Today

It is just me and Eli spending a quiet rainy fall day inside today. He is sitting on my lap as I post this, actually. He has been super sleepy this morning, so I exploited it and took these pictures of him before we move the couch out of the big studio room. Another one of the knit stripey sleepers that I bought for him before he was born. Here he is modeling it.










We are celebrating the fact that he slept from 8:15 or so last night until 5:45 this morning without a single peep. Go Eli! For the past few weeks he has been about 50/50 whether he wakes up once or twice to eat in that same 10 hour period, so this is a big deal. We hope it is a sign of things to come.

Christmas in October

The Mohr Family Christmas was Sunday and it was a really, really nice afternoon with everybody together.

A quickly organized big group shot of everybody. Derek is propping Grace up - he had to wake her up her to be in the picture. She had fallen asleep in an armchair in the midst of all the activity.

My little patient

Charlotte was home sick from school yesterday. A bonus for her - her Aurora costume came yesterday, too. She put it on right away. I was happy to find a princess dress that was long sleeved and full enough for her to wear something under it if it is as cold on Halloween as it usually is.



I cropped this one a little funny so that you can see the very edge of my beautiful wallpaper with rocking horse border. All around my family room. At the ceiling and at the chair rail. It's really something.

She made herself useful by tickling Eli to try to get a picture of him smiling. He smiles all the time and it is adorable. Once I duck behind the camera, though, he stops.



Not technically a great image, but look at that little face. I love this one. I was telling Derek the other day how hard I have to strain to imagine that such a little peanut is going to grow into this big guy and be taller than me and everything.

All three

(but not in the same frame...still working on it)

The girls walking in our new backyard last week. We can cut through the empty lot behind us to get to the playground. I like how they are carrying the basket together.




Together on one of those ride-on playgorund toys that have been around forever.



One of the boy from inside this morning. I intended to take some sleeping pictures, but he had other ideas. I like this one, though, so I'll overlook it this time.




I think he looks like Gracie did at this age. I had a hard drive crash and I still haven't rebuilt the data from archives yet, so I had to crop this out of my website. I think there's a resemblance.

Happiness is

taking a nap on Daddy.




I need to work on some pictures of the girls, too. It's been awhile since I tortured them with the camera. They're growing all the time.

Been a long time

We're nominally settled in and my office computer is finally back on-line. I was cocky about this whole moving thing. It definitely put me back in my place. What a mess.

This is Eli's new room. Granny wall paper, rose colored carpeting and all. Maybe by the time he's old enough to have little friends come and visit we'll have gotten it redecorated. Maybe. To my right as I took this picture is a litte half bathroom that he has in his room. Complete with pink sink and toilet of course. We thought that for a boy with 2 older sister, having his own little private bathroom would probably be a nice feature. Behind me is his closet, which is at least half as big as his room in the old house. Maybe bigger.



He's grown in three weeks of no blog posts, hasn't he?

a self-portrait

Some friends of mine on-line were pestering those of us without avatars, so Eli and I made this image this morning. The camera was on the staircase, manual focus, self-timer. Eli slept through the entire process (which included lens changing, some camera set-up, a few trails for focus, the actual picture, uploading, editing, posting, etc. Sometimes I almost forget that he is there. That's why I like this self-portrait so much with that little head up against my cheek. That's pretty much what I see when I pass a mirror most of the time. I occassionally pine a little for the return of my two-hands-free days, but mostly I will miss that soft, warm little head an awful lot when he is on to the next stage.



I left the bags under my eyes because that's what I see when I look in the mirror these days, too.

Stripes

I bought this stripey knit sleeper for Eli when I wsa about 6 months pregnant. I clearly remember when it came in the mail and I opened up the package and I was so impatient for him to be born so I could see and hold and cuddle him. Oh, and photograph him, too. Here he is wearing it yesterday. It goes into the "too small" box tomorrow.






Here is awake for the test shot.