Careful Scrabble, Atlanta Sunday and Tea with Grammie

Last night, we played Scrabble, and Eli helped pick and place our letters for about half of the game. Eventually, he got bored, and wanted to just play with the letters. I told him that he needed to wait until we were finished with our game. Reluctantly, he did. When it was his turn, he carefully took one tile out of the bag at a time and placed them in perfect rows. This is the travel version of Scrabble, so the tiles snap into place, some snap more successfully than others. But, he was amazingly patient. He's been like that with tiny fine motor tasks since about 6-8 mos. He used to love putting Cheerios into tiny containers, one by one. Of course, I didn't think to get the camera out until he had started dismantling all his hard work, but originally, they were all in neat, full rows.




Then today, we spent a beautiful, albeit cold, day in Atlanta. We try to go into Atlanta once every few weeks to make a Trader Joe's run. And, we try to do other things in Atlanta while we're there. Unfortunately, Uncle Brian was still in Houston on business. But, we did end up going to Ikea, Trader Joe's and most importantly Eli's favorite playground at Piedmont Park. We did get a little picture crazy, but his face just lit up from the second we set foot in the playground. We couldn't resist.




















Then tonight, we went to Grammie and Ba-Bo's house for pizza. As the night wore on Eli got in his pajamas and had his first tea party with Grammie. It's getting so fun now that he's starting to do pretend play.

Eli's Song

Scottie wrote a song for Eli, it makes me cry, then again I'm pregnant -- everything makes me cry :) Here it is:

Eli is a Boy

GCD (Indigo Girl Style)

Eli is a boy and he lives in a house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house
It’s yellow and it’s small and it’s Eli’s house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house

Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
She makes him lots of pancakes and she gives him nummies
They go to Jumping-bridge Park to allergy shots
Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
Eli is a boy and he loves her a lot

Eli is a boy and he likes to play puzzles
He likes to read his books and he likes a good snuggle
He likes to play with trains and with Duplo blocks
Eli is a boy and he plays a lot

Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
His daddy fixes toys and makes him lots of stuff
His daddy sings him songs and builds him cool track combos
Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
Eli is a boy and he loves him a lot

Eli is a boy who really likes to jump
On beds and on the floor he just can’t get enough
He loves to dance in daddy’s arms and when there’s a tune
Just say, “It’s time to dance,” and then you’ll wanna dance too

Eli is a boy and he loves his Kitty
His kitty is named Koody and she sleeps a lot
Tolerates him while she’s making grumpy faces
Eli is a boy and he loves his cat
Eli is a boy and she loves him back

Eli is a boy and he has an Elmo
The furry little monster that he likes to squeeze
He watches C for Cookie and his ABCs
Loves all the other things he sees on Sesame Street

Eli is a boy and he likes to run
He likes to count the sprinklers and he likes to have fun
He likes to fly around and play some hide and go seek
His favorite color’s yellow, he thinks chocolates’ a treat


Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
Eli is a boy and he loves his Koody
Eli is a boy and we love him too
Eli is a boy and we love him too

Eli is a boy and he lives in a house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house

Bulldozer and Backyard Time

When Eli got up this morning he'd soaked through through his diaper, and his pajamas were a little wet. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because it meant that I got him in a clean diaper and REAL CLOTHES a few minutes after getting out of bed. Dendi came over this morning to watch Eli so I could go to my midwife appointment. Nothing new to report, everything looks good.

When I got home, after we ate lunch, we played outside for a couple of hours, mostly in the backyard. It's a beautiful, crisp fall day and we got to play with the accompaniment of a bulldozer. When we bought our house, the lot behind us was empty and wooded. We knew there was always a possibility that they could build on the lot, and finally last year someone bought it. They knocked down all the trees and moved dirt around for about six months of last year. Of course for a toddler boy it was like heaven. One of his first words was dump truck (duh-tra), and we spent many hours in the backyard watching the progress. Then, after about six months, everything stopped. They had built an orthodontic's office on the far side of the lot. But, nothing right behind our house. It was a mixed blessing. When they cleared out the trees, it reduced the bugs in our yard, but now there's just a big pile of dirt instead. Yesterday, they resumed construction. These first few pictures show the bulldozer, it's pretty small and behind the trees in the second shot.





Of course the noisy bulldozer only added to the excitement, and Eli had a ball (no pun intended) throwing a ball, retrieving it from the bushes with his shovel, playing with his loader and bulldozer and taking rocks and pinecones in and out of his house.












It's amazing what fun you can have outside when you decide to get dressed!

Pajama Boy Kitty Cuddle

Eli loves his pajamas. In fact, he loves them so much, his goal most days is to stay in them all day long. He explained to me this morning that if he keeps his pajamas on he won't have to change for bed. Scott said he understands the logic, it's kind of like, why make the bed? Anyway, there's many days now that we both stay in our pajamas all day long. If we have no where to go, why not? I'm kind of glad he's a home body, when the baby comes, that'll come in handy, as there'll probably be many days where I won't want to leave the house. Here's Eli loving Kodi. She tolerates him, and he's learning.

My Wonderful Husband Strikes Again -- This time in the form of a train table...

Scott bought the wood and built this train table in about 3 hours this evening. I was amazed. He built it at his parent's house, and I just figured he would buy the wood tonight and make it next weekend. I guess I shouldn't underestimate him!

Anyway, Eli is smitten. And, I'm very excited as it organizes all his Duplos and frees up the floor space. It also provides lots of hidden storage underneath --we'll definitely be heading back to Ikea for more baskets. We also got a box spring for his bed this weekend (we had his mattress on the floor until now.) When he was getting in bed tonight he said, "Now Ewi has a big boy bed and a big boy table."

Dendi's Park, Baking Soda and Chocolate Face

Could it be? Am I actually going to catch up with all of my pictures? It's official, as of this post, there are no more pictures on my camera, or in our files to be posted. Hurray!

Before we get to the pictures, I thought a pregnancy update was in order. I'm feeling MUCH better. I almost feel like myself, I have most of my energy back. And, while I'm still nauseous about 25% of the time, that's such a huge improvement, that it doesn't even bother me much anymore. The exciting news came a few weeks ago, with an early ultrasound. I keep meaning to post some ultrasound pictures, along with this news, but enough procrastinating. The ultrasound tech said that it was probably a girl! As I said it was a very early ultrasound, so she said it wasn't a hundred percent. But, she saw "girl markers" twice, from two different angles, and after that she referred to the baby as she. Of course, come December 4, when we have the full anatomy ultrasound, we may have a sneaky boy, but that would be okay, too. So, we aren't buying anything "girl" yet, but I have had fun thinking of all the possibilities. I'll try to post some of the ultrasound pictures later.

So, on to the remaining pictures... The first few were taken at Dendi's park last weekend. There aren't many exciting action shots -- my camera ran out of batteries pretty quickly. But, you can see his mismatched Crocs. He now refuses to wear them matching. We get all sorts of comments, mostly positive ones, and some people ask us if we bought them like that. I tell them that it's his artistic expression. Grammie says it's his Berkeley coming out.

Truthfully, we would never have two pairs of Crocs in the same size, but we made a mistake when packing for Disney World this summer. We packed everything he needed for the trip, then woke him up at 5 in the morning and loaded him in the car, in just his diaper (all he'd slept in), and a blanket wrapped around him. We realized half way down to Orlando that we didn't have any shoes for him! So, our first purchase in Disney World were his pair of blue Crocs.






These next two sets are from Thursday -- a messy day. We made pancakes in the morning and because of not enough mix and old Buttermilk, we had two false starts. About half way through the long process, Eli became entranced with breaking up the lumps in the Baking Soda. While my initial reaction was to tell him to get his fingers out, I decided to let him play. It made him happy and kept him occupied while I wrestled with the pancakes.





Then, in the evening, Scottie spoiled me and made me Chocolate Chip Cookies. Truth be told, he came home from work, straightened the house, made dinner, did the dishes, entertained Eli for the rest of the evening while I napped and made Chocolate Chip Cookies. I had a splitting headache all day long, in fact it lasted for almost three days, so Scott came home and took care of me. Have I mentioned that I have a wonderful husband? True to form, Eli sounded excited about the cookies, but when it came time to eat them he tried to eat the chocolate chips out of them instead.

October Pics As Promised

Okay, so here I go, playing catch up again. Maybe someday I'll be all caught up again, one can only hope...

This first batch are from the first weekend in October. We were up at the Lake House and we went for a hike. Because of my less than stellar packing job, I forgot the hiking backpack, Eli had to hike too. He did really well, especially considering his stride is about one sixth of ours.







These next two are from WalMart. Eli loves to go in the "special room" after we do our shopping. Truth be told, I'm sure he'd rather go there instead of shop, but it definitely works as a good incentive. He used to like pushing all the buttons and climbing over all the rides. And, I never had to put any money in, in fact he prefered them to stay quiet and stationary. Now, he likes the motion and the noise, so I have to come prepared with some quarters.





These next few are from a few weeks ago. He needed to take a bath, but I was finishing up loading the dishwasher, so as a way to stall, I asked him to go find his bathtub crayons. I expected him to return quickly, either with crayons in hand or telling me he couldn't find them. Instead, I was able to load the rest of the dishes in peace. And, as we all know a silent toddler isn't usually a good thing. After starting the dishwasher, I found him in the dry bathtub, fully clothed, happily drawing away.






And, his new favorite part of his bath time routine is his Bumble Bee towel, thanks Grammie! He loves it, in fact, it's often hard to get him to part with it long enough to put his pajamas on. Although, it does provide a good incentive to getting out of the tub. If left to his own devices, I think he'd stay in the tub for at least three hours.