Fun Times, Old Friends Take 2

I had forgotten how easy it was to just have one kid. I'm not saying it's easy by any means, but after having two kids, I realize how I wish I had taken advantage of the time I had with just one. Thanks to Rachel, the best sister in the world, I was able to spend almost the whole day on Sunday with Just Eli and some of my friends and their boys.
I decided when we were invited back to visit my friends Paige, Sarah and their families on their yearly trip to New Braunfels, that I would take both boys.  Last minute I decided that would be a little too ambitious, and why not just take Eli and really enjoy myself instead of being stressed and worried about meals and naps and making sure both boys are safe in the pool and the like.  Good call.
Just one year ago, we were here, Owen was just a few weeks from being born.  And lucky for us, this year we had an extra friend come along, Will and Melanie.

Melanie picked us up, and Eli and Will ignored each other the whole drive down.

Until we got out of the car, and then they were instant besties.

Just look at these cute boys.

They could not wait to get down to the pool.  Eli is a pretty cautious kid, especially when it comes to water.  But he has certainly surprised me a few times already this summer....but NOTHING that compares to this kid:

Cute little Peter was happily dunked into the water, would dive head first into the water, and even accidentally fell into the water and came out with a HUGE smile on his face.  Fearless. And could not be cuter!!!

The others pretty much stuck to the top step, but still had a blast.

Bo made a B-line to his bed for a much needed nap, and the others grabbed a bite to eat before we took off to come back home.

Apparently, the boys couldn't get out of there fast enough!

Job Site

There is a lot of road work going on outside our home these days.

When I was sick, and staying at my parents house, Blaine bought Eli a TON of new trucks to play with outside. I thought he lost his mind, until I saw how much Eli loved playing with them, and using his imagination to pretend like he was paving streets and building new roads.

Living in a Fog

Oh wow, its been a while since I have posted anything. Here is what has happened since my last post;
Owen was sick, then Eli, then myself, then Blaine.  No one was ever sick at the same time, so this made for a very long two weeks.  It doesn't end there, we had one trip to the ER (for myself, meningitis scare), Owen grew a tooth, we celebrated Mother's Day, my 31st birthday,and Passover, Owen took a bottle (YAY!!!!),  he became completely mobile, we welcomed a new cousin into the family, and we captured a turtle.
The sad thing is, I don't have much to show for the last few weeks except a few pictures from our turtle rescue and a video of Owen crawling.

Sunday morning we woke up and saw this huge turtle on a rock in our front yard.

Random right? We have no idea where it came from, but we decided to walk over to this little pond close to our house to let him go back into "the wild."  We loaded up the boys, who were still in PJ's and went on a little adventure.

The boys, mostly Eli, thought it was a lot of fun and so very exciting.  The turtle crawled right back in into the water...

....and then a week later on my way home I saw another huge turtle hanging out on a curb around the corner from our house, and last night our neighbors found another huge turtle in their yard.  I'm thinking there is a turtle outbreak in Beckett Meadows.

Being sick myself was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don't get sick much, but when I do, its usually pretty bad because I always feel like I have to power through it, and keep everything going.  I always wish that I could take the sickness away from the boys when they are sick, but i think I have to be careful what I wish for. Don't get me wrong, it kills me when they are sick, and I would rather it be me, but it is beyond difficult when you can barely open your eyes, or stand up, or are sweating one minute from your 103 degree fever and freezing the next. Ill keep this short, but after going to the doctor and her taking one look at me and running a couple of tests, she sent me to the ER.  Thank goodness for my family being here, I don't know what I would have done without them.  It does take a village to raise a family!  Blaine had Eli, Rachel left work and took care of Owen, and my mom drove me to the hospital.  The doctor thought I had meningitis, so after a Cat Scan to rule out a bleed in my brain, some more blood tests, some pain meds and a few conversations with the doctors, we decided we would not do a Spinal Tap that had been recommended to us because even if it were Meningitis, there isn't anything you can do except take pain medication, which I would be taking anyway.  After leaving the hospital, I camped out at my parents house for almost a week trying to recover.  Blaine was wonderful throughout this whole thing, and I must commend him for taking care of Eli all by himself for 4 days.

Owen is all over the place.  We have been calling him our little Spider Monkey...he is everywhere and into everything!

I kinda feel like I lost a week of my life I was in such a fog, that my birthday really just came and went.  Blaine and I did go on a date, a much needed one, and I got an ipad!  But turning 31 is just not that exciting. 

I'm hoping for a more exciting, much healthier few weeks and we started that trend my welcoming Nathan Joseph Kruger into our family.

He May be Really Confused

Eli loves his school. Walks right in, doesnt really even care to say good-bye to us anymore.  But here is the deal...he is going to be one very confused Jewish kid.  He goes to Baptist Church for school.  And he loves it, and so do we.  He is even going back there next year.  The way I look at it is that he is learning so much, and comes home smarter every day.  He comes home singing new songs every week, mostly songs that we wouldnt necessarily think to teach him-- Jingle Bells, Jesus Loves Me....., he comes home saying new things like Merry Christmas, and Happy Easter....Im looking at it as an opportunity to learn, gotta stay open minded!

His teachers invited parents to come up to school last week to watch thier class Easter Egg Hunt, it was hilarious!  And amazing that these little two year olds listened so well and were so well behaved as they all grabed thier shape, stood against the wall and walked in a single line outside, this would never happen at home!

It took a minute or so before Eli realized what was going on when all his friends took off running into the grass, but once he figured it out, he went for it.

I loved being able to see Eli interact with his friends at school and watch him play.

Then is was time to say good-bye and let them go on with thier school day

This wasnt Eli's first Easter Egg hunt, we have been going to one of our friends houses for an Easter Egg Hunt for the last few years, here is Eli just one year ago!

In other news, we have currently been battling a virus with Owen, and Eli has taken up a love for skate boards.  He saw one at a friends house whose boys are much older than him, and talks about it constantly.

Blaine decided to re-live his childhood and was able to find one exactly like the one he has when he was a kid.  He and Eli go out front and roll down the side-walk, Cars Helmet and all.

Eli is showing some serious signs of being two years old. I dread the moment he asks for a snack.  The converstaion goes something like this:

E: I want a snack
Me: Ok, what would you like?
E: Goldfish
Me: Ok, you want some goldfish?
E: NO! I dont want goldfish (as he sometimes stops his foot, or shuts the pantry door)
Me: Ok, you dont want goldfish, what would you like for a snack?
E: I want goldfish
Me: (As i get them out to put in a bowl)
E: I don't want goldfish

Seriously.  The kid is very TWO on somedays.  Bedtime isn't much better.  He knows story time leads up to going to bed so he protests reading books, even though we know he loves to read.  Don't even get me started on what I go through nightly to brush his teeth.  Some nights he surprises me and its easy-peesy.  Other nights, we have to brush Larry's teeth, and Daddy's teeth and his puppy's teeth before its 'Eli's turn' to get his teeth brushed, and even then he fights it. When its finally time to get in bed, he has come up with a handful of excuses he throws out to try and prolong going to bed....

I have boogers
I want rub on my chest (when he had a cold we used Vicks rub, and asks for it sometimes to keep me in his room)
I want a tent
Snack, I need a snack
I want to read Good Night Moon
Sing songs Mommy?
I need medicine--we recently took him to an allergist and we are trying out a new medicine to see if it helps with the coughing fits he sometimes has at night. So we are trying out Albuterol, an asthma medicine with an inhaler and a pediatric mask.
We call this his Puff medicine, and he asks for it at night....even when he doesn't need it he fakes his cough just to get it, little stinker!

Now that Owen has gotten passed this awful virus he had, he is back to acting like himself.  He is now 8 1/2 months old (I know, I cant believe it either).  He crawls, and pulls himself to stand on everything, his crib is officially at the lowest level because I found him like this during his nap the other day.

He finally broke skin for his first little tooth. He claps on command, kicks his legs and arms out of extreme excitement when he sees the container of puffs,  he loves to play the piano on his dad's lap, and still plays peek-a-boo when his lovey and an audience is around. He is waaaay into Eli's toys and belly laughs at everything Eli does.

Call me a dork but I was really excited about the Royal Wedding.  I was annoyed at first, but as it got closer I actually got really excited to watch it. I think I DVR'd 3 different networks just to make sure I didn't miss anything.  And the boys actually let me watch it Friday morning!  They both slept late so I layed it bed and got to watch some of it alone, just me and a cup of coffee (ahhhhh!), and then managed to keep them entertained enough to watch the rest. I tried to explain to them that they were watching history in the making, but they didn't seem to care:)