Little White Suit

Last Sunday was Carson's blessing. We had oodles of family come into town to show their love. The fun began Friday night when the Cox Family arrived to spend a couple days with us. Poor Kaelynn is the only granddaughter on that side. The good part about that is, she got a lot of baby holding time...

while the boys were off swinging golf clubs, stabbing each other with swords and playing video games. Boys. Gotta love 'em.

Okay, so Kaelynn did join in on the video games. Way to represent, Kaelynn!

Carson is getting more social and more fat rolls and more adorable every day. It seemed like he had about twelve growth spurts in the last week. It's a miracle he fit into his blessing outfit.

Mary is the baby charmer. She could get Carson to sleep in no time! I don't know how she does it.

On Saturday we were feeling cooped up in the house so we lugged the kids over to a park to release a little bit of their energy.

My brother Abe always makes fun of Eli's "jump" from this video I posted a while ago. I recently informed Abe that Eli's little feet have finally managed to get off the ground when he jumps. See, check out this air:

It was very windy, so Eli was taking cover under a slide when he found this little gem. It looked like an exact replica of the doll from Toy Story that Sid deforms. Eli loved it. Also keep in mind, Eli had been hitting his cousin Coleman for the past two days, but he was gently patting this baby on the back, hugging and kissing it. Eli will forever be a mystery to me.

In no time it was Sunday morning and I was frantically pacing the house to make sure everything was in order for the big blessing day. The last order of business before going to church -- getting the little mister in his white garb.

My pacing included setting the chairs up in semi-circles and making the men tilt the trampoline against our house. I was made fun of for both of these decisions.

I was not made fun of for serving one our family's most favorite meals these days -- BBQ Pork Cilantro Salad. Y-U-M!

And we all made fun of ourselves for eating dessert first, but when Nani busted out her famous tuxedo brownies, we couldn't help ourselves.

We took our coffee table outside to open up our living room a little bit and to encourage the kids to eat outside. It was an excellent decision. And look at the cute picture it provided:

My friends Melissa and Kenz came with delicious desserts. Carson spit up right before this picture and I think the sight of that was enough to make them not want kids for a while. It's not as gross when it's your own, I promise!

We were able to sneak away so we could snap our first real family picture. I love Jeff and Eli in this one:

To my surprise we got a somewhat decent one. Props to Kenz for mentioning Elmo so Eli would look at the camera!

The women in Carson's life.

After many people telling me how awkward my semi-circles were, my guests took the liberty to rearrange the chairs. Note to self: arrange in one big circle next time.

Three generations of Davids. One David in particular being a little bit of a goofball. I'll let you decide which one.

Eli couldn't pass up the Kodak moment.

Jeff gave a beautiful blessing. Carson cried through the whole thing but weirdly no one except the men in the circle heard him crying.

It was only appropriate for my mothering coach to attend Carson's blessing. Whenever I have a child rearing question, I text or call my sister no matter what hour of the day it is. She's very well read and well trained on the topic.

My sweet Grandma came. She assured me it was a good party because, "Everyone was quiet when they ate their food which means the food was good, and everyone lingered which means they had a good time." Words of wisdom and a very kind compliment.

Grandma and Grandpa Thomas with their ninth grandchild.

Celeste, Bryan, Laura and Mary.

My mom claims Eli get his mischievousness from me, but I think David and Mary are right when they say Eli gets it from Jeff.

Carson's Great Grandma and Grandpa Ward:

Jacob and Laurie. Jacob made us reschedule the blessing just for him. He's lucky he's worth it.

It was a fun day to celebrate our darling little boy. We're grateful he's a part of our family and we're glad so many people were able to come see him be blessed.

Tractor Twos

Yesterday was Eli's birthday! It was a day packed with fun. The night before his birthday I made this arrangement in our living room to greet him in the morning. I was so giddy while I was setting it up. (Becky, yes, the number idea was shamelessly stolen from you.)

Eli slept in until 8:45. The recipe for a happy birthday boy, hooray!

Funny story -- I had bought some little tractors for Eli's birthday cake. I made Eli's cake on Sunday while Eli was taking his nap. I forgot to put all his presents and the little tractors away before getting Eli out of his room after his nap, so he saw all his surprises the day before. Whoops!

He was whining for the "awesome tractors" he caught a glimpse of, so I gave him one a day early. He would not let that thing go all day long! He slept with it cuddled up next to him, stared at it for hours and that early birthday present was his little buddy all day on his birthday. So that's what he's clutching in most of these pictures.

Carson was excited for the day's festivities.

Eli and his new bff eating a birthday breakfast.

We put Carson down for a nap and went outside to spend the morning swimming.

Babies in swimsuits are to die for. Don't you agree?

Eli got all the popsicles he could wish for on his birthday.

Look how sweet my newly two-year old was being after Carson woke up from his nap. Who says twos are terrible?!?

I tried to get a picture of all three of us and this is as close as I got. Rats.

 When I asked Eli if he wanted noodles or chicken nuggets for lunch, he said, "Broccoli!" This is the same boy who will sort out a pea from a mouthful of food to spit it out as part of his lifelong protest against vegetables. I figured he was confused about exactly what broccoli is and decided to feed him chicken nuggets.

Jeff was able to get home a little early so we opened gifts before dinner.

The first gift Eli opened was another tractor. He opened it and had to immediately test it out with the other tractor he had been lugging around all day. When we asked him if he wanted to open more presents he politely told us "no" and kept playing with his tractors. Boys are so easy to please.

(Ignore his hair in all of these pictures. We're working on growing it back out. But take full note of his two-year old cuteness.)

After much persuasion, we finally got him to rip open a few more presents.

Eli loves playing with Jeff's golf clubs. When we saw this baby at Wal-Mart for a whopping six dollars, we knew it was the perfect birthday gift for Eli.

 Here he is opening his special letter from Great Grandma Ward. He loved the rocket on the front.

After presents we went down to see if Eli's grown any in the last year. I love this tradition. It warms my heart to do laundry and see the little marks of Eli's growth.

Jeff's sister, Laura, and her family were able to join us for the evening's events. Caleb needed to get surgery today, so they spent the night at our house. It worked out perfect for Eli to have someone (other than a tractor) to play with and it was fun to have a little party with some family.

Here Eli is making sure Caleb stays a safe distance from his beloved tractor.

Laura brought Eli's gift from his Grandma and Grandpa Excell. They gave him a huge Mater car, some clothes, a coloring book with crayons, and the only thing that could loosen Eli's grip on the tractor -- candy!! He was in heaven.

After presents, we ate Eli's favorite dinner, cheesy stuffed shells, and went outside to enjoy a nice summer night.

I found it slightly odd that Eli had more fun in his swimming pool after it was drained. I'll contribute his fun to Caleb being with him.

Caleb, Eli and Coleman having the time of their lives.

Jeff and Carson were being adorable.

Then we came inside for some pie. I decided to go with my family's traditional birthday dessert -- oreo cream pie and I'm glad I did. It was super easy to make and provided the perfect setting for a couple tractors.

Just when Eli thought he had opened all is presents, he was happy to see two more tractors adorning his cake. What a lucky boy!

His candle blowing techniques were slightly ineffective,

but he eventually got the job done.

Tractors, dirt, worms and ice-cream. He was a happy boy.

I can't believe Eli's already two. Even though I've been blogging a lot about my hard days with him lately, I want to make note that he brings so much joy into our lives. Jeff and I lay in bed at night laughing at all the hilarious things Eli does. We can't talk about him without smiling. He surprises us every day with new things he's learning and it's been so fun to see him grow. I'm looking forward to see what the terrible twos have to offer because I'm sure his cuteness will easily overrule the terrible. Happy birthday to our sweet Eli!

A Reminder to Myself

After two horrible days of feeling like my eldest had morphed into a crazy person overnight, I broke down and bought some parenting books.

It was that bad.

Surely I'm not the only one who needs direction on how to raise a hooligan who suddenly realized his abilities to climb onto counters, crawl into fridges, use closets as ladders, refuse to nap, hit, scream and challenge rules all overnight.

After I bought the books I thought, I bet whatever is in those books could probably be found online. Yes. Some quick internet research provided a few basic answers until my books arrive.

I learned my son is suffering from the "terrible twos," and I was relieved to learn I'm not alone in my parenting conundrum.

I understand the issue. He has this little mind going a million miles a minute. He wants to be into everything all the time. He has his own agenda. He can think faster than he can communicate. It's a lot for a pint-sized body (and me) to handle.

After reading several articles on toddlers, I implemented a few strategies today and found a couple very useful. I wanted to write them down in case I forget them I can come back here on the more defiant days and give myself a little reminder of things that might work.

1 - Your toddler is not an adult.

Sounds easy enough, but especially since I had Carson, I kind of expected Eli to instantly mature. I need to remember Eli's still a child, too and to stop expecting him to behave like an adult.

2 - Set rules and make the rules easy to keep.

The part that got me about this one is make the rules easy to keep. Again, part of treating him his age. The other day I told him not to climb in Carson's crib. He kept climbing in again and again and I kept putting him in time out. It would have saved me a lot of time out trouble if I would have just told him we don't climb in the crib and then diverted his attention somewhere else instead of allowing him to go right back to the crib again and again. Sounds obvious, but this one has really helped me.

3 - Kids want to make their parents happy.

This is kind of hard to believe when Eli is acting up, but when I tell myself he's acting up because he doesn't understand why we do or don't do certain things and that he's not acting up to make me mad, I'm able to be much more patient with him. When I give Eli the benefit of the doubt, it helps me better think about why he's acting a certain way and then I can find a better solution to our problems.

4 - Find opportunities to say yes.

I have been trying to avoid saying no just to say no, or to not do something he wants to do just because I'm being lazy. Like our battle with chocolate chips. They are so messy, but he absolutely loves them. I found that most of the time when he asked for them I said no because I didn't want to deal with the mess, yet I had been discreetly eating them behind his back. He deserves some chocolate chips, too, by golly. I found that if I told him he needs to wear a bib when he eats chocolate chips, he gladly lifts his chin for his bib to be put on and we both enjoy a handful of chocolate with an easy clean up. If there's not a good reason to say no, say yes.

Whew. There's everything I know about parenting. Right there. Four paragraphs long. Feel free to let me know any of your favorite tricks or helpful hints. Eli turns two on Monday and I'm determined to outsmart the terrible twos.

May the force be with me.