Great Gifts!

I have received two entirely unexpected, but entirely welcome, gifts in the past couple weeks, so I thought I'd share about them here. Today, I received this AMAZING gift from my husband!It's an ESV Study Bible. Three or four years ago, I got a compact ESV Bible as a gift, and I loved the translation so much that I have used it for my personal devotions ever since. Being a compact Bible, it's great for carrying to church, but the print is a little small for serious reading. I have looked at getting a Study Bible in this translation for a long time, but I haven't been willing to lay the money down for what one of these costs. But my sweet husband did it for me today! And I don't think I've EVER seen a Bible with this beautiful of a cover before. Didn't he do a great job picking it out?!?!?!

The second gift I received from my friend Charity when she was here over Thanksgiving. She and her husband went to San Diego on their honeymoon, and they brought me back this gift from the San Diego Zoo.It's a cute little journal with a panda on the front! Aw, that's nice. But wait... what's the fine print at the top?Made with real POO?! WHAT THE HEY????? Here's the back of the package to explain (Click to enlarge.):In case you're not up to reading all that, basically pandas eat so much bamboo and a lot of it goes undigested, so they take the poo, clean it, and recycle it into paper, which they used to make this journal. That is AWESOME! And you know she and I are good friends when she would have the courage to give me this as a gift because she knew I would LOVE it!

Thank you, Justin and Charity! I am so blessed with such loving and giving people in my life.

Big Boy at the Table

In the past couple weeks, Elias has become really good at climbing on and off the dining room chairs, and he loves to do it! He'll climb up and just sit there and read a book or whatever. So one day when it was snack time, I just put his bib on him and gave him his snack at the table instead of in his high chair. He did pretty well!

Right after I stopped filming this video, though, he climbed down and went to his high chair, so I guess he's not quite ready to eat at the table yet. Maybe we'll try a booster seat soon, though!

Sorry, Grandma!

I'm thrilled to announce that after MONTHS of saying it to him, Elias has finally said a version of Grandpa! He says "Pa." Cute! He has said (Aunt) Jessica for a long time now, and in the video below, you'll hear him say (Uncle) Matt and Azlan ("Ash-ee"). He also did say Patriot ("Chut") the other day, although he doesn't in the video. Now, unfortunately, Grandma is the last one on my side of the family whose name he doesn't yet say. Sorry, Grandma! We're going to keep working on it and maybe he'll say something for you by the time you come visit at the end of the month!

We're still struggling a bit with Justin's side of the family - maybe their names are harder. He's got Nana and Granddad down, and we think he says something like "Josh," but we haven't gotten anything close to Aunt Nicole or Uncle David yet... We'll keep working on those ones too!

You'll also note that he's looking MUCH better... You can still see the red spot on the back of his neck, but that's all that's left of the hives. We have one more dose of the steroids and then we'll be good to go!

Lookin' Rough

Here's my buddy boy this morning (Click to enlarge.):The pics aren't great, but you can see how his eyes are red and puffy, and you can see the red welts on his neck. (And you can also see that he needs a haircut! Yikes!) His ears are looking much better today, and the hives on his trunk are mostly gone - just red but not swollen anymore. So we're making progress! Please continue to pray for a good recovery and wisdom in caring for him!

Breaking Out in Hives

I think most of you probably saw this on Facebook, but I thought I'd post a quick update on here in case anybody didn't! We learned today that Elias is allergic to amoxicillin! It kinda took us off guard since this isn't the first time he'd had that antibiotic, but the doc told us that it's not unusual for children to react the SECOND time they have a drug instead of the first. Gee, great.

This was Elias' 10th day on the amoxicillin for his ear infection - he only had 3 more doses before he was finished with it. This morning while we were out grocery shopping, I noticed that Elias' ears were really red. I thought that was odd, but I figured maybe his hat had been on too long or something. Then later when we got home, I saw that his hands were red and they felt warm. Once again, odd, but I didn't know if that meant anything. He was acting fine, so I didn't worry. (Note for any of you who are shouting that this is obviously an allergic reaction - I've never had an allergic reaction to anything... No food or drug allergies... I've never even had poison ivy! So this is all new territory for me.) The only unusual thing about our day was that he woke up very early from his nap, but he wasn't fussy or acting like he didn't feel well.

Later when Justin got home, I asked him if he thought that Elias' red ears meant anything. So then we got to talking about his red hands, and Justin suggested it might be a reaction to the medicine. (Justin is allergic to penicillin himself, so he knows all about this.) Then when we pulled up Elias' sleeves for dinner, we saw that the redness had spread all up his arms, and there were obvious hives on his arms. This child was having an allergic reaction. Justin wasn't near as freaked out as I was, since he's survived this scenario before, but we decided to take him to the local walk-in clinic to be looked at just in case.

So we loaded up after dinner and had the doctor look at him. By the time she saw him, the hives had spread all over his body, he looked so pathetic! (It never occurred to me to take a pic. If he still has the hives tomorrow, I'll capture it for posterity.) So she prescribed prednisone for him just to help his body recover quickly, and she said benadryl will help with the swelling and maybe counteract the way the steriod might keep him awake. So my poor buddy. Welcome to the world of moms with kids who have allergies! I think it wasn't near as scary as an allergic reaction could've been, for which I am THANKFUL!

Master of Destruction

I wrote this blog post about Hurricane Elias a month or so ago to show you about the destruction Elias leaves behind him when he's playing. However, that picture really just indicated a mess, so I'm posting something else because he really does DESTROY things, not just make a mess. The usual victims of his terror are books. He is SO HARD on books! Let me show you his most recent victims:In case it's not clear what you're seeing, I'll narrate. On the upper left is a board book that he ripped a page out of. On the bottom left, he actually ripped a small board book completely in half. The top and bottom right are lift-the-flap books that he shredded... He doesn't just tear out the flaps, he completely destroys the page. This is what happens when we let him play unattended. Whenever I catch him, I try to teach him about being gentle with books, but it clearly isn't sinking in yet...

I'm actually a little concerned about this, so I'm hoping maybe you all can give me some thoughts. The reason I'm worried is that a lot of our books are hand-me-downs from his cousins, so that means they survived the toddlerhoods of other boys completely intact. This makes me feel like it's just my child who destroys books. I know that he's not trying to destroy them. He's just curious about how they work and so he tests, tries, pulls, and discovers that pieces can be ripped, bent, stretched, etc. I know it's a learning process and eventually he'll learn to be gentle with books. I guess I need to just be thankful that he loves books, even if this love isn't the kind I'd like to be on the receiving end of! But if anybody has any assurances or advice for me, I'd appreciate it!

Our Thanksgiving - Picture Heavy!

We had such a fun Thanksgiving this year! Justin got the whole week off work, so that's already a bonus, and we REALLY enjoyed having Daddy home so much! We decided that this year we're not going to travel for any holidays. Making the 8-12 hour drives and staying in other people's homes is hard enough, but we have an energetic and spirited toddler on our hands, and we just didn't think it was a good idea this year. So instead of spending Thanksgiving with family this year, we were blessed to be able to spend it with friends! My dear friend Charity and her new husband, Ndolembai, drove up from Texas to spend the weekend with us! She's the only one who thought to pull out her camera and document the time for us, so all of these pictures are courtesy of her. Unfortunately, since she was the photographer, all I have of her are a couple self-portraits... Don't hate me for posting them, Charity!

The happy newlywedsThey arrived just after lunch on Thanksgiving Day, so then Charity and I spent the afternoon cooking and we had Thanksgiving Dinner together. Here's me with the turkey.And the man of the house carving it up!We had quite a spread! Turkey, Crockpot Maple Glazed Ham, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and Butternut Squash and Cheese Panade (a fancy schmancy recipe for stuffing that I found in a magazine... It was DELICIOUS!). Then we had carrot cake (with homemade cream cheese icing) and apple oat crisp for dessert! Elias REALLY liked Charity's sweet potato casserole! (He's actually saying "Yummyyyyyyyy!" in this picture.)
This was the first time Charity had ever been able to meet Elias, and she took some really cute pictures of him!Charity and Ndolembai live near Dallas and so they're big Cowboys fans... I think they converted Elias!They also brought him a cute little football outfit as a gift, and it fits great! Here he is modeling it for us.
Then Charity, Ndolembai, and I got up EARLY on Friday morning to snag some deals at WalMart. This is what Charity and I look like BEFORE the crack of dawn. The Texans were surprised to have to scrape the windows before we could go! Charity took a picture of the car clock to prove what time we were headed to WalMart. Yep, that says 4:54. AM.

We also drove to Springfield later in the day and did some more shopping there... We got some great bargains and had lots of fun together!

It had been over 3 years since I had been able to spend time with Charity, and so it was such a blessing to be able to share this holiday with her and Ndolembai! I am so thankful for their friendship!

Teething: Bad News and Good News

Well, when it comes to the unending teething that's been going on at our house, I have good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news: ear infection. I'm actually surprised he hasn't had one sooner since he's been teething for so long with all the runny nose going on. But since we were expecting it, we recognized the symptoms right away and took him to the walk-in clinic this morning. She said both of his ears are plugged, but only one is infected yet - we caught it before the other one got infected. So, we're starting the antibiotics and hopefully he'll be back to 100% in no time.

The GOOD news, however, is that 3 of the 4 incisors have FINALLY broken through! I bet #4 will be any minute now too. So once we shake this ear infection, we should be good to go until the 2-year molars! Praise God!!!

18 Months!

I can't believe my big boy is already a full year-and-a-half old! He grows more precious every day, and I mean it. He is so active and ornery, this is the only nice picture we got from our 18-month photo shoot last week. We got some other cute funny-face ones which will be on our Christmas card, so some of you can keep an eye in the mail for those in December.

He's STILL teething - he's been working on his incisors for two full months now, and they're STILL not in! Here he is chewing on the prop at his 18-month photo shoot. The tooth bumps get larger and larger, though, so hopefully we'll have a breakthrough soon!

I waited a couple days to post this update so that I could post his stats from our well visit today.

Weight: 33 lbs, 8 oz (>95%)
Height: 35" (95%)
Head: 19.25" (75%)

So as you can see, he remains large and in charge. I thought this picture I took last week did a good job of demonstrating how tall he his. Poor guy can't even sleep sideways in his crib anymore without his legs dangling out of it!

His vocabulary has absolutely EXPLODED this month. I thought about trying to compile a list of words he could say to post here, but seriously, there are too many to count! He's blowing us away with the way he's starting to communicate verbally. It's awesome!

He's also learning and picking up things so fast! Seriously, this child can count to 10! (Well, he can count from 2 to 10. He has yet to say the number 1.) This video was taken when he first started doing it a few weeks ago, so his numbers are much more intelligible now. But seriously!

I didn't crop off the end of this video because if you hang on until the very end, you can catch him saying the words "All done" along with the sign when he's done with his meal. So big! *Edit: Upon viewing the video after I published the blog, it seems like "Done" got cut off in the uploading. So you just have an extra 9 seconds of looking at my cute boy. You're welcome.

He just in the past couple of days showed us that he has started learning his letters! We were bowled over. He has a little magnetic alphabet set on the refrigerator, and the other day he pulled off the letter F and said, "F." I was like "WHAT?!?!" So I asked him "What letter is this?" and he said "F." No way. Since then, we've discovered that he also knows T, and he sometimes gets S and Z. For real. That's like... reading.

His play has started to become more creative and imaginative. Instead of just holding the car upside down and spinning its wheels, he'll actually scoot it across the floor and say "Vroom." Here he is playing with a little kitchen set I got him.He gets a big kick out of it when I hold the little frying pan over the stove and say "Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

So he is just a laugh a minute, and he's such a loveable, sweet boy! We remain proud of him and are astonished at not only how big, but how grown up he is! Definitely not a baby anymore.

One Point!

Just had to share this one. Justin and I have been facing off against each other in Fantasy Nascar all year, and he has had the lead for the majority of the season. The final race was today, and I started it behind Justin by 53 points. In today's race, I got 54 more than him. Yep, I won by ONE POINT! (Click the image to see a screen shot of our final scores.)Absolutely unbelievable! I hope my luck is this good in fantasy football!

Grease is the Word

Now that Elias is starting to grow some hair, he is enthralled with it. He's always twirling it in his fingers, and he seems to have a new obsession with grabbing my hair too. Unfortunately, the time he most enjoys grabbing his hair is during mealtimes when his hands are all sticky and greasy and nasty. So instead of just having to wipe his hands and face after a meal, we have to wipe his whole head!On this particular night, we were eating couscous, so it got all over and was really hard to get out of his hair! Oh, for the days when he can use a spoon!!

If you're not using a reader to view my blog, make sure to scroll down - I've done 4 posts today! Trying to catch up! :)

GrandDad's Tractor

When Nana came to visit a few weeks ago, she brought Elias a toy John Deere tractor. He loves it and learned the word "tractor" when she gave it to him. We told him that GrandDad has a tractor, and now whenever he's playing with his tractor, we can hear him jabbering about "Yaya," which is his word for GrandDad. And when you ask him who drives a tractor or who is driving a tractor in a book, he'll always respond with "Yaya!"

Bucket Head

Elias has a little toy bucket that has Optimus Prime on it, and Daddy showed him how to wear it as a hat. So since then he always dumps the toys out and puts it on his head and calls it "hat." Goofy.He also thinks it's really funny to put it on Daddy's head.My two silly boys!

Ta Da!

It is positively shameful how behind I am in blogging. My deepest apologies to the friends and family who use this blog to keep up with us and how Elias is growing! I'm not going to try to post all the videos and pictures from the past MONTH that I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up, but I'll just post a few highlights. Then stay tuned for our 18-month update this weekend!

About a month ago, Elias randomly started doing this big flourish whenever he would take his fork or hand out of his mouth after feeding himself. So I would say "Ta da!" whenever he did that, and he just thought it was hilarious! And he'd start to say "Ta!" on his own. Cute!

So Handsome

Nana snapped this picture of Elias in the front yard when she was here a couple weeks ago, and I think it is just SO GOOD! Who needs professional photographers when you've got grandmothers??? Thanks, Nana!

Climbing

My little guy is just growing like crazy and he's getting really tall! With the increased height comes his ability to start climbing on things, and that's now his new obsession. He tries putting his knees on everything to see if he can reach and then climb. Here he is climbing into our entertainment center: (That was soon nipped in the bud, but it was too hilarious not to capture on photo first!)

He also has a little Winnie the Pooh activity table that he is finally just tall enough to climb on, so he tries that one often too. His favorite climbing gym, though, is the couch. (Check out how proud of himself he is in this picture!)He loves to climb on and off the couch, rearrange the pillows, and use them as aids for further climbing. He pushes up the couch cushions to give himself a little lower place to climb up to. Whenever he does that, we say he's in his "spot." Here is a sample video of what he does on the couch. What a goof!

If you remember the disastrous living room from my last blog post, this is that same day - the video shows a bit of how it got that way!

You'll notice that he has pulled one of the couch cushions completely off and put it on the floor in front of the couch. He does this so that he can then stand on it and get an extra inch or two to be able to climb onto the coffee table. Sigh. We even caught him once climbing over the arm of the couch onto the end table! Yep, I'm definitely going to have one of those fearless boys who's not afraid to try anything. I'm definitely going to have to be a praying mommy that he'll survive the early years!!!

Hurricane Elias

I just had to share this - thought many of you mommies of toddlers could relate. This is what my living room looked like moments ago before I put Elias down for his nap (Click to enlarge.):What on earth happened in here? A freak indoor tornado? A burglar who was searching for our valuables? Nope, it was just Hurricane Elias, my toddler whirlwind. Cleaning up is the next thing on my list to teach him!

For Grandma

When Elias and I visited my family in Ohio back in August, his Grandma taught him how to say "Mm-mm-mmmmm!" when he's eating something tasty. Well, he's still doing it! He usually only says "Mm-mm" but occasionally he gets the "mmmmmmm" at the end. Either way, it's cute and we think of Grandma every time!

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Texas for the wedding of my best friend, Charity. (We were missionaries in Africa together, and she was the maid of honor at my wedding. I thought that might help some of you know who I'm talking about!) It was an AWESOME weekend, and the wedding was PERFECT! I am so thankful to have been able to go! I'll just post this pic, since Charity hasn't posted her own yet and I don't want to steal her thunder. But I'll just post this one to show how beautiful she was and how perfect the ceremony was!!!!! (Photo courtesy of Margaret Allen)Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Njesada!

Justin and Elias stayed home when I went, so Nana (Justin's mom) drove down to stay with them and keep Elias while Justin was at work. From what I hear, they had an incredible weekend and I'm so thankful Elias was well-behaved for Nana! I couldn't believe how much he had grown and developed even just in the 4 days I was gone! Such a big, smart, sweet, and handsome boy. I'll be posting more pictures and videos soon to catch you up with all that he's doing these days, so stay tuned!

Shape Shenanigans

I mentioned in our 15-month post that Elias had learned to recognize the shapes and push the buttons on his little toy computer on command. Well, I'm finally getting around to posting a video of that! He lost interest after pushing only 3 of them, but you get the idea...

A more recent talent he has developed is being able to correctly use his shape sorter! I'm very proud of him for being able to do this.

My little smartypants!

Bubbles

The first few times Elias ever saw bubbles, he didn't care in the slightest. He was always like "So what?" But then one day a couple weeks ago, I was blowing bubbles with him at home, and it just clicked! He laughed and tried to grab and pop them, and he even said "Bubbles!" very clearly! So here's a video of that day. He has loved them ever since!

If you watch it all the way to the end, you can also see his good use of the sign for "Please," which is pretty new in his signing vocabulary.

Eating with a Fork

This video is a couple weeks old, but I keep forgetting to post it! We're trying to teach Elias to eat with utensils, and he's actually not doing too bad with a fork! He still loses the food off of spoons, but since the food stays on the fork, he does a great job getting it into his mouth. He has only been able to get the food on it himself once or twice, but it's still progress! He actually really loves eating with a fork, and we can often get him to eat food he doesn't like by putting it on a fork. I hope THAT continues!

Note the tiny little fork that came in a set his Nana and GrandDad gave him for his first birthday. Cute! You can also see his good use of the sign for "More." He does it with his right fist closed and left hand open.

Be Careful Little Feet

God is working on teaching me something right now, and my thoughts aren't fully formed about it yet, but I want to get it out there all the same. Most of the time writing about something helps me organize my thoughts about it, so you all are lucky enough to be able to be the recipients of my ramblings on the matter.

I'm currently participating in Beth Moore's Breaking Free Bible study with a group of young moms in my area. This is a powerful, powerful study, and I recommend it to anybody whether you feel like you have areas of bondage in your life or not. This week's focus has been on looking back in our families to see what kinds of bondage may have been passed down to us from generations and generations of our families. One of the main Scriptures she uses this week is Exodus 20:5-6.

You shall not bow down to them [idols] or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

This verse doesn't mean that we have to pay for our ancestors' sins - Christ did that on the cross. Instead, this means that we often have to bear the natural consequences of generational sins, and we are often more susceptible to repeat the mistakes we saw in those who came before us. Don't get so caught up in verse 5, though, that you miss verse 6. The descendants of the wicked often reap painful consequences, but the descendants of the faithful are guaranteed to reap blessing for a thousand generations! So not only do I want to look back at my ancestors to see if I may have inherited any bondage that I wasn't aware of, but the thing that really took hold of me about this concept this week is to be aware of the legacy I'm leaving for my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. Do I want to be the means by which suffering is inflicted on 3 or 4 future generations, or do I instead want to be the means by which blessing is passed on to thousands?

God has given this all a very personal application for me, though, in thinking about my own struggles and areas of bondage, and thinking about the effect it will have on Elias and any other children/grands/greats/etc. I have been struggling a lot with shortcomings, difficulties, and failures for the past couple of years, and I often get discouraged. I struggle with making the right choices every day and with maintaining hope that God can and will deliver me from this bondage. I am often tempted to think that the little choices I make every day don't really matter, won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Or probably a better way to put it is just that I get tired of fighting day in and day out to make the best choices, when I don't feel like I'm making any progress or don't feel like there's any reward for doing what's right.

But there's a Casting Crowns song called "Slow Fade," which has always been meaningful to me, but this week has taken an even deeper meaning in the context of breaking my own bondage in order to not pass it down to Elias. You can watch the video here and read the lyrics here. This week it has seemed to come on the radio every time I get in the car, so if you see me driving down the street bawling, that's probably why. The chorus goes like this:

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away.
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray.
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away.
People never crumble in a day.
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade.

So the meaning that this takes for me is just that every choice I make is either one step closer to freedom or one step deeper in bondage. There are very few neutral choices. So when I'm tempted to just stop fighting "just this once," I need to remember that just this one compromise is the first step down a path I don't want to walk down myself, and that I definitely don't want to lead my son down. The first verse of the song says this:

Be careful little feet where you go,
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow.

Oh, I want to lead those little feet behind me down the path of God's Truth to freedom and nowhere else. So I will fight. And keep fighting. Because I do not want to see my children struggling in my same prisons. I want to be the means by which they are able to live in great blessing, freedom, and power from the Lord.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch with our church small group last night, and we had a great time! Elias loved playing on the playground and crawling around in the hay and dirt, and we got some really cute pictures! Enjoy!

True Blue

I debated whether or not to post these pictures now after Kentucky's APPALLING performance against Florida on Saturday. I mean, not only did they lose spectacularly, but they also incapacitated the best quarterback in college football. However, we are proud of our alma mater and will root for them no matter what. We are no fairweather fans!!!

Plus, is my precious boy in his UK jammies not just the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life?!?!So my sweet boy will be True Blue no matter how well they play.

I Love You!

I decided this week that I wanted to teach Elias to say "I love you." So I said to him, "Elias, say 'I love you!'" And he responded by making a kissy noise! I was surprised! I'd never heard him make a kissy noise like that, and he used it appropriately in relation to love! He was pretty proud of himself too, although, he could've just been reacting to Mommy's joy...

I remembered then that he has a little toy cell phone that talks when you push the buttons, and one of the buttons says "I love you" followed by a kissy noise. So I guess that's where he picked it up and associated the two! I think it's so sweet, though!

All Clear

I took Elias back to the doctor today so she could check his ears and make sure the infection was completely gone. Praise the Lord, it is! It took him much longer than I expected to fully recover from this, but in the past couple of days, he's back to his old self. My precious boy. I have more pics and videos to upload that I'm hoping to get to over the weekend, so stay tuned!

I never did post an official 16-month update, which he turned on Monday. But I thought since I'm posting a plethora of pics and videos, you all are getting a good idea of what the past month has looked like for us. I fall more and more in love with this child every day!

Chillin'

One day last week when Elias was sick with his ear infection, he apparently decided he was too tired to keep playing with Daddy. So he just took his Jimmie car and went over and rested against a couch cushion. Sweet little guy.

Twirling

Elias has recently started "twirling." For him this is staggering around in a circle while looking down at the ground, but it's still pretty cute! And he loves to do it - does it all the time!

Throw It All Overboard!

This is a picture of what Elias generally looks like when I go to get him out of his crib after his crib playtime. Notice anything wrong with this picture? Let's zoom in a bit:Yes, the crib is empty and all his toys and books are wedged down in the crack between the crib and wall! He loves to throw everything out of his crib, even the heavy and big stuff! So we'll occasionally hear a loud boom coming out of his room and we know he just threw his toy cookie jar or Jimmie car or something else out of his crib. And then he complains because he doesn't have any toys left to play with!

He has also just this week started throwing toys over our safety gate into the hallway where he can't reach them. It baffles me why he does this too, since now he can't play with them. But without fail, there is always a ball and several toys in the hallway just on the other side of the safety gate. Silly boy.

BOOM!

Last week, Daddy came up with a fun new game, which is jumping in the air and shouting "BOOM!" Elias thinks this is hilarious, and will often jump and make his own BOOM! noise, or he'll wave his arm and grunt indicating that he wants us to BOOM!

Daddy's Boy

Elias absolutely loves his daddy. I keep meaning to have the video camera ready to record how he reacts when Daddy comes home from work because it is priceless. As soon as he heard the doorknob rattle, he gets so excited, and he shrieks with joy as soon as he sees Daddy come through the door! Seriously, priceless.

So sometimes we put his Baby Einstein video in while I'm cooking dinner to keep him occupied and out of the kitchen. On this particular day, he was starting to get sick with his ear infection and he was feeling a bit needy. So he wasn't content to sit and watch unless Daddy would hold him. The picture was too sweet to miss capturing:How sweet is this? My two boys. :)

Cracker Crusher

Now that Elias has plenty of teeth (all 4 molars!), we're wanting him to start learning how to take a bite out of food and chew it instead of us having to cut and break everything up for him. I decided to start with a nice crumbly cracker so that even if he did put too much in his mouth, it wouldn't be hard to chew it up. So the first time I gave him a whole cracker, he just took bites and chewed them up like he'd been doing it his whole life! So then the second time, I put up the video camera because I wanted to capture what a natural he was in eating a whole cracker. But he didn't do it the same way. Instead, he discovered that he could break it with his fist and crush it into smithereens. He got a big kick out of this, and I did too because he would work SO HARD to crush that cracker! He gets a frown of concentration and his whole arm shakes with the effort! Hilarious! So here it is:

Such a big and strong boy! So for a few weeks after he discovered this, he didn't eat any more crackers - just crumbled them to death. However, today for the first time he ate a cracker normally again... So maybe the novelty of using his brute strength to annihilate the cracker wore off.

Surprise Coat

We got such an unexpected surprise in the mail yesterday! My grandmother who lives near Chicago works at a thrift store in her church, and occasionally she finds some great deals that are awesome for us. So she apparently found this coat in Elias' size and sent it to us! I had been looking for a good winter coat for Elias and hadn't found anything yet, and here she sent us this one for free! It came from a thrift store, but it looks brand new! It has a cute detachable hood, and the hood even had a detachable fur lining! It's got a warm red fleece lining, and even knit cuffs in the sleeves and neck! This is going to be good for some SERIOUS playing in the snow this year! It's a tad big right now, but that means it'll be perfect for this winter when he's bigger and wearing heavier clothes under it. So THANK you, Grandma Ellie!!!!!

P.S. In this picture, he's making his new cute scrunchy smile face! He does this whenever I pull out the camera now... Silly boy.

Check, Check

Last week, we had a block party at church and our praise band played while we ate. The band was setting up, and they were doing mic checks. Well, Elias thought it was HILARIOUS when they said "Check, check" into the microphone. According to Justin (I missed it.), he was absolutely cracking up! And ever since then, he'll walk around at home saying "Sa, sa," which is his version of "Check, check." I caught it on video, but it isn't quite as funny since I'm prompting him to say it. Usually he just busts it out on his own. But here it is nonetheless!

I Won, I Won!

As most of you know, I read several Mommy blogs where they post with ideas for saving money, running a household, and mothering. These blogs often run giveaways, which I always enter, but I've never won before... Until now! Last week I won a Crayola Creativity Pack giveaway on MommySnacks.net, and it arrived today! Look at all this loot!It includes:

• Crayola Crayons 24 ct
• Crayola Markers 10 ct
• Crayola Colored Pencils 12 ct
• Crayola Pip-Squeaks Colored Pencils and Glitter Glue
• Crayola Window Crayons
• Tadoodles Washable Crayon Buddies
• Crayola Color Explosion Black Extreme Surprises
• Crayola Color Switchers

I'm so excited! I'm most excited about the Tadoodles Buddies right now because I think they're going to be perfect for Elias... I've actually looked at these at WalMart, but never been willing to fork over the cash for them. But now I don't have to! And we are SET for him to be able to express his creativity as he grows!

I highly recommend that all you mommies, householders, and money-savers out there check out Mommy Snacks. I've always considered it rewarding to read her blog because it's so helpful - I ALWAYS check out her weekly Walgreens posts to let me know what the best deals are there. So this is just icing on the cake!

By the way, I know it's been a while since I've posted... But Elias' ear infection is much better now, and I once again have a huge backlog of photos and videos to post! I'll post them as I get them edited. So stay tuned! :)

How Humble Your Love

This morning in church we sang a song whose chorus says:

What a wonderful Maker,
What a wonderful Savior.
How majestic Your whispers,
How humble Your love.
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a Father,
How majestic Your whispers.
What a wonderful God.

I know the song well, but this morning I was struck by the line that says "How humble Your love," and I thought about what it meant that God's love is humble. I think it means that He isn't forceful or assuming with His love, but that He just gives it and leaves us the freedom to accept it or not. This reminded me of a quote from C.S. Lews in Chapter 8 of The Screwtape Letters, which I actually blogged about here a couple years ago. In it, the demon Screwtape writes this about God:

You must have often wondered why the Enemy [God] does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo.

He cannot ravish. He can only woo. How sweet to think that God woos me, longing for me to CHOOSE Him and not just come to Him out of compulsion.

I also received great encouragement in continuing to read this chapter where Screwtape says this:

Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best... ...He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

Wow, this perfectly describes the valley I have been walking through and continue to walk, and I am thankful for this brief glimpse of the heart of God, through which I feel Him saying to me, "I see your struggles, I know your heart, and I am deeply moved by your perseverance in faith, no matter how shaky at times. I am still here, my beloved one." Thank You, Lord.

First Ear Infection

We went to the doctor today, and Elias has his first ear infection... and it's a double! My poor baby. His fever first started on Wednesday, but that's exactly when we were expecting a fever to start in reaction to his MMR shot he got last week. So I just assumed that's what it was. But yesterday his fever was still pretty high and he had ZERO appetite - barely ate anything all day. That's kinda scary for my big ol' boy who is a big ol' eater. Then last night he was up every few hours, so none of us had a restful night. He wasn't fussy, just not sleeping. Finally in the wee hours this morning, we decided to actually take his temperature to see how high it was because he felt REALLY hot. (We generally don't take his temperature because it's so difficult to do rectally, he won't take the pacifier thermometer, and the ear one just isn't accurate.) It was 104.2. Whoa. That's high. So I called the doctor's office when it opened and they told me to bring him in - that was too high a fever to just be the MMR shot. And lo and behold, my poor baby has his first ear infection. I'm actually very thankful to have made it almost 16 months without having had one, and I'm thankful to now have antibiotics that should make him feel better quickly.

Big Boy Sippy

We're making the transition from the soft-topped sippy cup to the hard ones with Elias right now, and so to make it more appealing, I got some that have one of Elias' favorite things right now on them: cars. Specifically, they're NASCAR sippy cups with Jimmie Johnson, Justin's favorite driver.
Elias already had two toy Jimmie cars, which he LOVES to play with. He says "Vroooooom!" So he instantly recognized it as "Jimmie car" when he saw it on his sippy. We're so proud!

Right now he's using it without the spill-proof valve, but it doesn't have a vent hole, so it's remarkably spill-proof even without the valve. He does well with it, though.

Our Little Einstein

Elias' Grandma and Grandpa gave him a Baby Einstein video for Christmas, and we have recently started letting him watch it. I am AMAZED at how much he loves it! He is totally absorbed by it - it's the only time he sits still unless he's sleeping!He also interacts with it, mimicking the sounds they make and laughing at the funny parts. In the video below, you can see him baa-ing with the sheep and then pointing at himself when they say "baby."

You can hear Justin and I talking about how we wondered where he had gotten the long "baa" that he makes for a sheep sound. He always used to just do a really short "bah" sound, but then one day last week he just started doing a long "baaaaaaa" for what a sheep says. When we were watching this, we realized that this is where he got it! So he's learning! :)

Keeps Getting Bigger!

We had Elias' 15-month checkup today, and he just keeps getting bigger! Here are today's stats:

Weight: 31 lbs, 2 oz (99%)
Length: 33.5" (95%)
Head: 19.25" (90%)

Such a big boy! Not sure how accurate any of the measurements actually are because he's going through a huge stranger anxiety phase right now and he panics any time anybody besides me or Justin touches him. So you can guess that it wasn't easy getting him weighed and measured. I do know he's a big 'un, though, so these measurements seem close enough to me!

So this quite possibly may have been our hardest visit yet, at least for me. He's just SUCH a busy boy, all over the place. He wants to be up, exploring everything, touching everything, climbing on everything. I've always seen "those moms," you know, the harassed and harried ones that just can't seem to get a break because their kid is completely out of control, and I've looked on them with pity. And I was a little sad to realize that today in the waiting room, I was that mom. The other kids waiting were all either much older or much younger than Elias, and therefore not at the all-over-the-place stage.

Combine that with four vaccinations AND his terror at being touched, looked at, or even talked to by the nurses and doctor, and it was a hard visit. I'm praying his stranger anxiety passes because this is really rough. The doctor was very comforting, though, that it's perfectly normal, there's nothing we have done to cause it, and there's nothing we can do to help it besides just wait for him to grow out of it. Sheesh. Hopefully we won't have to go to the doctor again for a while, and by then he'll be grown out of it!