I'm an Aunt!

I am so excited because my little brother Michael's wife Melissa just had their baby girl Claire.  She is beautiful!  David and I were the first ones in both of our families to have kids, so Claire has the privilege to making me an aunt for the first time.  I am so pumped!  I get to have fun and cuddle with this sweet baby, and then I get to leave her with her parents!  Being an aunt is awesome.  Eliana is super excited too to have a baby cousin, especially a girl.  She even got to hold Claire when we visited a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately, we came in the evening when Claire was a little fussy, so she did not smile for the many pictures that I took. 

Visiting Claire the day she was born.

She did not appreciate the bow I put on her head.

Luckily Grandma was there to put Claire to sleep after I made her cry.

Still not sure about the photo session.

Eliana loved it!  When Claire started to cry, she would sing to here to try to get her to calm down.  So sweet!

Sick Days

It has been some sad times here in the Bond household.  All last week, the kids and David were sick with a bad GI bug.  It was an awful time.  William cried a lot.  He would throw up, and then look at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen and start wailing.  David slept a lot, and Eliana had such bad cabin fever I thought she might bounce off the walls.  Between the three of them getting up all night, I never slept more than a few hours in a row the entire week.  Although I was not sick, I felt pretty bad myself.  On top of all this GI stuff, it also rained all week.  So we were all stuck inside the house all week together.  We couldn't go to the library or COSI because of the risk of sharing our germs, and we couldn't to a park because of the constant downpour.  Eliana was feeling better by the end of the week, so we did venture out a few times in the rain with our raincoats.  On Thursday we were working in the garden a little bit and I found a gigantic worm.  Eliana loves worms and played with it the rest of the time we were outside.  When it started raining harder, we had to go inside so I told her to put the worm back in the dirt.  She told me that she put it under the bush, but I noticed her looking furtively at her pocket on her raincoat as we went inside.  So of course when I checked her pocket, there was a great big worm in there.  Sorry Eliana, worms go outside. 

Slowly everyone has started feeling better again.  William hasn't thrown up since Saturday, and he was the one sick the longest.  I thought we were in the clear, and then out of the blue Eliana started running a fever today.  She was breaking my heart just crying on the couch.  She seemed a little better by the time I tucked her into bed.  Say a prayer for health for our family.  We could use it!

11 month old

Last week, William turned 11 months old.  How is that even possible?  He is getting too big!  Where is my little baby?  As I was nursing him tonight, I was just trying to soak in all the sweet snuggles I could, because he is growing up before my eyes.  He already wants to be into everything instead of being held at times.  Although that is frustrating for him because he still can't crawl.  It is crazy because he can get in the crawling position on his knees and hands, and he rocks back and forth, but he never goes anywhere.  He just reaches out one hand and cries.  One day soon though...

William weighs about 21.5lbs.  He just got another tooth on the bottom which makes 7 total!  He can say lots of words: Mama, Dada, Ana, hey, da (dog), and two Spanish words: hola and ven (come).  For the most part, he is sleeping through the night from about 7pm to 6am.  He likes to play with balls and trucks or more specifically the wheels on trucks.  He loves stroller rides, swings, and going on slides with Eliana.  Sometimes he will sit still long enough for a book especially if it is a touch and feel book or one with flaps.  He also loves to play peek-a-boo, patty cake, and So Big.  He is starting to not like baby food and prefers food that he can pick up and feed himself.  He favorites right now are spaghetti, bananas, and puffs.  I am so lucky to be his momma!  (I am also lucky that I got any pictures this month.  He was trying to check out everything and eventually dove head first off the chair into my lap.  That's when I gave up on 11 month pictures.)

So handsome!

Ooo, what's over here?

Note my fingers holding him back.

Look at that mischievous face

 

Last picture before the dive.  Don't worry, I have lightning fast mom reflexes and caught him.

 Bonus sweet pictures of story time with Daddy.

Love

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, we were back in Columbus for a much anticipated race for David. He participated in the Upper Arlington Memorial 5 - Miler.  It was a great day - nice weather with the race starting and ending in a park with a playground.  David's goal was to run around a 7:20min/mile pace for the race.  I was little worried for him when he started, because he was very near the front of the race and seemed to be going pretty fast.  A wise man once told us that for every second you run faster than you have trained for, you will ultimately cost yourself two seconds more by the end of the race.  He told me to look for him around 35 to 36 min into the race.  As the kids and I watched the finish line, I knew David was off of his goal.  I was a little concerned when I saw a man pushing a double stroller finish with David still not in sight.  However, just a little bit after that, David came running in!  Ultimately, he finished 44th in the race (out of 400+ participants) with a pace of 7:22min/mile.  He said that he ran the first two miles way too fast and then really paid for it the last three miles.  He also said he knew he was in trouble when the man pushing the double stroller passed him running uphill.  However, all in all, the race went really well.  David finished strong and felt good.

While David was racing, Eliana participated in the 1 mile fun run.  She was pretty excited about the race, since we had just cheered Daddy on at the starting line.  I had William in the Ergo on my back (he fell asleep at some point during all the racing excitement).  Eliana was especially excited because at the end of the race, they had ice cream!  She was literally jumping up and down at the starting line.  I was surprised by how fast she started out.  We were surrounded by lots of little kids, and they all ran out with a burst of energy.  Eliana was super pumped for about the first 100 yards.  Then she asked if I would carry her like William.  I told her we were in a race, and that she couldn't be carried, but we could walk.  She agreed to that, so we walked for a minute.  Then Eliana told me her stomach hurt, and started holding her tummy.  So I asked if she wanted to take a break.  Eliana agreed.  Luckily, the fun run was just out and back, so after we had rested on the sidewalk for a couple of minutes, the faster kids were already running back.  We watched the kids run by for a while and then just joined back in heading back to the finish line (I didn't want to join too quick, or Eliana would look like she was super fast.)  As we crossed the finish line, Eliana got a medal, and we beelined it for the ice cream truck.  It was a pretty comical first race that Eliana technically didn't complete, but it was a fun morning.

Sharing her medal with William.

Proud of her first medal.

Shaving cream fun take 2!

I totally forgot about these pics, but as I was looking through my computer, I found them and thought I would share.

This was an awesome idea!  I covered the table with plastic wrap and then sprayed a ton of shaving cream on the table.  Eliana and I spent a long time playing in the cream, writing letters, drawing pictures, burying toys.  And the whole table was covered in plastic, so we had a huge canvas to work with!  What a blast!

Eliana always loves cleaning up because that means playing in the water in the sink.

Then there is this cute guy...

Funny Kids

Today Eliana and William were being very adorable.  First, Eliana, William and I were playing a new game.  We sat in a triangle and rolled/bounced a large ball back and forth.  William LOVED this game.  He was so cute reaching out for the ball wherever it went.  If you had the ball, he would face you and raise both his arms with a huge smile on his face, like he was waiting for you to throw the ball so he could catch it.  The he would attempt to throw it back.  Mostly he would throw it on his foot and it would ricochet off in any direction.  A boy and his ball.  Who could be happier?

David had to work tonight, and as he left for work, it was pouring down rain.  Eliana stood for a long time looking out the door watching the rain fall.  Then she said that she was going to pretend to go to work too.  So she put on her rain coat and sat on the couch "washing" her stuffed animals with a toothbrush and washcloth.  It was such a cute and comical sight, to see her just sitting in her raincoat on the couch just scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing at her kitty cat.

I love those kids!  And here are some unrelated pictures, but I added them just in case you forgot what William and Eliana look like:

Eliana was sitting in William's rocking chair and asked if he could sit with her.  They actually did fairly well together.

On this day we were checking out a new park called Oxford Park.  Eliana met another girl there who had a baby doll, and they became immediate friends.  They even hugged when the little girl had to go home.  This was our water break on the bench.

The Homestead

David's grandfather passed away last year, and his parents have inherited his house.  So now they are working on fixing up the "homestead" and hope to move in sometime soon.  The house and land itself is beautiful and full of treasures.  However, I do not envy them in cleaning up and modernizing this wonderful family home.  I had not been over to the homestead in many years, so I was excited to see the house and the progress that had been made.  William enjoyed playing outside while Eliana loved checking out the barn and tractors.  I spent most of my time admiring the art and antiques inside the house.  The history there is just amazing.  I am really looking forward to the day we can go to visit Grandmama and Grandpa Bond at the Homestead and run around Grandpa's childhood home.

Look at that love!

Grandfather's house - now The Homestead

Eliana going with Daddy to check out the barn.  They used to have horses!  I am hoping Eliana is getting a pony for her birthday ;)

Eliana didn't want to be in this picture at first, but then snuck in at the last minute.

Checking out the barn with Uncle Ray.  Those are the horse stalls on the left.

Driving the old tractor, with the fancy new one in the background.

Love

David and I actually went on a date once at this house probably about 9 years ago.  We stopped in to say hi to Grandfather, then had a picnic in the yard.  David showed me the land including a field out back.  We also checked out the barn that still had horses in it at that time.  It was a great date, and I am really excited about how this place will turn out!