"Sesame Street LIVE"!

Last week, we took Elijah Brooks to his very first live performance. We weren't sure how he would do sitting for 90 minutes, but we are SO GLAD that we chanced it and took him. He was able to get out of his seat and dance around so that helped. He is just now beginning to know who the Sesame Street characters are, especially Elmo. We thought it would be a fun, family, memory-making outing to take him to see Elmo live. This particular show was called, "1-2-3 Imagine That" and it was very well done. The music and the dancing were fantastic and held the kids' attention so well. It was interactive too, so he was able to do alot of the "pretending" that he was being told to do from the stage. I am so glad we did it and he had a wonderful time and is still talking about it.


At the elevators waiting to go in


Dancing into the performing arts center!


I could only get pictures of the side of his face. His eyes were glued to the stage.


Jay looks like he was having a good time too :)

"Cupcakes"

Jay's birthday was a few days ago and EB and I had planned on making cupcakes for him. My son was more than excited about this adventure and talked about it for days - no kidding. A great mess was made, but even more great memories were made. I figure life's too short to get upset about a little mess in a kitchen. I own water, a washcloth, a bathtub, and a vacuum cleaner so I just gave EB full rein to have a blast making his Daddy birthday cupcakes. And you know what, Jay ate every single one of them and said they were the best he has ever tasted. Sweet Daddy.


Of course he had to taste them


Trying to decide which one to dig his fingers into next


"Cheese Mommy"!


Proudly showing off his very meticulous and calculated placement of the birthday candles


The finished product!

"Busted"

Over the weekend, Jay and a heavy pewter decorative cross had a meeting of the minds - or should I say a meeting of the face. Our sweet, angelic (and almost 2 year old son), is testing some boundaries these days, as they all do. He picked up the cross and Jay told him to put it down immediately, knowing the fate that awaited him if the cross remained in his hand. Our sweet boy did not obey, but rather threw the cross which ricocheted off of the side of Jay's head hitting his head, eye and mouth before finally landing on the floor. Ah yes, it was a memorable moment for all of us - Elijah Brooks included. After proper disciplinary action had been taken, we proceeded to turn our attention away from him and onto taking care of Jay. Jay and I noticed that EB had slipped out of the room and was being very quiet - usually a warning sign of some impending mischief. We walked out of the room only to find the following scene....., EB had somehow managed to get not only 1 Rice Krispie treat off of the counter, but the entire sheet of them which had not even been cut yet. There he was, just relishing in the moment. Treats are not supposed to come after discipline in my opinion, however there was no stopping this one as he had already helped himself to half of the sheet!! I shouldn't have grabbed my camera, but I did - and today I am glad as we are all laughing about the incident.

"Feeding Ducks and Geese"

We love to feed the ducks and geese at a beautiful park here in town, and we try to do so regularly. These birds are pretty greedy though, so you have to watch your hands!

I have been having fun playing around with my camera and trying to figure out what in the world I am doing with it. I have a dear friend who is helping me learn how to use it properly. I have a new found respect for photographers and what they have to do to get just the perfect shot when it comes to lighting, shadows, shutter speed etc.... I am such an amateur and am in the very early stages of learning about all of this, so I feel that any decent (or semi-decent) picture I get is purely luck. These aren't perfect pics by any means, but I at least captured the moment.

"All is well"

Thank you all for your sweet comments, thoughts, and prayers about Elijah Brooks' recent fall. I am happy to report that he is doing just fine and had no ill effects, besides some yucky bruising and swelling - all externally though - so thankful. I too have recovered :)
He is tough and resilient and I know this is the 1st of many more to come....., still doesn't make it any easier to witness such a nasty fall.

Hope you all have a great day!

"Traumatic Evening"

We have made it almost 2 years without a serious injury. However, that all changed last night. Our sweet boy fell 4 feet off of a chair onto our stone floor, landing directly onto his head. He was in my arms and we had been quoting some of the children's catechisms and some songs that I have been teaching him and I needed to look for my book to teach him the next one. Our day had been absolutely perfect, he had been an angel all day and such a "snuggler" with me. Our leather chair is right next to our bookcase and there is maybe a foot of space between the back of the chair and the bookcase, separated by our stone floor. I sat him in the chair and told him to stay on his bottom while mommy looked for the book that I needed. I opened the bookcase and literally 1 second later, I saw him flip over the chair and land directly on his forehead on the stone floor. He was so close to me that he actually hit me going down. It was truly the most horrific thing I have ever seen, and the sound of his head hitting the floor is haunting me in my sleep and during the day. I am paralyzed even walking past the bookcase today. My first thought was that it killed him instantly - I mean it had to have, hitting his head that hard. I just started screaming and calling out to Jesus. I scooped him up and held him so tightly I am sure he couldn't breathe. After about 15 minutes, he looked up at me and said, "okay mommy". Jay was doing a visitation of someone from church at the hospital, so I had thought about just meeting him there. But, we decided for Jay to come home (and he was home in about 5 minutes), and we would assess the situation. I was watching EB closely for any signs of concussion or other trauma and from what I could tell, he was acting normal. However the night before, I had attended a CPR and first aid certification class and we ended the class discussing head injuries. Learning what I had just the night before, I knew in my heart that we needed to take him in for evaluation and x-rays. So, we packed him up - it was 5:30pm, and headed to the doctor. We were finally in a room at 7:30pm and out of there at 8:00. Elijah Brooks was as calm and sweet as I have ever seen him and I know that God was working in his little heart helping him deal with everything that had just happened. He never cried at the doctor's office the 3 hours. He thanked each doctor and nurse for everything that they did. He said, "TANK YOO" after getting his pulse checked, temperature checked, weight checked, pupils checked, and 3 x-rays of his skull. I cried almost the entire 3 hours and especially after seeing him tell everyone thank you for helping him. Fortunately, there were no skull fractures and no bleeding or internal swelling. The doctor did want us to wake him up every 3 hours through the night to check his breathing, pupils, and color. I set my clock and followed doctor's orders. We arrived home at 8:15 and I threw dinner in the oven that I was working on right before all of this happened, and we sat down together for dinner at 8:45! EB's bedtime is 6:45 so this was crazy late for him, but he wanted a popsicle and some corn, so that's what he got!! I told him he could have whatever he wanted to :)

I still feel very traumatized by the whole incident. I couldn't sleep at all because I kept playing it over and over in my mind. But, I know that God was with him before, during, and after the fall and I trust HIM wholeheartedly with my child's life. He belongs to the Lord. God has great plans for his life and Elijah Brooks is MEANT TO BE HERE.


Eating corn on the cob at 9:00pm!


And yogurt :)