Elijah is 2 years old! Happy Birthday Baby!

This picture is the epitome of 2 year old Elijah. No shirt, hair sticking out every which way, slobber on his face, all while holding his bear and pound puppy with a big smile on his face. And running around like a wild man. Seriously, sometimes he just does laps around the kitchen and front room for no reason.

  

Weight- 31 lbs (83%, not sure if it's accurate. They weighed him on the regular scale this time and he DID NOT want to stand there. I had to gently force/push him to stay on, he sure feels a lot heavier than this to me!)

 Height- 36 inches (88%)

-Has now entered I believe what is called the "terrible twos". Which for Elijah is terrible because he is usually so mild mannered but the last month or so has really learned to throw some stellar tantrums and says, "no, no no!" Which I think he learned from other kids because I rarely say no. I say things like "I don't think so" or "Hand it to Mommy please" rather than yelling at him. But overall he is so sweet and generally only acts up when he wants to play or do something more fun than what we make him do. Totally understandable.

-Says probably 70-100 words. Maybe more. Favorite words are: yeah, choo choo, dog, car, bear, and saying "oh no!"

-Eats, sleeps and breaths trains. He has a train table upstairs with a bunch of trains and tracks. I usually have to force him to come downstairs for meals or when we need to go places. I've been known to just bring him breakfast upstairs and he'll play for a solid hour while I do things downstairs. He's becoming so independent.

-Loves to line things up in nice, straight lines. Anything. Then he pretends and yells, "Choo Choo!", while pumping his arm. Everything can be made into a train. Examples-blueberries, spoons, grapes, goldfish, cars.

-Just got his 2 year molars in on the bottom and I suppose the tops aren't far behind. He has had the worst rash all over his mouth from drooling, and chewing on stuff. I'm sure the binky at night doesn't help much.

-Still a great sleeper and napper. Momma doesn't mess around and he knows when it's time for sleep. I can count the number of times on my hand that I actually go into his room when he whines/cries- only when he's sick usually.

-Could play any train game, watch Thomas the Train shows and read Thomas the Train books FOREVER. And he gets VERY mad when we say time to put things away.

-I have a kids game on my phone called Preschool Monkey lunch box. There's a matching part with 8 different cards and you have to match/remember the cards. He can do all of them. I didn't even teach him. He has the best memory and is very serious about it.

-All the observing he's been doing the last 2 years is now coming out into action. He does things I didn't even know he could do at the most random times.

-Still a decent eater. Although lately he seems to be on a mild food strike. Foods you would think most kids would eat, he doesn't...for now. His favorites are chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, any fruit, beans, soup and milk.

-Takes a while to warm up to new places and people. I don’t blame him, I’m the same way. But I’m sure his overprotective mother doesn’t help much :)

-He loves going to the library. We go for story/craft time, then play with puzzles and books afterwards in the kid section. Every time we drive down the road near the library he points and get soooo excited, then when I tell him we aren’t going that day, he just sobs and sobs! So sad! Probably the worst feeling in the world. 

-We read him a children’s picture dictionary at night and he knows practically what everything is!

 -Loves bugs. He will declare, “BUG, A BUG!” Then pick it up if it’s dead and put it in the trash or if it’s alive he will run, grab some toilet paper and proceed to squish it. Just like mommy does. If he sees an ant on the ground he’ll stomp on it with his shoes on. You don’t mess around with ants here, those suckers hurt!

-If he doesn't know a word to something or just forgets he says, "Aboo, Aboo, Aboo!" while pointing over and over at what he wants. Then when you ask, "Is this what you want?" He replies in the sweetest voice, "Yeah".

   For Elijah's birthday we decided to keep it low key, which turns out was a good thing seeing as how he caught a nasty cold 2 days before. Elijah woke up bright and early, had a breakfast of waffles then we headed off to Old McDonald's Farm. It's a little petting zoo/train/pool park about 5 mins from our house. He LOVED it! If it weren't so dang hot outside we would have stayed longer but we were all looking hot and tired after 1.5 hours. Then we went home and Elijah took a nap while Matt and I both worked. Then we went to pick up Elijah's favorite food-pizza, and his cake that I ordered special. We went home and ate, opened presents and played around with his new toys til bedtime. We were going to head to the pool- Elijah's second favorite thing in the world but he was having so much fun with his new toys we thought we'd just stay in. I felt bad for about 5 mins that I wasn't throwing him some adorable birthday party, but then I realized a) he doesn't have any little friends that he really likes to play with b) he isn't going to remember any of this and c) I don't really feel like making my house spotless for a bunch of people Elijah will really want out of his house once they get here. Plus now I have something to look forward to next year :)

  

Birthday morning (If you go the archives from last year, he is WAY different is his crib now!)

  

Singing Happy Birthday

  

Opening Presents

Waiting for the train to start. So serious about his trains.

Two favorite things- pizza and his trains all lined up in a row.

More interested in eating the frosting off the big cake than eating his own :)

Such a fun mess.

  Elijah we love you so much! You are such a joy to see grow and learn new things. You make life worth living. We don't know what we would do without you! Love you, Mom and Dad.

Baby Sunday #2 (On Thursday): 29.5 Weeks

Obsessions/Rampages: Obsessed and in nesting mode right now. The last month my house has never been cleaner! We've painted the baby room, cleaned all the closets out, sold a million things on Kingwood Yard Sales, etc. I've managed to keep up with everything around the house and still do fun things with Elijah. Also obsessed and planning on having this baby in 7 weeks, if he comes later I will be pleasantly surprised and very prepared. We didn't have anything prepared for Elijah's early arrival, so I plan on having it all together before 36 weeks. I am on a rampage with cutting down our grocery bill. We spend way too much money on food it's ridiculous. It's been a very good organizing month.

 Obsession- Baby moves like crazy. Seriously, he is constantly moving. I love it! I don’t remember Elijah being this active. My belly jiggles and protrudes in so many different ways. I’m pretty sure he is either feet down or head down because when he kicks sometimes it feels like he’s going to kick a limb right out of my body! I am constantly amazed that the human body can grow a person, such a miracle. 

Elations/Worries: Elated that I have been feeling great the last few weeks! A few days after I wrote my last post complaining about my sciatic nerve pain, the baby flipped and is now off my nerve and I can walk again! My energy has been really good too-hence why my house is so clean :) Elated that my doctors appointments are going well. Everything looks great and she calls me her favorite patient- healthy, with no problems and all belly. Can't complain about a doctor that says that! :)  Worries: I'm thinking if they don't release me from my Sunbeam teacher calling by September I may have to ask to be. I'm essentially by myself with 8+ 3-4 year olds (Yes there is another teacher in the class but she is really there to take care of her wild child in the class and doesn't really know how to discipline the other kids yet). A few of which that like to throw tantrums and I have to drag them out into the hall kicking and screaming with my big belly being kicked at. Every Sunday after church I am so exhausted from carrying screaming 40lb toddlers to class that I usually have some pretty good Braxton hicks contractions the rest of the day- which isn't always a good thing. And since I'm super paranoid about my blood pressure and having this baby early I may have to give this calling up to someone who can physically handle it better than I can right now. Only time will tell, maybe next week the children will be magically well behaved :) I really enjoy teaching them, they really are so fun and sweet when they want to be.

Aversions/Cravings: Give me doughnuts!! Oh my, I have to resist with every fiber of my being not to stop and get a doughnut every time we pass the shop. It just always sounds good! I do indulge myself probably once a week, if that, but I wish I could eat one everyday! My tummy says yes but my increasing weight and blood sugar say no! I always have my giant white hospital cup filled with ice water. I take it everywhere. I drink so much water. Yummy. Again, no aversions this month, I eat everything. 

 

This is what a typical day of food looks like for me. I pretty much eat the same thing everyday, with the exception of dinner. . I’m definitely a creature of habit when it comes to what I eat. I feel like I’ve figured out what makes me feel good and helps my body function at it’s best. I get jealous when some people can live on nothing but sugar cereal and skip meals just because, not me, I’d die!

Breakfast- Either Kashi Cereal, Grape Nuts, or Quaker Squares. Every.single.morning.

Snack-Banana or some almonds and crackers

Lunch- Usually a turkey, hummus, avocado, lettuce, tomato and cheese wrap. With a few Multigrain Chips or Sweet Potato chips.

Snack-Fruit or Protein Bar

Dinner-Whatever I decide to make that day

Snack/Treat- Homemade S’more or a Lime Popsicle.

Add in 3-4 34oz mugs of water and you’ve got my standard day of food.

Matt's 30th Birthday + Father's Day+ 4th of July

First things first. We celebrated Matt's big 3-0 on June 27th. We went out to dinner as a family to the Cheesecake Factory then on his real birthday I made his favorite meal- Mom A's scalloped potatoes and ham. Matt requested an ice cream cake. I wanted to try my hand at making one but realized by the time I bought all the stuff for it I might as well go and buy one, so that's what I did. I wanted to make a big deal out of it and have some friends over for cake and ice cream, but Matt declared, "I just want to celebrate with you guys." So sweet. He's been super busy at work so I think he appreciated the down time. He's been saving for an iPad since December and with the bday money + the bonus he got from work for working long hours, he finally had enough! And Elijah and I made him a card and got him an Apple TV from us. He is in techy nerd heaven right now, and I have to say the iPad is pretty sweet.

 

 

For Father's Day, which is the week before Matt's birthday, he got spoiled. Elijah and I made him breakfast in bed- Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce and fruit. My first time trying to poach eggs and it was a success and soooo delicious! They talked about Father's at church and our friend Alisha was giving a talk. In her preparation she asked me what I loved most about Matt. I said," His charity. He is slow to anger and never speaks ill about anyone. His has so much patience. He still makes my heart pitter patter." She gave this little shout out, along with some other members thoughts in her talk. I think it made his day :) But I have to say this, Father's Day got the shaft this year at church. No cookies, no nothing for the dads. I think that is the first time that the Fathers got nothing! I was a little ticked about it because they deserve a little surprise too! But I guess someone dropped the ball and it just never happened, so we spoiled him more at home to make up for it :) After we both had an exhausting 2 hours of church (Matt's a nursery worker to 16+ kids, and I'm the Sunbeam teacher to 8+kids) we all came home and took naps. Then for dinner we made pork chops, mashed potatoes and rolls. I love cooking, if I wasn't carrying around a bowling ball right now I seriously could cook all day. I love it that much. We then went on a family drive then watched Human Planet. It was a great day to celebrate our Dad's!

This 4th of July was so fun for all of us! Elijah is at such a fun age to go and do fun things and he thinks anything outside is cool. The night before Matt and I decorated Elijah's toy push car for the parade we were in for our little community. We thought we did a pretty good job considering our limited resources. In the morning before we left Elijah saw his car and said, "Oh Wooow!" We went to a pancake breakfast at church then headed off to get in line with the parade. Elijah thought it was pretty cool, but he was more interested in staring at the firetruck that was trailing us then waving at anybody. We thought we'd win something for our car but we lost to a pair of strollers linked together with Styrofoam rocket ships, we'll get em next year! We were all drenched with sweat by then so we went to the local pool for a while to cool off. Elijah had his 2nd snow cone of the season and his first Chic-fil-a sandwich. And to think this time next year we'll have TWO fun boys to take to the pool! Let's hope this one loves the water as much as Elijah does! Then later that evening we went to a bbq at our neighbors (Tammie and Todd) house. I swear our neighbors make the best ribs and brisket ever! They were out slaving away with their smoker all day. And who knew I'd like fried okra so much, yum! Then we headed home and relaxed. Fireworks were banned this year in our County due to a drought, so we didn't get to see those. But I don't really mind so much, it's nice going to bed and not being woken up at 1am by people setting bombs off next door :)

 

A common Elijah face-just staring at everything. My guess it was the mini cars or firetruck.

And Matt captured this beauty- me inhaling an apple and 27 weeks pregnant :)