Happy Birthday, Eli!

Today is Eli's first birthday. One whole year has passed since he was born! It has gone by so quickly. Not so much the day to day, but in hind-sight, I'm sure you understand.

He is our little monkey.

Always wanting to be in charge.

Always wanting to cuddle with someone

Or something...


Our sweet Eli! I have loved him from before we even knew he was going to be. He is passionate and confident. He fears nothing and tries everything. Eli is my wiggle worm and my cuddler, all at the same time. He loves his family, idolizes Luke, wants his daddy and begs for his mama. Eli is determined and commands attention. If not with his voice, then with his expressions, his eyes and his precious smile.

I think back to life before Eli and wonder how I was ever content without him being a part of our family. He belongs here. With us. In our lives and our hearts.

Pictures, Just Because My Boys Are So Cute!

Photobucket Album

Run

Kris and I took the boys to the Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge yesterday to walk around and basically, get me out of the house. We stopped by McDonald's on our way out to use our two free happy meal coupons. Got out of the house and had a cheap meal that I didn't have to prepare. I love it!

Once we got to the refuge, we walked around until we found a bench where we could sit and eat. I spent the entire meal looking for several things:

1. Alligators climbing out of the water to eat my babies.
2. Snakes trying to eat me.
3. Other visitors coming up on us who would think we were as ridiculous as I felt. Somehow it seemed wrong to be eating McDonald's at the most natural place in Volusia County.

After we finished our meal, we walked the trail on the perimeter of one of the marshes. The boys did great and enjoyed looking at all the different birds, alligators, fish and butterflies. We even saw a couple of bunnies.

We were heading to the exit when we decided to let Luke stretch his legs and run. Luke loves to run. He will run laps in our house, and when I ask him what he's doing he says, "I runnin'!" Kris assured me he would stay close and keep him safe. Luke would run and not look where he was going and inevitably veer off towards the water or snaky grass.

After grabbing him several times, Kris said, "Luke, man, watch where you're going!"

I laughed, "That's not his job. His job is to run."

After a few seconds, Kris made a comment about how that's just like God as our Shepherd and wouldn't it be nice if we trusted Him the way Luke trusted us. I've been thinking about that all day.

God is our Shepherd. His job is to mark out our path, lead us, keep us heading in the right direction, gently put His hand on our shoulder and redirect us when our souls are veering away from Him. Luke wasn't the least bit worried that while he wasn't looking we might forget to watch him. He didn't fret for one second that we might accidentally let him fall into the water or let him get lost. He was just enjoying the run. And you want to know what he was looking at? Us. All he needed to know is that we were there, so he kept turning his eyes on us.

God has put me on the ground. He's given me His promise. The only job left is for me to run.

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Hebrews 12:1,2

Gratitude

Dear Baby Einstein Company,

Thank you.

Love,
Hannah

Extreme Makeover, Hannah Edition

Luke loves to look at pictures. He gets it from his dad. I can pull out all the photo albums on my bookshelf, and he will sit and flip through the pages over and over. I pulled out an oldie, goldie the other day. It was one that Anna made for me when I was probably nine or ten. In it were pictures of my first trip to a summer camp at Living Waters. Luke took one look at a group picture of me with five other nine year olds, pointed me out and said, "It's Mama!"

The other day I saw my youth minister for the first time in maybe five years. The first words out of his mouth were, "You haven't changed a bit!"

Okay, I'm glad I'm not "showing my age", not that that is such a great accomplishment at twenty-seven. But shouldn't I have changed a little bit since high school? And for the love! I should NOT look so much like I did at nine that my two year old can spot me in a group picture!

Is it my hair? My clothes? Kris can always tell when I put on something that I've had for a couple of years. He'll ask me if I think it's time to get rid of it. Only if I can replace it, Baby. Only if I can replace it.

Playdates...

...are great in theory. In reality, they are a different story. If I didn't have a clinger and a crawler, I might be able to enjoy them. If I had just a clinger it wouldn't be a problem at all. But the crawler makes it tricky. Four pair of eyes might be nice too. That way it wouldn't be as difficult to watch for my crawler trying to throw himself over the side of the playground equipment. Literally.

I came home from the park today and emailed the girls that were at the play date to see if they wanted to have a girls' night so I could actually have a conversation with them. It made me feel better that the general consensus was "Yes!" Hanging out without having to keep our kids from beating each other up or executing their kamikaze missions appeals to all of them.

My Dare-devil

I thought I was going to have my first emergency room trip today. I've called poison control three times for Luke already, but we've never had any major falls or accidents. He's curious but not a dare-devil. Eli, on the other hand, has been a little monkey for months now. Last month he hauled himself headfirst into the toy box.

So, today...

Mama gave me a new sofa (It looks great, by the way.), and the old sofa was shoved to the side in our living room. Half of it was on the carpet part of the floor, and the other half was on the tile part. You can see where I'm going with this, right? Luke had taken the cushions off the sofa, which made things the perfect height for Eli to crawl up and bounce around like it was a trampoline. Not really a problem. It's low enough to the ground that if he falls, it won't be that big of a deal, I'm thinking. UNLESS he pulls himself over the back of the sofa and does a head dive onto the tile floor. Geeze!

Except for the screaming, my heart attack and the bruise on his head, we're all fine. I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch Eli a whole lot more closely than I ever have had to watch Luke.