Potty Prize

Look who earned his trip to D.I!

Yeah. I'm talking about you mister. And that awesome bike that cost a whopping $2. I'm never paying full price for toys ever again.

 He was making hilarious faces at me while showing off his potty prize.

 This one was my favorite.

I bought myself a potty prize for enduring potty training -- a footer for my sewing machine. I had to laugh when I saw this on the packaging:

Never have I known complete instructions to be a bonus. But I'm sure glad they included it!

Freeloading It

G&K Services has managed to suck every member of my family onto its payroll at one point or another. They even managed to get a few hours of work out of my mom over the past month. I have this strange sense of satisfaction that I'm the only Thomas Family member who has not sorted hangers, sewed labels or done whatever else they do over there.

I did however take advantage of G&K Services' Lagoon Day on Saturday. I hope participating in the G&K activity didn't ruin my reputation of being the only Thomas family member who's managed to escape the luring ways of the company.

Even if I did lose my reputation, it was definitely worth it for a free day at Lagoon!

Eli was a big crab cake the whole way there. He kept telling Jeff he was driving the wrong way. Then he scowled at me for taking pictures of him.

Carson loved watching the rides. Good thing, too. Because that's all he could do!

Here's Eli getting on his first amusement park ride of all time. I was so so so so so scared he'd figure out a way to jump off mid ride. I think Jeff had the same fears.

He insisted on using both steering wheels and the concentrated look on his face throughout the ride had us convinced he really thought he was driving that spaceship.

He loved it and didn't jump off. Whew.

It was so fun to watch Eli have fun. And yeah, I wore a baby carrier for a small portion of the day. I heard baby wearing is trendy these days so I didn't feel too weird about it. ActuallyIdidandputCarsonbackinthestrollershortlyafterthispicturewastaken.

Eli recounting to his copilot how awesome the ride was.

Eli looked hilariously unamused all day. I think it was slightly overwhelming for him which resulted in a dazed face most of the time. But I'm fairly certain he had a good time.

Jeff took Eli on the deceivingly fast dragon ride. Eli had his arms up the whole time.

Cutesies. Eli had a love hate relationship with that hand stamp.

See. Emotionless face. All the other kids were smiling on the rides and then there was Eli.

Almost a smile. Whales are not as awesome as rocket ships apparently.

Carson slept for most of the day. Maybe that's why he was up most of the night. He. Hates. Sleeping.

Eli found a splash pad which brought out the biggest smiles we'd seen all day.

We met up with our sponsors so I could ditch the kids and go on a few rides. Jeff was feeling sick so he stayed back with Eli.

This ride was probably his dream come true -- being behind the steering wheel of a car that's actually moving. He loved it if you can't tell by his typical unamused expression.

We had a nice, lazy Sunday today to recover from our Lagoon day.

Carson is getting so big! He can already sit up for several seconds on his own and I think he's getting a tooth on the bottom. My sister and I always joke about how every mom says her child is teething all the time. So to make myself not sound like one of those moms, I am not saying this because he's been fussy or drooly or had the basic symptoms of being a baby. I'm saying this because I'm 99% sure I can see the tooth coming up! It was a big surprise since Eli didn't get teeth until he was 11 months old so we'll see if it really is a tooth or if his mouth is playing tricks on me.

Until we know for sure, I'll go ahead and blame the fact that he never sleeps on his tooth bothering him. Surely after he cuts all his teeth he'll finally be a good sleeper.

Yay for fun G&K sponsored weekends! I'm one step closer to becoming their next victim.

Did He Just Say...?

The other day we were testing the extent of Eli's pronunciation capabilities when this conversation happened. You'll also need to know that Jeff's been listening to all the Harry Potter books in his free time.

Jeff: Eli. Say S-PA-ghetti.
Eli: Pascetti.
Sarah: Can you say hos-pit-al?
Eli: Hop-sital
Jeff: How about Mudblood?
Eli: Mudblood.
Jeff: Can you say Voldemort?
Eli: Can't do it.
Jeff: That's right.

How to Get an Ulcer

As of today Sarah Excell Curtains is officially in the beginning stages of becoming an LLC.

I don't really know what that means but my accountant tells me that's what I should do. My accountant has also been telling me to save all my business receipts so we can "write things off." I don't know what that means either, but I'll be saving the receipt for this business investment I bought today:

It wasn't even from D.I. -- what a splurge!

I lay awake at night fretting about seams and measurements and ruffles and worrying my orders won't be out in time. Nonetheless, I'm having a lot of fun managing my own little business!

In the Blink of an Eye

Eli ran out of the bathroom with my mascara this morning as I was putting on my makeup. "I'll finish up putting my foundation on and then I'll go get that from him." I told myself. "It'll take him a minute to figure out how to open it."

In the five seconds it took me to finish smoothing out my foundation, Eli managed to open the mascara and smear it all over his face. Disaster strikes fast around here:

Here he is wanting me to feel sorry for him because he's covered in mascara. My favorite part is that he was worried about a tiny black speck on his hand. Little did he know he had black all over his face.

After some quick scrubbing he was left with a nice eyelined look to remind me of the incident for the rest of the day. Consequently, I've been calling him Captain Jack Sparrow all morning. I don't think he appreciates my humor.

Sundays and Toddlers

Jeff was sick today. Which left me to battle Eli alone at church. Gum and cars kept him entertained through the opening song. Then he got wiggly and crazy as he always does. When he started yelling just for fun, I put my hand over his mouth to try to quiet him. He thought that was hilarious. Which encouraged him to continue in his yelling. Which resulted in me plastering a don't-worry-about-me-I-have-this-under-control smile on my face as I calmly whisked Eli out of the meeting.

That whole scene happened twice.

Shortly after our third attempt to sit "reverently" on the pew, a little boy came over to me, thinking his mom was sitting on our row. I showed the boy that his mom was actually on the row in front of ours and gave his mom a how-cute-your-kid-accidentally-thought-I-was-you-for-half-of-a-second smile.

Church is full of smiles.

Until you realize that in the split second you were talking to the cute lost boy, you happened to have lost your own boy. Eli was completely out of sight and I immediately imagined him running laps around the chapel, arms flailing in pure glee.

Cue stomach wrenching fear, wide eyes and shortness of breath.

The people behind me (luckily our neighbors) tapped me on the back and pointed to Eli who had just successfully crawled under the bench to their pew. I remained calm and applied my I-don't-really-know-what-to-do-but-my-child-is-actually-happy-in-sacrament-meeting-so-until-he-screams-I'm-not-going-to-interfere smile.

Eli played happily for the last 15 minutes of church -- making today our most successful Sacrament Meeting to date.

And here are some unrelated pictures. Carson and Eli playing together this morning:

 I thought our boys were cute, but just look at how cute our girls would be!

Carson is completely interested in the camera whenever I have it out. I love it because he's always looking at the camera when I take pictures! Makes for too many cute pictures to choose from. So I'll just include several from when he was helping me cook today.

If Cars Could Speak

Eli has recently started doing the adorable thing where he makes his toys talk. Imaginary play? I don't know what it's called. But his toys now talk to each other via him. And I love overhearing what he thinks his toys would say to each other. I particularly loved this interaction between two of his cars this morning:

Car 1: Hi Mommy! Hi. How are you?
Car 2: Have to go.
Driving around for a minute.
Car 2: Have to go visiting teaching.
Car 1: See friends!

Granted, we did go visiting teaching yesterday, so it was fresh on his mind. But I still thought it was cute.

Four Months

 This little guy is 4 months old today!

His newest trick is grabbing his toes. I love when babies find their feet.

 Here's what else Carson's up to:

• Still eats every two hours.
• He takes 3-4 one-hour naps throughout the day and has been sleeping horribly at night. Up at least twice -- usually wants to be up for the day between 4-5. Boo.
• Wakes up happy and babbling in his crib.
• Still sleeps swaddled.
• He's sensitive. Loud noises bother him. If I raise my voice at Eli at all, Carson starts crying.
• He has started to giggle and think things are funny (Particularly Eli).
• He whines when I leave the room.
• He's still super happy all the time. He's been sick the last couple of days, but you can barely tell because he's such a smiley boy.
• He rolled back-to-belly this month without being swaddled.
• He finally likes his binky.
• Loves being outside.
• He can take his binky out of his mouth and hold onto it for a few minutes.
• Enjoys being on his tummy.

 Eli invaded our photo shoot again. (PS - Eli does wear pants sometimes. But apparently never on the days I take pictures.)

 I'm pretty sure they already love each other.

 Eli's favorite thing lately is to give Carson raspberries. Carson was screaming hysterically before this picture and as soon as Eli gave him a raspberry he was giggling like crazy. Love them.

Happy four months, Carson!

Brotherly Bonding

Last Sunday was the perfect Sunday. Everyone was happy and cute and we had a lot of fun -- starting with popping some popcorn.

Is it weird that I'm so proud of Carson's round head? After worrying about Eli's flat head for the whole first year of his life, I worked hard to keep Carson's head round.

After popcorn we watched the thunderstorm out the window. Thunderstorms always take me back to my Georgian childhood. I loved sitting in my Barbie closet and listening to the rain pound against the roof. Yeah. I had a whole closet specifically reserved for all things Barbie. I'm just now realizing that's a little weird.

Carson is awesome at tummy time. Perhaps the reason his head has remained round.

Eli still loves to hold Carson.

Carson on the other hand...I'm not sure he's a huge fan of the seating arrangement.

Eli made me get some books so he could read to Carson. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Again. I don't know that Carson enjoyed the cuteness as much as Eli and I did.

He may not be able to talk yet, but those eyes are definitely saying, "Mom! Get me outta here!"

Then he came to terms with the fact that I was going to keep him there until he got hurt or until Eli was done "reading to him." Sorry Carson. You'll soon learn that I'm not one to pass up a Kodak moment just because you feel your life is in jeopardy.

A few days ago Eli brought our umbrella stroller in the house. Before long we realized if we put Carson in the stroller and had Eli push him around, both kids were as happy as could be! Why have I not thought of this sooner?!? 

I love seeing Eli and Carson growing up and getting more interactive with each other.