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!