Eli had a wonderful first Christmas…

My mom had all of us over on Christmas for lunch and presents and let me tell you, that kid was spuh-oy-UUlled. And he even surprised me at being an expert present opener. I’d tear a small piece so he could get ahold of it and then he’d go to town! He’d have that present unwrapped in no time at all. It was pretty cute to watch, if I do say so myself . The only down side was that I had to rush after present opening to get to work. Boo, hiss! Oh well, they paid me a pretty penny to be there so it wasn’t too terrible.

Eli got some Christmas cash and because he just LOVES jumping in your lap when holding him, mommy made the judgment call to get him an activity jumper (Thanks Grandpa Don!) It’s got everything a little almost-6-month old could possibly want, except, I suppose a boob with milk in it . He loves it. Oh and I couldn’t pass these puppies up when I saw them:

Such a cool cat in his new toy and shades.

The seat of this thing turns 360 degrees so it has plenty to hold his interest. It was funny watching him contort his upper body to reach a new toy and then realize it swiveled so he could face it-- And around and around he’d go . Love that kid.

I tried to get a couple of family shots with Don & Eli and my hubby too but they turned out more comical than frame worthy. For example:

It looks like Eli is a flashlight shining in Don’s face. Ha ha. Makes me laugh out loud. Oh well.

Eli got a lot of cool stuff, but one thing I’m pretty excited about is the little radio flyer wagon grandma and grandpa got him for summer time strolls. It has the flip up seats for him and room for a buddy. So fun! Thank you everyone who made his first Christmas so special .

-Linds

Eli’s first “official” big boy food: Sweet potatoes. This one’s for you mom :)

I had gone to the Fresh Market last week and picked up an organic sweet potato for when I was going to start making Eli’s food. My baby food book says to make sweet potatoes (or yams) a staple in my baby’s diet because it’s a “nutrional powerhouse”, packed with beta-carotene, fiber, vitamins A & C and minerals iron & copper. Sure, why not. I didn’t want it to go bad and I can freeze it for up to 3 months, so I decided to make it tonight and see how he liked it. Can you guess if he did or not??
Heeeee did! He insisted on feeding himself though, so needless to say, his dinner ended with a bath. I didn’t realize what a messy process big boy food is! Yikes. Take a look at this kid:

Sweet potato on his hands, pants, bumbo, sleeves, socks and of course, face.

I enlisted the help of daddy to take a video of this “first”. It’s over 2 minutes long so I apologize for that but if you stick it out until the 1:40 mark he laughs when I say I have a self sufficient eater. I just thought it was funny. (I know you will see it to the end mom…and Steph )

Ok, now must get into full crafting mode to finish up all these Christmas gifts for my family now that Eli’s in bed!

-Linds

Eli rolled over for Momma!

Yaaaay! Finally, just for me. I put him down on his belly for some belly time, and he wasted no time rolling right over—front to back, like he’s been doing it all his life! My baby is growing up so fast.
Here’s another video of my little wiggle worm, aka “kamikazi”:

They really have no fear at his age do they? Ha ha. Love that face
Ok, daddy is off to a work dinner so Eli and I are crashin’ gramma’s place for some grub. Toodles!
-Linds

We’ve got a mover and a shaker on the loose!

Daddy now has a little competition around here in the moves department. Eli loves to bounce while standing in your lap and my tall guy can now touch the floor while in his walker! *Tear. And I almost forgot to tell you. Daddy calls me the minute I get to work on Sunday to gloat inform me Eli rolled over for the first time from back to front! FINALLY. Now, I wanna know, why does he do all the fun stuff for the first time (like giggle, reach out to be picked up etc) for other people??! I’m with him just about 24/7! Sheesh. Daddy said he didn’t help him at all, in fact, he suspects it was his good ol’ derrière, aka, “musical instrument” that gave him the extra propulsion needed for the final turn ha ha. Love that kid.
Here’s a recent video of Eli in his walker while at grandma’s. Sorry about the poor quality, it was on my phone:

-Linds

A sign and a present…

So on Saturday Eli bonded with grandma and I went over to my friend Leslie’s house for a craft day. I’ve been meaning to make a door sign for our front door warning people not to ring the freakin’ bell since I have a baby most likely sleeping. I had no idea what kind of door sign I was going to make but Leslie suggested wood and painting it and we used her handy dandy silhouette cutting tool to make the lettering. I love it. It’s exactly what I was looking for. Here she is, hanging and ready to warn:

I like to think that this now gives me the right to give a nice tongue lashing to anyone who disregards this sign and rings the bell anyways but who am I kidding? I don’t have the balls to do that :/ I’m not Uncle Pibe.
As I was about to head home, Leslie tells me she made ME something. For real??! She is a big scrap booker and made me an Eli book! I was so touched by how much time and effort she clearly put into this thing. It chronicle's my week by week belly pics all the way through the delivery. Here are some pics to highlight the detail and thought that went into it:

Hi punkin…muuuah.

I wanted to do something with these pics but had no idea what I should do. This is waaay better then anything I would have decided on!

How touching is this???

Seriously Leslie, I LOVE it! I can’t thank you enough!!

-Linds

Can I get a little help here??

Umm, I seem to have misplaced my pants. Anyone seen’em?

No? Okay. At least I have my boots…

Baby needs a new pair of shoes!…er, boots I mean…

Eli literally LIVES in his homemade baby shoes since they are the only shoes that stay on AND they keep his socks on, score! Well I knew the time would come but he’s almost outgrowing them…waaah! So I thought I would up grade him to boots. While he napped today I came up with a pattern and made him some boots out of fleece. I put the little gripper stuff on the bottom because he likes to stand but he certainly is nowhere near walking, so mainly just for aesthetic purposes. I’m pretty sure he may not even need socks with these things because it’s lined with fleece as well. Poor kid is gonna sweat!
So what do you think? Is he stylin’ or what?

They are lined with lime green fleece so that they go with his mittens. Well that was the plan anyway, but as you can see, once they are on, you can’t even see the lining. Oh well.

I also put elastic right around the ankle part on the inside to help keep them on, but being so tall, they may not even need that. I keep looking over at him wearing his boots and I can’t help smiling. That kid melts my heart.

-Linds

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I want to apologize if you did not get a Christmas card from us this year. I think I usually order 50 and have a ton left over so I thought well, 25 should be good, especially  since they seemed super expensive this year! Anybody else think so??? Well I was wrong I didn’t realize that with having a new baby, more people were interested in a card this year, doh! Plus we’ve made a lot of new mommy and baby friends since he’s been born. So again, I’m sorry. I stuck with immediate family, people I’ve always sent cards/letters to, and friends with little kids. I thought I’d post a pic of it here so you could all see it and know that I wish I could have sent each of you one. And literally, it is a picture of it. Ha ha.

Front

Back.

This was the “christmas outfit” I posted about making on facebook. He looked so stinkin’ cute in it! I followed a vague tutorial here. (A little bitter that she called it a tutorial but left out pics of major steps and NO PATTERN! But anyways…. ) The leggings are women’s knee highs from walmart that I just cut the foot part off and tucked the raw edges into the booties. The onesie, my mom got him and it says “first Christmas” on it.

Boy was it a chore to get pics of him in this little getup because those bells on the ends of his shoes were waaaay more interesting/entertaining then mom with the camera :/

oh yeah, daddy wanted me to clarify that he had nothing to do with dressing his baby boy as an elf and that he doesn’t condone such behavior. Noted.

Again, Merry Christmas!

-The Sciclunas

We declared an emergency in the Scicluna household today.

Thank GOD Aaron was working from home today because I panicked! I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I heard Eli tooting in his swing, (sorry Jac) which is nothing unusual for this kid, while I was chit chatting on the phone with my mom. She goes “what’s Eli up to? I hear him in the background” I said “oh he’s just fussin’ because I’m ignoring him as I try to finish up dinner…”
Ummmm, not exactly. THIS is more likely the reason for the fussin’:

Ahhhhh! Say it isn’t so! Of coooourse momma put her hand in it…

“What’s all the fuss about ma?”

“Oh look, there’s daddy, this is fun!”

Emergency bath time!

I threw him on his belly to try to get his onesie off and the whole time he’s belly laughing while I’m trying to wipe poop off my hands, and keep it off my sleeves and his face. Gah!

Mr. Innocent, post bath.

Whelp, back to smelling divine. Needless to say my home cooked meal was a little jacked up :/

-Linds

This is what my heart looks like outside my body…

-Linds

A “fold and go bib”

A while ago, I stumbled upon a tutorial for a “fold and go” travel bib that seemed like such a genius idea! I never did get around to making it since Eli doesn’t really use bibs yet but now that he’ll be eating big boy foods on a more regular basis soon, I thought what a perfect thing to have to be able to throw into a diaper bag and go. Steph had made one for Sara’s shower and it turned out pretty cute. So today, Eli was out with daddy at the daddy boot camp offered at Delnor for new dads to learn the basics. My little role model . Anyways, I had some alone time to craft. (Let me tell you, it was so weird not having the monitor on and watching my little guy sleep while sewing. It’s been sooooo long sewing without any other responsibilities. It was nice. I sipped on my starbucks and got to work.
I used terry cloth on the inside to be more absorbent and also used my own measurements, but no doubt, the idea came from this tutorial. How super cute, huh?!
Here is mine:

“These fools put my cape on backwards” ha ha. Saw this on Pinterest and about died!

Filled with a spoon, fork and wet wipes

Folded up, snapped and ready to go into the diaper bag!

Lets see what Eli thinks of it:

A little put out about his cape being backwards. Ha Ha

Whelp, it passed the taste test.

“occupy his hands so I can get a pic of the stinkin’ bib!” NOT, an easy task.

“Here momma, I’ll do it.”

Ok, gotta go feed the munchkin. Toodles!

-Linds

…Aaaand I’ve created a monster!

Gone are the days where I could take Eli out to dinner with us and he’d sleep through the whole thing. Now he wants out of his seater (which isn’t the end of the world) AND he wants everything on my dinner plate! Yikes! He is enthralled by me eating and has been grasping at any food within his 3 inch arm span. I once again let him have some of my potato at dinner and he gobbled it like I hadn’t fed him in weeks. He’s pretty dramatic. He’d fuss at me when I passed him up to put food in my own mouth and gave me the stink eye when I drank my water—literally stared me down, with his neck all contorted as he sat in my lap, until I put my water glass down and grabbed more tator for him. I think he’s telling me he’s ready for big boy food in more substantial quantities…

Mmmm. Sweet potatoes!

My plan is still to wait until 6 months to start “big boy” foods, but my book on making your own baby foods talks about how to assess if your baby is ready or not to try food. A couple signs it says to watch for: 1.) your baby shows interest in the things YOU are eating, 2.) He is wanting to put everything in his mouth and 3.) he is able to grasp at things to put in his mouth. Those are at least the things I can remember from the book, since it’s in Eli’s closet right now and he’s sleeping so I’m just going from memory. Well it seems like it was just overnight that he’s grown in so many ways! It’s exciting and heartbreaking at the same time (you moms of young ones know what I mean, I’m sure.) He is not rolling over, but the kid is a Wiggle.Worm! I now watch him rotate in his crib at different hours of the night until he’s inched himself around into a complete circle! He rolls onto his side all the time, he pushes up on his knees while on his belly, lifts up his butt while on his back, and he rides his bike ALL the time (a joke between the hubby and I—he kicks his legs frantically like he’s biking up a hill, ha ha.)
Well anywho, the point of all this is that very recently he seems so ready to eat big boy foods. He stares at me while I eat, watching the food go from his shirt my plate to my mouth. He his honing his pincher-grasp skill (It tickles me to watch him concentrate while picking up something) and has actively grabbed at food on my plate if within reach. So the other day, Auntie Stephie let him try some of her mashed potatoes and he liked it! Today I let him have some of the gooey part of my homemade sweet potato fries and he loved that too. He would fuss at me if I took too long to give him another bite! Here he is taking his first bite:

See the little stinker grabbing my hand and pulling it to his mouth?!

Mmmm, this is gooood!

My baby boy is growing up :/

-Linds

Eli’s buddy Mason is finally here!!

My friend Sara finally had her baby on Friday, December 2, 2011, three weeks early, still weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 2oz! Yowza. I can’t imagine what he would have been if he was on time or late even! Although, this widdle guy is a peeeeaa-nut. (I think she may be lying about his size . He he) I just don’t remember Eli being so itty bitty. Take a look for yourself:

Look at all that dark hair like his daddy!

…with his momma.

Of course I had to get my time in holding him. He felt like he weighed 5lbs tops!

Eli was cute and is all ready to play with him. He kept petting his head but I had to hold him back a bit because he doesn’t know “gentle” (the kid has swatted at my face, knocking my glasses clear off my face before—the little stinker!)

I swear my kid is not bald, he does have hair, its just reeeeally blonde and fine. I would know, I kiss and sniff that head hourly.

I had to hold his hand, I wasn’t sure he would be able to be gentle. Look at the size difference! That’s Mason’s daddy holding Eli

Don’t we all look like sisters? At the hospital, my sister was telling me the nurse walked in and said “oh you must be Sara’s sister, you look just like her”.

I’m happy to report that things are going great for their little family so far. He’s nursing like a champ and she has had no engorgement or nipple issues! Halleluiah! And daddy is so hands on. Gosh what a difference good daddies make. We sure are lucky ladies  

I personally am so happy to have another mommy to have play dates with for the next 3 months while she’s on maternity leave. And although it’ll be a hike, I’m already trying to talk her into coming out to sycamore for free swim lessons since Eli and I love it so much

Congrats Martin and Sara! I’m so giddy with excitement for you two!  You’re in for sooo much fun! I have no doubt in my mind, you will be phenomenal parents.

Love you all,

-Linds