Warmth, please

We have mere hours left in arctic Minnesota. It was -21 degrees on my drive to work this morning, and that is just a little too cold for me. We are looking forward to spending time in a tolerable climate for a few days. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 1:30 and we haven't even started packing yet. This is usually how we do things. Even though we are last-minute packers, we usually don't forget anything! We have so many fun things to look forward to on this trip. I will capture as much of it as possible in writing and on our camera.

Elijah has been so fun to be around this week. He makes us laugh all the time. He started sprint-crawling and it cracks me up. When he has his heart set on getting somewhere quickly, he crawls like he's in a very competitive race. It's so funny to see his little arms and legs moving so fast and his little bum going from side to side. He has been so fun and bubbly and full of personality lately. We haven't even had too many tantrums this week. Hopefully our vacation will be just as pleasant and tantrum-free.

Have a great weekend! We'll update next from North Carolina, where are fingers will have had a chance to thaw out.

Our CRAWLER! I never thought I would see this.

NEWSNEWSNEWS!!!!

Thanks, Heather, for taking this cute pic of Elijah and me last weekend

So, last night I was sitting in the living room with Elijah before we put him to bed. He was up on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth, and....he just decided to start crawling! He only took a couple steps, but MY BABY CRAWLED! Of course, I cried a little. I'm so happy. There were days when I thought this would never happen. I'm such a proud mommy.

Fun with family

Yucky, I looked at my calendar this morning and noticed that next Wednesday is a hospital day for us. Elijah is having a surgery (not heart-related) at 8:30 a.m., and my plan is to beg and plead to not stay over night. I am dreading being in that place again, even if it is for something relatively minor. This Friday is Elijah's 18-month well visit, so he can practice his screaming and crying then.

His cold is slowly improving. He still has a cough and congestion and a runny nose, but he certainly isn't acting sick anymore and he's sleeping like a star again. He is SO CLOSE to crawling. There were a few times this weekend when he was actually up on all fours and I thought for sure he would just take off. How exciting! I thought this day would never come.

We spent the weekend in Okoboji, Iowa, with my dad's side of the family. We had a really fun time seeing everyone and catching up. Elijah got tons of love from everybody. It was sad leaving yesterday because I know we won't see my dad and little brother again for a while (luckily we'll see my stepmom again in November!). I miss them. Elijah misses them, too. He warmed up to them really quickly and did his excited arm/leg flapping every time he saw them.

I have pictures of Elijah splashing in the pool with his (third?) cousin Ian, so I'll post those later tonight. He was a little bit uncertain of the water at first but once he got used to it, he splashed and laughed like a crazy man.