little boys love boxes!!

Dan got a box from Amazon the other day and the boys have LOVED playing in it!!

Here's Eli enjoying the fun.

Getting into the box...
Loving being in it...





















"Mmmm...I can also eat this box!!"
















"And, just in case you were wondering, I am super cute, even when in a box!"
"See?"
But, he's a toddler, and toddlers get bored quickly. Off to new horizons....

We love Auriel!

Auriel came to visit today. It is always WONDERFUL to see her, and the boys love her, as do I. I've known her since she was just a babe in her mommy's tummy. I have watched her grow up and couldn't be prouder of who she is becoming. She heads back to New York next week to start her sophomore year at NYU so she came over for one last cuddle with the boys (and me, of course!).

Here she is with Eli.

We love you, Auriely Cappely (remember when we used to call you that?)!!!

sweltering heat + toddlers = WATER PLAY

So it is HOT HOT HOT right now. It was sweltering by 10:30 this morning so we headed outside to get wet and have some fun. Mommy decided it was time to snap some pictures of these sweet boys!

Jayden being VERY serious about filling the pool with water.
Oh, Eli, you melt my heart with that smile.

The boys playing. They are doing better with this these days and how it makes my heart soar to watch their little friendship develop.
And just one more of our littlest man being his cute self!

walking! and other updates

So Eli is officially walking. He just seemed to decide all of the sudden it was time to be uprightly mobile! He is too cute, cruising around, exploring his world.

Jayden is also doing well. He is just exploding with the talking lately- stringing together long word combinations, saying all sorts of funny stuff, and keeping us marvelously entertained. We've been having some sleep issues with Jayden. Some of it seems to be fears and some just seems to be 2 year old stubbornness. so we're hoping we see an end to it soon cause we are TIRED.

All in all, the boys are doing fabulously.

Here are some fun shots from recent days in our household.


Eli walking across the room and loving it!
In his cute new jammies!

Eli also has been moved from a highchair to a booster seat and is super stoked! And we were happy to move the highchair out! (not sure why he is looking at me like that in this picture!)

This is the face Jayden made when i told him to look at Mommy and smile. Hee hee.

And for once, our two little boys playing together nicely!

shake your booty!!!

Jayden loves to shake his booty. This boy has been musical since day one. I caught him doing this by himself today. He just kept making the music play over and over again and he was grooving! :)
I apologize in advance for the glare off the windows!

surgery!

Eli had to have eye surgery today! He had a blocked tear duct that had caused a few infections and persisted beyond his first birthday, which 99% of the time means it won't resolve spontaneously. We went to see an Occulal Plastics Eye Specialist at UCLA two weeks ago and he recommended surgery. They got us scheduled quickly, which was nice. Dan goes back to school soon and we wanted to get it done before then. So we checked in at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute at 7AM this morning. Eli enjoyed playing in the waiting room. Once we were taken back, they put his gown on and then gave him an oral sedative. The doctor came and talked to us and just reviewed the surgery again. Then they took him back. I have to admit, I shed a few tears as I watched him disappear down the OR hallway. We sat and waited for a little bit and then I headed to the cafeteria with my mom and brother. By the time I was coming out of the elevator, he was out of surgery! So it was nice and quick. The doctor said it went great and was super simple and said he has about a 90% chance of this curing the problem permanently. We went to see him and he was pretty upset. Hungry (hadn't eaten since 6 last night and it was 9:15) and in pain. He became so inconsolable and seemed to be in so much pain that they gave him some oral pain meds and then let him have some juice. After that, and after getting his IV taken out, he was MUCH happier. Since he kept his juice down and was calmer, they let him go home and we were home by 10:45! So all in all not too bad. He slept quite a bit today and went to bed early. But by the end of the day he was back to his normal, happy self.

Here he is in the waiting room with the bear they gave him. Too cute.

and here he is waiting to head into surgery. oh, could he BE any cuter?!? SERIOUSLY? I love this little guy so much it hurts me!


His eye is so much better already. No more excess tearing, and no more gooping and oozing. So that's so nice!

13 months (+3 days!)

Eli is now 13 months old! Wow. He is doing so well.

What's he up to?
*eating like a champ. seriously, the kid just eats and eats.
*still nursing in the morning when he wakes up. he loves this feeding and I have a feeling we'll keep it for a long time.
*he now has four teeth. two top, two bottom. working on a couple more.
*still in 12 month clothing for the most part but we've been busting out the 18 month here and there (funny note. Jayden JUST grew out of his 18 month stuff. ha ha)
*not walking. he will take a few steps to get to things if he really wants them and we hold them up. but, mostly, he prefers crawling. and, for now, that's fine.
*he says a few "words." he says "ba-ba" for his sippy cup. and "da-da" for Dan (and my dad sometimes). "na-na" is for his loveys, since Jayden calls them "nigh-nighs" and we have started to as well.
*he is such a mellow, content little one. but with a temper!!! he is super content 97% of the time but then when he gets mad, he is MAD!!!
*he loves his mommy and daddy and brother and is happy to just kind of observe and take in his surroundings. so different from Jayden but we love his uniqueness!!


In other news, the poor little guy has to have eye surgery! He has a blocked tear duct that hasn't resolved so we went and saw a specialist. they did a test and said its pretty blocked, I guess. The procedure is simple and short. Anywhere from 5-30 minutes. He has to be knocked out for it but that's the scariest part. So that will either be next week or the week after. We had to get him weighed, though, for it and here's the news.

He is 21 lbs, 11 oz so he gained over a pound in 3 1/2 weeks. He also grew a quarter of an inch and is now 29 1/4 inches. So he's doing great!!!

And just cause he SO stinking cute, here is something to feast your eyes on.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

At church yesterday, I most certainly did not give in and grab a donut off the donut table only to take one bite, feel guilty, and promptly walk over to Dan, hand it to him, say, "Eat this!" and stuff it in his mouth. I have total self-control over sweets, and also am NOT stressed about dropping this marriage/baby/baby weight.

I also can assure you that I did not forget to wash our cloth diapers on Saturday night. Since I didn't do this, then I most certainly did not have to run out to CVS at 8AM on a Sunday morning to purchase disposables. I also did NOT take the opportunity to pick myself up a tasty Diet Coke to drink during church.

When my toddler decided midnight was a good time to be awake the other night, I definitely didn't let him watch Mr. Rogers so that I could snooze on the couch till he fell back asleep.

The other day, I most certainly did not forego cleaning to nap during the boys' nap. I also would NEVER forget that I needed to pick my husband up at work. I was NOT asleep when he called the house wondering if anyone was coming to get him. Nope, not ME!!!

Go Dodgers!!!

So we were big time blessed this week by having a friend of a friend sending (actually, overnighting!!) us SWEET Dodger tickets. So we decided to take the plunge and take Jayden with us, even though we arrived at the game at his bedtime. Ha ha. He did VERY well, considering how late he was up. He did, however, sleep HORRENDOUSLY that night, which seems to have set off quite a horrible string of nighttime and bedtime issues. Despite that, we had a blast at the Dodger game and they won. WOO-HOO!!

Checking out the stadium. He was SO excited!!

Hanging with Daddy
Being stinking cute!!

Steph came with us, too, which was so fun. Here he is with "Ne-nee."
3/4 of the fam!

Opa came too but unfortunately we somehow missed photographing him. :(

GO DODGERS!!!!

just because