Tag Archives: Eli

Eli’s Achieves Yellow Belt

We have been in the constant pursuit of an activity that suits Eli. I think we have finally found a fit.

For the last few years, we have driven past the Ichiban Karate School and thought “hummm, I wonder”. Finally Shelley was motivated one day to stop in a check out the facilities. They offered a 2 week trail for $20. You could attend as many classes as you would like. Shelley and Eli packed in as many as they could manage. The main instructor, Renshi, has quite the knack of making the instruction fun. The kids seem to enjoy the conditioning.

Eli is in the “Little Dragon’s” age group. He has been quick to pick up the basic skills and has progressed quickly. He was just recently awarded the Yellow Belt Junior Grade. The attached video shows the awards ceremony.

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Eli’s 6th Birthday

Eli has finally reached the big S-I-X. This year he wanted to have a sleep over for his birthday party. After a bit of waffling and contemplating, Shelley and I decided to float the idea with some of his friend’s parents. Most parents polled seemed agreeable to the idea. We sent out the invitations and 7 of Eli’s friends RSVP in the affirmative. On the official day, January 27th, Eli got to pick his restaurant of choice. He picked Dewey’s Pizza. We ate and proceeded home to open his family gifts.

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Then Friday, sleep over time, rolled around. The event kicked off with some crazy “run around the house and shoot Nerf guns” time.  In order to regain order, we went had everyone sit and eat some chili and grilled cheese. The night consisted of bouts of chaos and order. The night wound down with cake, presents, pictures, and then bed time preparation. The kids then piled on the downstairs couch and watched Star Wars Clone Wars. This put the bunch into a trance and acted as a nice tranquilizer before bed. Everyone went down without issue and the night was considered a grand success.

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Valentine Piñata

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This post is a few weeks late, but I got a real kick out of Eli’s class during their Valentine party on 02/13/09. Someone brought in a heart shaped piñata. Unfortunately, their was no easy place to hang the piñata. I found a broom and decided to tie the heart to the end and hold it up for the kids to take a whack. The facial expressions were worth the price of admission. Check out the following individual shots for some quick laughs.

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Birthday Boy, Eli is 5

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Our little baby boy Eli turned 5 today. Above is a collage displaying pictures from today and of course one of his first pictures the day he was born. As I write this post, I reflect fondly on that memorable weekend in 2004 that brought this little package of joy into our lives. He was 8 weeks early and only weighed 4 pounds 7 ounces. It was a scary and trying time for us all. With a lot of love, luck, and support from great friends and family we got to taken him home in a short 10 days after he arrived. Fast forward, 5 years…he is now 37 pounds and full of himself. 

His day started off with the greatest news any young kid could expect to hear during the winter months. School is closed! A lovely snow system pushed it’s way through during the early morning and dropped 4-6 inches of fresh powder on the greater Cincinnati area. After some dancing around and celebrating, he quickly wanted to get down to the business at hand…opening the many presents that had been taunting him since the weekend. Shelley of course staged the presents such that the anticipation would build as he opened the loot. His big gift this year was not a true surprise given the constant negotiations that had been ongoing for nearly a year. It seemed that he had longed for his very own for an eternity. All of his “closest” friends all had their own. He even forfeited his right to have his own party in the effort to leverage the ultimate goal.

The holy grail ~ A Nintendo DS ~

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He even went so far to tell his mother that if he had his very own DS, he would not “need” to “bother us” to turn on the Xbox or the TV. He would just be able to play the DS by himself.  

You can find video 1 (opening of the DS) and video 2 (singing Happy Birthday). 

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Eli lost 2nd Tooth

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Eli just lost his second tooth and not more than 1 week after loosing his first. Shelley had to persuade him to let her help with the extraction. After much wincing and dancing around, the tooth popped out without issues. He now has a double gap on the bottom in the middle. This time he decided to write the tooth fairy a note in an effort to sweet talk her into leaving more money than the last time. He, with the help of his mom, authored the following note:

“Tooth Fairy, this is the second tooth I lost. I was very brave. Would you please give me more money? Like 2 or 3 dollars. My name is Eli Wykle.”

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Eli Lost His First Tooth

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Eli has reached his first big “dental” milestone. His lost his first tooth while at school this morning. He lost it while eating his breakfast before heading to his classroom. He was ecstatic when Natalie and I arrived home after gymnastic practice. He was smiling from ear to ear. 

Before bed he placed his tooth under his pillow and then proceeded to ask many of the same questions that most first timers

“How big is the Tooth Fairy?”

“Have you ever seen her?”

1st Annual Wykleville Book

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In an effort to continue documenting the life and times of the Wykles, I decided to take a stab at producing my own “blog book”. I wanted to take some of the more important post from the Wykleville site and document them in a book form. I also wanted this to be a surprise for the Shelley as a Christmas gift. After seeing some very neat samples online, I went and researched the different companies that provide book production. I settled on using Blurb after reading many positive reviews and a one week turn around. Blurb has their own free software that is required in order to upload the book. It also has simple production tools  and upload the book. I found the software a bit limiting and not allowing me to achieve the effects that I was after. So I expanded my search and found FotoFusion. It is a nice piece of software that met my needs. After a free trial, I found that it was quite powerful and easy to use. It allows you to easily crop, rotate, and re-size the photos. It also has many different photo frames allowing you to create different looks for each of the pictures that you drop in. Finally, the front and back cover was created with a Microsoft Autocollege product that takes a folder and creates a nice college of pictures. 

I created each page in FotoFusion and then drop them into the Blurb software in order to upload the finished product. 

You can check out the finished product here.