i need motherly help!

i am trying to ween this little "ninny baby" as he has been called by his great-grandfather since he was born. i have tried formula, milk, and now chocolate milk--each cold or warmed up and in either a sippy cup or a bottle. nothing seems to work. he won't touch the formula and every time he puts the milk in his mouth, either regular or chocolate, he gets a sour look on his face and his whole body shakes.

any ideas out there mothers? i will try anything. this mother is ready to have her body back to herself.

the destroyer!

eli is such a funny little boy. since i can remember he has always loved pulling his books off his shelf one at a time. well, now he has taken his love for destroying things to a whole new level. i mean, even as a type, he is emptying the trash can in my room. have no fear though! its just an office trash can that only contains ripped up junk mail and old catalogs.

he loves to tear things apart piece. by. piece. i'm just glad the Lord has given me a sense of humor about it and i can laugh at his messes before i have to clean them up again. some of his favorite things to destroy are listed below along with video/picture evidence.

here is eli emptying all the chips and crackers out of their proper place in the pantry. this usually keeps him occupied for at least 20 mins. he moves them one by one, back and forth across the floor.

are there any more bags in here?

video evidence

tearing apart the book shelf

admiring his work

taking every piece of paper out of my letter organizer. this usually happens while i'm on the computer.

hope your day is less messy than mine!

dancing machine

i stated in an earlier post that i was going to try and get a video of eli dancing. well here it is! every time this boy hears music he starts bending and shaking and sometimes he even adds some hand motions. this is him at the raider game tonight right before a kickoff. and by the way, we won tonight!!! go raiders!

farm day

today eli had his first tractor ride and saw his first moo-cow. dad happened to be down the street laying seed out on my great grandfather's farm which is now owned by some family friends. since the tractor they have is air conditioned, dad thought this would be a great opportunity for eli to take his first ride on the big red tractor. they rode around the farm for a few minutes and then we went to take an up close look at the cows. i think it is so neat that eli's first tractor ride was taken on the property that his great-great-grandparents farmed themselves. i can even remember going there as a little girl myself.

"i'm not so sure about this!"

this is fun, mom!

driving down the dirt road. eli loves to drive the car.


the cows chilling in the shade.

here they come.

i love eli's face checking him out.

"can i take a lick?"

why do i love cows?

birthdays and old friends

this weekend was filled with birthday celebrations and seeing old friends. emily's birthday is on tuesday so she came home to enjoy some habersham living. i always enjoy when one of my sisters comes home because it means mom is going to kill the fattened calf! we had lots of goodies to eat. we also had a special visit from jessamie, emily's bff from high school, and her little girl, georgia.

photo shoot with nene.

em and georgia

eli trying to impress georgia with his dump truck

birthday singing

chris's face while singing his special version of "happy birthday"
i so wish i had a video of this!

josh sharing his cookie cake with eli

eli now loves josh!

eli hyped up from cookie cake

friday night lights

before the home games this year, a few members of our sunday school class have been getting together to tailgate. it is nice to be with other believers outside of a "churchie" setting. i have enjoyed the fellowship and getting to know others better.

though i enjoy the fellowship, my favorite part is watching all of our kids running or crawling around burning off all their energy before the game starts.

here is sam trying to get a little sugar from amelia before the raider game.

i can see the light!

after three doctors visits, (man am i glad we don't have a copay!), two antibiotics, two ear infections, and one rsv test (which came back negative, thank the good Lord), i think this little one is finally becoming his old self again. praise the Lord! this mama was about to go insane.

he is back to talking up a storm and has even starting dancing a little. his form of dancing is bouncing up and down from his knees. it is adorable. just adorable. maybe i can post a video of that soon. thanks for all the prayers. believe me, it is only by God's grace that Eli and his tired mama made it through the past two weeks.

week two of a sick baby

my little sick one

since my last post, we have made another doctor's visit with one more to follow tomorrow. eli definitely had more than just an ear infection. after some blood work, the docs determined he had a viral infection as well. we did all the things any good parent should do: humidifier, stand in the bathroom with the shower going, raise one side of the bed, check his temp every 4 hours, give him meds when he needed them, let him nurse whenever he needed to. he igot somewhat better. he was without a fever for almost 24 hours. now it is back, but low-grade and he has a rash. his cough is still pretty bad and his throat seems really sore. so we will go back tomorrow for a quick checkup. hopefully we are nearing the end of this. i attached a couple pics from today.

playing in a box like aunt kate

getting stuck under a chair

mad at his mommy for not freeing him but instead laughing at him and taking his picture. sorry buddy, you were too cute not to take your pic

working his way out from under the chair

bless him again...

poor eli. he just can't catch a break this week.

103 temp...check
ear infection and cold...check
fall out of wagon onto pavement and bust head open...check
103 temp again...check
fall down trying to walk and bust lip open...check

*all of this incidents above happened under eli's mother's care. eli's father might be looking for a new daytime caregiver soon!

hopefully, we finish the week strong with a healthy baby and no more body parts busting open!

Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend was a lot like the 4th of July but trade out the fireworks for football and the blistering hot for freezing cold. I don't think freezing is an exaggeration either...low 50s is freezing when its in the upper 80s during the day. We had loads of fun with the Barrys', Hills', and Kafskys' and the Hardens' came up for some R&R as well. We relaxed, ate a whole lot, soaked up the last rays of summer, sailed some with Captain Kafsky and worshipped the old pigskin. We actually worshipped pigs by eating Andy and Mack's awesome ribs as well!

Eli going on a walk

My child is quite the little talker. He talked to Laurel Blake all weekend and looked at her like she should understand him. I love this serious talking face he has going on here.

"bye bye"

Eli loves conquering the stairs wherever he may be.

count them...1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 people in the kitchen. way to go clean up crew.
check out my hot hubby back there loading up that dishwasher!

and here are the cooks.
we stick to the "if you didn't cook or prepare food to be cooked, then you clean" rule.

oh yeah, i forgot that we danced a lot this weekend.
this is the "cricket dance" made famous by chris kafsky

this man labored most of the weekend. bless him.

here is eli getting his first toss by chris k.

here is dad and kafsky wrestling.

rob and mere. adorable.

and as you can see, we played so hard this weekend that babies started falling asleep in boats. clay was 2 for 2 in the falling asleep while boating catagory.