Seriously, Dude, SLOW DOWN!

Eli decided that a week was sufficient time to crawl and today ventured into the standing world. He's pulling up on everything!

Family time

Ben went hunting in Kansas with my dad and my mom, Beth and the girls came here. I wish I had exciting tales to tell of the week, but my memory is fogged by a horrible cold I've had for a week, topped off by sleep deprivation (thanks to caring for a sick little Eli) and pink eye.

They kids had fun playing together and I loved hearing endless giggles coming from the play room.

In just a matter of hours

Katherine, you were right. You should never, ever tempt mischief. In just a few short hours after Eli took his first scootches forward, he quickly found his love for adventure. He rapidly became faster, more curious and into everything. I heard, "Mommy! Eli's eating Cinderella!". I rescued the pristine Little House on the Prairie books I have sweetly placed in Alison's room (which she has never once touched) from being torn to shreds. I dug pompom pieces out of his mouth. He's grabbed picture frames and wacked them on his head, chewed on electrical cords and knocked over a humidifier. His favorite adventure is to find Smoochie and torture him.

"I found the furry thing sleeping in the kitty cube!"

"I think I better smash him first"
"Then I'll try and smoosh myself in there with him"

He thinks it's hilarious to yank on Smoochie's tail and pull him by his feet through the play room. Smoochie just lays there and purrs.

When he's not chasing the cat or finding some plastic to chew on, he's pulling himself up on something. Seriously, in a matter of a day, he's changed this much. I don't even have time to finish writing about his mischief, because as I speak, he's crawling down the hallway with my slipper in his mouth...oh, I'm so not ready for this.

We have movement!

Eli started crawling this morning!!! It cracked me up that he wouldn't move for food or toys, but if you put a cell phone, remote or ipod in front of him, he was determined to get it. I guess my life has officially changed forever. Bring on the mischief little boy!

9 Months

Happy 9 months!

His face says it all, we LOVE this age.
He's showing his true Shear colors and refuses to actually crawl until he has it perfected.
The best thing that's changed this month is he's FINALLY sleeping ALL night. I admit, I cried after a couple of nights of him not getting up for his 10 pm feeding; I missed my sweet snuggles with him when the house was completely quiet, but the extra sleep is worth it all.

His favorite toy is this play kitchen. He loves opening and closing the oven door and banging together the pan and spoon.

Alison thinks playing with Eli is pretty fun too.
Especially when she gets to wear her new fancy outfit daddy got her (plus the sweater mommy made her wear because its FREEZING).

Letter M

We're back to school! I realized I've slacked some on my school posts. I somehow lost all of my school plans on my computer, so I really have to be faithful to the posts now.

This week we read If you give a moose a muffin, made 'moose munch' (popcorn, pretzels, peanuts and M&M's) and had a snack party with Mr. Moose, Mr. Monkey and Minnie Mouse.

We made a 'M' mountain craft, played an animal matching game and a princess memory game. She has improved remarkably in the last few weeks on tracing letters and we worked some more on learning opposites. We also did math with M&M's...which leads me to our biggest lesson this week-obeying MOMMY! We were in the middle of math and I told Alison to finish the page we were on while I went to the bathroom. I came back to the page empty and Alison's mouth was crammed full of M&M's. I tried to play 'monkey say, monkey do' but she just wanted to boss ME around. She also had several meltdowns about her clothes not being "fancy" enough and I got a long talk about how boys wear "clearly" (aka plain) clothes. So we had to spend some time learning how to obey, with a smile on her face, mommy when I tell her to put some clothes on. It's been a hard lesson for me too. Ben is so good at calmly convincing her that her clothes are cute, but I quickly get frustrated with her which only makes it worse.

bible stories: Moses (Exodus 16-18), Mary and Martha (Luke 10)
songs: Mary had a little lamb, She'll be coming around the mountain
movies: Veggie Tales: Minnesota Cuke
books: I'm Mighty!, Mean Machines, Materials, Music in the night, Mountain Goats, Milk

My Christmas Card

I sat down to write our Christmas card and found that I had nothing new to say. Everything about the kids' life has been documented and thousands of pictures posted. I typed out a few things, like...Eliot James: born, tortured me with sleep deprivation, ate solid foods way early, absolutely the cutest boy I've ever seen and could snuggle with him for all eternity...Alison Louise: loves playing "mommy/daughter", took art and ballet class, started preschool, obsessed with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, rises before the sun. Then, Ben made a very good point. Anyone who would read this "card" knows all about our kids, but we never say anything about ourselves. Oh, right. I forgot I'm not just mommy to 2 kids, I'm Jen Shear too. So, here's MY Christmas card.

This year

I've learned...

• how to feed a baby, entertain a toddler and cook dinner all at the same time
• I still have blond moments
• parents are CRAZY about Santa
• I need to wear a name tag that says: Hello, my name is Jen Shear...NOT 'Alison's mommy'
• I'm not a card person; I just think they're silly. Sorry Andrea Marlow, (i.e. the best, most thoughtful card person EVER) please still be my friend!

I've fallen in love with:

• Chick-fil-A sauce
• a hot cup of coffee in the morning
• the wrinkle release button on the dryer
• swiffers
• my sweet baby's chubby cheeks-I find them absolutely irresistible to kiss millions of times a day
• The New Adventures of Old Christine
• a good fruity white wine
  

I've become:

• a preschool teacher
• the youngest member on the women's ministry team
• the director of the meals ministry
• the nursery coordinator
• obsessed, perhaps a little neurotic, about the house being clean

My goals for this year are:

• Stay in our food budget. I think I'm good at planning meals and budgeting, but I still fail miserably at actually staying in budget.
• To become a certified instructor at the Y. This goal should have already been checked off, but I can't get over one little hurdle-the director. I've had 2 meetings with her and, no joke, every time she would leave to get something and never come back. Yes, she's that scatter brained.
• Organize a small children's Christmas program
• To start our book...crazy, I know. But Ben and I are aspiring to write a book...we'll see if it actually happens.

Now, it's your turn Ben...

Doesn't she look cute?

I thought so. Yesterday morning Alison asked if she could wear this top and a skirt. So I put together this outfit and I thought it looked pretty good. Alison did not think so. She had a complete meltdown when I put the skirt on her. "But it's not my favorite color!!!" I just had to laugh at the situation and wondered if any other mommy's of daughters went through this. I was duking it out with my 3 year old over a green skirt. I laughed even harder when we walking up to the Y and I noticed the skirt falling down. Great. I made her wear a skirt she hated AND it was too big. We made it through the morning and when we got home I told her she could wear whatever she wanted. This is what she chose:
Pink, from head to toe...eating a peanut butter sandwich with provolone cheese and grapes on top. Eli thought big sister was pretty funny too.

That afternoon I took her outside to burn off some pent up energy. I built my first ever snowman all by myself and Alison decorated his face with random things she found in the yard-well, and Daddy's hunting hat.

Then we went ice skating on the driveway.

Today, she's wearing a pink summer dress. I thought I hid those suckers.