My Weekend Away

We spent the weekend in Southern Utah for the Third Annual Excell Girly Girl Weekend!! Eli made goofy faces at us before he fell asleep in the car.

After he was asleep, he would sporadically wake up to yell, "Grandpa truck!" and then fall asleep again. He was very excited to spend the weekend with the guys.

I was especially excited about this Girly Girl Weekend because it was my first Girly Girl without a (born) baby. Laura was so sweet to plan this year's get together just before #2 is born so I could fully enjoy the Girls' Weekend experience. Nevermind that Tana and Laura had to bring their babies on my behalf. I enjoyed the freedom.

After I kissed Jeff and Eli goodbye and sprinted out the door, we made our way down to St. George. We went to the house to get set up and proved we are smart enough to assemble things without our husbands around...even if it took a couple tries before coming together.

Then we went to Kneaders for sandwiches and smoothies. This is where I tried to squish between two occupied chairs and may have severely underestimated the size of my belly. I am pretty sure the man whose head my belly grazed against was too busy eating his lunch to realize I was trying my hardest to gracefully unwedge myself from behind his chair. But unfortunately all the Excell girls saw. And I guess it was a sight to see.

After lunch we went to some historical sites in St. George. First stop was the Jacob Hamblin home. A part of me wondered if at first glance people thought we were a bunch of sister wives -- especially with my belly and the two babies we were lugging around. But what cute sister wives we were.

Next we went to Brigham Young's winter home.

We wore out the babies in the midst of our touring.

We met up with Mary's parents for a few minutes as we enjoyed the beautiful St. George weather. This is where I was called the paparazzi.

After our cultural enlightenment, we went back home so Laura could cook us up some pizza.

Do you know homemade pizza is just about one of my favorite foods right now?

Especially when it's made with Alfredo sauce. Yum, yum!

Mary and Coleman waiting for the pizza to bake.

Chicken Avocado Alfredo Pizza (cooked on a pizza stone, Becky). Couldn't have bought a better combo.

After dinner I took full advantage of my childless night. Laura got out a craft, but my pregnant state doesn't give me much energy past 6:00, so I kicked my legs up and soaked up the lovely feeling of not having to do anything at all. It was wonderful.

The next day was St. Patty's Day. You can't throw a bunch of women together on St. Patty's Day and expect the holiday to go unnoticed. We made the most of it by dying our waffles green, whipping up a green smoothie, and eating with Irish music filling the kitchen. (Mary is sporting her craft from the night before, the flower broach/hair accessory.)

I made my now famous spinach smoothie and everyone at least pretended to like it.

Breakfast was followed by games and pedicures.

So maybe I have a lot of lazy times when I'm with child because I could have easily taken a better picture of the pedicures in action, but I once again refused to move from the couch.

We ate a delicious cauliflower soup for lunch and then we decided it was time to relieve our husbands of their weekend with the children.

I will neither confirm nor deny whether it took me five minutes and a few tears to get out of the car and face motherhood once again after my two-day break. But I will confirm that once Eli and his rosy cheeks ran out to greet me, I realized how much I had missed him. Then I realized how awesome of a dad Jeff must be because Eli didn't seem to have missed me all that much. In fact, he wasn't really even running to greet me, but rather escaping to the garage so he could steal a look at grandpa's truck. Oh well.

I had such a fun time and I'm grateful to have awesome in-laws. Until next year girly girls!

That One Time I Called Poison Control (Again)

Here's a riddle for you: what do you get when you cross a sick, delirious mother with a mischievous little toddler?

Another call to poison control. We've got a pretty sad track record over here.

It all started with an overly exhausting visit to the mall with my mom. There's something about trying to eat while ignoring all the stares at my screaming baby from fellow food courters that really takes it out of me. In an effort to silence Eli for a few minutes so we could eat, my mom got the brilliant idea to buy Eli an apple juice. He was so happy for the three minutes it took him to guzzle his drink. Then he screamed for more juice all the way home.

After putting Eli down for his nap, I sat on the couch and stared at the kitchen, wishing I could teleport myself five feet to make the brownies I planned to serve at pack meeting the next day. Just as I was blaming my fatigue on pregnancy, the craziest thing happened -- I gagged at the thought of making brownies. I began to fear my achy body was suffering from more than just pregnancy woes.

I suffered through the grueling process of mixing eggs into a cake mix as the aroma of brownies left a lump in my throat. Meanwhile, all of my muscles became sore, creepy crawlies invaded and my forehead rose to such temperatures it could have been used as a second oven.

With my treat finally made, I collapsed on the couch to simultaneously shiver and roast. After a half hour to recover, Eli was up from his nap being clingy and refusing to eat or play. I figured he was feeling the same way I was so I got up to get him some medicine.

It must have been the result of lying down for a while and then getting up that made me realize how badly I needed to go to the bathroom as I was giving Eli his dose of Tylenol. I put the bottle on the kitchen counter with the syringe next to it to remind me to wash the syringe off before putting everything away. Then I waddled to the bathroom.

When you're eight months pregnant, you get pretty efficient at bathroom breaks. Which is why it was so shocking to come out of the bathroom and find that in 30 seconds Eli had managed to slurp down a full ounce of Tylenol as if it was a juice box. And if you remember our lunch, you know that my kid can slurp juice pretty quick.

I screamed. Eli threw the Tylenol. It sprayed everywhere. I yelled, "Where's my phone?!?" as if Eli was going to answer me. But then I found it on my own.

I ran to the kitchen, disappointed to already be calling poison control for the second time in my life since my one child isn't even two yet. The lady on the phone was super sweet and nonjudgemental. I answered her questions as clearly as I could in my frazzled, fevered state.

After a series of detailed questions, and my child's fate resting in the diagnosis of a sweet lady at poison control, she said, "Well, the thing about Acetaminophen is that when there's an overdose, there aren't really any symptoms to let you know something's wrong. The liver just shuts down and it happens fast. But I think your little guy is going to be just fine."

She then proceeded to tell me that he would have had to have ingested two ounces before they would worry about it. Whew?

I stared at Eli for the next hour and engrained every moment into my memory -- thinking they could be my last moments with him. Because after I hung up the phone, the only thing I could remember her saying was that my child may drop dead from liver failure without warning.

Eli spent the hour happier than he had been all day. After all, he finally got that second serving of "juice" he'd been asking for since lunch.

The poison control lady eventually called back to assure me everything was going to be okay. I finally took her word for it and took a breath for the first time since the overdose.

Let's hope that's the last call I have to make to my good friends over at poison control. But just to be safe, I think I'll keep their number on my fridge for a few more years.

Eli's New House

Do you know that Baby Number 2 (he-who-is-not-yet-named) is almost here? Reality of a soon to be newborn in our home once again struck when our double stroller arrived last week. It also struck tonight when I said, "Come to dinner, boys!" and I envisioned how many more times I'll get to say that in my life.

Here's a picture of me in all my pregnant glory. I won't even tell you how many outfits I tried on this morning before sighing and dubbing this my best option.

 

Jeff couldn't resist turning the huge box our new stroller came in into a little fort for Eli. I think I'm going to have an easy week this week if that box continues to keep Eli as happy as it did today.

 

Before long Eli's new house even had windows and a swinging door. He thought it was pretty awesome.

In an effort to cherish the last few weeks I have with just Eli, I wanted to get a video of him doing some of his latest tricks. I discovered this weekend that Eli knows all his body parts and animal sounds! So here he is showing off with crazy post-nap hair.

Big Tease

Every year March fools me when it gets warm enough for me to believe Spring might actually come. Today was one of those days. Eli and I fully enjoyed the three hours we spent outside in the almost Spring weather today.

Maybe Eli uses our garden as a sandbox when crops aren't in bloom. And maybe while he's there he finds crops that never fully bloomed.

And maybe Eli still always has tears coming out of his eyes even when he's not crying. Had my computer not been used as a urinal last week, I could have edited the tears out of this cute picture.

Throwing poor man's sand into the air and loving it:

Then I tried to take a picture of both of us. Eli didn't think that was such a great idea.

He got over it.

March, I wouldn't mind too much if you kept this up for a while.

Pinspiration

Just so we're clear, we all know I hated Pinterest for the first several months after I heard about it, right? Then things changed when I started needing cute ideas for Eli's new room. And I quickly turned to Pinterest. 95% of Eli's room is pinterest inspired -- bean bag, clipboards, striped walls, raingutter bookshelves, diaper boxes for storage, Dr. Seuss quote idea.

So there. I just felt like I needed to give credit where credit was due and apologize to Pinterest for the three months I hated it.

That being said, we made good use of our Saturday today and finished Eli's new room. Completely finished it! And get this guys, I actually feel ready and anxious for the baby to come now that my to-do list is complete. Yay!

Jeff ordered a bunch of new tools which ended up being great for me because he was excited to try them all out while making the book display. I love my handy husband.

Imagine the picture of Eli on the right being a brother picture. I get giddy thinking about the cuteness of that.

Here's the rug that inspired and taunted me for the last three months.

 Eli loves Angry Birds. And Angry Birds perfectly matches his room. Win, win.

Hooray for a cute, finished room!