Still Figuring It Out

Here are a few more pics of Eli helping Daddy. This time they were building the rolling shelves that go under the activity table. I don't know what it is but Eli sees a box and goes totally nutso like a hyper little spaz. It cracks us up :)

Eli had quite the busy weekend putting his activity table together (with some help from Daddy of course), climbing shelves and trying to leap over toys :) He also turned 11 months old yesterday. Wow! This is such a fun age and we're enjoying almost every minute of it. What isn't fun at 11 months is getting professional pictures taken. This kid wanted to call all the shots and those shots just weren't purty. teehe

Oh my word, its been a week since I last posted. Oops. Well, I'm here now and I'm here to tell you that I just spent $10.68 (including tax) on the items below at Kroger tonight. Woohoo!! I saved $25.57. I just love Mega weeks. The only item I didn't have a coupon for was the Nutella but that was a special request by the Hubs. I saved 72%. Yehaw :) The man behind me in line said "That's some impressive use of coupons...I wish you could show my wife how to do that." hehe

Well howdy folks :) Thought I would update with some complete randomness. First of all, I thought the kiddo's yummy homemade food was too colorful not to post.

Life has just been crazy busy lately. It has gotten so bad that I feel like my to-do list is a jumbled mess in my brain that is constantly distracting me. This nightmare to-do list keeps me up at night. Then, to add to that, I've been struggling with major guilt lately with the lack of time I have with Eli during the week. He has been either falling asleep on our way home from daycare or falling asleep right when we get home. I have to wake him up before we go to bed for jammies and a bottle. He is maybe taking one 45 minute nap at daycare a day so of course this kiddo needs the 12 hours of sleep at night but that makes for a very sad Mom :(

Somewhat on this note, Eli starts a new daycare on Monday. We are so darn excited about it. Right now, they only have part-time available, which is all we need until January. They can only give us Mon & Wed (and Fridays if a child calls out) so we still have to figure out Fridays but I don't care. He had to get out of his current daycare. The week before last, he was playing in the dirty diaper bin and this week he was taking apart a nasty vacuum cleaner and playing with the filter. I almost lost my mind. The new daycare provides 100% of his solids and the menu all organic, hormone free, etc. He'll also learn Kindermusik, Spanish, play puppets, sign language, get outside time every day, a set eating and nap schedule every day. Best of all, the daycare has a 3:1 child/teacher ratio. We knew instantly that this was a good fit for Eli and our lifestyle. The daycare owner even asked us if we cloth diaper and asked us to bring them because they'd love to use them. We were like SAY WHAT NOW? :) hehe She also told us that Eli needs to learn how to stop using other kids as furniture. Whoopsies...yeah, we'll work on that. Oh, she also doesn't usually allow the kids to have anything in their bed so Eli very well may be on his way to losing his paci habit. I think I'm ok with this. I think. :) My guilt wants him to have whatever comforts him when he is away from home but I also know he needs to learn how to sleep without it.

My little brother TJ and his friend Shelley came over Saturday and we went to breakfast and the zoo. I really don't get to see that kiddo enough. It was Boo at the Zoo so all the kids were dressed up. Whooops, this mommy didn't know that :) Eli still had fun trick-or-treating. At this stage, he enjoyed the bird sanctuary the most. The coolest part was when we heard the male lion roar. It was so loud that we all thought it was fake at first. We thought it was just something the zoo did to attract visitors to the exhibit. Nope, was he ever mad about something. So neat. The absolute weirdest thing we saw was the vulchure exhibit. There was a fake dead zebra on display that looked unbelievably real. As we were walking up, one of the vulchures was actually eating something out of this fake dead zebra. Almost as gross as Eli trying to eat a roach :o)

I'm so happy that I was part of Eli learning something new this morning! Yeah! I feel like I miss so much with Eli being at daycare 3 days a week and with Rusty the other 2. I know how blessed I am and this was just a little icing on the cake today. Yes, yes...I'm getting to the point :) Eli was in his highchair this morning and I put a few puffs down. I put one in his mouth and then put one in my mouth. He then picked up a puff and put it in my mouth. What a proud mommy moment that was. Finally, I get to watch him learn something new! I just love this mimic stage...so darn fun. He proceeded to feed me about 5 in a row. So cute!

Speaking of spending 2 days a week with Daddy, this is what I left at home yesterday morning:

...because Eli crawled into the laundry room and knew exactly what to do with Rusty's camelback. I think its kinda obvious but I kept that to myself ;)

I just love everything about this time of the year, well, except for the wind-burned lips you get when outdoors for too long :) Here are a few pics from our trip to Burt's Farm up in Dawsonville, GA. These pumpkins were HUGE. Their pumpkin roll was a yummy big hit. It was way toooo crowded to really enjoy our time there but I was glad we went!!