That One Time I Called Poison Control

I specifically remember my doctor warning me to keep all toilet lids shut at Eli's one-year checkup.

I also specifically remember shutting all the bathroom doors and toilet lids before I let Eli freely roam around the house last Tuesday. He roams now that he can walk. He's happiest that way, so I try not to interfere with his sense of independence.

Jeff came home. We had dinner. I gave Eli a bath and then let him do his roaming while I did important things like read blogs of people I don't know.

Then I noticed silence. And then I peeked my head around the corner to notice the bathroom door was open. And then I ran into the bathroom to find Eli splashing in the toilet with water running down his mouth and chest.

Eww. Oh my gosh. Eww. What do I do? Eww. Was there bleach in there? Eww. Why can't babies know to stay out of gross and toxic things?

My body acted on its own. Eli was soaped down and rinsed in no time and my mind was racing.

Right after we moved into our house we had some cleaners come to give it a nice, deep clean. They put something in our toilet that makes our toilet water blue and I'm not sure if it does much more than that. Except for poison my baby.

My main fear was that the blue mystery cleaner had bleach in it. So I did some quick internet research on swallowing bleach and, let me tell you, the results were horrifying. Never mind that everything I read involved drinking gallons of straight bleach at a time. I was in crisis mode and after scanning the extreme effects of bleach I quickly convinced myself Eli was dying of bleached intestines.

Meanwhile...Eli happily roamed the house seemingly unaffected by his toilet run-in. Jeff was out gardening only to be interrupted by a crazed wife saying, "Jeff! We need to take Eli to the hospital!"

I explained the situation. Jeff remained calm and collected. This is why we make such a good team. Or at least why he's good for me. I don't really know if my hypochondria is bringing much to the relationship.

We settled on a call to poison control.

They assured me Eli would likely be fine and the blue mystery liquid was just a detergent which I guess isn't too worrisome? The smile I heard on the lady's voice made me believe she could tell I was a first-time mom. I hung up the phone and wondered how I became the mom whose child plays in the toilet and I gave Eli an extra kiss that night grateful his intestines survived the scare.

My Baby's Daddy

Jeff claims I love to ruin every day that is special to him just because I once accidentally had a meltdown on his first married birthday after he got home from lunch with his friends super later than he told me he would.

Now he thinks it's so funny to remind me of my emotional meltdown whenever he is to be celebrated or gifted. Birthdays, Christmas, any major holiday really. Including Father's Day.

The week leading up to Father's day all I heard was, "So Sarah, how are you going to ruin Father's Day for me this year?"

So when I woke up early on Father's Day to make Jeff a chocolate chip pancake for breakfast -- in time for 9:00 church, no less -- he was about as excited as one could be after just waking up.

And when we got home from church and I graciously let him take a nap, he woke up relaxed and refreshed.

And then when I triumphantly pulled out a special Father's Day gift he has been asking for since Christmas (complete with a cheesy poem that was not blog worthy), I knew I was on track to slash my holiday ruiner status.

Even if it was a successful Father's Day, I still get the feeling Jeff won't let go of my reputation that easily. Oh well. Happy Father's Day you old Father, you.

And a Joke...

This joke is brought to you by the Excell family and I forgot to post in with my last post. We all worked together to perfect it.

What did the bailiff say while he was making bread?

(Here's a cute picture for you to stare at while you try to come up with your guess.)

All rise.

I'm pretty sure coming up with my own joke is on my life list (a list of 100 things I need to do before I die that one of my teachers forced me to write in high school). Check.

Our Visit to the Yard Sale Queen

Talk about a fun week! Jeff was able to take a few days off work so we could go down and have a nice, long stay with his parents. We went down Wednesday night and just got home tonight.

On Friday Jeff and I went to the temple while Eli, Mary and David hit up the St. George Splash Pad.

Eli missed us so much while we were gone...

On Saturday, Jeff was busy all day throwing a bachelor party for his friend Will. That left Mary to cater to my every demand. I thought it would be fun to see the Yard Sale Queen in action. Mary can spot the cutest things in the midst of junk at yard sales. Now that I have a house, I had to benefit from her talent! David happily drove us all around town and I'd say we got some good buys! I spent $11 for everything in the picture below:

Mary spent just $1.00 on each item. People must know of her reputation, because when she went to ask people prices of things, they would say things like, "That's two dollars...but I can bring it down to one for you!" She didn't even have to negotiate to get a slamming deal! Yard sellers were just honored the Queen was gracing their presence.

Bryan and Mary had made an arbor out of scrap wood just before we arrived and we spent several hours admiring their woodwork. 

Then I found an arbor at the Brigham Young House in St. George so I had to pose with it.

I announced my summer goal to the family: I want to get a tan line of my new sandals. So I got to work on that while I read a book one afternoon. This picture screams summer to me.

Mission complete.

Eli got spoiled. Cartoons during breakfast. Ice cream for dinner. Late, late nights and few naps. All the attention he could ever dream of.

Remember when I was afraid kids would tease Eli for his initials -- E.T.? I don't think this picture is going to help his case:

Mary and I watched movies almost every night. Our favorite pick -- My Girlfriend's Boyfriend. It's on Netflix and it's awesome.

We had such a fun time! I love going back to visit Cedar. Thanks so much, David and Mary!

Hate Notes - Father's Day Style

The day after I made my hate note post I realized I had forgotten to add two notes I wrote to my dad. So I patiently waited for Father's Day to roll around for their big reveal. I mean, what better way to show how great my dad is than to provide a little evidence of what he had to put up with? Happy Father's Day, Dad!

(Did you notice the hairy arms? Ha.)

And look. I wasn't all bad:

Coolest Uncle Award Goes To...

Jeff Excell. Duh. Jeff's niece Kaelynn came to sleep over at our house for a night. She came to our house when we moved in and she thought it was the coolest house ever so she wanted to come back for a sleepover.

We were happy to have her stay!

Laura and her kids came by to drop Kaelynn off. They took the grand tour of our new place and stayed for dinner. It had been forever since we'd seen them so it was nice to catch up.

 You'd think we posed her next to those flowers that perfectly match her shirt, but that was pure luck.

Kaelynn's brothers and Laura said goodbye and as soon as the door shut she was begging Jeff to watch High School Musical 2 with her. To my surprise, Jeff happily turned on the TV and watched the whole movie with her! Do you know how long I've tried to get him to watch that movie with me?!?

Then for breakfast Kaelynn chose to sit right next to her cousin buddy Eli. Eli loved the morning company (even though he isn't completely showing it in the picture below).

After breakfast, guess what Kaelynn wanted to do. Watch another dose of High School Musical! Again, Jeff gladly accommodated his niece's requests.

 Then we decided to do a little photoshoot outside.

 And while Eli was down for his nap Kaelynn and her awesome uncle went to the park.

When they got back, Eli was awake and we decided he needed to be involved in a photoshoot.

We went to lunch at Wendy's and as luck would have it they were giving out free balloons!

My favorite thing that happened was when we dropped Kaelynn back off with her parents we said, "Thanks for staying with us, Kaelynn, it was fun to have you."

Kaelynn, "You're welcome."

Laura, "Kaelynn, what do you say?"

Kaelynn, "What?!? I already said you're welcome!"

But she had it right. We were honored to be in her company!

Shoulda Named Him Walker

It's funny how kids wake up one day and can suddenly do a new trick. Eli's been on the verge of walking for basically the last six months. Today he woke up and was suddenly interested in taking a few steps without holding onto the furniture. By the time Jeff got home from work Eli was taking five or six steps all on his own! Will we have a full blown walker by the end of the week? We'll see!

I got a video of his first string of steps. He was so funny. He had to start at the same corner of the table every time, get his running start all the way around the table and then he would only let go from that one spot.

Excelladaters

A few weeks ago Jeff and I were talking about how fun Friday nights used to be in high school.

Key words: used to be.

That got me wondering why on earth Friday nights weren't fun anymore! They had turned into another ordinary day of the week.

So I decided it was time to change that by reintroducing dating into our marriage, and so far it's been a lot of fun.

After our first date, I wanted to keep a journal of all of our dates so we could go back and remember the cute things we came up with. And what better way to do that than a blog?!?

I wasn't sure when or if I would introduce our dating blog to this blog, but I figured why not bring you guys on our little dating journey?

Feel free to use any of our date ideas and join along in the dating your spouse fun! Here's the website. Knock yourself out.

He was a Splishin' and a Splashin'

I got Eli bath letters and numbers for his birthday and they've been a huge hit. Eli loves to put his teeth imprints into every letter and he's always got a few letters in his hand as long as he's in the bath. Eli's not the only one having fun with the new bath toys.

Jeff and I love to throw them at the wall from a distance to see if we can get them to stick:

My favorite game is to see how many letters I can attach to Eli at once.

Or I like making Eli a 4-head.

And I like that sometimes we can spell our last name with only two letters.

Then Eli likes to eat our two-lettered last name.

We all have a lot of fun during Eli's bath time! Those toys may be my best baby purchase yet.

Happy Birth-Neigh

Hey. It's me again. Are you sick of me yet? I've been blogging like a mad woman. So I understand if I've lost your interest. But if I haven't, here's the big birthday update:

We might be in trouble. We really outdid ourselves this year for Eli's birthday. Once you see what we did, you might think it's not that big of a deal, but if you know how the Thomases celebrate birthdays (we basically don't), you'll know I'm now in over my head because I actually did something for Eli's birthday this year. I actually did a lot of things. And Eli actually had a pretty awesome day doing all his favorite things. So sorry Eli, but your first birthday will probably be the best birthday of your life. And you won't even remember it. Good thing I did a lot of documenting.

Let's start with the cake. I was trying to make a red and blue cake. Then I remembered how hard it is to make red frosting red and not hot pink. Too bad I didn't remember how red frosting doesn't really exist until after I had already slabbed the cake in hot pink frosting. Luckily hot pink turns to orange if you put enough yellow in it. Thanks 3rd grade science, you saved Eli's birthday.

The presents:

The birthday boy! I'm usually all groggy in the morning when I go get Eli, so he knew something was up when I flew into his room singing and being overly excited.

Wow. Looks like I wasn't the only one to fly into his room for his birthday. Hello awesome homemade Pterodactyls. Nice of you to come out of extinction for Eli's big day.

 On the way to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas.

 The Training Table birthday lunch family picture!

Apparently we weren't very entertaining company for the birthday boy. This was our view of Eli until the food came:

But once we did have the food, it wasn't too hard to lure him back towards the table. That boy loves french fries!

 Then we all went back to our house for cake and presents.

While I refrained from reenacting the birthing experience, my dad did a little reenacting of his own. This picture was taken Saturday:

And this picture is from Eli's baby blessing. See. The Thomases clearly get overwhelmed by the birthday scene.

But one Thomas was ready to party!

 After cake, Jeff had to get Eli all fitted for his new forward-facing carseat.

Then we started the old measure-your-height-on-a-wall-every-year tradition. And to our surprise, Eli stood up super straight. Good birthday boy!

When Eli woke up from his afternoon nap we went on a little walk to see all the horses in our neighborhood. That's right. We are basically in the middle of a big petting zoo. Eli loooooooooooooves the horses. He threw a tantrum if we didn't stop to stare at each horse we saw. And then he threw a bigger tantrum once we started walking away from the horses. Eli had a...hay day... when Jeff managed to get this horse to come wish him a happy birth-neigh.

We all had a lot of fun and we're all in shock Eli's already one.