Hmmm...

Let's see... always tired and nauseous, weepy and grumpy with Scott.

Oh, and my boobs are on fire.

Hmmm...

Blog Boy and Ewi's in the Shoe Basket!

Who would've ever thought one of my son's first several hundred words would be blog? The other night Scott was working on the computer, looking for educational links and games. Eli said, "Daddy show Ewi Daddy bwog?" Too funny.

I've been showing him my blog since I started it, basically I show him the pictures and talk him through them, i.e. -- here's Eli with Dendi, here's Eli on the screen porch at the Lake House etc. Now, I've taught him how to scroll down the page himself and he helps me click the "older posts" button at the bottom of the page to get to more pictures. Now, he narrates himself! "Ewi at the Lake House, Ewi wif Copwand, Ewi at Dendi's house... It's hilarious. I did take some video, but since we don't have the right set up yet, I'll have to settle for pictures.






He's definitely hitting a little silly streak lately. He's always a little interesting to get out of the house. Generally, he'll help by getting a new diaper, getting his shoes on, or getting his hat. But, he gets easily side tracked and interested in other things. Of course, I can keep him on track if I need to, but generally we aren't on much of a schedule. Often we are leaving the house to go to the park, library, book store or Grammie's thrift store at his request. So, I generally don't fuss the diversions, and I use the time to get ready myself, or empty the dishwasher, do some laundry or whatever else I might need to do. This morning, I sent him to get his shoes on, then I didn't hear anything for a few moments, then laughter and "Ewi's in the shoe basket!" He's such a little ham.

Yoga and Daddy Love

My exciting news is -- I joined the gym. I know this may not sound too exciting to some of you, but I've wanted to join the gym for at least six months, and we've been trying to figure out the logistics. Finally, on Sunday, Scott drove us to the gym and just started signing me up! I agreed that it will qualify as my birthday, anniversary, Christmas, and Valentine's present for at least this year. :) And, we figured out that as long as we don't do our occasional meal out (Moe's) it will be a wash. Anyway.... I'm so excited! I mainly joined for the Yoga, they actually offer a Yoga class every day. So, now I can go to Yoga with Seana. I've gone three nights and a row, and I love it. It's great, relaxing, adult time. And, it's at a good time -- 7:15. That leaves enough time for an early dinner, dishes, clean up and some digestive relaxing time before I need to leave.

A great side effect is the impact that it's had on Scott and Eli's relationship. Eli's always loved his Daddy, but for many things he's preferred me. It's been hard on both of us in different ways. For the last several months he only wants me to change his diapers. But, now, this week, he actually wants Scott to get him dressed and change his diapers. I think it's a nice change for all of us. Tonight, when I got home from Yoga, this is what I found.




Then, once I was home for a little while, Eli got bit by the silly bug and decided to climb into his letter and number tub. He actually wanted us to pull him around in it!





A recent random love -- belts. When I got home from the gym, every belt we own was on the living room floor. Apparently, Eli put several around him, then several around Daddy. When I got home he told me, "Ewi want mo belts." It was accompanied by a "I know I'm being goofy smile." Here he is a few days ago playing with a belt.

Target, Tupperware and Pumpkin Bread

We've had a really nice weekend. Unfortunately, Scott had to do a lot of work for school -- the beginning of the year is always a little hairy. But, it's so nice to have him around even if it's only for short bursts or in the background. Yesterday we made pancakes, hung out at the bookstore, saw Grammie at her store and had a nice evening playing with some older neighborhood boys at the Tot Lot (William's his favorite) and playing baseball in the Living Room. We taught Eli how to pitch and hit using a foam ball. It's fun now that he's getting older and can do more things.

Today we made had pancakes again :) and then went to Target for a little shopping. Eli's always been fascinated by the giant red concrete balls outside of the store.







Then, after Kroger, we headed to Ba-Pa's and Dendi's for a visit. While there, Eli and Dendi played with Tupperware and "made" Mii-Miis.




When we got home, Eli opened up our Tupperware cupboard, got the Tupperware out, played and put it all back. He only asked for help when he couldn't get one of the tops off. He's getting much more independent.





Then, this evening he helped me make Pumpkin Bread. As promised, here are some pictures of him measuring out and pouring in ingredients.

Another Mii-Mii Morning

This morning went the way that three out of five of our weekday mornings go. When I asked what Eli wanted for breakfast, first he said noodles(?). I've actually tried to give him noodles for breakfast just to see, and he won't eat them. When I said what I always do, that we don't have noodles for breakfast he said Mii-Miis! FYI, Mii-Miis are pronounced with the long "e", like the Nintendo Wii. He LOVES to help me make the pancakes, and even though I already had at least one full serving of pancakes from yesterday in the fridge ready to be reheated in the oven(thanks for the tip Ah-Yah!), he loves the measuring out and mixing part so much that I figured we'd save those pancakes, along with today's extras for the weekend. So, he climbed up on his stool and helped me measure out the ingredients and stir them together. Unfortunately, I'll have to include pictures of him measuring and dumping later, as I'll have to wait for Daddy to take the picture since I don't trust him with the ingredients himself.

Pancakes and bacon have been Eli's favorite meal for some time now. Noodles come in second, but noodles, as with other meals, are not a guaranteed hit. On the other hand, he will always fill up on pancakes and bacon. Pancakes and bacon are such a favorite that we fixed them (probably to our guests chagrine!) for Eli's second birthday party dinner. Bacon was one of his first favorite foods, we used to joke that it was bacon gum. Eli was not too interested in most solid food until he was about a year old, but starting from about eight months or so, he would always give bacon a shot. He was never a great swallower, he seems to have inherited Dendi and his Daddy's gag reflex, so we would find the bacon in his cheek hours later! When he finally started eating solid food, we realized quickly that pancakes were a great accompaniment. Honestly, left to his own devices, he might just eat bacon for breakfast. So, very quickly we realized that we had to keep the bacon out of sight while he ate some pancakes first. So funny, because now sometimes if I try to give him bacon first, he says, "No, mii-miis first, then bake-bake." By the way, I have NO IDEA why Mii-Miis equal pancakes. The only thing I can figure was that when he first tried to say their name he was calling almost anything with two syllable Mii-Mii. I guess it stuck. But, this morning, maybe for the first time, he was actually trying to say bacon, not "bake-bake." *Note -- all you health-nut, hippy nerds, like me, will be happy to hear that the pancakes are whole wheat buttermilk blueberry pancakes, made from scratch out of mostly organic ingredients. And, the bacon is center cut (less fat) nitrate, nitrite free.

Something to notice about these pictures is that Eli's not sitting in his high chair. He's graduated to his booster seat at the table. Although, if you talk to him, don't make too big of a deal about "what a big boy he is!", or he'll firmly remind you that he's still a baby, and a little bit big boy, like he reminded me this morning. I guess that's pretty accurate, but funny. I don't think I've ever heard of another toddler who didn't want to be a "big boy." Another thing that we've introduced at the table is Eli having his own napkin. We're trying to encourage him to use the napkin rather than the table or my arm to clean his hands --it's a work in progress!

My Deep Thinker (and he seems to feel deeply, too)

Grandpa Jan made an astute observation about Eli around his second birthday. He said that he could tell from the pictures that I had been emailing for some time that Eli was a deep thinker. He said that he could tell from his expression that Eli really studied things. It's very true. You can tell from the pictures of Disney World that he wears a serious expression on his face the first time he's on a ride. First, he tries to figure them out. Eventually, once comfortable, he will smile or laugh, but not initially. He seems to have a long attention span too, which may be due in part to the fact that he thinks deeply. Also, possibly related, -- he seems to have quite a memory. For instance, when I talked to him about going to the Lake House this time, he remembered his Pooh bed, his train, his Bob the Builder tape, and even how we played at the Boat House. We hadn't been there in about three months and all of those things had only been part of one of our visits. He'll often remember details that I don't. It's pretty crazy.

Not only does he think deeply, he seems to feel deeply, as well. About six months ago discipline was really easy. All we had to say was that whatever he was doing made Mommy or Daddy sad, he would stop it immediately and burst out crying. Then he would say through his tears, "Mommy (or Daddy) happy now?" He doesn't cry about it anymore, but it's still a fairly effective tactic.

Lately, how deeply he feels has shown itself most obviously through how he listens to books. This started about six months ago, too. We got some long Disney books from the thrift store to get him excited about Disney World, and while they were too long to read word for word, we would paraphrase based on our memories of the stories and the pictures. So, I was reading Dumbo and paraphrasing, and I got to a page where Dumbo's mom was locked up and crying(she got in trouble for protecting Dumbo from some bullies) and I said something about how sad Dumbo's Mommy was. He immediately stuck out his bottom lip in a sad little pout and started crying. For a long time we had to avoid the Dumbo book.

Now he really listens to stories, and often will repeat phrases back to me or ask me questions about the book, so now the words in the book have the opportunity to upset him too. Since the Dumbo incident this has happened four times that I can recall. The first time, it happened with "Are You My Mother?" -- the Snort terrified him, he wore this wide eyed expression for the rest of the book, then kept nervously glancing back at the book once I had gone on to reading something else. I actually had to hide the book so that I could continue reading.

The other night it happened at the bookstore while we were there with Aunt Seana. I read the book about the little boy who fed his fish too much and it wouldn't stop growing. I could tell as I continued to read that something was worrying him. By the time I finished the book he was hiding his eyes, and saying that he wanted to go home. I'm still not sure exactly what bothered him, but eventually he agreed to the fact that the big fish scared him.

Then, there's a Winnie the Pooh Halloween book that we got from the library. There are a few scary pages, and Eli wanted me to read it repeatedly, but he would listen mainly from across the room. Finally, it happened one more time today, with the "Wee Little Woman", a book that we checked out today from the library. In the story the woman yells at her cat (maybe I was too good in my impersonation), "Scat, Cat!" and the little cat is scared and runs out of her house. He got that same wide-eyed expression and I told him that we could put the book away, he seemed relieved. It's so interesting and hard to predict the funny ways that things will hit him.

*Unrelated Cute Quote: The other day while I was getting him out of the car, he wanted to help unbuckle himself and he was taking his time about it. I started to playfully gnaw on his leg. He said, "Oh, Mommy, now Ewi's all wet. Ewi's not wearing his swim suit!"

Helpful Boy

Eli is getting increasingly more helpful. He can get his shoes out of the shoe basket, put them on, take them off and put them away. He can get his hat from the hook, take it off and put it back on the hook. He can take off his own diaper (so far, luckily, he's stuck to the rule of only pee-pee diapers!) throw it away and get a new one. He can climb into his own car seat, and with minimal help, buckle himself in. He locks and unlocks the car for us using the fob. He opens the storm door, so that I can unlock the front door. He (sometimes reluctantly) helps clean up one toy before bringing out another one. He even helps make pancakes in the morning. He pulls his stool up to the counter and helps me measure and dump in all the ingredients, then he helps stir. He even picks out his own clothes in the morning (sometimes with a little needed guidance). So, the other morning I told him to try to put on his shorts by himself, just to see what he would do. He thought it was pretty funny, and once he got some laughs out of me, he decided to put on Daddy's shoes, too. He can definitely be a little comedian.

The World is His Playground (or at least The Avenue is...)

We're back in town and have wasted no time getting back to our regular haunts. One of Eli's favorite places is The Avenue. It's our local, slightly upscale shopping area. The four attractions for Eli are the "boofstore", Moe's, the sprinklers and the speakers. His favorite sequence is start at Moe's, eat queso and chips and a little of our burrito, walk to the bookstore touching (or dancing to) all the sprinklers and speakers, get a piece of chocolate at the bookstore, then play with the train set and read books (Maisy or flap books are his current favorites.)

The other day we went to The Avenue, parked at the bookstore and walked down to Moe's. The most exciting part about the walk (aside from the speakers and sprinklers) was that he can now walk down steps by himself without holding on. He perfected this on the Lake House front steps, but Daddy had not seen it yet.





Of course, he was so excited that he started running too fast and fell, giving him these skinned knees.





It wasn't enough to dampen his spirits for long, he still enjoyed Moe's.





On the walk back up to the bookstore, he stood next to his "friend", the statue of a little boy pushing a wheelbarrow. He's always been a little fascinated by this statue and I took a picture of him in the wheelbarrow when he was nine months old.





Then, we headed to the bookstore to read books and play with the train.