Easter & 7 months!

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend with family & friends. My family came down from Iowa for Easter but also to celebrate my mom's birthday (on 3/30). On Saturday we looked at condos for my mom who is considering moving down here. We hope she does as Eli would get to see Grandma a lot more often!! Saturday evening we celebrated my mom's birthday and went to eat Mexican. At the restaurant, my cousin Emily held Eli & he just was cracking up at her:


The week prior, Eli & I went to visit Emily & her little girl, Mallory. Here are pics of them together (stolen from Emily's blog, thanks!!)



On Easter Sunday, my sisters & I played a hymn at church and I sang in a women's ensemble, and then we had everyone over for Easter dinner. Thankfully, Mom Clarkson cooked the ham we bought along with yummy hashbrown casserole and a dessert as we were so busy that morning we didn't have time to cook the ham! We made the green bean casserole (good 'ol stand by!) and had the rolls. It was a great time! Eli got an Easter basket from mommy & daddy, Grandma Bidney & Grandma Clarkson. He got books, clothes, stuffed animals, and Easter eggs.

Stuffed peeps on my head (silly mommy!)

Bunny ears from Grandma Bidney....I wasn't so sure about them!!

Below are Eli's 7 month pictures with Mr. Monkey.....I'll let them speak for themselves.....








Eli is still working on liking solids. He's not sold on the idea, yet. Mommy gave him a break over the weekend and started again yesterday. He wasn't all that excited, again, but we will keep trying and I've been told that someday he'll just decide to like them!! Just the few he's had, though, has made his poopy quite yucky!

Eli's sleep is the same. I feel like I'm kinda just accepting it right now. The ideas in the book I've been talking about are too hard and it seems that Eli is too strong willed for them to work. I have been somewhat successful in extending his naps. I have given in to the fact that he naps best in our bed so I nurse him to sleep and either nap with him or leave him. If he wakes 30-45 minutes later, I nurse him again and he has been falling asleep for another 20-30 minutes. This means he has had about 3 naps at about an hour each. We'll see if he'll be able to extend out the naps without the nursing in the middle over time. We also have daddy put him to bed 3 nights a week (nights he doesn't have class) so that he can go to bed without nursing. BUT, if he wakes, daddy has been unsuccessful at putting Eli back to sleep at all, or if he does, he wakes up 10 minutes later. So, he still insists on mommy when he wakes. I don't always have to nurse, though. Sometimes I just pick him up and he falls asleep. He also has been going to bed earlier so our routine (bath, reading, nursing, watching display on ceiling) usually starts around 6:45/7pm and he is asleep by around 7:45/8pm . That of course changes when there is company or an evening activity, but otherwise this is what it has been. He also has a white noise machine playing all night, a humidifier, and a temp controlled heater (which he won't need in a few weeks, hopefully!) in his room. With these changes there hasn't been any improvement on his wakings. I plan to go to the library this week and check out a couple of other sleep books and take what I can from them to see what can work for us. Wish us luck.....we need it!!!

Eli continues to work on his sitting, and is doing very well! He only tips over if he is reaching forward for a toy and then he lands on his belly. At that point he just stays there for awhile and then starts to cry. Hasn't figured out the rolling thing yet! He's really good with his hands and can grab almost anything, even small things. He loves to watch cartoons and a signing video from Baby Einstein that he finds one part particularly funny and laughs at it over and over. I hope to try to teach him some signs that will be useful such as food, drink, more, mommy, daddy, etc. We'll see as I have to remember to use them myself!!

This week continues to be a calm week. The weather is supposed to be nice so hopefully we can take some walks! Have a great week!!

P.S. My friend Da had her 2nd baby girl yesterday.....congrats!!! Visit their site (under my blogs worth visiting: Horton Family)!