we are burnsheads

Well of course, so big! Eli shows everyone how big he is while his cousin Cole applauds his efforts.

If you can’t see the video, click here to watch.

Tags: Elijah Cash

We had a fun time visiting family and friends over Christmas this year, and I think we saw pretty much everyone we could have possibly seen. Eli enjoyed his first Christmas and all that goes with is – tearing open presents, eating tissue paper, enjoying bows and ribbons over the toys he received – you know, all that stuff.

On top of all the holiday bustle we also squeezed in a wedding and a first birthday for Eli’s cousin, Cole. That’s a lot of fun, and a lot of miles on the road, for three weeks! We’re still recovering!

Only regret? Absolutely no snow – hardly a flake – in our entire time in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Of course it snowed up there the day after we got home.

Here’s a few pictures from the trip.

Tags: Elijah Cash

More Christmas pictures to come soon but… When Eli arrived at Grandpa & Grandma Burns’s house for Christmas, this is the stocking that greeted him. Needless to say, the other children suffered severe fits of jealousy. ** Note to others suffering severe fits of Christmas jealousy… most of that was tissue paper filler. **

Tags: Elijah Cash

Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree, which was good fun for everyone, including the cat who insists on eating pine needles. Those can’t go down easy… I don’t understand it. Eli loves the Christmas tree as well and “helped” put on an ornament or two. Here it is:

Now, we have a nice tree. It looks good. Is it the most amazing, fantastic, jaw dropping, parade-of-lights-award worthy tree ever? No, it’s not. But in Eli’s mind it definitely is. He has adopted a facial expression we call “Christmas Tree Face” whenever he sees the Christmas tree.

Typical scenario: He wakes up from his nap, we get his clothes changed, and then bring him down the stairs and say, “Eli, look at the Christmas tree”. At which point his jaw drops, his chin goes to his chest, his eyes widen, and he breathes in a little breathy gasp as if to say, “Oh my goodness, the Christmas tree is so beautiful!!”

We’re not sure why he started doing this. Perhaps he was trying to mimic our excitement as we came down the stairs. But it’s evolved into a Pavlovian dog-like response to the point that now, at random points throughout the day, we can turn him towards the tree and say, “Eli, look at the Christmas tree”, and Christmas Tree Face appears. We were at Lowes tonight – they had a Christmas tree setup outside the door. “Eli, look at the Christmas tree”… jaw hits the floor. We’re eating dinner at Burger King, miles from a conifer and say, “Eli, do you love our Christmas tree?” Mouth opens, eyes widen, and he contorts his body looking for an evergreen.

It’s good humor, and cheap entertainment.

Tags: Elijah Cash

It took a wee longer than we anticipated it taking, but Eli is now a crawling man! And he’s moving everywhere now. It started over a week ago last Friday – he kind of experimented with the idea of moving on his knees on Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday he had perfected it to this move that you see below.

At this point, pretty much any new object will attract his interest and give him the motivation to go squirming across the room. In this case a giant yellow squash. Signature crawling moves: a big grin as gets going, perhaps a squeal of excitement (I can’t believe I can do this!!), and a bit of a diagonal trajectory because crawling a straight line is complicated when you’re looking down at the floor.

Tags: Elijah Cash

Last week Eli and I went to the park to meet up with our small friends Lucy and Ella (along with their very not small dad, Jeff). Steph has been taking Eli to the park to swing for weeks now, but this was my first time there alone with him. Steph spent the evening with a friend enjoying a much needed and much deserved girls-night.

I’m pretty sure he hung out in this swing for about 45 minutes nonstop. Perhaps it was because he had two cute girls swinging with him.

Tags: Elijah Cash

Our friend Tiffany took some fun fall pictures of us a couple weeks ago just when the Nashville leaves were at their peak. It was our first real “photo session” since Eli was just a couple weeks old, and the challenges of keeping his attention were entirely different than they were nine months ago.

Happy fall from the Burnsheads!

Tags: Elijah Cash

In Eli’s small world, his best friend is his kitty Lucy. After the initial excitement of mom and dad coming to get him in the morning passes, he immediately starts looking for his furry little friend. Usually after we get him changed in the morning we take him back to our bathroom, where Lucy is waiting to be fed, and the smile on his face is never bigger than when he sees her for the first time in the day.

Now that Eli is getting more mobile, Lucy’s world is getting significantly smaller. And with Eli’s tight kid grip, she’s losing fur quickly. Yet, I think over the past few months Lucy has come to like Eli, even though she takes a beating whenever she gets close to him. Here’s a few pics of a recent encounter.

Tags: Elijah Cash

I know, Halloween was over a week ago… I’m catching up here. Something we learned this year: Halloween when you have an infant is basically a holiday where you go around asking strangers for candy in return for showing off your cute kid. I’m not complaining. We paired up with some friends of ours and their cute kid and hit the streets together to ask strangers for candy. A few called us out (“Well, your kid’s not going to eat this, so I guess this is for you huh?”), but everyone was pretty cool about it. We’re still working through the candy.

Eli got a couple different costumes for Halloween, so we have him as a little candy-corn, a glow in the dark skeleton, and a monkey (complete with banana). We stopped to see his little friend Averey on our way to trick-or-treating (the lamb), and then we met up with the Turner’s and their little “Harley-Horse”.

Tags: Elijah Cash

A couple weeks ago we took a nice trip to Missouri to visit Steph’s dad and Dee. Eli had a great time and especially enjoyed all the time spent outside. There was a fall party going down in Springfield, complete with a little petting zoo (goats… his favorite, as per previous posts). Here’s a few pics from the weekend.

Tags: Elijah Cash