7/5 - Happy 4th of July block party

We've had a great past couple of days. Although it's rained quite often here, it actually cleared up for the afternoon and evening of July 3rd and the evening of July 4th. We started the weekend off by getting Aiden's new backpack and lunch bag. He's a little too old for me to be dropping off a diaper bag now so we fixed that. We ordered this stuff on Sunday night and it was here by Thursday. It's adorable and he loves it. We figured with Aiden being the most popular name in 2008 (the year he was born) we better put his name on his bag!

Eli has been a pretty cute baby lately. The navy doctors put him on Zantac thinking that maybe he's started spitting up again and is cranky quite often because of Reflux. I said I didn't mind them trying the treatment for that for a month to see if it works. I don't know if it's the medicine or not but he's done pretty good the last couple days. He's starting to get up off that belly. I think he might graduate from his army crawl pretty soon. He's also started to take a few cruising steps. He's gonna be off on his own in no time.

On July 3rd, the neighborhood got together. It was a couple houses on our street with lots of kids. Aiden is the youngest but that doesn't stop him from having fun. He played with a neighbors three-wheeled scooter and loved it. We are looking to get him a tricycle that he can pedal since he's getting more advanced and doesn't want to use his one that he is supposed to push with his legs. We saw him play on a slip and slide for the first time. I wasn't sure if he would like it or not but he LOVED it. I wish I could have watched him more but I was fixing dinner. I'm glad Brad took some videos of it though. I definitely see us getting a slip and slide in the future. He didn't mind getting splashed by the big kids and the big kids actually did a great job of dodging him and not hitting him.

We put Eli down on the blanket and the neighbor watched him most of the time. Our neighbors have a 14-yr old daughter who loves Eli. Her name is Keah. She will definitely by babysitting later for us! It was great that she had Eli because it allowed Brad or I to interact with the neighbors more. One of us had Aiden and the other got to socialize. We had a great time.

Aiden had so much fun that he didn't want to go to sleep. I don't really blame him because the slip and slide was right outside his bedroom window. After we put him down, we went back outside to socialize and as you can see in the pictures, about a half hour into his night-night time, Aiden was in his window.

We went in and told Aiden he had to go night-night and he couldn't stand up at the window and he did listen to us. We went in to the house later when they started to light off fireworks and he was playing in his room so I took him out (no lectures about how I should have left him in there) and brought him out to watch fireworks. He liked them and wasn't even scared of them. Eli was an awesome baby and slept through everything! Aiden has been struggling a little bit during nap times because we are trying to take the paci away from him. He only uses it a naptime and we've gone for about a week with no paci at night. He's started asking for it more and when I don't give it to him, he stays up and plays in his room for 60-90 minutes. I need him to sleep and not play. The paci helps him soothe himself to sleep more than we knew I guess.

On Sunday, we tried a new church. We liked it better than last week and will go back again but want to try one other church. Aiden got use his new backpack and was so excited to wear it. Both boys did great again and Aiden didn't even cry when we left (he was having too much fun already). We got home and it started to rain so we had lunch and took some naps. After naptime, we ran a few errands.

Today started off looking yucky but turned in to a beautiful day. Aiden watched a little tv with Brad while Eli was looking outside.

We went to the park this morning after Eli woke up from his morning nap. Both of the boys had fun. Aiden thought he wanted to drive his bus to the park but then changed his mind about 3 houses down from ours. We put him in a stroller and were off. It's so nice to have so many parks within such a short walking distance from our house.

We know that besides water, Eli also loves swings. He is always smiling while swinging.

I love the picture of Aiden and Brad. Aiden is so serious and his little hands on his thighs crack me up. We tried to take a family picture using the timer but Aiden just wanted to show us that the light was flashing. We ended up taking a close up which turned out pretty good.

We had a good day and even got some yard work done. Brad's house hunting leave has come to an end today and he has to do back to work tomorrow. It was fun while it lasted but we still have stuff to put away in the house. I also have to note that Eli, our little garbage disposal ate steamed broccoli and carrots, and an entire roll tonight (in addition to his baby food dinner). He ate more real food than Aiden did. Aiden thought the chick pea, pasta, and broccoli would poison him tonight so he didn't try any.

6/30 - Pool Time

We finally got our Oakleaf passes and visited the pool for the first time on Saturday. The boys LOVED it. There are 2 huge pools with kiddie sections and slides and such and the boys loved it. Eli is feeling much better from his ear infection and we can tell a big difference in the way he is acting. He's happy again (for the most part). We got the boys all ready in their swim attire and headed to the pool.
Brad and I tagged off between kids. Aiden wanted to wonder around and investigate some. He didn't really want to splash and the waterfall stuff kinda scared him but he loved laying down and sitting in the water. He really loves walking around the OUTSIDE of the pool following the "track." The track is just different color stones they use.
Eli LOVES the water. We knew he loved bath time and he loves the pool too. Everyone was staring at him because he had this open mouth smile the entire time he was in the water. They have a gradual entry into the pools so he rolled around on his back and belly (in the very very shallow part) and was all smiles. We even took him swimming with us in the deeper parts and he liked that too.
Aiden didn't mind us swimming around with him either he just was clinging on to us for dear life. He did kick his feet some though and stick his face in the water to blow lots of bubbles.

We tried a church in Oakleaf on Sunday and it was ...unique. Aiden did a great job at a new place although he did cry when we left. We went back a few minutes later and he was fine and doing puzzles with one of the workers. Eli did fine too but got pretty tired towards noon. This week we will try a different church to see what else is out there. I feel bad putting the kids through new churches every sunday but hopefully the Lord will bless us with a great church soon.

In an attempt to try and contain the toys more, we have boxes for Eli that are full of his age-appropriate toys. It's easier to give him a box and pile the toys back in there when he is done. We are hoping to keep a much more organized house. It's already better and we aren't even done unpacking and putting away stuff yet. We are starting to really burn out on the putting stuff away part so we are moving a little slow but still work from 8-10ish every night.

We are getting to know some of the neighborhood and one of the kids has a F150 Power Wheels toy. There is one 3 yr old boy on the street and other than that, the boys are 5-8 yrs old. He finds them pretty fascinating to watch but it's hard to play with them because they all play together and Aiden is so little. They were really sweet to him the other day though and offered him a ride. Aiden LOVED it. They were gone for a while (just down to the cul-da-sac) and slightly out of view. We went to go check on them to find them stuck up on a curve and Aiden in the driver seat!! He's not allowed to drive so we put him back in the passenger seat and got them back on the road. I'll be excited to find some kids Aiden can play with soon.

While cleaning this morning, I found my box of medals from gymnastics. There are dozens of them and Aiden decided to wear some. He then decided it would be fun to ride around on daddy while he was doing some hard push-ups with some of the toys I use for personal training.

I did some investigating about daycare today and I think I'll be able to find Aiden a place with no problem but Eli will be different. I'm taking them both to get physicals on Friday so I can get them in somewhere. I need some sanity and Aiden misses playing with kids his own age. Eli needs to learn what daycare is all about so I'm excited for him to go too (just part-time for both of them).
Tonight was bath night which makes Eli really happy. He's about to get three more teeth in and I think one will come through tomorrow. In the one picture with just Eli, you can see his hillbilly top tooth on the side (HIS left). It's not a glare from the camera, it's a giant tooth. I think his next tooth will be the matching pair on his right side.

Aiden is determined to get water out of this fish ball (it squirts water from it's mouth). Eli just cracks me up in this picture.

Overall, things are going well. This is Brad's last few days of house hunting leave. We'll be putting up a fence very soon so that we can get Bronco back. We had an estimate done today and we are getting one more. We've had lots of rain so we haven't been able to get out much this week. I'm exhausted and need a shower. Good night.

6/26 - Getting settled in FL; lots of videos

Things are getting better around here. It's starting to look like someone actually lives in the house although it's pretty messy. As you can imagine, after getting carpet, we only eat in the kitchen (for the boys at least). Eli inhaled his food as usual, and didn't want to sit in his seat anymore (unless we keep feeding him). We let him out and that little booger crawled over to Aiden's try and tried to take his chicken nuggets! Eli can eat! I'm not kidding. He could eat more than Aiden if we let him and he only has 3 tooth although 3 more are coming any day now.

The videos below are Aiden being excited about his new green room and him playing in his race car bed. He loves his new bedroom color and the amount of toys/books in it. Our friend Sue gave us 2 race car beds and Aiden LOVES his. It was too cute to see him so excited.

The picture of Aiden in the race car bed shows you how excited he was. He didn't have the mattress yet but that didn't stop him from playing in it.

Aiden decided to help us clean out the garage when the packer came on Friday. He unpacked some safety goggles and also found his mower. He was ready to go!! He even had his hard hat on - that's some serious protection. We are desperate need of some new crocs and I'm trying to find some Navy blue ones. That's hard to do when all we do is go to Home Depot and SuperTarget right now so I might end up ordering them on-line. They are so easy for Aiden to put on and they clean up really easy. I would imagine wearing shoes and socks in Fl are going to give him some funky tan lines so he'll probably be living in crocs.
Aiden was such a good boy while the unpacker was here. I opened a box of his books and he sat on his bed and read for a long time. Eli was actually really good yesterday too. He played in his exersaucer and by the train table for a long time. They both did great.

Yesterday afternoon Eli was playing on the ground by the table and couch and wasn't making a peep (very unusual because he likes to cry). I went to go check on him and he had climbed/rolled into the bottom of his exersaucer. He was loving it. I pushed the seat cushion back down and stayed in there for another 20 min playing with the tag!
On a wall under the bar in the living room, Brad and I made a chalk board for Aiden. It was finally dry and ready for Aiden to use. Once we showed it to him he loved it. We still need to put up the chair rail to make it have a border on all 4 sides but Aiden knows he can only write on the black. What a neat invention (paint on chalk boards). The only bad thing is we can't find an old-fashioned eraser anywhere! I even saw at the store they have paint to make surface a colored chalk board and dry erase boards.

This morning Brad put some little shelves in the pantry so I can store our plastic bags and foil and Aiden wanted to help. He knows the major tools (screwdriver, hammer, wrench, pliers, and the sizes - small, medium, and big) and helps Brad out. It's so adorable that I need to get a video of it. He actually does a great job of getting the right tool. This all started last night when Brad put together a 2-drawer shelf by the front door and Aiden wanted to help.
Our place is still really messy and it will take a few more days to find things a "home." We gave away 2 big boxes of sheets, tablecloths, and other randomness this morning. We just don't have near the space in this house as we did in our last house (we want to be able to use the garage here for my van). I started doing some much needed yard work this morning by edging with our new edger (very cool). We have a lot of yard work in store for us because the renters never took care of it and it went for a while with no renters! Nap time and after 7:30pm are our work times and we get as much done as possible.
Eli was being pretty happy this morning and let me multi-task some. The video of Eli was supposed to be him flipping down the flaps on his toy but instead, he saw the camera and wanted to come say hi. We get to go pick up our access cards to the amenities today so we can start using the pool and gym!