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Sweet 16

So…this is going to be super picture heavy because so much went down this month! My parents came for TWO weeks which was amazing. We went on a weekend trip to Atlanta and Chattanooga and Eli was a doll. He was super off schedule these past couple weeks which has not made bedtime fun, but it was worth it. He loves his grandparents so much. We are super blessed to have had them here.

We started out their vacation with me having my wisdom teeth removed and it was not fun! First of all “twilight sedation” doesn’t work on me. I knew everything that was happening during the surgery and then it made me cry. I knew I wasn’t actually sad, but I felt very sad. It also caused trauma to my lingual nerve which made it both painful and difficult to talk for 10 days or so. I now sound pretty normal, but I still have a lot of nerve pain when I talk too much. I was finally able to make it through the night without prescription medication just last night. Seriously I wish I would’ve gotten it done earlier in life.

So what did we do on our trip? We went to the Stately Oaks and Gallery 63 in Atlanta (skip the auction house- it was empty)...
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Stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, visited Point Park...
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And visited the aquarium.
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Oh! And don’t forget the Hot Chocolatier. OMG I am in love with that place. I think I could move to Chattanooga so I could work part time there and eat everything they make. That’s my new life’s goal I think.

My dad (and Josh a bit) also fixed up our house. We painted the kitchen and half bath a more neutral color (read- buyer friendly), and they tiled both rooms plus the laundry room. Of course then I felt like we had to redecorate a bit. Please ignore the messy counters and fridge.
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Other than that we celebrated mother’s day with some donuts, flowers, a fantastic brunch at Flemings, and a service at Crosspoint where Eli was enamored with the musical performance.
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All in all it was a good time! We miss them immensely already.

Eli: 16 Months
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I say new words like… “hi”, PaPaw
I weigh 24 pounds at my 15th month check up
My favorite food is taquitos. I eat 4 in a setting!
My favorite toy is my otter and (after a few days of getting used to it) my tunnel
Some other things I do include…I like to stick my tongue out and laugh when mom copies me. Mom gets pretty upset when she finds me eating dryer lint (yuck!). I discovered that I’m not the only person who has this thing called a belly. I also figured out where my ears and nose are. Dad is no longer just Josh, but is now Daddy-Josh. I can sign “show” which of course means that mom should sing me ‘If you’re happy and you know it’. This is an absolute must when I get my diaper changed. I’m obsessed with Optimus’s tail. I blow kisses I hide behind mom’s legs when I meet strangers. I like to tell the dogs (and stuffed animals) ‘'”no” and “go”.
A Memorable Moment for PaPaw was: Going to lookout mountain around Chattanooga and seeing how far Eli’s personality has come. He’s so good natured and laughs easily. His laugh is contagious. 
A Memorable Moment for Grandma was: any time I got to sleep with him, when he got to the point he would lift his arms to us or would use me for security (he would hide behind MY legs around strangers). I will never forget how much he loves Optimus. I love how Eli will go to sleep while rubbing any amount of hair- even PaPaw’s eyebrows! When we were babysitting him, not even 30 minutes into it, he got on top of the kitchen table and poured out my Pepsi. Then we couldn’t get him to sleep on time so we gave up and let him eat some toast with us while we had dinner.
A Memorable Moment for Mom was: Bribing Eli through the tunnel in his Safari tent using soft sour jolly ranchers. I also ask him after time-outs “what did mom tell you?” to reinforce the rule, but this has taught Eli that while cows moo mom says “no-no”. Another really funny one- Eli was trying to feed Kito through the screen door then laughed his head off every time Kito tried couldn’t get the food.

Have an amazing May!
-Shantel

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