Easter and "Love You"

What a weekend/week we've had!  Last Friday we went to my parents' house for Easter.  Because we had the most time to spend with them on Saturday we decided to go ahead and let Eli do his Easter then.  First thing that morning Eli got his Easter basket which had a book, a couple of animal figurines, a coloring book, one little chocolate bunny and a stuffed dog.  He also got a bubble machine from my parents.  We went outside to play with the bubble machine and he loved it!  He kept saying "pop", every time he popped a bubble.

After his morning nap we "hid" Easter eggs in the front yard and let him find them.  He really enjoyed getting all the "balls" :)

 I put some small animal figurines in some of the eggs, had to come up with something other than candy.  He loves playing with the little figurines and they are perfect for car rides and at church, plus they don't take up much room in my purse.  We've been practicing on animal sounds so I got farm animals to help him learn which animals make which sounds.

Saturday night at dinner we let him have his chocolate bunny.  He only ate about half of it but he loved every bite!

Eli also helped Doug and my dad do some work around the house.  He has become such a big helper.  One of the things we did while we were in Birmingham was buy a toy box.  Up until now we've just been using little baskets and piling toys in one corner of the room but it was a little confusing for Eli when we asked him to help clean up.  Now, with the toy box, he does much better.  Last night I asked him to pick up and he put almost everything away without any help from me!  With my sister and brother-in-law moving in soon, we will have to do a better job of picking up the toys and I think the toy box is really going to help with that.

 On Sunday morning we all got dressed up and went to church.  Mass was beautiful, Easter has always been on of my favorite Masses of the year.  Doesn't he look sooo cute in his little suit!

Then Sunday afternoon we took Eli to a park.  This particular park had different areas for all different ages so we were able to let him play on his own for the most part.  It took him a while to warm up to the slides but once he got the idea he was zooming down them and clapping when he got to the bottom.

He played and played and then all of a sudden he sat down in the middle of the playground, just looking around and watching all the other kids.  He sat there for a couple of minutes and then stood up and starting wave "bye" to all the kids he saw.  We took that as our cue to leave!

Last night was a wonderful day because Eli said "love you" for the first time!  He's been signing it for a little while now but hearing him say it is so much better!!!

Getting this post up has been kind of crazy!  I was too busy on Monday to even think about it but yesterday when I went home for lunch I remembered that I wanted to post some of these pictures.  I grabbed the camera card and threw it in my pocket so I could look at the pics when I got back to work.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot that the card was in there until I got home and went to put the load of laundry (that included the pants I had worn to work) in the dryer.  I fully expected to see the card in the washing machine but after a lot of searching all I found was a paci (that we thought we had lost at my parents' house).  Doug and I talked through my whole day trying to figure out where I had lost it.  I even drove back to work to look around the parking lot, halls, bathroom and my office.  By the time we went to bed I had resigned myself to the fact that it was gone for good.  Then when I got to work this morning I had an email from a former professor of mine who works in the same building.  He had found the card on the floor and recognized Eli in the pictures!  I was so relieved to have it found and by someone who knew me!

I realize this post is kind of disjointed, but disjointed pretty much describes our life right now :)