Eli's First

In celebration of Eli's first birthday, i decided to start this blog so that at least his life documented. Unfortunately for his 3 older siblings, their childhood's will just fade away as i have been negligent in down jotting every little thing.

His birthday this year fell on Friday, but of course, church calls and i had an enrichment thing at 6:30. i passed the kids off to Matt as he walked through the door and everyone was asleep by the time i got home. Hopefully Eli won't remember that his first birthday was celebrated a day late.

Saturday was crazy as well but we all were together by 4 o'clock and we could throw something together for him. Lucky Eli got a "spomone", as we like to call it here. A chocolate cake with 4 layers of different colored frosting. I remember getting them as a kid and i think the official name is a spumoni cake. He was a little timid at first but soon figured out what was up. ( i don't want any comments about the aesthetics of the cake. i don't claim "cake decorator" as one of my endless list of talents!)

At the ripe old age of one, Eli has 2 teeth all the way in on the bottom and 5 (yes, he is ornery) coming in on the top. He finally figured that crawling is more efficient to scooting and it has now become his locomotor movement of choice. We are definitely missing the scoot though. He is going to have abs of steel from his last 5 months of mopping the floor with his rear. his newest fun trick is standing while drinking his sippy cup (just make sure he's not close to the stairs!) so walking may be in his near future (unfortunately for me). he has been our only binkie lover and boy does he love the bink. oh how i long for the days of the thumb sucker. we have been through 9 binkies in the past year. i'm sure when we move from this house, we'll find them all over the place, except for the one lost at the zoo...and the one Target...and the one that we found outside chewed to bits.

He also has started to talk. well, sort of. the only word he says is Iseeeeeeee. That's Isaac for all of you that are out of touch with baby talk. It actually is really cute. He looks at his brother and says, Iseeeeeeee, over and over.

ok on to our other children... Here they are in their easter outfits but obviously not taken on easter as we had 5 inches of snow that day. gotta love colorado in the spring!

Mallory is 3 now and we like to call her our spicy one.

The more children we have, the worse we become as parents. I really hope Eli turns out half decent. We let her get away with everything because we're just too tired (and she's too cute). Everyone pray for her! As you can see, she still loves her two fingers. She has gone through quite the transition when it comes to finger sucking. She started with her thumb as a baby, moved to her two first fingers by the time she was one, and for the past year and a half, she's been consistent with her two middle fingers. We still aren't sure how she doesn't choke--but whatever keeps her from screaming at her older siblings--we'll take.

Isaac and Megan have just finished school and we are desperately trying to find ways to keep them busy. I'm looking ahead and thinking that Aug. 20 can't come soon enough! ok maybe a slight exaggeration. Megan is a great help to have at home. I can't believe that at the end of the month she'll be eight. Am I old enough to have an 8 yr old? She is very good at being the oldest child. Poor Isaac has 2 moms (and sometimes 3, as Mallory loves to boss him around from time to time). Megan is very responsible and mature. She was sad on the last day of school to leave second grade because she was her teacher's little runner. She made daily trips to the copy room, office, pop machines, and other random errands for her teachers (she had 2) and i think she got used to her cushy life as teacher's pet. Third grade will be a whole new experience for her. She'll be back to the bottom of the totem pole and will have to start her schmoozing from scratch. It's good practice for her.

Isaac made it through kindergarten just fine. I can't believe that we were so nervous about sending him. I can't imagine what he would have done this year if we would have kept him back and in preschool one more year. We were so worried about him being the youngest in his class and him maybe not being mature enough to handle kindergarten just yet, but he proved us wrong and flew right through without any issues. Whew!!! Now on to first grade and a whole new set of worries for mom.

The end of each year the kindergarten puts on a play that they have been working on all year. Each of the 90 kids have parts and sing, dance, blah blah blah. Anyway it's a huge production. Our shy little Isaac, playing the part of "Ujama, the Wildebeest", in his costume made of egg carton and tin foil got up there and delivered his many memorized lines like a champ. Matt and I even got a surprise to see him get down to "Who let the dogs out"--something we hadn't previously rehearsed. Our son is definitely a white boy.

Matt and I are doing well- just the same old grind. bishopric--enrichment--bishopric--soccer--bishopric-- you get the idea.