Odds and Ends

I've been meaning to get to this blog every day for the past week.  I'm tired now and don't have the mental power to write an organized entry, so here are a bunch of things I want to get down so that I don't forget....  (and then maybe I'll try to pull together a Brielle at 7 months post, since she'll be 8 months old soon!).

- Since Eli has started school, I'm really enjoying the extra time with Liam every morning.  Oftentimes, after we get home from dropping Eli off, I put Brielle down for a nap and I have great one on one time with my little guy.  He's really taken much more of an interest reading books with me, and I enjoy doing that with him.  He also likes me to watch him play the iPad and play trains with him and share snacks (especially yogurt with granola).

-Liam's latest "thing" is to dump out all of his toy containers in the same spot, play with the toys for about 13 seconds, and then go somewhere else to dump something else out.  He also has taken to climbing up one of the shelves to get his precious stickers.  He also likes to take all of the cushions off of the couch, take toys away from Brielle, ask me 50,000 times a day for "sauce" (those baby veggies/fruit things in a pouch), hide/protest when it's time for a diaper change and do any and everything his brother is doing.

-Liam can say his name now, but he often calls himself "me me" as in "me me wants" or "me me's turn."

-Brielle is pulling herself to stand EVERYWHERE, most recently on me.  Lol...she'll crawl over to me and use whatever part of me she can grab onto to get herself up.  She loves standing on the Ikea basket we use to put the train pieces in.  Last Saturday, the 21st, she stood up for the first time in her pack n play.  She's become a confident stander and is now able to stand with just one hand holding on.  She LOVES when I hold her hands and "walk" her around the room.

-Brielle has her first two teeth...the center ones on the bottom.  I'm saying they offically came in on September 6th.

-All the kids have colds, and for the first time since she was little, Brielle woke up at midnight two nights in a row.  Very strange for her.

-Eli's obsessed with a TV show called the Wild Kratts.  He's learning tons about animals and is constantly telling me facts about honey badgers, kangaroos and oxpeckers.  He loves animal facts.  Ever since he started school, I made a new rule that he can only watch three TV shows a day.  Surprisingly, he's done very good with this and even tells me when the third one is up.  For the past three weeks, every day he selects three episodes of the Wild Kratts.

-Liam has a temper and gets MAAAAAD.

-We had Brielle's baptism on Sunday, Sept 22nd.  Mike's sister, Ann, is the Godmother and MIke's friend Pat is the Godfather.  Brielle did great and didn't cry or fuss at all during the baptism.

-Mike and I got away for a night to the Poconos while the boys slept at Ann's and Brielle slept at Mike's parent's house.  It was AMAZING to have time away and to be able to eat meals completely uninterrupted!

-I also got to go away to Chicago for three days to visit Rachna.  Mike took the days off of work and had fun with the kids.

-Mike took both Liam and Eli (separately) to a Yankees game this month.  They both lasted about 90 minutes and REALLY enjoyed getting a giant pretzel.

-Eli has been a really big helper lately cleaning up toys.  He even offers to clean up when it's Liam's mess.  Usually, he's doing this to atone for something he did that made me mad, which means he most likely did something mean to Liam.  Eli LOVES going over and poking Liam, pulling his ear, pushing him over or knocking his toys down.

-Everything these days is a RACE with Eli.  He is constantly racing Liam to the top of the stairs (in front of the building), to the front door, to get jammies on first, to brush teeth first, etc etc etc.  When he wins (cause he's FOUR and Liam is TWO and slower), he then taunts Liam with a "ha ha! I won! YOu lose!"  We've been working on this.

-Because of the above, when I'm alone with Liam, he will run up the stairs and then turn around and laugh an evil "mwahahahaha" laugh at me, since he won.

-Eli now likes to take showers instead of baths.  I'm 100% for this because there is no more fighting in the bathtub, less splashing and he is done quicker.  LOVE it.

I had so many more things to say, but now my mind is blank.