This Thanksgiving was a very special one, as it was the first one Elijah could participate in and the first in our newest home. Plus, Nonna and Grandpa Kensill DROVE all the way here from Indiana to share the weekend with us. It was so much fun and Elijah's personality was really shining.
Elijah has really blossomed in the past several months, being exposed to other children daily and spending so much time with Sara Elise and Carol, the two wonderful women that keep him in the afternoons. Each day is packed full of learning, dancing, making artwork and just good old playing. I think Sara Elise has really done a great job teaching Elijah some new dance moves too ;) We are very blessed to have all of the All Saints teachers and the Spinnazola women in our lives. We are very thankful.
Our extremely smart and handsome little boy
Elijah working his iPhone magic with his messy post-nap hair (now that he has a little more)
Our beautiful home :)
Elijah rocking out to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"
Daddy is just so fun to attack
Play date at the neighborhood park
Elijah checking out the treehouse
Just cute
Our little man, enjoying play time and the beautiful South Carolina weather
Oh yes it's fall time in South Carolina and Elijah is loving the weather. We've been spending a lot of time playing in our beautiful yard and playing at the playground just two doors down. We absolutely love our neighborhood and feel so blessed to be here.
The other day, in an effort to coach Elijah into his Halloween Costume, we figured we would try it out around the house:) He has been working very hard on learning what sounds animals make and his favorite is, "what does a puppy say?". In reply, Elijah will make this little squeaking noise that actually sounds like a puppy bark. SOOOO cute.
Elijah has also been getting into more and more (go figure). He loves the bookshelf in our ....well someday it will be our study. As I was working on my chair reupholstery project (which is finally complete and looks awesome), Elijah helped himself to some light reading.
These were buried behind the books....Elijah earned them for that afternoon :)
As a side-note, check out those molars!
In an effort to be super prepared for Halloween this year, Matt and I waited until the week of Halloween to carve pumpkins with Elijah. Thankfully, we found the perfect pumpkins for our beautiful front porch and Elijah even participated this year.
So as I'm catching up the blog once again, we're back to present time of Halloween night. Elijah put on his puppy costume and set out for the park. Our neighborhood HOA, which maintains the private park in the neighborhood, hosts a Halloween party in the park. Children are invited to come to the park in costume for pizza, fun and candy. It's a great activity for the younger children that may not be eating the candy, but who would enjoy running around and participating in the dress up fun. Elijah really seemed to enjoy it and had a great time chowing down on food he normally doesn't eat. Big surprise, he ate 2 1/2 slices of pizza and a ton of cheetoh/cheese puff things.
A puppy ran off with Sara Elise's iPhone
Elijah found another puppy just like him
A perfect little pose for our wonderful little puppy
Trying to go down the slide without daddy
SLIDE TIME
Thank you for this picture Sara Elise
Elijah was watching out for those trick-or-treat'ers :)
Elijah has been practicing his dancing skills more and more as of late. He'll start dancing around to anything from a phone ring to the music from his toys, however if you want a sure fire opportunity to capture this amazingly talented dancer, I recommend turning on Chuggington. Even I want to tap my foot to the song while it's stuck in my head all day. Life is so great. Enjoy it as much I we do.
The past week, things have been a bit crazy. Not only did I begin my new job at Carolinas Hospital System as a Case Manager, but Elijah started school and things have been go go go since. In my first week of work, Matt had to go out of town on business and Elijah got sick. The poor little baby started running fevers with running snot and then some, which required him to stay home from school and by Friday, it required me to stay at home with him. Missing a day your first week on the job....not awesome. Anyhow, I got him to the doctor and Matt came home a bit early and met us there. Elijah was diagnosed with his very first ear infection and prescribed Amoxicillin. Four days later and a temp of 105.1, Elijah had an allergic rash from the Amoxicillin and we began the new antibiotic.
Life has been crazy, but it's been crazy good. We've even managed to find time for fun and home renovations. Enjoy.
Snuggling with daddy on a sick day
Feeling a little silly
Maybe a lot silly
Check out the thigh rash from the Amoxicillin :(
And we begin phase I of home renovation
Our little quality control guy at the door
And ta-da....we have a portico
Looking good....next we'll pull out that rotten front door
Our GORGEOUS home
NEW DOOR with new beautiful trim
Painted white
E-monster feeling healthier and enjoying family time
As Elijah draws closer and closer to his terrible two's, we're noticing some unfavorable behaviors already. As of late, he has been more and more difficult at mealtime, not to mention an array of other wonderful traits.
In my true fashion, I captured this rare moment when Matt loses all inhibition and puts on a show for Little Man. Enjoy....I know Elijah and I did.
We had a family trip to Harris Teeter, or as I used to think it was called, Harry Tweeter. I mean, WHO names a grocery store Harry Tweeter?! Anyhow, while I was making a quick run through the store, Matt was doing an amazing job at keeping Elijah at bay. After awhile, I started hearing Elijah cackling across the store and then I saw Elijah running by the aisles with a mini-grocery cart. Hahaha....it was adorable. Matt managed to capture a few pictures and videos as he ran past. Enjoy!
After another busy, busy week...scratch that. After a SUPER BUSY two weeks, we are back home, relaxing, catching up and preparing our lives for two full-time working adults/parents. Life is about to change AGAIN and it's going to be great...I hope.
I've been trying to really enjoy each minute of playing with Elijah, but unfortunately the little monster has been battling a pre-molar and a cold. They seem to always go hand-in-hand, but this cold stuck around a bit longer. It even lasted through our visit to Indiana, but thankfully it didn't phase him too much.
Elijah and Daddy sharing a Pedialyte popsicle
Mommy baked chocolate chip cookies for her two most favorite boys
Mommy and E-monster playing on the floor
Where did he go?!
So as I said, we managed to fit in a visit to Indiana while Matt was attending a conference downtown. It was so much fun getting to see Nona and Grandpa Kensill. Matt and I had the opportunity to attend our first NFL game together and Elijah had some quality one-on-one time with his Indiana grandparents. He even got to visit with his Great Aunt Cindy and Great-Great Aunt Susie, some of our oldest and wisest relatives.
We see NONA!!!! (At the Indianapolis Airport)
Elijah relaxing on Nona's lap at the end of a long travel day
He's going to start lessons asap so he can play like Mommy
The kitty bed was Elijah's favorite hangout spot while playing
Grandpa found a bunch of my old stuffed animals :)
