Eli Crawls!!!

Yesterday, after spending the afternoon rearranging the house to set up our Xmas Tree and put out our other decorations (including presents already wrapped & under the tree - we're getting much better about shopping earlier!), we decided to celebrate our holiday success with a glass of wine and some holiday themed movies (including 2 Xmas episodes of Futurama, 3 Xmas episodes of Friends and The Labyrinth).

As we were lounging in our newly festive living room, I put my wine down on the floor to grab one of Eli's toys so that I could bring it over to him, and before I knew it the little guy was on his tummy, pushing up with his arms and slowly crawling across the room towards my glass. Now, Eli has been pushing up with his arms and rocking onto his knees for some time. He's even gotten to be pretty handy at pushing himself backwards from his tummy into a sitting position (which we were also VERY excited about). But with all of his aptitude and movement, he had up until now only been able to move in reverse. It was fun in Vicksburg with Nise & Jay because they have hardwood floors, so you put Eli in some socks & sweats and let him loose, and he's slip-sliding across the house like nobody's business - just in reverse.

It was the very first time that he had been able to move forward, and you could see in his eyes how surprised he was. Taryn and I were so happy to have been there to see it (together!). So of course we both dropped onto the floor, cleared extra space and started doing everything we could to entice him to do it again. It didn't take much. We figured out pretty quickly that the glass of wine was the motivation. So we put it out in front of him, and voila!, Biddles in overdrive. He crawled 4 more times that night before getting too tired to continue. Then it was PJ's and bed. But Taryn & I poured another glass and stayed up to celebrate.

I guess Eli didn't crawl once at Day Care today, but as soon as we all got home earlier this evening, we cleared space on the floor of the living room and started playing. And he was ready to go. It seems he's already got the hang of it. He's moving slowly, trying real hard to get his arms underneath him where & when he needs them. And he's both stepping with his knees and frog hopping. But he's doin it Baby!

Go Team Biddles!

Eli Crawls 2

Here's the Biddles crawling to his Daddy (or his Daddy's glass of grigio).

Eli Crawls 3

And finally, the longest video ... Eli crawls to his Mama.

Dinner with the Lindsays

We made it to Mississippi!!!

It's our first visit to the Lindsay's, even though they've been here for almost 2 1/2 years!

Our plane landed at 8am on saturday morning, and Denise was there waiting for us with a big poster saying "Welcome Biddles & Bacons!"

After taking a few minutes to track down our bags (we're used to baggage claim taking at least 30 minutes to start, not 15 minutes to finish!), we hopped in the car and got a quick tour of Jackson on our way to Vicksburg. Not too much to see. But it's absolutely gorgeous out here. The weather is perfect (overcast and only mildly chilly, just how we like it, and just like it was in the Bay). And it's so quiet you can actually hear yourself think.

We'll see how well that works out for us ...

We spent Saturday getting situated, meaning we took a good nap. Our flight was a Red Eye, so we were pretty tuckered out. After we woke up and got moving again, we all went out to dinner at the Ameristar Casino, a big showboat that's dry-docked on the Mississippi River. The food was great, especially the catfish, which Taryn and I were both surprised to find ourselves loving. But it's hard to go wrong when 2 thirds of the menu is either deep fried or smothered in honey butter.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up Sunday morning to a great home cooked breakfast. Jay & Denise are pretty handy in the kitchen. We also had plenty of coffee. I brought the gift of Starbucks VIA and changed Jay's life. We spent the day grabbing stuff from the grocery store to prepare for Thanksgiving, and to make sure we had everything we needed for the week. We also bought another Vicks Vaporizer for Eli - he's still struggling with mucus, but it's getting better. And we knew that Jay & Denise wouldn't mind having one around for James.

And I couldn't help but buy my Nephew a guitar. It's a little one, so he can start using it sooner than later. I figure I can teach him to play over Skype. I got it home and tuned it, then played a few chords for him. He's very interested.

Toward the end of the night, Taryn and I finally got around to getting Eli ready for some solid food. We'd been bad and skipped a couple meals, mainly because of the crazy travel schedule.

We put him in James' high chair and grabbed some of the baby yogurt that we'd just bought at the store. We hadn't tried it before, and were interested to see how he would take to it, especially since he hadn't been taking to much of anything for the past 2 months or so.

Surprisingly, it went as well as it could have. He started by making the same faces he does for everything solid that we put in his mouth. But his expressions evolved from the disgusted pucker, to the surprised mashing, then the excited salivating. We were so happy. We credit his cousin James for showing him how to do it right. James opens up like a little birdie for his solid food.

Here's a great picture progression that captures Eli's yogurt evolution ...

1st the initial aprehension and attempts at getaway.

Unhappily succumbing to the inevitable.

Horror and disgust.

How could we do this to him?

Feeling so wronged.

But wait a minute ...

That's not too bad ...

Yes Mommy, I will try some more ...

Hey Mikey, he likes it!!!

Cousin James was very proud to see his influence rub off for the better.

After dinner, we made our way into the family room and I grabbed the guitar to serenade the boys. Each took a turn at sitting with me to try their hands at strumming. Both did exceptionally well. Here's Eli working his magic.

The kid's a natural. And you can never start them too early.

Just ask Tiger Woods.

Halloween Pt. 2

So we went all out this year on our pumpkins. Well, I guess you could say we went all out in terms of numbers, but kinda rushed the carving part. We didn't start until mid afternoon, and had barely finished by the time Cathy, Dad & Mom left. In fact, Kendall was still finishing his last pumpkin when our first group of Trick or Treaters rang the bell. But it was time well spent. We threw on the ipod, set up 2 carving stations on the back patio, got a nice fire roaring in the chiminea and went to town. And everybody carved a pumpkin! There are no bystanders at the Bacons on Halloween.

Here's Cathy's Spooky Spider.

And Dad's Ghoulish Ghost.

Mom's Bloody Head.
The knife sticking out of the face also served as the light, and it changed colors. Very cool.

My Wolf.

Taryn's Wild Thing.

Kendall's Wild Thing.

Kendall's Bloody Face.

And Kendall's Half Retarded Pumpkin with an Attitude.

Mine & Cathy's pumpkins went by the front door. The place of honor.

We hung skeletons from our garage door. Also, I've decided to leave these up year round - you know, to make the point to all the neighborhood kids.

Here's the graveyard.

We were very happy to find a replacement spider since we lost the one from last year. And this one lit up!

See?

Here's a good shot of our walkway leading to the front door. We have the graveyard, skull fence and creepy pumpkin.

And it's not truly Halloween unless you have blood dripping from the windows.

Another good shot of the walkway, with our scattered pumpkins, spider, and the Gorilla Man lurking in the background.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween Pt. 1

Since Halloween is our favorite holiday, this year Taryn and I hosted. We had my Mom & Dad, and Taryn's Mom & Brother up for the day. We spent the majority of our time carving pumpkins. We had bought 4 @ the Phillips Farms Pumpkin Patch the weekend before, and Cathy brought up another 5. Our place was pretty decked-out (see forthcoming post for details), and everyone was in the spooky spirit. Eli went through a plethora of outfits that day (mainly because we wanted him to get time wearing all of the Halloween clothes that we'd bought for him before he grew out of them, but also because he likes to peepee). He started in skulls, made his way through mummies, and ended up as a monkey. Unfortunately we didn't get nearly as many pictures as we should have due to all of the pumpkin carving.

But to begin the day, we brought out some of Eli's Halloween books and had spooky story time on the floor. We read The Nightmare Before Christmas and disney's Anthology of spooky stories. As you can see, it was a pretty good time.

Here's Eli in his mummy outfit watching his Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Kendall run around doing finishing touches before all of the Trick or Treaters showed up.

I was the only one to get into costume, so I got to answer the door each time it rang to hand out candy. Unfortunately, it was the same costume from last year (bummer), but it's still fun to get into full gorilla getup and go bouncing around the neighborhood. Eli didn't know what to make of the fur. I had to take the mask off to let him know it was really me.

We ended up having about 20-25 kids come to the door, which was a lot more than the year before. And I didn't frighten as many of the little ones this year. Which wasn't as cool, but I guess you gotta draw the line somewhere.

Nummy Apples?

Ever since his bout with the flu, Eli has been having difficulties taking his solid foods. And by difficulties, I mean he's just not having it. Before his illness, he would grab the spoon and try to feed himself, but now he's grabbing the spoon to push it away. So, after much debate, Taryn and I decided to forego our initial desire to have Eli try all of the veggies we wanted him to, and give him some fruit to see if the sweetness would entice him to eat better.

No such luck.

Apples are by far my favorite fruit, and when we gave him some for the first time, I had high hopes of smiles and appetite. Instead, we got the same old routine. Same response to the bananas we tried next. Taryn and I were both surprised. These days we're lucky to get 5 good spoonfuls down.

He looks so angelic, but he's such a booger.

None too excited.

Pushing at the spoon.

After The Show

Since Taryn and I had decided not to make a big fuss about our Anniversary this year, we instead grabbed at the chance to spend a night out together with friends, leaving Eli to stay the night with his Grandparents and his Nonni. It was the first time that we'd left the Lil' Man somewhere without us, and it was really hard. But the night out was well deserved, and very awesome. When we got back into Stockton to pick Eli up, it was a little ridiculous.

On our way out of town, we stopped by Katy & Anders' new place to celebrate their just announced engagement. Congratulations guys! We love you, and couldn't be happier for the two of you! You totally deserve each other - but in that good way where you're both awesome.

After our 'eventful' night out, Taryn and I were both pretty wiped. Taryn had a sudden late-game burst of energy due to the wedding talk and girly giggling. I, on the other hand, had no such energy, and took the chance to doze in the middle of everything with my Biddles.

Phillips Farms

Just 6 days before Halloween, Taryn and I took Eli on his 1st trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We went with Eli's Nonni, Grambot & Grandpa to Phillips Farms - the same Pumpkin Patch that Taryn and I went to as kids. The place had certainly changed. They've added a petting zoo, additional hay mazes, game and food booths, and some new characters to visit during the walkthrough. But they also had the old familiar characters and attractions.

Here's Eli doing his version of The Great Pumpkin.

When we arrived it was at the end of the day, just 45 minutes before the Patch was set to close, and Eli was pretty close to food/nap time - which means he was pretty done. He was certainly interested in everything that he was seeing, but didn't really have the energy to respond.

Here's Taryn and Eli at the start of the walkthrough path.

Here's a perfect shot of his Done face. The poor guy was just so tired.

And yes, his T-shirt says "I drink until I pass out." So fitting.

Taryn and I couldn't help but have a great time. It brought back a lot of memories.

Inside the covered mazes there are different scenes depicting everything from ghouls playing the organ, to witches brewing up nasty postions. Here's Eli and me checking out a skeleton gaurding his treasure chest.

As tired as he was, he did enjoy riding the hay horse.

And meeting Mr. Mouse.

Awesome.

Eli thought the petting zoo was particularly interesting.
He even made a friend.

Big Blue-Eyed reactions to crazy animals.

Here's Mama trying to keep him smiling at the end of the trip. My dad and I were at check-out with a wagon full of pumpkins (literally). We left with 4. Three big ones for me, Taryn and Kendall (who was staying with us as our Manny Nanny), and one small one for Eli. It was a great time, we just wish we had made it earlier in the day before Eli lost his energy.