Friends' Christmas

The girls all came over for a little Christmas gathering and brought their families this year.  It was a fun, crazy time with two toddlers running around the house all night.  No longer can we sit down, sip our wine, and talk about what's going on in our lives at that time.  It's interrupted with diaper changes, food throwing, and crying because someone took their toy.  Holy cow...our lives have changed so much!  But I love my girlfriends so much.  They keep me sane and give me an outlet when I need some time away from busy life of being a working mom. 

 

Umm excuse me...you have your own veggie sticks

Loved having everyone together...the only one we were missing was Megan's boyfriend, Zach

Angie, Leigh, Laura (and baby Bentsen due to arrive in April), Jamie, Megan

The boys spent most of the night in the toy room

19 and 20 months

I realize that I forgot to do a 19 month post so I'm going to cheat and do 19 and 20 months together.  Mark and I went from saying "I could take this age forever" to "Holy Crap, I want to pull my hair out." Elliott started to comprehend more things which was really fun for a while.  But as his comprehension grew so did his frustrations when he didn't get his way.  Maybe this is just the terrible two's early?  On top of that we went through an almost 8 week sleep regression which brought about 2 hour stints of being wide awake in the middle of the night.  YIKES!  But, the light is at the end of the tunnel.  Elliott is now over the sleep regression and now that he's getting more sleep the whining has subsided, at least a little. :) 

Aside from all that, Elliott continues to amaze us every day.  His list of words continues to grow.  He now says mom, dad, ball, up, hot, bottle, baby, duh-ah (tractor, or really just any vehicle), more, hat, apple, doh (go), no, wow, duck, and bat. We also found out this week that Elliott can point out most of the objects in his color book when asked.  This really amazed us because just last week he wouldn't even point to the basketball on the page.   

Love to read!

Eating a whole 6 inch sub. Yes, the whole 6 inches!

One of many wrestling matches with cousin Addison

Story time with some of my coworker's kids

 

Thanksgiving

I had to work on Friday this year so we stayed in Kansas City to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Grandpa John and Grandma Laurie came down for a couple of days.  We really didn't do much but eat, watch football, and do some Gray Thursday and Black Friday shopping.  Elliott was just getting over a 4 day stomach bug so he didn't even get to partake in the wonderful food.  Darn!  

Playing tractors with Grandpa.  I promised I wouldn't share this pictures because Grandpa is driving a green tractor, but the pictures is so adorable!

I wonder where Elliott gets that sitting position from?

Morning playtime with Grandma

Elliott's very first gingerbread house

So hard to get a good picture with Elliott

Sleeping Positions

I'm always amazed at the sleeping positions of some kids, but this one really made me laugh.  Elliott is still going through his sleep regression, but I've been letting him cry for 15 minutes before I go back in the room.  Last night he got really quiet and I was so excited that he had fallen asleep. I was rejoicing that we had finally gotten over this yucky 4 weeks of needing Mom and Dad in the room in order to fall asleep!  I looked at the monitor and this is what I saw.

It's hard to see, but the little blob in the left hand corner by the battery sign is Elliott holding onto the crib rails.  He had fallen asleep standing up!  He has actually done this before, but he fell over about 30 seconds later and woke back up and started crying again.  This time he was actually sleeping like this for over 10 minutes.  I decided I couldn't resist and snapped a picture!

Fall

 

We took advantage of the 65 degree weather in the middle of November and raked the leaves this weekend... in our t-shirts.  We found leaves everywhere when we came inside, even inside Elliott's diapers!

 

18 Month Sleep Regression

I'm going to add sleep regressions to the list of "things experienced moms should tell new moms about."  Elliott has usually been a pretty good sleeper.  He started sleeping through the night around 9-10 weeks and has been a pretty good napper in general.  Yes, we've had our fair share of early mornings and short naps, but he's always been very easy to put down. 

Enter the "18 month sleep regression."  It hit us like a freight train.  Our baby went from falling asleep without a peep and within 10 minutes of laying down in his crib to absolutely refusing to let us leave his room.  We first tried the "cry it out" method since we were successful with getting him to sleep through the night with this method.  But we quickly realized that this wouldn't work after two days of crying through his whole naptime at daycare.  So, we've resorted to laying down on the floor next to him until he falls asleep.  I sure hope that all the blogs about 18 month sleep regressions are right and this only last 2-6 weeks.  We are entering week number 3 so cross your fingers!

Here's to hoping for some more of this....

Halloween

Pops and Mimi got Elliott some new cowboy boots so we decided to dress him up as a cowboy for Halloween.  He wasn't so sure about walking around the neighborhood in the dark.  He preferred to play with the dogs at each house instead of taking the candy.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Such a cliché saying, but it’s so true.  I first experienced this 6 word idiom when I was 18 and Mark and I traveled opposite directions to go to school.  We were so young but it was not fun traveling 4 hours in the opposite direction knowing that our relationship would primarily consist of phone conversations.

I experienced this a second time when Elliott and Mark traveled to Iowa for a week to help Grandma and Grandpa Currie with harvest.  I was excited to have the time alone and not have to spend half my night caring for another human being.  I quickly found myself asking what I did with my time before Elliott.  What do you mean I have 5 hours to myself at night? (Ok, I’ll be honest it’s really only 4 hours since 9:00 is typically my lights out.)     About 3 days into this glorious 7 days of “vacation,” I missed Elliott…and of course Mark. J

Elliott had a wonderful time in Iowa.  He learned a new word while working on the farm...truck.  It sounds more like "duh-ah" and is used for trucks, tractors, combines, etc. He got to spend time with all three sets of grandparents while Mark was in the field.  He is so blessed to have them!  I think this will have to be an annual vacation. 

I love this pictures because it looks like he's actually working!

Break time with Grandpa

Loving the combine ride

Dad, Mom, and Elliott all in the combine

Elliott would give the sign for "more" when the corn stopped

Spending some time with Grandma Olympia

Elliott absolutely loved playing with Ace.  Surprisingly, Ace took it pretty well.  I think he will take any attention he can get during harvest season!

Classic!

Just two guys working on the farm

18 Months

Someone asked me today, "Your son is a year and a half right?"  And my response was "Oh no, he's only 18 months."  I have gotten so use to saying Elliott's age in months that it's hard to hear it in years and know that he's already half way through his second year of life.  Mark and I would take this age for years if we could.  He is so much fun right now! He comprehends almost everything we say but can't talk back yet. :) 

 

I think he got the cleanliness gene from his mother.  He figured out how to say the word dirty and now points to any piece of dirt or fuzz on the floor and says "dur-tee." Yes, Elliott. Thanks for telling me that my house is dirty. 

 

We found out that in addition to basketball and soccer, Elliott likes to play baseball and volleyball.  He found a plastic bat at a garage sale a couple weeks ago and he just had to have it.  Mark taught him how to swing at a ball and he thinks it's the funniest thing.  We also learned that he likes to play volleyball when Mark was trying to teach him how to catch a ball and he started hitting it like a volleyball.  He actually has really good hand eye coordination for his age. 

 

Elliott still isn't saying too many words.  The short list includes: Daddy (never Mommy anymore), ball, bubble, baby, baba (bottle), and dirty. 

 

Favorite Things:

Shower time...yes, our 18 month old takes showers

Playing outside with the shovel Grandpa Jeffey got him

Face timing with Cousin Addison

Update:
Elliott weighed 28lbs 9ozs (80%) and was 35.25 inches tall (98%)

 

Watching Daddy play basketball

Watching cartoons in the morning while Mom finishes getting ready

Playing with his shovel

Taking a nap on a walk to the park....that's Jonah holding his hand

As Addison would say "He has ketchup on his shirt"

 



Fall Weekend

Funny how a weekend of no plans is still a busy weekend with a toddler...

 

On Saturday we visited the Louisburg Cider Mill for the first time.  It was a beautiful fall day and Elliott really enjoyed all the pumpkins.  He insisted on carrying his own pumpkin to the car and it dropped and broke so we left with only two pumpkins.  We picked up a 3rd at Home Depot on the way home. 

On Sunday we raked leaves in the front yard and Elliott was a very good helper.  He was actually picking up the leaves one by one and putting them in the bag.  I hope we can keep that helping mentality through his teenage years.  Once we were done we decided to get the bubble machine out that John and Laura got him for his birthday. He fell in love!  Good thing we have a gallon jug of bubbles.

What a great way to end a great weekend!

Reinhardt Christmas....in September

My mom's side of the family has always been really good about getting together every year for Christmas.  However, as the family has grown we have had to move our gathering to a different time of year because December got to hectic. Everyone had a great time catching up, playing games, and of course eating a ton of food!  We love you Grandma and hope we have many more years of celebrating Christmas with you!

Megan, Hannah, Sarah, Amy, K'Lyn, Abby (and baby Conley), and Angie




(Romeo, Isaiah, Hannah) Job (Curt, JoLynn) (Amy, Paul, Sawyer, Selah) (Jim, Deb) (Austin, Sarah, Gavin) (Mark, Angie, Elliott) Marilyn (Linda, Jeff, Megan, Brady) (Aaron, K'Lyn, Addison) (Drew, Abby)



Elliott got an art desk from Great Grandma Marilyn and he loves it!

Elliott and Addison waiting patiently at the hotel...looks like Elliott is eying Addison's money