I recently got a call from Eli's preschool teacher. I'd only dropped him off about 45 minutes before, but she sounded very concerned.

Teacher: Um, Noelle, Eli took a fall and I need you to come over and take a look at his eye.
Me: Oh? What happened?
T: Well, I think he's fine, but he fell and hit his face on the edge of a table.
M: Oh no. How?
T: He was playing baseball inside.
M: He knows better.
T: That wasn't the problem.
M: Oh?
T: He fell because he was wearing high heels while he was playing baseball.
M: (silence, muffling my hysterical laughter)

Eli was totally fine but did sport a colorful shiner for a couple of weeks. Here it is at about day 4.

Well, Baby Sister hasn't made her appearance yet. The due date is tomorrow but there's no sign that she's going to keep that appointment. And so we wait.

This afternoon, I casually said (in the direction of my belly), "Alright, Baby Sister, time to come out!" Ever since, Eli's been calling out "come out of there and play with us, Baby Sister!!" It is really funny and, actually, kind of helpful. Maybe Baby Sister will actually listen and come on out... that'd be great!

Eli loves his Grumpy. Grumpy loves his Eli.
There are the two in their matching outfits (though Grumpy is admittedly not sporting Spiderman) watching the Masters after a great Easter meal.

The fam, with strategically placed Easter basket.

Happy Easter everyone!

We had a great Easter yesterday. I was at church all morning (ahhhh, the life I lead...). Kevin brought Eli for our family-friendly service. He behaved beautifully and even took Communion like the big boy that he is.

Int he afternoon, we went to Grumpy and Grandmaman's house. The Easter Bunny, aka Grandmaman, hid a bunch of jelly-bean-filled eggs around the house and Eli had a field day looking for them. This is a previously untested activity but he took to it like a duck to water (there's candy involved, what did we expect?).

Laurie getting krazy with the krazy glue.















Beth made little baby t-shirts with animal decals.



















Laurie made thank-you cards with fancy envelopes--pre-stamped!!
















The spread-- yum!


















Courtney's French onesies














As part of my education into the world of little girls, Erin made a bow holder. Eli, lover of all hair clips is definitely going to be jealous.


Erin made leftover bags to take home. Lunch the next day!



Conventional wisdom divided on the subject of showers for second babies, but when my friends Erin and Courtney suggested a small "craft night" baby shower for me, we all agreed it'd be a great opportunity to get together some of our overworked mommy friends for a relaxing night of friendship and creativity. Courtney and Erin did a great job pulling it together and everyone had a fantastic time. The crafts were AMAZING. What a talented bunch of friends I have! Thanks, everyone!

G'daddy gave Eli a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas. Eli calls it Mr. Tato and has recently taken a real shine to it. He often (thought not always) gets the face parts in the right places.














I asked him to show me what face Mr. Tato was making.

In the car recently, we were listening to music on a rock station. Eli, constantly asking questions about EVERYTHING, asked what the song was about. My edited version of the storyline was this: "Well, buddy, he's singing about a woman that he loves very very much. And he is singing the song so she'll know how much he loves her."
"Oh," he replied, without missing a beat, "she's his mommy?"
I think there are still little pieces of my heart on the floormats of the car.

My boys.

When did Eli go from being a baby-child to a real kid?

I love our aquarium membership. It is only getting better since we figured out it is really easy to take the bus. We met our friends the Millers there a few weeks ago. Truthfully, I think Eli was much more interested in whatever Baikal was doing than in the fish.

Now I'll back up.

Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, is a big deal at our church. We have a big bonfire for the burning of the palms the ashes from which are used for Ash Wednesday, the next day. After the bonfire, we eat a pancake feast to symbolize ridding the household of "luxuries" like sugar and fat, pointing to the austerity and asceticism of Lent.

Eli, of course, remembers the fire and the pancakes.

Note: He's sporting this year's "special hat" in these pictures. I'm wondering how many more years I have while he tolerates me making these things and putting them on his head. He is such a good sport.

Looks like I'm headed for another record. I completely missed blogging the month of March!
Ah, well. here's the update: I've got 5 weeks of pregnancy to go. It is unlikely that I'll be posting any pictures of me. For some reason, I'm particularly sensitive to how HUGE I am this time around. I'm really not much bigger than I was with Eli but I feel enormous and blobby and uncomfortable and I think it shows in pictures. So instead of pictures of me for which you will need your wide-screen settings, you'll have to just use your imagination.

I've taken a couple of days off work this week to get some ducks in a row and get a little rest. I cracked a rib a few weeks ago and it makes it really hard to sleep (and drive and cook and yawn and breathe...) so I figured in stead of becoming a complete basket case, I'll get a little bit of rest before the craziness that is Holy Week and Easter. After Easter, I'll be at 37 weeks and she is more than welcome to come any time!

Midwives tell me that Baby Girl looks, sounds, measures and feels happy and healthy. Eli tells me that he's REALLY ready to see her and has begun to pout about how long she is taking to join us. Really, you have no idea, kid!

We broke the news yesterday to Eli. "Happy Valentine's Day, kid. You're getting a sister."

Well, okay, it wasn't quite like that, but after a lot of confusing circular conversation, here is where Eli has landed: a baby is coming to live at our house but not tomorrow. She will be Eli's baby. He will be her bigbrotherbigsister. But for now, the baby is hiding in Mommy's belly and can't go to the zoo yet. And he can't wait to teach her how to use the potty.

He does talk to her though, and it is really, really cute. Today when I got home from work, he lifted up my shirt and spoke into my belly button, "Hi little baby. I went to the zoo and saw the elephant show. Bye now." Then kissed my belly and pulled my shirt down. But this evening when I asked him if he wanted to include the baby in his Daddymommybasco nighttime prayer, he replied, "no, Mommy, the baby's hiding." Like duh.

And, finally, friends, a Bump Update.
She's due in early May and I'm getting big as the goodyear blimp.
Yes, I said "she". Eli's getting a baby sister.

We spent a week at the beach with David and Jaime and cousin Hunter. We had a great time. There was never (never never never) a dull (or quiet) moment thanks to Eli the Entertainer. He loved his new audience in his aunt, uncle and cousin and they in turn, loved to laugh at his joke and silliness, which was great since we're getting a bit weary of the same old material. At 18 months, Hunter is a sweet quiet little guy and I'm halfway surprised that his parents didn't try to shield him from Eli's antics so that he'd not learn any of the crazy tricks.

We found an old kite in a closet that we brought out to the beach one afternoon. Eli fell madly in love with it and we flew it three times. He's a good kite flyer. He loved it so much that one afternoon we couldn't even separate him from it to ride the stroller home. So he flew it right behind the stroller the whole way back to the condo.

And, ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE ACHIEVED POTTY.
There are still occasional accidents, but shortly after the first of the year, Eli declared that he wanted to use the potty and wear big boy underwear. And now he does!

We have had some amazing breakthroughs in the last month. I mentioned the big boy bed. He loves it. LOVES IT. He sleeps beautifully in it. It took him a month (until this morning, actually) to realize that he can get up in the morning and pad down the hall to our room. This is fine as long as he does it in the morning and not in the middle of the night.

here are some pics of him getting ready for his first night and then some nap shots because sleeping kid-babies are so gorgeous.

Eli had a great Christmas. Mommy and Daddy brought him a train set (and a month later he is still playing with it!!). He got a baseball glove and John Deer tool kit, some Curious George Books and a camera from G-daddy. Grumpy and Grandmaman got him a snow globe and a table and chairs to use by the pool. In addition to the huge haul from his uncles and aunts, he was thoroughly spoiled.

And, of course, terribly cute.

Eli is a really silly kid. He has a great sense of the absurd. Perhaps that's just what being two is about, but it makes for a fun household.

He loves to do "reps" with Kevin's push up handles.

He swept the local playground recently wearing a plastic knight's helmet.

And frankly, I really hope he never grows into his father's size 15 shoes. They are really hard to find!

December took us to a few great birthday parties. Chloe (a sort-of-cousin) celebrated the big 3 in Pilot Mountain and Hunter and Eli celebrated with her by driving her Barbie four-wheeler around the yard. Pink didn't faze them in the slightest, the sensitive young men that they are.

Baikal celebrated her third birthday with a bear hunt in our park. everyone got binoculars to look for bears (luckily, the only ones that reside in our park are cuddly and stuffed) then we all gathered an an old fountain for bear stories and bear cookies. A STELLAR party!

Well, I thought I was going to start the new year by being a better blogger. So far, I've failed miserably. It is, however, still January, so maybe I'll give myself a little slack.

Here are many many pictures from our recent adventures, beginning with Christmas and ending with a recent trip to the beach with Jaime, David and Hunter.