Not only are Grandma Days fabulous for me, but Eli LOVES them, too. It gives him a chance to have undivided attention again, something that is more and more rare at home. And, of course, getting a little spoiled at the Grandmas' doesn't hurt either. Here are some great pictures that Grammie got of Eli at her house throughout December.
Both Dendi and Grammie have quite the Eli set up at their houses. It makes the visits even more fun since they have toys, games and books that we don't have at home. Both Grandmas generously let us borrow (or keep) favorites that make coming home hard. Recently, Eli fell in love with marble mazes at Grammie's and she let us take them home. Not only did Eli love them, Keira loved to watch the marbles race and swirl through the mazes, too. She clapped for her favorite element in the maze.
Not only does Eli spend Wednesdays with Dendi, but when Scottie goes over to his parent's house to build things for home or school he brings Eli along. Here are some pictures that Scott and Dendi got of Eli doing color by numbers -- a recent favorite activity.
Far and away, Eli's favorite thing to do (besides spending time with his grandmas) is puzzles. We work on at least one puzzle each day and often average about five per day. His favorites right now are his 63 piece Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzles (Dollar Store finds!) and his Geopuzzles. We got him a few Geopuzzles about six months ago once he had done and redone his United States puzzles. He seemed to really like map puzzles, so Scottie decided to move on to other parts of the world. They were such a hit that we used some of his Christmas money to buy the rest in the set. He now owns all five of them which represent the whole world. It has been an amazing learning experience for me, as my geography knowledge has always left something to be desired. And, they spark some fascinating conversations, too. Eli's geography knowledge is getting so good that he was even able to help Scott do a 600 piece world map puzzle. Scottie had to do all the oceans, but Eli was a big help identifying pieces of many of the countries.
Eli's behavior is oscillating wildly lately. Sometimes he is a wonderful big brother, great son and all around sweet boy. And, other times, he is more trying than he's ever been. In fact, his behavior has been so bad at times that I decided to brush up on my favorite toddler book, "The Happiest Toddler on the Block." It's an amazing book and I was hoping to get inspired. While I'm not done reading it this time through, rediscovering the Fast Food Rule has been a Godsend. It's simple. Basically, Fast Food drive thru windows always repeat your order right back to you. It's a great communication tactic. When Eli starts getting upset or starts a tantrum, instead of trying to calm him down or reason with him right away, I just tell him that I understand. So I've been saying, "I'm sorry you're sad that we have to get dressed." or "I know you're mad that you can't have more crackers before dinner." etc. It usually works like a charm. Even though, I'm not giving him what he wants, at least he feels heard. So far, so good. And, hopefully I'll be picking up more sanity gems as I continue to reread the book.
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