Eli - 9 months

My sweet baby boy.  It’s hard to believe that he is already 9 whole months old.  NINE!  Where has the time gone. 

 

 

When I think about what I will remember about him at this age is that he is on the move.  All. The. Time.  He is getting so fast crawling around, even faster when he is crawling for something he knows he isn’t supposed to have.  When I tell him “no dog food Eli” for example, he turns around with the biggest, cutest grin and then continues to go for the dog food.  It’s almost hard to continue to tell him no.

 

 

Just yesterday, he started saying ‘da da da da’.  It’s absolutely adorable.  I cannot even describe.  A few months ago he said ‘ma ma ma’ like twice and got me all excited but turns out it was a fluke.  I don’t think he quite knows what ‘da da’ means yet but we are getting there.  Speaking of Daddy, he is just about Eli’s favorite person these days.  When Josh gets home in the evening, Eli reaches for him and shrieks until he picks him up but once he does he is as happy as can be.

 

We went to the doctor this month and he weighs 19 pounds, 10 ounces.  He dropped to the 47^th percentile which is no surprise to me with how much he is moving.  I wouldn’t have guessed however that my 97^th percentile at birth baby would drop to average weight by 9 months.  He’s lost some of his baby chubbiness and is starting to look like such a big boy.  Sigh…

 

 

He is still nursing great and he much prefers finger foods over purees these days.  We try to give him a mix of both and try to encourage him to try new foods that he has previously rejected like peas and cheese.  I think we are making some progress with our picky eater.   

 

He did great in swim lessons this month and really is starting to interact more with his surroundings.  When we play outside with Caleb, he always wants to be a part of the action: drawing with chalk, following Caleb down the driveway, playing with the outside toys.  One of his favorite things to do is to roll a big red ball back and forth with Caleb.  He giggles and kicks his feet because he is so excited.  It’s so cute watching him throw the ball with his tiny arms. 

 

 It blows my mind that I will be soon planning his first birthday party and watching him walk.  Slow down time.... you are going too fast.

 

Life lately

Our house has been hit by the plague.  Maybe that is a bit dramatic.  I'm certain that a plague would be worse.  Both boys have the whole nasty cough, congestion, cranky thing that is going around which may or may not be also related to the diarrhea thing that they also have.  Poor Eli is having a hard time sleeping and just yesterday when I thought everyone was on the mend, I was proved wrong by a projectile vomiting incident.  Rock on.

Other than that, this past weekend we went to the zoo with my family and had a great time.  Both boys didn't last very long (I assume because of the impending sickies about to hit the next day) but we had a good morning.  Caleb was amazed to see the actual animals that we read about in our books and loved feeding the ducks.

 

 

The weather was perfect and not too hot so the animals were actually out to see everyone which Caleb loved.

That evening, we celebrated my birthday with my family.  I received some wonderful gifts: some Chicago Bears/Cubs gear, a cute sweater, some OXO good grips containers (LOVE) and the Rachael Ray cookware I was dying to have.  Remember how I talked about the deep serving dishes that can go from oven to table?  Yeah... they were shockingly small.  Especially for the price they were.  The small one was only 1.25 quarts and the larger one about 2.5 I think.  I don't know what kind of miniature casserole you are supposed to put in those.  Those unfortunately are going back to the store.

It was a great weekend to spend time with family!

Crock pot Chicken Philly Sandwiches

This Monday we started Parent-Tot swimming lessons at our local community center that are for children 6 months - 3 years old.  I did them three times previously with Caleb and we had a great time.  Right now, both of our children are in that age range so Josh and I get to do them together which is kind of fun. 

The only problem with the lessons is that it gets us home for dinner pretty late in the evening because they don't get over until 6, then we have to change everyone, get in the car and drive home- you get the picture.  We need something super quick for dinner those nights that is ready when we get home.

I found this recipe for Crock pot Chicken Philly Cheese Steaks on Pinterest and modified it a bit for our tastes.  I knew that my husband would love them and I was totally right.


Crock pot Chicken Philly Sandwiches

Ingredients:
                  * 1 pound of raw chicken cut into thin slices
                  * 1 onion cut into thin slices
                  * 2 green peppers cut into thin slices
                  * 1 1/2 tablespoons steak seasoning
                  * 6 hoagie rolls
                  * 6 slices of provolone cheese
                  * 2 tablespoons butter (I use light)

1) Put butter in the bottom of the crock pot and cover with sliced onions and green peppers.

2) Toss chicken with steak seasoning and mix in with the onions and peppers.

3) Cook on low for 3-4 hours. 

4) Put chicken/pepper mixture on rolls and top with provolone cheese. 

I served it with broccoli but any veggie would be great.  It was delicious and the leftovers warmed up well.  It definitely didn't need any extra liquid and the chicken was extremely moist and yummy.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

The big 2-8

Today is my 28th birthday.  I've always been a huge birthday celebrator and have always loved, LOVED my birthday but I think I have reached the age where my birthday is just not as exciting as my kid's birthdays.  Which is really okay with me. 

My wonderful husband surprised me outside of work today as I was leaving at 12:30 with this beauty. 

Isn't he the greatest?  Pumpkin spice latte's are my favorite and he got major points for this one.  Even got a pink coffee sleeve. 

One of my friends at work made some birthday cookies for me and all in all it's been a great day.  Both boys are napping and I should really be using this time to do some laundry or empty the dishwasher or work on painting our powder room.  However... it's my birthday and I feel like I am allowed to sit on the couch and watch the Bethenny show. 

We don't have much planned for the evening.  Hopefully the baby will actually sleep (what's that?) and mommy and daddy can relax a bit.  I dropped a few hints about a cookie cake so hopefully we will get to relax with that. 

And of course the best part of any birthday or any day of the week if getting to hang out with these guys....

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

As long as I can remember, I have been a sports loving girl.  Not so much playing them myself, but watching them. I have always been a baseball fan but when I met Josh, I also became a football fan.  We love Chicago sports teams and the day he married me was also the day he vowed to be a Cubs fan for life.  I'm kidding... (sort of).  We love watching Bears football together and are anticipating the start of a hopefully great season.  I'm definitely one of those fans that use 'we' when talking about the team.  Like I say "We really need to get a new closer." or "Our morale is really down today."  As if I am part of the team.

Thanks to my Aunt, I have been a Cubs fan since before I was born.  Without a doubt, I bleed Cubbie blue- almost to a fault!  As any true Cubs fan can probably tell you, the long stint without a World Series appearance is like an open wound that the media and non-Cubs fans just love to rub salt in. For me, the beginning of each season is always filled with hope.  Even if, like this current season, the experts don't believe the team can do anything impressive.   

They (we, haha) qualified for the playoffs when I was a freshmen and my friends and I watched the playoff games in the basement of the boys dorm.  I made friends with other guys in that dorm based purely on our love for the Cubs, people I would likely never be friends with otherwise. Those two weeks or so of playoff games, was some of the most fun I have ever had.

I'm not even going to go into the reason why our playoffs hopes ended that year only a few outs away from the World Series, but during those last innings of Game 7 in the basement of the smelly boys dorm surrounded by guys that were fellow diehard fans (and my girlfriends who weren't sure they really cared but were there for me in solidarity) was what being a Cubs fan was really about for me.  I think back to all of us glued to the screen, praying out loud for a hit, fingers/toes/elbows/arms crossed for luck, wearing our lucky clothing, afraid to even breathe.  Obviously, it didn't work out for us that year and we were devastated but the feeling of being in that room remains with me whenever I watch the games.

I like to think that being a Cubs fan actually affects my outlook on life.  I am an optimist in almost all areas, something that fellow Cubs fans probably have in common.  There is nothing that I hate more than sports fans who talk about the season being a wash before it even starts.  Anything can happen, that's the beauty of it for me.

 

Sunday is the first Bears football game of the season and I am SO pumped.  Bring on the jerseys, football food, and cold weather.  GO BEARS!!!

Our newly refinished tv stand

Along with big things like painting the walls, trim, and taking down the popcorn ceilings in our entire house, we also have small projects that we are doing in the meantime.  Now that we have an extra level with another family room, we needed another tv stand.  For the first three weeks we lived here, our flat screen tv sat on the floor.  Not great aesthetically or for a house that has a baby and a toddler. 

I wanted a nice tv stand, not plastic or cheap looking, but also not too expensive either.  As we were driving down the street one weekend, we saw a couple moving out of one of the houses down the street.  They put a tv stand out on the curb with a taped sign that said free.  Without hesitation, I made Josh stop the car and get out and get it.  I know, it sounds weird to take a piece of furniture off the street (I mean, there must have been a reason it was there in the first place right?) but we had done this before.  We refinished an old dresser a few years ago and it is still one of my favorite things in our bedroom.  Josh wasn't really on board but I promised him I could see what we could do with it. 

Paint has become one of my best friends and this situation was no different.  A little bit of time, a lot bit of paint and now we have a nice piece to put in our living room that no one would guess was refinished.

This is what it looked like before.  The top was held on by one screw and moved when touched.  The base really wasn't too bad but the old school oak is really not my style.  (Excuse the small child playing cars on it.)

 

The cabinet pulls didn't match and the top completely fell off when we were moving it.

My wonderful husband added brackets and more screws to hold the top on and then took the doors off and we sanded the entire thing.  Not down to the bare wood, but just enough to rough it up a little and make the spray paint stick better. 

Then we sprayed and sprayed and sprayed.  Four cans of spray paint to do this thing.  We used    Rust-oleum American Accents in satin dark walnut.  We love it.  Just the right amount of gloss and a beautiful rich dark brown color. 

                        We put it all back together, added new hardware to the doors, and now it's pretty.

 

 

 

 

I love seeing it finished and since it is a corner unit, it fits perfectly in the corner of our living room with the flat screen on top.  The best part is knowing that we only spent about $25 for it and to me, it looks like we bought it new. 

 

 

 

(Excuse all the toys... I just can't win.)

 

 

Super easy and reasonably fast.  A perfect weekend project.