One Year Check-Up

I had last Thursday and Friday off of work to spend with Eli.  Thursday was a pretty low-key day, but Friday we had out one year check up.  The stats?  Well, we have a small kiddo.

Height = 29 1/2 inches and the 48th percentile
Weight = 19.4 pounds and the 5th percentile

We get to now start giving Eli whole milk, peanut butter, and egg whites!  I'm not sure why I'm excited about that, but I am.  The whole milk has been going OK, but he's not a fan of the chill on the milk.  We're still easing out of the formula, but by the end of this week, he'll be completely transitioned.  Now he's getting a bottle only a few times a day and water via sippy cup the rest of the time.  He prefers the sippy cup to the bottle, so I think the only bottle that will be hard to give up is the one at bed time.  The coldness of the milk is for sure helping that along, but long story short, I don't necessarily care when you are supposed to transition completely, we're listening and doing what's best for Eli based on his queues.

So, Thursday and Friday were pretty relaxing with Eli and I just chilling around the house.  Saturday morning, however, we did the Race for the Cure downtown Detroit.  We've never had to wake Eli up in the morning, so we thought we'd outwit him by taking his car seat upstairs and transferring him at the last minute.  Well, he wasn't outwitted and he was certainly awake almost the whole way downtown.  It wasn't until we were about 10 minutes out that he dozed off!  Once we got to the parking garage he woke up, but we'll take that 10 minute nap.  There was a great turn out for the Race and we were walking with the Quicken Loans group, so we met at Ben's office where they had a "pinking" station, breakfast, chair massages and lots of music.  Of course Eli was bright eyed for all of this and extremely excited about the white dog with a pink painted mohawk named Riley (yeah, we were trying to explain that Riley isn't just his cat's name....I'm sure he understood).  The Race itself was awesome and very empowering.  It poured on us for the last half, but it didn't stop Eli from dropped his head down and falling asleep! 

Sunday, we went out to the lake and hung out with Grandpa D and Nana.  We went for a few boat rides and laid low because of the high temperatures outside.  I think it's fair to say that playing on the boat was the best, and most tiring, part of the day.  He took a very long nap on the way home!

Monday, Memorial Day, we played it very low key and played out in the yard with his pool, water table, and slide.  His friend Ellie came over for a little bit and played with him until it became way too hot and we had to retreat inside and watch the losing Tiger team.

Long story short, we had an amazing 5 days with Eli and I was depressed that I had to go back to work today.  I sobbed, Eli sobbed, but we both made it back to the old routine without fail.

Until next time!  Enjoy the photo's below!

PS.....Aubrey is giving me Eli's party pictures this week, so details on the party will be posted soon!

One year ago.....

One year ago today, I was in the hospital awaiting the arrival of my sweet little boy.  What was I doing a year ago yesterday? I was also in the hospital waiting for the arrival of my sweet little boy.  It wasn't until May 22nd at 2:16am, I delivered our unnamed at that time baby boy via c-section. 

Going into the hospital, we knew we were going to be in for the long haul.  I was leaking fluid which was causing our baby boy to lay on his umbilical cord, dropping his heart rate.  It seemed much more serious with 2 doctors and 15 nurses surrounding me than it does as I reflect on that couple of days, but that's besides the point!  After long hours of breathing through pain, spiked fevers and most importantly debating on a name (runner up names: Harwell, Mason, Carter, Asher, and Jimbob Butterscotch (thrown in for some fun!)) little Elijah David Stubbs was born.  At 6 pounds 7 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long, he was the most precious thing I've ever laid eyes on.   

As I reflect today on the last 364 days, I realize how lucky I am to have such a fantastic husband and blessed to have such a gift in Elijah.  I get a little emotional thinking about those sleepless nights when I thought I was the worst mother in the world because I couldn't get my baby to sleep, or how my heart sank each time Elijah spit up his milk (which was about 15 times a day, no joke).  But how my heart filled up with joy and laughter filled our house each time Elijah would communicate to us with a new sound, or how he would wiggle his legs back and forth like Elvis, or army crawl like a crazy man all over the house and had rug burn on his wrists.  This past year has gone by so quickly that I celebrate not just on his birthday, but every day we've had to share our precious time with this amazing gift. 

I love you Elijah and I can't wait to see what the next 365 days bring us!

PS....Updates on the birthday party to come later this week!

We Taught Him That!

This past Saturday, it was cold and rainy so we decided to take Eli to Jungle Java where he could play with the other kids.  This was after he had gone and done an amazing job at swim practice!  While at Jungle Java, two things occurred that brought tears to my ears (or at least if I wasn’t panicking about all the other kids being around Eli, I would have!).  The first is that while playing in the tunnel, Eli demonstrated that he was learning from us each time we teach him how to go down the stairs the correct way.  He crawled through to the end of the tunnel, looked at me, spun his tiny legs around and scooted down where his feet met the floor!  I couldn’t believe my very eyes.  He not only did this once, but every time he wanted to do something new!  I naturally grabbed the camera to document that he is learning what we are teaching him!  The second thing that Eli did that fascinated me is that he crawled up to the top of the slide, turned around and came down on his belly, just like we taught him!

Sunday was a big day….for me anyway!  We finally made it back to church!  My biggest hang up was that I had to leave Eli in the nursery; there would be no conceivable way of having him sit through an hour service patiently.  This was tough to do.  For the first time in 49 weeks, I was leaving Eli with someone I didn’t know for an hour.  Granted, I was less than 100 feet away, it felt like I was 100 miles away.  This was a big step for me, but when we went to pick him up, he was having a great time playing with another little boy.  I’m glad he got some exposure to a different environment and I’m glad our church offers this service, but it doesn’t make it easier in my heart.  But, I will do it again because it’s only helping both of us grow!

With that, please enjoy the video’s and photo’s!

Happy 11 Month Birthday Eli!

Today is Elijah's 11 month birthday, which means the big one is only a month away!  I fee like I haven't posted anything in a really long time.  It's kind of like when you haven't talked to a family member or friend for weeks, you have to block out an hour to get caught up on everything!  I've posted a TON of pictures and video's, hopefully that will show you what Eli's been doing. 

Two weeks ago, Eli went to his first "swim practice" as Ben calls it.  Although he was apprehensive at first, the second week he was a little, kicking fish!  I couldn't believe how Eli was kicking his feet when Ben would float him across the water.  He had a great time and when Ben "accidentally" got Eli's face in the water, he was totally fine with it!  I can't wait to see what he's like next Saturday in the pool! 

Last Saturday, Eli's friend Ellie had her first birthday party!  It was an amazing carnival party and one couldn't thank Sally and Scott O'Neil for inviting our family.  We had such a good time hanging out with our friends and neighbors.  It was also nice that we could meet Eli's future in-laws since I'm certain he and Ellie and are either going to be the best of friends or a future couple;)  We joke that Eli is Ellie's younger boyfriend......which would make Eli's friend Grant her older boyfriend!  Love triangle begins!   As you can see, all of the girls at the party flocked to Eli and he kept running away! 

BIG NEWS before we went to the party:  Eli was playing with something on the end table.  I was watching him, but I was also trying to get everything together so we could leave.  All of a sudden I look down and there is Eli, hands-free playing with a water bottle top standing on his feet!!!  I wasn't sure what to do, but clearly Eli wasn't phased by my excitement because he stood there for a good 5 seconds before putting his hands back on the table and continued to play!!  NEXT STOP...WALKING!

I was lucky enough to have a co-worker getting rid of a slide this week, so I scooped it up for Eli.  He wasn't sure about it at first, as he is with everything, but today he and I spent a good half hour playing on it!  More or less Eli playing independently on the slide and me watching!  I'm pretty sure he didn't even realize I was there until I caught him trying to crawl out of the yard!

Enough from me, enjoy the photo's and video's!

Happy Birthday Ellie



This past weekend was Easter weekend and what better way to spend it than with food, family and the Tigers!  Sunday morning we had Aubrey, Dustin and Grandpa D come over for a brunch and virtual conversation via Facetime with Andi, Monica, Ed, John, Uncle Jim, and of course Ada and Mae.  Technology is amazing, we got to sit and eat in Michigan while watching the North Carolina folks sit and eat!  What a great morning. 

After we stuffed ourselves with sticky buns, egg bake and french toast casserole (and a little bit of fresh fruitJ) we headed off with Grandpa D to the ballpark.  What a gorgeous day to be sitting outside and enjoying our favorite past time.  Eli was such a trooper.  He slept the whole way down, and back, to the park and had an amazing experience while he was there (all of which he will not understand until he is much older).  During the warm up, the pitchers were walking to the bull pin (we have front row seats in section 142 by the bull pin), Eli’s big eyes caught the attention of one Phil Coke, reliever for the Tigers.  It was very intentional when he walked over to Elijah, bent down to his level, said hello and give him a high (or low in Eli’s case) five.  That was pretty cool and Eli handled it like a champ and didn’t erupt into a “stranger danger” episode!  Go Eli!  I guess bringing the cutest baby in the world to the ballpark has it’s perks!

We sit next to the ball boy, so there’s always a possibility of him giving us a ball.  BUT, on this day, a foul ball came all the way out to our seats.  This is unusual because of where our seats are.  We are kind of on a bump  out along the third base line so many folks grab the ball before it gets to us.  So Ben, with Eli in arm, stood up and bent over the rail to claim the ball for Eli.  It kind of reminds me of when Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window for the world to see, however Eli was only about 2 feet off the ground in the arms of his VERY careful father.

We only made it about 5 innings before Eli had had his fill of baseball and the ballpark.  We headed home and wouldn’t you know, the game turned out to be an exciting one where the Tigers beat the Red Sox in extra innings!  Go TIGERS!

What an amazing experience for our little boy, I hope someday he reads this and understands how special he is!

Enjoy all the photo's!

The past few days have been pretty uneventful, but eventful.  Although we haven't done much, we've been doing a lot.  OK, let me make more sense.  We haven't had any big events, but we have made some amazing memories with our little guy.  He had his first "dirty dinner" where Eli decided to wear his dinner as opposed to eating it.  He took his first bath in the big boy bath tub.  He's interacting like crazy and loves to laugh at you when you laugh at him.  He pushes his push toys all over the place.  He has stopped putting everything in his mouth and has limited it to most things.  He's such a little trooper, he now has 6 teeth and it hasn't caused him to be the least bit fussy...OK, maybe I'm fibbing a little, but he's been amazing!  I don't have much more to add, other than the photo's and video's below.  I will have more after this weekend when we take in a Tiger game on Kids Opening Day Sunday!

Rub a Dub Dub!

Bath-time fun

Pasta with tomato sauce....yummy!

Such a sweet little boy