Clean-cut boys

Aren't these the cutest kids you ever did see???  I cut everyone's hair today and decided they were too adorable to not take some pictures of, so we set up a little photo shoot on the bed.  I forgot how squirmy Mr. Wiggles is (aka Connor) so it lasted for approximately 90 seconds, but we got a couple cute ones.  Merry Christmas!

(Connor looks too grown up with the way I cut his hair - he's not allowed to be that grown up yet!)

Christmas in our little home

We only brought one box of Christmas decorations with us, so it didn't take us very long to put them up this year!  My friend Kristin gave us a little 4-ft. Christmas tree she found at a garage sale and it works perfectly!  It's fun to just have a simpler Christmas this year.  The tree fits just right on our end table and it actually works out very nicely to have it away from Connor's reach!  When we first brought it out of the box, Jeremy was a little concerned.  I think his exact words were, "It looks hairy".  Haha.  It was a little mangy looking, but after some TLC and some rearranging of the branches, I think it looks great!

Merry Christmas!!!

Potty training - a very belated update

I had a few people ask me how our potty-training went and I realized I never shared.  We potty-trained Eli way back in August, but it went so well I forgot to talk about it. :)

Potty-training Eli was one of the easiest things in my experience as a mother.  (Now, before you get mad at me, remember that Connor has never slept more than 3-4 hours at a time!  And he's almost 9 months old!  I have trials too!  I digress...)  Anyway, so potty-training was God's gift to me. :)  Eli was so ready and great, it really only took about a week.  I gathered all the helpful hints from family members and friends before I started and that made it a really great experience.  Here's what worked for us:

• Rewards: Eli got a few M&Ms if he went pee in the potty chair and then he got to pick a "big candy" (I got an assortment out of the bulk section at the store) if he went poop.
• My cousin told me about pouring a little warm water over the boy parts to help him go - this worked like a charm!  He would almost always start to pee when that warm water got on him.  This helped him to learn what it felt like to go and eventually he could do it on his own.
• Underwear from the beginning and never going back to diapers!  Several people told me this and although I was afraid, it was a really good idea.  There was no confusion and we were consistent.  Of course we just stayed home for a few days, but that worked.
• Taking him to go very often in the beginning.  I took him about every 30-45 minutes to prevent accidents  until he started to be able to tell me when he had to go.  We had a few accidents the first few days, but usually he would stop once he realized he was starting to pee, then tell me, and then finish in the potty chair.
• Fun underwear: We got one set with cars/trucks on it and one with Thomas the Train.  Definitely a hit!

That's all I can remember right now.  My brain is mushy from lack of sleep. :)  The first week I still put him in a diaper at night, but one night he got up at 4am and said he needed to go potty, so Jeremy took him and then went to put his diaper back on and he said "No!  I wear underwear now!" and so he put him in underwear and he only had 1 accident after that.  Seriously incredible.  I know I lucked out.

So there you go!  That was our crash course potty-train in a week experience.  It took awhile longer until Eli would tell me every time he needed to go (I would just take him pretty often), but for the last couple months he's always told me when he needs to go.  After the first couple weeks we got rid of the potty chair (hated cleaning that -yuck!) and now he just goes on the toilet.  What a big boy!

Thanksgiving

As I mentioned before, we went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.  My sister Wendy lives there with her husband  Michael and their 4 kids.  They have a beautiful home and great kids and we had a wonderful time!  We got there Tuesday night and then left Saturday morning.  We were busy cooking and playing and I realized after I left that I didn't get a single picture of Wendy let alone of us together.  Bummer!  The food was absolutely delicious though and we had some amazing weather too!  Poor Jeremy got sick on Thanksgiving and ended up losing his dinner later that night. :( He was pretty much out of it all day Friday so he didn't get to enjoy the leftovers or the gorgeous day.  It was over 60 degrees and sunny!  We went on a walk in their beautiful neighborhood and played outside in their big backyard.

Here are some pictures from the week:

 Mmmm apple pie.  We also made pecan and pumpkin.

 These babies are 5 weeks apart.  Unfortunately they are at the age where they could not be left alone on the floor together. :)  They were way too interested in grabbing each other's faces!

 Cutie-pie Vanessa - she's almost 3 (4 months older than Eli)

 Wendy's kids love to color and do crafts.  Eli had a great time!

  Jeremy laying low on Thanksgiving - Vanessa fell asleep snuggling him. :)

The feast!  Wendy and I were both trying to quickly take pictures before dinner.  We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus, salad, sweet potato casserole, jello, rolls, and corn.  Mmm-mmm!

In their front yard getting ready to go on a walk.

I also forgot to get a picture of the kids on the trampoline.  It was Eli's first time on it and he was a little apprehensive at first, but then he really enjoyed it.  It was fun to see the look on his face as he was getting the hang of it.

On Saturday we left in the morning and drove through the Amish country.  Again I hardly took any pictures, but we had fun seeing all the horses and buggies, driving through the beautiful countryside and stopping at a few shops.

My only picture - a horse.  I'm so lame!

We then last minute decided to drive through Gettysburg as well.  I had never been and thought it would be neat.  We definitely need to go again because really all we did was drive around without any tour or anything.  But it was neat to see the battlefields and to think about what took place there.  Jeremy had been before so he gave me a little history lesson. :)

All in all it was a great trip!  The kids got along really well and it was fun to have a one-on-one visit with Wendy.  They have been all alone back east forever so this was the first time in 8 years that she spent Thanksgiving with family!  Crazy.  We were happy we could be that family!!

To tide you over...

I had 2 people in the last 20 minutes tell me I need to blog, so I figured I better get something up here! :)  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in NJ with my sister and her family and have been very very busy getting ready for Christmas/flying to CA next week/sister's wedding, so I haven't had a lot of time.

SO....for now, I will just share this absolutely adorable video of my cute children.  (I put this on facebook so if you're on there sorry for the repeat).  Eli is feeding Connor and goes on autopilot for a second and puts the spoon in his own mouth.  It's pretty entertaining.  Love these boys!

And speaking of boys I love, here's a picture of my 3 favorite people in the whole entire universe.  I love my family!!!*

*(That was for my mom - during a family vacation as a kid she would not stop saying that over and over and we all made fun of her for it - she still says it when we're all together.  And now I'm saying it too!  Oh dear.)

Connor

(See Eli in 2 posts below)

This baby has my heart.  As you can see he is Mr. Smiley.  He LOVES to be looked at and laughed at and is very easy to smile and respond.  I'm really glad he's so happy all the time because he has been a real challenge in the sleep department.  He had really bad acid reflux and still has it, but luckily we have medication for him now.  He used to wake up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and was nearly impossible to soothe.  He has always been hard to feed - eating is not very soothing to him.  He eats in about 5 minutes tops and has never been one to nurse for comfort or cuddling.  :(  The sleep is getting a little better - no more long periods of screams, but he still wakes up about 3 times a night, sometimes more, very rarely less, to nurse and go back to sleep. :)

BUT...there is more to Connor then a bad sleeper!  (And don't worry - I still adore him and love him a ton.  I've actually adjusted to no sleep and although I am tired all the time, it's not that burning barely-keep-my-eyes open kind of tired like it used to be.  Lovely.)  Moving on...so Connor is a mover!  I think he'll be crawling really soon.  He's been rolling all over the place for a long time and a few weeks ago he started the army crawl/scoot thing and that usually gets him wherever he wants to go.  He can also get up on all fours and rock back and forth so crawling is just a step away!  He loves to play with everything, especially Eli's toys (hehe) and does this cute little open/close his hand thing to grab things.  He just opens and closes his hand over and over.  Often this just pushes the object away, but it's cute.

Connor is starting to eat foods which is fun.  He enjoys squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, green beans, pears, apricots, peaches, oatmeal, and now barley.  For awhile he would only eat purees and would pull all sorts of awesome faces when I tried to give him anything more solid.  But he recently started eating Cheerios and as of yesterday banana, so I think he's starting to adjust.  I think it's nice when they are able to eat a few finger foods for when you're out and about.  He still makes a funny face, but then he wants more!  He's also started to become very messy when he eats since he tries to grab the spoon over and over...the fun begins!

(And yes, he has 2 bottom teeth, which he modeled so well in the picture!)

Even though the nights sleeping is not progressing too well, Connor has been on more of a schedule during the day which is really nice.  He takes a morning and afternoon nap and occasionally another somewhere if we're out running errands.  His afternoon nap almost always coincides with some or all of Eli's nap which is WONDERFUL!  That saves me every day. :)

Connor also LOVES music.  Ever since he was a newborn, he would love it when we would sing or play music.  He would just stop and stare with his big beautiful blue eyes and it is so sweet.  He recently started dancing and it is so cute!  We managed to get a video of it and it's pretty adorable.  Also in the video, you'll see him kicking and moving his hands in circles over and over - he does this whenever he gets really excited or agitated or hungry...so he does it a lot. :)  Cute!

Overall, Connor is just a happy sweet kid.  He loves Eli and loves to be on the floor doing whatever he's doing. He loves to be looked at and held of course and loves to smile.  He is pudgy and squishy and kissable and every good thing a baby should be. :)  We're so glad he's in our family!  

 Oh, and he started doing this funny face where he sucks in one side of his bottom lip and the other side sticks out.  What a cutie.

 

Video of Connor dancing (just ignore our awesome singing)

2 more things

I thought of 2 more things as we drove to the airport to pick up Jeremy tonight.  Eli says "ya" like "I picked this up for ya".  Not exactly our finest example of grammar, but it's pretty funny to hear.  He also has an impeccable sense of direction.  He knows which bridge takes us toward which store and which tunnel is which.  There are lot of tunnels and bridges in this hilly city, so it's really amazing to hear him say "Homestead Grays (or gways) Bridge", "Fort Pitt Tunnel", "Squirrel Hill Tunnel", etc.  That's all!  I'll get Connor up in the next couple days...

These Boys, starting with Eli

I've been wanting to document everything that the boys are up to at this stage of life, but I keep putting it off, afraid I'll forget something or not have enough time to do them justice.  But let's be honest, even documenting a little is better than nothing at all.  So enough procrastinating!  Here's what Eli is up to these days. (warning: very long)

Ah, Eli.  I love this kid.  He is so wonderful and so crazy 2-year-old-I-want-to-go-berserk all at the same time. :)  He loves to run down the hall while yelling at the top of his lungs in his low manly way (he has a very unusually low voice and it's quite entertaining).  He also has recently learned how to jump and likes to jump on and off of everything...we're working on that.  He loves to "swing the bat!" and practice baseball - a bat usually being a water bottle or pencil or something. :) (We're getting him a real bat for Christmas - well, not a real real bat, but a good 2-yr old version).

Eli is a TALKER.  He wakes up full of energy and talks my leg off.  I love it.  It's really funny to hear him say things we say.  For example, he calls me hon' (or hun) as in "Honey".  Yep.  I guess I say this a lot and now he does too.  Haha.  He'll say things like, "Where we going today hon'?" or "What we having for lunch hon'?"  It's pretty hilarious.  He says all sorts of things and has a great vocabulary - until we go somewhere new.  Then I can hardly get him to say 2 words together.  He's a major people-watcher and likes to observe everything for awhile before feeling at ease.

Eli has been really into drawing lately.  He will sit at the table for a good chunk of time and draw circles and snowmen and kings and whataver else he tells me.  (Some is actually recognizable and it's pretty exciting).  He loves to color and draw pictures and write letters ("lellers").  He can actually write his name all by himself now!  It helps that we gave him one of the easiest names ever to write.  All lines, no curves...and only three letters, but he's proud and we're proud of him too. It's adorable.  He also likes to "write directions" - or squiggles over and over on a piece of paper.  He sees me doing this a lot since we've lived here (Pittsburgh is confusing, okay?!), so he's started doing it too.  It's pretty cute.

He has also developed very good manners.  All that reminding him to say please has really paid off.  He says it for everything and it's really sweet.  He's also learned that saying please greatly increases his chances of getting what he wants, but he usually doesn't abuse that too much :).  It's nice to hear him talk nicely.  Last Sunday he was so extremely tired during dinner.  We'd had 2 late nights on Friday and Saturday and then Sundays are always crazy with no naps.  It was 5:55 pm and we were eating and he looks at me with barely opened eyes and says, "Mommy, please give me a nap?" and I obliged.  He went to bed and slept clear until morning.  What a sweetheart.

Eli has always loved to help me in the kitchen.  At our old house he would scoot a chair over to the counter all by himself, but now that our chairs are on carpet it's a little more difficult.  But he says "Please get me a chair?" and he comes up and plays with the measuring cups while saying things like "quarter cup buttermilk", "cup of flour", "I put it in the oven", etc.  It's awesome.

He adores his brother to pieces and loves to make him laugh. The other day I put them both down for a nap at the same time (I usually try to get one asleep first), and they spent 40 minutes giggling at each other before I finally just took Connor out until Eli fell asleep.  Hard to get mad when they're being sweet with each other. The other day he kept saying to Jeremy, "This is my brother Connor!" like he was so excited.  As Connor gets more mobile, Eli is adjusting to someone else taking his toys!  It's pretty funny to see determined little Connor going for his blocks or cars or trains or whatever and Eli saying "Don't gwab that Connor! No Connor!  Stop gwabbing dat!"  Of course he is sometimes too rough with him, but as Connor grows and Eli learns, they are really starting to have a good time together.

That's about all for now!  Everyday I think of more things he says that I need to write down, and I'm really going to try to start doing that.  He is a great kid.  He drives me nutso sometimes and really tests my patience a lot of times (which is good for me, as I remind myself daily), but he also is my buddy and brings me so much joy.  I love you Eli!

Oh, and here are a bunch of pictures.  Enjoy.

...stay tuned for Connor....

Visit from Mom!

My mom came last week and it was so wonderful.  She flew in late Tuesday night and then left a little after noon on Saturday to go on to Philadelphia to see my sister.  We had a great visit with her!  It was so nice to have her come see Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately the boys were (and still are) getting over illnesses and I managed to get an ear infection while she was here, but we still had a good time!

On Wednesday we took it easy in the morning since she was adjusting to the 3 hour time change.  Then we decided to go on a little hike at our favorite park.  It was an absolutely GORGEOUS walk and I was so glad we did it!  I carried Connor in the front pack and my mom pushed Eli in the stroller.  It was all downhill going so we had a good workout coming back. :)  Then we ate lunch and let Eli play at the playground.  When it was time to go I realized I didn't have my keys....so I ran/walked the entire hike again looking for them because I thought I had them in my pocket.  Well, after realizing they were probably just in the car, we called AAA (thank you Mom for having that!), waited around for awhile and finally got in the car!  Although it was a real bummer to be so lame-brained and lock my keys in the car, I thought it was just about the best scenario to do so - my mom kept me company, the weather was beautiful, and we were at the park!  So the kids were happy.  (Oh, we tried calling Jeremy too, but he didn't have his keys).

(and I forgot my camera so these are phone pictures)

So after that 3 hour excursion we went home to give the boys naps and spent the rest of the day talking, eating, and playing at home.  On Thursday Eli had a 2.5yr checkup (weird that they do that here) so my mom stayed with Connor.  I'm blanking on what else we did that day, but that night she took us out to dinner at this yummy Indian restaurant.  Fun!

Then Friday Jeremy took me to the doctor while my mom watched the kids since my ear was in very bad shape.  It was mucho hurting and plugged and I was dizzy, so Jeremy was nice enough to drive me.  I got on some medication and started to feel a bit better, so that afternoon we did some Christmas shopping and then went to Jeremy's school for dinner that evening.  Every Friday they have "B**Rs" (aka beers) they call it where, yep, they have several kegs of beer and dinner for the MBA students and their families.  Luckily the beer is outside and the food is inside so we just get to enjoy a free dinner every week!  It's a nice way to check off another week and visit with some friends.  We weren't planning on going but we went to pick Jeremy up since we were out and about and then just decided to go ahead and go!  My mom was a good sport :) and she got to see the school which was fun.  Turns out they had Indian food again but it was good!

Then that night my mom gave us the best gift ever - she babysat so we could go on a date!  It was our first night out sans kids since moving to Pittsburgh 3.5 months ago!  Let's just say it was long overdue.  We had a wonderful time getting dressed up and going out all by ourselves! :)  We got Connor to bed and then left Eli to my mom and took off!

When trying to decide what to do for our date, Jeremy had a great idea to go on the "Duquesne Incline".  It's this trolley kind of thing that is right on the river bottom and it goes up the cliff to lots of restaurants and shops.  I read a bit about it and found out that it was originally opened in 1877 and then redone in 1964.  It goes up 400 feet in just under 800 feet of track.  It had a great view of the city right where the 2 rivers converge.  It was very romantic of course. :)

We walked a bit and went to this really nice restaurant and split some fried calamari and the amazing decadent chocolate cake.  All the restaurants up there have amazing views with windows everywhere and it was very fun!  It was quiet and slow-moving and it was so nice just to talk and take our time.  THANK YOU MOM!!

At the top of the incline:

 Yummy!  It was pretty dark and I didn't want to turn on my flash, so not the best picture, but oh my was it good!

 View from inside the restaurant.  Stunning!

 We did a little more shopping on Saturday morning and then took my mom to the airport around noon.  We had a great time and were so glad she came.  Seeing family made us excited to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Wendy and then Christmas with both families!

I found it

(Following up to my halloween post, see below)

Same outfit, same couch.  Different kid, different house.  Hey, that kind of rhymes! :)






















          Eli - 6 months, Oct. 2009                                                         Connor - 7 months, Oct. 2011

Happy Halloween!

I've probably said this on here on a past Halloween, but I'm really not a fan of this holiday.  Anyone else feel the same?  I know a lot of people get really into it, but I'm just a party pooper I guess.  Oh well.  However, we did got to our ward's Halloween Party/Chili Cook-off on Saturday.  It was so packed!  Holy cow there were people everywhere.  They ran out of everything and I think there were at least a dozen giant crockpots of chili.  Pretty crazy.

We also woke up to SNOW on Saturday!  This wasn't too crazy, since we're used to it often snowing the end of October, but it was a little weird.  It actually snowed most of the day, but it's all gone now.  Our trunk-or-treat ended up going inside the church since it was quite cold outside.

Getting bundled to go to the store on Saturday:

 Eli dressed up as a soccer player (thank you to Grammy for the hand-me-down soccer outfit) and Connor was a pumpkin (same costume Eli wore 2 years ago! I need to find those pictures to compare).  These boys are pretty cute!

 Best shot I could get of both of them.

We may or may not go trick-or-treating tonight.  The boys have both been sick, so we may just stay in from the cold and make caramel apples instead.  Sounds good to me!

1 Mini down, 7 to go!

Jeremy had finals last week and finished his first "mini"!  Tepper has mini semesters that are only about 8 weeks long.  Crazy!  So he finished his first 5 classes of his MBA and started a new mini yesterday.  We decided to celebrate by taking a trip down to Columbus!  We'd been wanting to take a trip there since that is our temple and it just so happens that Jeremy's cousin lives there so we had a place to stay!

So Jeremy finished his last final on Friday about 4:30 and I picked him up and we started the drive.  Connor spent pretty much all of the first half of the drive crying, but finally he settled down and slept for quite awhile.  We pulled in around 9:00 (we hit really bad traffic leaving Pittsburgh) and had a fun time visiting with his cousin Marie and her family.  Marie and Fletcher have eight (!!) children - 7 boys and then a girl. :)  Let's see if I can remember - Bradford, Donovan, Spencer, Connor, Ellery, Owen, Patrick, and Lillian (goes by Rosie).  Whew! Two of her boys are on missions, or at least they were last week.  Her oldest son just came home yesterday!  We had no idea he was coming home so soon - she was so nice to let us come anyway.

So we met the other 5 boys and her little girl.  Marie was amazing and watched our boys Saturday morning so we could go to the temple together.  Neither of us could remember the last time we actually went together!  It was so nice.  Eli had a great time playing with Patrick, Owen, and Rosie.  Connor was happy some of the time, but the poor kid has been really sick this week so I think he just wasn't feeling well.

Pictures in front of Maries' house:

 Eli, Patrick, Rosie, Owen, and Connor.  Poor Connor was not very happy. :(

 Patrick (almost 5 year-old) took this picture. :)

 They had fun!

After we returned, she fixed us a great lunch and then we decided to hit the road.  Both kids were very tired, so we decided to take advantage of nap time in the car.  And boy, was that a good idea!  Connor fell asleep the second we drove off, then we stopped by the temple on our way out (Eli wanted to see it) and then within 2 minutes of getting back in the car Eli was asleep - and he slept for THREE HOURS!  Ah!  He woke up about 20 minutes before we got home.  It was amazing.  Connor woke up after about an hour, quietly played for an hour, and then slept another hour and a half too, so it was pretty much perfect.  I guess that was a blessing from going to the temple.  Hooray!

Yea for the Columbus temple!

We also enjoyed having Jeremy around on Monday before he had school stuff start up again on Tuesday.  Now he's back to it and we're hanging in there until the next break - Thanksgiving!  This cooler weather is getting me excited for the holidays.  We're going to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Wendy in New Jersey and we're very excited!  She is a super cook and we've never been to visit them, so it will be fun.  Now that we're "east-coasters" we have to stick together. :)

So that was last week!  I have a lot to catch up on about the boys.  They are into so many fun things these days and I really want to document everything.  These are fun stages for both of them.  Oh, and my mom is coming to visit next week!  Woohoo!  She'll be here for a few days and then she flies on to NJ to see Wendy.  We're excited and hoping we have nice weather so we can show off Pittsburgh!

Fall Colors in the Park

It's crazy how much can change in a few weeks.  We had a beautiful clear day today, so we decided to head to the park for a little bit.  Jeremy was sick of studying for finals (this week!) so he took a break and came with us.  I was bummed I forgot my camera, but I snapped a few pictures with my phone.  It's fun to compare them to these pictures that were just taken 3.5 weeks ago!  Crazy.  The leaves are a-changin'...and a-fallin'.  Anyway, here are the pictures. :)

(Again, sorry about the low-quality phone pics)

Oh, and isn't this baby the cutest?!?  Ah!  I love him.  He's been enjoying the swings lately and it's really adorable.

And these are from a week or two ago...

Love these cuties!