bridge troll

Despite renewed conviction to attend our ward's playgroup, we are pretty hit and miss. When we do go the boys have a wonderful time and I do too. This Monday, depsite the best intentions, we missed it. Luckily we got a second chance since Monica came through town and we got together later in the day.  Eli likes to perch atop his bike and mostly watch the other kids. Yesterday though, he found a hideout under the slide and hung out there most of the time while kids climbed above him. The Three Billy Goats Gruff kept coming to mind.



Today at playgroup Eli just walked around begging food from the other kids. Good thing he's cute.

eli sandwich

Jason and Mason we're playing around on the little dirt bike. Instead of being alarmed at the noise, Eli just wanted to be part of the fun. We sandwiched him between his dad and brother and he stopped fussing, just held on for the ride.

 

st. patrick snack

Thank you Eli for loving my spinach muffins when no one else did. You reminded me of a leprechaun all day and I wished I had a little suit and hat to dress you up in. I love celebrating each holiday and each every day with guys.

spaghetti eddie 2.0

I used to take countless pictures of Mason eating spaghetti. I couldn't help it, he was so darn cute. Now I see that it must be a universal cuteness for all children. Messy faces, especially stained in bright orange/red sauce, make eyes brighter and smiles bigger. So now I take countless pictures of little brother.  

facts about eli

1. Eli likes to help clean. Unfortunately it doesn't always mean things get cleaner, usually the opposite actually. But it's cute that he wants to be part of what we're doing. His favorite chore is dishes.
 

2. He still has four front top teeth. Three front bottom teeth. Two top back teeth. His bottom gums are sad a swollen and blistering. My poor kids have really unusual teething patterns.

3. He doesn't wear clothes much. He starts out in clothes but they don't last. He likes to wear shoes though.



4. I really really do trim his hair. But it seems to make his hair grow faster. And sometimes without thinking I apparently pin his hair back with bobby pins I find on the floor. I didn't realize I did this until I saw this picture. Headbands, though, I use on purpose.

aunt jennifer

Jennifer stopped by with her boys on their way to California. As they were preparing to leave Eli put on his big brother's snow boots and charmed his way into her arms. He wanted to GO! He wouldn't come to me and just stayed in her arms not looking at his parents. We joked about her taking him but I'm afraid he really would have gone and not looked back.

It's always an awesome moment as a mom when you have to pry your kid out of someone else's arms and they cry because they have to stay with you. I don't think Eli knows what stranger anxiety is, at least not when it comes to his awesome aunts. 

(For the record, the diaper and boots outfit is his favorite.)

now you see him...

I was at Mom's admiring her new iPad. Eli was sitting next to me on a stool and I was even holding onto him. I'm still not sure what happened but all of the sudden he was flying through the air. He did a back flip! I managed to keep him from landing head first but he still hit pretty hard. I'm pretty sure he'll be sporting some black and blue on his left eye by tomorrow, just in time for a check up with the doctor. (Thanks Mom for the picture)

big spooner

Eli wants to be a big boy. I try to tell him to stay little, but he doesn't listen. Today I caught him using his spoon really well. This is remarkable since when he eats I encourage him to just use his hands. It's cleaner in the long run. This boy loves his bowl and spoon though and will often empty the dishwasher and carry these items around the house. Today if he couldn't get a good scoop he would carefully load up his spoon with food until it was full enough to put in his mouth.

I love his capabilities.
I love his determination.
I love his bed head.
I love his smile.




I love his "I am not going to smile even though I want to and you want me to I'm just not going to do it " expression. Yep, there it is. All the men in this house have this look. Love it.

what eli might look like

Looks it's Mason and Eli.
Just kidding, but when playing with Kyson we couldn't help but realize that Eli and Ky look alike with their matching curls.

  

If only Eli (or the camera) would have cooperated... 

drink

Today at church, while spending the majority of the three hour block in the hallway, Eli figured out the sign for "drink". He does it by sticking his finger up his nose, tilting his head waaaaaaay back, and saying "d".

Aw, close enough.

i think i am a crazy mom

I remember- prekids- hearing crazy moms talk about their kids. I never really really understood what was so cute about the things they said or what was so fascinating about their...um...diaper details.

But then I had kids and I realized how every little thing they do is completely incredible. For example, I was cleaning the boys' room and found this pile of socks under Eli's bed. And I think it is just adorable. I love that he pulls off his socks before he falls asleep. I love that he dumps them out in the same spot. It's just cute.

So yeah. I am a crazy mom. And I love my kids. And their socks.  

om nom nom

Eli eats. and eats and eats and eats. When we go to dinner at my parent's house, I feed him first, then we get there and he eats again. If he sees any food at any time, he wants in on it. I run out of ideas of what to feed him. His favorite foods are bananas, pears, and crackers and he'd eat them non stop if allowed. I mean entire bananas and pears and probably wants the entire box of crackers. Sometimes we hand him food and then turn around and it's gone. We search, but it's just vanished. I mean consumed. Gulped. Inhaled.

When I can't find something, I prefer to say "Eli ate it" than admit I'm getting absent minded. He eats so much more than Mason. We like to tease Mason that someday his brother will be bigger and stronger than him and then he'll get him. That was a bad idea. Now Mason seems to be trying to fit in all his bullying now while he has the chance.

For Family Home Evening we had a special treat: orange ice cream bars. You better believe that Eli wasn't going to miss out on the refreshments or let a drop of goodness go to waste. Check out his killer grip on Jason's hand. His finger tips are turning white. This eating machine means business!





 

typical day

Had I known he was going to sleep in until 10 I would have been more wise with my time. Usually Eli is up at 7:45. Also he is ready for bed every night by 7:45. We try to get him to last until 8pm.

Eli woke up happy happy as usual. He wouldn't be removed from him crib until he had a firm grip on one of his blankets. He never leaves without one. He ate a huge breakfast of oatmeal. He eats circles around his big brother. He helped me do laundry. Eli loves filling and emptying the baskets although it doesn't help much in terms of actual chore completion. He got mad when I wouldn't let him get in the dryer to play.

We waited for Mason's bus to come. We looked out the window. He kept pretending what we were doing was really cool. I suppose it was.

Eli hung out in the sink while I cleaned the hall bathroom. He likes looking at his reflection. As I was trying to finish the last few tasks he decided it was time to play with the toilet. He loves to open the lid and then flush. Over and over. I scolded him and removed him from the room. I kept cleaning. As soon as I wasn't paying attention he bolted back in a did it again. "No no no, Eli". He just smiles. He kept at it until I realized I was never going to finish cleaning. So I put him in time out. I've never done that with him before. I put him in his crib. He smiled some more.

Mason saw him in there and decided to join him. I told Mason that if he was going to be in time out too he better teach Eli not to do naughty things. I heard Mason say "I know it's hard, just don't do it". That sounds familiar. Really I shouldn't let Mason play in there. Eli takes a nap every day at noon. But since he slept in, I'll just let the boys be happy together. I love they have each other.

Yesterday Eli was up before Mason. I changed his diaper and he realized Mason was still in bed. As soon as I let him get up he went to Mason's bed and crawled up in it. He pounded on Mason's shoulder and announced his presence with loud "ah!"s. Mason tried sleeping through it but kept smiling which encouraged Eli to continue. Finally Mason gave in, sat up, and said "Good morning brother".

territorial

Eli just asked me to open the dryer (well not in so many words). It's one of his favorite toys. I opened the door and he saw it was filled with clothes. He got a very grumpy expression on his face, yelled some obscenities, and is now taking every article out and flinging it to the floor. How dare those clothes be crowding up his play space.

( Don't worry. He's well supervised. )

Good Night 2011

Eli is a stomach sleeper, but sometimes he stays on his back long enough for me to sneak back in and take pictures. He sleeps with my old baby blanket both at night and for nap time. Eli goes to bed first and then about an hour or more later we quietly go in with Mason to tuck him in.

We got lazy and started letting Eli take a bottle to his crib for a couple months. I felt really guilty about it. Plus, I noticed he was waking more and more at night and often we'd need to get him and hold him and then eventually get him a midnight snack bottle to get him sleepy again. I was sure we'd ruined this perfect sleeper. After he turned one it really started bothering me that he had a bottle at all. Yes, we are normally the "toss the bottle at one" type of parents. But this week I just decided ENOUGH! and put them all away. Cold turkey. For about one day Eli seemed to be wondering where it was. Within three days we had a new nap/bedtime routine that did not involve any bottles. Walk into his room, turn on the cd player, turn off the light, shut the door, he reaches for the door, we say no. Pull the blanket up between us, he rests his head, sing a song, kisses, say good night, he says Ya! Ya! Put him in bed. He giggles. We giggle and walk out the door. I can't believe how easy he adjusted. Sometimes Eli will cry out once at night but then he goes right back to sleep until morning. Overall his sleeping, quality and quantity, have improved.

I wish I could take credit for this awesome sleeper, but we also have a three year old that doesn't often make it through the night in his own bed, so... no credit. No blame :)

Eli looks a lot like my baby pictures, but every day he looks more like Mason, who is a mini me of Jason. 2011 was a fun year, we can't wait to see what Eli comes up with next year.

games

Eli's favorite games are:
1: Putting lids on containers. This results in a very cluttered kitchen floor. He also likes to fill the containers full of whatever he can find. I love watching him stay busy. He'll half fill a bowl, dump it out, put three things in, take two out, dump the last one, put them in again and repeat.
2: Throwing things down the stairs. If I can't find something, I check the bottom of the stairs and usually find a pile of random objects he has thrown down. My mom had a bunch of Santas at the top of her stairs when we went over for Christmas Eve. It was like a huge jolly massacre as Eli threw each of them down, down, down.
3: Bowl and spoon. We have to be really careful about closing the dishwasher or else Eli will have it emptied in seconds flat. He likes to carry around a bowl and spoon and pretend scoop up food.
4: Empty the drawer. He is into everything. I am learning the art of closing doors. This has never been a strength of mine but if I want the house to stay in any type of order it helps to contain the chaos in each room.
5: Eat the blanket. Okay, so not really a game just a silly thing that he does a lot. Especially now that he doesn't get a bottle he seems to need extra mouth stimulus.

elf on a shelf

Have you heard of Elf on a Shelf? I was interested in getting one for Christmas until I realized I had the best edition out there. This is where Eli prefers to sit while I load the washing machine.

Eli's FIRST Birthday

It's celebration time!

 Mason was very specific about what he wanted his party crown to look like. 

The party scene

Eli's favorite part: The decorations spinning around from the ceiling fan.

  

 The cake!
 

I couldn't pick just one picture, so here's a bunch. Mason tried showing Eli our tradition of taking the first bite sans hands, but Eli was interested in the carrot. This was Eli's first taste of chocoloate (...pretty much). He loved it.

Easy to please, Eli loved his simple presents.

 

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Heaton, Eli got TWO phones. Hey, we have TWO boys that want to play with them.... thanks guys.

happy go "lucky"

Here is Eli.
Typical Eli.
He has every reason to not be smiling, yet smiling he is.
Is this just this just the kind of person he is always going to be?

Eli fell and hit his head really hard. Sometimes we handle things well. Sometime we think, well I did my best. And sometimes we lose it and totally freak out and traumatize the 3 year old. Guilty. Whenever Mason sees blood he always says "I didn't want that to happen." Mason, by the way, is not responsible for this injury. He just really doesn't like blood or when his brother cries.

By the time I uncovered the mask of blood on Eli's face and had ice on it, Mason was shrieking as he ran up and down the hall. I've mentioned he's a lot like me, right? Around this time I was calling for Mason to come to where we were and Eli just up and fell asleep. I yelled at Eli to wake up and cut it out. I wasn't sure sleeping is allowed after such a fall. Jason was out and not answering his cell so I did what anyone would in this situation. I called Mom. She came right over and got us all calmed down by the time Jason came in. The cut wasn't as bad as I thought. I took Eli to InstaCare where he continued to be darling and charmed all the nurses. The doctor gave him three stitches and Eli hardly fussed. By the time the doctor was finishing up, Eli had caught the eye of one of the nurses and was flirting and smiling. The doctor repeatedly told me he'd be fine, no brain injury, and as I left he asked "Um, are you going to be okay?"


What am I to do with such a boy? It seems like the more I struggle, the more he shines. I react badly, he keeps smiling. I dwell on how bad it could have been and how scary parenting can be, but he's over it. Moved on. Thank you God for sending us Sunshine.

daddy's boy

Eli loves his daddy. Every day when Jason gets home from work Eli MUST be picked up by him and MUST try on his hat (that's his first official word) and MUST be held for a bit before his dad goes and does anything else. He often picks Jason over me, which is fine, it makes me happy to see Jason happy. If Jason is sitting on the ground Eli will find him and make himself comfortable on his lap, leg, or head. He just wants to be close. It's cute to see them hanging out like that. And like most crazy boys, Eli likes to play rough and wrestle and daddies are really really good at that.

Note: Eli does not like to be thrown around much. Or tipped upside down too fast. And he doesn't jump off things like his older brother did at his age. He's more cautious, or perhaps we (as parents) have gotten lame. Lamer? Most lamest.