Playdates & garage sales

Last week was kinda a bum week weather wise with multiple days of rain/storms. But, we were able to have a fun playdate on Friday morning with wonderful sunny weather! Here are some cute pictures from the morning!

Eli wanting to try out the big kid swing:

He didn't make it up this slide but he did make it all the way up (the wrong way) the twisty slide!

Swinging, a favorite park playdate activity:

This park has two great playgrounds for the kids that are, for the most part, toddler friendly:

Eli & Colton eating snacks in the shade:

Eli became interested in the highschool tennis practice. He kept calling it "baseball":

Below are some fun pictures I used the online editing site picnik. Love that it is free and fun!

Mr. Jack:

"Peek-a-boo Christopher!":

"Hello mommy!":

Love how this effect makes their lips look and cheeks dark & rosy. Eli, Kennison and Colton sharing snacks:

This was too cute that they all decided to sit down together. They all REALLY wanted to wander down the hill, though!:

Always have to check out the picnic tables:

"Eli the Explorer":

On Saturday, our subdivision had a neighborhood garage sale. We decided not to hassle with putting out anything ourselves, but we did partake in the shopping! Eli, of course, is the one who benefited from the shopping, but it was all things were wanting to get him anyway!

Eli loves to watch daddy mow the lawn. Luckily we found TWO lawn mowers that BLOW BUBBLES!:

This is really cute as both lawn mowers actually look alike!:

Getting ready for summer time at the pool with this purchase of an inner tube, or as Eli calls it, "circle":

To go along with his previous garage sale purchase of an airplane, Eli got a really cool helicopter:

There hasn't been much advancement in the potty training area.....maybe this is why:

Adventures in pudding eating, part 1:

In other news, since we brought up the cable box (only took 21 months :) we have been in love with Noggin and Sprout stations. Eli's new favorite show is "Yo Gabba Gabba" which is quite the interesting show. What is great is they have a lot of guest stars including Jack Black....hilarious....see for yourself! Eli loves to say "Yo Gabba Gabba" many times throughout the day.

Unrelated to Mr. Eli, I have a little annoying story to share. While driving on the interstate, a work truck several hundred feet ahead of me had a can of paint literally fly out of the truck into the air and land on the road, of course spraying paint everywhere. I was thankfully far enough away but one unlucky car was covered with paint. I did get a nice light spray of paint on my car, though, which we hope we can get off with a little scrubbing if it is water based. I always get really paranoid around trucks that have things in the back that don't seem to be as secured down as they should be!

Also, yoga is going well (this will be my 6th week!) and I signed up for the next session. I started doing some exercise videos on the alternate days to hopefully help me get in a little better shape.....although not soon enough for swimsuit weather :( Which reminds me, Eli starts swim lessons on the 22nd! Should be fun!

Depending on weather (storms in the forecast AGAIN!), we hope to play with Eli's friends at a splash park, probably go to the park a few times, and hopefully make it to Music with Mar on Saturday. Have a great week!

Car Seat Safety

Hello all. I felt compelled to post about this as I feel it is important for all parents to know about. As with most child issues in our society (length of breastfeeding, when baby should sleep on own, when to start solids, vaccine schedule, etc.), parents are bombarded with information that can sometimes be incorrect. Car seat safety is one of those issues. Eli has always been on the big side, so I immediately went to work researching car seat regulations when he was an infant so I knew when I should buy a new car seat, turn him around, etc. I was surprised to find that the current American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines to turn your child's car seat forward facing at 1 year AND 20 lbs. is actually the EARLIEST.....but not the SAFEST. Research has shown (I will list the research below) that keeping a child rear facing for as long as possible is the safest. There are several brands of carseats that are made to allow children to remain rear facing for longer than the 20 lbs. guideline. Eli's car seat, for example, is a Britax Boulevard, which allows the child to be rear facing up to 35 lbs. and up to 49 inches.

This morning while I was getting ready, I had Good Morning America on and a segment about this exact topic came on. I immediately listened and was happy to see that this information is becoming more "main stream" as more and more research is conducted. Here is the segment they had on this morning that gives more detailed information. Below are also some other research that supports this important issue:

http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

http://baby411.typepad.com/babybargains/2009/04/experts-toddlers-belong-in-rearfacing-car-seat-until-age-2.html

http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx

Here is a quick summary for those who don't have time to visit the sites:

"When a child is in a forward-facing seat, there is tremendous stress put on the child's neck, which must hold the large head back. The mass of the head of a small child is about 25% of the body mass whereas the mass of the adult head is only 6%! A small child's neck sustains massive amounts of force in a crash. The body is held back by the straps while the head is thrown forward - stressing, stretching or even breaking the spinal cord. The child's head is at greater risk in a forward-facing seat as well. In a crash, the head is thrown outside the confines of the seat and can make dangerous contact with other occupants, vehicle structures, and even intruding objects, like trees or other vehicles. Rear-facing seats do a phenomenal job of protecting children because there is little or no force applied to the head, neck and spine. When a child is in a rear-facing seat, the head, neck and spine are all kept fully aligned and the child is allowed to "ride down" the crash while the back of the child restraint absorbs the bulk of the crash force. The head is contained within the restraint, and the child is much less likely to come into contact with anything that might cause head injury."

"Frontal and side impacts are the most common type of crashes. They account for 96% of all crashes. They are also the most deadly type of crashes (especially side impacts) and rear-facing children have MUCH more protection in both types of crashes than forward-facing. In the 4% of rear impact crashes that a rear-facing child would be in, they have at least the same amount of protection that a FF child would have in a frontal impact, with the added benefit of less crash energy being transferred to them, and the fact that the rear impact is usually not as severe."

Hope this is helpful to new moms, moms with children about to turn 1 year/20 lbs., or even moms whose child is currently forward facing and decide to make the change back to rear facing. It's never too late!

Boom Boom Pow!

For your mid-week viewing pleasure:

Another week in the life of Eli

1) Eli has developed a few small freckles on his body which I find are adorable!
2) Eli continues to show his excitement with biting, some hitting, and throwing of items. He doesn't do these things often, but when he gets overly excited, he seems to not know how else to express himself. We are working on this and this week he seemed better, but I know he is tired of hearing "Kisses & hugs, Eli...only kisses & hugs!"
3) Eli continues to pick up on phrases we say a lot and does a good job at using them again at the appropriate times. An example is that we keep most of the doors closed in the house and sometimes one of our cats gets closed in. I went to get one of the cats out and I usually say "Come on, get out!". Eli followed me in and on his own before I could say anything, he clapped his hands twice and said "Come on! Come on!" while chasing the cat out. It cracked me up!!
4) When Eli wakes up in the morning, he usually wakes by saying a whole slew of random words. Eric & I wake up to something like this: "Car, aipane, otside, light, wagee, tiangle, geen, yewow, boo...."
5) Eli is now able to identify when HE feels hot, cold or when something hurts. He doesn't do this all the time but several times when outside playing he has said "hot" and he says "cold" when he eats cold fruit or ice cream. When he hurts himself, he touches the ouchie and says "ochie, hurts!"
6) Eli started to say "other shoe/foot/sock/etc."
7) Eli LOVES to see himself in the mirror. All I have to say is "Eli, who is that in the mirror?" and he goes to the mirror, gets a huge smile, and points to himself and says "Ali!"
8) As with all other toddlers this time of the year, he wants to spend as much time outside as the adults with him will allow! When he wants outside, he says "otside" and we then say "what do you need to go outside, Eli?". He than says either "socks" "shoes" and/or "hat"
9) Eli likes to "sample" what we are eating if it's not what he is also eating. We then "take turns" eating and he is very good at saying "turn!"
10) Eli loves to take walks and will say "walking" when we start off down the sidewalk. When we reach the end of the street, we say "stop, Eli, and look for cars". He's heard us enough that he has learned to say "stop! Cars!" once he reaches the end of the street even before we say it.
11) When Eli gets hurt, he does this really cute thing where he gets "mad" at whatever hurt him. For example, if he hit his head on a chair, he will hold his head, and point to the chair and in a "mad" tone start to speak some Eli jibber jabber. It's as though he is scolding the item that hurt him.
12) Eli can be quite the squirrel/chipmunk when he eats and stuffs more food in his mouth than he can chew. As a result, we say MANY times a day "take bites, Eli; chew, Eli" Now he is able to remind himself and often takes a piece of food and says "bite?"
13) When you ask if Eli sees something like a plane, he sometimes says "I see it!"
14) When Eli knows that something is his, he often points to it and says "Ali's!"
15) Eli helps me water our flowers daily by holding the watering can while I fill it up with water and then going outside to water all the plants. He literally throws a little tantrum if I do it without him.
16) I call the carpenter bees in our back yard "silly bees" around Eli (other adjectives when he isn't around) and now Eli calls them "silly bees" instead of just bees
17) Eli ate a bowl of Cheerios with a spoon for the first time today while in his highchair. He loved it!!
18) If you couldn't tell from previous posts and the above list, Eli loves to know the names of things and often remembers. I call him our little "I spy" guy!

"Otside" time

Eli taking a break in the deck chair:

Taking the stroller out for a walk:

Sidewalk chalk is fun....

....and messy!

When we went to our neighborhood park, there were all these bikes at the end of the parking lot. Upon closer inspection, they were older bikes that had missing and rusting parts. Not too long after this picture, 2 police cars came to check out the bikes. I assume someone just decided to drop them off:

Eli always walks the rows of picnic tables at every park visit:

Slide!:

The big boy swing!:

Having a sip of mommy's coffee:

Learning how to play baseball:

Kalani's 1st Birthday

Our good friend Mr. Kalani had his 1st birthday party on Saturday and we were happy to be able to celebrate with him. Kalani likes to watch American Idol so his birthday had this theme. The kiddos took home sunglasses and sang karaoke. Eli had no issue playing "mc" to kick off the event:

Sweet Kalani digging into his cake:

Our other friend Mi Jean and her son Gael (& Kalani's cousin...sorry, don't know her name):

Daddy & Eli enjoying the festivities:

Eli playing the xylophone....he's pretty good!:

Kalani opening his presents with his grandma:

Eli the Photographer

Can you guess what Eli wants here?

Uh-oh, starting to have a melt down because he wants something!!:

Oh! Eli wanted to be the photographer for once! Okay, buddy, here ya go!
Eli's view of daddy:

And the living room:

Oopps....here's a not so good one:

We decided to let Eli play with our old digital camera....he enjoyed himself a lot!

Morning at the Mall

It was a little wet this morning outside, so I decided we should go see how the play area at the mall was BEFORE the stores opened. I was glad we did because there were only a few other kids so Eli pretty much had the run of the place. It's a great soft floored, toddler safe play area that allows for climbing and exploring. There are also many riding toys that require money, but Eli didn't seem to mind just sitting in them:

Climbing the mushrooms:

Eli would climb up one side and slide on his bottom down the other. He then figured out he could slide down on his belly:

And finally, like father, like son: