was pretty scary. We didn't think it would be, but it was.

It was the Bug Life 3D show. Our friends, the Litchfields, and us were pretty excited for our kids to go into the tree and see the show. In fact right before we went a very nice lady commented to us on how cute the show was. And yes, she clearly saw the small children with us (and still said the show was adorable). We saw a small sign posted outside the entrance warning us that the show COULD be scary for small children. But really, how scary can a 3D cartoon about bugs be? Ummm...apparently pretty scary. It started off nice with pretty 3D butterflies. Lily liked that, but was already a little intimidated by the insects flying right at her. So pretty quickly we took off her 3D glasses. The rest of the show, however, was meant to be a comedy about how hard it is to be a bug (with humans trying to kill you all the time). With the 3D glasses it seemed as if the bugs were really shooting things at you or jumping out at you. If that wasn't scary enough for a child they tried to make it even more realistic by dropping rain on you from above, blowing puffs of air on you, having scary mechanical insects pop up around the theatre, releasing gas smells, and even cutting out all lights completely. So even without the glasses this was pretty scary for our little one. Joe tried to make a break for it with her right about the time they cut out the lights! At the end of the show myself, Eli (who was pretty much unaware of what was going on), our friend Tessa, and the Litchfield's oldest child, Caleb who is 6, were the only ones left. And even Caleb was cowering in his seat. In our group 3 adults and 4 children didn't make it through! I sat and watched the whole show feeling pretty bad for my little Lily the whole time. Even I have to admit that all of the special effects made it pretty realistic. Possibly fun for an adult. Totally terrifying for small children!