Oy With the Poodles Already: Time of Transistion: Mommy Days & Mommy Nights....

So much has changed in our lives in the past two months!! Tommy received a position as a Lay Pastor in Boston, GA where he serves 3 churches (Boston, Barwick, and Oak Grove), I left CFUMC and have become a stay at home mommy, pastor's wife, and soon to be student at VSU, and we moved from Cairo, out of the first home that we bought and the one where we brought Eli home from the hospital, into the Boston Parsonage. This has been a season of intense change!!! God has taught us so much during this time of transition and while that is not the point of this post, I wanted to share the main thing I have learned during this time is that if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, all the other things, the things of this world, will grow strangely dim!! I wanted to update you (please bare with all of the pictures!) on this new phase of our lives and on how much E has grown recently. This will be pretty random....

While we have been going through all of these changes, our beautiful toddler has been trying to keep up! Our sweet, wonderful sleeper has had sleep and routine issues the past few weeks which I am very happy to say he seems to be coming out of!! I don't know if he finally got settled or it was all the prayers that his Daddy and I said over him and his room but either way, he's back to his usual 11 hours per night and we have offered prayers of thanksgiving to the Father for that!!!

It has been a HUGE blessing to me that I now have the opportunity to stay home with my sweetie pie!! He is learning so much and growing so much each day that I realize how much I was missing while I worked. DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME... I LOVED MY WORK... I MISS MY WORK... BUT NOTHING COMPARES TO THIS!!! I also know that many women don't have this opportunity and so there isn't a day that passes that I am not thankful that He has made it possible for our family... He has made way where there seemed to be NO WAY!!

Here are a few things about Eli who will be 16 months in 8 days:
*Eli weighs 25.5 pounds and is over 33" tall!!! When we went to see Dr. K last week, she said he has hit a growth spurt and is ahead on the developmental chart.
*Eli is quickly becoming a Mommy's boy but he gets extremely excited when Daddy comes home and sometimes we have to call him during the day just to say "hi"!
*Eli's favorite people besides us are Tommy's parents (Maw Maw & Paw Paw), Gogee & Grandpa (my mom&dad), and P-Maw & Paw (his godparents).
* Eli's favorite word is, "puppy". He doesn't just say it, he knows what it means and can spot one anywhere, in any picture, book, and television program!! We got a puppy for him and to our suprise, all he wants to do is look at him. All day long, I hear puppy, please, puppy, please... but all E wants is to stand at the backdoor and look at him!! By the way, the puppy's name is "puppy"!
*Eli loves Elmo and for this, I blame his godparents... P-Maw and P-Paw who started the fad with the gift of a Tickle Me Elmo!! (E also spent his fun weekend with them while we moved... I included a few pics :) )
*Veggie Tales is his most loved thing to watch!! He points to the tv and says "Bob, please"... it's adorable and no, I can't say "no" to him when he does it!!
*He LOVES music, dancing, and he walks around the house skipping and calling it "jump"
*His "wubby" is practically glued to his hip and it's hard to get him to go to his crib without it!
*He loves any size ball and has very good aim for a 15 month old!
*He loves being chased and tickled!!
*He loves to streak!!!!!!!!
*Words that Eli can say: Mommy, Daddy, PawPaw, MawMaw, Gogee, P-Maw, P-Paw, Elmo, Bob, Larry, milk, please, thank you, more, puppy, dog, fish, Abby, yes, no, mam, eyes, ears, nose, toes, jump, book, cup, yay, oops, uh oh, bonk, up, down, duck, bath, moo, quack, oh no, oh boy, bunch, this, apple, cheese, and several others that aren't quite as pronounced!!
*Eli has started feeding himself with a spoon which makes a complete mess but it's adorable!!
*Last but not least, he ate cereal for the very first time this morning; it was Cinnoman Life. His favorite foods are yogurt, strawberries, mac n cheese, milk, goldfish, nutrigrain bars, and cheese.

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks... I hope you enjoy them!