February 16, 2012

In case you haven't heard, that's the date for Clayton's Fontan at Stanford.  We're on the schedule.  We'll get planning on all the logistics after Christmas.  For now, we're just going to focus on the holidays.

A Few Steps

It's time to confess it.  Aaron's still not walking.  Yes, he's 16 months old.  Clayton walked at 17 months.  They told me he was late because he'd had two open heart surgeries.  Then Eli didn't walk until about 16 months.  Now Aaron's 16 months and not really getting the whole thing yet.  I'm beginning to think the open heart surgeries had nothing to do with Clayton's delays.  My kids are just not early walkers. 

Aaron cruises the furniture like a pro.  He can stand independently for a couple minutes.  He will take a step or two toward me if I'm cheering him on, but he's really just not quite walking yet.

I was able to get this picture a couple weeks ago though.  It's one of the rare moments he's taking a couple steps towards me.  You can see the thrill on his face.  He's always so proud.

So for now it's just a step or two here and there.  I'm sure he'll be walking by kindergarten.

Aaron's First Haircut

Just before our Thanksgiving trip to Arkansas I decided the time had come.  Aaron officially had a mullet, and something had to be done.  I'm no barber and have always taken the boys to get their hair cut, but because we were really looking at about ten hairs on the back of his head, I decided to trim it myself.  It really was an improvement.  He still looks pretty bald, but at least his hair isn't growing down his neck anymore. 

The few long mullet hairs

So excited

It was a family affair.

There were a few long hairs up the back too.

The big boys were so interested.

The final product.  His stork bite shows a lot more now.  All my boys had that on the back of their necks.

After Aaron was done, I realized the big boys really needed trims as well, so I took them over to Great Clips the next day before we left town.  Now everyone looks neat and tidy.

Happy Birthday Eli!

On Monday we celebrated Eli's third birthday!  I can't believe this boy is three.  In some ways it seems like he was born yesterday, and in some ways I can't believe he's only three.  I think having Aaron so close to Eli has skewed my perception of time. 

There's so much to say about Eli.  Eli is definitely the child requiring the most "parenting" these days.  We're either laughing at him hysterically or wanting to pull our hair out in frustration.  Sometimes we're feeling both ways at the same time.  Eli is passionate about everything.  He plays passionately, he loves passionately, and he loses control passionately.  He's never dull, that's for sure. 

Eli's greatest love in life is... still... trash and everything that has to do with trash, trashcans, dumpsters, and garbage trucks.  It's really completely out of control.  The first thing he wants to do at anyone's house is see their outside trash cans.  Really?  He wants to know what day is trash day for every place we go.  He recently saw a garbage truck empty a dumpster at Clayton's school.  Now we have to talk about it nonstop everytime we take Clayton to school or pick him up.  That's twice a day, five days a week.  It's painful for me. 

In honor of Eli's great love, I decided to have a garbage truck birthday celebration.  It will probably just encourage the infatuation, but I couldn't resist.  One day I'm sure we will get a big laugh over all this. 

 The traditional birthday donut selected by the birthday boy

Blowing out the first "fire" of the day.  Leading up to the big day, Eli was constantly reminding me that there would be fire on his birthday.

My attempt at a trash truck cake

He loves being the center of attention.

Blowing out the candles

Happy Birthday Eli Jacob!