Camo Baby

Nanny (Justin's mom) got E-man this adorable Camo diaper cover/hat/bootie set for Christmas. I finally got around to putting it on the little guy and snapping some pictures. Of course Hunter had to come help and wanted to take part in the pictures - no complaining here since I got the cutest picture of these two yet!

"Mom, whatcha doin??"

Those eyes!

BFFs...Melting my heart!

Miniature Ron Swanson (Parks & Rec anyone??)

Eli Parker...Four Months

Four Months

Weight

16lb 4oz (at 4 month appointment) 74th percentile

Length

25.25 in (at 4 month appointment) 61st percentile

Diapers

We moved up to size 2 this month after running out of size 1. They are still a little big but they get the job done. (Wore one of Everett’s size 3 diapers at Disney and no blowout - yay!)

Clothing Size

He has almost grown out of most of his 0-3m onesies towards the end of the month. 6 months fits him great for length but is a little baggy since he’s not quite a chunker yet. We put 9 month shorts on him (he has no 3 months shorts because who would think you would wear shorts in February) and they are huge but adorable!

Nicknames

E-man, E machine, E monster, Eli Eli oh, ET, little man, little boy, sweet boy, As I’m typing this I realize that he hasn’t been Mr. Crankpants very much at all this month - although we do occasionally call him crankacranks still

Health

He is a healthy boy and that makes momma happy since we are in the middle of cold/flu season and it seems like people all around us are always sick. It probably helps that he doesn’t leave the house too often (other than to go to our trainers’ house or the occasional errands/meal out). He started having blocked tear duct symptoms on his other eye this month but it wasn’t near as bad as his other eye and it seems to have cleared itself up. We thought we had seen his 2 bottom teeth under his gums for a while but on Valentine’s day we felt them for the first time. How is my little baby getting teeth already?! His 4 month appointment went great! The doctor said he can start solids (cereal) anytime now but since he is growing so well with just breastmilk we are fine to wait until 6 months (which is our plan).

Sleep

He is still sleeping through the night with the exception of a few nights the week after we returned from Disney. I was sure we were at the beginning of the 4 month sleep regression but it only lasted 2 nights (at least for now) thank goodness! We put him down for bed between 7:45-8:30 each night just depending on his schedule from the day and our evening plans. He hasn’t been the best napper this month but he’s sleeping through the night so I really can’t complain. He is waking up between 6-7:30 am and usually takes about an hour nap in the morning and 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. We alternate between swaddling him (alternating arms out) in a Halo swaddle sleepsack and his Merlin’s magic sleepsuit. He naps in his crib and sleeps in his bassinet in our room at night. The doctor was SO surprised that he is sleeping 10-12 hours at night and said not to tell our friends because it might make them jealous haha! Let’s hope this continues :)

Eating

He is still almost always a great eater. He eats every 2.5-3 hours during the day and almost always takes his bottle.

Loves

Jumperoo

Giraffe stuffed animal grandma bought him at Disney

TV (will crane his neck to try and watch)

Oball

Piano playmat

Mamaroo swing

When dad makes faces at him/sticks his tongue out

Dislikes

Sitting - he loves to be walked around

Direct sunlight (I think he might be part vampire)

Milestones

January 21 - Screeching and loud noises from Eli started

January 23 - First plane ride (to Orlando)

January 24 - First trip to Disneyworld and first ride (People Mover)

January 25 - First “zoo” experience on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom

January 26 - Met Mickey and Minnie Mouse

January 28 - First night in his Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit & smiled at himself in the mirror for the first time

February 1 - Eli’s first Super Bowl party - and his team won!

February 7 - Eli’s first trip to church (other than Christmas Eve) - he was so good!

February 8 - Rolled over on his play mat (back to side) for the first time & got his first kiss from Lexie! (I think it might have been a mistake because she wouldn’t look at him after but she still kissed his face!)

February 14 - Eli’s first Valentine’s Day and the first day we felt his bottom teeth break through!

Baby Gear Love  (new this month)

Baby Jogger City Select Stroller - We’ve been using this stroller since he was born but would click in his carseat. This month we decided to try him in the seat that came with his stroller and he seems to enjoy walks in it. He can see more and we can tilt him back if he’s sleeping or sit him more up right.

Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit - Eli has started breaking out of his swaddle but still has his startle reflex so we aren’t ready to kick the swaddle just yet. I’ve heard lots of good things about this sleepsuit and found a deal on them so we decided to give it a try. We call it his marshmallow/michelin man/thunder suit and he looks so funny/cute in it! So far he sleeps pretty darn good in it so we are all a fan!

Things I Don't Want to Forget

His gummy little smile. I know once he gets teeth his look will change and he will still of course be adorable but I will miss the gummy smile!

I will miss him sleeping in our room and waking up to his little face.

His talking noises/screeching - it’s so loud but so cute!

His sweet innocent baby giggles.

Our first trip to DisneyWorld. I know Eli won’t remember it but we will! We had so much fun and loved seeing Eli soak everything in. I can’t wait to take him back when he’s a little older!

Kitchen Renovation!

So let's talk real quick about our last major home project before Baby T arrives (meaning this project was done and this blog post was written before he arrived)! When we moved into this house (2 years ago - wow!) our least favorite room was the kitchen - but it also happened to be the biggest/most expensive project we wanted to tackle so we knew we had to live with it for a while. The cabinets were light oak which just aren't our style, the Corian counter tops were a blah shade of green/blue and scratched SO easily, the hardware on the drawers (no hardware on the doors) were not our style, the back splash is the same tile as our floor (which is not our taste), and the box lights seemed so outdated. 

Once we got pregnant we knew that the kitchen would have to wait - it was no longer a priority. Luckily things changed in our favor when we sold our other house and had some extra money to play around with so we decided to go ahead and remodel the kitchen! Looking back...I am SO so glad we did this before the baby came - it would have been a nightmare to go through that type of renovation with a baby in the house! The project ended up being a combo of DIY/contracted and we are so happy with the way it turned out!

Cabinets

We went back and forth on the cabinets for a while before finally making a decision. Our original plan was to stain the cabinets dark like we did in both of our bathrooms but after a lot of consideration we decided we really like the clean white look in the kitchen rather than the dark. Part of this probably has to do with our obsessive HGTV watching and that most of the kitchens these days have clean white cabinets and we are just drawn to that modern look. The next step was deciding if we were going to DIY or hire someone. Thank goodness Justin convinced me that the job was too big and we just needed to hire someone because it only took 3 days and they did a wonderful job! We picked the whitest white paint we could find and I was unsure how I would feel about the wood grain showing through but turns out I like it! I think it looks really good and you would never know that's not the color the cabinets were originally. We hired a company we found on Angie's List and their prep work was so meticulous which was great since we are kind of OCD. I ended up having to work from my parents house once they started with the paint because the fumes were so strong (we also had to sleep there a couple of nights because of the smell). This would have been no bueno with a baby! The total project took about 3 days.

Hardware

We used the same drawer pulls that we did in the bathroom and I love them! The cabinet handles from Ikea are just what I was picturing. Justin and my dad were able to knock out this project in 2 evenings!

Counter Tops

The next stage of our kitchen remodel was the counter tops. When we were going to do dark cabinets I had a white counter top picked out, but when we changed gears to white cabinets it was back to the drawing board on counters. We knew we wanted Silestone/quartz (rather than granite due to the ease of care) but other than that we weren't quite sure what we wanted. I finally decided on a grey color (shocker I know) but kept going back to this color Stellar Snow color wishing it wasn't white and that I didn't love it so much! One day while browsing at Home Depot we noticed one of their sample kitchens had white cabinets with stellar snow counter tops and it looked great! Apparently by itself stellar snow looks stark white but when you put it next to actual white it has a grey-ish color! Done deal! I was so excited to finally have a counter top picked out - especially since it was the one that I have been drooling over for 1+ years now :)

The week before our counter tops were being replaced the heat from our crock pot cracked our Corian counter top...what the heck?! The crock pot was on low and still did this - so glad we were getting rid of the counters or else I probably would have had a major pregnant hormonal breakdown!

The counters only took about 3 hours to demo/install the new ones...crazy fast!

Backsplash

Now if only our back splash installation could have been coordinated with our counter top install our kitchen wouldn't have been out of commission for almost 3 weeks. (We used Lowes for the counters and backsplash) We chose a marble herringbone grey/white pattern and I'm totally in love with it. After we had picked everything out for the kitchen we actually saw very similar kitchens (our counters and the exact backsplash) on HGTV - which probably explains why they have trouble keeping this backsplash in stock. This part of the project turned into a semi disaster...we didn't have enough material because the guy who measured completely forgot to measure the island, scheduling issues with the company, and Justin breaking his arm in the middle of this install. Oh yeah - and my high blood pressure scare....talk about a crazy week! Luckily the end product is just what we were hoping it would be and now all that stress/drama is behind us.

Lighting

We had box lights in our kitchen and they just seemed pretty outdated (even though the house is only 7 years old). Justin and my dad ripped the lights down and installed recessed lights throughout the kitchen. It has made such a difference in the look/feel of our kitchen. We hired a drywall guy from Angies List to fix the texturing (from where the boxes were) and the extra hole in the ceiling (oops) and you would never know these lights weren't there the whole time! 

Paint
It's very subtle but we (by we I mean my dad since Justin's arm was broken and I was massively pregnant) painted the kitchen anew grey (Sherwin Williams) - I know how shocking it is that we chose grey. I think it's hard to see in the pictures since I did these without a lot of natural light but we painted the island bar area with a darker grey called Cathedral Stone (Valspar).

Before

During

 

After