Eli Faves: Grandma Days, Puzzles, Color By Numbers and Marbles

I'd like to dedicate this post to Dendi and Grammie. Eli spends Tuesdays with Grammie and Wednesdays with Dendi. If it wasn't for his Grandma Days this blog may no longer exist. Grandma Days give me a chance to catch up on the blog, housework and grocery shopping. It also gives me the opportunity to have some alone time with Keira -- something that is so appreciated as she zooms through her first year. I'm trying desperately to savor her babyhood, but the days are flying by. It's incredible.

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.

Snow Day

With all of us being sick, I've gotten quite behind on the blog. I'll be catching up for a while...

On Friday, January 8, it snowed! We get snow about once a year, and it's always a treat. Since there is now road clearing equipment, Scott got a snow day from school, too. The whole town shuts down when a few flakes fall. It was great to have Scott home, and especially nice since it made for a three day weekend. Scott and Eli took the opportunity to set up Eli's Duplo train set in the front room. It made for a cozy day inside playing and looking out at our winter wonderland. Although, unfortunately, that Sunday Eli started puking and our sickness ordeal began.

Sick, Sick, Sick!

Wow, we've had a horrible stomach flu for the past week. Last Sunday, Eli started puking, I followed suit on Tuesday night and now Scott's down with it. It may have been one of the worst things I can remember having. Eli was almost unrecognizable last weekend. He wanted to do nothing except cuddle up and doze with one of us on the couch or in bed. He tried to work on some puzzles, but would lay his head down and cry. It was pathetic and broke my heart. Then, on Tuesday afternoon I felt his pain -- literally. Fortunately, I called Scott and he rushed home before the five hours of puking commenced. I was actually so weak on Tuesday night that I almost fainted twice, crazy, awful stuff.

Scott stayed home on Wednesday so I could sleep. As always, he took great care of me and took care of the kids as much as possible. Dendi was awesome throughout the week. She came over several evenings in a row to help Scott with the kids so that I could focus on recovering. As I've said before, Thank God for Grandmas! This morning she came over to drop off some Gatorade for Scott and take Eli. I'm so lucky.

These pictures were taken last night at Dendi's house -- our one family outing of the week.

Catching Up on Christmas, Part IV: Christmas Dinner

After having a relaxing day opening presents and playing at a leisurely pace, we headed over to Grammie's house once again for our final Christmas celebration -- Christmas dinner. With Keira, I was anticipating a repeat of the 23rd. I assumed that with so many people she would be fussy, cranky and clingy. Fortunately, she exceeded my expectations. When we first got there she tolerated Aunt Seana talking to her and even touching her. She even let me put her down a little while she played in her play place. Amazing!



Of course, Keira started getting fussy right in time for dinner. Fortunately, after a quick cuddling, nursing and napping session she emerged much happier. Once again, she let Dendi hold her.

Catching Up on Christmas, Part III: Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was wonderful. As we expected, Eli was excited to see what Santa left him, it made the morning magical. While Eli was into his presents, we took breaks. He would get tired after opening one or two, or he'd want to take some time to play with his new present. As we had quite a few packages under our tree, since out of town family and friends had been generous, we started opening at 7:00 and didn't finish until 11:00. It was great to be able to take our time and savor it.



Since we had celebrated Christmas with Grammie and Babo on the 23rd, we didn't have rush around at all on Christmas. It was great to let Keira nap and Eli play with all of his new toys. Here he is playing with his new plane from Grandpa Jan and Grandma Karen.

Catching up on Christmas, Part II: Dendi and Bapa's House

The next night, Christmas Eve, our Christmas celebration continued at Dendi and Bapa's house. Keira did better. I think the thing that helped the most was that this time she slept for almost an hour in the sling. When she woke up she was in a good mood for the rest of the night. Maybe she was getting used to being out of the house in the evening, and I think it also helped that there were only a few of us -- less noise and fewer faces to set off her stranger danger anxiety.




Since Keira was in a better mood I actually got to open some presents, with Eli's help. My favorite of the night was a picture frame. On on side there's a picture of Eli on the other side is his handprint -- a perfect Mommy gift. You can see the frame on the ottoman in front of us in this picture of me giving him a thank you hug.


It was nice to sit back and be able to enjoy Eli opening his presents. His favorite of the night was his water tower book. As I've said before that boy is obsessed with water towers. Dendi drove around and took pictures of all our local water towers, and even took pictures of water towers all through south Georgia and Florida on their way to the cruise. Then she went to Jason's store, Wolf Camera, and made a book out of all her photos. He was enthralled. He carefully turned each page and looked at each water tower. He pointed and named all our local water towers.



Another big hit of the night was Keira's train. While it was a gift for Keira, and she does like it... Eli LOVES it! He played with it all the way home in the car, for quite a while during quiet time and at least a little every day since.


Keira was in such a good mood that after we all opened presents, she let Dendi hold her -- something that would have been impossible the night before.

Catching Up on Christmas, Part I: Grammie and Babo's House

Grammie had a great idea to start a new family tradition. In the past, we've opened presents with them during the day on Christmas. Instead, this year, she suggested that we get together on the evening of the 23rd. We all brought hors d'ouevres and our presents, and of course, to Eli's delight, no Christmas celebration is complete without chocolate.


Grammie suggested the change so that the kids wouldn't be so exhausted on Christmas. The idea was that if we spread out our celebrating, we wouldn't all be checking our watches, missing naptime or time to play. It also worked out nicely for Brian and Kathryn. They were both able to come to Grammie and Babo's and then fly out Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with her family.



It definitely got us all in the Christmas spirit. It was also a great excuse to break out one of the three Christmas outfits I had for Keira -- you've got to love the thrift store!


As expected, Eli was much more enthusiastic about presents this year. He even loved walking around helping everyone else open their presents, too.


Eli did enjoy his presents, and he wanted to play with them right away. He even brought out some of his older toys to play with while everyone else was opening. The surprising thing that held his attention the longest was the bubble wrap. I think he sat down for almost an hour methodically popping the bubbles one by one.


Another highlight of the evening for Eli was placing Baby Jesus in the manger. Grammie has adopted the Hispanic tradition of waiting to put Baby Jesus in the nativity scene until Christmas morning. It's Eli's job to place him in the manger. Since we got together on the 23rd this year, Baby Jesus made an early arrival. *On a side note: when I was looking through Grammie's pictures to find some to include in the blog, this picture was Eli's favorite, he kept going back to it. Then he said with a grin on his face, "I love Baby Jesus!"


Unfortunately, for most of the night Keira was fussy. Everyone graciously agreed to meet early for the kiddies, but it seems that there is no time early enough for Keira. Many nights she wants to fall asleep by 6:30, so going anywhere in the evening is tricky. Also, her stranger danger thing seems to be peaking, which seemed to antagonize her fussy, tired predicament. While everyone else opened presents, I spent most of my time pacing the hall with her in the sling. You can see me pacing behind Grammie and Aunt Seana in this picture.


Fortunately, by the end of the evening, Keira was in a better mood. I took her out of the sling, and she sat on my lap. She smiled at everyone, clapped and made kissy noises.



After opening all our presents and filling our bellies, Eli had a blast playing with Uncle Brian and Kathryn. First, Brian and Eli played with Eli's pattern blocks, but as playing with Uncle Brian typically does, it soon escalated into a riotous running around game -- this time Hide and Seek. Eli had so much fun with Uncle Brian and Ms. Kathryn that he cried when it was time to leave. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The fact that our Christmas celebrating had just begun helped to cushion the blow.