We're on the Downslide, Baby!

This week marks my entrance into the third and final trimester of this pregnancy! I am 28 weeks along now, and things are moving right along. I had a Dr.'s appointment this morning and everything appears to be just fine - thankfully this baby doesn't seem to be interested in making an early entrance into the world, and my body doesn't appear to be ready to evict him prematurely from his lodgings before his lease is up in May. My blood pressure was awesome and all is going well.

We are getting so excited to meet this little man. After my hospital visit last week I am definitely feeling the "nesting" urges and the drive to get everything ready. We are going to move Eli to the room next door and give the baby Eli's room. We debated about this for a bit and decided it would be much more fun to decorate a room for Eli who will appreciate our efforts far more than a newborn! So I have been looking around for furniture for Eli's Big Boy Room and for decorations and stuff. We have the room painted and most of the trim up on the wall. I want to do a "digger" theme (also known as construction equipment). Eli is still so obsessed with them and I really think he is going to love it.

The other day after I gave Brandon a haircut, Eli hopped into the chair and asked me to put the coat on him (the haircut cape). So I did and gave him his first few buzzes with the clippers. I really hope that he lets me do this again! It is so much quicker than with scissors! It was cute!



Eli has been doing so well with the concepts of sharing and taking turns. He has been trying these out on the baby my mom got him for Christmas. Here are a couple of pictures of him sharing his breakfast with the baby (note the truck in the baby's lap, too). Here is a summary of the dialog Eli had with the baby.

Truck!, Baby turn. Here you go baby! Baby cereal.

Here you go, Baby! Mmm. Cereal.

Eli's turn. (The baby wasn't interested in consuming the shared victuals, so Eli was so kind as to help in that arena!)

Eli has also started bringing me his baby or Elmo or other item when he needs to be changed. For example, he will bring me the baby and say "Change baby! Baby turn." He will help me get the requisite diaper changing supplies out of the closet and watch with great interest as I change the baby, bear, Santa doll, Elmo, etc. Then when I am all done, he will say "Eli turn!" and lie down on the changing mat. It is so cute!

He also figured out how to take his diaper off the other day. This was not a pleasant experience. He wouldn't let me put his pants back on after changing him, so I thought it would be okay to let him run around in his diaper for a little bit until I could convince him that pants in the winter really aren't overrated and would do much to keep his little legs warm. Well, I must not have gotten the diaper securely fastened. I was in the other room while Eli was in the front room playing with his cars. It was pretty quite, but not unusually so. Before too long, Eli came running into the room with a bare little bum sans diaper! I hurriedly grabbed him and put a new diaper on, but alas, the damage was already done. I went into the front room to inspect, and sure enough, the diaper he had so expertly removed was indeed a dirty one - not just wet, mind you. Thank heavens he wasn't feeling particularly artistic and settled for just dumping the contents onto the floor rather than painting the walls and furniture! I ran for the disinfectant supplies and it was cleaned up without too much gagging and exasperation. Oh, this kid! I hope we don't have any repeats of this experience anytime soon!