Hodgepodge

I have a million things to get done during nap time today and am already an hour into it.... so I am just going to jot down a hodgepodge of Eli-isms from this week....with no attempt to organize my thoughts.

-He loves skateboards. Any time he sees a skateboard outside, he freaks out... and he's frequently trying to "skate" around on things here...toy cars, empty boxes.... I want to get him a scooter, but I think he's too little. He would LOVE one though.

-He learned the word naked and loves to use it.... whenever he sees pictures of anyone without a shirt (like people swimming, summer pictures of men topless), he screams - naked! naked!

-He's surprisingly good with pronouns a lot of the time, using I and me correctly, but a lot of the time he's wrong and refers to things as he. Like - if he loses his baseball, he'll tell me to go find him.

-The other day he was trying to get up onto an adult chair but had two things in his hands and was having trouble. I asked if he wanted help, and he said "No, mommy. I try it."

-I shredded zucchini and snuck it in his pancakes yesterday - he gobbled them up. Another secret way to get veggies in there! I need to get that book about sneaking veggies into things.

-Yesterday, he was following Cliffy around (Cliffy is TERRIFIED of Eli, even though eli has never harmed him), asking "Whatcha doin?"

-Whenever he falls down or bumps into something and I don't say it, he looks at me and asks "Ye ok?" meaning he wants me to ask if he's ok.

-Yesterday - hahahah - Cliffy ran into the bathroom and was sitting on the toilet (closed). I heard Eli walk in there and say "Tiffy's on the potty. That's mommy's!" hahaha.

-He's BIG into singing songs right now and is amazing me with lyrics I didn't think he knew. All the times I've been singing songs to him, he really HAS been listening. Today he said "Humpty Dumpty had a fall." He loves singing Frere Jacques and I think it's the cutest thing EVER. He says each line only once, but he has the right tune and says it right. I LOVE it when he sings that one. He also likes singing Three Blind Mice.

-Speaking of Humpty Dumpty, he loves sitting on high things, saying "Humpty Dumpty" and then falling off and laughing. Most of the time, he's not doing this from great heights, but I know that whenever I hear him say that, I need to come running to make sure he's not super high up somewhere.

-He can reach soooooo many things now that he couldn't get to before... like the kitchen counters. Sigh.

-We went up to Boston on Tuesday and Eli hung out with Kathryn's Brother's kids while I went to visit Natalie and Chris (and their BEAUTIFUL one week old baby girl Laurel!!!!!)...and he had a GREAT time. He keeps talking about the kids and keeps asking if he can play with Niko (the 18 month old) and Xander (the 3 year old).

-He's gone from calling a hippo by it's true name to calling them "fippos." Go figure. I can't get him to put the H back.

-He busted out last night with "It's SHOWTIME!" Mike and I both looked at each other.... not sure where he got that one! It was hysterical, though, and he knew it, cause he kept doing it over and over.

-Last night, I took a chance and took him to Holy Thursday mass (which started late....at 7:30pm) by myself. He was suuuuuch a good boy. Yes, he had his screaming moments, but he did soooo good and we lasted the entire two hours! I was amazed.

-We went to his second gym class (of three) yesterday morning, and he did a great job following instructions this time. he sat in the circle with the other kids instead of running around the room and followed all (well...most) of the directions. He even participated in the little songs. It was so cute to see him interacting with his little peers. He was GREAT at all of the clean up parts... yay! The BEST part was at the end, when it was time to go, he went up to a bunch of the kids and waved and said "Bye friends!"

-Today I took him downstairs to do laundry with me, thinking he'd enjoy helping me put the clothes in the washers, etc (since he likes to help me take out the garbage, put other things away, etc). Nooooot so. He flipped out. He did not want his clothes going in the washer and FREAKED OUT when he saw them in the dryer. i thought he'd like seeing the clothes spin around (the dryers have glass fronts), but he was screaming and crying, saying "clothes out!!! no round and round!!!!"). I wish I could have had it on film, but that would have made him scream even louder.

-I gave him a pair of sunglasses yesterday and he LOVED wearing them. He wanted to wear them all day long.

-We walked through Central Park yesterday and his favorite part was seeing the horses.... we'll have to do that more often, cause he LOVED it. He had a special fondness for the white horses.

Ok.... I have more to say, I'm sure, as our days are action packed... but there's a lot to be done before Easter and I need to get a move on.

Jenny

Haha - Eli was copying Mike today and came into the kitchen and said "Jenny? Baseball?" Haha. So cute to hear him say my name. He's done it before with Mike's name, but this was the first time I heard him say mine.

We're heading to Boston tomorrow to meet a ton of people.... I'm dropping Eli off with Tita Kathryn (and her brother and four children!) just outside the city and then will drive into Boston to visit Nat and Chris and one week old Laurel! I can't wait!

Fun times

It's near the end of nap - just spent much of nap time uploading pictures and videos - so I'll try to get in a quick post before he wakes up.

After two pretty busy days of running around, I was REALLY starting to feel achy yesterday. I couldn't even do much in my workout class last night. Sometimes I can kind of jog (slowly), do modified pushups, etc... but last night, all I could really do was walk around. Boo. I declared today an all out rest day, and even though it's pretty outside and looks warm, we're not venturing out today. Hello pizza guy. Eli let me sleep in til 8:15 (thank you, e!!!) and I feel much better already.

So what's new with Eli? He's starting to sing songs and his favorite at the moment is Frere Jacques. He amazes me by singing the whole thing! Yes, the verses are shortened, but he gets it. Pretty cool to hear. He also likes singing the wheels on the bus and our old standby, Hot Cross Buns. It's pretty funny the things a mommy will do - I'm often walking down the street or in a store singing these songs with Eli.....passing people the whole time. lol.

He surprised us on Tuesday on our way home by saying "It's Tuesday!" Lola must have taught him that. Today, I taught him "It's Friday," but he likes to say "It's Friday. It's Tuesday." Lol. Super cute.

He always adds "Um" in when he's thinking of what to say - hahaha. Very funny to hear.

I'm forever asking him to tell me how many of something he sees... "how many busses do you see parked?" "How many flowers are on that page?" and he ALWAYS responds with... "1...2...10!" haha.

He just learned that pilots sit in the front of planes and LOVES them. We have a plane book and we have to go through every page, pointing out the pilots. It sounds like he's saying "pirate," but you can tell the difference cause when he says pirate, he always follows it with an "ARRR ARRR." Lol.

He's OBSESSED with watching Goofy Baseball and also really enjoys watching a skit about Pluto's birthday cake and one about Donald Duck trying to make waffles. We comment on the same things every time. "Dirty goofy!" "Silly goofy hair!" "Fire!"..... and I've become so adept at knowing where to comment that I've started getting a few pages of reading in while we watch these movies. Yay!

We still play baseball for a good portion of the day and he's THRILLED when one of us catches the ball in his glove.

He's starting to get more clear with words he previously eli-ized.... Instead of "Audi" he's saying helicopter... and he can now pronounce Fire Truck. Yay. He even busted out with "Fire Engine!" this morning.

He's big into helping mommy and loves taking the trash out with me every day. He holds on to the handles and walks down the hall "helping" me carry the bag. He also is pretty good at cleaning up his toys when asked (if he doesn't have something more pressing to do).

I think he's going to climb out of his crib any day now and it's not going to be pretty. he can get his foot all the way up to the top. If he realizes that he can stack monkey and teddy on top of his pillow, forget about it.

Ok.... he's up!

BUSY BUSY day!

I think today was one of the busiest days Eli and I have ever had! First of all - the most important and special thing that happened today was that my dear friend Natalie had her baby!!!!! WOOHOO! After 9 months of speculation, I was right - it's a girl!!!! They named her Laurel Patricia Collins and I can't wait to meet her. Eli and I have a trip planned to Boston next week, so as long as we both stay healthy, we'll be there!

Eli and I woke up early this morning (he keeps waking up before 7.... I realize that's a blessing to many parents out there, and I'm grateful of course that he still sleeps through the night, but when you're used to 7:30 as a wakeup time, 6:30 is tough!) and had a pretty perfect morning. We had bagels together and watched Eli's new favorite clip... Goofy playing baseball..... and then we got ready without any complaints! He even brought me his shoes and coat and climbed into his stroller when I asked him to. WEIRD, right? We were out the door at 8:05, only 5 minutes later than I wanted, and made it down to Eli's gym class with 10 minutes to spare. (I signed him up for a deal - 3 classes plus two open play times for only $65... a bargain around these parts, where classes are generally $30 per! I've always wanted to take him to gym classes... it's just hasn't been something we could afford. But I'm running out of time - cause I sure as heck am not going to be able to cart TWO kids on the subway to a class.... for a while, anyway). It was an hour long class with other two year olds and Eli had a great time. He loved climbing, jumping, throwing the ball, and playing with other kids. Mr. Social went up to at least five kids and said Hi to them... he just loves being around other kids. He didn't do everything he was supposed to during class, but looking around, most of the other kids weren't listening 100% either. I was really happy with the way he handled himself. Yay! We have two more classes left... one next week and one the week after. I might let mike take him to the open play classes so he can see how much fun Eli has there.

After class, we went to meet up with Sawyer and Marissa.... it was raining, so Sawyer gave Eli an umbrella. It was super cute to see the two of them sitting in their strollers, holding their umbrellas. We went to Barnes and Noble instead of the park, and the kids had fun hugging, reading, screaming, fake sneezing, and running around. (Yes, sometimes I am THAT PARENT that you can't believe would let their kid do such and such..... I'm sorry, but he's not hurting anyone by hiding under the tables at Barnes and Noble, and if it makes him happy and gives us something fun to do for five minutes, then pffffft). It was great to see Eli and Sawyer together again and cute to see them hugging and kissing each other. Buddies.

From there, we went on the train again (which, at 7 months pregnant is getting REALLY tough.... cause I still have to carry him up and down several flights of stairs at a time in his stroller) and headed down to use our coupon for BonChon, a great chicken place. I had a $30 coupon.... but it had to be dine-in. I thought they'd let me do take out, but they said no, that I had to eat in. Seriously???? Luckily, Eli knocked out on the train and was sleeping... otherwise there is noooo way he would have been able to tolerate waiting for food. It took about 20 minutes for my food to come.... and hahaha - in a total attempt to beat the system, I still ordered $30 worth of food for me and Mike. They brought me three main dishes and five sides.. hahahah - the people around me must have thought i was insane, especially since Eli was sleeping and I was clearly the only one eating. Good thing I'm pregnant, right? Too bad Eli woke up right when the food came... it's NOT easy to wrangle an "I don't want to be in a restaurant right now" two-year old all by yourself. Anywho...

We then walked over to see my friend Wendy at her office so we could pick up the Yankee tickets she had for us, and THEN made our way back to the train to go home. We ended up stopping by the bank and the library and then took a long walk around our neighborhood before heading home. We walked in the door at 3..... making for a super long day!

After a few more rounds of goofy baseball and playing actual baseball (this time wearing THREE hats... he makes me wear more than one now!), Mike came home and we ate the rest of the chicken before heading out to the Yankee game!

Eli is OBSESSED with baseball, so I knew he'd be excited to get to the stadium, and I was right. He loved saying "let's go yankees!" and loved dancing to all of the songs. He wore his little blue glove almost the whole time, along with his Yankee hat.... super cute. He lasted for about 2 hours and then declared "No baseball, no yankees....home," so we left.

It was a wonderful day!

Cherished Evening

I had a cherished evening with my little man tonight. Mike went out to meet up with friends, so when I got home from work, he left and it was just me and Eli. It was one of those treasured evenings where we just had a great time. He sat in my lap and read a few books with me....then we played Eli-hides-behind-mommy-and-she-pretends-like-she-doesn't-know-where-he-is for a while.... then we played a rousing version of boo mommy.... then we watched some of our favorite You Tube clips together.

But my most favorite moment of the night, by far, was right before I put him in his crib. He was laying on "that one pillow" and I was laying next to him on my pillow. He looked over and said, proudly, "Brother. I'm a big brother." Awww. He's really taken to the Big Brother book I got him and we've read it about a dozen times already. I love that he's starting to "get" it (sort of... as well as an under two year old can). :)

And now I'm off to watch Oprah. :) It's not every day I get full reign of the TV in this basketball-driven household!

April!

It's been a while since I had a chance to update.... mainly because I've been forcing myself to take it easy and have been napping a lot more and doing a whole lot of nothing instead of getting to the list of a million things I need to do before the baby comes. After Eli goes to bed at around 8 or so, I'm generally wiped and I come out to the couch and usually fall asleep by 9. Not much time for myself, but I know I need the sleep.

Two nights ago, I fell asleep at 9 and woke up at 12:30, starving. I went to the kitchen to make myself a little snack and was EXHAUSTED. It was the kind of tired where I even kept one eye closed cause it was too much effort to open it. I had the scary thought of... OH NO... this is what my life is about to be like! I'll be HAPPY to get three hours of sleep. SCARY. I don't think I can do it!!! lol. Mike reminded me that I won't be pregnant at the time, so that should help a little bit. I reallllllly hope this new baby is as good of a sleeper as Eli was, but I know the odds of that are slim.

Waiting any day for Natalie (my college roomie) to have her first baby... she was due on the 6th. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl and what the names are! Speaking of names, I don't know if I mentioned it, but Mike and I have finally and totally agreed on a boy's name and a girl's name! We're keeping them a secret, but I truly love both of them. Yaaaaay for that stress being over. I keep trying the names out on Eli...lol... he can't really say either of them. That's ok.... he'll get it. :)

On to Eli things....

He is COMPLETELY obsessed with baseball. He breathes baseball right now. He has a little bat that my aunt Maureen gave him and he carries it with him all the time. He has very strict rules for when we "play play baseball mommy!"... I must be wearing his blue hat, I must be the catcher, I must be sitting/squatting in a certain spot and he must be standing on our blue workout mat. Lol. He swings (and hits about 5% of the time) and has great fun pitching it back to me. Riley and Cliffy both enjoy batting the little baseball around, and Eli squeals with glee when they do.

His favorite four books right now are "If you give a moose a muffin," "if you give a pig a party," "If you give a mouse a cookie" and "If you take a mouse to school." He looooooves the "moose mussin" book, especially, and delights in eating little muffins mommy makes because they match the muffins in the book. On that same note, I can always get him to drink more milk if we start reading the cookie book, since the mouse is also drinking milk. (And I can sometimes get him to take a few bites of his pepper if I say the Peter Piper rhyme over and over).

He still also LOVES nursery rhymes, though he's letting me read more of his old standbys these days as well.

Music - he LOVES having his music on and we spend our days listening to three CDs.... an Elmo one, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse one (he looooves Donald Duck and Goofy), and a great CD my mom sent by Laurie Berkman (Mike actually said the other day that he really likes that last CD and doesn't mind listening to it at all). He loves dancing around to the Laurie Berkman CD... it's really cute to see.

He's continuing to express his desires more and more, and usually ends up saying "That one!" when he wants you to do something or wants you to get something. For example, today, he really wanted me to sit next to him on the couch. Sometimes, he'll say "Mommy couch" or "mommy sit there," but today he kept on repeating "that one... couch! that one... couch!" Lol... I guess I was "that one" today. If he wants me to lay down on the pillow next to him, he'll say "that one, pillow." lol. He also MUST have the blue exercise mat out at all times, and he always refers to it as "that one." Today, he pointed to his play-dough and called it the "Blue one" and "Red one."

He knows he's not supposed to go near the litter boxes and is usually horrified to go near there anyway.... lol... if his ball rolls even close to it, he yells "uh oh - poo poo cats!" and makes me come rescue whatever it is that is near it.

He is OBSESSED with pillows and laying down on pillows. He spends a good portion of his day lining up teddy, monkey and max (his three stuffed animals that travel room to room with him) on mommy's pillow, laying down with them, and then covering himself with "that one, blanket." He always says "SEE? SEE?" when he does this, because he wants me to see. When he's in our bed, he scurries up to the pillows and demands to be covered with the blanket.... he calls this "nap, Eli" and does it allllll the time.

When he's going to bed, we put monkey and teddy on his pillow in his crib (Max has to sleep elsewhere... I don't want the whole crib filled with stuffed animals!) and tell Eli that they're waiting for him. He usually says "Monkey, Teddy...waiting????" and then is much more eager to get in there. For nap time the past three days, he's enjoyed throwing them all out of the crib as soon as I leave and then screaming MommMMMMMMMMY at the top of his lungs until I come back in and put them back in his crib. This usually happens 4 times before he'll finally lay down and go to sleep. I'm in a catch-22 there... I want SO much to say - nope, i'm not going back in there... i can't let him have his way with this..... But I know that if he DOES manage to fall asleep without his pillow and buddies, when he wakes up and realizes they aren't there, he won't go back to sleep and I'll get a much shorter nap out of him. Catch-22.

Every morning, when he wakes up, his first words (other than "play play" and "blanket off") are "Elmo, football?????" That's his way of asking if we can watch youtube videos together on the couch. I shouldn't let him do it every morning, but I really enjoy that waking-up cuddling time with him on the couch (he always leans against me when we watch together) and it's really nice for me to not have to run around playing baseball and boo mommy as soon as the day starts. He loves it when we eat bagels together while watching and always asks... "Eli, bagel? Mommy, bagel?" His favorite things to watch right now are a clip on Goofy playing baseball, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song, Patti Labelle singing the ABCs with all of the monsters/characters dancing, Katy Perry and Elmo doing a song together, and anything to do with Yankee Doodle, Humpty Dumpty or Hot Cross Buns. Lol... he must have picked something up from the Hot Cross Buns video, because for the past few days, he's been walking around with his bowl of snacks in one hand, singing the song. He'll then come around and offer us (lol...demand that we take it) one of whatever is in his bowl.

Ok....this is getting super long, so over and out for now!

A few thoughts

Nap time is almost over...he's getting restless... but I thought I'd steal a few minutes to write about a few things before I forget.

When Eli wants something, he's getting better about using the word "want." He'll say "want banana" or "want baseball." But very frequently, he just adds "a" to the end of what he's saying. Lol. I love figuring out his little codes. So if he wants a book, he'd say to me.. "book-a?" Cars: "cars-a?" and so on. lol.

His favorite nursery rhymes this week are still humpty dumpty and yankee doodle, but he's also now become obsessed with Hot Cross Buns and A Tisket a Tasket. Lol. He HAS to run and get his cars when we get to the Tisket-a-tasket page, because there is a small road on there and he likes to drive his cars over it.... a million times. I sang the song about 56 times in a row on Sunday night. He also now LOVES the hush little baby song and this morning kept saying "bull! cart!" etc.

(He just laid down again..... dare I hope? more time?)

He said his name correctly for the first time on Monday! He usually calls himself "E-I" but he was actually saying ELI! woohoo!

I don't know if I mentioned this before (think I did) but when we used to show him pictures of himself as a baby, we'd always ask who it was..... to which he'd always reply... "baby!"... to which we'd always reply... "No, it's YOU!" So now what does he say when we ask? "Baby you!" Lol.

Favorite books right now.... (other than the nursery rhyme books that he's obsessed with).... Curious George goes to a baseball game, The Berenstein Bears play baseball.... and Bob the Builder. He also enjoys reading Clifford "Tifford."

The Boo mommy game has now evolved.... instead of me running into the kitchen with the football, then throwing it to him, chasing him to the other side.... etc etc..... He now enjoys fumbling the ball on purpose (he throws it and says "oops!") so that I can go "OH NO! FUMBLE!" and try to steal the ball from him.

The other day, I was trying on pants of his to see which he's outgrown and which he'd grown into.... much to my surprise, as soon as I started doing that, he yelled "TOO BIG!" Lol... guess my little skinny guy is used to pants being too big for him!

Amazing how much they pick up when you're not even sure if they are listening. Yesterday on our way home, he correctly told me we were driving in a "tunnel" "under water."

He can now ask me things.... like... if he's looking for his baseball, he'll say "baseball?" and put his hands up in a questioning pose. Today, I took a super quick potty break, only to hear him saying, "Mommy? What is this?" Lol. he was holding a candle. I heard him smelling it exaggeratedly. lol.

ok..... nap time is over! He wants to "play play!"