Coats and Boys

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a light jacket for children now days? It's hard. As in I've looked in stores every fall for three years and have not come across any, or at least any that you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. Granted, I'm not a huge shopper. I'm not going to go to every store in the mall to every kids sections to look for something. And, the Duluth area doesn't have that many great stores, especially great kid stores.

I've always made the kids clothes work though, for spring and fall when I needed those light jackets. Or I would happen across a run down jacket at a rummage sale that would work. Finally, this year, I smarted up and looked online.

Why did I not do this before?

I have no idea, I prefer online shopping anyway so it doesn't make much sense that I didn't think of this before... Anyway. This morning I looked online and after finding hundreds of kids coats that were outrageously expensive, I found one! My three year search is over! Woot woot!!! Gabriel actually has one that I found at a rummage sale that is in perfectly fine condition, but Eli had nothing.

Source

I think it's kinda cute! And I finally smarted up a bit, I will store in my forgetful mind that in the future, look online!

Anyway, my whole blogging today was not only to blog about a coat. I was just so excited that I felt like sharing!

Ahem. So, Eli. You know, my youngest monkey? He's changing. A lot. In the past 1-2 weeks he has become the pickiest thing on two legs. He refuses to put food in his mouth that he's not thrilled about and has gone from being a vacuum for food to only eating one good meal a day, the other two are struggles.

His eating is not the only thing that is changing though. See Eli has always been a good sleeper. Almost too good. He is 16 months old and until just this last week, has taken two naps a day every day and each nap it 2-3 hours long. I found that I would be the one waking him up so he could enjoy the day instead of just letting him wake up on his own.

His sleeping so much has been a blessing but it also caused me much worry. I have never known a child his age to sleep so much! I started to look online for possible problems that kids could have that caused them to sleep so much, but I didn't find one thing! I simply was not accustom so kids sleeping this much, Gabriel after all was at one nap a day long before he was one years old. But alas, Eli finally seems to be changing his sleeping habits. Granted, he still needs two naps a day but I think we are finally in the slow transition to one nap a day. His morning nap is gradually growing shorter to only an hour-ish and I find if he sleeps more then that then he won't sleep in the afternoon. I'm a bit relieved, nothing is wrong with him after all! Though, a part of me is a bit sad... he's growing... and I don't know what I'm going to do about my morning shower when he goes from two naps to one... selfish, I know :)

Eli has also been teething for 2.5 months! CRAZY!!! He's working on his molars and they are slow going. He's not a good teether in the first place (unlike Gabriel whom would get them so fast that half the time I didn't even know he was teething until after he had teeth!) so these molars are really getting to him. The top two have poked through a little bit but have seemed to kind of stalled (which, I think it normal, I vaguely remember Gabriel's doing the same thing) and he's still working on the bottom two. I feel so bad for him. I don't like to give him medicine every day because it's just not good for him so we usually make things work until the teeth go through the popping out stage, then he gets too miserable so we get out the medicine bottles. Luckily though, and lets cross our fingers on this, I think the bottom two might poke out at the same time!

I also find lately that Eli is not the only one changing. As I start to pack up the summer clothes oh so slowly, I start to unpack Gabriel's 4T clothes. *Hyperventilating* *Wheezing* *Gasp!!!!* I can't take this! Aren't they supposed to stay babies forever? They aren't supposed to grow up this fast :( *Tears* *Sobbing*

Pulling myself together.... Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Ok. I'm good. *Sniffle* So where were we? Oh yeah. Gabriel is getting so big. He's definitely is not a sleeper like his brother and unlike his brother whom loves meat and hates veggies, Gabriel loves veggies so much that I have to bribe him to eat pizza with broccoli. Not kidding either. And it's always a struggle to get him to eat even one bite of meat. What can I say, my boys just even each other out I guess!