What it means to have two young kids in NYC

When writing my last entry, I realized I should write a little bit about what it's like to have two small kids in the city. It is our greatest hope that in 2012, we'll be out of the city and into a house, so hopefully this will all be a distant memory soon!!!!

Having 2 kids in a 1 bedroom apartment is by no means easy. There are two benefits that I've been able to convince myself of, however. One... we don't have the space to have a lot of toys, so we haven't allowed ourselves to go overboard with that stuff. I never wanted the boys to have tons of toys, so I'm happy about that aspect of it. (Oh what I would do for a separate play area, though!!!). Second... I don't have to worry about what Eli is doing in another room because he's always here in the same room as me! :)

The biggest challenge in living in a 1 bedroom apartment is, obviously, the sleeping part of it all. It was difficult to coordinate with one child...but two is pretty tough. Here is the current routine. 8pm is bedtime for both boys, so the 4 of us head to the bedroom around 7:40 or so for stories. I feed Liam and the 4 of us read stories together. At 8pm, it's lights out for both guys. We lay them both down, turn on their night night music (which lasts 15 min or so) and leave. Eli is very used to this and only very occasionally protests (usually only if he really wants to keep playing). Liam, on the other hand, is not a fan, and usually cries (sometimes bloody murder, sometimes only half-hearted) for about 10-15 minutes. Miraculously, this doesn't seem to bother Eli too much and he never complains about it. I always hold my breath when Eli starts calling out to us long after Liam has been quiet, fearful that Liam will wake up, but that also doesn't seem to happen. Thank goodness. Liam generally sleeps until about 11 or so and then gets up to eat again. This, I will have to cut soon, but I've been happy to feed him since he is so underweight. I feed Liam in the room and then lay him back down in his crib (er...pack-n-play)... and he generally goes right back to sleep. Depending on the night, he'll either sleep through til 3 or 4 or 5. At that point, I get up and take him out to the living room, so I can turn on the light and change him. I can't really change him in the room at this point, cause he's screaaaaaming. I feed him and put him back to sleep in the pack-n-play in the living room and then sleep on the couch next to him. (Thankfully we have a VERY comfy couch). I tried putting him back in the room at this point and could very well do that...he'd still go back to sleep there... but he tends to wake up at 6:30 or 7 and while Eli is a very heavy sleeper at night, he becomes a very light sleeper from 6am on. I'd rather us sleep out in the living room if it means Eli will sleep til 7:30 every morning. This sleeping arrangement does make things very complicated in the morning, however. Mike has to get ready for work in the bathroom and when he makes himself breakfast, it always wakes me up (and sometimes Liam). If Eli wakes up before Liam, he generally wakes Liam up the moment he gets out in the living room. Sigh.

Naptime is a different beast altogether. Liam's first nap is horrible (I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes out of him), no doubt because Eli does not know how to be quiet. For the second nap, I always try to time it so they go down together. It usually ends up that Liam goes down about an hour after Eli does. I can't even think about putting them down in the same room because Liam ALWAYS take shorter naps than Eli and I don't want to risk him waking Eli up. So Liam naps out here in the living room. That means I can't eat crunchy chips, talk on the phone, watch TV. Sigh. One day.

Part TWO: Traveling.

Traveling around, running errands, presents a whole new set of difficulties. I'll use a few examples. One... going to the doctor's for either kid. There are two subway lines by me, but only one of them has an elevator (and it's about 1/2 mile away...not my usual stop). this wasn't a problem when I had just Eli, even when I was pregnant, cause I was able to carry him and his stroller up any set of stairs in the city. Yes, it was very tough, but I knew I could do it. that went out the window with Liam. It is impossible for me to lift my monstrous double stroller and couldn't do it if my life depended on it. So that means I have two options for when i need to get somewhere in the city. I can take the boys in the double stroller and get off at the TWO elevator stations available to us... 59th street or 34th street. The doctor's office is located on 84th street. The doctor's office cannot accommodate a double stroller. I'd have to leave it at the front of the office, which would mean I'd have to take Eli OUT of the stroller, which means I'd never ever get him out of the waiting room filled with toys. So that leaves us with option two.... Carry Liam in the front carrier and take Eli in the umbrella stroller. Still virtually impossible to use any kind of stairs, but it has been done twice... I carried Eli in the umbrella up a flight while squishing Liam. The benefit is, I am much more likely to get someone to help me lift the umbrella stroller than the double stroller. So I could actually go to the correct subway stop... but then I'm pretty much at the mercy of strangers to help me. So I'm still pretty much confined to the elevator stations...but now I have to walk a mile and a half carrying an infant and pushing a not so ergonomically friendly umbrella stroller. If I need to get anywhere in the city other than 59th street or 34th street, this whole scenerio plays out. Not to mention I wouldn't touch the subways during rush hour with a double stroller.

The post office:

My horrible post office has a set of double doors and then three steps (behind another set of doors) to enter. try doing that with a double stroller and packages. Once you make it in, try getting to the window when you're in a teeny tiny line that doesn't make room for a stroller. Do I take Liam in the carrier and Eli in the umbrella? Easier to maneuver, but then how do I carry the packages?

The Grocery Store:

One huge benefit to having a stroller at the grocery store is that I can use my mommy hooks to carry the bags for me on the way home. Milk/OJ/potatoes...bring it! I can carry whatever I want! Woohoo! The downfall? I can't push the double stroller with one hand...so I have to limit my purchases to what I can fit in a basket attached to the back of the stroller. At one of the grocery stores, where they know me (and where Eli is a celebrity), I can also put things underneath the stroller because they know I'm going to pay for them. At other stores, (FaMILY DOLLAR), when I try to do this, they come on the loudspeaker and tell me I'm being watched and will be persecuted for shoplifting. Lovely. Try negotiating tiny NY aisles when they are unloading food/boxes or when someone else approaches in a cart. Not fun. Try fitting the stroller through the teeny checkout aisle. Difficult. I Do recognize that it's a beautiful thing not to have to load up both boys in the car and take them to the store...but maaan sometimes that would be nice.

Parking: Sigh. If you live in a house where you can just pull your car up in front of your house when you get home, don't ever, ever take that for granted. Any time I want to move my car, it involves very careful planning. Alternate side parking (the side has to be clear on either mon/thurs from 8-9:30, 9-10:30 or 11-12:30 or tues/fri at those same times) is a mom's worst enemy. If I'm parked in a Tuesday 8am spot, for example... I'll try to leave the house at 8 and then go to Target (cause it's impossible to find a spot til 9:30) and time it so I'm back at 9:15. If I'm in a 9am spot, I'll get to the car at 8:55, drive around for a while (cause Eli doesnt' like to sit still) and then pull up in front of our apt at 9:15.... and have to wait til 9:30 listening to "I want to get ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuut"x1000. Today, I am driving up to visit Rachna when Eli wakes up.... I'm not parked too far away, so in theory I could carry the car seat and hold Eli's hand... but who knows how far away we will park when we get home. Alas, I must take the double stroller.

Laundry: Forget about it. If you have a washer/dryer and can do laundry whenever you want... or leave your clothes in the machine as long as you want...never, ever take it for granted.

Sorry to complain. There are a lot of perks to living in the city. I'm a block away from CVS, multiple restaurants, etc. There are 4 grocery stores within a half mile of my house, two of which are open 24 hours. I can get anything I want shipped to my house, including groceries. (I just might have to deal with the post office scenerio if i'm not here to get it!). Even though we live in a 1 br apartment, I have a pretty big open area, bigger than some of my friends who have houses. I live near 4 fun playgrounds and three beautiful parks. Even though it's a huge pain, I am close to many museums and I live only 2.5 miles from the Bronx Zoo. I'm very lucky.

But man, I'll be SO happy to have a house.

Liam's eating solid foods!

So on December 16th, one day after his 6 month birthday (so Daddy would be there to see), we fed Liam solids for the first time! He had been eagerly watching us eat for about a month or so, so I was happy to finally be able to feed him. I decided to go with the easy stand-by... rice cereal. He LOVED it. Gobbled up the whole bowl, despite everything I read that said he'd only want a few spoonfuls. After three days of that, we moved on to oatmeal, which he also loved. His first "real" food was carrots, and he also loved those. Sweet potatoes were next... he didn't love those as much, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I wasn't able to get it completely pureed than the actual taste. Today, I gave him bananas, expecting him to love them...and oooooh he made the worst face. Yay! That's MY boy! (I hate bananas!). After a few spoonfuls, he seemed to be tolerating it a lot more and might even like them. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm having a lot of fun with the foods this time around and am really enjoying making food for him. He LOVES eating, so I think I'm going to bump him up to two solid feedings a day next week.

He DEFINITELY was going through a growth spurt last week, getting up every 2 hours at night to eat and eating a ton throughout the day. Now that that seems to be passing a bit, I think we're going to try to crack down on this getting up in the middle of the night to eat thing. It's really tough because physiologically, he's fully capable of going a whole night without eating. From everything I've read, by feeding him at night at this point, I'm just creating a night-feeder. There are two factors, however, that make it tough for me to just let him cry in the middle of the night. Number one, we're all in the same bedroom and I don't think it's that fair to Eli to let Liam wail it out for 20 min at 3am. And number two, Liam's still on the super little side, and I feel that I should really feed him as much as I can. I might start supplementing him with a big ole formula bottle at night, though, so that I can do away with that guilt.

At 6 months, Liam is still a super smiley happy guy. If you smile at him, he smiles back with a huge toothless grin. He loves when I kiss him on his chest or feet and always starts giggling. Hearing him laugh is just about the cutest thing in the world. He's very good at sitting up and can reach for things when sitting, but if we're not nearby, he'll plop backwards or forwards at any given second. He's a rolling machine and likes to roll around to get whatever he wants. He remains SO close to crawling and has really been getting up on his hands and knees a lot the last few days. He can get into that position and then push himself backwards...so oftentimes, he ends up with his legs underneath the couch. He LOVES watching his big brother do anything and now laughs and smiles at him ALL the time.

He's still a super little guy, but I really feel like he's gotten a lot heavier. I tried to weigh him on a regular scale (with me getting on first...then getting on with him) but it wasn't accurate. I could and should take him into the doc for a weight check (something she told me I could do since he was so small), but to be honest.... it's just too much of a pain to get both boys ready and all the way down to the doc office at a scheduled time, especially since the closest elevator to the doc office is about 1.5 miles away. So I'll just have to trust my instinct that he's at least remaining at the 3rd percentile mark and will hope for the best on his Jan 14th appointment.

He's still in size 2 diapers, which is where he'll probably be for another few weeks. He can squeeze into a few of his 3 month outfits, but for the most part, he's solidly into 6 month clothes now. Yay!

He's consistently saying DADADADA (not fair!) and is starting to really babble a lot more. He loves trying to put everything into his mouth...books, toys, my hands, etc, and is in the (long) process of getting three teeth in on the bottom. The one that looks closest to popping through is the one on the left side of his mouth...just left of his center teeth. I will be happy when they pop through so they stop causing him so much pain, but I'll miss the adorable toothless smile!

:)

Christmas in NYC

I decided that I really wanted to try to make the most of this Christmas season, attending tree lightings, concerts, holiday festivals, etc, so that I could really take the time to enjoy all of that with the boys. Ha. That's what I say every year, and every year, the time just FLIES by. When I thought to look up the tree lighting, it had already happened, and here it is December 15th and I've yet to attend any holiday concerts. Sigh. But I really feel like we're in the holiday spirit over here, regardless. Afterall, it IS Liam's first Christmas!

I hosted the 3rd annual Flores Christmas movie watching party on Friday the 9th, and we were joined by Tommy, Kathryn, and my friends Susan and Erika. We had a lot of fun and it was REALLY great watching Eli watch these movies for the first time. On the screen? Mickey's Christmas Carol, my favorite (which Eli loves and we now watch 10 times a day! i love it!), The Grinch, and Charlie Brown's Christmas. I had a really great time. The night after the party, Mike and I both sat down to watch It's a Wonderful Life. Completely shocking, but neither of us had ever seen it before! We both loved it! Earlier that week, we headed down the street to get our Christmas tree! Because I have two destructive cats and a destructive 2 year old, we had to (like last year) settle on a small tree.... but that's ok, cause when we put it in it's resting spot, on the table behind the couch, it looks like it's tall! It's a bummer not being able to put up any of my real ornaments (only cloth ones this year! Cliffy and Eli thoroughly enjoy knocking them off), but I know I'll get back to that in a few years! (When I have my own tree in my craft room when we have a house!). The night didn't go quite as I planned... dinner took longer to cook than expected and I took a lot longer making cookies than I thought...so we got out late... and when we came back our carbon monoxide alarm was going off. We had to call 911 (eli was THRILLED), but it turns out all is well....just an old alarm that needed replacing. But the evening ended well, and the tree made it up. :)

On monday of this week, Mike took off from work so we could have a true family day. Hard to believe, but the last time we all had a day together (not counting the week mike took off after liam was born, cause we didn't really go anywhere!), was back in May for Eli's birthday! It was SO great to be able to wake up and have breakfast together. We took the train down to Macy's (sooooooooooo much easier taking the boys out with another adult to help!) and let Eli sit in a regular seat, "like a big boy!" He loved it. Having a second pair of hands also meant he could walk when he wanted to and I didn't have to worry about how the heck I would get him back in the stroller while carrying Liam. (He's big into the flailing around on the floor and refusing to get up). The line to see Santa was huuuuge but we were told it would move quickly, and for the most part, it did. The whole winter wonderland theme they have going is amazing and we've never had so much fun waiting in line. I was expecting a total meltdown from both boys when they actually saw Santa, but to my surprise, they both did GREAT! Eli told Santa that he wanted a spiderman hat (check! santa is bringing him a whole spiderman costume!) and talked to him for a good minute. I thought Liam would be terrified, but he just sat there staring at Santa, trying to pull his beard, and flirted with the elf lady. The picture actually turned out great, with both of them looking! (Though I still think last year's picture of Eli pitching a fit was better!).

Santa: check! From there, we walked through midtown and went over to see the tree/skaters. Liam was asleep and missed the whole thing, but it was fun to do as a family regardless. From there, we walked up 5th avenue to look at all of the storefronts and went to 59th street so Eli could see "The horsies!!!" It was a wonderful family day.

Today, I survived a 4 hour mall trip with both boys! My favorite moment? When we went into Victoria's secret and Eli told me - Mommy! Look at all of the naked legs! :)

Liam's first word!

So on Tuesday, December 13th, 2 days shy of his 6 month birthday, Liam said his first word! Well...kinda. He clearly said DADA. Of course, he has NO idea what that means, but he definitely can say it now. He's VERY good at saying it when I don't have the camera around... and loses his ability the second I pay attention or put a camera anywhere near him. :) Tuesday night, he said it about 10 times in a row when I was changing him into his jammies. So despite all my MAMAMAMAMAMAs to him, Dada wins out. :) That's ok with me, cause I know it means a lot to Mike. (And yes, I realize that now it's just a sound and he's not associating it with Mike, but still... it's fun).

Today, he is 6 months old!!! He continues to be Mr. SUPER smiley for most of the day, especially when anyone looks at him, talks to him, or makes funny faces at him. He smiles at Eli ALL the time, especially when Eli is jumping. For some reason, Liam just finds that to be the funniest thing EVER. That, and when I kiss his chest/belly. There's nothing quite so wonderful as hearing a baby laugh!

He's still a small guy, though I feel like he's bulking up, weight-wise. I'm not going to take him in for a weight check as the doc had suggested cause I really feel like he's doing ok. His cheeks are getting fuller and he has teeny rolls on his legs and wrists. :) He can still definitely fit into 3 month clothes, but they're definitely getting a big short/snug. He's still in size 2 diapers and will be for a few more weeks, I'd imagine.

Liam spends most of his time on his tummy, which he clearly enjoys since he always ends up that way when we lay him down on his back. He is getting good at rolling around to get what he wants, which is usually the blue costco wipes (cause the package is crinkly). He has no fondness for Eli's Mr. Cow and continues to prefer Mr. Chicken. He likes looking at himself in the mirror, but that's getting a bit old for him and I've instead started putting books in front of him (especially a Nursery Rhymes book I have that has bumpy pictures).

He's pretty good at sitting up unsupported and can do so for a while (even without his own hands for support), but he is completely unreliable and will fling himself back/forward/sideways at any moment. On the rare occasion I have to leave him sitting up, I surround him with pillows. :)

He LOVES staring at us when we're eating and is clearly ready for food. Mike gets home late tonight, so we decided to make tomorrow Liam's first food day! He'll get rice cereal for dinner! :) I can't believe we're already at the eating stage! I'm looking forward to whipping out my magic bullet blender to puree some veggies and fruits for him (but I'm sure that will get old fast!).

Today, we went to the Palisades Mall to meet up with Rachna and the boys, and Nick's mom who was in town for a visit. It's fun to see Liam with Quinn and it really makes Liam look GIANT when they are side by side. :)

1/2 year old! I can't believe it!!!

More Eli Quotes

Yes, the fun Eli quotes keep coming.

My favorite was yesterday's. I was changing him out of his jammies into an outfit when he refused to wear pants, telling me, "NO, I am NOT wearing pants. I'm just wearing LEGS."

Today, when I told him that he couldn't do something, he yelled "DON'T SAY NO, SWEETIE." :)

When we're out, Eli likes to introduce his brother to everyone by saying "His name's with Liam."

Many, many times throughout the day, he tells us "I have an important job." I'm not entirely sure what he thinks this means, because it's usually totally out of context.

Whenever he gets really mad about something or doesn't want to do something we want him to do, he says (crying), "NO! NOT REALLY!"

He continues to say "I want to go with it" when he wants to eat something on the couch (a no-no) or his little chair.

Yesterday, when I came into the room, he told me "No. Don't look at me. Go away from me." I looked over to see what dangerous/bad/scary thing he was doing, but didn't see anything (which usually means it's REALLY bad). Two minutes later, though, I figured it out... he was over there pooping. Ha.

Eli has now learned to do a full flip on the couch and does it about 43,000 times a day. He's also big into scripting our adventures, and if I try to deviate from his script, even a little bit (cause sometimes, on the 47th time you're saying something, you want to change it up), he gets really mad and insists that I say it the right way. His bedtime of late has been between 8 and 8:15 (though who knows what time he really goes to sleep!) and he's been trying several different stall tactics these past few weeks. He fake cries and tells us that he's "scared of the little guy," something that at first FREAKED me and Mike out (but now we joke about it... last night, Mike was like - I think he's talking about Liam). Lol. He also lays there and super sweetly yells out "Mommy? Can I have a big hug? Please? Please? I need a hug." How can you turn THAT ONE down? And his ole favorite, the "I have a poopy diaper! I need a new diaper!" still gets me every time.

He's been waking up between 7:15 and 7:30 and will sleep even later on the days when I HAVE to move the car by 8am. He's still OBSESSED with Spiderman and is usually pretending to be spiderman for a good 70% of his day. When we go out, everyone gets webbed.

His favorite things to watch on TV (which I still let him do way too much of cause I don't know how else I'd survive in such a small place with two kiddos!) are: Spiderman and his amazing friends (especially the juggernaut episode), Diego (yesterday he wanted the Lion episode and I couldn't find it...God FORBID I instead put on the gorilla episode. Cue tantrum), "Arthur and the squirrels" (he likes the squirrel episode), with an occasional Fireman Sam, Wizard of Oz or Toy story thrown in. OH - and Super Readers. I love that show. He runs all around with his little sword (the top of one of his toys), telling me he has the POWER TO READ! :) Super cute.

He still doesn't fully understand it, but Eli's starting to get Santa/Christmas, etc. We tell him whenever he's not listening that Santa's watching (we always look up to the ceiling and then he looks up, shocked) and that he's not going to come if he continues to be bad. On several occasions, we've even called Santa/had Santa call us to threaten the same. I don't think he fully grasps Santa, but it's working for now! He loves the Christmas tree (and likes to have spiderman play on the branches) and likes seeing it lit up. When we first lit it, we counted to 10, so Eli thinks that we have to do that each time we light it... He then says "Ooooo!" :)

This past week, Eli's been an eating machine! He still doesn't eat that much at dinner, but just to give you an idea, this is what he ate for breakfast/morning snacks (he basically didn't stop eating....) this morning: a banana, a bowl of blueberries, two bowls of raspberries, a yogurt, some bites of bread, a fruit rope, some sun chips, an orange.... It's no wonder I have to keep going to the grocery store!

OK.... my glorious double nap is going to end soon, so off I go. I really should get something from my massive list done.

He-Man!

So Eli's new favorite thing this week (though we are absolutely still stuck on Spiderman) is He-Man. He likes to take little things (currently using the staff from the shepherd from our manger scene) and stick them in his waistband (his sword holder) and whip them out while saying "By the power of greyskull!!!!" It's 100% adorable.

I'm learning so much more about superheroes than I ever thought imaginable.

Getting close to crawling!

Every day, Liam gets stronger and stronger, and it's super scary for me. Scary because I'm not yet ready to have two mobile children. I'm still cherishing the fact that I can put Liam down somewhere while I go to the bathroom or start dinner....and when I come back, he's pretty close to where I left him. He's been arching up pretty high lately, but today, while on his belly he extended his arms fully, pushed up and lifted his entire pelvis off of the floor. He is SO close to crawling... and he's only 5 1/2 months old! Eeeeek.

He also learned how to blow bubbles today and I'm pretty sure I heard him do a raspberry yesterday. He still loves trying to fit all of his fingers in his mouth and is DEFINITELY getting two of his lower teeth in. He's also been sleeping a little better, sometimes giving me 5 or 6 hours of sleep! Consecutive hours of sleep are amaaaaazing.

He rolls from tummy to back and vice versa allll the time and has become my little steamroller. He now ALWAYS rolls over and sleeps on his belly. He loves rolling so that his face is like .5 centimeters from the side of the crib, making me freak out that he's suffocating himself. His favorite thing in the world to go after is the case of wipes (cause it's crinkly), and today I saw him do a mini-army crawl to pull himself towards them. He's also getting better at pushing himself backwards and I've found him half under the couch twice in the past two days.

My little baby (and I mean that...he's still tiny!) is growing up so fast!

Superhero Obsessed

So my child is officially a boy. He is completely obsessed with superheroes. It all started when he watched an episode (or 2....or 25) of Spiderman and his Amazing Friends (from back in the DAY...thanks, streaming Netflix!) with Daddy. He now lives most of his days as Spiderman or Iceman, with Daddy being whichever one he is not. I am lucky enough to be Firestar, and Liam is always "the monkey," stemming from when he was a monkey for Halloween. It's fun to throw in other people from time to time and ask who they are. Tito Tommy, for example, is "a goat." Auntie Jenn got upgraded from an Ugnaut (from Star Wars) to Wolverine. Score. When we're out in public, he is constantly ice freezing people or throwing his webs at them, and it's pretty cute to see. Two weeks ago when we were in the playground, there were two kids there with Spiderman outfits on and Eli followed them everywhere, completely mesmerized. I can't WAIT to give him his Spiderman outfit for Christmas... I think he's never going to take it off. :)

With the superhero obsession comes more kicking, punching, "pow"ing and I was struggling for a little bit about whether or not it was ok to let him get into this stuff now. I was about to try to shield him from it, but it's really fun and cute to see him and Mike playing together, bonding over their love for these guys. I bought him a little kid comic book and Mike was so excited to read it to him. And, as Mike put it, he's a boy...this is how boys are... this is what boys are into.

So now, I spend a lot of time as The Vulture or The Green Goblin, chasing Eli around and freezing myself when he webs me. And he squeals with laughter. Memories. Priceless.

Brothers

We are SO lucky that these boys get along (for now, at least!). Eli is SO super sweet with Liam. He's constantly giving him hugs and kisses. In the morning, he always wants to go see Liam and give him a kiss, and he gets very upset if he can't give him a kiss before he goes to bed. When Liam wakes up from a nap and Eli's already up, Eli says (with great excitement): "OH! Liam's AWAKE!"

Today, I got my first taste of what it will be like when they try to play together. I was playing Legos with Eli and put a few in front of Liam. (The big ones). He was having great fun flinging them around.... when Eli ran over and said "NO Liam!" and took them away. Sigh. And so it begins!

But then later, when I was making dinner, a sweet moment came. Liam was screaming his head off and I couldn't get over to him (mid-cooking). I asked Eli to go over and tell his brother it was going to be ok. Eli ran over and said "It's ok, buddy! It's ok! We're making food right now for you. It's ok!" Lol... of course Liam wasn't getting any of what I was making, but it was so sweet to hear that. :)

I think one of the great benefits of having them so close together is that Eli just accepted Liam as part of his life. He never asked us to take him back and was never, ever jealous of him.... he just accepted him as his brother. I love that. :)

Liam is 5 months old!

Dear Liam,

You are 5 months old today!!!! You've changed so much in the last few weeks and are really starting to interact a lot more with the world. Here's what's going on with you right now:

-When you went to the doctor 2 weeks ago, you were in the 3rd percentile for weight. A few days after the appointment, you hit a crazy growth spurt and have wanted to eat every 1-2 hours. This has been going on for more than a week, and last time I weighed you, you had gained 12 oz in one week alone! Normal growth for your age is 4-6 oz a week. So you're definitely catching up!

-This also means that you're not sleeping as well as you used to. For a few weeks, you were sleeping a glorious 7-9 hours a night!!! I think that contributed to your little-ness, though, since you were missing a few feedings, so now I make it a point to get up with you when you start to fuss at night. The past week, you've been going down at 8pm, getting up again around 11, then up around 2, 4, 5, and for good at 6. Mommy's pretty tired!

-Your naps have also become much shorter (25 to 45 min), though for the past few days, you've been taking 3 hour naps in the late afternoon.

-You are definitely in size 2 diapers now, but since we still have a bunch of 1's laying around, we're squeezing you into them.

-You're wearing 3-6 month clothes right now. If we put on just the 6 mo. clothes, they are definitely really baggy on you.

-You still have old man hair... bald on the sides with a crazy little patch of bangs in the front... but your hair on the sides is starting to fill in more! After you get a bath, you have the cutest little fuzzy hair!

-Unlike Eli at your age, you couldn't give two hoots about the toy cow or rooster or pig we have attached to your car seat. You absolutely prefer the yellow chick. I don't even try to give you the other ones anymore. You also love this basketball rattle we force onto your wrist, and little velcro animals I put on your ankles. You are BIG into playing with your feet right now (for the past week) and if I put you on your back, you ALWAYS have your feet in your hands.

-You are ALMOST able to sit up unsupported. You can do it for a few seconds if I balance you right, but you still flop over to the side in a heartbeat. About half of the time, if you are leaning forward, you can push your upper body back up again.... but this morning, you were leaning over trying to suck your toes!

-You LOVE tummy time and spend at least 50% of your mommy-is-not-holding-me time on your belly. I put toys in a full circle around you, because for the past two weeks, you can turn yourself all the way around. You're very good at reaching for things (especially the blue wipes container, cause it's crinkly!), and can now really "Swim" on your belly.

-You strongly dislike when I put your little Santa hat on you, though I've been able to get a few really good pictures of you by making you laugh while wearing it.

-You like to watch the cats go by and today you reached out and tried to grab Riley!

-You LOVE watching your big brother do anything. If you don't realize he's there and then see him, your face lights up and you can't stop smiling. If Eli notices this, he comes over to you and gives you hugs and kisses. He REALLY loves you.

-You've been sticking your entire fist in your mouth and sucking your fingers and drooling A LOT...and yesterday, when I looked in your mouth, I saw a very teeeeeny tooth starting to pop through!!!! If I'm facing you, it's your left bottom tooth coming in first. I'm not ready to stop seeing that adorable gummy smile!

You are an absolute joy, Liam, and I love you very much!!! We're so lucky to have you in our family!

4 month growth spurt

Wow... a lot of time has passed since I last wrote. Liam has taken to taking super short naps, so I don't have as much time as I once did to sit down and keep up with the blog. Now that he's bigger and demands more attention, I've also been slacking in keeping notes on cute little things (or ugly things) Eli says. I'll try to recall as much as I can from these pat two weeks.

First of all, Halloween came and went and was a ton of fun. We took the boys down to Maryland and on Halloween day went with my mom and my cousin Emily to Butler's Orchard, where they have a huge, huge halloween fest type thing. We had a lot of fun last year and even more fun this year since Eli was older. We literally could have been there all day, but with two kids who need to take naps, we shortened it to about 3 hours of hay fights, hay rides, huge pumpkin slides, a corn maze, pumpkin searching, castle climbing, goat/pig feeding and more. It was a ton of fun and I'm so glad we decided to go on Halloween. When the boys were napping, Mike and I carved some pumpkins. Eli woke up near the tail end and was excited to see what was going on, but not yet old enough to participate.

After a quick dinner, we got suited up and went out trick-or-treating while my mom held down the fort, handing out candy to the little ones. We did one giant loop in my mom's neighborhood and Eli had a lot of fun. I carried Liam in his monkey outfit, and since it was a little too big, I don't think he could see most of the time. One lady told me she thought I was holding a giant stuffed animal. He was happy to be out and about with us, though, and it seems that whenever we are out somewhere walking with him, he's quiet. Eli got the concept of knocking on the door, but every single house we went to, when they opened the door, he tried to go inside. He didn't quite get that he was supposed to say trick-or-treat because he was just SO excited to get the candy. He also didn't get that he was supposed to only take one and had to be reminded every single time. If we'd prompt him with "what do you say?" when someone opened the door, he'd say "Trick or treatin!" He insisted on carrying his bucket himself and wouldn't let us touch it. About 3/4 of the way through, Mike convinced him to dump out the bucket (Mike asssssuuuuuured him he would get it back when we got home) and he was much happier then. :) All in all, we probably hit about 25 houses or so and were out there for a little over an hour. It was a perfect night and we had a lot of fun. Eli LOVED being Buzz lightyear, and still asks to wear the costume every single day.

Liam's (somewhat belated) four month check-up was on November 3rd and while he looks healthy and everything sounds great, he's super, super little. He dropped in weight from the 42nd percentile at 2 months to the 3rd percentile at 4 months. I assured her he was eating enough and thought maybe it was because he had been sleeping a 7-9 hour stretch at night and therefore missing a feeding. She strongly suggested I supplement him with a little formula and after thinking super hard about it, I decided that we'd start giving him one 4 oz bottle of formula at bedtime and we'd up his ounces on the days Mike feeds him as well. This plan worked great for about 3 days and then he hit a CRAZY growth spurt and now wants to eat EVERY HOUR. No joke. I'm stuck on the couch because all he wants to do is nurse, nurse, nurse. He used to sleep from 8pm to 4am and then again from 4:30 to 6:30. Well, now he goes down at 8 and wakes up at 10, 2, 4, and 5 to eat... and then he's up. Eli has also decided that getting up at 6am is a good idea. Thanks a whole lot, daylight savings time. Needless to say, I'm a wee bit tired. This is also why I get NOTHING done after the kids go to bed. My long list of "I'll do that tonight after the kids go down" gets thrown out the window the second I tell them goodnight. I collapse on the couch and do only mind-numbing activities like watch TV or hang out on Facebook. We'll see how long this little growth spurt lasts!

Two days ago, I braved the playground by myself with BOTH boys out of the stroller for the first time. That meant that I couldn't follow Eli everywhere and had to hope that he wouldn't try to go down a tall pole himself. (He didn't). It was a GORGEOUS day and we ended up staying for three hours! Success!!

Eli's temper and two-year old will continue to surface for much of our days and boy, it's not pretty. Today and yesterday were pretty good days and mean Eli has only showed up a few times...so it gives me hope that nice, sweet Eli isn't gone forever. If he disagrees with something I say, he tells me to "STOP TALKING!" or "STOP SAYING THAT!" or "YOU'RE NOT MAD! I'M MAD!!!!" Sigh.

Ok - much more to say but both boys are sleeping and Mike won't be home til late tonight (marathon mommy day).... if I have a chance of making it, I need to get at least 15 min of sleep in. This is about the time when Liam wakes up, screaming. Wait for it...wait for it..... Wow...still quiet! I'm out!

A morning with a two year old

So these are actual conversations ("MOMMY! STOP WRITING!") I had with Eli one morning, most of them within an hour. It is quite maddening how my sweet little angel can turn on a DIME (I have no idea why that's a phrase) and turn into demon/angry child. Frustrating, to say the least.

Eli: I want lunch.

Me: It's not lunchtime, it's breakfast time.

E: NO! It's not breakfast! I want DINNER.

.....

Me: Stop touching that.

Eli: NO! I am NOT touching.

....

Me: Eli, I'm cutting your nails next. (Was cutting Liam's)

E: NO! You do NOT!

...

E: I want to watch Thomas (we were watching another cartoon).

Me: Ok, give me the remote so I can change it.

E: NO! I'm STILL WATCHING!!!!

.....

E: I want to watch THIS one!

Me: You need to stop whining.

E: NO! I am NOT WHINING. This is NOT whining.

.....

Me: Let's cut your nails.

E: NO! They're NOT long. They are OK. *runs away*

*I then put the clippers back*

E: NOOOOOO! I want to cut my nails!!!! I want LUNCH, mommy!

.....

E: I'm done watching Arthur.

Me: Ok. You're done watching Arthur?"

E: Yes.

Me: Ok. Should I turn it off?

E: NO! I'M STILL WATCHING!

....

Me: Mommy needs a break.

Eli: You do NOT need a break.

.....

Me: Mommy's very tired.

Eli: You are NOT tired.

....

and my personal favorite:

Me: That's not nice.

Eli: That's not not nice. You don't say that. You don't get mad. I'm gonna get mad.

.....

Sigh. I'm getting better at handling these little conversations. I always take a deep breath and tell us that he's not being nice and I want him to be nice. He protests for a minute but then usually turns back. Sometimes I can joke around with him or tell him I want to see his happy face and that will work.

Also, for some reason Eli has developed a crazy Brooklyn accent. I have no idea where he gets it from because Mike and I for sure don't talk like this and the people in my neighborhood sure don't.... Like, for barn, he says "bwarn" and horse is "hawrse." It's funny and I wonder if he'll grow out of it.

His cutest thing of the week... he now gets on his motorcycle and tells me that he's looking for a parking spot (cause we have to do that several times a week in the car). He then "finds" one and wants me to ask him where he parked. He then always replies with "over by the train!" lol.

I'll end with this. It's October 29th (Happy Birthday, Rachna!) and it's SNOWING. WHAAAAAT?

Thing I never thought I'd say

Haha... there are many moments each day where I say things and stop and think to myself...wow, I can't believe I just said that.

Here are a few from this morning:

-I don't need to change his sheets. It's just pee. It'll dry.

-I've only worn these socks for 2 days. I can wear them for one more day.

-It's just a little bit of throw up... I'm sure it will dry.

-Hey LOOK! A GARBAGE TRUCK!

:)

Liam

Now that Liam is pretty much recovered from his cold, we've been letting him cry it out at night. A book I read said that babies are really able to start self-soothing themselves at 4 months and that's a good time to start letting them try. It's been going GREAT. He cries his head off for about 5 minutes, and then that's it! He was consistently kicking himself out of his miracle blanket (and then getting upset that he was out of it), so I bought him a Halo Sleepsack/swaddle combo... LOVE IT! No more cold leggies! :)

He is having biiiiig babbling conversations with me these days and I LOVE It.

Eli-isms

So, I laid the boys down to sleep at about 7:50 (they were tired, I was tired...it worked) and except for a few jumping in the crib noises and about 5 minutes of Liam screaming his head off, it was pretty silent in there. Just now, at 8:30, I heard a full out, super loud version of Old Mac Donald. Which raises the question Mike and I have every night. Eli is CLEARLY awake...so what was he doing for that past half hour? Sometimes we will go in there an hour after we put him down and he'll start talking to us. He has his night night music/lightshow every night that lasts about 10 minutes... so what is he DOING in the dark? Contemplating his day? Thinking of ways to be crazy? I think it's AMAZING that he can be quiet for so long and truly wish I knew what he was thinking about in there. I'm SUPER proud of him for being so quiet and super grateful that he's so easy to put to sleep.

So the last week or two have brought about a different two year old than the one I know so well. Most of the time, this new guy is a pleasure to be around and is fascinating with the connections he makes, songs he sings, dance moves he shows off, etc. Eli really is a COOL guy... I mean, he's super outgoing, super smart, super friendly, super funny.... he's just a COOL guy. But every so often (and more frequently in the past few days), Mr. I-Will-Disagree-With-Everything-You-Say has reared his ugly head. Whenever we say something that he doesn't like (i.e. "You have to put your toys away" or "It's time to eat dinner" or ANYTHING he does not want to do), he gets his super mad face on, points his finger at me and says that he does NOT WANT to do what I'm asking or does NOT HAVE TO do what I'm asking. Sometimes, these little anger fits are just too funny.... I'll tell him, for example, that I'm hungry, and he'll get mad and say "NO. YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY." Or he'll do something that hurts me and I'll say "OW! THAT HURT!" to which I get "NO. That did NOT hurt" in response. Tonight, he got ahold of my belt and was whipping it around... I went to go take it from him and he yelled "NO! I AM NOT HOLDING THE BELT." Nice try, buddy - you're right in front of me, and I can see that you are, in fact, holding the belt. He still gets his pronouns mixed up a lot, so a lot of the time, the argument will go like this... Me: "You're tired. It's time to go to bed." Eli: "NO! You are NOT tired. You are NOT going to bed."

He's also become even bigger into telling me what to do. Not in a mean way - just that he wants to play a certain way and he wants to make sure I'm playing the right way. This dictation can be very helpful since our games constantly change ("but I thought I was supposed to be the one holding the green ball, Eli!" "NO! You do NOT hold the green ball... you hold the RED ball") and are never, ever the same as they were the previous day...or heck, even in the previous five minutes. When I don't respond immediately to his request (which is usually that I run somewhere, chase something, throw something, hide somewhere), he gets mad and comes over and physically pulls on my clothing until I follow him. He also likes saying "COME HERE!" and curls his fingers up to signal he wants me to come to where he is."

(Seriously? He's still awake! It's 8:50!).

We got his Buzz Lightyear costume last night (thanks, amanda!) and he LOVED wearing it today. I can't wait to see how excited he is on halloween!

More Eli-isms (I can't keep up with them...he says so many note-worthy things every day!)

Eli: I'm putting it (the watermelon) on the table, mommy! (taking it off of his plate and putting it on the table instead).

Me: Why are you doing that?

Eli: "Because there is no more watermelon." (um...what??)

He's big into asking me what I'm cooking or what I made for dinner and he now always asks me:

"Mommy! What you made?"

More conversations with a watermelon. Two days ago, he was biting into the watermelon and then decided it looked like a baby. Here's a conversation he had with his watermelon:

Eli: "That's a little baby, mommy!" "He's sleeping." "Hey! Are you awake?" "He's awake."

He's always in the car with me when I'm driving around looking for a spot.... Today, he told me... "I'm gonna ride my motorcycle and go find a spot." Lol.

He still LOVES to play the Wizard of Oz Game.... I stand behind a door and he knocks. I then say "WHO RANG THAT BELL?" and he laughs hysterically and tells me "Yet's go see the wizard!" We then skip around the apartment while singing "We're Off to see the wizard" until we get back to the door and then do it all over again.

He LOVES spinning around and around to the hokey pokey. LOVES spinning.

Whenever Liam is sleeping and eli realizes it, he tells me that Liam's "sweepin." He now loves touching him when he's asleep (Greeeat) and always tells me "I want to touch him. I want to touch his face, his nose, his ears and his head." (It only took HOW long of me telling him not to touch his eyes for that to sink in?).

He's been big into coloring this week, but our coloring has changed.... now he dumps out the box of crayons and hands them to me, one by one, demanding that I color a pirate. He then takes the crayon and lines it up in a meticulous way and I get a new color.

OK...I'm falling asleep. It was a busy day!

mid-october

Memories....

Yesterday, I was singing something and Eli told me to stop. I asked him why and he told me "Because it is IRRITATING. (I don't think he knows that word and don't think that's really the word he was using, but that's what it sounded like!) Go sit in the corner!" Lol.

liam loves being naked. If he's ever fussy, all I have to do is take off his clothes and he's instantly happy.

Liam is still in a size 1 diaper, though size 2s fit him much better. Eli is in a size 4. Eli is wearing 18-24 month pants (if it's 24 months, they have to be maaaaaaaaajorly cinched at the waist or belted) and 2T shirts. Liam is comfortably in 3 month stuff... if we go with the 3-6 month clothes, they are super baggy on him.

Other things that make Liam smile:

watching his brother, pinching/kissing his cheeks, kissing his feet, kissing his belly, playing with/clapping his feet together, blowing him raspberries. If I say "mamammamamama," it is the funniest thing he's ever heard of and he breaks out into the biggest smile of all time. This is how I get him to smile so big for pictures. :)

Liam LOVES bathtime and has recently started playing with/noticing Eli's bath toys. I can't WAIT til they can sit in the tub together and play.

Liam also loves grabbing onto my fingers. He puts FAR less things in his mouth than Eli did at this age, but maybe that's cause he likes to suck his thumb and use the pacifier and Eli did neither of those things.... No sign of teeth yet, thank goodness!!

Liam's hair (patches!) is ridiculous right now!!! He's CONSTANTLY rubbing his head/scratching his head and I don't know if that's cause it's itchy or just a habit he's developed. Either way, it's not helping his hair grow in.

Eli still LOVES reading me his bug book every day, asking me over and over again which bugs I like (NONE, dude, NONE). He'll occasionally sub in his dinosaur book, but he much prefers to ask me about bugs.

If anyone talks to him (which everyone does, cause he's always telling people "Hi") and then leaves us, he immediately asks me "Where's the lady?" or "Where is the man?" They are usually right behind me or near me, and I always have to say "I don't know where the lady went!"

Eli is obsessed with trying to push the fire alarm in elevators. He then tells me "the firemen will come and they will be MAD and the police lady will come and you will go to JAIL." He obviously wants to go to jail still (darn, curious george book where he goes to jail and has fun), because he always tries to push it.

Reasons I know Eli is my son: he LOVES desserts (will do anything for ice cream or cake) and LOVES sun chips. :)

If anyone asks Eli how he's doing, he replies "I went to the ZOO!!!!" and tells them about all the animals he's ever seen.... usually highlighting the giraffes. He also tells people "I'm going to be BUZZ LIGHTYEAR for halloween!" A good number of the people he is speaking to only speak Spanish, and while my spanish is pretty good, I'm not so good at translating Eli's little thoughts.

Eli LOVES chasing riley around with her little play/animal stick and she loves playing with him. It's GREAT. Keeps both of them busy. Eli usually tries to take it a step too far, though. Today, he kept trying to put his frying pan on Riley, telling me he was cooking for her.

Eli's big into "cooking" right now and this morning, he cooked all of his Melissa and Doug puzzle pieces for me. I found myself saying things like "thank you for cooking me the doggie...but it's just play cooking, ok? In real life, we don't cook doggies."

Eli is obsessed with coins right now, thanks to pirates, and calls them "goldens."

Ok.... dinnertime!!!

A typical day in the life of a mom with two little ones

This has been the first week in a long time where I don't have anything concrete planned and I am loving it. I worked three days last week and have been getting over this yucky cold, so a week of being able to get stuff DONE is making me happy.

So what's a typical day like for a mommy of two little ones trying to get stuff done? Here's my life in a nutshell: (warning...this is SUPER long and mainly only intended for me to read later in life.... it's looong and boring and you can just stop reading now).

5:30: Liam wakes up.. I try to stall him by giving him back his pacifier, but he continues to whine and I can't risk him waking Eli up. (Eli's usually a pretty heavy sleeper and isn't disturbed by Liam unless it's after 6:15 or so.... after 6, we're entering the danger zone...). I sucked it up and got up and brought Liam out to the living room to feed him. I always lay him down on the mat we have on the floor, change his diaper... then hope that he stays quiet for a minute while I run to the bathroom, feed the cats, grab some water for myself and clean up the cat poo. (Yes, I have a cat who enjoys pooping outside her litter box. Every. Single. Day.). I then feed Liam... I used to be able to put him right back to sleep, and he'd sleep til Eli woke up around 7:30... but this past week, he's been wide awake, so I'll play with him, cuddle with him, talk to him, hold him, etc...til about 7:15 or so when I'm able to put him back to sleep. Eli always wakes up between 7:15 and 7:45 and immediately wants to come out and watch a movie (these days, it's Toy Story or Peter Pan). It's a bad habit we've gotten into, letting him watch a movie every day right when he wakes up, but it's really one of the only things that has kept me sane in the morning.... allows us all to wake up, me to make breakfast, take care of things, etc. These past few days, Liam has miraculously been able to sleep through Eli and his movie and has been waking up around 8:30 or 9.

Our mornings consist of watching TV (Fireman Sam, Dora (the ice cream one) and Diego (the Linda the Llama one are our favorites right now), coloring (he now insists that I draw either a smiley face or a pirate, depending on the day, with each one of his crayons. He then lines them all up in a nice long row and we do it again), putting stickers on his cards (he's JUST now starting to be able to take stickers off himself - yay!), playing cars, ice freezing each other (Thanks, daddy, for letting me watch spiderman), chasing each other around, reading, etc. It's usually a crazy jumble of all of those things, and usually I end up keeping the TV on for much longer than it should be... BECAUSE when Liam wakes up, I'm trying to do all of those things while holding Liam/trying to pay attention to Liam. Poor guy gets carried around on such a crazy whirlwind OR completely ignored for long stretches of time. Liam is NOT down with sitting in his Bumbo chair for more than 2 minutes or sitting in his froggie recliner for more than 5 minutes. He's pretty good with tummy time and will lay on his belly for a good 10 to 15 minutes without whining (less now that he's rolling over more consistently!). He also enjoys being on his back, but I can't often leave him on the floor with Eli constantly running/jumping/spinning/throwing things. Don't get me wrong...Eli's been a VERY good big brother and we're so proud of him (today, it was quiet and I peeked out of the kitchen to see Eli putting one of his toys in Liam's hand), but he's two and if he wants to catapult himself off of the couch, he's not always going to stop to think about where Liam is. So Liam kind of gets shuffled around a lot.

When Liam starts to get cranky, that's our cue to move it move it move it to get ready to head out for whatever errand we need to get done. I learned a few months ago that if I lay Liam down for his first nap inside, that's pretty much trapping us in all day...cause when he wakes up, Eli goes down, and then Liam wants to go down again when Eli gets up.... it's a bad cycle if you want/need to get out (but great if we're going to be in for the day.... then I get quality time with Eli while Liam is sleeping and vice versa). This is where it gets crazy, cause I have a cranky/tired baby screaming his head off, a 2 year old running around in his jammies NOT wanting to get ready, and me.... still in the clothes I slept in and usually without a breakfast in me. Eli usually has a FIIIIIIT and a half when I try to get him ready to go outside, most recently telling me "no mommy... I'll stay HERE. YOU go." I usually tell him that he can bring two toys (he either picks two cars, two trains or buzz lightyear and one of the toy story crew) and bring them with us if he agrees to be the driver right away (He sits in the front of the double stroller, so I've always referred to getting in the stroller as "being the driver for Liam."). About 40% of the time, he gets in with only minimal struggle, 10% of the time he climbs right in, 30% of the time I have to chase him/pick him up, carry him and forcefully put him in and then there's that lovely 20%....where he becomes stiff as a board/super kicker/complete terror and it's nearly impossible for me to get him in the seat. Those are my most favorite days. Not.

Regardless of how Eli gets in, I have about 23 seconds before Liam starts to lose it. So much for me getting dressed (I just live in sweatpants, mostly), brushing my hair (I'm lucky if I was able to fix my ponytail from the morning), getting stamps on any of my million things waiting to be mailed, grabbing anything nutritious to eat (I live on granola bars and nutragrain bars), finding any of the coupons I stayed up late cutting out, figuring out what to have for dinner/looking at recipes, cleaning up the explosion of toys..etc.

As soon as we get outside, both boys are happy. Yay! I am happy to get out...always. It always makes such a difference when you're not trapped in one room all day, when you can see other people walking around, etc. We are usually headed to the grocery store (our favorite...as Eli is the local celebrity there and the checkout people literally stop whatever they are doing to come talk to him), the post office (NOT FUN going there, as there are double doors and stairs and a teeny aisle we have to force ourselves down if we want to get to a teller. If we have to wait in line, Eli twirls the ropes and is generally LOUD), or any number of places around. Today, we hit both the grocery store and the post office and then went to Payless so I could measure Eli's feet... (he's still a 7...so what the heck do I do? Buy 7s for the winter and know that he will outgrow them or buy 8s knowing they will be too big? 7.5s don't really exist), went to 7-11 to get mommy a slurpee (YES!), went to The Children's Place to capitalize on the 40% off of dress shirts sale (so that I could buy the boys matching nice shirts....I know, I know...corny, but I love it) and went to a street fruit vendor where I got a bunch of radishes, a bag of onions, 2 pomegranates, 2 heads of broccoli, and a bunch of bananas for $5.75!). (All of these stores are on the same street, thankfully). We also passed by the fire station twice in hopes of seeing the trucks, but the doors were closed. We then went to our favorite local restaurant so I could pick up a beef empanada for Eli (the only time he ever eats meat!). I have found that if I let Eli eat it outside, he'll eat the whole thing...so we walked around until he finished it. He then threw a BLOODY MURDER FIT that we weren't continuing down the street and that we turned around to go home. He was SCREAMING "Go THAT WAY, MOMMY!" for a good 10 minutes, all the way up to and inside our apartment.

When we get inside, both kids start screaming because they both want OUT and it becomes a battle of how to take care of them both plus unpack the groceries. On a good day, Eli will play by himself while I try to fix Eli's lunch as fast as possible while usually holding a screaming, hungry Liam. This is why his lunches aren't the most balanced or nutritional and usually consist of chicken nuggets (which he will eat 2 or 3 30% of the time), a piece of bread (what he calls a sandwich), a fruit rope, some crackers and whatever else i can get out of a jar/package.

When Eli is eating, I feed Liam. When Eli is done with lunch, we "play a little bit" and I try to get us reading stories by 1:30. Liam is usually SSSSUUUUPPPER cranky during storytime but I try to keep him up so that I can have a dual nap. I put Eli down around 2 and for the most part, he goes right down. I cover him with his favorite blanket of the moment, line up his toy story dolls, put some books in the corner of his crib, turn on his safari lamp, turn on his night night music, and leave. He's usually asleep for 2-3 hours. Yay! Liam is harder to get down for naptime, at least recently. I have to rock him several different times before he falls asleep...and his naps have been much shorter... lasting an hour tops. When he gets up too early for himself (like right now, today), he's a cranky crying mess and I have to just pray that he doesn't wake Eli up.

"Break" time SHOULD be spent cleaning (which I can't really do, cause Liam is out in the living room and a light nap sleeper), cooking or something productive, but usually by that time, I'm so drained (physically and mentally) that all I want to do is sit on the couch and do completely mind numbing things.... like watching Ellen (which I tape every day but only get to watch once or twice a week) or Project Runway or Top Chef... while chatting to friends on the computer, updating this blog, or uploading pictures. My scrapbooks sit on a table 10 feet from me, begging to be worked on, but I know that if I take time to spread everything out, the boys will be up and I'll have to pack it all up again. I should be better about getting dinner started or doing the dishes, but I ALWAYS ALWAYS say "ah, I'll just go on the computer for a few minutes and then get to that" and NEVER do.

When Eli wakes up, it's usually crunch time.... Mike gets home around 5:30, so I start dinner and time just goes whooooooooosh. It is NOT easy making dinner with two little guys. Liam usually hangs out in the kitchen with me and I move his bouncy chair from place to place to try to keep him entertained. Eli usually plays by himself or I let him watch TV. On good days, I get to make a nice dinner without problems. On most days, I usually am trying to appease Liam, cook/wash dishes, run around trying to clean up the living room a little (it really becomes a disaster zone), play an inning or two of baseball with eli, play stickers/read a book with Eli.... all at the same time. When Mike comes home, I feel better cause I am no longer ignoring Liam... and by 6, dinner is usually on the table. (We're trying not to order out so much to save money and I genuinely enjoy cooking... I really like doing it). I usually feed Liam while the boys start and then get to join them right when Eli is having a fit about wanting to get down. He's not the best eater these days and we usually have to bribe him with a yogurt pop/ice cream/popsicle to get him to eat dinner.

After dinner, we play a little bit, usually some kind of family sport thing...basketball, baseball, chasing, etc... some nights are bath nights. We then try to get everyone in "the big bed" by 7:30 or so to start reading books. We usually read about 5 or 6 and then Eli goes to bed. If I got to feed Liam during storytime, then he goes down, too... otherwise he comes out with us for some Liam/Mommy/Daddy time.

He's usually asleep by 9:30 or so, and then I sit down and lose every ounce of energy and willpower I have to get anything done. Throughout the day, I am always 100% confident I will get to addressing my cards/letters, working on my scrapbook or any one of my million other projects... but I never, ever, ever have the energy to do that. I SHOULD just go to bed then, but I really cherish that time to mindlessly surf the net, watch the occasional TV show with mike, etc.... It's my ME time and it's what keeps me sane.

WhEW. That was a loooot longer than I intended, but I'm glad I wrote it all down so that one day, I can look back on this and remember!

Liam is 4 months old today!

FOUR. months. old. I feel like I was just writing the 3 month update last week. Insane.

Poor Liam got his first cold this week. He caught it from his big brother and mommy and has been such a little trooper battling it out. He had a slight fever on Tues and Wednesday and now just has a horrible little cough. Thank goodness he was never really congested and has still been able to eat ok. It's so, so sad to hear a little baby coughing. Hopefully this will clear itself up pretty soon.... and then first sickness: survived! yay!

Liam's favorite thing to do is watch his brother do ANYTHING. I'm kind of afraid that he's just sitting there, taking allllll of the craziness in and is going to do everything 10x bigger.... sigh.

He's also been able to reach for things purposefully and grab and hold onto toys. He's just starting to get to the stage where he tries then to pull everything to his mouth.

He still loves his pacifier and I LOVE that if I pop that sucker back in, he'll sleep another hour or two! Last night, he slept from 10-6! WOOHOOOO!

Here's to more adventures!

Liam rolls over again!

So yesterday, Liam turned 18 weeks old. He celebrated by learning how to roll over from his back to his tummy!!! He rolled to his right two times in a row and then looked at me like - hey wait, I didn't want to be on my tummy.... lol.

Both boys are sick and have been since Friday. ugh. Eli had a fever and cough for a few days before Liam caught it, and now they both have bad colds. Luckily, the fevers are finally gone, but this cough is no joke. Not looking forward to the potential 2-3 more weeks of coughing. Blah.

Gotta jet cause Eli just woke up... just wanted to say that yesterday, when we were reading Winnie The Pooh, Eli pointed at a picture of Eeorye (how do you spell that?) and called him EE-whore. Nice.

to be continued.

Pirate Land

Eli's new obsession is with pirates. Nearly everything we do involves some kind of connection to pirates. The things he likes watching on TV right now are... The pirate episode of the Backyardigans, the Halloween episode of Yo Gabba Gabba (cause one of the monsters dresses up like a pirate), Peter Pan (cause of the Pirates), The Wizard of Oz (more on that later) and A Bug's Life (more on that later). His firehat aka yankee doodle hat has now become his pirate hat and he likes to wear his eye patch (which often falls off and bothers him since he can't fix it himself) and use one of the foam edges from the alphabet mat as his pirate sword. He runs around yelling ARRRR. A phrase he keeps saying that I didn't figure out until today is "Ooooh a pirate's life for me!" (From Peter Pan). I bought him a pirate outfit from Melissa and Doug that I'm going to give him for Christmas. :)

During lunch, this was a conversation we had (to show you how confusing it can be for mommies of children this age):

Eli: "Mommy, are you a pirate?"

Me: "ARRRRR" (what I have been instructed by him to say in the past as a response).

E: "Are you a pirate?"

Me: "ARRRRRRRRR"

E: "Are you a pirate?"

Me: "Yes. Mommy is a pirate. ARRRRRR!"

E: "Mommy's not a pirate???" (He was asking and telling at the same time).

Me: *Sigh* "No, Mommy's not a pirate." (confused....cause now I don't know what I'm supposed to be next time)

Another conversation I have 47 times a day:

E: "Do you like ladybugs?"

Me: "yes, I like ladybugs."

E: "Do you like spiders??"

Me: "Noooo."

E: "Do you like spiders???" (cause he always repeats himself when I say no, just to make sure I understood, I guess? lol).

Me: "Noooo. I don't like spiders. Do YOU like spiders?"

E: (Today, his answer cracked me up.....) "No. They have TOO MANY LEGS."

We went to the museum of Natural History on Monday to meet up with Sawyer and meet her new baby sister, Jasper. Sawyer was confused about why Eli had to stay in his stroller since she is such a well behaved little girl and always listens when mommy tells her to come here.... but when I explained that Eli will run away unless he's strapped in, she relented and decided she wanted to push him around the whole time. It was adorable to see a 2 year old pushing another 2 year old in the stroller. She did great, the little mommy, and even managed turns and tricky spots. lol. The kids had a fun time seeing each other again...it's been a while!

Yesterday, I took the boys to the zoo and when my friend Dianne met up with us, we took turns taking him on the bug carousel. He LOVES bugs right now (Hence, always wanting to watch A Bug's Life!) and was thrilled to get to ride the fly and the ladybug. He's pretty good at naming most bugs and can tell you which ones he likes and which one mommy likes. He has a book of bugs that his Tita Carol gave him and we look through it allll the time so he can question me about which ones I like. I'm up in the air about whether or not I should be honest with him and say no all the time cause he tends to not like the same ones as me and I don't want to cloud his judgement on bugs. lol. I often find myself saying I like beetles, centipedes, moths, bees and other bugs I can't STAND just so that he stands a chance at liking them. He also gets upset if I say I don't like certain types of bugs, so most of the time it's easier for me to just say yes. lol.

My favorite part about the zoo yesterday was when we went to see the Lions. When I told him that's where we were going, he said "lions and tigers and bears...oh my!" HA. Then when we got there, we saw that there was a Mommy Lion, a Daddy Lion and a baby (teenager) Lion, all of whom were sleeping. The zookeeper told us lions sleep a LOT and I read that they can sleep up to 21 hours a day. Well, Eli LOVED that they were sleeping and told every single person that came up to see them (a lot of people, since we stayed there for about 15 minutes): "The Lions are taking a NAP. They are VERY tired." lol. He's SO not shy.

He is also OBSESSED with the wizard of Oz and I couldn't be happier. He wants to watch the movie every day. He loves the lion and loves acting out the scene where the lion first appears. He loves watching the scarecrow and is THRILLED to see so many scarecrows out this time of year (we have one on our door that he always tries to touch/pull off/play with). Yesterday, he went over and put his toy frying pan on his head and told me he was the tin man. Lol. His new favorite game to play is me and him skipping around singing "we're off to see the wizard." He always goes to pick up his basket (something mike is not fond of... "Why does he have to be Dorothy? Why can't he be the Scarecrow... Why does he always need the basket??) and skips (runs) around the room. He wants me to follow him and skip and then he makes me go into the bathroom and close the door. Once I'm in there, he knocks/rings the doorbell. I then open it and say "WHO RANG THAT BELL?" Eli: "Me. Let's go see the wizard." Then I follow him around the apartment skipping until he leads me back to the bathroom and we do it all again. We literally did that about 40 times in a row last night. Lol. He really wants Liam to be The Wicked Witch or Toto or The Lion for Halloween. I'm ordering a Lion costume for Eli that I will also give him on Christmas. I should get the Scarecrow, too.

Ok - nap time is over (ALL TOO SHORT today!! Noooo), and we're going to try to venture out and walk over to the KFC in the Bronx to pick up some chicken for Daddy. It's an absolutely gorgeous day today and since Mike's second job called to say they don't need him tonight (too many cancellations), we're going to make the most of it and head up to the Yonkers Raceway to watch the horses race! Should be fun!

Liam is 16 weeks!

The weeks fly by! Liam is already 16 weeks old and in about 10 days or so, he'll be 4 months old. He's still a pretty little guy. I feel like he's taller than Eli was at this age, but no doubt skinnier. Some of the outfits that Eli was in at this age fit Liam, but are definitely looser. He's in pretty age-predictable outfits right now, wearing mostly 3 month stuff. He's still in size 1 diapers, but that's mainly cause I have some left and am trying to go through them all before we bump up to size 2.

Liam is, and has always been, Mr. SMILEY. He loooves smiling and when he does, he smiles with his whole face. He loves smiling at his daddy and at his big brother Eli. He LOVES watching Eli do anything and is always smiling whenever Eli walks near him. Eli continues to be an amazing big brother to Liam and now tries to comfort him with extra hugs or kisses if he ever sees him crying.

He hasn't been napping too good the last few days and yesterday refused to take an afternoon nap at all. Part of that is cause my attention is often divided, and when I should be focusing all of my energy on getting the little guy to sleep, I often have a "MOMMY! PLAY TRAINS!" guy hanging out next to us. Sigh.

Liam continues to sleep well at night. He typically goes down between 8:30 and 10 and then sleeps til about 4 something... I can usually get him to go back to sleep for another hour (2 to 3 times) by putting a pacifier in. I'm very thankful he goes back to sleep, but broken sleep isn't so restful. He's usually up for sure by 5 or 5:15 and after I feed him he'll go back to sleep for another hour or two. He's then up for two hours, from about 7:30 to 9:30 and then starts to REALLY get fussy. He NEEDS that morning nap. I've been trying to make that nap coincide with our getting outside to run errands or go to the playground, but there are a lot of times (like this morning) that I realize getting me and Eli ready to head out isn't going to work. Those are the days we're pretty much trapped here all day, because when Liam wakes up from his nap, it's lunch-ish time and then time for Eli's nap. Life is GLORIOUS when they both nap together in the afternoon and I try SUPER hard to make that happen. I always have grand plans to get stuff done, but oftentimes those 1-2 hours fly by at an insane rate and I realize I've done nothing productive.

Making dinner can be a bit of a challenge some days, but for the most part, Eli plays out in the living room (or watches a movie) and Liam hangs out with me in the kitchen. Poor guy is stuck in his little froggie chair for like an hour sometimes..and he's such a trooper about it. When he starts to get fussy, I just move the chair around so he has something different to look at. He currently likes being parked in front of the fridge cause he likes to stare at all of the magnets.

He's doing GREAT with tummy time and is now able to balance on his belly and lift both his arms and legs up (like he's swimming). He's also started to reach for things and rolled over a second time last week. He likes it when I put crunchy books in front of him.

Yay 16 weeks!

Crazy things overheard

As I type this, Eli is running around in his diaper and fireman hat, screaming "CAPTAIN ELI!!!" "CAPTAIN ELI!!!" I love his imagination. He's been HUGE into pirates this week, thanks to a cute little episode of the Backyardigans about pirates (they sing suuuuper cute songs). He is usually running around with his "pirate hat" (which is really his fire hat and also doubles as his Woody hat) holding his fake coin (which he calls his "Golden") and screams "ARRRR!!" He is also using a part of the alphabet foam mat I set up for Liam as his pirate sword. It's very cute. I ordered him a pirate outfit for Christmas... hope he's still into them by then!

This morning, I knew Eli was up cause I had heard him earlier, but it was silent in the room. I didn't have the monitor on so I couldn't see what he was doing...but I assumed he either fell back asleep or was reading. Liam was up in the living room and I decided to go ahead and feed him, knowing full well the second I did, Eli would be screaming for me to come get him. And that's EXACTLY what happened. Literally the SECOND I started to feed Liam, I hear "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" on repeat. I yelled to him that I heard him and was feeding Liam and would come get him soon. He was NOT happy with that. The next thing I heard? "MOMMY - I'm poking myself in the EYE!" followed by "I went poop on the paper!" Um.. WHAT? So as I sat there, feeding the baby, imagining what he could possibly mean by pooping on the paper. Did he get his diaper off and poop on the books in his crib? Was he then poking his eye with it? Should I go in and check? Sigh. I decided to just let it be and face the consequences when I was finished feeding Liam. I then called out "why don't you sit down and read your peter pan book?" and INSTANTLY realized my mistake. I had MEANT to say 101 Dalmations book, cause that was the one that was in his crib. The Peter Pan book was out with me. Nooo. I quickly yelled "I mean 101 Dalmations! Read that one!" which was met by screams of "NOOOOOOO... I WANT PETER PAN! PETER PAAAAN!" Sigh.

Thankfully it got relatively quiet and I just had to answer "Is Liam done?" every 15 seconds or so. :) When I went into the room to get him, he was wearing his clothes, diaper and both eyes were intact. Whew. :)

On to more adventures.... we're heading to the post office and grocery store. Having tommy and kathryn over for dinner tonight and am going to make chicken tortilla soup and lime chicken tacos. We're going to a dinner party tomorrow night, so I need to also make my butternut squash/apple soup. Then we're going to a BBQ on Sunday and I need to make a dessert. (I LOVE cooking/baking, so these things are all fun for me.... but I haven't yet prepared lists for what I need at the store and Liam's already screaming....sigh).

Detective Mommy

Being a mommy is a lot like being a detective. All day long, Eli is telling me things he wants to do or wants me or Liam to do.... most of the time I understand what he means, but then every so often, he'll throw me something like this....

"Mommy! I want to watch the stand up on the bed one!"

Um..huh? So then I have to think of every movie he's watched and try to remember if there is a scene where people are standing on the bed...

Fun thoughts for the day

Today was a long but great day. It's getting easier to manage both boys (you were right, Becky!) and I am getting better about doing everything one-handed.

Today, Liam rolled over for the second time! (From Belly to back). I tried to tape it, but alas...he gave up.

Favorite Eli line of the day....

We were eating dinner and he handed me his half-chewed piece of bread.

Eli: "Here, mommy! YOU eat it!"

Me: "No thank you. mommy doesn't want it."

Eli: "Mommy, TRY IT! You might like it!"

hahahaha.

ok...tired... zzzz.

Thanks, Liam!

After several days of getting up every few hours and a day after refusing to nap from 10am til bedtime, Liam gave me a fabulous gift last night! He slept from 8:30pm til 5:15am! YAAAY Liam! Let's keep this going! :)

Forgot!

I forgot to mention Eli's statment of the day:

Me: "Eli, do you want anything else to eat?"

Eli: "No. I want to play with my toys naked."

lol.

A great day

Aside from the unavoidable cranky moments of the day, today was a really good one! Liam started my day off great by sleeping through the night and not getting up til 5:50! WOOHOO! 7 hours of sleep can do a person wonders! He was up to eat and then went back to sleep until about 9:30! I love sleepy days!

Eli continues to be obsessed with the Wizard of Oz and tonight played a "game" where he pretended to be the lion. We literally did this at least 75 times in a row - i kid you not. He'd say "I want to be the lion again." Me: "OK!" (super enthusiastically). Him: "Ok sir!" (i have to check the movie tomorrow to see where this is from) and would then put a basket on his head, spin around and fall until it fell off, then roar/bark like the lion does when he makes his first entrance. After the 20th time or so of doing this, the game then evolved to me having to say "Hey Liam...what is your Kuya Eli doing? Is he hiding behind the TV? OH - THERE he is!" Lol... If I "forget" to say an important part of the script, Eli feeds me the line. "TV, MOMMY!" He looooves to have Liam watch whatever he is doing and loves it even more when I talk to Liam about what he's doing.

Eli also continues to love when Liam sits at the little table with him to "play" trains. The whole session basically consists of me trying my hardest to keep Liam from falling off the chair while trying to get him to put his hand on one of the trains so Eli thinks he's moving it. That's getting harder to do now that Eli insists that I should "Let Liam do it himself!"

This morning, Eli wheeled Liam around on his motorcycle and LOVED doing it. He was very protective and careful when Liam was riding with him and he held onto his little brother and kept giving him kisses. It's so sweet to see how much Eli loves his little brother.

Yesterday, we were driving in the car and Liam had had enough... he started crying and wouldn't stop. Eli informed us he needed his pacifier. lol...he does that a lot. When that didn't work, Eli kept saying "It's ok, buddy. We're almost home. It's ok buddy.. it's ok buddy..it's ok buddy." It was the CUTEST thing ever.

Eli-isms

Just found some papers with Eli-isms scribbled on them, so I want to log them in here before I lose the papers....

I love how he words things as he's trying to learn this crazy language. Here are some examples of my favorites:

Me: "Do you want your shirt on?"

Eli: "No. I want my naked."

Eli: (seeing that I had spilled food on my shirt): "You got spill on your shirt!!"

Eli: (wanting me to sing a song): "Sing it MYSELF!" (This can either mean he wants to sing it himself or that he wants me to sing it.... this time, it was me.

He's been referring to The Sound of Music as "I want to see the outside lady." He clarified it with "The outside lady spinning on the grass." :)

Today, he was listing out the characters for The Wizard of Oz and he listed one of the characters as "the black and white one."

:)

Eli at 2 years, 4 months

Eli's vocabulary and comprehension is expanding leaps and bounds on a daily basis. There are so many more things he understands and asks for than he did even last week. Whether or not he chooses to listen to what I'm saying is another story, though. It can be quite infuriating when I tell him to stop doing something (usually involving jumping off something or onto something) and he looks right at me and does it again. Grrrrr.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, so I'll say it again in case I didn't. The other day, we passed a school bus and Eli told me "the boys are on the bus!" I told him that both the girls and boys were on the bus and he told me no, just the boys. I asked him where the girls were and he said "the girls are at work. the boys are on the bus." lol.

He LOVES watching the Wizard of Oz and we've watched it every day this week. When we were out on a walk, I asked him to name some of the characters and he surprised me by getting most of them. (He used to call the Tin man the pretend man and the Wicked Witch the Micked Witch). He LOVES the wicked witch and always wants to see her. Today, he told me that she is green and black. We thought the flying monkey part might be scary for him, but ha - he LOVES them. He loves seeing toto "fly with the monkeys." I usually start the movie when the munchkins come out cause the black and white part bores him, but today I started it at the Twister part and he loved watching the house spin. I'm LOVING that he loves this movie. I'll take it over Thomas ANY day.

When he wakes up in the morning, he always asks where Liam is (he's often sleeping in the living room). Then he runs out and goes over to his crib and says "LOOK! HE'S AWAKE!" which of course wakes him up. Sigh. The other day, he loudly told me that "he's got his ears on! He's got his skin on! He's got his eyes on!"

He loves playing a game where he tells me something it clearly isn't just to hear me say noooo. Like he'll be holding a red apple and tell me it's a green one... etc.

He's OBSESSED with snacks right now. He's been eating up a storm this past week, and I think that it's because of Yo Gabba Gabba. I let him watch one episode cause I was curious as to what it is.... oh boy. I have to say that I HATE IT (think Teletubbies... but low budget) but I do appreciate the lessons they try to teach. His favorite episode is about eating snacks... and they have lame-o (but appreciated) songs like "Try it... you'll like it! Try it... you'll like it!" The robot in the show tries yogurt and likes it...so now Eli's become obsessed with eating yogurt. We watched an episode yesterday where they were learning the difference between their inside voice and outside voice.... so as much as I can't stand the actual robots themselves, I think we'll keep watching. :)

Eli doesn't quite understand what Halloween is, but he knows he wants to be Buzz Lightyear and he knows that he wants candy. He tells me this several times a day.

(lol... he just woke up from his nap, holding a book, pointing to a picture of an Ox. He said "He's got eyes. What he got?" (meaning - what else does he have?)

Gotta jet... nap time is over!

Liam is THREE months old today!

Dear Liam,

You're THREE months old today!!! I can't believe it! Does that mean I have to stop telling people I have a newborn?

You are VERY strong and kick yourself out of your swaddle (even the miracle blanket aka baby straightjacket!) every night. I tried to see what would happen if we just didn't swaddle you, but it wasn't pretty.... you weren't able to calm yourself down enough to go to sleep with your arms and legs flailing. This morning when I found you, you had both arms and both legs out and were just wearing the swaddle around your belly.

You get a lot of tummy time and really don't mind it for about 10 minutes. Then you get tired, plant your face and scream. I've been trying to get you interested in those crunchy books... and this morning when you were on your belly, Eli brought one over for you and started turning the pages. Usually, he puts things RIGHT UP in your face or on top of your head, so this was a welcome change. :)

You're still Mr. smiley, though not as much as before. You love smiling at Eli whenever he's near you and you like smiling at Daddy when he gets home from work.

You're still in size 1 diapers.

You're going down to sleep between 8-9pm and waking up between 3:45 and 5 every morning. Not bad!!! You usually wake up at the 7 to 8 hour mark. I feed you and put you down 30 min later and you usually put yourself back to sleep and sleep until about 6:45. I feed you and if Eli isn't up yet, you'll go back to sleep.

Eli loves "playing" with you. I sat you up at his little table yesterday and you "played" trains with him. You were all smiles as I put your hand on top of one of the trains and moved it back and forth. Eli was SO excited. He also loves it when you "throw" the baseball to him.

You can sit up for a split second without us holding onto you, but then you timmmmmbbeeeer yourself forward and do a face plant.

You really love watching the cats, but they've been there/done that and won't go anywhere near you, especially if you are crying.

You do the lip thing if you're about to start crying.. .it's sooo sad.

Three months!!!!!

Love,

Mommy

"ma-see"

So the most annoying thing on this planet has got to be Eli's new word for me... "masee." This is the morphing of mommy and see and he usually says it 75 times in a row in a really loud voice, EVEN IF I AM LOOKING. These days, he wants me to see EVERYTHING he is doing, even if it's the same thing 50 times in a row. I think one of the biggest challenges of having a 2 year old is to "be excited" about something even if it's the 189th time in a row it was just demonstrated (i.e. falling off the couch, jumping over an object, having a car crash off the table, etc). lol. It really amazes me sometimes that Eli can really find SO MUCH joy in doing the same thing over and over and over again. One of his favorite things to have me watch is him "shooting" the beachball into the basketball hoop. It's too big, and the first time I said "It's toooo big" in a silly voice. He now does it easily 25 times in a row and wants me to act surprised it doesn't fit and say "It's toooo big" each and every time. *Cue hysterical laughter* Really buddy? It's really still THAT funny? lol.

Another thing Eli's making me do a lot these days is talk to his guys. If he's holding Buzz Lightyear or Woody or Super Grover, he wants me to have a conversation with them. He always says "Mommy! TALK!" and then holds up his guy. My conversations with them are usually ridiculous, cause it's hard to know exactly what he wants me to say to them. Today, for example, when I was ordered to talk to Buzz, it went a little something like this... "Hi Buzz! I realllly like your helmet! Are you wearing a space backpack??" (I apparently was not to make mention of the backpack, nor was I looking in the right place. I was supposed to tell Buzz to fly away to find Woody).

Eli's also big into asking me if I like things. The answer ALWAYS has to be yes. This is how those conversations go. Eli: "mommy, do you like snakes?" Me: "No, mommy doesn't like snakes." Eli: "Do you LIKE SNAKES?" Me: "No, really I don't.. they creep me out." Eli: "MOMMY!!!!!! DO YOU LIKE SNAKES???" Me: "Nope." Eli: "MOMMY LIKES SNAKES?" Me: *sigh* "Yes, mommy likes snakes." Then we get to move on. Yesterday was funny though. He asked me if I liked bats and I said no. He was quiet and I asked him "Do YOU like bats?" Eli: "no." Me: "no?? Why not? I thought you like bats!" E: No. They are YUCKY. Me: "Why are they yucky??" E: "because they fly AWAY." Lol. I love the logic of a two year old.

His favorite stall tactic these days (i.e....what he uses if he knows it's time to take a nap or go to bed) is to ask if he can "Play a little bit." Lol... it's always a request to "play a little bit" and never just to play. Ha.

Getting Eli to go down for his nap or bedtime is generally quicker these days cause I let him take books into his crib. This is a win-win situation for everyone. It means he's more likely to agree to get into his crib (even though we turn the lights out....) AND he tends to read "a little bit" after he wakes up... giving me a few more minutes of me and Liam time before Eli comes to join us.

Liam's doing great. Sleeping a lot, eating a lot... the usual. Lol. He is obsessed with pulling his hair while he's breastfeeding. I'm so surprised he has any hair left above/behind his ears.

Ok... off to take a nap!!! I drove up to Connecticut on Saturday night to see Jayne perform in "The Understudy" and had a FABULOUS "ME" night out. It was great to be in the car alone, listening to my music... and it was GREAT to get to go out to eat WITHOUT being interrupted 50 times, getting to order and EAT what I wanted to, etc. I'm SO glad I went. But it meant I only got about 2 hours of sleep that night.... I'm tired!!!! zzzzzzzzzzzz....

(oh you've got to be kidding me... as soon as I typed that final paragraph, Liam woke up. The kid has special powers.)

A few of their favorite things

Liam's favorite things at (almost) 12 weeks:

-Stuffing his fist (either one will do, but he seems to prefer the right one) in his mouth

-Looking at/being amazed by his toes and his hands

-Watching Big Brother Eli do ANYTHING

-Smiling at mommy, daddy, Eli and whoever else is smiling at him

-Craning to see the TV when Eli is watching it

-Going out for walks and falling asleep immediately

-Bathtime!

-Being undressed

-Sleeping!!!! He's now sleeping 7-9 hours at night consistently!

Eli's favorite things at 2 years, 4 months:

-Thomas the train.... putting together tracks, making them pull each other, looking through the Thomas catalogue, watching Thomas on TV, wearing Thomas clothes, calling trains we see outside "Thomas!!!"

-A show called Word World... cute little animals whose bodies spell out the name of the animal

-Playing Baseball. He likes us to be the "pretend batter," a phrase we coined when we use our invisible bat since the real bats were taken away when Liam arrived. He likes us to pretend to hit the ball and then run around the bases so he can tag us out. Tagging us out involves running at us full speed, tagging us with the glove (while holding the ball in the other hand).

-Playing football. He likes us to "behind the kitchen" (aka hide in the kitchen) and chase him back to the couch when he shows up with his football.

-Wearing his fire hat with a feather taped to it, riding his little plastic horse around while singing Yankee Doodle. He sings Yankee Doodle about 30 times a day.

-Saying Nursery Rhymes. His little memory amazes me. His favorite ones are Little Tom Tucker (???), Jack and Jill, Hey Diddle Diddle, London Bridge and Wee Willie Winkie.

-He's still a fan of Toy Story, though not as much as two months ago.

-Jumping and rolling around on the floor, the couch, etc.

-Reading! He tries to read stories by himself now, which is the cutest thing ever. He knows a lot more stories that I thought he would! If we say a line and then wait a second, he'll say the next line.

-He's BIG into pointing out letters everywhere.... on book covers, on signs, etc. He still gets confused by some of them, but he's pretty consistent with the rest. He doesn't yet know lower case, though. He's also back into playing with his alphabet magnets. He likes to knock them all off, then put them up one by one in a looong line.

-Giving Liam kisses. He loooves kissing his brother and snuggling up with him. If he's naked, he likes to say "Heeey naked baby!" He also loves "helping" Mommy give him a bath.

-he went fishing for the first time with Daddy, Lolo and Kuya Jaymin yesterday!!! Daddy said he was very interested at first, but then became more interested in putting rocks and shells in the fish bucket. When they caught fish, Eli started yelling at them to "Put the fish back in the ocean!" (That's the me in him!)

-He loves animals and has been having a lot of fun going to so many zoos recently. He is always talking about gorillas and giraffes.

-He likes to bring me his pretend fruits and veggies and wants to watch me eat them.

-He loves telling me when Liam's awake when he wakes up from a nap. "OH HE'S AWAKE!!!" (So if Liam was planning on going back to sleep, fat chance).

-We fingerpainted for the first time last week and he loved it! He started out all timid, but within five minutes, the paint was everywhere... in his mouth, his hair, all over the high chair.... lol. He made some pretty fun pictures and we had fun.

-He LOVES getting in big boxes and having us close the top and spin him around. He then pops out and "scares" us.

We're having fun :)