Sleep-eating...?

Last week Eli fell asleep mid-bite during dinner. What's more is after he dozed off, he proceeded to eat until his food was gone. (What can I say? He takes after his parents and loves to eat.) No one at the table could stop laughing. Luckily, my FIL was there to document the moment (thanks, Chris).

Full of Spunk

It has been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since my last legitimate post which means I have a lot of catching up to do. Eli has grown up so much this year. He has a mouth full of teeth, a growing vocabulary, and so much personality. (We're still working on the hair.) Here is a peak at the little guy. More pictures and updates to come!

Rockin' no. 1

Here's to the schm-eli and his first birthday. (The big day was actually a couple of weeks ago (2.19.09), but as per usual, I am late in posting.) Life with two jobs and a husband in law school is a whirlwind, but this little guy keeps me grounded and consistently reminds me of what is truly important. I love him, he's my number one.

Pay it Forward

"The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!"

Kaput

If anyone has had trouble getting a hold of me lately, I finally have a legitimate excuse. This poor thing is on its last leg: lasting only 2 hours on a full charge, dropping nearly every call (leaving me and countless others rambling into thin air), freezing anytime I try to text, and vibrating sporadically throughout the day. All I can say is "thank you phone" for lasting me this long. After surviving 200+ falls (refer to photo above to see cell body damage), several parking lot puddles, the gnawing of e's budding teeth, and many Lost & Found incidents, it is almost time to bid farewell. Just give me another week*, eh?

*Feb 17 = Verizion Wireless upgrade

I'm in love Ellie Gray the Elephant. Why can't they make more kid toys this cute?!

Inauguration Day Pandemonium

As soon as Obama was elected into office, Chris and I planned to attend the inauguration. (What better way to take advantage of living near D.C. than go?) Getting there in one piece, that was the issue...

Security was expected to be tight in DC for the big event, so the night before I searched online to check safety regulations. Every site I visited discouraged people from bringing their children (strollers were even prohibited on the west front of the mall). The New York Times went so far as saying that doing so "would amount to bad parenting," which elevated my (already high) anxiety level about the event. But we'd always planned to bring Eli and didn't have anyone to dump him on at the last minute, so we took our chances anyway.

The line at the metro station at 8am the next morning extended all the way back to the parking lot. I became increasingly nervous about dragging Eli along as we got pushed further into the throng of people ahead of us (What if there was a stampede? What if it was too cold for him? What if we got stuck on the metro for 3 hours as the media had predicted? What if everyone thinks I'm a bad mom? What if, what if, what if...) Then some people in line started talking about us in Spanish (Chris remembered enough from high school to get the gist of their not-so-private convo), and that was the end of it. We headed back home to watch it on our DVR. We were crushed (to say the least), but felt like it was the right thing to do at the time.

About an hour after we returned home, my brother called saying that the lines had died down at the metro. We weighed the pros and cons, and ultimately decided to give it another go. And we're so glad we did because when we got to the metro station (for the second time), it was almost empty. People had been piling onto metro trains since 2am that morning, but apparently no one had to thought to leave late (late being an hour prior). After a 35 min ride to Foggy Bottom metro station and a quick jaunt to the Lincoln Memorial, we arrived in the thick of a 2 million person mass. It was c-o-l-d , but we were bundled up and too excited to care. (Eli couldn't have been more comfortable, he had the best seat in the house in his "mini Cadillac.")


The feeling that filled the mall that day was incredible -- so many different people united in one place to inaugurate the first black president of the United States. Aretha Franklin's rendition of "My Country Tis of Thee" sent chills down my back, and I got teary realizing that we were, and would always be, a part of history in-the-making.

(This pic was taken by the media-we're in the crowd though!)

We made our way back home immediately after Obama's inaugural speech in order beat the crowds. And beat the crowds, we did. In fact, the streets in the city were empty and a little eerie--military policeman and vehicles (like the one below) were stationed at every corner and there were no cars to be seen. We got home at 1:30pm to enjoy the rest of Chris' day off. It couldn't have turned out better, I'm so glad we ignored the media (fear) frenzy--Eli will love us forever!

After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I'm back with photos galore.
Here's a quick run-down of the last month.

A visit with Santa (lasting all of three seconds)

Christmas Eve Shred Fest (sans the kiddies)

One of the few skiers left on the block

Christmas morning in all its glory

Going gaga over (hand-me-down) Tickle Me Elmo

Cousin E wishing Santa had brought him his own TME

Urgula Poon rocking out on the electric guitar

More Rockband...

Late night chats

Eli's first sledding/snow adventure

Braving it on the back of Uncle Brad's 4 wheeler

Sunny St. George

As an "Artic chill" is hitting DC, I'm wondering why I was in such a rush to come back

Cousin photo shoot lasting about five seconds, after which Eli pushes Addie aside and bolts down to the ground

The beloved aunties

Crazy giggles with Maddox

Fern and Joshie kicking our trash in the New Year's Eve Wii tennis tournament

A visit with Navy, of course

A few final (priceless) snapshots over the last couple of months

This was not staged...

My Shameless Plug

After months of work, my sister and I just launched our new website. Check it out here. We'll be updating it monthly, so if you like it, sign up for the RSS feed (you can find a link at the bottom of the site), and feel free to add a button to your blog!