A Portrait of Eli at the Dinner Table

"You must be joking."

"Oh, encore, encore!"

"That joke just never gets old!"

"Ok, where's the music? It's time to liven this party up!"

My Beautiful Bicycle!!!

Ok, so Ben makes fun of me about how much I love my beautiful new bicycle. He can laugh it up, because he's right (although I do not talk to my bike, despite what he says). Yes, I was wearing my helmet while I was playing with Eli. But for the record, I was planning on going outside right afterwards to ride my bike.

What bike is this, you may ask? It is only the 2010 Specialized Ariel Hybrid- sleek, efficient, sturdy, custom-built for women, put together by a professional who measures/assembles bikes for professional European bicyclists... in a word, it's perfect. It has 700c wheels for efficient riding, 21 speeds for major hill-riding abilities, and is made of aluminum so it's nice and light (which is good, since I have to carry it up the stairs after riding). I seriously did hours upon hours of research, going to all the bike shops in Norman, talking to all the bike enthusiasts, poring through catelogs and online sites... you get the picture.

It is a good thing it's really sturdy, because I have already crashed it four times (I've had it for 2 weeks). Yes, I do know how to ride a bike. And yes, I now know a couple of extra tricks, which I learned the good ol' fashioned way of trial and crashing.

So... thank you, Ben, Mom, and Dad, for my early Christmas present!! I love it!!

Eli's new trick 1

Eli's new trick 2

Make sure to select full screen on this one.

Winking

Eli recently learned how to wink and now when you ask for a kiss he will either kiss you or wink at you. It is funny to see him put so much effort into his winks.

September 2

September 1

This reminds me of a picture of Ben when he was about this age.

My librarian costume for a murder mystery dinner.

What will he do next?

(Ben) We recently found out that Eli had a fungal rash in his diaper area. The doctor told us to keep the rash area dry. Since he is always in his diapers, I thought it would be beneficial for Eli to play au-natural in the dry bathtub. One minute in, Eli pees. Not bad- I was expecting this. Two minutes in, Eli is having fun. Dad is bored and grabs a book. Five minutes in, Dad looks over to find Eli has pooped in the tub and is nonchalantly sampling a terd meatball. I call for Merrilee's help. She helps clean up and we end up giving Eli a real bath. That is the last dry bath I ever give Eli!

Sorry! No pictures.

I know this probably makes us bad parents, but...

... it was too funny. Taken in Cozumel.

Our Summer...

…has been crazy. Really crazy. In May, after Ben graduated, we took a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois with his parents.

In June, we left for California. We stayed for three weeks. While we were there, we drove up to Las Vegas for a family reunion with Ben’s family. We stayed at the Monte Carlo for a few days, and then all the girls stayed at his sister Amy’s house while the guys went camping up in Beaver, Utah.

The guys had a great time doing their thing, and the girls had a great time doing our thing. Like dance parties. J And like taking pictures of all the cute baby boys. In the picture below, from left to right, are: Jacob Austin (born in April), Kai Koa (born in November), Elias Reed (born in September), and Gabriel James (born in September- 2 days before Eli). And yes, that is a lot of new baby boys for one family.

When the guys got back from their camping trip, we went back to California. I had wanted to visit with my friends, but it was crazy busy, and the time flew by. We did go to Oceanside, the beach near where we used to live. Good memories. I miss living there. The water was surprisingly frigid, even with a wetsuit on, but I went boogie boarding anyways. I would’ve loved going surfing, but the waves were terrible. It was Eli’s first time at the beach. He did not like the texture of the sand, but he was fascinated with it, all the same.

We got back from California, spent 6 days at home during which time, MY TEAM, SPAIN, WON THE WORLD CUP!!!!! NOT ONLY DID I CALL IT, BUT IT'S THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR HISTORY THAT THEY'VE WON!!!!!), and then left for New Orleans. We stayed with my friend, Ashley, and her husband, Drew, and their two kids. Ben and Eli and I drove down Bourbon Street. Wouldn’t recommend it. The cool part was that there really are street musicians everywhere. It seems like New Orleans really was built out of music and soul food. We went out with my family to this restaurant called Mandina’s on Canal Street. I tried several things, but I mainly remember the gumbo and the turtle soup (which I ordered, despite the chagrined accusations of my nephews that I was eating their favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle). It was… an experience. I truly don’t have words for turtle soup.

We left the next day for our cruise to Mexico. Ben and I agree that the best part of the trip was the excursions to Progreso (and, from there, to Chichen Itza), and Cozumel. Here’s my take on cruises: 1. Don’t bring a baby. You can’t do anything. 2. If you like to go on vacation to relax and be pampered, a cruise is perfect for you. The food is really good, they have a hundred places to lounge around, you can get massages, go to shows (if you don’t have a baby who is desperately tired), etc.

If you go on vacation to have experiences and adventures, you could probably spend your money better by planning your own trip. We thought there was not NEARLY enough time for the excursions into Mexico. We are glad we went on this cruise, because it was a different experience. But we think we would probably rather spend the money DOING more than going on another cruise.

By the way, our trip to Chichen Itza was eventful. There was a monsoon while we were there. We literally could not have been any wetter had we been thrown into the ocean. Half of my family hated it and went back to look for shelter (thankfully, they took Eli with them, so the poor kid, who was sick, got out of the rain), and half of us stayed and braved the onslaught of rain. I actually loved it. I felt more of an adventurer and less of a tourist, sloshing in the lakes of water, persisting through the pounding rain, with a tiny fear that, standing in so much water, there was a valid possibility of being struck by lightning. The ruins were amazing. We had an LDS tour guide, and the little bit we could hear from him was fascinating.

Below is one of the very few pictures we got of the Mayan ruins before the downpour.

Us in Cozumel, before we went snorkeling. By the way, everyone thought I was Mexican (it probably had something to do with the Mexican soccer hat I was wearing!).

We already blogged about snorkeling at Cozumel, so I am going to fast forward to the end of the cruise. We got back into port in New Orleans, and with Ashley and Drew, took the trolley along Saint Charles (the mansions there are crazy! There’s one that looks like La Alhambra, in Granada!) to Bourbon Street. Ben and I were apprehensive at finding ourselves there again, but we walked in a different direction this time. We walked for a long time and went to the birthplace of the legendary muffaletta sandwich, Central Grocery. Although the name of the tiny shop is ho-hum, their muffaletta is not. There was a line out the door and down the sidewalk to get one of their famous sandwiches. If you go to New Orleans, you cannot leave without trying one.

We left the same day, and drove to Texas, where we stayed a night. We were just too tired to go on. We drove home the next day. And five days later…

… we left for Houston. We are here in Houston now. Ben officially started his job and they have him down here for a month-long business trip, so they rented out a NICE two-bedroom apartment in a nice part of downtown Houston for us to stay. So, here we are until September. So far, we love the apartment, the ward, and the area. There are so many things to do!

What is Eli up to?

Here are a few things:

*Elias plays games with us. He loves taking his pacifier out of his mouth, shoving it into mine, and then taking it out and plopping it back into his mouth again. He plays ball with us, too. He chases after the ball and then throws it, sometimes to us, sometimes in the opposite direction. Another game is where I growl and chase him and he laughs his head off and crawls really fast- usually right to me! I guess I’m not actually all that scary.

*Eli is so sweet and loving. He comes up to Ben or myself and gives us a huge hug, and then pushes away to look into our face with this expression of absolute love and adoration, and then pulls in for another hug. I gotta say, this kid has stolen my heart, 100%.

*Eli loves to make messes. Example: One day, I had a major laundry day. Did tons of laundry. Washed, folded, put away. Eli wakes up from his nap, and within five minutes, he had pulled over his little dressers (well, they’re really plastic storage bins), pulled out every drawer, dumped it out, and was playing in all that freshly washed and folded laundry. Sigh. But, I remembered Ben’s sister, Amy, saying that she always takes a picture first, so she has time to cool down and not get frustrated. So…

*Eli’s sounds: Eli definitely knows what he’s saying when he says “mama”, “dada”, or “baba”. He also whispers to himself all the time, which is really funny. He has this funny laugh (Ben calls it his “weenie laugh” because it sounds so forced).

*Eli is walking. He takes several consecutive steps towards me or Ben (or towards whatever mischief he is planning on getting into), and he has this look of pride on his sweet face that makes my heart swell.

*Elias LOVES books. It doesn’t matter what book it is- at church, he thumbs through the hymnal. Literally, thumbs through it. He can sit and look at books for a really long time.

*Eli dances. He has many dance moves in his repertoire. Among my favorites are his “conductor’s arms” (wonder where he got that move, since I’m the ward chorister??), the “no way” (where he smirks and shakes his head no, which he actually does whenever we say something like, “I love you” or “You’re such a sweet boy”), and the “bounce” (self-explanatory, but especially funny when he has his pacifier in his mouth).

Snorkeling in Cozumel

This was one of our favorite experiences from our recent vacation to Mexico. The water was warm and super clear. What an amazing feeling to be down in another world with so many colorful fish and sea creatures. Ben dove down deep to get some amazing pictures of the reefs.

In the picture below, you can see a huge school of fish. The diver is surrounded by thousands and thousands of fish. I have never seen such a large school of fish.

Later, from the ninth deck of the cruise ship, Ben and I saw schools of flying fish, plus a gigantic fish, and even a sea turtle! It was absolutely fascinating seeing a small part of the sea life of the Caribbean.

Eli's First Steps

Yes, Eli took his first steps. Guess whom he walked to first. Or should I say what- sadly, Eli's first steps were to the dishwasher, which he loves to climb into. The footage below was taken right after his first steps to the dishwasher. Since then he has been braving more steps, more often. He has walked to both of us numerous times, although his preferred method of travel is still crawling (much faster = more damage in less time). He will be walking in no time. Uh Oh!

June Update 2

This month we had Christine and JP's Wedding in the Oklahoma City Temple. Here is our little family right outside the temple.

Eli was a bit grumpy... he definitely needed a nap.

This is just classic, Eli fell asleep with rice all over himself. This was the first time he fell asleep in his high chair. He was laughing his "I'm tired and loopy" laugh at everything Merrilee said or did, and then all of a sudden he lay his head back, and he was gone!

Eli getting his groove on. Merrilee is hoping for a little Asian/Latin dancer. Hmmm... Actually we were surprised while going through our pictures to see how this picture turned out. He probably was just trying to get away from Dad.

Just the other night we pulled the camera out and Eli started acting like a little ham. He made the funniest faces. Oh, by the way, can you see his goofy teeth?

June Update

We have been so busy this month. We have also had a load of fun. We took Eli swimming for the first time on Memorial Day. He was not as enthusiastic as we thought he would be. He loves bath time, but his first time in the pool was scary for him (perhaps he takes after Merrilee and hates the cold). He has been to the pool several times since and is getting more comfortable. The funniest thing is when he accidentally sticks his face in the water and then splutters and makes faces and then looks accusingly at the person holding him.

Ben's Graduation Post Two (by Merrilee)

Ok, I just had to add this little post, since Ben is too modest to inform everyone of his academic prowess. Ben worked incredibly hard and graduated with a GPA of 3.95 in chemical engineering- no small feat! This means he graduated with special distinction. I am so proud of Ben and his many accomplishments. And, I love him very much. :)