1/30 - Eli bit again & Skyping with daddy

When I picked Eli up from daycare on Tuesday, I was informed he was bit again at daycare. It was the same little boy. That is two times in about a week! This time he got bit on the nose.

We got out the crayons and were playing with them the other day. Eli goes a little crazy with them so I have to monitor them closely. Aiden just wanted to stack them and put them in a circle.
I showed Eli how he could stack them which was a good move. He tried and did a good job as long as I held them steady. If he doesn't have a job to do like stacking, he just throws them everywhere and makes a huge mess and drives me crazy.

Aiden has a new way of dancing. I have no idea where he got it from and it totally cracks me up. He puts one leg and moves it up and down. I will have to get it on video soon to put on the blog. You can see Eli in the background - hopefully he doesn't learn to dance like this. It's amusing now but if he does these moves on a real dance floor, he's gonna be in trouble.

Eli's nose started to get worse. He had an appointment on Thursday for his pre-sedation physical (for his MRI on his brain). I told the doctor I wasn't sure if he still needed the MRI but that he still wasn't acting right and still off balance. We discussed other options such as a hearing test and seeing a neurologist. She started the physical and didn't get any further than his ears. He has a double ear infection!! She gave him antibiotics (which will also help his nose) and put him on allergy medicine. She also gave him special medicine to put on his nose. We go back in 1.5 weeks to check the ear infection and do the physical for the MRI.
We got to Skype with Brad a few times from Wed night to Fri morning. It was SO GREAT to see his face. I got to Skype with him at night on Wed and Thur! I miss seeing his handsome face. The boys had a great time skyping on Thur. Brad called back on Fri morning to Skype for a few minutes and say bye. Brad did such a great job of getting in touch with us and skyping with me and the boys. I look forward to skyping again on his next port hopefully.
Eli was playing his drums for us earlier in the week.

We went to the park on Friday since the weather was so great. We got to see some ducks close up and Aiden really enjoyed watching them.

Eli had fun at the park too. He has no reservation or understanding of danger at the playground. He is doing much better knowing that he has to sit down rather than go head first down the slide. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the body coordination to always sit on his bottom.
Saturday is Gymboree day. The boys had fun as usual. I took this picture for Brad so I could send it to him. This was towards the end of the class when bubbles were everywhere. They had little cups that they were supposed to catch bubbles in.

Our neighbors bought Aiden a Lego Cars kit. He loves it but wants Sally too. These are the medium size legos which he is ready for according to the ages. He likes these but I think it's impossible to try and keep them away from Eli too.

On Saturday night after dinner, we went outside. Eli played on the bike (which is supposed to be Aidens).

Aiden was very content to push the stroller around and let Eli play on the bike. While we were outside playing, I got a phone call from a woman I had called. She was selling a bike on Craig's list and was telling me it was still available. We immediately jumped in the car and went to check it out since she lived about 10-15 min away from us.
Aiden loved the bike. It's a little big for him because he can barely touch his toes to the ground. It's not the style bike I was looking for but I'm so tired of the boys fighting over a bike that hopefully one of them will like the new one. I told Aiden he can learn how to use the pedals like big boys do and he can ride the bike.
Aiden hasn't really had a chance to play on his bike since we got home at 6:55pm and it was time for both of them to go to bed. Aiden has been bothering me for some Cars pajamas like Eli has (one piece zipper jammy). I finally got him one a couple days ago. He used to really dislike them when he was younger so I didn't think he'd like one. He looks so cute in it. He doesn't like the zipper all the way up and it unzips it for tickles before bedtime.

Ms. Lydia, Eli's daycare provider, sent home a puppet and some food and non-food items. They were using these to show the little boy who keeps biting Eli what goes in the mouth and what doesn't. Aiden thought it was pretty fun and I have no idea if Eli understands.

I had to take this picture tonight because Aiden looked so cute with all his blankets and sitting in his chair. Sunday nights are late nights and both boys go to bed about 30 min later than normal.

Tomorrow we are going to meet a friend at the park for a bit. I promised Aiden he would get a chance to ride his new bike tomorrow. Things are going well. We are re-charged since we got to "see" daddy. It's been a good week and our goal is to get Eli healthy. The boys will also be going to Bible Study Fellowship for the first time this week. We are very excited that next week Arin and her daughter, Grace, are coming down from MD to visit with us!

1/24 - The boys being brothers

Aiden and Eli have decided to start their own marching band. Aiden is going to play the drums and Eli is going to do the train whistle.

Eli's smile cracks me up in this picture. I have no idea what he is looking at but he was really happy about it.
Despite having a big bite mark on his cheek and getting his 4th molar, he's been in a pretty good mood.
Both the boys have been a little sick so we've had to rearrange Eli's room for the humidifier. When we did that, Aiden found his storyreader and hasn't put it much down since. When he does put it down, Eli gets it and plays with it.
On Thursday morning, we met a friend at the park. It was pretty darn cold out. The park had water all over it but thankfully we brought towels to wipe some of it down. Aiden had a blast. The little girl, Maddie, is in his sunday school class and Awana class. I was glad he's getting to know someone that he sees a lot.
Eli had fun too but he got soaked. Since everything was wet and Eli doesn't have the greatest balance, he was crawling everywhere. His pants were soaked and he was kinda cold.
Aiden decided to pull his hat down over his eyes and actually try to walk around like that. He was cracking me up trying to walk around like that.
Eli really wanted to play in the tunnel but it was so wet. Even the top of it had water on it so he got his head all wet. He couldn't climb up the tunnel (it had a slight incline) because it was so wet he kept sliding down. He didn't mind too much although he kept getting aggravated.
One of Eli's favorite thing still is to turn the light on and off by the front door.
Aiden has learned that he can make letters with his body lately. It's too cute. He's making a 'T' in the first picture and 'W.' He knows all his capital letters now and most of the lowercase ones too. He's making good progress.
He decided to try and get the tooothpicks out of the salt/pepper shaker and then put them back in. He said it was a "work job" and then I remember that is an activity they have at his daycare.
I had to include the whole sequence of pictures for Brad in the next set with Eli and Aiden. Maybe there is hope of Aiden being a wrestler - he does a take down of Eli here. Aiden thought the whole thing was pretty funny. Eli smiled once or twice too though.
This morning the boys colored for a bit. I should say Eli dumped out all the crayons, markers, and colored pencils and Aiden colored a bit.

We met up with some people from my sunday school class at the mall play area this morning. My friend Stephanie has gone to the church for a long time and she knows everyone. She has been trying to help me meet other people and get to know some of them so it was a great gathering this morning. Aiden and Stephanie's daughter are playing in the shelves at kids play area in the mall.

Eli was being a little daredevil at the mall playground and standing on the spaceship. He's lucky he didn't hurt himself.
Eli and Blaise (Stephanie's 10 mo old son) had fun playing with the X an O cubes. They both liked to look at themselves. They are cute boys so I don't blame them. :)
Aiden and Eli went up the stairs and down the steep slides for a long time.
Aiden was wrestling with Eli again today for a bit although Eli was just staring off into space as Aiden climbed on him. It was kinda funny.

After we got some lunch, we went home and Eli slept for over 3 hrs. I guess we tired him out. Things are going pretty well. I never have enough free time but nobody does. I have a list of things that need to be done around the house and one day, maybe I'll get to them. Until then, I'm enjoying the boys and very thankful God has put certain people in my life to help build friendships and become closer to Him.

1/18 - Eli got bit

This first pictures was taken last week but I forgot to post it. This is our deployment calendar. Everyday, Aiden picks out a sticker to put on the day. Since he doesn't really understand time (especially when talking about weeks or months), we came up with this. He knows we are having two parties, one at the half-way point, and one when daddy comes home. Sometimes I wish we didn't have it up because it looks like so many days but Aiden really likes putting the sticker up everyday so ... I will let him. I'm focusing on how many stickers we have, not how many we don't.

Oh my little Eli. How he loves Pouncer and how Pounce is oh so sweet to him. Pouncer is so good with the boys. He takes a lot of abuse from them (not really, but they don't always pet gently) but Pouncer really likes them both. I think Pouncer is Eli's first crush although that sounds weird since Pouncer is a boy.

Eli climbed literally on top of Pouncer to get on the cushion and Pouncer still stayed there while Eli pet him. Pouncer doesn't look happy (look at his ears), but he stayed.

When these boys get older, I'm going to have the cleanest floor ever! Aiden has always loved vacuuming and Eli is following in his footsteps. I don't know why Eli's face cracks me up so much in this pictures but he was so excited to vacuum. That means that Aiden then had to vacuum as well which means Eli got upset because he had to give the vacuum up. I think my best option is to get another vacuum and let them use them whenever they want!

We went to the mall on Friday afternoon to get our pictures. While I was loading up Eli in his seat, Aiden fell out and onto his head. He cried for a bit but was then okay. I promised him a train ride at the mall to help him feel better.

This was Eli's first train ride and I think he really enjoyed it. They were both on their knees looking out the window and waving to people the whole time. They'd do great in a parade!

The boys got a package from Great grandma Hagan and Aiden was very excited to open it. They got some socks and cars. Needless to say, Aiden was pretty excited about the cars and motorcycle.

We opened all the cars/trucks and then Aiden carried them around for a while on his frying pan.
Aiden got a new backpack a few days ago. While he loves his monkey backpack with his name, it's too big to use for church. So, I finally found him a small Cars backpack and it has wheels. It wheeled it around the whole store and it taking it in the car all the time even though he doesn't have to. I think right now he still has the new cars in his backpack.

Monday was a very rainy day. I was about to go nuts from being home with the kids for the fourth day straight (although we went to sunday school and bible study on sunday). Our planned playdate got cancelled so I wasn't quite sure what to do. We put up almost all the tunnels and houses the boys got for Christmas and they had a blast. We invited our friend Stephanie and her 3 kids over (7yr girl, 3 yr girl , and 9 month boy). They came over and a good time was had by all! I need to take pictures of our company next time.

Eli is so cute yet such a little stinker. He loves to pretend to talk on the phone. Speaking of talking, Eli can say mama, dada, turtle, fish, and bye. He does a great job of trying to mimic you and can usually attempt the same number of syllables. Eli is not supposed to be touching the dishwasher dial. That's his newest "no-no" that he really likes to test me with. It drives me nuts and I do not think it's a fun game to play. We dry the dishes in the dishwasher so we don't take up counter space and when he turns the dial, all the dishes get wet rather than dry.

Aiden is supposed to wear that yellow shirt on Sunday nights but when he saw it on Monday morning (folded), he couldn't resist himself and I gave in. He wore his AWANA shirt all day.

The boys have been doing pretty well together lately. Aiden is going to be such a great big brother and Eli adores his big brother (he's gonna be a great little bro). Aiden brought his stool over to where Eli was eating snack at and ate with him. They played with the fruit/vegetables together for a while too.
After dinner, we watched daddy read a few stories. I have no idea if this contributed to Aiden's lack of sleep this night. He was waking up screaming and moaning but he wasn't really awake. I was going in his room every 10-15 min to calm him down and/or try to wake him up. He eventually settled down and got a few hours of sleep but ended up moving him to our bed at 5am in the hopes of getting some more sleep. That's the first time I have brought him to our bed to sleep. Since he's been a little sick, he was snoring so I couldn't sleep until I moved out onto the couch.
When I picked Eli up from daycare on Tuesday, I was informed he'd been bit. They had just woken up from naps and the older boy (he's a young 2 yr old) was giving Eli a hug and then when Eli pulled away from the hug, the other boy bit him!

Things are going pretty well considering we miss daddy. It's been one week today! I've been extra busy with classes starting and getting 2 research studies ready to go. Church is going well and I'm continuing to try and make new friends and build even stronger friendship with those that I already know. The pastor of our church has been very supportive and has called me a few times and has even e-mailed Brad. I need to get some work done. I'll be scanning and posting pictures soon of our recent family photos which turned out awesome!