Eli-isms

Over the past month, I really feel like Eli has grown up a LOT.  The comments he makes are more witty....his understanding of things is sharper and his memory is even better.  It's very funny to hear some of the things that come out of his mouth these days.  Here are a few that I remember....

Yesterday, when I tried to cuddle with him on the couch, he said... "Mommy! You're freaking me out!"

"I want my baby sister to be a princess for Halloween."

Ok...I can't remember any more, but there have been tons lately.

Yesterday, I decided we'd try the ole baking soda and vinegar explosion trick, and Eli loved it.  We did it about 20 times, using food coloring to dye the explosion different colors every time.  We then experimented by adding cheerios to see what would happen....it was fun to see them explode, too.  It was cute to hear Eli's theories of other things we could do.  He went and grabbed lemon and dill spice and added that, thinking it would make it explode. Ha.  He then told me that if we added yogurt, it would probably change into waffles.  Ha again.  I love the way his little mind works.

The shows he's been big into this month, just so I don't forget, are Fireman Sam, the Christmas version..... Auto-bots.... Spiderman....and his new favorite movie, Cars.

He's taken arts and crafts to a new level and yesterday and today he's made his own crafts entirely solo. He got some construction paper and cut out (by himself) paper and glued it together to make "cotton candy."  He then put a valentine sticker on it and told me the cotton candy now says "Dear Eli, Happy Valentime's Day."  This morning, he's making Lollipops.  Every time he paints or does any arts and crafts project, we hang them up.  It's looking pretty "Festive" in here. :)

He's always been one to line up his guys.... and over the past few days, he's really taken to lining up his Sesame Street characters.  He loses his cool totally when Liam comes over and knocks them down, which happens quite a bit.

This past week, he has become obsessed with making his bed.  Now when he wakes up in the morning, he turns on the light (even when Liam and I are still sleeping).  He spends a long time making his bed perfectly, and then I MUST go and look.  If anyone (Liam) touches his blankets or ruffles them in the slightest bit throughout the day, Eli gets VERY, VERY upset.

Eli is big into picking out his outfits these days.  He usually lets me pick the shirt, but he MUST pick out his socks and usually wants to pick out his pants, too.

We were going to go gung ho potty training two weeks ago...but then both Eli and Liam were sick with fevers and bad colds.... last week, we were dealing with the whole Liam moving to his toddler bed thing....and now this week, we got the ceiling fixed one day (trapped in the room ALL DAY with both boys) and Liam has another cold.  Sigh.  Aiming to start potty training next monday....and hoping this baby doesn't decide to come early!

Liam climbs out of his crib

So about a month or so ago, Liam climbed out of his crib a few times.  Mike put the sleep sack on him and he fell out and got scared and didn't try it again... until now.  On Monday the 14th, the day before he turned 19 months old, he climbed out of his crib about 10 times.  I walked in the room at one point and saw him standing on the window sill, trying to jump into the laundry basket.  NO GOOD.  He didn't take a nap that day, but thankfully he still went to sleep at night.  The next day was worse, and so I broke down and assembled a toddler bed for him.  (No easy feat when you are alone with two little monsters!).  Eli helped me and it only took me about 90 min to put it together.  That night was rough.  It took about an hour for Liam to settle down and go to sleep.  He kept walking around the room, excited about his new freedom.  I can't even tell you how many times I had to put him back into the bed.  He did ok that night, but woke up once at about 3:30 and wandered out into the living room.  It took about 30 minutes for him to fall back asleep. The next day was rough...there was no keeping him in his bed at all to nap, so he was tired and cranky.  The good news is that because he was so tired, it only took about 20 min to get him to sleep at night.  The next day, he fell asleep because he was so tired and he actually stayed asleep for about 2 hours in his bed.  Every day has been getting better and better and for the past few nights it has only taken about 10 to 15 min to get him to sleep.  YAY.  Hope we get this all worked out by the time the baby comes!  The upside is that now she gets a crib instead of the pack n play we were planning to use!