Bella is Growing Up

I was just noticing today that Bella seems so much older than she did just last week. She seems to understand more now. For example, she really seems to enjoy the Touch and Sparkle books. They are animals books that have parts that you can feel, like the fur on a rabbit. She seems excited when I pull one of these books out. Just today, she followed my lead and touched each page on the spot where she could feel the animal. It's like she was watching and listening to me and knew just what to do. She also crawled to me today when she was crawling toward the front door and I said, "Bella, where are you going? Come over here to Mommy." When I said this, she stopped, turned around and looked, and began to crawl to me, with a huge smile on her face, of course. My sweet Bella is always smiling!

I think Bella will begin walking very soon. Today, while standing, she let go and balanced for several seconds before grabbing back onto the toy bin or falling back on her butt. She kept doing this again and again. It was like a game to her. She seemed to think it was a lot of fun.



Last week, Bella said, "Mama," for the first time. What a sweet sound! It brought back memories of Eli saying Mama and Dada. That seems like it was just a few months ago, but it's been almost two years since Eli first spoke those words all parents love to hear. Where did all that time go? As I watch Eli and Bella grow and change, it makes me sad that Stephen is not here to share these precious, once in a lifetime moments with us. I look forward to the day he is home and we can once again create memories together.

Hairy Hiney

There have been some funny things that have happened over the past couple of days. There is never a dull moment around this house, that's for sure! Eli keeps me laughing all the time.

For as long as I can remember, I seem to lose a lot of hair. Sometimes I find it amazing that I have a full head of hair with as much hair as I seem to lose daily. It's kind of gross, but my hair ends up everywhere! It has clogged the bathtub drain and the vacuum cleaner. I had to get a different drain plug to keep the hair from going down the drain since the one that was on there originally didn't catch anything at all. So... Eli has been wanting to get in the shower with me in the mornings while Bella is taking her nap. After I'm finished showering, he likes to stay in there and play. He'll stay in there until the hot water runs out. This has been great for me because I can do my hair and make up while he's right there in the shower. Today, he, all of a sudden, started screaming. I opened the shower curtain and asked, "What's wrong?" To that, Eli answered, while still crying, "This is yucky hair. Get it off, Mommy." I looked and he had taken my hair out of the drain catcher, and there was a huge wad of hair stuck to his thigh. As I pulled it off, I noticed that the hair was also coming out of his hiney. I asked him if he put hair in his hiney. He said, "Yes." Ha!!! I have no idea why he did this, but there was hair stuck in his butt crack. This is just so funny to me. I'm laughing out loud as I'm typing this just thinking about this happening. Eli, baby, I know one day when you read this you'll probably be so embarrassed.

Eli has been doing such a good job of using the potty. He has received much praise and many rewards for going to the potty. He has received a helmet, a guitar and Mr. Potato Head from Aunt Kathy, and many jelly beans (five each time he uses the potty). His favorite reward these days, lollipops. He just had his very first lollipop ever last week.


He will go in the bathroom by himself and use the potty. I usually know when he's going because his clothes usually come off in the play area. He doesn't like to have clothes on when he goes to the restroom. Like father, like son, I guess. Today, he pulled his undies off and ran to the bathroom. I noticed the light wasn't on, so I followed him in there (This has been a big no no lately. He does not want Mommy in the bathroom with him!) to turn on the light. As I turned on the light, he began to pee. I knew this because it squirted straight up in the air. Eli saw this happening but did not stop, he just tried to move around to make his wee wee go down in the toilet. His attempt to do this was unsuccessful and resulted in what looked like one of the dancing fountains at the Bellagio! I didn't even know what to do. I just froze. It went back and forth and sprayed about half of the shower curtain. After it stopped, we both just looked at each other and laughed. I guess that shower curtain probably needed to be washed anyway.

When Eli poops in the potty, he usually tells me that it looks like a stick. "Yes, Eli it does look like a stick," I always say to him. Today, he told me that it looked like an eel. Whatever works. As long he's pooping in the potty it can look like whatever his imagination dreams.

This morning, right when he woke up, he had to go pee-pee. When he came back and announced that he pee-peed in the potty, I praised him for that and then said, "Eli I didn't give you morning hugs and kisses. Come here." So, I gave him a hug and a kiss, and he asked, with his eyebrows raised, "Mommy gonna give my wee-wee a hug, too?" He didn't seem at all hurt when I told him no. You just never know what his going to come out of Eli's mouth.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Although it's been many years since my trick-or-treating days, I can still remember the excitement of dressing up and going door-to-door wondering how much candy I would bring home. This year was just the beginning of this type of fun for Eli. For the past two years, Eli has participated in Halloween festivities like pumpkin patches, costume parades, Halloween parties, and pumpkin carvings, but until this year, he has never really been trick or treating or had any say in his Halloween costume. I'm sure he would have never picked out this pumpkin head himself, and I'm sure he will one day ask, "Mom, why did you put that on me?"

October 2007, Eli's First Halloween, 4 Months Old

October 2008, Eli's Second Halloween, 16 Months Old

Costumes sure have changed since I was a kid. Everyone always wore those plastic looking costumes that came with a mask. Wearing those masks always made condensation build up behind the mask. Do they even make those anymore? Eli's costume this year was adorable, and he picked it out himself. We went shopping in search of the perfect Halloween costume. When we didn't find anything at the Halloween store or Babies R Us, we ventured over to Marshall's where we saw a cuddly puppy dog costume. Eli wanted it immediately, so we went to the dressing room to try it on. I didn't think I was going to like it, but when I put it on him, I just laughed and laughed. It looked so cute on him. It was settled! Eli would be a dog for Halloween. He didn't want to take off the costume, so I took the tag off and did the rest of my shopping with a little puppy by my side.

Bella's costume was equally adorable. She was a little lady bug. This was her first time wearing tights. She looked so precious. She did not like the ladybug hat, but it was just too cute not to put on her. She got used to it after a while. It's like cute shoes that really hurt your feet, even if they are uncomfortable you have to wear them if they look good.



The week of Halloween, we carved our pumpkin. This was a very dirty pumpkin, so Eli gave it a sink bath.

After bathing the pumpkin, I told Eli that I was going to cut into the top of the pumpkin first. Eli became worried that I was going to hurt the pumpkin with the knife. After assuring him that the pumpkin could not feel pain, the carving began. Eli did not like the feel of the pumpkin guts and wanted me to pull everything out!

He did like using the spoon to dig out the seeds, and he enjoyed blowing out the candle inside the pumpkin over and over.

The next night, he wanted to carve another pumpkin, so we did.


Bella did not participate in pumpkin carvings this year. Sorry Bella! We did all of this after she was in bed. Next year, Stephen will be home and we can all carve pumpkins together. After having a lot of trouble taking the top off of the big pumpkin, I decided that pumpkin carving is a Daddy thing to do anyway.

Before going trick or treating, we went to Publix and to Whitesburg Baptist Church. We all had a good time walking around Publix watching Eli play the various games they had set up throughout the store. He was, of course, good at the games having to do with throwing and tossing. We all took turns holding Bella. Everyone, of course, commented on how cute she looked in her costume. Uncle James flew her around for a little while.

There was so much to at Whitesburg, but it was way too crowded. We walked around but didn't really do much. Mom did win some cupcakes in the cake walk, and Eli found a bear that he just loved. After seeing him once, he kept asking about him. We spotted him just before we left. Eli ran to him and was amazed by the bear all over again. Eli loves his Eddie the Teddy. Maybe he thought it was a giant Eddie?

As it grew dark outside, it was now time to begin trick-or-treating. I have to say there were so many people, too many people, in our neighborhood! People were driving their kids into the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. This made for a lot of sidewalk traffic. Eli was amazed, looking at everyone's costumes. He would look around and tell me, "Too much people out here." As we approached the first house, I was wondering what Eli would say when the door opened. He has a Halloween shirt that reads, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." When I asked him what he was going to say when he went trick-or-treating, that is the phrase he would repeat. I was happy to only hear, "Trick or treat," come out of his mouth when we went to that first house. We were only going to go to a few houses, but I kept hearing, "Let's trick-or-treat some more," so we ended up walking around the entire block. About half way around the block, we walked up to a house, just as we had done before, but this house was different. It had fog covering the sidewalk, spooky music playing, and a lot of decorations. As we walked through the fog, a person holding a candy bowl was walking toward us. I looked up and saw something similar to this. I wondered if it would scare Eli because it kind of scared me!

Eli must have really been focused on that candy bowl because he didn't notice the scary mask at first. When he did, he dropped his bucket and began taking steps backwards, away from the scary man. Since then, he has been talking about this scary mask. Anytime I ask him to tell someone about Halloween, this is the first thing he talks about. Oh brother! By the end of our 40 minute journey around the block, I was carrying Eli, who grew tired of walking.

The night ended with Uncle James coming by to show us his costume. It looked really good on him, but not as good at is it looked on Stephen when he was a gangster for Halloween several years ago. What a fun Halloween! Next year will be even better because Stephen will be here to enjoy it with us!

Bella At Seven Months

At seven months, Bella is a little explorer, taking time to examine, and taste, any object she discovers. Although she can crawl a normal crawl, she chooses to move about by doing what looks like, as my dad said, the breaststroke. I have no idea why she does this, but it is quite funny, and it gets her where she needs to go. Where does she need to go? Anyplace she's able to pull up- her crib, the couch, a big toy, Mommy, or Eli. Bella wants to stand and cruise all the time. I can't believe she's already doing all of these things!




These past seven months have gone by so quickly. Bella still loves to swing, and I love to swing her. Her big, gummy smile and laugh are just so precious. Who wouldn't want to make this little baby girl smile all the time?


Bella also likes to get her hands one whatever Eli has in his. Eli is usually very sweet to her, but lately, he has been telling her, "No Bella," when she tries to grab a toy. There are many times, though when he takes a toy to her because he wants to "share with Bella." So sweet!



Just today, I think Bella may have spoken her first word, "Hi." We were in the play area at the mall when a little girl, about three years old, came up to Bella and smiled. When she did, this I could have sworn I heard "Hiiii," come out of Bella's mouth. The little girl ran back to her mom and then back to Bella several times. Each time the little girl ran to Bella, the same, "Hiiiii," came out of Bella's mouth!

Bella has started snorting. That's right, snorting. It's the most precious thing, and it cracks me up. She will open her mouth, show her gums, breathe heavily, and then snort. She does this when she laughs, becomes excited, or when I wipe her face. It's just too funny!

A Milky Mess and Other Eli Moments

A mess. Who likes to clean messes? Not me! There is enough to do around the house without having to clean unnecessary messes. Since Eli was about eighteen months old, he has been throwing food on the floor. Despite Stephen and I both trying to be consistent with removing the food from Eli's tray when he does this, Eli continued to throw food up until maybe a month ago. But, even now he does it on occasion. The other night, he made the biggest mess he's ever made, not with food but with milk! As I was preparing Eli's dinner plate, he was sitting in the booster seat, out of my field of vision. He didn't want me to move him into the kitchen while I was getting his plate ready. He wanted to stay at the table. I found this odd since he always wants to know what's going on in the kitchen, but I left him by the table. I wasn't worried. He was buckled in, so I knew he wouldn't climb out. He didn't have any food yet, so I knew there would be no food on the floor. When I walked around the counter to give him his plate, there was milk all over the place! He had obviously shaken the cup until all of the milk came out of the straw and landed on the floor, the rug, the kitchen table, and all over himself.


It was as if he had planned to make this mess from the moment he climbed into his booster seat. I could not believe the mess my little boy had created! Timeout wasn't an option at that moment since getting him out of the seat and putting him in timeout would have only added to the mess. When I looked at his face and saw all of the little dots of milk splattered all over him, I tried to hide my smile. This would have actually been funny if I wasn't the one who had to clean it. When I asked, "Why did you do this, Eli?" he responded by telling me that he "spilled" his milk. That's an understatement if I've ever heard one. Although I was very irritated, how could I not kiss all over this face?

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As I was getting dressed last night, Eli, noticing the product of a spur of the moment decision Heather and I made in our early twenties (the tattoo on my lower back), Eli said, "Mommy got a sun on her back." Knowing how Eli questions every single thing and not really wanting to answer questions about tattoos, I replied, "Yes, Eli that is a sun," and quickly pulled my shirt down. "Where'd it come from?" I heard in response. I should have known that was coming. My reply... someone drew it on my back a long time ago. Then I changed the subject.
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I, personally, have never liked to see a kid run around in only a diaper. I can remember living in NJ when I was younger, and a lady Mom was friends with would let her kids run around in their underwear all the time. It was like they didn't own any clothes. Anyway, lately Eli hasn't been wanting to wear clothes. In the morning, when I change his diaper, he always says, "Mommy, no put my clothes back on." If we are not going anywhere, I will sometimes give in and let him leave his clothes off and run around in only a diaper.


I found it very comical when, after his bath last night, he didn't want to put on his pjs. He wanted to sleep in a diaper only, so I told him he could. A few minutes later, he appeared with a cape and mask in hand wanting me to help him put them on. He didn't want to wear clothes, but he wanted to wear this.


When he finally did go to bed, he went to bed only in a diaper. After being in bed for a short time, he reappeared in the kitchen, naked, and said, "Mommy look!" That boy cracks me up.
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Eli is a curios little boy. He asks questions about everything. His latest inquiries have been about what happens when: you flush the toilet, water goes down the sink, and the water drains out of the bathtub. It all began with the sink. "Where that water going, Mommy?" Eli asked one day. I was able to show him the pipes under the sink. We turned on the water and listened to it go down the pipes. This seemed to satisfy him until he went looking for the "bathtub pipes" and the "toilet pipes." Telling him that those pipes are under the house wansn't a good enough answer for him, so I found a diagram online that showed the parts of a toilet. After clicking on the flusher, it showed where the water went. He liked watching this. After watching that, I took the top of the toilet off so he could see the water level rise and fall when he flushed the toilet. We had to stay in the bathroom for quite a while doing this. When he woke up this morning, the first thing he asked about was the toilet. "Oh Mommy, remember? Remember flushing the toilet?" and then he asked to go do it again.

When I Get A Little Bit Older...

Who hasn't, at one point in their life, thought about the things they could do if only they were older? I can vividly remember being twelve and being so excited about turning thirteen. At thirteen, I would be a teenager and be able to well, that's it, I would be a teenager. What did I think I was going to be able to do at thirteen? Nothing happens at thirteen. I, of course, was excited to turn sixteen, obviously because I would be able to drive. I also remember being excited to turn eighteen because being eighteen meant that I was an adult. An adult at eighteen? Thinking back on that now makes me laugh.

Well, Eli is at the age where he wants to do some things he isn't quite able to do yet because he's just not old enough. He will ask to do things, and if it's something he can't do, I will say, "When you're a little bit older, you will be able to..." Some things he has wanted to do lately... chew gum, drive the car, drink coffee and Diet Pepsi (I need some coffee, Mommy), ride Mommy's bike, and mow the grass (with the real lawnmower). A lot of times, he will tell me he wants to do something and before I tell him that he can do it when he's older, he says, "When you get a little bit older, Eli can do that," in a kind of yeah, yeah, I know Mommy voice.

Eli will pee on the potty just about anytime you ask him if he needs to go. This started when I started giving him five jelly beans as a reward for using the potty. But, he will still not poop in the potty. He tells me every time he has to go, but he never wants to do it on the potty. A couple of weeks ago, tired of changing poop diapers, I said, "Eli when are you going to start pooping in the potty?" His response, "When I get a little bit older, I go poop in the potty." I guess I set myself up for that one.

This past weekend, I discovered a tiny wart on Eli's finger. I was examining his fingers and hands so he, of course, was concerned. I had to explain to him what I was doing. I told him that he had a wart. The next morning, he kept talking about that wart. He wanted to know where Mommy's wart was, so I pretended to have one on my finger. That didn't satisfy him. "Mommy, where's Bella's wart? Eli want to see Bella's wart." Not wanting him to go poking and prodding on Bella, I said, "Baby, Bella doesn't have any warts." With is eyebrows raised, Eli came back with, "When she gets a little older Bella can have a wart." I'm sure Bella was really excited to hear that.

I, of course, don't want to use any kind of wart remover on Eli's little finger, so I guess I'll let Momma try to remove it. Since I was a kid, Momma has believed that she can take warts off by wrapping a piece of wool thread around a wart and touching it. After she does this, you have to take the string and bury it under a rock. When the string rots, the wart will fall off. When I was a kid, I believed this, but now I guess you could say I'm a bit skeptical. I asked her how she knew she could do this. She didn't remember. She only knew that it was "a gift from the Lord." James and I have both had warts that Momma has "removed" with this hocus pocus. After she worked her magic, it took a very long time for them to go away. Did the string rot, or did it just go away on its own? We'll never know.

Asthma and Apples

When you're a parent, you dread that trip to the emergency room. One trip to the ER during childhood, from any parents' point of view, is one trip too many. Well, at the age of two, Eli has had enough trips to the emergency room to last well into old age! At eighteen months, he had to have stitches, at twenty months he had a rectal prolapse (didn't even know that could happen until it happened), and now at two, we can chalk up another ER visit. This ER visit was not as dramatic as the first two, but still just as unsettling. On Sunday, I noticed that he seemed to be breathing heavily at times and his little heart was racing. It wasn't until we got out of the car and Eli ran to Aunt Kathy that we all really noticed that his breathing was very rapid. So, James, Eli, and I headed for Huntsville Hospital Pediatric ER. Upon arrival, we were surprised to find that we did not have to wait at all. After the admitting RN listened to his breathing, they immediately took us back to a room and started Eli on a breathing treatment. I thought he would be scared of that smokey, unfamiliar mask being held over his mouth and nose, but he wasn't scared at all. James and I were actually laughing because it looked like Eli was really enjoying himself, trying to taste the vapor, sticking his tongue out and licking around inside the mask. The doc diagnosed him with "acute respiratory distress" and said it was "asthma." Asthma? I always thought of asthma as a chronic condition, but after speaking with the doc, she told me that this could only be a one time thing. Eli was playing in hay at Family Farm Day the day before this happened.

It is very possible that he had an allergic reaction to the hay. The doc also said that asthma is familial and asked if anyone in our family had asthma. After telling her no, I remembered that I, myself, have cat allergy induced asthma. Duh! Is it possible for brunettes to have blonde moments? Yes! Feeling like an idiot, when the doc came back in the room, I had to fess up, "Remember when you asked if anyone the family has asthma? Well, I don't know why I didn't think of this at the time, but I have cat allergy induced asthma." We both laughed about it. I know she must have been thinking I was so ditsy. Anyway, back to my baby boy. After the breathing treatment and a popsicle, Eli's breathing returned to normal. As we waited to make sure that Eli's breathing wouldn't remain normal, another nurse came in with another popsicle for him. Not too long after that, Eli began to wheeze again. The doctor wanted him to have an hour long breathing treatment. One hour? How in the world would my very active two year old sit still for an entire hour without being asleep? It just didn't seem possible. Well, did Eli surprise me! He was such a good boy. There were moments when he took the mask off, but for the most part, he was wonderful.
So, you know what that meant... time for another popsicle.
After this breathing treatment and a third popsicle, his breathing remained normal. Thank God! Eli's breathing is back to normal, and he hasn't had anymore problems.

Now to the "Apples" portion of this post...
As I prepared a mesh feeder for Bella and filled it with a chunk of a delicious honey crisp apple and then peeled an apple for Eli to eat, many images quickly flashed through my mind. I thought about Eli and how he used to eat homemade applesauce as a baby. When he finally got some teeth, I started making baked diced apples for him. As he got older, he progressed to eating raw, slivers of apples, next came apple slices, and now he can just eat the entire apple. What a big boy! I used to always worry about him choking on the apple slivers. "Stephen, don't cut them too thick, he'll choke on them." "Eli, baby, please be sure to chew your food." Now my sweet boy is so big, eating whole apples and not choking on them at all, eventhough, at times, I still have to remind him to take little bites. On another note, Eli's Cardinals hat finally fits his head. Stephen bought it for him, a long time ago, and it was so big (as you can tell from the picture). Big and all, Eli would wear it anyway. When Stephen would wear his Cardinals hat, so would Eli.

He put it on the other morning, and just like that, his head was big enough for it.



Little Miss Bella did something today that I didn't expect her to do for a while. She pulled up to a standing position. Go Bella! She has also been sticking her tongue out all the time. It's the cutest thing. She'll smile and stick out her tongue at the same time.

I remember when Eli was Bella's age, he would do the same thing.
I never remembered reading anything about that in any baby books. I thought it was just something Eli did, but now that Bella is doing it, too it makes me wonder if it may be hereditary. :-) I love you, Stephen!