The "whines"

Elliot has officially hit that frustrating phase of tantrums and whines, whines, whiiiiiiiines. There have been countless moments this week where I feel like I'm going to pull my hair out and I've shamelessly begged my husband to hurry home from school so I can have a few moments of peace (aka a nap). He has been fantastic with Elliot which I'm so thankful for and he's been so patient with me this week as I've been exhausted - absolutely exhausted. I'm not really sure why I've been so tired (oh wait, I'm pregnant!) but if I don't get a nap I'm ready for bed before Mr. Elliot which is not a good combination.

I also never realized just how hard it is to just leave Elliot alone when he's in the midst of a tantrum. It is so tempting to do whatever we can to make it stop and make him realize that it won't get him anything. BUT the best way, that we know of, to get him to realize it won't get him anything is the hardest thing for us to do. *sigh* We're getting better at it though and fortunately his tantrums are mostly short lived. Actually the mere mention of 'Teddy Grahams' can clear up almost any tantrum but we try not to resort to that ;) He does get them as a snack and if he's particularly well behaved he even gets to hold the bowl to eat them out of.

Despite all the whines Elliot has been such a sweet little guy. He is becoming more and more cuddly and I LOVE it. I love when he's getting sleepy & he comes to me & asks to be picked up and then promply lays his head on my shoulder. It is the sweetest thing and I cherish those moments. I also cherish those moments where we get to read his favorite books together and seeing his face light up or watching him bounce around in excitement. It's adorable.

Elliot and Miss Cupcake are booked on their first flight! Yesterday my mom bought our tickets for our family's Great California Adventure. I'm so excited although a bit nervous about flying with two little kids especially with all the hype about this Swine Flu business. I don't even know what to think or believe anymore...argh. Anyway 17 of us are flying out of Kansas City on the morning of Christmas Eve. We hadn't all planned to go together but it should be a fun time as long as the plane doesn't go down of course. It may be an irrational fear but it is one that I have! I've already been doing a lot of reading and plotting as to how we're going to get ourselves and all of the stuff we need out there without costing a bazillion dollars. It's something that I'll probably research to death & stress over but in the end it won't end up being nearly the big deal I think it is which is a good thing I guess. At least I'll be prepared!!

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

Have I mentioned before that I married an absolutely amazing man? Possibly the most amazing man there is - too bad for the rest of you ladies out there!

Yes, I may be biased a bit but I'm allowed and it's fun to brag about how great my hubby is sometimes. This weekend he pulled off a feat I didn't know he could do - he surprised the heck out of me. I mean seriously this surprise came completely out of the blue but it was AWESOME!

With the help of a few other sneaky people in my life he pulled off a surprise baby shower for me :) Saturday my mom watched Elliot for us so we could have a nice lunch and do some shopping. I didn't think anything of that & really enjoyed some adult conversation & not having to wrangle Elliot in a restaurant. The only strange thing was that our sliding door was locked when we came home but I didn't give it too much thought & Petey seriously gave NOTHING up. How he kept such a straight face is beyond me.....

So, I come in our front door & VOILA - baby shower! It wasn't a large gathering but it was awesome to have everyone there to surprise me. It was also great to get some new things for Cupcake. Most of her stuff is super nice but from garage sales or consignment shops. This has given us the chance to get her a LOT of stuff but I was starting to feel a bit bummed out that she wasn't going to get new stuff that was all her own. I know it may sound silly but that's how I was feeling so it was great to know that she had some things that are solely HERS & not hand-me-downs from her brother or other items from someone else. I had a fantastic time and felt really special especially because I wasn't in the hospital this time and this shower actually got to happen. Petey apparently had tried to plan a small shower last time when I was pregnant with Elliot but I ended up in the hospital two days before it - OOPS!

(I'll post some pictures on Facebook for your viewing pleasure.)