Peanuts and Crackerjacks

Are you ready for 15 pictures of our Halloween costumes this year? Yup. 15. I haven't stared at these long enough to decide which ones are my favorite so I'm just throwing them all out there.

I figured I'd accept that I live in a man house and obliged to a baseball theme. Eli was the star of the show. Costume was hand made might I add. Sheet scraps make surprisingly great baseball uniforms.

Jeff was the dashing ref.

Cuties.

I was a concession worker and Carson was a Dodger Dog. Couldn't you just eat him up?!?

Eli was very uncooperative for pictures.

Carson was alarmingly content to be trapped in his costume/sleeping bag while teetering on a piece of cardboard and mistaking a mustard bottle for his dinner.

Love that Eli and Jeff are striking the same pose.

Safe!

Jeff is doing referee motions. Not beating our child.

Brushing the dirt off of Eli with a paintbrush -- Jeff's favorite part of his costume.

There you go. Costume picture overload. And it's not even Halloween yet. More to come on the Annual Excell Spooktacular!

Curtain Call Part 2

On Monday, I had my first night of being completely caught up on my orders since I opened my Etsy shop. I thought I'd enjoy the break, kick back and relax for a change. When evening came, I got antsy not being behind my sewing machine. So what did I do? I sewed curtains, of course! Here's the latest addition to Eli's room:

Hello cuteness. Sewing curtains constantly has opened my eyes to how much curtains can add to a room. I used to think my only curtain option was white, or maybe a solid color if I wanted to get crazy. Now I know curtains can be fun and completely liven up a room!

I found the fabric for the curtains online (my first Etsy purchase actually). It was exactly what I was looking for! Love them!

I finished the curtains late at night and couldn't wait to put them up. So yeah. If you look closely, that's Eli sleeping in his bed.

I think that was the absolute last detail of Eli's room that needed to be done. His room is still my favorite in the house. I completely love the way everything has come together!

Cookie Boogie

What do you get when you mix Eli, cookie dough, and Kelly Clarkson? See for yourself...

Eli was a hoot today. We went and got slushes from Sonic for family night. While we were waiting in the drive-thru Eli was our stand-up comedian.

 Eli: My want slush.
Jeff: I know. We're getting slushes.
There was just one car in front of us taking forever. 
Eli: Drive your wheels truck!
Me: You tell 'em, Eli.
Jeff: Yeah, truck. Drive your wheels.
Eli: My already said that, Daddy.

 At this rate, you guys will be getting an Eli quote daily. He keeps me laughing all day long!

Punkmans

Halloween is creeping up on us fast, so I wanted to do something fun with Eli to get us in the holiday spirit. My plan was to cut out a pumpkin shape and a bunch of different faces so Eli could make silly faces on him.

My plan was never fully executed. Eli caught glimpse of the scissors and thought cutting was a much better game than my jack-o-lantern project. Unfortunately we haven't invested in the kid-friendlier version of scissors (can any scissors really be kid friendly?), so Eli played with the super sharp, kitchen, meat cutting scissors instead. And although this picture may convince you otherwise, he did not chop off his head, or any other appendage for that matter.

He just snipped, snipped, snipped, ever so carefully and precisely. For roughly an hour. Mumbling about "punkmans" all the while.

Carson ate his scraps while keeping a safe distance between him and eli scissor-hands.

Again, no injuries occurred despite the parenting recklessness this picture portrays.

I was trying to take a few pictures of Mr. Slobber Monkey, but he kept grabbing the camera. Then it made me laugh because all the pictures I got of him looked like those I-nonchalantly-took-a-picture-of-myself portraits.

We'll play with scissors every day if it continues to provide this much entertainment and if he continues to be shockingly cautious with them.

To stick with our pumpkin theme, I had the idea to give his lunch some festive flare. To enjoy the following story, you should know that Eli refuses to eat PB&J sandwiches. Come on. What kid doesn't like peanut butter and jelly?!? That's supposed to be every parent's easy go-to lunch. In an effort to interest Eli in the easiest lunch to prepare in the world, I whipped one up and cookie-cuttered it into the shape of a pumpkin. Then we had this little exchange:

Me: ELI! Do you want to have a special PUMPKIN shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today?!?
Eli: Hmmmmmm.
Long pause as he worked through my offer.
Eli: My don't think so mommy.

At least he likes mac and cheese.

Once the kiddos were in bed, we continued our pumpkin themed day by carving pumpkins. I made weird faces in the process.

Jeff and I were planning what to carve, and we decided we could melt Eli's heart by making Mickey and Minnie pumpkins. We got to work carving away.

Minnie was a disaster.

So I opted to turn my pumpkin around and make a quick jack-o-lantern face and call it good.

Jeff had the same bad luck with Mickey.

But he was able to salvage his into a cute, recognizable outline.

I'll end with another Eli quote from this weekend. We can't get enough of his jabber:
Me: Jeff, I'm going to take the kids to the park.
Eli: You take kids to park, Mama?
Jeff: Eli, when she says kids, she's talking about you. Do you want to go to the park?
Eli: I'll bring my hands!

Love that kid.

Six Months

Look who is six months old!

 Here's his latest this month:

• Tried his first solids. Loves everything he's eaten -- oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and prunes.
• On the verge of crawling. Gets on hands and toes and pokes his bum in the air. He still manages to move all around our living room even without crawling or rolling. 
• Four top teeth starting to come in, Two bottom teeth are almost all the way in.
• Still not sleeping through the night. Up every 4-6 hours.
• We did sleep boot camp for his naps this month which has helped a ton. He goes down for a nap every 1 1/2 - 2 hours and sleeps for 1 -2 hours. Three naps a day.
• Started really babbling. Says "da da da da da" all day long. He also growls frequently. And has happy squealing spells.
• Major spit-upper. Major.
• Sits up!
• If you lay him on his back, he rolls straight to his belly. Every time.
• Nurses about every 3-4 hours since we started solids. 
• Fits into 12-month clothes, but mostly in his 6-9 month clothes, size 3 diapers.
• Needs his binky to sleep, but doesn't really ever need it when he's awake.
• Still super happy all the time. He's such a fun baby.
• Has stranger danger. He is very unsure of anyone besides me, Jeff or Eli.
• Grabs everything. Gone are the days of effectively getting things done while holding him -- he's into whatever's within reach.
• Became really interested in toys this month. Loves picking things up and inspecting them.

Eli insists on helping me feed Carson. Carson doesn't seem to mind too much, even with the face grabbing and spoon gagging Eli inflicts upon him.

 Close to crawling! I don't mind if he doesn't quite figure it out for a little longer.

 Love those smiles!

We got family pictures taken this month. Carson had just woken up from a nap and was being weird. Our usually smiley boy refused to smile for all the pictures! And when he did "smile" they were kind of goofy smiles. Oh well. He's still a doll.

We love our little Carson man and can't believe how fast he's growing!

Did He Just Say...?

Basically everything Eli says right now is hilarious. Here are some of my favorite quotes from him lately:

While introducing him to one of Kenzie's friends:
Me: Eli, this is A.J. Let's practice. What's her name?
Eli: KENZIE!
Me: And what's his name?
Eli: Pajamas!

***

Eli's new favorite question is: What are you doing? He asks it about every two minutes. One day while we were in the car:
Eli: What you doin' Daddy?
Jeff: Driving. What are you doing, Eli?
Eli: My doing backseat.

***

While driving with my mom. My mom and I were talking when Eli interrupted:
Eli: Grandma?
My mom: Yes, Eli?
Eli: You're cute.



***

Calling from his room after we put him to bed one night:
Eli: Daddy-O! WHERE ARE YOU?!?"

***

After every prayer in Sacrament Meeting:
Eli (very loudly): Hooraaaaay! Now go to church!

***

On a walk:
Eli: Go to the park today Mommy?
Me: Not today.
Eli: Probly we should go to park today actually.
(He combines probably and actually in sentences all the time and it never fails to crack me up.)

***

The neighbors were over jumping on the trampoline with Eli. They were jumping basically into the fence and catching themselves (they're a lot older than Eli). Eli watched in amazement then announced:
"Okay." Big breath. "My do it. My do it." Luckily he was just talking a big talk and never launched himself at the fence.

***

One day while waiting for my mom to come visit, he had stolen Carson's binky and was sucking on it:
Me: Eli. Give me back that binky. Grandma doesn't like binky boys.
Eli pulls the binky out: Grandma not like binkies?
Me: Nope. She doesn't.
Eli thinks for a minute.
Eli: Grandma like crying boys?
Me: No. Grandma doesn't like crying boys either.
Eli: Waaa Waaaa Waaaaaaa.
Puts the binky back in.

Clever boy. I guess he figured the binky was the lesser of two evils. He's probably right.

***

*Sorry in advance for this one. I try to steer clear of all things of this subject manner, but it's one of my favorite quotes.*
Eli while looking at some dirt on the ground:
Eli: That dirt, mama?
Gets down to further inspect followed by a sigh of relief.
Eli: No, not dirt. Just poop.

Bubbly Baby

I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to the world of blogging. People posting videos of their babies basically doing nothing is one of those pet peeves. So please forgive me for this video because to you my baby is probably doing nothing. But to me he was being super adorable and hilarious in the bath today, so I wanted to add this video to the files for when Carson is all moved out and I'm left crying alone in the shadows of our house with nothing to do but watch cute videos of his childhood while eating batches and batches of cookie dough all day.

It's like my retirement plan. Right here in this cute video:

Baby Sitting

As of yesterday I'm officially calling Carson a sitter! 

He's well on his way to crawling also. So far he can only figure out how to go backwards, but backwards he does go. Constantly and quickly.

Eli was sitting next to me while I uploaded these pictures and he said, "Carson sitting up! Careful Carson!"

Way to go, Cars!

Scribbles, Slime and Solids

Curtains are taking over my life. Which means I only have time to blog on Sundays. Which also means I have to cram all our news into a weekly update. Let's start with the time Eli drew a picture of himself on the trampoline.

Before you give him more credit than his tiny two-year old hands deserve, here's the story behind the art: I think he accidentally managed to draw a circle. After seeing the circle and realizing that's how Jeff and I start pictures of people, he exclaimed, "Oh! My draw Eli!" Then he proceeded to dot the eyes while explaining, "Here's Eli's eye. Other Eye." He then drew the line under the eyes and told me it was Eli's mouth. He finished by scribbling under the face and announcing, "Eli's chin!"

That's how his first recognizable piece of art was born:

Jeff was super dad one morning and let me sleep in. I woke up to two happy, dressed boys and a delicious breakfast waiting for me. Lucky mama.

I love that Eli has to be copying everything Carson does.

They still love their tummy time!

I've started this new thing where I make an effort to make Fridays a little more fun than other days. It helps me get excited about the end of the week instead of pining away and waiting for the weekend to be here. This week Eli helped me make slime for my pack meeting treat. He was a surprisingly awesome helper!

Shortly after this picture was taken we found out it's a terrible idea to lay on slime with a new t-shirt on.

Carson's special Friday activity was trying out his first solid food -- oatmeal! In the last few weeks he's acted like he's still hungry after I nurse him and since he still needs to nurse around the clock, I figured it was time to see if solids could help satisfy that little appetite of his.

He loved the oatmeal. Didn't gag once. Slurped the whole bowl down and stayed full for quite a while. Hooray!

This week we noticed Carson is getting his four top teeth! He's growing teeth like crazy and not very happy about it. His already short naps have shortened and he whines if I'm not holding him. I'm dying for those teeth to break through so I can have my hands and my super happy baby back!