Are you ready for some football?

We took this and other adorable photos of Eli in his Bengals jersey (given to us by our friends Becky and Tim Horejs) yesterday. Those and a few photos from the wedding yesterday can be seen at our photo site here.

Eli's namesake, Eli Manning, is actually playing against the Bengals today, so I guess it's an appropriate time to tell the story of the name, for those who haven't heard it. It's not that we love the Giants or the Mannings, but more that we hated the Patriots and Tom Brady last season. Before we knew the sex of the baby, we were discussing names and I said "What about Peyton for a girl?" Chris didn't want to name the baby after Peyton Manning, but said "How about Eli?" This was the day before the Superbowl. I said that if the Giants won the Superbowl, we would name the baby Eli. The Giants were about 20 to 1 underdogs for the Superbowl, since the Patriots were undefeated. Also, Eli was always the underachieving goofy younger brother. So the whole thing was really a joke.

But as we rejoiced as the clocked ticked the final seconds, I remembered our joke and I said, "I guess we have to name our child Eli". Still joking. But the more I told the story and the more we said the name Eli to each other, the more we liked it. We didn't want to use Elijah, so we decided Eli could be short for Elliot, which we also liked. And the rest is history.

Last night, Rae and Jeremy had a beautiful wedding on a pier on the Cape Fear River. We were very happy for them and enjoyed our first night out, hanging out with all of our volleyball friends.

First Shots

Eli had his 2-month check up at the doctor today. He was weighed and measured; He weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces and is 23.75 inches long. He's in the 75th percentile for weight and height, but in the 50th percentile for head circumference. His head doesn't look small for his body...we just hope this doesn't mean he's a pea-brain! But they said he's perfectly normal.

I think the shots were harder on Chris than Eli. I hope Chris doesn't transfer his fear of needles to our son. Don't get me wrong, he did cry and was very taken by surprise by the first shot, but the crying only lasted a minute. You can see from the picture, he got three shots in all. He's been doing a lot of eating and sleeping since, and he's been just a little crabby when awake.

Tomorrow night Grandma and Grandpa Talley will be babysitting while we are at a wedding. It will be our first night out without him. I'm anxious but excited.

Go with the "flow"

We had an interesting night last night which tried our patience and reminded us that the best laid plans often go to waste.

We have lately been establishing a bedtime routine to help Eli go to sleep at night. It's pretty extensive, but it works. We go for a walk around the neighborhood from 7 to 7:30. When we get back, we either read to him or Chris plays guitar. At about 8 PM we give him a bath then put him in his pajamas, feed him one more time and rock him to sleep.

Last night, all was going very well. We were right on schedule. Eli was all clean and cozy in his Packers pajamas (a gift from Packer friend Warren) as you can see. He was nice and hungry and sleepy when I sat down to give him his last bottle for the night (I have been nursing during the day and bottle feeding breastmilk at night to give me a break). Chris had just sat down to serenade us while Eli ate. I put the bottle to his lips, and...the top came off and half the bottle spilled all over his chest! So much for the bath, so much for the peaceful transition into sleep.

Next thing we knew, he's screaming, we're scrambling to get his pajamas off and new ones on. After that, he was crying too much to really eat very much and he just fell asleep crying. We gave up, thinking that he would be up again around midnight to eat, rather than the blissfully late 4 AM we have been enjoying lately.

Much to our surprise, he didn't wake up until 5:30 and clocked his longest sleep yet...9 hours! Incredible and shocking. Maybe this spilled bottle thing should become part of our bedtime routine =).

I must note that I checked the bottle's temperature in the sink before giving it to him. I turned it over and let it drip on my wrist. The cap didn't come off or even spill then. How it went from tightly screwed to not is beyond me, but we will not be using that bottle again!

One more thing...Eli turned over for the first time today! He was on his belly and not happy about it and started kicking his legs. I saw some potential so I let him keep crying a little bit, and sure enough, he rolled over. On his 2 month birthday exactly!

Eli learned how to jump!

Okay, not really. But you can see this and other photos on our photo site here. As you can see from the photos, Eli is more awake and alert every day. You may not be able to tell this, but he is growing fast! His 3-6 month clothing is getting snug already. His 2-month birthday is Thursday and we also go for his 2-month Dr. appointment this week. He seems mighty healthy!

TS Hanna spares all of Wilmington--except us!

Yes, TS Hanna was pretty kind to Wilmington. She made landfall about 40 miles from here, near the NC/SC border. This meant that we were on the Eastern side of the storm, which did not carry much rainfall. We did get some sort of heavy winds, but while I was awake with Eli last night, I remember thinking, "This is it? This just seems like a bad rain storm". Then when I got up this morning Chris told me to look out the window, and this is what I saw.

So he went to buy a chainsaw this morning and has been busy chopping up the tree today. Tomorrow will probably be spent picking up the rest of the debris in the yard. Meanwhile, all the other houses in our neighborhood, and it seems in all of Wilmington, are mess-free. It's like Hanna came by and just hovered over our yard. At least the tree didn't hit anything or cause any significant damage. We were lucky.

Eli had his best night of sleep in a long while. He didn't seem to mind all the noise of the storm one bit, it actually seemed to put him to sleep.

We took our walk early today--Tropical Storm Hanna is on her way!

Normally, Chris, Eli, and I go for a walk around the neighborhood at 7 PM every night. However, with Tropical Storm Hanna on her way, Eli and I walked early today. Chris has been busy stocking up on water and ice--just in case, although it looks like this is going to be a relatively mild storm and forecasters are still unsure about where it will make landfall. Any input, Tony?

Preparing for a storm has been slightly different this year. Neither Chris nor I can even hope to get any time off work, as I'm already off and Chris works from home.

So keep an eye on the storm with us and hope that Ike leaves us alone! Also, a few more photos have been posted on our photo site here.

Finally, a photo site

Okay, I have finally gotten on the ball and created a site for our photos. I must admit, I was inspired by my dad. If he can do it, I can do it. There will be a permanent link to the site on the left side of this page under "Links", or you can click here. The address is http://talleybaby.shutterfly.com. Enjoy! Now that I have the photos organized, I just need to get better at taking them more often.