Adorable in a Newsboy Hat!

So this past weekend was quite eventful for our little Elijah.  He went on his first shopping trip!  It turns out that all of the clothes we have for his current size range are short sleeves and fairly light.  As I look outside today it’s rainy and a high of 54….short sleeves aren’t going to cut it.  So, we took our first shopping trip for clothes!  Ben, Eli and I made the drive to the Howell outlets and scored some super cute things, including a hat that everyone commented on. 

After shopping all morning, we went home and did some chores around the house while Eli happily kicked around under his activity gym.   Ben is starting to work on his chili recipe for a cook-off coming up at the end of October, so warm smells filled the house!  Saturday evening, was a mommy and Eli night while Ben went to the Tiger game with his old friends Aaron (Ace) and Tim.  Elijah and I had a great night hanging out together and playing.  I should note that prior to Ben leaving for the Tiger game, Eli was in his crib and he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time!!!  This wasn’t quite as exciting as when he rolled from his tummy to his back, it’s still awesome!

Sunday didn’t start out well…..at all.  He was the fussiest we’ve seen him be in a long time.  We think he’s teething based on the fact that he has rosy cheeks, tons of drool, unexplained fussiness and of course the constant need to have stuff to chew on.  We took a chance and strolled over to the Farmer’s Market and he was phenomenal, but that was because he was sleeping.  By early afternoon, we found one reason he was so fussy, but we don’t have to mention that here.  After unmentioned action occurred, we had a wonderful afternoon.  Eli has learned to grab his toys hanging from his activity gym and shake them really hard!  We sat in the park and watched all the kids/parents playing football and ended the night with a walk to Cold Stone!

Enjoy!

Rolling Over, Swinging at the Park......and Superbowl rings??

With all the hoopla surrounding Elijah's baptism and how much of a rock star he is, I didn't provide any other awesome details about how amazing Elijah is!  So Friday, he rolled over.....again, and again, and again!  He first rolled over the day before he was 3 months old, but he hadn't done it sense.  Well, I came home from work on Friday and he was acting a little fussy.  It's not normal to place him on his tummy if he's angry, but I thought, well I have nothing to lose!  So, once he was on his tummy he was (wait for it......) HAPPY!  Really, happy?  Yeppers!  So happy, that in front of Aubrey and I, he rolled over AGAIN!  Finally!  I didn't make it up, he has rolled over and this time was no different!  That evening, I was so excited that he did it a few more times and I caught it on video!  Sorry for my crazy, loud excitement, but I was so happy he was rolling over!  It gets better though!  On Saturday, I was out running errands and when I came home, Elijah was in his usual happy place under his activity gym.  But, he was turned onto his side so far, a tiny little nudge and he'd roll from his back to his front!  He didn't do it, but he's SO close!

We've been blessed to have so many great neighbors in Cherry Hill Village and make new friends daily!  It only took a year, but I finally joined the social committee!  We plan all the various activities that take place in our village for the year.  Last night (Monday night), we the first meeting I attended and had a blast.  I felt bad being away from Elijah and not being the one to rock him to sleep, but he and Ben got to spend quality time together.  The meeting was at my new friend Jessica's house, who happens to be engaged to an NFL player (Central Michigan's own, Frank Zombo).  Ben had to leave Tuesday morning for a work conference, so he decided to walk with Elijah down to their house.  Jessica was nice enough to show us Frank's Super Bowl ring, so we snapped a few photo's of Eli with it....and as you can see, he was completely confused!

Something new Aubrey has been doing with Eli is taking him over to the park and swinging!  They have a baby swing and with a little support, he sits in it comfortably.  He even took a nap in the swing!  Plus.....here are some other super cute photo's! 

*When he wants to look angry, he sure can give you the look:)*

Baptism of Elijah David Stubbs

As a new parent, I think we think every moment with our child is important.  Today was one of those day's where I did more than *think* it was important, I know it was important.  Today, Elijah was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth in front of many of his family and friends and a full congregation.  There were so many special family traditions into this day.  Elijah wore the baptismal gown that I wore back in 1979.  My Aunt Paula (who is also my God Mother) did some research and found this in the Google Archives from my baptism.  We are so fortunate to still have this gown in the family and for it to be worn by my son!

Another important aspect of this day, is the very special water provided by Ben's Grandpa Stubbs (Tom Stubbs).  He had traveled overseas and brought back water from the River Jordan, which is the water that Jesus had been blessed with.  We were so fortunate to have this water today, however it was not the same without he and his wife, Anne, there to share the special moment.  I hope they are able to view the recording we took of the service.

While viewing the video, note that I was completely paranoid about Elijah 1) spitting up on Rev. Emily or 2) becoming upset and screaming (loudly).  Wouldn't you know that neither of these nightmares of mine occurred, but what did is Elijah gave Rev. Emily an enormous smile while she was speaking to him.  This drew a reaction from the congregation!  Through the whole service, Elijah was a perfect baby, which is surprising because what you don't understand from the video is that we were sitting directly in front of the piano and the choir!  We couldn't have asked for a better celebration.  Congregation members where stopping to let us know how adorable our baby is and how appropriately named he is.

After the service, we had all our guests over for brunch.  Thanks to Nana (Jackie), we had delicious food to eat!  Without her, I would have failed miserably.  There aren't words to describe how thankful we are to have her around to help us out and for Elijah to have such a special bond with her!  We had such a great day and Elijah was quite the center of attention.  I'm thinking he's going to sleep great tonight!  Here are some photo's from the day!  Enjoy!

A special thank you to everyone who could make the celebration and have blessed Elijah with such wonderful gifts.  We will look for you to help lead him in the right direction by providing him with positive influences.





Catching up...

I feel like I've not been able to post anything in a long time.  Oh wait...I haven't!  Catch up time! Here's what Eli's been doing the last week in a few brief paragraphs!

Last week didn't bring us any new surprises, really.  Elijah's growing like a weed and doing more cool things daily!  His newest milestone is the grabbing of anything on his tummy and placing it in his mouth.  If it touches his stomach, it doesn't stand a chance against his drooling chops! Thankfully, we limit this to a few toys and always his Wubbanub. I think he's become to love his little green frog.  I joke every time he puts the legs in his mouth that he's eating frog legs;) 

He can't get enough of motorboat noises with your mouth.  The more, the better.  The fast, the better.  The creation of sequences of the motorboat noise and you are likely to get a squeal of delight out of him!  Just tonight, I was doing this to hold him off from wanting to go to bed until 8:00 and I got creative.  I would make the fun, loud motorboat noises and then go in for a little tummy tickle.  His response?  He arches his back up in almost a bridge and flashes a huge, gummy smile!  He sometimes even gives a little chuckle!

I find it funny that I refused to buy Elijah a swing prior to his birth.  I said he didn't need it and that I could hold him all the time.  Little did I know I was going to have a baby that needed to be held ALL the time!  So, the first few weeks I broke down and got a swing.  I thought, OK, he's going to love this, so I spent a little more than I should have, but oh well, he's going to love it right?  WRONG!  He disliked it very much after the first week!  Well, wouldn't you know the little guy finally came around and is now liking his swing!  He even took a 20 minute nap in it!  So, maybe I spent too much money on it a few months ago, but at least he loves it now!  Oh, and if you are wondering why I didn't just take it back?  The answer is because he pooped on it!  Yep, all over the beautiful white fabric!

What did Elijah do over the weekend?  Well, Friday he watched the Tiger game.  Saturday he went to the mall with me so Ben could steam clean the carpets.  He then spent some time with dad watching football:)  We didn't have him dressed in his Tennessee outfit, but they won anyway.  Saturday night was spent loafing around and watching more sports.  Sunday, he got to spend the day with Nana! Nana came to our house and played with Eli while Ben, Dave, and I went to the Tiger game!  It was certainly nice to be a way for a little bit, but there's nothing better than coming home to a smiley, happy baby!

Here are some pictures and video clips to satisfy your craving of a little Elijah Stubbs:)

Yes, I wear a cape because my super power is spitting up!  (Actually, his bib always turns around so we call it his cape...I was thinking I needed to custom order some capes with a logo designed just for his super hero self!  His defense?  Spitting up on anyone who dare hold him!)

A little tummy time under sea...

When the lights go out....

So the past week has been AMAZING!  We were blessed enough to have Eli sleep through the night (literally) Sunday - Thursday!  Friday night he was up for about 10 minutes and went back to sleep.  We've been so blessed! 

All of you should know that this Labor Day weekend, Pearl Jam was playing a PJ20 festival dedicated to the 20 great years they have supplied us with awesome music.  If you know anything about Ben (or I), we are BIG fans!  So, even though we loved being home with Eli, I think a little bit of Ben's heart was in Alpine Valley, WI at the PJ20 show with his friends.  In lieu of going, I decided it's a Pearl Jam music weekend and to kick off the weekend, we have our own little fan!

Friday night we went out for dinner with Dustin and Aubrey and Eli was the perfect baby!  We were able to hang out for a bit and watch the Tigers and have a great dinner!  Saturday, we woke up and spent an amazing morning together just hanging out and preparing to head off to a wedding.  Neil Halonen is one of Ben's childhood friends and we were invited to witness the blessed event.  The wedding took place on a Michigan home game Saturday, but luckily the wedding took place right in the middle of the game, so we didn't need to worry about the 100,000 fans packing the stadium and clogging up the streets.  What we didn't anticipate was an enormous storm.  I've never heard of a significant weather advisory until this night.  There was a gust front headed toward us and here we were with a 15 week old baby in downtown Ann Arbor and nearing his bedtime.  After a decent amount of thunder and lightning, we decided it was time to scoot out...Eli wasn't being patient at this point, he wanted his bottle and bed.  Well...the rain was torrential and Ben had to run a block over to pick it up (we won't mention that the first time he ran out he couldn't find it!) and when he came to get us, there wasn't an inch of him dry.  After seeing these two freshman students trying to plan out how they were going to get from where we were to where they were going, we offered them a ride and saved them from the dangerous weather.  While driving them to their destination, Ann Arbor looked like a war zone!  Ambulances, cop cars, fire trucks EVERYWHERE!  We even saw one of those cement things you find on campus that list all of the activities taking places, job ads, etc., smoking!  I'm certain lightning struck it!  Anyway, once we dropped them off, we headed home and while taking the back roads to our house, there were trees down all over and lightning filled the sky around us.  When you come up on our subdivision from the country, it's usually really dark and then you see all the lights of the sub....well, not last night!  We pulled around to our street only to find that part of the sub had power, and our little street didn't!  Hmmm, this was interesting, no power, screaming baby, and two very unprepared parents!  Thankfully Dustin and Aubrey live close, they had to supply the house key and flash light for us!  Once we finally got in the house and could see to find candles, we got situated and took care of Eli.  To him, it was just another night, to me it was the worst night ever!  Ben ended up taking our guest room mattress and placing it in the hallway outside of Eli's room because I'm paranoid and though I wouldn't hear him cry when he woke up....but on this night, I could hear a pin drop.  I'm fairly certain I slept for maybe 2 hours all night, but Eli slept all night!  By morning, we'd been updated that power wasn't to come on until Monday night...yep another 36 hours!  But, we got lucky and the lights came on around 2:00pm today.  Long story short, it was a beautiful wedding, lesson in emergency preparedness and a bonding experience for our family!  Would I like to live through this again?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Oh...and you won't find pictures from the wedding until we get our camera back....in my scurry to get out, I left it on the table!  But you better believe I grabbed the wubbanub!

3 Month Old Pictures

Wednesday, August 30th was......photo shoot day with Nanny McAubrey!  She's a nanny by day and photographer by nights and weekends!  Wednesday was Eli's 3 month photo shoot, and even though he got his beauty rest the night before, he was not the "model" model (if you know what I mean!).  He wasn't a grumpy little fellow until later in the afternoon.  The pictures that Aubrey did get were amazing and will be made available soon, but here is what she sent to me while I was working and a few sneak peeks!