9/6 -Lots of playing

We've been enjoying the backyard lately. Aiden is loving throwing the ball for Bronco and pushing his trucks around outside. He gets a great workout with the hill in our backyard.

Eli and Bronco have been bonding. Bronco gets so excited when I bring Eli home and Eli chases him all over the house until Bronco finally gives up and allows Eli to headbutt him (headbutting is a sign of affection in this house). Also, Eli has learned to blow whistles and I've included a little video of him blowing his Pooh rattle whistle.

We were excited to see part of the first Gator game of the season on Saturday. We were all dressed in our Gator apparel except for Aiden. He picks out his own clothes now and he didn't chose a gator shirt (in his defense, he doesn't have one in his size although he does have a jersey).

Eli is starting to actually push cars/trucks around and it's so cute. He often gets one that is too fast and face plants on the floor but he's learning.

Aiden decided it would be fun to try and pet Pouncer all day so he followed him around the house. Poor Pouncer. He actually doesn't mind but I think he was feeling double-teamed from Aiden and Bronco.

Although both of the boys are sick, we still went to church on Sunday (we missed last week). Eli is learning to play with finger puppets.

Aiden is a little fruit monster (not a bad thing) and he was feeding me cantaloup yesterday. Aiden picked out the yellow shirt and khaki pants and wanted Eli to wear the same thing.

Here is a happy Eli playing with a car. I'm still not sure if he has an ear infection. He keeps pulling at his ears and is fussier than normal but it could be teething. The only reason I somewhat think it's not teething is that he just got 2 teeth and I don't see any other teeth on their way down/up.
We were reading bible stories last night out of the kids Bible. Aiden could listen to stories forever. It's so cute. Eli even sat there for quite a while.
I don't know why I'm having such a hard time remembering to brush Eli's teeth when we brush Aiden's every night. Anyway, Eli did get his teeth brushed last night. Thankfully I brush them before he does because his finger is over the bristles in this picture.

Here is a short video of the boys ... being boys. Aiden going kinda crazy and "jumping" on the couch (he still doesn't know how to jump) and pushing Eli down (not nice) and Eli not caring at all.

Brad comes home in a few days and we are all so excited.

8/31 - Eli's 1st haircut

On Sunday, we all stayed home. Aiden and I were feeling pretty yucky and I didn't want him the boys to spread germs around just so they could get sick again next week. We were feeling pretty cooped up after staying home all day so we went out in the late afternoon and tried to ride the train - again. We were successful!!

Aiden and Nana went on the train ride and I stayed back with Eli (I know I'll have lots more chances to ride the train with him). Aiden had SO much fun. He had a huge smile glued to his face the entire time. He wouldn't even really let Nana take a picture of us since he wanted to get in and ride so much.

Aiden and Nana went on the train ride and I stayed back with Eli (I know I'll have lots more chances to ride the train with him). Aiden had SO much fun. He had a huge smile glued to his face the entire time.

The boys played in the play area for a bit. They were glad to get out of the house for a bit.

I tried to get a video of Aiden saying his name, especially his last name. It's amazing what he is learning in daycare! He's doing so good. He's known all his color and most animals for a while and he's counting now and even knows some letters. He knows ideas such as high/low, close/far, now/later, etc. Anyway, he's a smart little boy and I tried to get him saying his name.

Eli is so intrigued with Bronco and follows him around everywhere. Bronco is so good with him.
I bought the boys the same jammies the other night. They both love them and look so cute in them.
We had a pretty good day today. Aiden is still pretty sick so he was glad to be home with us today. He still gave us a few smiles today although he decided not to nap today and he woke up over an hour early for the third day in a row.

They had fun watching me blow bubbles today and trying to catch them.

Eli had some pictures taken today but he wasn't very happy since he is sick and it was his nap time. My cousin Rachel is taking pictures in a few weeks and I'm SO EXCITED about it. We are going to take pictures outside and some as a family. It should be fun. Eli had a few decent pictures but none that made me really happy.

Remember how I said Aiden didn't nap ... that was true until dinner time. He was SO TIRED that he actually fell asleep at the dinner table. All he had for dinner was corn so I bet he'll be starving in the morning. He was such a nightmare to put to sleep. He woke himself up knocking his fork off the table and cried ever since. I tried picking him and carrying him for a bit and he still cried. I tried sitting with and he cried. Needless to say, he cried with everything I did. I finally put him to bed about an hour early and he cried for about 20 min yelling "mom." I calmed him down and the second I got up to leave, he started balling again. My mom finally sat with him until he fell asleep while I walked the dog. I have never seen him so upset for that long.

While Aiden slept during dinner, I cut Eli's hair for the first time. It was also the first time he has ever had a lollipop (he loved it). I think it turned out pretty good. You can see the before and after here.

I took this picture in the middle of the haircut. He did great and sat on Nana's lap the whole time. Hopefully Bradley is satisfied with this - I've been getting lots of "hippy" comments from him in regards to Eli's hair!

Hopefully Aiden will have a much better napping day tomorrow. Oh yeah, Eli got another tooth. He now has 8 teeth at 11.5 months!! He's ready for a steak.

8/28 - A day in St. Pete

Eli has learned a new sign; okay, it's his second sign. He knows more and now he knows milk. Since Brad can't see video, I tried to get to pictures so that Brad can see it. For everyone else, watch the video. He's so cute. His "more" sign is starting to look a lot more like he's praying but we know what it means.

The boys have been able to enjoy bath time together again in our big tub. Aiden was having a blast the other night pouring water on Eli. Eli didn't mind it as long as Aiden obeyed the rules of no water on the head or eyes.

We went to Chic-fil-a to see the train on Thursday night and the weather was too bad so they cancelled it. That is two times in a row (Wed and Thur) that I have told Aiden we can see a train and haven't been able to. He was heart broken and was sent to tears when he had to leave the play area since a little girl peed her pants (and the slide). The ice cream they gave him (in place of the train) made him feel somewhat better even though I didn't let him eat it until he got home since Eli was so tired.

Eli has recently started to understand he can chase the cat. Pouncer isn't really excited about this too much. Eli really wanted to pet him and when I was holding Eli, Pouncer didn't mind. This chase went on for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, Pouncer didn't realize that although he hides under the bed, his tail sticks out and still draws attention to little Eli.

The boys and I drove down on Friday early afternoon to St. Pete. The drive was pretty horrible and they didn't nap. Thankfully they did get to have some fun when my Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill stopped by for pizza that night. The boys had a blast getting to play with them. I'm so excited the boys are getting to know more family and interact with them. Eli thought he had magical fingers by making this flashlight come every time he touched (thanks to Becky's timing).

Bill pushed Eli around a few times with his hurt back and all and Eli was loving every second of it. That's a huge open mouth smile if you can't make that out in the picture.
While I nursed Eli, Aiden went downstairs with Becky and Bill to see the truck. Well, as you can imagine, he had a great time. He thought that truck was the coolest thing and I'm pretty sure he would have been fine to just sleep in there.

When I brought Eli down, he didn't want to miss out on the truck action either so he joined in. He had fun driving and beeping the horn. I think the truck was the coolest toy they had seen in a while!

Aiden really wanted to go for a ride so we told him next time. We'll see if he remembers next time.

This morning we went to a park that also had a splash park. There were so many pieces of playground equipment. Aiden had fun but we got there a little late and it was pretty hot.

After the boys played for about 40 minutes, it was really hot and I changed them into their swimsuits and let them play in the splash park part. It didn't take Eli long to crawl off and have fun but Aiden didn't care too much for it. I think that is mainly because he wasn't feeling that well and told me earlier he didn't want to go to the water part. I'm slowly learning that when he says thing like that, I should listen.

We finally went and got nana and we drove back to Jax. We got in right at dinner time and Eli had enough of the car. It was a bit chaotic but the boys ate and got a bath. They are both enjoying playing with Bronco as you can see in the video. Little Eli was crawling all over the place doing laps tonight trying to keep up with Bronco. I forgot that the last time my mom was here Eli wasn't even crawling yet.

Aiden is feeling pretty bad and was up coughing quite a bit last night. We are going to see how he's doing in the morning to decide if we are going to church. I don't want him to get anyone else sick and I don't want him to get worse. It should be nice to have my mom here for the next couple weeks.