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 :)

The Hills are Alive

So I came home from work last night and Eli was talking about how he wanted to see "The lady on the hill." Mike said that he had popped in Sound of Music and Eli loved it! Whaaaat? *Cue the angels singing* My son now likes one of the greatest movies of all time???? I can now potentially watch The Sound of Music every day instead of Toy Story or Thomas? Mike put on the movie to show me... Eli LOVES the opening number where Julie is spinning. "Look mommy! The lady is spinning!" When he wanted to watch it again, he tried to describe it as "Again? The lady singing myself?" (Meaning the lady singing HERself). He loved the part where she was running down the hill. He also loved the goat puppetshow and the "cowboy song" aka "I have confidence" where she is wearing the hat. He loved the part where she was carrying the guitar and jumping to click her heels. I'm beyond excited. I took several pictures. :)

After watching a few of the musical numbers, I decided to pop in Wizard of Oz, a movie I tried to introduce a few weeks ago with no success. He LOVED it. Loved the scarecrow and the lion.... was ambivalent about the munchkins.... looooved the wicked witch and the flying monkeys. Oooooh this is going to be fun.

September 2nd: Liam rolls over!!!

So I was skyping with Jenn today and wanted to show her how strong this kid's head is.... I put him down on his belly and put the computer in front of him. Sure enough, he lifted his head waaaay up to look at the screen. I told Jenn that Eli had learned how to roll over on Sept 1st of 2009, so we were both figuring that Liam would roll over in October. I was telling her how I am NOT ready for him to be mobile and that I hope it takes him a long time to roll... when literally, he rolled right over! It's as if he was trying to say HA - WATCH ME. 11 weeks old and rolling over. Let's hope it was just a fluke... I can't have two mobile kids yet!!!!