a little of everything

Connor been doing VERY good sleeping in his big boy bed (knock on wood). We still haven't quite accomplished sleeping straight through the night, but we're doing LOTS better than before. He usually goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30pm (depending on if he took 1 or 2 naps that day... he's still in that transitional stage) and then he wakes up between 12:00 and 2:00am. So far, all I've done is gone in there and gave him his paci which he couldn't find, and then just sat there for about a minute until he's settled back, and he goes back to sleep until about 5:30 - 6:30am. And he's been SOOOO good with napping. I just take him in there, give him all his "friends" (which usually include about 3 big blankets, 2-3 of his softies, and his paci) and he falls asleep on his own. He doesn't get out of his bed either. And when he wakes up, he calls out to me, he doesn't get up! YAY!! :) Below is a picture from tonight after he fell asleep... the orange thing on his face is "monkey softies" and you can see his three blankets... I think his other softies are under the blankets, lol... I think I would get claustrophobic with all that stuff around me!!

My brother-in-law, Nathan, is graduating from University of Phoenix in a couple of weeks. So we got together to take a couple graduation pictures, as well as some family pictures (since the last pictures they had done together were engagement/wedding pictures)

Aaron and Connor came along to play at the park while I was doing pictures. My wonderful husband was the carrier of all things :)

Connor is OBSESSED with balloons (or "boons" as he calls them) and kept going over to a party that someone was having at the park. Aaron kept getting him and bringing him back... but he kept going over to them. So a man from the party saw Connor, and gave him a balloon :)

About 15 minutes into taking pictures, I stubbed my toe on the railroad tracks (from the first location we were at) and had to deal with the pain while trying to take pictures for the next hour and a half :(

I tried to get a couple pictures of Connor... but he was on the run and NOT wanting to participate!

He did of course want to join in on Uncle Nate and Auntie Kate's picture though, lol...

here's the picture WITHOUT my son's butt, lol...

Connor and his "boon" :)

(Happy 16 Month Birthday too!)

I always forget to upload and add videos to my blog posts... so here's 4 recent videos :)

#1... whenever Connor sees or eats any food that he likes or wants to try, he does this...



#2... Connor LOVES bath time!!!

#3... eating lunch today

#4... I had everything out on the coffee table while I was packing (for our upcoming trip to Utah) and I went into the other room to get something and came back with a baby food jar tower. So of course I had to pull out the camera and have him reenact it :) My baby is so talented! :)

My baby isn't such a baby anymore :(

Connor was sitting in his high chair this afternoon snacking on some green beans, and I looked at his feet... and came to the realization that my baby isn't a baby anymore. He's a toddler. His feet were almost dangling over the foot rest on the high chair.

WHERE DID MY BABY GO?!

He is getting so big and changing every day. I found a picture taken almost exactly a year ago.

Look at the difference...

If you've been reading previous blogs... you'd know that Connor starting to crawl out of his crib a few weeks ago. At first we weren't sure what to do because we didn't have a toddler bed. First we just put him in a pack n play, because he couldn't crawl out of that. Then for a little over a week, we put him on a twin mattress on the floor, with a baby rail to keep him from rolling off. That was working pretty well, but I just hated the fact that he was right on the floor (spiders, bugs, etc... who knows what could be down there). So, we ended up getting him a toddler bed a few days ago. I had him in the room with me while I was setting it up, and at first he wouldn't even sit on it. He cried if I tried to put him near it. So I just sat by it and played with him in his room for a little while, until he got comfortable with it. He's slept in it the past 3 nights and so far he's done great. He's actually been sleeping a lot better lately too. Most of the time he sleeps through the night, and sometimes he only gets up once. I think he thinks he's not allowed to move from the bed, because when he wakes up in the morning, he'll either stay in the bed, or he'll crawl down and kneel on the bedside with his hands still on the bed (Aaron says that he's just saying his morning prayers) :)

this was today when he woke up from nap time

(an almost 3 hour nap... woo hoo... that's NEVER happened)...

Connor has a fascination with putting anything and everything in his mouth. He uses his teeth constantly to bite things (luckily not people... just things). If he sees ANYTHING with a lid, he takes it off with his teeth (that can include sippy cups that snap on, balmex containers, my Tums container, cereal puff containers, etc.) He even tries to bite things that WILL NOT come off. And then he gets so mad and frustrated, and starts crying because he can't get them off. At church, his favorite thing to do is try to bite off the button things that are on the pews, and also these decorative buttons on the couches in the foyer.

Well, he decided that the little knob on the refrigerator needed to come off... luckily it didn't, but that didn't stop him from trying.

(the button thing is above his nose... he couldn't even reach it with his mouth, AND he was standing on his tip toes)


Aaron was working in the bathroom today. We re-tiled our bathroom floor for only $20... go us! :) It looks so nice in there now. Aaron was in there with his tools and such, so of course Connor had to have his tools too. Good thing he has some, because at first he wanted Daddy's hammer.

I can't believe that my little monkey is going to be 16 months old in 4 days! TIME FLIES!!!

Dad's Birthday/Mother's Day

Happy Birthday Daddy and Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies I know! :)

There's NOTHING better than spending time with family, which is what I got to do this whole weekend. Everyone got together on Saturday for my dad's birthday and celebrated by having a yummy BBQ, playing board games, and eating ice cream and homemade chocolate cake! :)

Then on Sunday, we got together again (minus BJ, Kimmy & Chloe) for Mother's Day. This was my 2nd one to celebrate. Of course the camera was left at my house (by someone who we will not name), so there's no pictures but the one below. I wanted to get a picture of me and Connor like I did last year... but of course he fell asleep on the way home. It's ok, it's cute anyways :)

The Eller Jr's :)


Kate & Nate

My little walking man... he NEVER stops moving!

Daddy & Daughter... so sweet

BEAUTIFUL blue eyes!!

What a stud! (even with the messy shirt/overalls)

Kimmy's 1st Mother's Day this year :)

Homemade donuts... yummy!

Powdered Sugar, Cinnamon Sugar, Glazed, Coconut & Chocolate Chip.... you can't go wrong with those ingredient on homemade donut holes :)

I found a recipe online and thought it would be fun for me and Aaron to make. They were yummy, and SOOOOO filling. We each ate 1 and couldn't eat anymore.

The wonderful bed adventures...

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that Connor was trying to crawl out of his bed, so we changed it into a toddler bed, so that he wouldn't fall out of his crib. Well, that didn't go over very nicely. It was great when I put him to bed. He cried for a few moments, and then fell asleep. But an hour after he went to bed, I hear a loud THUMP and him screaming. I run into his room, and he's on the floor, at the foot of the bed. I pick him up, and there's blood all over his mouth. His upper lip was bleeding. I just had Aaron quickly set up the pack n play, and rocked him back to sleep, and put him into that. Of course he was up every hour that night, because those things aren't comfy at all.

I wasn't sure what to do the next night... didn't want him falling out again... so he went into the pack n play again.

Then my husband (and his sister, through a text to me) had the great idea of putting the mattress on the floor. I had a twin mattress, so I used that instead of the crib mattress, figuring it'd give him more room. I also went and got a bed rail, figuring in the long run, I'd be using it for many years to come.

The first night didn't go very well. He cried for a few minutes, and fell asleep. But then he woke up 2-3 times, and got out of bed and walked to the door screaming for me. Both times I went in and put him back to bed, and sat at the bedside til he fell back asleep.

Then the next time, it was even worse. He did really great and went to bed with about 30 seconds of crying at 7pm, and then slept til midnight... but then REFUSED to stay in bed and screamed when I'd leave. I went back in forth for 2 hours, trying to get him back into bed and stay asleep. Finally I was so exhausted, I just brought him to bed with me. I know, SOOO not what I should have done. But I was tired, and I couldn't do it anymore. (and since Aaron can't pick Connor up because of his surgery... I am the one who deals with night duty right now... and it's EXHAUSTING)

Then came last night. I nursed him (yes, I still nurse him at nap time and bed time) and laid him down while he was still awake. It was later than normal (9:30pm) because we were at my parents that evening. But he didn't do more than a wimper and fell asleep. He slept til 5am!!!!! I couldn't believe it when I heard him whining for me... I was shocked at the time! So I went in there and he was still sleepy, so I laid him back down and stayed there for a moment, and he fell back asleep. I left, and he woke back up at 8:30am. Such a great night!! I would prefer him sleeping through the night, but I could TOTALLY deal with that every day, if I couldn't get the whole night!

So we're hoping tonight goes well. Today at nap time... I told Aaron to give it a try. He's gone from 2 naps to 1, so he's usually exhausted by 12:00-12:30 and falls asleep while I nurse him. But today, I wanted to see how he'd do with Aaron. Aaron read him a couple of books, and then walked him over to his bed and told him it was time to go to sleep. He left and Connor cried maybe 5 minutes. He DID NOT get out of bed though! And then he fell asleep :) I laugh at how he always sleeps though. This was from today's nap...

(I guess parallel pillow sleeping is the new way to sleep) :)

Then tonight, we had all the nightly routine (bath, jammies, brush teeth, prayer, nursing him) and I put him to bed. He cried not even 10 seconds. It was more of an "I'm just letting you know that I'm not happy about this, but I'm too tired to cry more than this" and then fell asleep :)

Here's hoping for a good night tonight!

Connor's 15 Months Old

For Connor's birthday (Jan. 22nd), I wanted to get 1 year old pictures taken. I try over and over to get that child's pictures done by me... but he DOES NOT cooperate. He cries, he crawls away... and does anything and everything BUT smile and look at the camera. So, Walmart was having a $4.99 one pose special. I figured, it wasn't gonna kill me to pay 5 bucks and hopefully get at least 1 decent shot on his birthday. He ended up doing pretty good, and I got the one shot that I wanted (him eating a cupcake/messy all over). When the pictures came in, they called to let me know they were in, and said that they were really trying to clean out their drawers and if I came that day to pick them up, I'd get a $25 gift certificate to come back again.

Now fast forward to him being 15 months old, and I decided it was picture time again (I did his pictures monthly for the first year, mainly because I was working at a photo studio... and figured the second year I'd do every 3 months... and then after that just birthdays and maybe some holidays). I brought my gift card and bought my $25 dollars worth of stuff. The pictures came in in about 1 week, and I get another call. This time, they said "if you come in Friday to pick them up, you'll get a free 16x20." I just keep hitting the jackpot with them :) Sadly, the 16x20 has to be used by Mother's Day (less than a week away), so I'm going in for a family picture some time this week. And all of this... for only 5 dollars!! :) :) :)

Here are the 15 Month pictures...

and then I had a little photo session at home with him. He was MUCH more cooperative in the studio... little booger

it was a bit difficult, because now that he's walking, he kept running away from me... So this is what I saw while I was trying to take some decent pictures of him...

and this is how he truly feels about taking pictures...

Connor at 15 months:

- had his very first babysitter (besides family watching him)

- walk/runs now... NO MORE crawling at all

- is STILL under 25 lbs.

- trying to learn to sleep in a big boy bed (more to come in next post)

- finds bobby pins everywhere in the house, and will walk them to me and tries to put them in my hair

- he still LOVES hair. He will try to reach out and touch anyone with curly, shiny, fluffy, straight, etc. hair... and says "nice" while doing a stroking motion with his hand... like he pets the dogs

- drinks water a LOT better now (he used to spit it out and laugh, refusing to actually swallow any of it)... I don't always have to put juice into it anymore

- has 3 of the 4 molars coming through... he got them all within about 1-2 weeks of each other, poor boy

- decided that it's a good idea to spit on the floor, so that he could then use his hands to clean it up. He does it ALL the time!!

- he loves to blow kisses

All in all, he's doing really good. He's MUCH happier now that he can walk, and now isn't crawling after me crying when I go from room to room. It's kinda nice. We're finally at a good stage again! Now, if I could just get the sleeping thing down, we'll be great!!! :)

a little of this... a little of that

Our poor lawn... when we moved into our house, the lawn was about 5 feet tall, but was crazy. It grew in patches. Everything was cut down, and we cleaned up the whole back yard. We planted flowers and plants, removed 1000's of rocks in the dirt, etc. And then the grass wasn't coming up anymore. So Aaron planted grass seed and watered all the time. FINALLY we got grass. And it started growing very well... and then Aaron had his hernia surgery, and it grew a little out of hand...

we did cut it since... but I kinda liked it long, lol. It was a great setting for taking Connor's pictures :) See???

Connor having some milk and apple chips. He actually likes milk!! I never thought that day would come. Now I can't stop him, lol. He'll down a sippy cup in record time and then always wants more!

My niece, Chloe, came over Sunday for out family dinner. She fell asleep, and I started laughing, because she put her hands the exact same way that Connor used to when he was first born, when he was sleeping. I thought it was so funny (yeah, I'm sure I'm the only one who thinks it was funny... but that's ok), I had to take a picture. Maybe it's an Eller trait?! lol

(the top one is Connor at about 3 days old... the bottom is Chloe at about 3 weeks old)

Because of the fact that Chloe was coming over, I brought out Connor's old bouncy seat and swing. Of course he didn't want her to go into them... he thought they were new toys for him. Lucky he's a skinny thing and only weighs 23ish lbs (the weight limit for both is 25 lbs.)