Look out, Lance Armstrong!

Okay, by the time Patrick masters a bike Lance Armstrong will be retired, but does anyone actually know any other famous bikers I could threaten with this kid's new tires? Yeah, I thought not. Once he can reach the pedals maybe Patrick will just have to take that spot :) The new Radio Flyer is compliments of yet another early Santa stop (like our garage door opener and our new trees - Thanks, Debbie and John!)

Mount up!

Or be a daredevil and join the circus.

Success! Oh, wait, those pedals are just a little too far...

Forget it, I'll just push it around!

Dressed to impress

I've had more some fun dressing up Eli, and the poor guy has a lot more torture to look forward to with Christmas and cold weather coming up!

Too-cute turkey - thanks, mom!

1st day at church, complete with a tie :)

The obligatory Thanksgiving post

I feel thankful every day for the good things I've got, but it certainly is nice to have a specific day to celebrate those things by eating copious amounts of food and visiting with family (no matter how difficult they may be to be around). Something I'm thankful for is funny stories! Here are a few from our Thanksgiving weekend:

We waited until today to cook and eat Thanksgiving dinner because Joe's parents came into town to stay with us, but didn't arrive until later in the afternoon on Thursday. The arrangement was fine since Joe had Friday off work, but we got confused at everyone celebrating while we were not! With all day to kill and beautiful weather outside we decided to do our Saturday Taco Bell date early, then go feed the ducks at the park. We got Patrick all excited to eat a cheesy roll-up, but as we pulled into the parking lot we noticed a serious lack in cars. Like, none. Taco Bell is definitely closed on Thanksgiving. Scrap the burritos, let's go get Burger King! Oh, no, they're closed, too! Chic-Fil-A? No. Wendy's? No. Pizza Hut? KFC? Panda Express? No, no, NO! These are all restaurants we pass on our way to the park, we were just hoping to hit ONE open one before we got there, but no such luck. We decided to press on anyway, go feed the ducks and then have lunch back at home, but when we turned around in our seats to get Patrick excited to see ducks instead of lunch, he was passed out. We went home with no lunch, no ducks, and a greater appreciation for how many people get the holiday off!

With Joe's parents in town we were able to take advantage of their years of parenting experience and leave the kiddos with them while we saw New Moon (FINALLY!!). I fed Eli before we left, but he got hungry (as infants often do) before we got home, so Debbie went to make him a bottle. She layed Eli on the couch and explained to Patrick, who was in the same room, that Eli was hungry so she would make him a bottle. Patrick then offered his own services to Eli and laid down next to him and lifted up his shirt so he could nurse. How sweet!

Patrick still loves his little brother to death - in fact, we're nervous he WILL love Eli to death since he continues to sprawl his whole body over Eli's to give him hugs and kisses. We've been working on getting him to lay NEXT TO Eli instead, and results are mixed:

How much harm could an arm do? One thing's for sure: I sure am thankful for the safe arrival of this guy... ...and for ALL my boys!

Poker Face

I probably wouldn't normally choose Lady Gaga for my blog song, but Patrick LOVES this song because he can sing along with "ma-ma-ma-ma." I think it's hilarious! So there ya have it. Now dance along, you know you want to! :)

Sleeping Beauty

Besides having a mini-me of my own, possibly the coolest part about Eli is how conked-out he is. This kid sleeps like you wouldn't believe! In fact, I DON'T believe it, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop where we have sleepless nights and no-nap crying-jag days, but so far? SLEEP. About 21 hours a day! Of course, now that I'm writing this (and now that he's 2 weeks old, as of yesterday) the sleeping will cease, but what is childhood if not constant change? So anyway, he's really been putting Patrick to shame - 2 nights ago Eli went to bed at 8:00 and woke up twice to eat before getting up for the day at 6:00; Patrick went to bed at the same time, with a struggle, and woke up three times during the night, then got up for the day at 5:00. WHAT? It's ridiculous. But for now I'm counting my blessings that I get as much sleep as I do with two crazy kiddos, it's been a wonderful two weeks, and now Eli doesn't really look like a NEW newborn since his yucky belly-button fell off today! Hooray! Bring on bathtime!

It's MEEEEEE!

Patrick is Joe's mini-me, which I've blogged about a few times. When people as if Eli looks like Patrick, the answer is definitely 'no,' but I wasn't sure he looked like me until my mom brought up my baby book. When I opened to my newborn picture I said "ohhhh, THAT'S who he looks like!" Finally, I have someone to call my own :)

Me, newborn

Eli, the new guy in town

Happy Big Brother Day!

OK, so there is no such day, but we wanted to celebrate not just the big change for US of adding Eli to the family, but the big change for Patrick to become a Big Brother. While I was pregnant we planned on throwing it in anticipation of the transition being much more difficult for him, with much more attention being focused on Eli and mom. As it turned out, I'm recovering very quickly (don't get me wrong, it still hurts to sit from standing, or to stand from sitting! But it's relatively quick) and Eli has been sleeping like a log so he only needs attention to nurse or get a new diaper, plus Patrick seems to LOVE his new brother, so the transition has been pretty easy! Still, Who doesn't like a little extra attention now and then? So we had a few friends over, baked a yummy cake, and Joe bought him the best gift ever (and with how much Joe likes to give gifts, it was amazing he held off giving it to Patrick for 3 days while we waited for the party!)

"I'm a big brother" - sometimes it's easiest to just state the obvious

Not just a cool present, it comes in cool wrapping paper!

Ripping away

Already putting it to good use! The weather was nice enough to take it into the sandbox

Check out that dumping action!

I tried to make the car red, and I used an entire bottle of red food coloring and it only turned BRIGHT PINK! So I added some yellow and made do with a coral-colored car. We'll definitely use this cake mold again for his birthday, it was a huge hit with Patrick!

This was much more interesting to watch than him barely picking at his first-birthday cake. Finally! Some messy recognition for my efforts!

And now, the reason for the party - there's a LITTLE brother in town! Plus, check out my cool new haircut. It's actually much cooler when it's washed, my morning got a little crazy, what with the pink frosting not cooperating. I was going to wait until about 3 months post-pardum to cut it, after the pregnancy face fluff (ok, chubbiness) went away but before I started losing copious amounts of hair. Turns out, my face didn't thicken up quite like it did with Patrick, so I got to do it early!