packing packing and more packing

I cannot believe all the stuff we have. We are moving in 2 days and the packing just never seems to end! I still have so much to do... ah!

John and I pack very differently... He's sitting here putting all his stuff in little plastic bags and folding everything up nicely. and my way is just to cram as much as I can into a box.

Eli was really fun today. He is so distracting at church now. During the first hour he is usually very quiet and sometimes sleepy. but after that he gets really excited and just wants to play with everyone around. Today was awesome though, I actually got to sit through all of relief society because he was just so happy.
The lesson today was on becoming goodly parents. It was one of my favorite lessons ever. The teacher read us this poem and I really love it.

THE CLEANING AND SCRUBBING WILL WAIT TILL TOMORROW,
FOR CHILDREN GROW UP, AS I'VE LEARNED TO MY SORROW.
SO QUIET DOWN, COBWEBS. DUST GO TO SLEEP.
I'M ROCKING MY BABY AND BABIES DON'T KEEP.

Some of my best moments with Eli are the times when I really want him to go to sleep so I can get the house clean but instead I choose to cuddle with him or play with him. It's always worth it. Being a parent is the most wonderful I'll ever do.

we're moving in 3 days

We spent the day packing and getting ready to move. We're all exhausted and there's still tons more to do in the next few days. It's crazy thinking back to the first time we moved. Everything fit in our little car! Now we actually have to get a moving truck just to move an hour away! 

Eli was awesome today. He spent a lot of time just playing by himself so I stopped to take a few pictures

socks falling off, pants-less and a drool soaked shirt. so cute :)

Cucumber!

For those of you that like to see Eli making funny faces... :)

He didn't seem to like it at first but he kept trying and pretty soon he loved it!

What do we eat?

I'm not necessarily a vegetarian, but I don't like to eat meat. and I'm not necessarily a vegan but I don't eat dairy products.... What can I eat?! I do fine for breakfast and lunch and snacks because I love just munching on fruits and vegetables. But when it comes to dinner and I feel like I actually need to cook a meal for my husband and I... I just don't know what to make! When I look up meatless recipes, everything has cheese. and when I look up dairy free, everything has meat! Goodness gracious, my poor husband's gonna whither away...

In February I went (almost) completely vegan for a few reasons. #1 I don't like how animals are treated. #2 The meat these days is not healthy in my opinion with all the junk the animals are fed including antibiotics! and #3 I suspected Eli had a sensitivity to dairy because of how often he was spitting up and gassy.
I loved being dairy free so I am sticking with that... but I wanted to add meat back in. (Only if it's humanely raised/grass fed/organic/super healthy.) and still we're only eating it about twice a week.

We've also cut out almost all processed foods... but that kinda leaves me to like cook and stuff.

HELP! what do I do...?

some accomplishments of the day (and some fails)

Eli has been standing up a lot lately and he's been getting good at pulling up with a little help but today he did it all by himself.

Here he is pulling himself up using just my legs

he's so awesome!

now he's trying to do the same with the laundry basket but only manages to pull the clothes out...

I was pretty productive today.

I made laundry soap

 and more cloth wipes for eli

then I attempted to make sweet potatoes for Eli, but they didn't turn out well

 so he ate avacado again.

yuck

and this is what our kitchen has looked like for a while

a total mess

and here it is after I cleaned a little... good enough for me!

and here's our living room at the end of the night. I was TRYING to fold clothes today.

and right now it looks even worse...fail.

now Eli fell asleep in my arms so we're just going to cuddle until papa gets home

what a good day.

What did Eli eat today?

Broccoli!

and he hated it....

 That looks fun...

 Let's taste it...

 Bleh... yuck!

 Let's try one more time to be sure...

eh, not that great...

We're moving... again! and bath time!

We're getting ready to move again next week. This will be my 7th move since I met John... crazy! I used to love packing and unpacking and organizing and cleaning. but now I have a baby. We're moving an hour away to a big city and we're kind of excited. We're just sad to be leaving our friends and the place we've called home for more than a year. I have awesome memories of being pregnant last summer and then bringing our baby boy home to this apartment... This definitely feels like home so it's very sad to leave. 

BATH TIME!

I used to be able to get away with not bathing Eli every day but now that he eats solids we definitely do it every night. 

Eli's first foods (baby led solids style)

I'm going to start blogging again... maybe.

Eli is almost 6 months old now and just starting to eat solid foods! For all of you that are freaking out when you see him with a whole banana or avacado with the peel still on! don't worry...it's the new cool thing. It's all the rage these days. It's called baby led weaning.  No, I'm not weaning him from the boob quite yet. (I'm one of those crazies that will still be feeding a 3 year old) (In public!... *gasp*.....) We're just introducing foods, which is so much fun!

Eli can sit up on his own (and has been for about 2 weeks) and he can totally feed himself, which he loves to do, so it's the perfect time to start solid food. He also goes crazy when we eat in front of him because he wants a bite soooo bad.

Anyway, his first food was banana and he loved it.

Tonight we gave him avacado. Yum!

He ate half of the avacado...  not counting what was smeared all over his face and chair. But still, he did great! I'm so proud of him. 

Next was of course bath time. Eli loves his bath.... especially now that he can sit up in the big tub and splash and play with toys. 

5 Months old

My big 5 month old.

Eli is such a happy boy. He's always laughing and smiling.

He's learned quite a few new things this month. He can sit up on his own! He also reaches for you when he wants you to hold him. and he plays with toys soo well. Wow! what a big boy...

Speaking of big... he's big. He weighs 17 lbs and he's 27 in long. It's definitely a work out carrying him around. That must be why I've lost all the baby weight! (bragging much? ... it's my blog and I can brag if I want to...)

This month he also had his first major illness. He got RSV and had to be on breathing treatments for a few days. He didn't eat for a few days and he certainly didn't sleep. It was awful. Having a sick baby is seriously the only horrible part of being a parent. I've never felt so helpless in my life. We're so glad that's over!!!!