Every Day with Eli

September 2

My van's air conditioner has been having issues since the beginning of June. For some reason, we haven't been able to take it in to the shop to be fixed until today. September 2. But today was the day, and Chris took my van into the shop, leaving us stuck at home for the day. It worked out perfectly, though, because my friend Amber needed a last-minute sitter for her two boys. It was a win for everyone!

Except maybe Eli. He was a little bit freaked out at first by the two new people who demanded Mommy's attention.

Luckily, I have a wrap for that.

(Don't you love the way he's playing with his toes?)

It was beautiful out, so we spent a while in the back yard.

Sandbox for the win!

Also, Daisy caught a bug in her bug-catcher. She was really excited.

Then I got out my big camera.

Have I mentioned that Eli is all about trucks lately?

Obsessed with them. When he found two bulldozers in the sand box, he nearly lost it.

This is officially my current favorite picture of Caleb. It's so hard to take pictures of him lately; they rarely reflect the true him. This one is Caleb, through and through.

Hi, Lily!

The sandbox chaos makes my heart happy!

Drew didn't want to get in the sandbox, though. He had on new shoes, and he didn't want to get them dirty. Good call, kiddo! Instead, he zoomed Roger and Moon Mater around the yard.

"Hand?"
(Do you see the red mark on his forehead? That's from when he walked right into Daisy's path as she was swinging really high. She kicked him in the face, and then he fell over and hit his face again on the ground. Poor baby.

I have a wrap for that, too.

He got over it, though, thanks to snuggles and the sandbox.

Sweet boys! Dean is just a couple months older than Eli, and both are very much in the "parallel play" stage of development. They both made a fine mess!

After lunch, Dean went down for the easiest nap ever, then I put Eli down, and then Lily went down. Winning! The big kids and I played outside. Amber picked her boys up around three, and then my kiddos and I had a nice snuggle.

(Daisy was there, too, but she kept putting her feet in front of the camera, so we kicked her out of the picture. She was sad. And I don't know what Eli is chewing on, but it is probably a choking hazard or made of lead. What do you think, Mom? Should I go check to see if he's still breathing?

September 1

How on earth is it September? I have no idea.

The kids and I packed this day full: we spent all morning at MOPS, and then Caleb and Daisy and I rocked the home school stuff while the little ones napped.

Daisy has been fighting writing practice with me, so I found some worksheets that have her writing, coloring, cutting, sorting, and gluing.

She loved them, and did four pages without a single complaint. This girl is going to keep me on my toes, though.

When the little ones woke up, it was time to make dinner.

Lily did not want to be awake, so I popped her in the Lillebaby carrier I am borrowing.

Then Eli got jealous. His jealousy is relatively new, for both him and me. I can't remember any of my other kids being so possessive of me, but Eli is definitely possessive. If one of his sibling tries to snuggle me, he attempts to head butt them away. Even if he had spurned my requests for snuggles just moments before, he gets mad if someone else gives me snuggles.

I had just asked him if he wanted to go up, and he ran away screaming.

I grabbed the carrier for Lily, and he yelled, "NONONONONO!"

I put Lily in the carrier, and he shrieked even louder.

I put my ring sling on to wear both of them, and he lost it.

I picked him up to put him in the ring sling, and he kicked and screamed and fought.

As soon as the ring sling was snug and secure, he nestled in to my chest.

Funny how that goes.

Eventually, Lily was done being worn, but Eli was still happy.

Making dinner while wearing a baby on your front is not easy. But snuggles like this make it totally worth it.

After dinner, we had a quick family snuggle before I had to run to a chiropractor appointment. Actually, the family snuggle started when Chris - who has been up since about 5 am - decided to rest on the bed for a minute or two. All of the children ran into the room and pounced on him. Eventually, Chris couldn't take it anymore and got up, but the kids kept bouncing and rolling.

They are too funny!

(Side note: Eli totally thinks he is a big kid now. At MOPS today, I brought the kids down into the gym after the meeting was over so that they could eat leftover MOPS food. After they ate, the remaining kids ran and chased and screamed. Eli was so excited about the running and chasing and screaming that he couldn't even finish his junk-food lunch. He abandoned it and joined the throng of children, doing his best to run and chase and scream with them.

The look of joy on his face was the best thing ever, and he laughed delightedly the whole time. My little boy is so different from his siblings, and I'm so glad to have him!)

August 31

Things have been so busy around here lately that today was a rare do-nothing at home day. It was lovely. We had a slow morning, and around 10:30 the kids grabbed their nature journals, I wrapped Eli on my back, and we went for a nature walk. Even Lily brought her journal, which I thought was just about the sweetest thing ever.

We didn't have to go far. At the base of a tree in our front yard, we found this awesome guy:

It was so fuzzy and walked really fast - very interesting!

Can you see it on the tree? The kids observed for quite a while.

(Yes, Lily is wearing white leggings and a white long-sleeved shirt. Her monochromatic ensembles are pretty funny. Or in this case, is it achromatic? Panchromatic? Whatever.)

When we got home, we googled the caterpillar. Apparently, it is an American Dagger Moth caterpillar. It was a good thing none of my children were brave enough to touch it, because apparently it's poisonous. Or at least, it contains toxins that could cause red welts on the skin. Interesting, isn't it?

Caleb was really interested in observing the little purple flowers on this ornamental grass, too. (Liriope, right, Mom?)

And Eli was sleepy and happy on my back. He's a good nature walk companion!

Daisy and I are really struggling to find a learning groove. She wants to do everything herself, without any input from me at all. She doesn't want to practice her writing, because SHE CAN ALREADY WRITE!!! And practicing lower case letters, or writing on the lines, is just silly. It's a mind game, and I have to figure out how to best work with a strong-willed kid with her. This "Daisy" on the dry erase board was the result of 20 minutes of wheedling, coercing, arguing, and practice. She finally wrote her name, but erased it before I could take a picture. I gave up and left the room, and a moment later she called me back in to take a picture.

This girl is trouble.

And these two helped me make dinner. One is happier about having his picture taken than the other.

August 29

Only one picture from today, but it's a cutie:

Eli was feeling really needy at dinner time, so up he went.

Funny - I went to upload this image, and the one immediately after it was this one, from January 2015:

Eli was less than 24 hours old here. We've come a long way in 19 months!

Lately he's been fighting being worn, and when I reach for a wrap or ring sling he yells "NO! Nonononono!" and runs the other direction. Even today, he desperately wanted me to hold him, but screamed as I wrapped him. Once he was up, though, he was happy as can be! I never really wore Caleb or Daisy when they were this age, and when Lily was this age, she was already a big sister and I was too busy wearing Eli to wear her. So this is new territory for me. I'm hoping it passes, because I really want to Try All The Wraps before this season of life is over.

I'll just have to keep on trying!

August 28

Today was our turn to serve in the nursery at church, and it was our first time in there since Eli has moved up to the toddler classroom. That means that Chris and I spent the morning snuggling babies that weren't ours, which was simultaneously liberating and strange. Eli is doing great in the toddler classroom, though, so hooray!

I had two photo sessions scheduled for this evening (one as the photographer and one as the subject), but both got postponed for various reasons, so we had the whole afternoon to spend doing whatever. After our weekly Costco trip, we picked up one of their ginormous cheese pizzas and went to the park where Chris and I were married. I texted my mom that we would be picnicking, and she and Dad met us there to feed fish and play. It was perfect. We finished the picnic with some tree climbing.

Eli was adamant that he be in the tree, too, and not some dinky low branch. Thank goodness Grandpa (or "Papa", as Eli calls him) was there to help him out!

I love these little monkeys in a tree!

Happy boy!

Grouchy girl.

Seriously, who can be grouchy while climbing a tree?

Lily can.

She's a sweet monkey. Don't you love her daisy tank top, flowered skirt, and flowered flip flops? If you had thrown her in a field of wildflowers, she would have been totally camouflaged.

Hi, Eli!

We got home much too late, but Lily and Eli were eager for their naps. Then Chris and I got to work on a serious issue: the marble countertop we installed in our master bath in 2013 has an undermount sink, and that undermount sink has gradually become... un-mounted. It had four clips holding it in place, and it was down to one clip and the plumbing keeping it up. Yikes. Thankfully, my husbando is on top of things, and he researched and purchased a perfect solution.

I just had to lie under the sink, in the cabinet, holding the bowl in place while he did some of the work. So this is my first "under the sink" selfie. Hopefully my last, too?

We made some delicious gluten-free pumpkin pancakes for dinner, then went to the neighborhood pool for a quick swim before bed. I brought my camera, but forgot my memory card. Whoops.

When we got home, the kids changed into their jammies, but begged for a chance to run around outside before bedtime. Um, ok?

Running.

(Eli's footie pajamas are not so conducive to running outside, so he ran sans jammies.

I mean, really. This kid is too cute.

Daisy had been the most vocal advocate for running outside, but once we were out there, she chose to draw with chalk instead of running.

How about some video of the running?

She looks weird, but Lily was running as fast as she could in her kitty cat jammies.

Eli now yells, "FAST!" before he starts running. It's hilarious!

Sidewalk sitting selfie.

There. Now she looks fast.

Downhill is so much more exciting than uphill!

Soon, Caleb was pooped!

Oh, goodness. I have all the puffy heart eyes for this baby.

I mean toddler.

Can I still call him my baby? I think I will.

And then, Caleb challenged Chris to a race.

They lined up,

And they were off!

Caleb ran his little heart out, and can you see how happy Eli is to be part of the race?

Chris ran 10 miles before church this morning, so I'm not sure if that was what slowed him down, or the fact that he was carrying Eli as he ran, but he couldn't keep up!

This picture of my three boys, all so happy, makes my heart burst a little.

And then it was time for bed. Everyone except Eli came in when I called.

Eli still had a little more running to do!

August 27

Oh, Saturday. I love you.

We had nothing on our agenda at all today, which turned out to be a good thing. After taking the kids to the donut shop for the first time ever this morning, Chris decided to take our vacuum cleaner down into the basement and clean up all of the wood shavings from the electrical work we did a few weeks ago. (Yes, a few weeks ago. Don't judge the lack of cleaning.)

When he plugged in the vacuum, something happened with the electricity in part of the house, and Chris spent the rest of the morning trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out the issue and correct it. It was frustrating on so many levels!

While Chris changed out outlets, checked GFIs, replaced a circuit in the breaker... the kids and I played.

OK, goofy iPhone picture and the lighting is terrible, but Babies in Sunglasses?

Cutest thing ever.

At some point, Lily was fussy, fussy, fussy, so I popped her up in our borrowed carrier and that made everything better.

Sweet girl. She asked to be on my front, not my back, so she could snuggle better.

At one point there was an episode where the kids were happily playing back in the bedrooms and Lily came running out, yelling, "MOMMY! ELI HAS A BLOODY FACE!" and then poor Eli came wandering into the kitchen, looking like a zombie.

He had a bloody nose.

I asked Lily what happened, and she told me that Daisy put a toy up Eli's nose.

That's right. DAISY PUT A TOY UP ELI'S NOSE.

You know I called Daisy out to ask what was going on, and she just stared at me, stone-faced. She wouldn't explain anything. I was blown away. Why on earth would she put a toy up her baby brother's nose, so aggressively that it caused him to bleed? Why did he let her? Why didn't I hear any crying? WAS DAISY SOME SORT OF SOCIOPATH?!?!?!

Daisy would shed no light on the situation. She wouldn't show me the toy, tell me what happened, nothing.

I dealt with the situation and sent Daisy to be alone in her room for a while. 10 or 15 minutes later, I went in to talk to her. Finally, she told me that she put the "snot sucker" in Eli's nose, and that was why it was bleeding.

Not a toy.

The NoseFrida, which is missing a key part and is therefore useless and potentially able to cause a bloody nose on a child whose mucous membranes are already sensitive because of a cold.

She was trying to take care of his runny nose with the snot sucker, and instead it started bleeding.

Praise the Lord.

My daughter is not a sociopath.

We had a good long talk about how important it is to explain things like this to Mommy, and hopefully next time she won't clam up like she did. Goodness, Daisy is an interesting child.

Then I fed them all lunch and put the little ones down for naps, and I took the big kids grocery shopping with me so that Chris could mow our neighbors' lawn. Caleb and Daisy are great shoppers.

We got home right after Chris finished mowing, and before the little ones woke up. Caleb and Daisy played MarioKart while I unloaded groceries and started dinner.

At dinner time, I asked the kids to help me set the table. The only one who was willing to help?

Sweet Baby Eli.