Eli in September (at 3 yrs, 4 mo)

Eli's a busy little guy these days!

He's HUGE into superheroes, and every day we watch things like... Spider-Man, The Mighty Avengers, Iron Man, etc.  He loves being Iron Man and loves showing me his repulsor blasts. That's still how I get him to eat most of the food he doesn't want to eat... by telling him his repulsor blasts are weak and (fill in the blank) will strengthen them.  Last night, I got him to eat 5 raviolis because I told him they were Iron Man Repulsors.  

He's back into watching Fireman Sam and still occasionally watches the Backyardigans.  He's still big into Dora and Diego.  

He loves pulling things around with strings.... he loves tying up his action figures (most often spider-man) and having them fly around/hang around.  I need to remember to get that kid a thing of yarn...he'd be in seventh heaven.  He also continues to love tying spider-man up in his basketball net. 

He's back into playing with cars and especially loves the rescue vehicles. His most favorite is the police tow truck... he tows everything around with that thing.  

I must watch EVERYTHING he does.  "Mommy, look!  Mommy, look!"

He got his first really big cold last night... Sept 18th.  He was up most of the night coughing, poor guy.  Today, he told me that "something is wrong with my neck! In the throat part!"

He LOVES reading.... his biggest favorites this month are:  zomo the rabbit by Gerald McDermott, Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise, Curious George and the Ice Cream Shop, Curious George makes pancakes, any books about Superheroes... books about dinosaurs and books about insects/spiders.  He LOVES talking about dinosaurs and can spurt out facts like "He has four sharp spikes at the end of his very powerful tail." Yesterday, I heard him telling Liam that a certain dinosaur was "60 feet long."  Grandma gave him a dinosaur placemat and he LOVES it. He is fascinated by spiders, mainly because he knows that Grandma hates them.  Every time he sees a picture of a spider, he tells me "Grandma wouldn't like that!"  

He's big into puzzles again and it gives me a nice break when I'm trying to cook dinner.  He's really good at them, though, so I need to look into getting more!

He loves playing Dora Candyland and is now starting to get upset if he loses.  NOT COOL.  

He loves playing hide and seek and even though he hides in very obvious places and giggles or pops up, I pretend I can't see him.  We alternate hiding.  Liam always gives me away.  

He's still in size 5 diapers.  I just read a book about how to potty train in one day and we're going to go for it. I was going to try this week, but it's not going to happen with him being sick, etc.  Maybe next week!!!

Yesterday on the train, he told me his name was Eli Rylan Flores, Liam is Liam Rhys Flores, I am Jenny Rylan Flores and Mike is Daddy Rylan Flores.  :)

He's back into being a pirate and has dressed up in his pirate outfit the last few days.  He is now telling me he wants to be a pirate for Halloween instead of Spider-Man.  

Ok... Liam's nap is over and Eli's trying to tackle him, like usual, so off I go to referee!

Liam is 15 months old today!!

My little chia pet monkey is 1 5 months old today!!!  (We are letting his hair grow out for the upcoming cold seasons and he TOTALLY is rocking the mini chia pet afro).

What's my little guy up to at 15 months???

-He climbs EVERYTHING.  His main mission in life right now is to climb up/onto the dining room table.  We have to literally put the chairs away in a different room so he can't climb up there.  If I merely turn the chairs on their side or push them to another corner of the room, he knows how to push them back over to the table.  Climbing up and down from the couch, up and over the couch....he does approximately once every 2 minutes.

-He LOVES sitting at the table, pushing around his trains or playing with the toy garage or spider-man house we have.  He LOVES trains.  If you ask him what a train says, he says "oooh-oooh!"  If he sees a train outside, he also makes his little choo choo sound.

-He still loves pushing around his little car.  He is now finally figuring out how to sit on it, but he can't quite figure out how to make it go when he's sitting on it, so he prefers to get off and push it around.  He's now tall enough to get up onto Eli's motorcycle, but because he's fallen off a few times, he doesn't really like to do that.

-He's still in size 3 diapers and wears 9-12 month pants and 12 month shirts.  He can still fit into 12 month onesies, and occasionally 9-12 month onesies.  He currently still wears a size 3 shoe, though I bought him two pairs of 4s for the fall.  (One of which is a pair of cookie monster shoes...he was SO excited when I put those on him!).

-He drinks 3 bottles a day... one 10 oz bottle in the morning when he wakes up, one sometime before or right after his second nap, about 6 oz, and one at night before bed, anywhere from 7-10oz.

-My amazing little eater is no longer an amazing little eater.  He prefers to throw most of his food and won't even try things if they don't fit his ever-changing list of favorites.  I can only get him to eat a handful or so of cheerios (though he does eat quite a few more off of the floor).  He's very selective with his fruits... right now really only going for watermelon, strawberries and grapes.  He used to really love blueberries, but now most of the time he throws them.  He will occasionally eat a fish stick or a chicken nugget.  He likes pancakes and/or waffles and/or bread about half of the time.  Cereal bars are an occasional hit, an occasional toss.  Pasta, he will usually go for.  He definitely likes ice cream and screams if he sees Eli eating it and he doesn't get it, but he definitely has a threshold and turns his face away after about 10 or so bites.  He still LOVES yogurt.

-He LOVES watching Dora.  If he's in another room and it comes on, he'll go RUNNING to the TV and start dancing.  His dancing is very cute...he always does the same thing... stand still and twirl in a circle.  He also very much enjoys the spider-man themesong.

-His favorite song is Kookabura!

-His favorite Sesame Street character is cookie monster. He LOOVES cookie monster and makes this funny growling grunting sound whenever he sees him.

-Last week, he surprised us by answering what a cow says (he says booooo instead of moo) and what a monkey says (oooo oooo ooo).  He's still pretty non-verbal so far.... only really saying dada and boo.  (He used to be able to say mama and up).  He doesn't say uh oh as much as he used to, unless something in his little world has gone terribly wrong.  He definitely knows how to get our attention, though, and has his own little language for what he wants... "ah! ah!"

-He still LOVES hanging out with Riley and gets excited whenever he sees either one of the cats.  He understands how to pet Riley "nice, nice" so they have become little buddies.

-His favorite books are Peek-a-Who, the first 100 animals book (he makes that same funny little grunt/growling sound whenever he sees an animal like a bear or a tiger), and a few books about machines.  He also REALLY enjoys books with Sesame Street characters, especially the ones with monsters.

-He HATES being in the carseat or stroller when not in motion.  He is not an easy guy to travel with.

-He LOVES hanging out with big brother Eli and often copies exactly what Eli is doing.

-He looooooves walking around outside and even at this young age refuses to hold my hand.

-He's currently cutting 4 molars, so he has been miserable when it's time to put him down for a nap!  He's also been waking up super early (in the five hour) again.  Hoping he sleeps a little better when these teeth finally come in!

Happy 15 month birthday, Liam!!!!

Names

We asked Eli what we should name his baby sister.  Here is his list:

#1 choice:  Turtle
2) Lobster
3) Octopus
4) Whale
5) Crab

What do you think?

It's a GIRL!!!

Not sure if I've blogged here yet about Baby #3, but it's a GIRL!!!!!!  We had our early anatomy scan on the 10th and found out (after about 30 super looong minutes of checking out other stuff...) that it's a baby GIRL!!!  We asked the ultrasound tech if she was sure, and she said yes.  We later confirmed it with my regular OB, telling him we knew the gender but weren't going to tell him until he told US.  He also said GIRL.  WOOHOO!  Mike and I are really excited.  It's sure going to be different raising a girl, but we're ready (I think?!?) for the challenge.

She's due around Valentine's Day.  The official due date is Feb 15th, but I'm betting on the 12th. :)