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. :)

Ocean City 2012

We had SO much fun at the beach this year!  We went Mon thru Friday...  Monday and Tuesday, we were joined by my mom and my cousin, Emily... And Tues thru Friday we were joined by Mike's parents as well as his sister Ann and her family.  I was worried the house was going to seem too full, but it was perfect and everyone had a good time.

My biggest wish was to get to the beach every day, and we did!  Almost, that is.  We didn't go on Friday.  Monday, we went with my mom and Em to Assateague and it was amazing... we had SOOO much room to run around on the beach.  Liam had a great time running on the beach, chasing the sea gulls.  He was not a fan of the water and much preferred being held while WATCHING the water.  I was wondering how he would do with the sand...he LOVED it.  So did Eli!  Eli loved jumping the waves and wanted to spend much of his time down at the water.  We had a ton of fun.

That night for dinner, we picked up food from Panera since we left the beach late.  After we put the boys in bed, my mom stayed with them while me, Mike and Emily went to play Putt-Putt.  Let the record show that I CREAMED Mike this year.  I think I beat him by like...12 points.  It was amazing.  We got home late and immediately went to sleep.

The next morning (my birthday...wooohoo!  what a way to spend a birthday!) , we woke up and went to the beach in Ocean City.  It was much smaller and much more crowded, but we thankfully got parking right next to the beach and got a good spot.  We had a lot of fun and stayed til almost 2pm.  Subs from Tommy's for lunch!!! Mike's family arrived and we hung around until dinnertime.  We took the kids to a restaurant called Dead Freddy's.... it had a pirate themed playground for the kids, a brilliant idea!  We had nearly an hour wait, but it didn't matter since we had the playground!  Eli and Jaymin chased each other all over the place and Liam loved sitting in Jaymin's lap to go down the big slide.  The meal was great and I had a great night.

Wednesday, we also got up and went to the beach.  We had tons of fun and the little kids loved hanging out in the baby pool. Sandcastles, trips to the water to jump waves, etc.... it was a great, great day.  That afternoon, we took the kids to Baja where we went on go-karts and the kids rode rides.  Ben and I took the kids home and had taco night while Mike, Ann and his parents went to Phillip's for a nice seafood meal.  Another successful day.

Thursday, we went to the beach and as we were leaving, hit the pool.  Liam fell asleep RIGHT as we got to the pool deck, so he spent the hour sleeping on Lola's shoulder while she and Lolo watched from the pool bar.  Eli had TONS of fun jumping into the water, having us catch him.  He was shivering and his lips were turning blue..... otherwise I think he could have stayed there all day!  We came home for a little rest and then headed out to the boardwalk.  Both of my boys were so knocked out that they even kept sleeping while we took them out of their car seats and moved them to the stroller.  We had a nice stroll on the boardwalk and stopped for Thrasher's Fries and Fisher's Popcorn....and fudge/candy at Candy Kitchen!  We ate at the Dough Roller for dinner and then the boys woke up.  A trip to the Kite Loft didn't disappoint... I LOVED that store when I was little and it's still amazing.  We then took the kids on the rides and they had a blast.  Liam rode the choo choo train with Tita Ann and the SUPER FAST carousel... and Eli rode the carousel, the fire trucks, the cars, the helicopters, the bumper boats, the bumper cars (!!! by himself!!!!!)...and had a blast.  We were intending to go to the horse races after the rides, but we stayed much later than expected and headed home.  Long, successful day.

Friday was a chill day.... Mike's parents left after breakfast, and Ann and Ben and the kids left around noon.  We spent the day relaxing and left the house around 4 or so.  We headed into ocean city and stopped for dinner at Grotto's Pizza (I've been craving that for months!!!!).  We drove up route 1, admiring the houses along the beach, and stopped at a few of the outlets.  The drive home was pretty uneventful and made for a nice end to our vacation.

I can't wait to go back!!!!!!!!!!

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!

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!!!!!!