8/18 - Eli is 11 months!

Papa was here over the weekend and everyone enjoyed that. Aiden and papa had some play time outside. Although it was hot, Papa was a trooper and played outside with Aiden for a bit. We did get to go to the pool one morning. It was Aiden's first time in the pool since his earache and he had to wear his Ear Band-It. He didn't mind it since that is the only way he could go in the pool. Aiden enjoyed swimming around with Papa and even went down the slide a few times for him (not the big slide in the background).
Eli is trying to get into everything that Aiden can do and Aiden isn't too excited about it. Aiden is getting upset here that Eli can touch his letter train. We finally moved the letter train up and gave Eli 2 letters to play with. That's working for now but I think Eli's growing pretty fast.

Aiden had a fruit roll-up for the first time the other day. It's safe to say he liked it. His hands were all sticky but he definitely liked it.

Aiden is starting to get too upset to play around Eli so I offered him the option to go in to our room (which is right off the living room) and to play in there and we could put the gate up. He liked that option and it's working pretty well. Eli wants to play with his big brother so much but sometimes Aiden wants his own space. In the picture of the boys by the gate, Aiden wasn't even liking that Eli was touching the gate so he's trying to take his fingers off. I told him Eli was allowed to stand and touch the gate because he couldn't climb over it. When the boys do play together, they have fun and there are lots of giggles. Aiden crawls around and Eli thinks it's pretty funny. It's so cute to watch them play - I love it.

Eli has started standing and letting go of things lately. He'll even walk with one hand. I thought that was pretty good for him but then I pulled up one of Aiden's 10 month pictures and he was walking holding on to one hand then. I pulled up the picture of Aiden in the light blue onesie and plaid shorts to compare how the boys look. Eli definitely has much more hair. Brad says he looks like a hippy and he's gonna cut his hair when he gets home. I think I'd agree. I'm not sure how to cut it now until I bring my mom up in a few weeks. Someone has to watch Aiden because Eli will have to sit on my lap.

Aiden is really into doing everything his "self." He even wanted to brush his own hair after his bath the other night. Tonight, he helped me pack his lunch and even put all his grapes in the baggie. He thinks he can do more than he really can (I have to be careful what I let him pour). We got new books from the library the other day and he wanted to read them by himself. Too cute. He still needs "ma" so I don't mind it.

Eli is teething like a mad-man and biting on everything in sight. I'm hoping he's not going to be a biter and this is just a phase. He's been a little grumpy lately but I think he's got multiple teeth coming in so he's in pain.

After missing a phone call from Brad earlier in the week, I was totally devasted for a day. I did talk with him today for 15 min or so and it was great to hear his voice. I wanted Aiden to say hi (we were in the van with bluetooth) but he wouldn't take off his headphones because Thomas was in the DVD player. Maybe next time. It stinks there is no skyping or anything like that. During his real deployment, the boys (Brad included) will have to make little video snippets to each other that we can play on the computer.

8/13 - A visit from papa

We got Aiden a helmet earlier in the week and he loves it (I'm a little surprised by that). He got a horn to which came with the helmet. Wow. I need to find a place in the garage for that. As you can see in the video, he LOVES honking the horn.

We enjoyed papa being here for a couple days. Aiden and Eli were loving spending time with him.

Eli has been pretty good lately. He's actually been great over the past 2 months since he started taking the Zantax. He's a totally different baby. It's great. I can't believe no one thought of him taking this medicine before.

Papa watched Eli so Aiden and I could go on our first ride together. We had a blast. Aiden loved it. He pointed out everything as we rode by it and we even accidently rode into some sprinklers (yuck because it's reclaimed water). Aiden fussed a little but he was having so much fun he didn't whine too much.

I think I'll have to plan to take Aiden on rides on Wed since that is the only day Eli is in daycare and Aiden isn't.

I put Eli on my shoulders for the first time the other day. He had lots of fun but grabbed tons of hair out of my head.

As you can see in these pictures of Eli "pushing" Aiden (Aiden is too heavy and Eli is too weak to actually make this hippo move), they have fun. Eli is pulling Aiden's hair so I'm shocked Aiden didn't scream and get off. As you can see in the second picture, Eli does crazy things when I take his paci out sometimes. He doesn't use it very often but sometimes he needs it because he must have something in his mouth. In the 2nd picture, he's about to suck on the handle of the hippo.

Aiden and Eli are starting to play quite a bit and it's so cute. Here is a picture of Aiden walking over Eli. They both thought it was pretty funny. As long as they are both having fun, I don't care what they do.

Eli is becoming a little booger when I'm in the kitchen. He loves to open this bottom drawer and I haven't found a locking mechanism for it yet.

Aiden got new shoes the other day and he's pretty excited about it. The McQueen shoes he picked out light up when he walks as you can see in the video. I wanted to stay a still picture too so Brad can see (he can't see videos from the ship).

Papa came back to town tonight. It was good timing. I had to take Aiden back to the dr today (he was there on Monday in Acute Care). He's having some severe allergies right now so they switched his meds today. We'll know in about 3 days if this will work better.

Eli got a ride on the bus tonight. Aiden had fun pushing him around and Eli can touch one foot down and almost the second. He's growing so fast.

Since Aiden is having such a hard time with ear infections, we got him the new device (Ear band-it). There is some silicone that goes in his ear and then this neoprene wrap around his head. He didn't mind wearing it tonight (we just got it today) because he knows wearing this is the only way he can go in the pool which he really wants to do.

We should have a good couple of days with papa here.

8/8 - Mommy's sick & Aiden's ear problems

The past couple days have been pretty rough. Eli watched Aiden eat breakfast the other morning which Aiden did not like. Aiden was in great spirits on Wednesday even though I was starting to feel pretty poopy.

Brad's Aunt Pat sent the boys some stuff from QVC (thank Aunt Pat). Here is Cordorouy the Bear. He was trying to ride it and was having fun.

Thursday was a rushed morning since I was in Gainesville all day. It was an exhausting day since I was sick and gone all day. When I picked up Aiden they said he was rubbing his ear all day. He cried most of the way home and cried for the first hour of being home. He just wanted to be held (which Eli didn't like because Eli wanted to be fed). I thought it was from a long day at daycare and kind dismissed his behavior because he never said a word about his ear.

Friday morning Aiden woke up an hour late and wouldn't stop crying. I took him to the dr and the he has a severe ear infection and a perforated eardrum. He got some antibiotics (one taken by mouth and another in his ear) and some motrin for the fever. While Aiden has definitely been under the weather, it's not slowing him down too much. He didn't want to nap at all on Fri or Sat. The picture with him in the blue shirt is from Friday. He wouldn't nap in his room so after 1.5 hrs of playing I asked if he wanted to sleep in mommy's bed. He said "yes." He rolled around for a while and then I hear a click to I wanted to see what was going on. As you can see, he was turning the light on in the bedroom.
Eli has been pretty cute lately. He wants to do everything is brother does including drinking out of big boy sippy cups. He just follows Aiden around and tries to hug him and Aiden wants nothing to do with it. It's kinda sad and cute at the same time.
While Aiden doesn't use his potty in the way we were hoping, he has determined he can stand on it and turn on/off the big light in the room! He was hammering it the other morning and woke up Eli!
Eli was feeling much better yesterday and was even playing with my gliding discs. He was roaming around the hosue on his kness and hands on the discs. It's a great ab and arm workout.

Little Eli is trying to be a helper in the kitchen. He's great at pulling the drawer out under the stove :( He's so cute and has been pretty happy lately. I love it!

Aiden was complaining about his ear this morning so I wasn't sure about church. However, we attempted to go to church this morning and Sunday school went fine. I checked on Aiden after sunday school and he was doing great so I decided we would stay and I went in to church. After being there for about 5 min, I got paged to come get Eli. He was crying hysterically. I fed him and that didn't make him any happier. He was tired and just wanted mommy. Needless to say, I had to take him home (and make Aiden leave). Eli fell asleep in the car and then still took at 2.5 hr nap!

With everything that has been going on lately, my dad decided he would come down a little earlier than planned (he was planning on coming at the end of the week) !! I'm excited for the boys and to be able to spend time with my dad.

Aiden is so cute about saying "Hi" to daddy. He really does it when I tell him I'm going to send a picture to daddy so look in the camera.
Here is a picture of Aiden getting his drops. He doesn't like them so much so I bribe him with watching Sprout so he can lay there for a bit. Unfortunately for him, I put them in the wrong ear and he had to do it again! Oops. I tried to tell him that it was good since he got to watch 5 more minutes of Sprout.
This is a busy week and I'm so glad my dad is here for a few days. I have a TON of work to do and have doctor appointments all day on Wednesday and have to go to Gainesville again on Thursday and somehow be back in time to pick up Eli by 5:00pm.