Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Eli!

Today was a wonderful day to celebrate Elijah turning 3! We have been talking about this for awhile now so Eli was super excited when he woke up this morning! We started off with his favorite breakfast, cinnamon rolls. Then we let him open the presents from us. He did great opening his presents. He had to have us help him get it started on a few but he opened the majority of them on his own. Jude did pretty well while Eli was opening his presents he kept bringing them to me and saying open, but he never got upset when we said that they were for Eli's birthday. He was also happy to hold the already opened presents!

Getting excited about his presents!

Mommy, can I open this one please!Eli loves Sonic!

A new Flash!Some new Cars!The Lightning McQueen garage that Eli wanted!
Playing Cars together!

This afternoon we had a Superhero birthday party for Eli. It was such a great party for him. He had so much fun playing with his cousins and some friends. We are truly blessed with a wonderful family and friends. Eli got to open his presents and then we had cake and ice cream. Then there was lots of time to play!

Opening presents

The cake!! We ordered this batman cake and added a few of Eli's guys to make it a superhero cake! I think it turned out perfect!Eli loved his cake!
Singing Happy Birthday with everyoneMommy helped him blow out the candles this yearThe cake was yummy and as a bonus the icing turned your entire mouth blue!
The boys had fun trying on Aunt Jackie's glassesAunt Katie, Sunjay, Maya, grandma, and EliEli and Jude with Grandma and Papa

Daddy, Mommy and Eli playing in his new Cars tent from Grandma

Jude and Eli cuddled up on the couch with Daddy and Eli's new Cars bedding

It really was such a wonderful day for Eli! This is really the first year that he has fully understood his birthday and he just soaked it all up. I told him he would always be my baby boy and he told me that he had to be a big boy now because he is 3! Thank you to all our family and friends for helping us celebrate Eli today. :-)

Time Outs

Our time out corner has been plenty busy lately with both boys occupying time there. That is right, I said both. My little baby Jude has had a few time outs lately. It seems that Eli has decided that since he is almost 3 he needs to make this last week of being 2 absolutely terrible. He is talking back constantly, doesn't listen to us, throws huge fits, and is suddenly being mean to Jude for no reason. We are at a loss of what to do next. We have done time outs in the corner, time outs in his bed, taking away favorite toys, taking away tv and movies, he has lost bedtime stories for the past 6 nights, and for the last 5 nights he has also had to go to bed 30 minutes early. Nothing seems to be working. Jude sees how Eli is acting and he has picked up some not so nice habits. He has been hitting, kicking and throwing fits. I am exhausted and really hoping this is a phase that will be over soon. If anyone has any tips or advise I would gladly take it!
Just a few pictures during their brief moments of sweetness.





- Posted by Jenni using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Jude's Hair

Mike has really been wanting to cut Jude's hair like he does Eli's but I don't think I am ready for Jude to have such a big boy hair cut yet. So today I took Jude and got him a little boy hair cut. This way we both win, Jude has shorter hair but still looks like my little boy!
Before


After


I do like his haircut but I do miss his longer hair.

- Posted by Jenni using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Potty Trained by 3: CHECK!!!!!

We did it!!! We survived potty training!!! Eli is potty trained before his 3rd birthday, only a few weeks to spare! And actually once we decided that Eli was ready and we needed to get serious it was so easy! We have gone back and forth with potty training since last spring. We were never really pushing him too hard. We would ask him several times a day but if he didn't want to try we wouldn't force him. About a month ago a friend of mine posted on facebook that her 2 1/2 year old was potty trained after 2 weeks. I asked her for some advice and she shared her method. She told me that when she thought he was ready she just took away his diaper and put him in underwear. She said she always had extra clothes handy and after 2 weeks he was potty trained. Mike and I talked about it and we decided that after the holidays were over we would give it a shot.

On Monday, January 3rd we went for it. Eli was pretty excited about wearing his big boy underwear. He got to choose between super heroes, Toy Story, and Mickey. I had 13 pairs of underwear and several pairs of pants ready to go. We set the timer for 20-30 minutes and had him try each time the timer went off. He only had 1 accident on day 1! I was surprised at well he had done and so proud of him! Then he only had one more accident the rest of the week! I couldn't believe it! He was still doing so well! Mike had even taken him out to run errands a few times. We put him in a pull up just to be safe and he kept it dry each time! Over the weekend we met my sister at the mall and Eli went potty 2 different times there and stayed dry the entire time!!! I couldn't believe it!!
Week 2 I decided to not use the timer and see how he did. Since we had been using the timer he hadn't really told us when he had to go. To my surprise again, he did it! There were NO ACCIDENTS!!! He told me each time he had to go #1 or #2!! I couldn't believe it!! He even graduated from the little potty to the potty seat on the toilet! He has also started to stay dry at night and nap now, before he was always wet when he woke up. I can't believe how easy it has been. Now we know what to do when we think Jude is ready!

I am just so proud of my big boy!

Basketball Boys!

This is what my boys like to do! Have I mentioned that they LOVE basketball? :-) We have so much fun!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Go Pacers!!

Over the weekend we took the boys to their first Pacer's game and they had a blast! Eli has loved Boomer ever since we took the boys to the Pacer's Fan Jam a few months back and he got a stuffed Boomer for Christmas. When we got there we told him he might get to see Boomer again and he was very excited. As we were walking to find our seats we happened to come across Boomer signing autographs! Eli was able to get his autograph and sit on his lap for a picture. It was the highlight of the day!

Eli and Boomer

Eli did great watching the game. We knew he would be really into it, he absolutely loves basketball. I was a little nervous about how Jude would do sitting on my lap but he ended up doing pretty well. He got a little restless at one point but we had packed plenty of snacks to hold him over. The half time show was some dogs catching frisbees and Jude really liked that. Eli preferred the show between the 3rd and 4th quarter where Boomer and his pack came out and used trampolines to jump, flip and dunk! Eli absolutely LOVED this part.

Eli and Daddy watching the game
Jude and Mommy watching the game

Go Boomer!

It was such a fun day and I am so glad that we are able to fun activities like this with the boys! We all had a really good time and Eli is already talking about wanting to go again.