Happy 1st Birthday Eli Hudson!

A year full of love and smiles and fun!

I can't believe my little baby has turned one!

 

Thank you Eli, for being the best kid we could have ever hoped for.

2012 Christmas Card!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Eli's first haircut!

It was time for our little man to get his hair trimmed.  The front may have looked OK, but the hair over his ears and down the back was getting a bit ridiculous (he was also getting quite a few "look how cute she is" comments, which may have been the long hair or the pink shopping cart cover we inherited from Hannah and Sophia, hard to tell). 

No surprise -- Eli enjoyed himself at the hair salon!

Thanksgiving 2012

This year, we spent the actual day of Thanksgiving in Buffalo and went to cousin Bobby's house for dinner.  Aunt Shannon made lots of food and even more desserts.  It was very nice to spend the evening eating and relaxing with family.

At cousin Bobby's house!

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

"These sweet potato puffs aren't exactly what I thought
Thanksgiving dinner would be..."

Of course, we all know Thanksgiving dinner is just a way to carb-up before Black Friday shopping (which started on Thursday this year?).  We are very grateful that Grandma stayed with Eli so we could go shopping for a few hours!!



BONUS:
Fruncle is taught how to play the cello, by cousin Bobby, in just 7 minutes ...

 

Eli loved every second of Fruncle Steve playing the cello .....

Eli is 11 months old!

I cannot believe that my baby celebrated 11 months on November 24th! 

Just crazy how quickly it is going by ...

November 24, 2012

November 24, 2012

Height = Surely about 3 feet by now ...
Weight = Just over 20lbs (at home scale)

Eli's life at 11 months:

• Eating: This kid can eat.  Luckily, he has gotten past his choking issue.  Which means he eats lots more "real" food.  Puffs, bread, noodles, rice cakes, cheerios, rice krispies, bananas, avocados, mac & cheese, gerber cookies, rice, cheese and (not surprisingly) his favorite -- french fries!  The vast majority of his calories still come from pureed food, mainly because I am not pushing him off of it.  Why rush it?  He also still drinks a ton of formula, and we'll be transitioning him to "toddler" formula this month. 
• Sleeping: A solid night's sleep still alludes us all. As he has been for months, Eli is still a champ when it comes to going to sleep. But his issue is staying asleep. He wakes up yelling for food and will yell until he is fed, then goes back to sleep.  He has gotten much, much better at naps, always getting two solid naps in (maybe an hour or more each time?) and rarely fighting to stay awake.  I'm hoping his current overnight sleep issues have more to do with teething and that he'll get into the swing of things soon, much like with his naps.     
  

LIKES:

• Eating
• TV
  • If I watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse one more time .... 
• Being naked
• Spoons
• Animals
  • Still not over his animal obsession.  The excitement is ridiculous! 
• Books & anything made of paper
• iPhones and iPads
• Adventures
• People watching and meeting new friends!
• Kids
• Crawling
• no more army crawling, this kid is quick!
• Pounding really hard on the washer and dryer to make noise
• The vacuum
• Not sure how I failed to mention this before, but Eli loves when Daddy gets the vacuum out.  He actually crawls toward the vacuum!  So weird! 
• His Fisher Price Little People
• Eli has a train with santa, an elf and a reindeer and he just loves his little guys!
• Going out to dinner or lunch
• Snuggling
• Bath time

DISLIKES:

• Waiting for food
• People walking away from him
• Sitting still to get clothes on
• Teething

New this month!

• Standing! 
• The kid is pulling himself up on everything!  He loves standing up.  Not yet walking on his own, but he pushes his little walking toy and his old walker and his high chair (which is on wheels).  I am in no huge hurry to have him running every where yet! 
• Eating real food
• Maybe a bit behind, but he has started to move away from the baby food and on to "real" food. 

And here are some of Eli's 11-month outtakes!

"Mr Seahorse, my mom keeps insisting
that we need to stay in this f'ing box!
She doesn't understand that I can't
be contained!"

"Come on, Mr Seahorse, we must dance!"

"Ain't nothing gonna break my stride..."

"Nobody's gonna slow me down..."

"Oh no, I've got to keep on moving!"

"Look ma, one hand!"

"OK, now that we had some fun, we
need to have a serious talk Mr Seahorse.
Next month, I will no longer be a baby
and our days of fun in the green box
will come to an end. 
I know our relationship started out rocky,
but I love you, man!"

A visit with Santa

You know that moment when the baby starts screaming and crying and struggling on Santa's lap at the mall?  When the baby sobs (much like Eli with the Easter bunny), but everyone that's around just smiles and says stupid things like "Oh, guess Baby's gonna get coal this year" or "These are the memories we make".  As if tormenting your young child is part of the holiday fun.  You know what I am talking about? 

I HATE that moment.  Tears come to my eyes for the child and I get super annoyed with the smiling parents.  So when we took Eli to see Santa for the very first time while we were visiting his cousins for Thanksgiving, I dreaded that moment of tears.

But, of course, all of my dread was for naught!  As I have found many times over these last 11 months, I often worry a lot about something only to watch Eli face the situation and shine!

Maybe Eli loves Santa so much because he met him last year, when Santa dropped Eli off at the hospital at 8:28pm on Christmas Eve?

A dapper Eli, waiting in line at the
"North Pole" (Palmer Mall) to
meet Santa for the first time. 

"Hi Santa, it's been a while since I saw you. 
How was your year?  Mine was pretty good."

Even Santa was impressed by Eli!

How cute are these kids?

Eli's first pre-Thanksgiving!

Most of you know that my family and Ryan's family live hours apart.  The positive side of the distance is that we often get to celebrate holidays twice! 

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Eli celebrated his first experience of Turkey Day with Nana, Pop-pop, Aunt Lori, Uncle Al, Hannah, and Sophia. 

I must say -- while he didn't eat a lot of turkey, he did enjoy every second of sitting around the table with the family and sharing a meal!

Happy 1st Birthday Scarlet!

One of Eli's favorite people turned one this month! 

Happy 1st Birthday Scarlet!

We had such fun at Scarlet's party (maybe too much fun -- see below) and I think Eli took lots of notes for his upcoming birthday (He and Miss Scarlet are just one month apart in age!). 

These two are too cute!

Someone enjoyed her birthday cake!!

Someone else had too much fun and
passed out under the table!
(Note the "weird socks" that were
a party requirement -- Eli wore
his "nemo" socks)

Happy Birthday to Eli's Daddy!

It's been a month now .... ...but Eli wants to be sure that you know he celebrated a very special day with his Daddy!

(By the way, it was a very exciting Birthday celebration. Because we were in the middle of the hurricane recovery, we ventured out only to wait in line for gas for 2 hours and then hit up the grocery store, which looked like the end of the world was quickly approaching. I promise, next year we'll do something fun!).

Happy 33rd Birthday Ryan!

"Baking Daddy a cake!"
(You just need a wooden spoon, sprinkles,
cheerios, and love, right?!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

"Look at that great cake I made!"

Eli's first Halloween

Lots of Halloween posts below (What can I say?, it's Ryan's favorite holiday!), but here's a last one of some of the photos from actual Halloween Day (on which we sat at home being grateful that we survived the frankenstorm) as well as a summary of ALL of Eli's Halloween costumes (doesn't every almost-one-year-old need 3 Halloween costumes and multiple Halloween outfits?)!

"Happy Halloween!"

"This pumpkin is JUST the right
size for me!"

Eli's first pumpkin patch 2012

Halloween 2012
Baby's 1st BOO!

Eli the Skunk 2012

Incredible Eli Hulk 2012

Flying Monkey Eli 2012

Halloween with Eli's friends!

Just before the "frankenstorm" hit NYC, we had some friends over to celebrate Halloween.  It seems like our Halloween parties are doomed (last year, we had a Halloween Blizzard!), but everyone prepared for the hurricane first and then stopped over for some food and drinks and football before the storm hit.

Here are some photos from the day!  I am glad Eli got to hang out with the girls, as most Halloween events around here got cancelled or postponed.  Hope next Halloween is a little less eventful!

Our little Incredible Hulk!
Halloween 2012

Wynne Avengers!
Halloween 2012

"Hulk Smash!"

Madeline and Eli
(See their first photo together here!  Crazy!)

Reagan & Eli!

Reagan, Eli & Madeline!
(In case you thought it was a lady bug, hulk and little bo peep!)

Halloween Family Portrait 2012

One family tradition that Ryan's sister started 4 years ago (when Hannah arrived) was a Halloween family photo.  Weird, I know, but I love it!  Way better than all of us dressing in matching sweaters and standing in front of a fake forest background. 

I will admit -- I was all about this year's theme -- the Wizard of Oz! 

I spent quite a few nights hot gluing and taping and pining our costumes (I have no idea how to sew!).  Ryan's costume was borrowed from my sister-in-law (Aunt Kel) and made by her dad!

Here are just couple of our favorite shots!