quotes

Since the end of the year is approaching, I thought I would gather up some memorable quotes uttered by my dear son Eli this year. I just love my son.

"Mommy, I have to go poopy now and I am going to go a huuuge one, bigger than YOU!"

Eli: "Mom Mom has a big house..."
Me: "Yes, she does."
Eli: "How did she get that house?"
Me: "Money."
Eli: "We don't have money..."
Me: "No, we don't."

Eli: (on the potty) "Mommy, they are talking."
Me: "Who is talking?"
Eli: "The poopies in my hiney."

Eli: (poking my love handles) "Mommy, why is this squishy?"

Me: "Wow Eli, a year ago today Evie came out of me."
Eli: "But how did she come out?"
Me: "God made her come out."
Eli: "Yes, but HOW did she come out?"
Me: "Want some more goldfish?"

Eli: "Mommy, I want to say something to God!"
Me: "Ok, what do you want to say?"
Eli: "GOD, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Eli: (yelling from the bathroom) "Ah, this is the most terrible day!! I peed on the wall, I peed on the floor and I peed on the toilet!!"

Eli: "Mommy, I want to see God for real."

Eli: (after hitting his head on the ceiling of the car) "Ow!!"
Me: "Aw Eli, I know that hurt, but you are a tough cookie."
Eli: (serious as can be) "Mommy, I am not a tough cookie, I don't have chocolate chips in me!"

Eli: (playing with his stuffed Mickey Mouse) "Mommy look, Mickey is popping and locking!"

Eli: (after being told that the president makes the rules) "...like not being allowed to say 'butt'"?

Eli: (dancing, after being told not to pick his nose) "No Mommy, it is a new dance called the finger in the nose dance!"

Eli: (after seeing me look at my dog bite wound) "No Mommy, don't touch it! God will fix it."

Eli: (on our way to Mom Mom's house with donuts) "Mommy, I will share my donut with Mom Mom....but do you now what my favorite thing to share is? Love."

Eli: "Mommy, what did the bear say when he lost his socks? I lost my socks! Get it?? Socks!! Get it??? Hahaha!"

Eli: "Daddy, what does pee and spit mixed together make?"

lovely

Evangeline....we don't know her as Evengeline...just Evie. She is almost 19 months old. She has gone 18 months with only 2 words: her first word, 'Eli' and her second, 'up'. At her 18 month appointment, the doctor said in two months if she is still not saying anymore words, we would have to involve speech therapists. So I had my prayer warriors, aka my women's bible study, pray for Evie to speak to us. Over the last 2 weeks she is talking up a storm! Most of it is crazy babbles, screams and delightful banter. But she now says 'mee' for meow, 'hop' for rabbit, 'pwissss' for please, 'puh' for pooh bear, 'cup' and a few other words. This communication is so special because it just brings us all closer!

Evie loves giving zerberts to our bellies and wrestling with Daddy....but she is really all about her big brother. Not only was Eli her first word, but every morning when she wakes up I will hear in the monitor "ella, ella, ella!' which is how she says Eli. He makes her laugh constantly and also makes her angry a lot too. But she truly is enamored with him and it is so heart warming to see.

Evie delights in making funny faces. She can make a scared face and a surprised face when asked to. But it is her faces she just normally makes just to be funny that is hysterical.

He takes such good care of her too. She likes to so somersaults, but it takes her a bit to get all the way over. When she gets in position, Eli always goes over and helps her roll over. He keeps her safe by saying "Evie no, don't do that!!!" when she wants to go behind the television or any other places she isn't allowed. He loves her.

This little gem is such a joy and I love her dearly. She is so fun that I cannot wait to see how her personality develops!

tornado tim!

Eli is obsessed with tornadoes. It is a crazy obsession. He has checked out every tornado book out of the library that they have...multiple times! He was a tornado for Halloween. He loves to watch videos on the computer of a certain tornado chaser named Tornado Tim. He LOVES him and wants to be him so badly. We even play TT (as I like to call him...'cause I'm cool like that) with one of his Diego Jeeps and he has a matchbox car inside the jeep who is TT and he drives around looking for tornadoes. He often asks to pull the car over so that we can pretend to watch and videotape a tornado. Whenever he has a crayon in his hand, he draws tornadoes every time. Ummm, so do you believe this is an obsession yet??? :)

So more than a month ago, I sent TT an email and told him of Eli's love for tornadoes. He wrote back and said he would try to send him something. After a few weeks went by and I didn't get anything, I was happy I decided not to tell Eli that I contacted him. BUT.....last week, there was an envelope with Eli's name on it! When I saw it was from Tim Baker, I started to scream! Eli was so excited and we opened it right away! He sent Eli photos of his tornado chaser car and him on film because he is on a show called Tornado Road on the Weather Channel. He also sent a tornado chaser book. This little boy is in HEAVEN!

birthday 2 and 3

Eli had 3 birthdays this month....one with his friends, one with my side of the family and one with Chad's parents. Now, you may think I did it that way so that I wouldn't have to host and you would be correct.....just kidding. Anyway, Eli is a lucky kid to have so many friends and family that love him.

tornado cake as requested

devouring said tornado cake

eli's expression when he saw that nana and poppy got him a bike!

who knew desean jackson liked bikes with training wheels....

the days was crazy for evie too and during dinner she just passed out. it was cute.

celebrating at my parents' house....eli loves his 'neminems...and consequently, so does mommy.

more cake....

the ultimate....real golf clubs! goodbye plastic taped up cheapo clubs!

evie doing what she does best....bite and eat EVERYTHING!

eli strutting his stuff

i am sorry, but this 4 year old kid is awesome.

giggles

The belly laughs that come from this girl are just mesmerizing!

birthday 1

Eli had his 4th birthday party with his awesome friends at the United Sports Training Center. We LOVE it there! This was a run and fun theme where the kids playted running games, did a parachute, tag and more. I was so thankful to have almost everyone we invited actually come. Eli was very happy to have all of his friends in one place. :)

some running fun

class list of eli's 4th birthday attendees

balloons!

balloons on the parachute!

i made this cake...in case you can't tell (as most people can't anyway), it is in the shape of a tornado. just in case you were wondering, yes that is chad on the cake.

friends enjoying the spread

eli wating only the icing, as usual.

the fam! happy birthday, eli! evie's thinking, 'this party is lame, i want to take a nap'

bite

Me and the fam go to the park up the street. The kids and Chad will play and I will go for my run. It was a typical Friday evening and as I was coming around the loop there was a dog leashed to a woman who I took to be the owner. As I was running up to them to pass, I noticed that the woman was not pulling the dog over and the dog was taking up the whole path so as I passed, I went up on the grass a little. As I did this, the dog jumped up on me. And I thought, 'wow, his claws must be sharp because this hurts'....then I screamed two times because of the pain. I looked down and saw the dog (a medium sized dog) still attached to me! I fell back and it let go. I assessed the injuries and then looked at the woman, who was profusely apologizing. I stupidly was like, 'no biggie' and walked away. I was in shock a bit. Luckily Chad and two friends of mine were at the playground and the two friends saw what happened. They asked if I got her info, if the dog was up on its shots, etc....of course I was too in shock to even ask so I had to run up to her and get the info. Turns out she was the dog sitter and the owner was away. I felt bad because she was crying and I am sure just as traumatized as I was. I went to the doctor the next day and he said there was some tissue damage, but it would heal fine with antibiotics. The below photos show the damage....so don't look if you get queasy easily or happen to be eating something while reading this post. Problem is, now when I run I am super scared of dogs and don't want my kids touching any we don't know anymore. This experience has taught me that with any kind of animal, you just don't know what will set them off.

This was on my hip...you can see my hip bone a little on the right. This was the bloodier one.

This was on my left thigh. This is the one that had tissue damage.

And this is the bite a week later actually getting better. I bruise easily.

famous!

In September, Eli got the chance to be on a Philadelphia news show called Good Day Philadelphia. A friend of mine and her daughter who is just like Eli was going on the show to help play with toys and promote Discovery Toys, a distributor that sells GREAT learning toys. They were doing a demonstration and needed a boy with brown hair. We got there early so we walked around the city a little which we never get to do, but we need to do more because it was wonderful! We saw the liberty bell and we told Eli that the constitution was signed there. He asked what the constitution was and said it was a list of rules....so he responds "Like not being allowed to say 'butt'?" Here are photos from our adventure. Thanks Cathy and Ella for thinking of us and inviting us! We had a great time!

Yes, they do match and yes, they did it on purpose.

Evie and The Signer

family love in the green room....yes, it really was painted green!

behind the scenes!

both of them pooped from getting up at 5:00am....

apples

I mean well. I really do. I want my children to have many experiences. I feel like experiences are more remembered and cherished over material things. Last week, Highland Orchards was our experience: farm animals, swings, a faster-than-the-speed-of-light slide, mums, pumpkins, apple picking and cider doughnuts were all on the list to be experienced. We were ready to have some fun adventures. It was a wonderful morning until the apple picking. First problem: the apples were picked from most of the nearby trees so I had Eli on my hip and Evie walking with me for ooohhhh, about 5 miles! Ok, maybe not 5 miles, but it felt like it! But there Eli was, holding his little apple bag and ready to pick some apples so I could deal with the walking.

Then we finally found some there were pickable, but they were up high. So I had lift Eli up. He couldn't for the life of him pick an apple off of the tree. Each time, it fell out of his hands then he would fall into hysterics. What were these apples coated with, Crisco? Then Evie would be down for two seconds while this was going on and I would look down at her only to see a rotten apple in her mouth. Lovely. This was the trend, back and forth: Eli in hysterics, Evie with rotten, dirty apples in her mouth. Then, Eli wanted to leave with only 3 apples in our bag. No way, I thought...we were getting our money's worth. I had plans....important plans for these apples. But the meltdown already was hitting astronomical proportions. So I quickly picked a bunch myself and started back with my brood. My lovely OCD son wanted me to pick him AND Evie up so that he could not step on bad apples that had fallen off of the tree. I admit, I had a few squish under my feet which is not the best feeling....but I could not hold both.

So here we came, back to our car with Eli crying, Evie falling off of my hip, barely holding onto my bag of apples. So after all this trauma and drama.....I decided to go back and get some cider doughnuts from the bakery there and we ate them outside. No more meltdowns, no more tears, just the three of us, happy as clams. Those doughnuts are fat laden pieces of heaven. So suffice it to say, I had my camera with me the whole time, but only got a few shots. And for the money shot....i.e. the three of us eating doughnuts...well I gave up on my camera b that point and will have to just remember in my mind and my heart.

photography

for all of you non-facebook people, please click here to see my new website! be sure to check the blog for recent photos and also please pass along my info to any friends and family! i am currently booked until the beginning of december, then i will only be taking maternity and newborn sessions until march 2011.

running

I ran in my first race on Friday night. It was my frirst official race. Of course I don't count the races we had when we were kids. You know the ones...when you run and run and feel like your legs are going to fall off, arms flailing in the air, heart pumping so hard you thought it just might beat out of your chest because you had to beat your friend. And I don't count the runs in high school sports either. For field hockey, we had to run 2 miles (I believe) and I came in second a lot of the time, only to see my lovely friend Christiana come in first every time. One time I was beating her and was so bent on coming in first for once that I smashed my knee into the guardrail and only stopped running because people were telling me I was bleeding.

Even though I don't count those races, they hold one important factor: I am actually a bit competitive. In board games, I am all about fairness and hate trash talkers like my husband. In life, I am always about sharing. But running...I am feel the competitive spirit boiling up in me.

So back to the 5k....all the runners are standing there, huddled together, waiting for the official start. I look around and there are runners from all walks of life: older and younger, tone and not so tone, some listened to music, others preferred to listen to their own breathing and the cheers from the crowd. I wasn't nervous at all, which is not like me. I run 3.5 miles almost every day....BUT, it is a slower run...may even be classifed as a jog. But at the time, I wasn't even worried about how I would place in the race. I just didn't want to be last.

And then the race started......FAST! Everyone just jumped out of their shoes practically and started booking down the street! I was winded after the first 2 minutes! I had two friends ahead of me and one behind. But then as everyone found their stride and settled in, I did as well. And then I was on fire. My competiveness just took over and I ran at a steady pace the whole time. None of this jogging I do during my normal runs. I took long strides, let my music push my pace and let my mind push myself. It was exhilirating seeing the families that came to cheer on their loved ones. I felt so cool when there was a water tent and the people would hold out a cup of water for you. Not for me, thanks! I am on a roll! Most runners who did take the cup threw it in their own faces anyway. I was passing people left and right, it was awesome!

It was two laps to the finish and as I was completing the first lap, I was thinking I could be in the top 20 in this race. And then I saw it. About a minute after I finished my first lap, I saw runners passing me on their way to the finish line....THE FINISH LINE! I was JUST starting my second lap out of two laps and they were finishing! Sooooo, then my thinking changed. Ok, mayyyyybe I was not in the top 20....I was then trying not to be in the bottom 50!

I ended up coming in 120th out of 321 with a time of 23:50. I was happy with that. The best time was 14 minutes! I cannot even fathom how fast he had to run to get that time. But now I have caught a bug...they were handing out fliers for the Turkey Trot, a 5k on Thanksgiving morning around the Downingtown Golf course. I like it. Anyone want to join me? :)

jumper

small house + active kid = the need to use our noggins to come up with energy releases. please note that there were couch cushions at the bottom of the stairs 8 stairs he jumped and no child was hurt during this stunt. :)

6 years ago, on august 28th, 2004....chad and i were married. it has been a tough road, i am not going to lie. it still is tough at times. lots of roller coaster ups and downs, twists and turns. scared, worried, laughing, excited, joyful, frustrated, carefree. to celebrate the roller coaster ride we are on, we went to longwood gardens on our anniversary and just had fun. no kids, no time constraints, no fear of looking stupid. we let go and actually had the most fun we have had in a long time. it was a gorgeous day and we reconnected. loveliness.

tornadoes

tornadoes
obsession
eli

library books
tornado in a bottle craft
tornado videos

questions after question
challenging my brain
now, a rogue scholar

are you ready to get schooled by the cutest 3.5 year old in the planet?

sunglasses