Weekend in Iowa

This week, we enjoyed some warm weather before the chill & wind returned blowing all the fall leaves to the ground. Eli enjoys looking out windows & doors and does so any chance he gets. Here are pictures of him looking out the back door:

We went to the park, probably for the last time before winter sets in. Eli really enjoys swinging:

Eli makes almost ANYTHING a push toy these days. He can walk, he just chooses not to without the assistance of something. Here he is using his highchair which he pushed into the living room:

Eli loves to be "in control" of most things, including brushing his teeth, brushing his hair, eating, etc. Here he is brushing his hair:



Daddy let Eli "lift weights" with the blinds:



This weekend we made the trip to Des Moines to visit the Bidney fam. While it is only a 3 hour trip, Eli can't stand being cooped up in his car seat for very long. We usually have to make 1-2 stops to "release" him from his car seat. Here he is doing some reading on the way down:

While in Des Moines, we stayed with Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris. Eli loves seeing his aunts & uncle! I'm not sure how, but I didn't get one picture of Eli with his Aunt Sarah & Aunt Stephanie! Here is a picture of Eli sitting with Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris:

Aunt Holly let Eli loose on their DVD collection. Eli had no problem knocking them all on the floor! But, Eli did find a missing DVD that Uncle Chris had been looking for!:

Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris have an old school desk. Here is Eli showing how good he'll be when he attends school in a few years:

Eli HATES, I should say LOATHES brushing his teeth. I've tried showing him how fun it is when I brush my teeth, allowing him to brush my teeth, letting him play with his tooth brush, etc., etc. He enjoys this, but once I attempt to actually touch his teeth with the brush, the tears flow!! I reasearch this online and found an idea of buying an electric toothbrush. So I went to Target and bought one. He seems to think it is very interesting, but still hasn't allowed it to willingly enter his mouth. Here he is playing with new crayola toothbrush:

It was even colder in Des Moines (30's during the day, 20's at night) so we made sure Eli had his coat & hat. He has always disliked hats, but to my surprise, he seemed to like his monkey winter hat. Hooray!!:

Eli had more practice with climbing stairs at Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris':

Also while in Des Moines, Saturday night we had a yummy lasagne dinner with Grandpa Bidney, Roberta, Aunt Holly, Uncle Chris, Aunt Sarah, & Aunt Stephanie and watched a couple of movies. Then Sunday we ate brunch at Grandpa Bidney's golf club before heading to the mall (I finally changed my watch battery that I had been wearing around for a week now!!). Unfortunately, Eric is really allergic to Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris' cats & my allergies kicked in Sunday morning, so we didn't feel that great. We may have to consider staying in a hotel for subsequent visits so we aren't miserable while trying to enjoy our visit!! Regardless of this, we did have a good time & enjoyed spending time with the Bidney gang.