Sick Babies, A Broken Keurig, and Mall Adventures.

First, check out the tummy on baby girl!  I can’t get enough of her tummy and chunky thighs.

My babies are sick.  Well, Elijah is sick.  Emaline is just congested.  Everyone slept in “mama’s bed,” as Eli would say, because at 3:00 am he was up with a fever and super sad.  None of our usual tricks to get him back to sleep worked, so cuddles in bed were the answer.  And I definitely didn’t hate sleeping between my two babies.

Elijah Said That.

Elijah’s vocabulary is expanding everyday and sometimes he says awesome things.  The other day he was calling me “babe” (he heard RJ call me babe) and laughing because he knew he was being a silly monkey.  I have started noting some of the good ones– so here they are:

RJ is in the bathroom shaving.   And Eli runs up to me in the family room:

Eli: “Daddy take beard off!”

We pull into the driveway at church:

Eli: “Church!  There it is, found it!”

Sees himself in the mirror:

Eli: “Wook! (look) It’s you!”

Sitting on the toilet, trying to poo:

Eli: “Daddy toot!  Daddy toot! Noooooo, Daddy work.”  Then he precedes to laugh at his own joke. RJ taught him that toots are hilarious and it is necessary to announce them and laugh. 

I am in bed sleeping one morning, Eli is right next to my face:

Eli: “What mommy doing?”

 

And everything is 100 times cuter when it is said in Elijah’s sweet little voice.

 

We Love Weekends.

We had a great weekend last weekend.  And since today is Friday and the sun is out; I’m remembering all the fun stuff we did and thinking about how this weekend can be just as fun.

First we went to the library.

He wanted to drive the bus with Emmy in it.

Monkey Fashion.

Here is some of the cool stuff Eli has worn lately.

Boys can rock leggings too.

Cardigan: h&m.

Helvetica tee: American Apparel.

Leggings: Kickin’ Legs.  I found this super cute shop on instagram last month.  She made these custom Mickey leggings for Elijah and they turned out awesome. (check out her etsy shop here.)  I may have to buy some Minnie ones for Emaline, because I’m going to be all cheesy and make my kids match sometimes.

High tops: Converse.

Hanging out in his favorite spot…Emaline’s room.

Tee: Grey Thread by Riley Clay.  This is another sweet shop I discovered on instagram.  She makes awesome tees for grown ups too.  (check out her etsy here.)  I ordered him a 4T so he can wear it for a while.

Pants: Crazy 8.  They are a little loose on him, but I could not resist the neon green.

Batman wegos. 

Ever since RJ took him to the Lego movie, every Batman item he owns is now a Batman sego (lego).

Tee: Old Navy.  I bought this at the resale shop for $1.00 last summer.

Jeans: First Impressions.

Suspenders: Zulily.  These have been in his closet since he was still crawling and this is the first time he let me put them on him.  This time was purely function since his pants just fall right off his skinny butt–especially when he has underpants on.

Socks: Body Glove.

Library Day.

Tee: Zulily.  Rawr means I love you in dinosaur.  Really.

Thermal: Osh Kosh.

Jeans: Levis.

Sneakers: Converse.  $6.00 at the children’s resale shop.  I can’t resist awesome shoes for an awesome price.  Ever.

Tiny Pianist.

Hat: GapKids.  He picked this out.

Sweater: The Children’s Place.

Pants: babyGap.  And they are so cozy.  Although light colored pants like this are not the best choice for my messy monkey.

Socks: Body Glove.  We love bright colors.

Maybe I will have to start posting Emaline’s cool outfits too.  She changes more times in a day than her big bro does.

This post contains referral links to Zulily.  If you sign up using my link I will receive credit.  

Elijah Oscar is Two.

Last week, my baby monkey officially became a toddler.  Maybe it is because we have a tiny newborn, but Elijah seems so big now.  He is genuinely a little person and it surprises me every day the things that he says and understands.  I love Eli’s little personality; he is a real goof ball sometimes, but such a sweet boy.  Here are some cool things about Elijah Oscar as a two year old.

He loves books.  There are currently books scattered all over my house, because he picks one out and carries it to another room to read it.  His favorite book is “What Does the Fox Say?”  

Elijah Loves Baby Girl.

“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.” –Winnie the Pooh

Elijah is doing amazing as a big brother.  Even better than I had hoped he would do.

He does super sweet things, completely unprompted.  The first thing he did when he woke up this morning was ask to hold Emaline.  And by ask to hold her, I mean he says “I want it, I want it!”  We need to work on his use of personal pronouns.I love his crazy bedhead.  He gets so happy when he holds her.  She started touching his face and he thought it was hilarious.

Our Newest Adventure.

A week ago my sweet Emaline Rose decided it was time to make her entrance.  She was born at 11:57 pm on February 12.  Bigger than her brother, at 7 lbs 9oz and 20 inches long.  We are spoiled by having Molly around to capture moments–like Elijah meeting his baby sister for the first time.   Emaline is not even 12 hours old in these photos.

Elijah is doing great with the whole big brother thing.  He calls her “baby girl” and whenever she cries he says “its okay baby girl” or asks “why baby girl crying?”  It melts this mama’s heart to see how sweet he is with her already.

RJ goes back to work tomorrow, so we will see how things go without daddy around to play with him.

 

January. According to Instagram.

Our January consisted mostly of staying home due to the freezing temperatures and ridiculous amounts of snow.  This has been great for the whole potty training adventure, but not so great for making plans, or having any sort of socialization beyond the monkey and mama duo…

Here is a mini-recap of our month–according to my Instagram feed.

Daddy wrapped Eli in a towel after a bath one night, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Mama thought he looked too big and almost started crying.

My Favorite Places to Buy Little Man Clothes…on a Budget.

It’s no secret that I love shopping.  And dressing Elijah in stylish clothes.  And getting good deals.  I have learned a few things in Eli’s almost two years of life about shopping for tiny human clothes, at least for boys.  We will see how shopping for little girl clothes is different.  I have figured out the things that I am willing to spend a little more on, because they will last longer, and the things that I try avoid buying new.  I confess that I have spent parts of my monthly clothing budget on Elijah, but I do a good job staying within his allotted clothing budget…which we may have to change shortly since there is a baby girl monkey coming, who will also need to be stylish and adorable.

The clearance rack is my best friend.  And I rarely shop at stores without a coupon.  And I don’t pay full price for Eli’s clothes.  Because, he is a toddler.  He is a boy.  He is messy.  He is rough on clothes.  He probably gets that from his daddy, who wears holes in his jeans worse than his two year old son and goes through a pair of Converse a season.

Elijah’s Toy Story Birthday.

We celebrated Elijah’s second birthday a couple weeks early this past weekend, because I knew I probably wouldn’t be up for having a party with a newborn.  It, of course, snowed like crazy, but Eli still had a great time.  He was a teensy bit crabby because he refused to nap that afternoon…probably from all the excitement with the 30 balloons his mama ordered.  I love decorating for his parties.  Although I do always have these grandiose ideas that I can’t actually execute, but it is still fun for me.  

I learned that the alphabet blocks do not have enough y’s or h’s for me to spell out “Happy Birthday Elijah,” so I had to improvise. 

I made the bunting out of scrapbook paper and chipboard letters.

It is no surprise that the monkey has most of the toys from Toy Story.  So that made decorating easier.  It was so fun to watch Elijah realize all the decorations were Buzz and “Wee Wee.”  He came out after his nap that didn’t involve any actual napping and kept saying “oh wow” when he noticed different things.

The centerpieces were mason jars that I filled with various toys; army men, monkeys, and plastic badges, and then tied some balloons on them.  

The banner was one of the things that didn’t quite turn out how I had planned, but it worked.

I am so happy with the cake.  Terri, a very talented lady from our church, made it and it totally exceeded my expectations.  

Not only did it look amazing, it tasted pretty amazing…as do slices of leftover cake at 3:00 am. She even made these Pixar cake balls, which are the perfect size for a two year old to snack on.

Did you notice that Mr. Potato Head was missing an ear?  The birthday boy was very impressed with his cake when he saw it, and thought that ear looked too tasty to leave on Potato Head’s head.

He tried to blow out the candles before we even started singing to him.  Silly little monkey.

He had a lot of practice the past couple months with my birthday and RJ’s birthday, so he is a candle-blowing-out-pro now.  He got some awesome gifts for his birthday, too.  We got pictures of a couple of them:

Hunter Boots from Grandma and Grandpa; although I pretty am sure that this part of the gift was all Grandma…

I was a little excited about his Hunters.

He is destined to be a book worm.  He got a few books to add to his collection and “reads” them all the time.

There was also a drum set.

So much for him not picking an obnoxious instrument to be interested in…

A sweet Mickey Mouse bike from Grandma and Grandpa, too.  

The dress up set that Uncle Co Co and soon-to-be Auntie Air got him was also a big hit.

Elijah is so blessed to have such great friends and family in his life.  Thank you to everyone who came out into the blizzard to make his party special.  We are a pretty lucky family.

All photos in this post were taken by Molly Grunewald.  Check out her website here.