Recent Quotes and Some October Pics

I've been jotting down cute things as he's said them. He's gotten so much more verbal in the last 3-4 months which makes communication so much easier, and life much more entertaining.

*I've been calling Eli "Pumpkin Pie" for at least a year now. We'd never really talked about it, and I wasn't even sure that he was aware of it, until our most recent trip to the Lake House in the beginning of October. Seana called him "Pumpkin Head", and he looked at her very seriously, and said, "No Ah-Yah, Ewi's Pumpkin PIE."

*He's always singing something, usually ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle or the Wheels on the Bus. The other day I noticed he was singing his own medley... He sang, "Where is Thumpkin? Dormez-vous, sonnez les matinas. Run Away." I guess they are sung to the same tune. :)

*Most of his vocabulary is fairly predictable and utilitarian, but two words that he uses frequently that make me smile are "probably" and "actually".

*If "Elmo's World" is on, he goes and gets Elmo from his room to show it to him. When we are listening to the "Mickey Mouse Club" he sits his stuffed Mickey next to the speaker. And, Big Bob the Builder and/or Duplo Bob the Builder listen to "Can We Fix It?" with us.

*When Kodi comes in from outside, or walks into the room, he gives her an explanation of his activities... "Koodi, Ewi's just playing Dupoos." or "These are just Tupperware, Koodi."

*He has definitely learned and adopted the favorite toddler word -- No. But, within the last two weeks, he now says, "No, please." It's pretty great -- gets his point across, but much more politely. It's often in an exasperated tone, but the please is still nice.

*The other day Eli and I were discussing the difference between cooking things on top of the stove and baking them in the oven. Then, he asked what was under the oven. I told him pan storage, he asked what that was, I told him that's where we put our pots and pans when we aren't using them. I could practically see the wheels turning as he pondered my response. Then, his face lit up with a smile and he said, "We have storage at the Lake House, too!" And, we do, but I have no recollection of ever using that word with him. It's funny the things he remembers.

*One morning, maybe a month ago, when we woke up, Eli asked where Daddy was. As I often do, I turned the question back on him. He said, "Daddy's at his other home. He's at tool (school) where he lives sometimes." We said the other home thing a lot this summer when we were referring to going back to our camp site or the Lake House. It's interesting how he adapted it, and I think sometimes Scott does feel like he lives at school.

***
And, now for some catch up October pictures that I found on the camera while downloading Halloween pics. I am continuing to feel better. I'm nauseous about half of the time now, which is a huge improvement on 90-100% of the time. So, maybe some day now, I'll only post current pics. As with anything, I figure better late than never.

Okay, these first few are actually from September!

These first pictures show his smile as he discovered the number 100. We got "Chicka, Chicka 1,2,3" from the library, and the end of the book introduces 100. He was very excited. Interestingly, a month later, we were visiting Scott in his classroom, and Eli was flipping through a fraction chart. I was only half listening as he read the numbers off the chart, "1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10... etc." I find it hard to turn off the teacher in me when we visit Scott, so I was also watching the students. Then, I realized that Eli read, "one hundred." I looked down and sure enough he was pointing to the hundred at the bottom of the fraction. I don't think he had ever even said the word out loud before, and we had returned the book to the library about a month before. Again, it's funny what he remembers.





These next few are from about the same time -- the middle of September. They show him entertaining himself with his various puzzles while I make dinner. He's getting much better about that, which makes showering and cooking a lot less stressful. The next ones are Eli at the table enjoying his dinner and being a goof.






Well, Eli's woken up so I guess I'll have to add the actual October pictures later.

Halloween

Elijah's First Halloween --

He had two costumes: a dinosaur and a vampire.





Eli's Second Halloween -- He was a tiger.



Now, for last night, Eli's first trick or treating Halloween. I think we ended up hitting about six houses. We started at Dendi and BaPa's. In fact, Eli spent a few hours at their house in the afternoon while Scott and I voted. Then, we had dinner at their house, got him ready there, and trick or treated at Dendi's and about three other houses in their neighborhood. He actually wasn't too excited to go out at all. It's one of his most recent "toddler behaviors." He doesn't like change. He wants to stay wherever he is, doing whatever he's doing. But, once I convince him into going out, then he doesn't want to leave there either. Also, I think he thought that trick or treating meant getting a lot of candy that he didn't like. Once he started to realize that most houses offered at least some chocolate he started rushing from house to house. Until, a creepy house, complete with smoke coming out of a grave, a large stuffed ghoul sitting on the porch and spooky music and sounds convinced him that trick or treating wasn't so fun after all. Then, we decided to head on to our next stop.






Then, we went to trick or treat at our next door neighbor, Madeline's house. He climbed up on her porch chair to ring her doorbell. He's very comfortable on her porch and at her house now. In fact, he tried to let himself in to play. We said we'd come back to play another time.





Then, it was on to Grammie and Grandpa Paul's house. We trick or treated there and then stayed for the rest of the evening to eat some candy, share some with Grammie, hang out and play.

Early Trick or Treating

On Saturday, the Avenue was hosting a little Halloween celebration with many of the stores giving out candy to kids in costume from 3-5 p.m. Luckily, Eli's nap time cooperated and we were able to catch the last hour of festivities. I coached him on saying, "Trick or Treat", "Thank You" and "Happy Halloween." For the most part he did well on his first taste of trick or treating. He had fun and was intrigued by the candy. But, at times, and especially towards the end he seemed overwhelmed. He always gets a little intimidated when strangers try to engage him, especially when they try to touch him. To complicate matters, a lot of the preschool age children thought he was a celebrity. A few tried to come up to us and talk to him as if he were Elmo. That perplexed him, to say the least. Then, at the end, we realized he didn't get any chocolate. He's never been exposed to non chocolate candy, and kept taking pieces of candy out of his bucket and asking me if they were chocolate. He took out "Smarties" and Scott told him they were a little like Teething Tablets, so he could chew them like he did his Teething Tablets. He hated it. He tried to chew a piece, and then actually starting crying. He opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue like he wanted me to scrape it off. I gave him a drink of milk instead. Needless to say, he didn't try any more candy. So that we wouldn't think trick or treating was a complete bust, Scott bought a piece of chocolate at the book store, and had the ladies put it in his bucket. He was of course very happy about that.











The funny thing was when we got home he perked up right away when I mentioned going next door to show Madeline, our neighbor and his new best friend, his costume. He ran into the back yard asked her to come too, and had a great time playing with her. He had transformed back into his normal, silly self in minutes.






Then, after playing hard, he took off his hood, and had sweaty hair. Madeline and I commmented on how he must be hot in his costume. He decided to take it off right then in the back yard. There was no stopping him, we just laughed and took pictures instead.

Bye Baby Talk and More Catch Up Pics

Just recently, the baby talk has begun to disappear from Eli's speech. "Mii-miis" are now pancakes, kitchen is no longer "nii-nii", "choc-choc" is now chocolate, and "mat-mu" is no longer bathroom. He's even started to call people by their real names, Uncle Jason is occasionally Jason and not "Nii-Nii" quite so often, and Uncle Brian is only "Bembi" about half of the time now. The two names that have stuck, and will continue to stick are "Dendi" for Grandma Diane and "Ba-Pa" for Grandpa Tom. They have both elected to keep their toddlerese names. Their names remind them of Bado (Tom's Dad) who was called Bado until the end of his life after being christened over 50 years ago by one of his daughters. It was her rendition of father. I think the baby talk held on longer than it may have, because all of us adopted his phrases, they were so cute. Then, about six months or so ago, Scott and I read that we should validate his phrases, but state the real names as recognition back to him. Duh... So, we started trying to be aware of how we spoke. And, it finally seems to have stuck. It's a little sad as the toddlerese disappears -- the end of an era.


These pictures are more catch up pictures, pictures that I had from the last month or so and never posted. These are Eli with his bath tub crayons, which are a recent hit. He drew a rainbow. While they aren't great pictures, I really liked his expressions. He's such a goof, chewing on the wash cloth. And, of course erasing is almost his favorite part.





As far as the pregnancy goes, I'm continuing to feel better. I had three glorious days last week, and three rough days in a row this weekend. I think this weekend's slump can be attributed to lack of sleep. Eli's finally getting his last two year old molar, two others are finishing coming in, and the three teeth have caused both of us to miss some sleep. I've noticed that my nausea is definitely exacerbated by lack of sleep. But, even on these rough days, I don't feel like I've been run over by a truck and the nausea is generally bearable -- that's progress.

I'm Back :)

I know that my posts have been spotty at best since finding out I'm pregnant. But, I only have a few more weeks of my first trimester, so hopefully the worst is behind me. According to something that I read, week eight and nine are the worst for morning sickness, and I think that was pretty true for me. I'm still feeling nauseous for quite a bit of the time, but I do have periods of reprieve and I think I'm managing it better by eating a little bit every hour. The exciting news is I'm starting to get some of my energy back. I've started being a little productive around the house again, and I'm feeling less like a slacker mom. For a while there, I just felt like I was counting the waking hours before I could sleep again, poor Eli! I was sleeping whenever Eli was, which left no time for the blog. All in all, this pregnancy has been very different from the first one. My nausea and fatigue are much more severe. Today is actually the first time I'm not napping while he is, and I may be paying for it later. I just couldn't sleep, and I've missed keeping up with the blog.

I have lots of pictures that I've accumulated over the past month or so, I'll be posting them in no particular order...

The first morning that it was a little chilly, I asked Eli if he wanted to put on pants and socks. Up until then, he had slept and hung out around the house in just his diaper or a diaper and a t-shirt. He agreed to his pants, but said he only needed one sock and one shoe on because he was inside. (?) Gotta love the toddler logic.



He has all the sudden become a pro on the computer. He loves to watch Sesame Street videos. And, his first love was "C is for Cookie" (the sound of which unfortunately makes me nauseous now!) He finds the folder on the desktop that says Elijah's videos. He opens the folder, and double clicks on "C is for Cookie." When it opens to the page he knows he needs to click on the image to play it. He also knows how to make it big, reduce it again, play it again, play other videos on the screen and then finally close it with the red "x". It's incredible how much he's picked up. Pretty hysterical.


These next few shots demonstrate how we buy kids expensive toys, but they're content to play with almost anything. I've been washing out and saving non #1 and #2 plastic containers. It makes me crazy to throw them out, they won't recycle them, and Scott said he could take some to school. So, of course, for a few weeks they were one of Eli's preferred toys.



More pictures from the last month or so to follow...