8 months

Eli is 8 months old today!

a little catch-up

Been in blogging la-la-land lately. Oops!

A bunch of Eli's due-date buddies got together for a meetup this last weekend in Ohio. After going through our pregnancies "together" and now raising our little ones "together," it just felt like we'd known each other forever. The kids did pretty well together, too. Of course Eli had to be a brute and steal everyone's toys, but at the zoo they kept their hands to themselves. Except for Ethan putting the moves on Eva. She looks a little ticked...

And since I somehow managed to miss it, here's our Little Stinker on Halloween.

fall at home

I was hanging out with the boys the other day and really wanted to take them to a pumpkin patch, but to my surprise, I found out they aren't open on weekdays. So we went to the Walmart "patch" (i.e., giant box of dirty pumpkins) and "picked" a couple.

Noah had fun painting his, but Eli just wanted to eat both the paint and the pumpkin stem, so I had to help him a little with his. The design was totally his idea, though.

After I (finally) got Eli to take a nap, Noah and I ate some pumpkin-face quesadillas and dipped some pretzels in chocolate to make them pretty and yummy.

After Eli woke up, I tried really hard to get a photo together with both of them looking and smiling, but I'm thinking that might not happen until they're in their teens.

7 months

Eli turned 7 months while we were at my parents' this last week. I'm finally getting his picture up! It's getting much more difficult to capture this shot now that he's wiggling away from me and distracted by just about everything. Asking a baby to do four things at once (i.e., sit still, hold sign, look at camera, and smile to boot!) is a little ridiculous, I guess.

He's officially on the move--we are crawling and pulling up to standing. Lowering the crib mattress is on my to-do list for today and Josh is in the process of making some cool-looking baby gates for the two sets of stairs. Here's a little crummy video (from my crummy-video-taking phone) of some crawling. We're going much faster now!

His new thing is skipping his naps, which he's attempting to do at the moment.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and it makes me hug my little boy a little tighter today, even though we haven't had a good night's sleep in four days and he got his dinner all over his clothes tonight straining to look out the window instead of at the spoon.

It's ironic, because I just found out today that one of my friend Carrie F.'s twin boys died from SIDS yesterday. I'm so heartbroken for her and her family. I'm feeling so sad today thinking about what they are going through right now missing their little Brendon.

I'd also like to remember Baby Kaden, another of Eli's birth-month buddies who is in the arms of God right now. And I want to include here all the babies who have gone before and come after Kaden battling CDH.

To the families of babies I've followed online, such as Nolan, Mary Grace, Maxton, Ireland, and Brooke, I'm praying God's presence is apparent to you today.

To all my friends who have lost their precious babies in this life, I'm honoring you today with my thoughts and prayers. This life was short, but their lives in the arms of their Creator will last forever.

track it

Gosh, I love tracking numbers.

There's something about the feeling I get when I get that email... the one that says "Hey! You bought something. Guess what? We shipped it! And here is something to tide you over until it gets there... a tracking number." Oooooh! I love it!

We've been using gDiapers for a few months now and although I enjoy cloth diapering, the g's aren't cutting it for us. Eli pees through them like nobody's business, and if he hasn't peed through it yet, he's pulled it off and pooped on the floor. Nothing against gDiapers but they just didn't work for us. So I'm in the process of trying to decide what to try next, and I bought a new BumGenius diaper yesterday. And just a few minutes ago, I opened an email and found my tracking number. Thank you! As soon as I'm done here, I'm heading right to UPS to type in my number... even though I know it hasn't even left the building yet.

My gdiaper stash will be hitting the market soon so be on the lookout, fluffy mamas!

a call for prayer

Please pray for Nicole and Sam and their family. Nicole is 20 weeks pregnant and has been diagnosed with a placental abruption. She's on complete bedrest (I know how fun that is!) so that the placenta will hopefully reattach to the uterus.

Click here to read a little more. I know God can fix this! Let's cover them in prayer.