Finished Kiddie Spot, Almost Walking and the Best Family Portrait Ever!

As promised, here are some pictures of the completed kiddie heaven. Bapa and Dendi came over again on the weekend and Scott and Tom built benches for the sandbox. They also figured out a way to cover the sandbox so that Kodi and friends didn't discover the best and biggest kitty box ever. The great thing about the newest outdoor area is that it can keep us outside for hours. When Eli gets tired of mowing, throwing his frisbee, playing in the sand or rocks, he brought out some color by numbers to work on. Awesome. Also, here's a picture of our container garden on our deck.



As the title suggests, Keira is almost walking. She started by clinging to us with two hands and learning to take steps. She loves this kind of guided walking.
This picture was taken at the end of March, notice how she's holding her mouth as she concentrates.


Now, she's nearly obsessed with walking. She wants to be up as much as possible, pushing her walking toys or holding on to our fingers. When she's holding on to two fingers she plows ahead, almost falling as she's trying to run. She's getting really good holding one finger, too. Although she still gets off balance or tangled up when she rushes. Look in the background of the pictures of Keira pushing her doggie and you can see my aircast. I got my walking cast off last week and I upgraded to an aircast. I was hoping in vane to go from walking cast to cute springy sandals. But, no such luck.



Keira seems to be turning into a little person more and more each day. She's getting quite opinionated and her temper's starting to show. I think she may be a challenging younger toddler whereas Eli didn't really show his toddler colors until he was 3. She tries saying all sorts of words now like water or water bottle (wah-wah), ball (baw), hi (eye) and many others if we talk slowly and enunciate.

She's also starting to eat a little bit now. With each meal I put a little something on her tray and give her a spoon. She dips her spoon and fingers into the food, licks her spoon and fingers and goes through the motions of eating by saying, "mmmm" and chewing. We're getting there. :)

She still loves music. One of her favorite toys are musical cards. We have quite a few of them from multiple occasions all around the house for her. Her two favorite right now play a Kiss song and the Chicken Dance. She opens and closes them and rocks back and forth as the music plays. She also loves it when we sing to her. Her two favorite songs that I sing are "Bingo" and "Old MacDonald". She requests them on the golf cart by either saying "ae, ee, ie, ie, ie" for "Bingo" or "Ee Ie Ee Ie Oooooooe" for "Old MacDonald." About a month ago, "Bingo" mutated into "Keira" as I now sing,...

"There was a Mama had a girl and Keira was her name-o"
"K - E - I - R - A."

She loves it. On long golf cart rides, I often end up singing about the whole family. This has coincidentally taught Eli how to spell Keira, Mommy, and Daddy, as he already knows how to spell his own name.

Continuing to move onto Eli anecdotes... he continues to say things that amaze me, and he definitely seems to have inherited Daddy's math brain. About a month ago, he asked me if I would count to one thousand. I told him I probably wouldn't since it would take so long. He said in a slightly exasperated tone, "Mommy, a thousand only has ten hundreds!" I have no idea where he got that. But, I guess someone must have told him at some point...

Then just yesterday he stumped me with a math question that I had to ask Scott to explain to him. I know the "rule" but I wasn't sure how to explain it correctly. We were talking about how much time was left for "quiet time". Every day he has an hour of quiet time in his room where he plays by himself and within that hour he has to lay down and try to nap for ten minutes. Lately, he falls asleep about every other day. Yesterday was his birthday and he was way to excited to sleep. So, we were counting down the time on his digital clock. It was 2:10, and his quiet time was over at 2:13. We were talking about how many minutes were left and he said two, I corrected him and said, that there were actually three. After quiet time he said that he didn't understand because there should be just two minutes left since he doesn't stay in his room for the 2:13 minute. He didn't like my attempt at an explanation and only seemed satisfied when Scott told him that you are actually counting the spaces between minutes. Good thing him and Scottie speak the same language!

Besides numbers, and crazy math questions, Eli continues to love color by numbers, crafts, puzzles and mazes. But, he doesn't have much interest in drawing. I think it's because he knows how things "should" look and he can't draw it that way. I'm trying to loosen him up about it and I LOVE the few drawings that he has done for me. Most recently, he drew the best family portrait picture. He was working on a workbook at Dendi's house and she insisted that he bring the page home to me as she knew that I'd love it. He drew it all himself and then explained it to her so that she could label it. I think it may be one of my favorite things he's ever created.

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Baby Boy

Four years ago today, we were blessed with the birth of our son, Elijah William Moore. These have been the happiest, most fulfilling years of my life. I am so lucky to be the mother of a thoughtful, eloquent, sensitive, intelligent, silly and loving little boy. He constantly surprises, awes and challenges me. He enriches my life in ways that I never could have imagined. As everyone said, and I never truly understood, he has taught me how to love more deeply and fully than I ever have before. Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet baby boy.

***

Dendi and I had plans to start Eli's birthday morning right, with a trip to Eli's all-time favorite restaurant -- IHOP. I was madly trying to get the three of us ready for Dendi's early morning arrival, so as I brushed my teeth I asked Eli to start getting himself dressed. I put a basket of clean clothes on his bed and asked him to pick out his clothes for the day. I started to hear giggles coming from his room. When I walked in to check on his progress I saw my birthday boy in his birthday suit, giggling, and sitting in the clothes basket. Needless to say, he wasn't dressed in time for Dendi's arrival, but he had a great start to his day.


On the way to the car, Eli fit in a little time on his trike.


Months ago, I had filled in a birthday card for Eli at IHOP, and sure enough, last week they sent it back. It entitled us to one free Kid's meal. After placing our order, the server took the card from me. I thought nothing of it. Then, after our meal, the entire staff came out of the kitchen singing and bearing a GIANT ice cream sundae. At first, Eli was grinning ear to ear while hiding behind Dendi a little (he explained to me later, they were loud). Then, once they left the sundae on the table, and returned to work he was absolutely beaming. After contemplating a few more bites of his pancakes, he decided to save room for his sundae and dove right in. It was a surprise that made the morning so much more magical. There's nothing like ice cream in the morning to start your day off right!




We went home and had a nice day, in spite of the strange, windy, stormy weather. When Scottie got home, we headed out to IHOP, once again. It was Scott's school's Spirit Night. Scott ran the idea by Eli and Eli leaped at the chance to return to his favorite restaurant. This time, Eli had macaroni and cheese for dinner and for dessert his special birthday cupcake from Dendi. Keira tried to sit patiently, but she is almost walking, and all she wants to do right now is "walk" around holding on to furniture, walking toys, or fingers. Unfortunately, for me, the girl isn't even that interested in sleeping. She tried to convince me for an entire hour in the middle of the night last night that it was time to wake up and start toddling around.

Sunny Days and Our New Backyard

Lately, we've had gorgeous weather. It's even been hot enough on some afternoons for the kids to enjoy some water fun. We broke out Eli's bathing suit for the first time this year. We did take out Keira's, too. But, I got pictures of her nudie bathing experience in the kiddie pool instead.




Once again, Scott has wowed me with his dedication to our outdoor living space. Our multiple gardens all around our house are wonderful. We have a vegetable garden around the front of our house that we are growing from mostly seed. Then, we decided to buy a few plants for a container garden on the back deck. That way, if our seed results end up being less than extraodinary we have some back up. Here's Scott wheeling Eli and some soil for our container garden into the back yard.


Possibly more impressive than our multiple gardens is our new backyard space. Within the last week Scott and his dad have created a great kiddie heaven right next to our deck. The kids and I absolutely love it. As was Scott's plan, we don't have much interest in leaving our property now. First, over the weekend, Scott and Tom pulled out roots, took out the old sandbox and created an even space where the sandbox and a bunch of unused space used to be. Then, they framed it in wood and laid down some landscaping cloth. Finally, for Eli, the fun began on Monday with the sand and gravel delivery. He loved scampering around and sliding down the giant hills of sand and gravel.




On Monday night, after working a full day at their regular jobs, Scott and Tom got back to work and moved all the gravel into the space, built a new giant sandbox, and filled it with sand.



While the men worked, Dendi and I helped a little with the manual labor, but mostly watched the kids. Dendi and Eli played in the giant sand pile in the driveway, while Keira watched happily from the shady grass.




We got the idea to include gravel from Babo who recently added rocks into his landscaping. One day last week, the kids and I rode the golfcart to Grammie and Babo's for a change of scenery. Grammie and Babo were both at work. The kids spent a full 45 minutes quietly playing in the pebbles. It was amazing. Since Keira is unusual, in that she doesn't put many things into her mouth, (including food!) she safely plays with the pebbles, too. Here she is happily playing in the area halfway filled with rocks. Tom and Scott filled in the area completely with a new rock delivery on Wednesday.



Finally, after filling in the area with rocks, Scott had a brilliant idea. He brought the big toddler toys up from the bottom of the yard and put them on the rocks. Now, the kids new play area includes: a little slide, a play house, a picnic table, a toddler sized adirondack chair, and of course the sand box and rocks. It's awesome. It's made all those toys new again. Here are Eli and Keira sliding together.


I had planned on taking a few pictures of the completed area to include with this post, but as it's pouring now, I'll include them later.

Catching Up, Part III -- A Much-Needed Behavior Improvement

Before my injury, I was due to post on Eli. I had pictures collected, and lots to write about, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was struggling with him horribly. I felt like I couldn't write a positive word. I couldn't even bring myself to write about him at all -- I was so exhausted by having to deal with his behavior. He seemed to be constantly acting out, and I was at the end of my rope. He was disrespectful, grumpy, mopey, demanding, unhappy and challenging. He wanted all of my time and couldn't seem to understand that I had to play with Keira, too.

His behavior seemed to magically improve two days before I fell. I didn't blog about it. I was worried I might jinx it. But, when I got hurt I feared the worst. I couldn't imagine how I was going to deal with everything, especially his misbehavior, when I could do the bare minimum before having to sit down and rest my leg. Fortunately, again magically, his behavior has continued to improve. I'm so glad. I think it was a mixture of a few things.

First, I once again changed my tactic. I had reintroduced "1,2,3 Magic". After a promising start it backfired. He got to the point that he wouldn't listen to me at all until I got to 2. Ugh. Then, I decided to have him go to his room every time he misbehaved. I told him he could come out when he calmed down and was ready to behave. So far, it works like a charm. Hopefully, it continues to work. For now, sending him to his room coupled with trying to catch him when he's good and giving stickers when appropriate has been great. Fingers crossed.

I think the change in discipline tactic was only part of the success I think it was also a timing thing. He's almost 4. Interestingly, he was a surprisingly easy 2, but 3 has been super tough. Also, I think he may finally be adjusting to having a sibling. As I have told people who've asked how he's handling our new addition, he adores his sister, but he's not so sure about his changing place in the world. Now, finally, he seems to be doing better. Yay!

Now, to catch up on pictures...

First, Eli rode a "big boy bike" at Dendi's house for the first time. Dendi took pictures. Last week he rode it again for the second time with Dendi and I and he did a great job. We'll be keeping our eyes out at the thrift store for a "big boy bike" for him to ride at home.





Eli still loves coloring color by numbers and his new favorite activity at Dendi's is taking apart and putting back together as many nesting dolls as Dendi will allow. The first time they did nesting dolls together they played for three hours straight. That's a patient grandma!





Fortunately for Eli, his grandmas have been baking with him. Before Keira was born, Eli helped me make pancakes nearly every day and baked with me almost every week. There haven't been pancakes or baked goods around our house for a long time. Maybe some day we'll get back in the swing. Until then, once again, thank goodness for the grandmas. Here's Eli baking cookies with Dendi.





Eli has been getting "Highlights, High Five" for a couple of months now, thanks to a Christmas present from Dendi. We've enjoyed some great "Mommy Eli Time" cuddling on the couch and reading his magazines. They feature a craft at the end of each issue. One day, we started making a craft with wrapping paper. Eli loved the wrapping paper and soon, it had a life of its own. He was cutting it into tiny pieces for hours, then he decided to make a tent out of it. As you can see, he had a great time.

Catching Up, Part II -- Easter

With me in my present state, Easter was a little low key. I had intended to color Easter eggs with Eli this year, but it wasn't in the cards. Of course, the Easter bunny still paid our house a visit and Eli happily collected his M&M filled Easter eggs on Easter morning.




While Eli found his Easter eggs, Keira played on her play mat and looked at her cards.




Fortunately, the Grandmas made cards for us with Eli. It made me feel a little less guilty for my injury induced low key holiday. He did a great job writing our names and decorating the envelopes.