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!