Back to Reality

I may have intentionally not mentioned that Jeff got five weeks of paternity leave. I feel like a wimp that my husband was able to help me ease into being a mother of two for so long. Especially because my mom was sure to remind me every chance she got that she only had my Dad in the delivery room and then he was back to work the moment the baby was born.

So alas. I am a wimp. I've come to terms with it over the last five weeks though.

During Jeff's time off, he worked a lot on his garden. We have tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini and onions in the works.

We knew Eli's birthday present wouldn't last until June 4th. We spent an afternoon watching Eli prance around in the freezing cold water. Turns out 75 degrees isn't the best swimming weather.

Eli didn't seem to mind that the slide doesn't exactly work. We've already devised a plan to slather the slide in baby soap next time we have a swimming day.

One day we went to feed the ducks (and I left my camera in the car dang it). Jeff packed Eli's snack bag this day and found out why I never give Eli chocolate chips on the go. How do kids manage to get so messy?!?

Another Mother's Day picture. Jeff told Eli to tell me, "Happy Mother's Day!" last Sunday, and Eli's been randomly saying it throughout the week. It's the cutest.

I love his eyes and I love this picture.

Another project for Jeff this week was to paint our back door and trim.

I forgot to take a good before/after picture, so imagine our whole door being that purple color at the bottom all faded and ugly. And then the after picture is a beautiful, black, nicely painted door. Wahoo.

My summer trick to get Eli in the house after playing outside is to bribe him with popsicles. This trick backfired on me when he started begging for popsicles every time he stepped into the kitchen. Now I need a trick to deal with his whining for popsicles all day...and night. Eli woke up the other night screaming. As soon as I went into his room he whispered, "...popsicle..." He's a very strong-willed boy. When he wants something, he has a one-track mind.

Here was another one of Jeff's projects -- installing ceiling fans into the boys' rooms.

Since Eli thought it was a great idea to climb into Carson's crib this week, sometimes the laundry basket is the only place for Carson to find refuge from his...loving...brother.

When Eli takes a bath, sometimes he puts his face down in the bubbles to make a little bubble beard. Then he says, "Ho, Ho, Ho." What? I didn't even teach him this and it cracks me up for so many reasons. 1) How does he know he has bubbles on his face? 2) How did he correlate the bubbles on his face to a beard? 3) How does he even remember who Santa is when I didn't even think he really cared about Santa last Christmas? That kid.

Today we went to the zoo with a bunch of Jeff's friends from Cedar City. Eli was afraid of the monkeys. And only the monkeys.

I'm so mad Eli's eyes are closed in this picture because it had so much potential. He had just given me a huge spontaneous hug but my camera is about 500 years old and was too slow to fully catch the tender moment.

Can I just tell you how hard it is for me to hold hands with Eli? He won't do it. Ever. He throws a tantrum if I even graze his hand to try and guide him anywhere. But if Will grabs Eli's hand, Eli thinks he's the greatest. And when Jeff's friend Glen (who Eli had never met before) grabbed Eli's other hand, Eli was in heaven. I need the two of them to be Eli's personal bodyguards.

Yawning tiger. Awesome. And apparently less scary than monkeys.

On the way home I said to Jeff, "Eli's going to get slapped with reality on Monday." He's been so spoiled the last five weeks with Jeff catering to his every need. Then Jeff said, "We're all going to get slapped with reality on Monday." Shucks. He's right.

Eli's enjoying his last sugar rush for a while, I'm enjoying my last day of extra help, Jeff's soaking up his last hours as a stay-at-home dad and we decided Carson will have the smoothest transition to Jeff being back in the workforce.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go cry myself to sleep.