Happy Birthday Elias

So yesterday was Eli's 1st birthday! The internet wasn't working, and we were gone all day, so I didn't get to do a post on his exact birthday. But here it is... better late than never.

I made him a delicious Carrot cake, which we ate the night of the 2nd, because I knew we would be gone the entire next day (I also just really wanted to eat some right then). Tony has been gone all week, so it was a small affair.

Elias seemed to really enjoy the cake :)

The next day (his actual birthday), one of my friends and her three boys, along with another friend made the three hour drive down to Tybee island to enjoy a day at the beach. This was a little bit crazy, I will admit. We spent over 6 hours squished in a huge old suburban with one baby, two toddlers, a 5 year old and a 7 year old in order to have about 4 hours at the beach on the hottest day of this god-aweful hot summer. But it was worth it.

The kids had a great time. I was very very worried about how Eli would handle it, but he was awesome. He loved the water, loved playing in the sand, and hardly cried at all.

He took three naps, one on the way there, one at the beach, and one on the way back, and was probably the easiest kid that entire day. He spent about an hour playing on a beach chair under a huge umbrella, and also chased seagulls around, although he screamed if he ever got too close. I think he had an awesome birthday.

Leah was amazing in the water. She was literally fearless. She wanted to swim all by herself (with her life jacket), and kept on asking to go "way way out to the end of the big pool". She rode over the waves like a champ, and was only knocked over once.

The rest of the time she played in the sand with her friend Jack. She also wanted to wear her life jacket on the sand because "a big wave can come and get me, and I'll drown!!!!"

The funniest thing that day was when the oldest boy, John Walter came running up and said "MOM! why did we come here??? Did you know this water was going to be salty!!!!!"

Okay, here are some "Elias facts"
- He is huge. Very very, very heavy.
- He is extremely cuddly. Way more so than Leah was. He will literally walk/crawl over to me if I am ever sitting down and will claw his way into my lap.
- He is walking now
- He doesn't say anything other than mamamamamam, and dadadadadadadadadada
- He loves to yell.
- He's doing this delightful new thing now where he will hit Leah whenever she tries to sit in my lap too.
- he has three and a half teeth.