1 Year Old: Eli

He's technically not a baby anymore!  At his 1-year doctor appointment he was 30 inches long and 23 pounds, both in the 75th percentile!  That's incredible, considering his past markings.  He is our little growing boy!  He is doing great and is super healthy, and I'm so glad!

Some notable things he's up to:

• Signs "please" -- it's adorable
• Loves doors -- open, close, open, close, open, close....
• Still loves lights, and points to them often
• Speaking of pointing, he has learned to point where he wants to go or what he wants and someone will take him there or give it to him
• Drinking normal milk!  He loves it.
• Can stand up from the floor without help!  He sticks his butt up in the air and stands from there.  It's super cute.
• Clapping!  All by himself.
• Waves "hi" and "bye"
• Pro at holding his bottle, and tilting it up so he gets everything that's in it
• Wants to stand all the time -- including bath time!
• Puts toys and anything he can hold over the baby gate at our hallway.  He must be training for basketball!
• Smiles when he sees the flash of a camera!
• Looooooves his grandpas, and Uncle Weslin --- because he knows they will take him to see whatever he wants to see
• Has a fascination with exit signs!  If there is one around he can find it.  And he wants to see it!
• He knows: 
• exit sign
• helicopter
• daddy
• mommy
• grandma/grammy
• grandpa
• mustache
• come here
• give/bring it to (me or someone else)
• go get (daddy)
• outside
• please
• milk
• dance
• bite
• (and more I'm sure that I didn't think of...)

I can't believe it's been a whole year!  I love my little baby-turned-toddler, oh so fast!

2013 Family Recap

This year was an eventful one for us! 

Adam has been continuing his schooling at the University of Arizona in the 5-year Architecture program.  He will be graduating in May of 2015.  It seems so far away but at the same time it’s creeping up on us!  Only 3 more semesters to go!  Adam was called in our church ward as the Ward Mission Leader in May, and continues to evolve his love of guns and sports.

Kami is still working in the mortgage business and is blessed to be able to do the majority of her responsibilities from home.  She also continues to dance, mostly ballet, at a local dance studio.  Kami was called in our church ward as the Primary Music Leader (children’s music leader) at the end of September, and quickly grew to love it.  She spends her time trying to be a good wife and mom, while also fulfilling church responsibilities and developing some of her many interests.

Our love and joy, Eli, was born right at the end of 2012, and we have loved every minute with him.  It has been a magical and humbling and wonderful adventure! 

When Eli was 3 and a half months old (in the middle of March) we took him, at the suggestion of our pediatrician, to see a pediatric plastic surgeon for an evaluation.  He told us right away that Eli had a condition called Craniosynostosis on the right side of his head.  The right suture in Eli’s skull had been fused or closed prematurely and was causing his skull to grow disproportionately.  The doctor told us this was not something a helmet could fix and that he would need surgery to correct it.  Eli had his surgery two months later when he was 5 and a half months old (in the middle of June).  The plastic surgeon and neurosurgeon team took about 4 hours in the operating room and we stayed in the hospital for 5 days.  Eli was swollen for a while, but he came out of surgery with only a strip of moisturized gauze over his zig-zag scar from ear to ear across the top of his head.  And when we left the hospital he had no bandages or restrictions, except to not be underwater for a week or two.  He did so great!  He recovered quickly and after a few weeks he was back to his normal, wiggly self.  We are glad this experience is behind us, but we’re sure Eli will have fun showing off and bragging about his scar and 86+ stitches!

Eli is *just about one year old* and FULL of personality!  He is so smart!  He started walking unassisted at the end of November, and is cruising all over the place in all the many ways he knows how, and gets into everything.  He has been taking swim lessons throughout the year, which he loves!  He learned to hold us breath to go under water after only a few months.  And he’s eating great – all kinds of “solid” foods, and he has 3 teeth so far.  He likes books, swimming, playing on the piano, exploring, playing peek-a-boo, being outside, the bathroom (and baths), and he loves when Daddy comes home!  We love it when he giggles, smiles, walks and runs around, babbles and squeals, gives us hugs and kisses, and so many more things!  We love our little miracle!

May your Christmas season be filled with love and family, and peace and joy through He who makes it possible.  And we hope 2014 brings you and your family great happiness and adventure!

With love,

Adam, Kami & Eli

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Luke 2:1 1, 14

11 Months! (Baby Eli)

Eli is 11 months old already!  I say this every month but I just can't believe how the time flies.  But at the same time it's going by at a perfect rate.  I love our silly little boy!  Some things he's up to:

• He loves to close doors, and he's figured out how to open them too.  Doors, cupboards, drawers, anything with knobs!
• Speaking of doors, he loves to go outside, and since Daddy takes him out the front door sometimes, most days if not all he plays over by the front door and slaps it because he knows it can open and that outside is on the other side.  Today I saw him putting his fingers in the crack to try to open it.  He's so smart!
• Also on that note, he likes to slap the windows too.  He plays a lot by the back door which is a sliding glass door (and slaps it) and constantly rolls over on his changing table to slap the window that is right by it.  Sometimes Daddy takes him to the window that faces the street to watch cars go by and he slaps it too.  He likes to go outside and wants to be out there!
• He loves to go over to the piano and reach up and press down on a few of the notes he can reach with one or each hand.  It especially attracts his attention when I'm playing.  It's so cute and so fun!  I love seeing him reach up and play and hear the "dink dink dink" of his piano playing.
• He's learning the art of fake crying!  We're trying to teach him that he doesn't need to cry when he wants something...
• Randomly this month he started giggling like crazy when we would put him in his crib at night along with our wrapping in a blanket and goodnight song rituals.  He immediately starts to roll over so he can reach to the side of the crib to stand up!  It also makes him laugh when we pin him down on his back.  He thinks it's funny!  What a silly kid!  We loved when he would smile when we started singing our goodnight song, but now he just tries to get up like it's a game!
• Literally the first thing he does when we put him down for bed or for a nap is get up.  He instantly rolls over, grabs the side of the crib and stands up.
• He LOVES the bath!  Still!  He is the most talkative when the bath is turned on.  He gets so excited!  He squeals and babbles and wants to run/crawl/whatever quickly over to the tub and play in it.
• We've been going to a swim class still.  He's doing awesome and loves it.  He goes under water like a champ!
• He's also a champ at eating solids!  He eats a variety of foods, even some to chew.  He's doing great!  He even had (a lot of) Thanksgiving dinner!  That was fun.
• And he's gotten pretty good at picking things up and put them in his mouth to eat.  He still drops some on occasion, but he's improved a lot!  We started him with puff snacks, but he's even eating little squares of cheese now!
• He finally caught on to blowing bubbles in swim class (and does it! Sometimes I can see actual bubbles).
• I think because of that he's discovered new noises he can make with his mouth, namely a motorboat sound (or farting sound).  He does that one a lot.  He did it for like a week straight. 
• He also makes a blowing noise by blowing his bottom lip out....  It's cute.
• And he makes a sort of popping noise with his lips.  That one he does a lot recently.  It's sort of his "go-to" noise.
• His also "go-to" noise is a clicking sound, with his tongue on the top of the inside of his mouth.  Kind of like a "tisk-tisk" noise?
• He says "momomom" a lot lately!!  He started doing it again and does it frequently.  We think he actually means "Mom" when he says it...  It just seems like he says it when he wants my attention.  Some of the time at least!
• He really likes playing peek-a-boo.  It makes him giggle a ton!  It's super cute that he plays with us...  A couple times he has walked out from behind something and I'll react and he'll go back behind it (the couch, door frame, wall) and then peek back around with a smile when I react again...  So fun!
• We have a couple normal sized plastic pumpkins and Eli loves to play with them.  He crawls over to one and pushes it across the floor and crawls after it and does it again.
• He loves to be thrown in the air by Daddy!  Well, by Mommy too but Mommy doesn't do it very often because I'm not very strong and he's getting heavy!  Eli will smile and giggle and laugh in the air when Daddy throws him up!  It's so so so cute!
• The other day I sneezed next to Eli and he laughed so hard!  So I proceeded to do a series of fake sneezes, all of which he thought was hysterical and laughed so hard at!  So funny!
• He likes to play the chase game.  It's cute how he'll be walking along the coffee table and sometimes when we're behind him he'll look back at us to see if we're there or coming and I'll say "I'm gonna get you!" and he'll squeal and run away, and look back, and squeal while he runs down the table, etc.
• He has been walking along ALL of our walls.  He can pretty much walk all the way around our living room (and down the hall if we let him!).
• Tables don't stop him because he has learned how to duck. 
• We bought a walker/activity toy thing, which he did NOT want to walk with the first time we showed it to him (he lifted his legs up like a sitting position while Adam held him in place... so funny!).  But a week or two later he was going to it on his own and walking with it by himself!  It was so cute!!  He would smile and giggle because he was so proud of himself and he was so happy.  And he did it all himself, I only helped him steer.
• We also had been working with him this month on walking while holding only one hand of ours.  He started doing really well!
• And we even finally got him to stand unassisted!
• But the BIG NEWS is that HE STARTED WALKING!!!  He took his first steady step last week and since then he has gotten the hang of it and has been walking around everywhere!  He's still learning and nervous sometimes, but he's doing so awesome and is pretty brave!
• He has CUTE little cheeks and I just want to kiss them all day!
• I love love love hearing the pitter patter of his feet when he walks on hard surfaces!!!!
• He still fits into 6 month clothes.  But we have some 12 month that he also wears.
• He's getting the hang of brushing teeth!  When I take him to brush his teeth he opens his mouth for me and even doesn't bite down on the toothbrush long enough for me to do a quick soft scrape of all his gums and tongue.
• When he wakes up from a nap we find him standing in his crib (sometimes crying, so sad!) and when I walk over to him he wraps his arms around me!  He gives us hugs a lot, it's so sweet!
• He's still sleeping through the night.  It's great.  And he's having two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  They seem to be getting shorter maybe...  But he definitely needs those two naps still.
• His new trick is pointing!  He points at Mommy and at Daddy and at lights...  Sometimes he'll point and then wave.  It's so cute!
• He also makes this really cute cheesy face.  He lifts his chin and squints his eyes and shows his teeth.  We love it!
• Another new trick is getting down from the couch!  He somehow knows how to go backwards, feet first and on his tummy, to get down.  It's awesome.  He's awesome!

Eli is growing up so fast!  I'm loving every new milestone and trick and thing that makes him laugh and happy...  It's so fun watching him learn and explore and try to figure things out and see what he's interested in.  He's growing up and we love him to pieces!!!

Eli's 9 Month Dr Appt Results

Eli had his 9 month appointment with the pediatrician this morning.  He's doing great!  It took a little while but he is bulking up and growing like crazy.  And he's perfectly on time with all his developments (something I had worried about prior to his surgery 3 months ago).  :)  According to the doctor's office Eli is:

19.8 pounds - 33-34%

28.3 inches - 47%

WOW!  Considering he was down to the 0% in weight and under 20% in height, that's awesome!

And he's growing lots of hair!  At least lots more than he used to have.  ;)

LOVE this kid!!!

Primary Music Leader

 I was just called to be the new Primary Music Leader.  (Primary is the children's Sunday School, ages 3-11)  I've had a crazy mix of emotions about this new adventure, but after having a week to process it and let go of my previous calling as a youth Sunday School teacher I'm feeling excited!  Children are so forgiving, way more than adults (but not that adults aren't).  The last music leader moved out of the ward, but thankfully stuck around to finish out the Primary Program.  I'm glad I get to start with a clean slate!

I rarely attended Primary growing up, but our first calling after Adam and I got married was to teach a Primary class.  We did that for a year, and I had an awesome music leader model!  She was called into that calling right after we moved in, and she did a GREAT job, so I can too, right?  Even with my lack of Primary attendance I still know a bunch of the Primary songs, but I'll definitely be learning more!

I'm taking solace in the fact that I have an extra week to prepare because General Conference is this next weekend, and I also got to sit in during Primary last Sunday and observed.  We have an awesome Primary Presidency, I'm looking forward to learning from them!  And out stake is having their annual auxiliary training this month.  I couldn't have been called to this new position at a better time!

I'm looking forward to all the fun things I'm going to get to do with the children in our ward.  I hope I can learn all their names quickly!  We've only been in the ward for a year and we're still trying to learn who everyone is.  But I hope they will be able to learn through the music about how Heavenly Father loves them, that Jesus Christ is their Savior, that we need to be good so we can be worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us, and that we can be happy by living the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope I will be able to inspire them and invite the Spirit so they can feel the love our Father in Heaven has for them and learn by the Spirit, so they can feel real happiness!

I'm humbled by this call to serve, and I'm grateful for this opportunity.  I know I will grow right along with these amazing children.

Adam pointed out how fun it will be for Eli when he gets to Primary for his mom to be the music leader.  That's only in about 2 years, so it's possible!  In my married life I have yet to have a calling for over a year.  But we're not going anywhere for a while so maybe this will be the one to set the new record!


P.S. (10:45pm)

I got set apart tonight.  Bishop Alexander talked to us for a few minutes before.  It's his opinion that the music in Primary is one of the most important things.  He started to get choked up when he told me they (the bishopric) are grateful that I am in the ward (we just moved in last year).  And he said they felt strongly that I should be the one to take this place.  I don't know how deep this planning has been on Heavenly Father's part, if this is one reason why we were drawn to buy a house in this location (the past music leader just bought a house out of the ward), or maybe every good choice we've made has just led to more blessings...

The main points in Bishop's blessing tonight were:

• put family first
• be organized
• you've been blessed with talents to bless others

I definitely received some simple yet profound answers to recent prayers and some needed guidance.  I'm grateful for the priesthood and for those who serve under it's direction, and under the direction of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He lives!