Thursday, August 30, 2012

Those silly guys

So Liam has now taken to cuddling with little pieces of paper.  It's hysterical.  Whenever he finds a small piece of paper, he starts sucking his thumb and rubs the paper all over the top of his head, cuddling with it.  I keep trying to get him to cuddle with a stuffed animal or blanket, but nope...he wants the paper.  Obviously, I can't let him go to sleep with those...

Liam also has a little cold right now and appears to be cutting his molars.  Needless to say, he hasn't been in the best mood the last couple of days.

Eli keeps busting out rememberable phrases.  Two nights ago, I was trying to get him to try his mashed potatoes, and he matter of factly stated "Last year, my Grandmother made it, and I didn't like it because it was golden."  First of all, he never says Grandmother and second of all... whaaaat?  Lol.  Yesterday during lunch, I told Eli that Liam had already eaten a chicken nugget and he needed to eat his if he was going to catch up.  He looked at me and said "I think I'll hold off on that."  Haaaaa.

Today, we're off to the zoo!  It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day!

Friday, August 10, 2012

A snapshot in August

Eli in August:
-wants to watch the same things on Netflix all the time.... The first episode of IronMan (his new favorite.  He's always telling me that he is Tony Stark, and he refers to a lot of his different toys as Rhodey).  He refuses to watch any other episode of Iron Man... just the first one.  And he's just as excited each and every time.  He points things out to me as if I haven't also seen it 20,000 times.   He also wants to watch this cow episode of some barnyard show, the "muddy truck" episode of some toy trucks show and the superhero episode of The Backyardigans.  He's not very much into movies right now.  We tried watching The Lorax today and we only got through half of it before he asked me if we could finish the movie tomorrow and start watching the muddy truck show.
-loves having things tied up.  He always loves toys that have strings because he likes to connect them to things and pull them around.  I tied a string around Wolverine today and he was THRILLED.  He "flew" him all over the apartment, had various superheroes hanging onto the string, and kept showing me.  Daddy had a good idea to tie the string to Spider-man's helicopter and that was a HUGE hit.
-is still in size 5 diapers.  He refuses to let me pick his diapers out.... he insists on going to get his own diaper.  No hope for potty training any time soon.
-loves drinking milk...and loves showing me that his cup is empty
-insists that i watch EVERYTHING he does.  I hear the phrase "Mommy, look" about 73,000 times a day.
-insists on putting on his shirts by himself.  He can take his pants off but can't figure out how to put them on.
-much prefers playing inside than outside.  But once we GET outside, he's thrilled to be out.
-still says "Go Diego, go Diego, Go Diego, GO" when he runs anywhere.
-still has me be the Green Goblin multiple times a day.  Though now, he really likes to have me run and then throws a spider or a snake in my way.  I then scream and say "OH NO... A SNAKE!" and run the other way.  He usually says "Wait, mommy, wait..." and runs ahead of me to throw the snake where I"m going... and then I see it and scream and turn the other way.... repeat 50 or 60 times.
-is obsessed with touching Liam's face and ears.  He is forever touching his face or trying to poke him in the eye.
-says "Don't speak!" when he doesn't like what I'm asking him to do.
-can be convinced to eat many a veggie if I tell him that his spider-man webs are too weak and won't work unless he eats it.  I then pretend to be SUUUUPER impressed at his AMAZINGLY STRONG webs after he eats whatever it is that I want him to eat.
-loves reading.  We read for at least 30 minutes, sometimes a lot more, a day.  Two days ago, we read 20 books while Liam was sleeping.  He likes longer books now...and some of them even have a few chapters.  His current favorites:  The Fly Guy series, curious George (everlasting favorite), superhero books (especially books about iron man), and any books about halloween.  We found a few more Fred and Ted books and he really loves those.  OH...and books about bugs..and dinosaurs.  He's huge into dinosaurs right now.
-still says funny things.  Today, I was watching the olympics and the men's heavy lifting competition came on.  I told eli to LOOK... He did, and then proceeded to tell me "That's a big boy, mommy."  lol.
-can count solidly up to 15 but always thinks 19 comes next.  Today, we were going through numbers up to 30.  When he got to 20, he paused for a second, saw the zero and said "zero teen." Ha.  Love it.

Liam:
-screeeeeeeeeeeches whenever he doesn't get what he wants.  Blood curdling screaming.  It's really getting tiring to listen to.  I can't take him to restaurants, etc, because of it.  He also screams if he's in the stroller and I stop, if he realizes he's getting into the car (although he really likes the new minivan and hasn't complained yet about being in there!), if he realizes you are eating and he's not, if he's tired, if he's hungry, if Eli hurts him, if Eli takes a toy away, etc etc etc.
-looks adorable with his growing out buzz cut.  His hair stands straight up (unlike Eli's) and he really is starting to look more and more monkey like.
-loooooooves yogurt.  He loves feeding himself with a spoon.  He does great for the first half and then gets frustrated he can't get to the second half and gives up and uses his hand.  It's always very, very messy and always results in an outfit change. He also likes feeding himself applesauce and cottage cheese.
-throws his food very far away when he doesn't want it.  Right now, he's not into bread, vegetables, certain types of fruit.... Things he LOVED yesterday, he'll throw today.  He used to devour chicken and now I can't get him to eat more than 1 piece.
-has been a much better sleeper!  He will sometimes wake up crying in the middle of the night, but most of the time puts himself back to sleep right away.  He usually sleeps until about 6:30am now...woohhooo!
-still takes 2 naps most of the time, but the second one is sometimes hit or miss.  He usually gets pretty tired about 2 hours or so after he wakes up in the morning and will sleep for about an hour.  Sometimes, his afternoon naps will last 45 min, sometimes 3 hours!  There is no rhyme or reason to how long he naps.
-loves climbing over the back of the couch to stand on the table we have stowed back there.  Today, I gave up trying to stop him.
-loves pushing his little car around and loves ramming it into things.  He's started trying to sit on it but can't quite figure out how to make it go forward that way.  He usually quickly hops off and reverts to pushing it.
-always goes to pick out a book (after knocking most of them off the shelves...one of his favorite pasttimes) and then carries it over to the couch, climbs up and "reads" it.  His favorite book right now is Peek-a-Who.  He always laughs hysterically when we read it, and always likes looking at himself VERY closely in the mirror at the end of the book. It's super cute.
-is in size 3 diapers and fits into 6 to 12 month onesies.  (the 6 month ones are pretty tight, though).  He still wears size 4 shoes.  He also likes to constantly remove his shoes.
-Joins me in the bathroom within 3 seconds of me getting there and loves to climb the stool up to reach the sink, where he knocks over the hand soap, the lotion, and the decorative candles we have in there.  He also enjoys throwing things (especially daddy's flip flops, if he leaves them anywhere near the bathroom) into the tub and attempts to frequently throw things into the toilet.  He hasn't been successful yet but he's been SO quick.  I usually have to wash my hands with one leg stretched over to hold the toilet seat down.  His obsession with trying to take things out of the trash can seems to be dying down a bit.
-used to say a few words, but now really only says "dada" "gaga" and endlessly... "uh oh!"
-laughs at Eli a LOT.  It's really cute to see them laughing together.
-is tall enough to reach up onto the table and knock bowls, papers, food, drinks off.
-learned how to pet riley nicely and so she now lets him come close. :)

I love my boys!!!!!!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Liam and Eli

Liam is a HUGE handful these days, as he has taken climbing to a whole new level.  He has always joined me in the bathroom within 3 seconds of me arriving there, but now he knows how to climb up on the stool (currently there to block him from getting to the toilet paper, trash can and toilet brush) and reach all of those things (he loves getting into the trash can), as well as playing with anything he can find on the sink (the toothpaste, the soap, the candles we have up there...anything).  It's lovely.

It is his LIFE MISSION to get behind the couch, where we have our big furniture stored.  He does it about 50 times in a 10 minute period.  There is no distracting this kid... if I were to take him down and put him in front of all of his toys, a mile away, he would navigate that mile back to the couch in approximately 2 seconds.  It's very, very frustrating.

His other LIFE MISSION is to get everything he can into the kitty litter box.  He likes throwing all of his toys there, and today I found him PLAYING in it.  Lovely.  Looovely.

Eli has taken to reading books about hospitals.  Today I had to operate on his alligator injuries (he kept jumping in the river where the alligators bit various parts of his body).  We read a book about how Grover went to the hospital to get his tonsils out, so now Eli is constantly telling me that he has "Throats" and needs to go to the hospital.  It's hysterical.

Everything these days is super hero related with Eli.  Today I was Dr. Doom, Electro, Juggernaut, the Green Goblin, etc.... over and over again.  At one point, he became Dr. Octopus and wrapped his octopus arms around me to trap me, and then proceeded to call the spider friends on his imaginary phone to have them come rescue me.  Cutest conversation ever: "Hello? Um, hi.  Yeah, Mommy is trapped by Dr. Octopus and needs someone to come rescue her.  Will you come? Ok.  See you soon!"  lol.  Very cute.

Eli continues to take everything Liam is holding away from him, and then Liam lets out bloody murder shrieking.  It's lovely.

Ok... I'm being summoned to read Eli's favorite book... Bert and Ernie's "don't forget the oatmeal!"

No more Target

So the three of us (me, eli and liam) go to Target about once a week, mainly because it's the perfect place for us to go while we are waiting for the street cleaning hour and a half to be up.  On the days when I have to be out of our spot by 8am, there are virtually no spots available til close to 9:30.  So we head off to Target (less than a mile away) and try our best to be out of there by 9, so we can be back in time to get a prime spot in front of our building.

As I got the boys out of the car in the Target parking lot this morning, I painfully remembered that our trip last week was awful, thanks to Liam's new practice of "I will absolutely not sit in the cart, no matter how tight you make that strap. I must stand at all times."  I sucked it up, because we were already there, and hoped for the best.

The best was not to come.  Liam again refused to sit down, standing up approximately 43,000 times during our trip.  He's too heavy for me to carry him the whole time, especially since he doesn't want to be carried and squirms and squirms and squirms to be let down to walk.  Thank you, Target of NY, for not having shopping carts where two boys can sit, so Eli has to usually go in the back.  This means that he either disrupts the items in the cart, throws them at liam, or stands up in an attempt to grab things from the aisles or harm his brother in some way.  Today, we tried with him standing on the back of the cart holding on, but this was a disaster, because every time he saw something he wanted (every 5 seconds), he would jump off and run toward it, or jump off so that I partially ran over him.  Lovely.  That ended quick.

I was the crazy mom yelling at her children every 20 seconds in Target this morning.

My highlight, of the morning, however, was when I handed Eli a bag of M&Ms (we decided to make M&M cookies, and they were on sale...perfect).  About 5 minutes later, I looked in the back and saw brown drool everywhere.  On his mouth, on the bag, on the other items in our cart.  Yes, Eli had EATEN THROUGH THE BAG and was eating the M&Ms.  You can imagine how happy I was to discover that, and how happy I was to have to explain to the cashier why the bag looked the way it did.

Long story short... there will be no more trips to Target for Mommy and the boys in the near future.  No siree.  Nope.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Eli quotes

Here are a few Eli quotes from a few days ago:

I told him it was time to change his diaper, to which he replied:  "No, I don't want to change my diaper.  Sorry, but I can't."  He then continued playing.

Later that day, I asked him:
"Are you going to be a good boy?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you because you keep hurting your brother."
"Well, I think I'm a good boy.  Look at my face!" (cue sweetest smile ever).


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Flores Boys in July!

I've been horrible at updating this lately... time just goes by so quickly these days!!!

Here's what the boys are into these days:

Liam:
-looooooves touching his index finger to other people's index fingers (ET style) and noses.... it's his greeting, and if you do it back to him, he bursts into laughter and you are instant friends
-loves grabbing books and bringing them up on the couch to "read."  His favorite books are Peek-A-Who, a book about trucks, and a book that has baby faces.
-loves dropping things behind the sofa and LOVES trying to climb over the back of the sofa to get them
-loves pushing his little car all over the place.  He refuses to ride it, but loves pushing it around
-fights like CRAAAAZY when it is time to change his diaper or snap his onesies
-is in the bathroom in 2 seconds after I go in there.  He loves being in there and throws a FIT if someone goes in and closes the door, locking him out
-wakes up anywhere between 5am and 6:15am every morning
-is still taking 2 naps, though he often gets shortchanged if we have places to go
-screams a high pitched girly scream if he is eating and runs out of food before you give him more.
-screams bloody murder the million times a day eli pushes/kicks/hits/knocks him over
-likes dancing to the dora and diego theme songs
-likes to take his shoes off whenever we are outside or in stores.  We've already lost three pairs.
-loves climbing ANYTHING and everything.  I look him to the playground this morning and he's getting pretty good at going up and down stairs.
-must stand on top of things (books, boxes, toys) when he is playing.

Eli:
-is super into Dora and Diego these days
-loves watching this Madagascar Christmas special.  It's brought Santa back into the picture and when he starts misbehaving, all I have to do sometimes is pretend to go get my phone to tell Santa.
-loves, loves, loves reading.  Right now, his favorite books are the If you give a mouse a cookie series, a book called "The Lion's Share" and any books about Batman or Spiderman.
-loves talking about animals (mostly because Diego rescues animals).  The other day, he asked me... "do chincillas have eyes that see in the dark?"  He then told me what they looked like, sound like and what they eat.  (Thanks, Diego).
-takes naps for Grandma and Daddy, but never for mommy
-wakes up several times a night, crying for mommy.  Sometimes he is coherent, and sometimes he is not.
-is getting better about brushing his teeth (we had his first dentist appointment 2 weeks ago!.. she told us his teeth are very close together and he will most likely need braces due to crowding. lovely).
-still likes to wear his fire hat all the time
-loves riding his scooter
-makes me tell him a story involving all of the spider friends and all of the bad guys every night before he goes to bed
-loves painting!


Fun times in the Flores house!





Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sweetness

Tonight, as I was heading out to church, I said goodbye to Eli and gave him a kiss.  He then surprised me by saying "I love you, Mommy!  Even though you sometimes go to work or church or the grocery store, I love you a lot."  VERY cute.  :)