strawberries

what's heaven for almost any toddler? free range in a strawberry patch! over 4th of july we traveled to eau claire and were able to go strawberry picking (for super cheap). initially when we arrived eli didn't know/understand where we were but it didn't take long. after about 5 minutes roaming the rows with grandpa he realized that they were laden with one of his favorite fruits. and if he asked grandpa for "berry peez" than he could have one. well it only took about 5 more minutes before he realized he could just cut out the middle man and go for the fruits himself. oh boy, watch out! he was like a kid in a candy shop! the squeals alone were entertainment enough! thankfully grandpa had the foresight to distract eli so he didn't gorge himself on strawberries (and gave him some time to get some red handprints on a shiny, white buick.) needless to say eli had a good time and we picked a ton of fruit to last us through the winter!

holy camoly

oh.my.word. it's been 6 months! well we've had changes in the anderson household and our family is about to get a little bit bigger. that's right, in december/january we are expecting another little one. are we crazy? maybe, but we decided eli shouldn't get ALL the attention (wink, wink). here are some answers to some common questions we've recieved:

how do you guys feel about being pregnant again?
it's interested how different this pregnancy is compared to eli's. part of us feels like "ho,hum, shannon's pregnant" and it doesn't feel as big this time around. (hopefully this little one doesn't get the wrong impression.) we're excited that we're pregnant it just seems as we're more used to the idea, if that makes any sense at all. we do have our 20 week ultrasound next week and i'm really excited to see the baby (we're not finding out, we like surprises). i'm excited to put a "face" to this baby and to see it move around. one thing we will say, this pregnancy seems to be flying by so much more quickly. it's hard to believe that i'm almost halfway there! like a dear friend describes, it's like when you drive to someplace new on the way there it seem like it takes forever but on the way back it doesn't take that much time at all.

homebirth? again?
yes, we are going to have another homebirth provided everything is normal and going great. we're sticking with our dear friends and midwives from open arms midwifery and couldn't love them more. since we're having a winter baby, i'm excited not to have to drive to the hospital in snow and ice. (knowing our luck, there will be a super storm!)

how do you(shannon) feel?
i've been feeling okay, my first trimester was pretty rough. lot's more nausea and more gastrointestinal issues than i remember with eli. thankfully, those symptoms have subdued and at least i can manage my heartburn with some prescription medication. also, i'm learning/remembering what i should and shouldn't eat and how that effects how i feel. for example, i can't eat hamburgers; they make me feel awful. i think it may be the high fat content of the burger that makes it hard for my body to digest the food (which is a total bummer here in grilling season). i've also been experiencing more braxton hicks contractions than i remember and the leg cramps have returned in style. oh well, i guess it's natures way of just getting me ready for interrupted sleep again. i've been feeling the baby more and that is absolutely wonderful! it helps with the "ho hum" feeling i described above and gives me a shiver every time. today, after reading a dear friends birth story, i had my first real rush of excitement about meeting this little one. who will it be? what will it do? is it a boy or a girl? that felt good.

overall we're starting to remember the mystery of pregnancy and the anticipation what this little one will be like. it's nice to be on the other side of parenthood with a little bit of experience under our belts. it has been helping to relieve some of the anxiety of a new baby knowing that no/low expectations are best. we are reminded to think about this pregnancy and this little ones future life with an open mind.

the twinkie wars...

so most of you know this already but i'm pretty stingy when it comes to refined sugar and sweets for eli. i know, i know...some say we're being too uptight and depriving him of the wonders of juice and ice cream. but really, we ALL (especially me) could eat less sweets and refined sugars and our waistlines would be much happier. nonetheless, grandpa cole has been threatening this mama with boxes and boxes of twinkies for little eli. so far no battles have been started though that changed this week. grandpa cole and grandma ruthie were visiting this week and grandpa cole had a 'special' surprise for eli. low and behold, a twinkie! well folks, victory was mine in this first battle in what i'm sure will be a long twinkie war! it was classic, eli was eating lunch and grandpa brought out the big guns, a gas station twinkie. he gave half of it to eli who proceeded to put it in his mouth, grimace, spit it out and hand it back to grandpa! Victory my friends, victory! many more attempts were made with the same results, no twinkie for this boy. he was content with his unsweetened, plain yogurt with blueberries.

now we all know that this was just the beginning, i foresee many more battles where i'm sure grandpa will win. but oh well, that's what grandparents are for, right?

a recap of 2 months...

oh my how time flies. the holidays blew in and out of our household this year with a furry and i think we're still getting caught up. here's a recap of what has been going on in the anderson house lately:

- joel and i had our first night away from eli and it went wonderfully. thanks to sara and mike, we were able to have 24 kid free hours. we forgot what it was like to not have to cart a kid around and we could just...go. it was great but we (read: i) were ready to come back and snuggle up with our little guy.

- eli is officially walking! finally, at 15 months he decided that he could do this thing called walking. since then he hasn't stopped for a moment. for a long time he was walking but always had to hold onto something, a wall, a table, our weighted walker. but one day he just decided to let go and let loose.

- our previous "safe" zones are no longer safe now that he's walking. so our level of mess has moved up some so it's almost at eye level. makes you pick up a little bit more often!

- eli's new favorite past time is books, books, books. i don't think you guys understand. he will sit still for at least 10 minutes for us to read books to him. and this happens about 4 times a day! needless to say my vocal cords are getting a work out. he also has started wanting to read specific books and isn't too happy when you suggest something else (because you've read Curious George 4 times already today).

- joel has finally been assigned his own crew at e80 plus, thank god! it means way less travel for us and more consistency for joel at work. both really good things.

- i (shannon) have started my own business. this month i'm launching a home based breastfeeding counseling business. the basic idea is that i will travel to women's homes and help them with any breastfeeding issues they may have and support them. you can check out my website for more details at www.madisonbfsupport.com. most of my work will most likely come from personal referrals so pass the word folks. much appreciated!

- i (shannon) had my first long weekend away from both eli joel. my friends from college and i all met in NYC for a long weekend of wine, amazing food, shopping, amazing desserts, shopping, sangria and connecting. we've decided that every year we're gonna take a trip the 4 of us to connect and recharge with each other. and we've decided that the year we turn 30 we're going somewhere warm!

- there are a variety of places that we are now known at: crema cafe, woodmans, the children's museum, goodman community center, nursery at church and hobby lobby. i guess it pays off to frequent places so often they know you and say "how's it going this week?". i really enjoy that consistency and feeling that we're part of this community on the eastside.

- playgroup is expanding and we've needed to move to the basement for more room! it's so great to see the kids finally playing with and off of each other.

- lastly, eli LOVES to sweep (or play with the broom, however you'd like to see it). and joel and i had a breakthrough....the shortened swiffer! joel noticed that you can take sections out of the swiffer and now we have a perfect "eli height" swiffer. and he is swiffering all around the upstairs! i've attached a cloth diaper to it and my floors (at least the back hallway) are looking pretty nice. i figure we need to cash in on this enjoyment of cleaning while we can!

we'll have more on snowpacolypse 2011 (or snowmeggedon as i call it) later. it deserves it's own post with some supporting videos.

date night

no, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. i promise. we've just been busy trying to keep up with all of eli's movements (he's trying to turn doorknobs but isn't quite tall enough).

so earlier this fall joel and i decided that we needed to be more intentional with going on dates. so we've made the commitment to having a date night every other wednesday night. we've got a standard high schooler we use for childcare (though we may be looking to set up an exchange with a certain new aunt and uncle in our family).

so far, we've had some pretty fun dates. mostly it's low-key, no pressure dates. just a simple dinner and, now that we're parents, errands sans child sometimes. some fun date nights have included:

-a trip to stoughton's movie theater where you can get pizza and watch a movie in comfy seats. totally awesome experience, we recommend it!

-checking out smokey jon's bbq on the northside and finding out there isn't much to do on the northside at night.

-dinner at brocach's irish pub and strolling down state street with a cup 'o' joe and dessert.

-a date night in complete with dinner on our nice dishes, a fire and smores with reeses.

we've found that carving out this time for just us has been so good. it's great to reconnect and enjoy each other outside of the house. this week will be a very special date night as it falls on our three year anniversary and we can't wait to celebrate!

First steps...

this weekend we were playing at the library and eli took his first assisted steps. i'm not sure if he really knew what was going on but he's getting better and better at it each day. last week he started pulling himself up on furniture and has quickly mastered that task. i captured some of his antics on video, so enjoy!

time flies....

opps.... it's been a month and no posts. i think september got away on us a little bit! mostly because we were gearing up for eli's first birthday! it's crazy to think that a year has gone by so quickly. joel remarked that we now have something to mark time against again. back in college it was semesters now it's first smiles, first crawling, first steps (last week!), first words and so much more. we decided to have our wedding photographer take some pictures for us and i feel that was a great way to mark eli's first year. i'm hoping we'll do this with all of our kids at their first birthdays. i'll be writing a post later about eli's party and dedication so for now, enjoy our modeling poses.