Eli: 15 Months

Eli is a walking, talking, fit-throwing machine. His 15 month well check was great. He got 3 shots and I'm sure the people in the building next door heard how he felt about that. I have always said I am so thankful that he doesn't cry much because, when he does, it literally hurts my ears. He weighs 22lbs (40%) and is 31.5in long (60%). He still looks so pudgy to me so those stats are surprising. I was so glad I was able to tell his doctor that he is walking, just in the nick of time! He is still wobbly but can really get going and almost gets into a run before he realizes it and chickens out. I love that he is so careful though. Jay is going to cost us a fortune in medical bills from his ridiculous stunts so we won't have much left to repair poor Eli's mishaps!  And he really does love walking. The only time I've seen him crawl is on the stairs or when on hilly ground. Anytime we go somewhere new the first thing he does is walk in circles through the room and has such a proud look as everyone praises him.

He has really clung to "lovie" during this scary time of new milestones. He does not let it out of his sight and must have it in hand before beginning a walking venture. 

For other things...he says several words: "mama" but doesn't call me this anymore. He switched it to "baba" a few weeks ago. I don't care what he calls me though, it's precious in any form.
"papa"- started this after visiting Papa Tim back in January. Anytime Jay and I mention Papa, Mama Ross, or Mimi he just starts repeating, "papa! papa! papa!"- I'm not sure if he thinks they are all Papa or if he just associates papa with any grandparent. I'm sure they all feel the same way as I do about what he calls them though.
"Dink!" (drink) I put the exclamation point behind it because he always yells that word with passion. And will keep saying it until it is in his hands. I am rushing around, looking for the sippy cup, pouring the milk, managing Jay's demands, while the whole time hearing an urgent "dink! dink! dink! dink!"....funny and nerve wracking all at the same time.
"Day" (Jay) If Jay is out of sight Eli yells for him. He always has to be right with his big bro. When I tell Eli it's time to go pick Jay up from school is gets so excited and the whole way there yells, "Day! Day!"
"Dake" (Jake) , "Tishy" (Kitty), "Tuesh" (Shoe), "Uh Oh (still a fav), "tee" (tree), "Laya" (Malayah from next door), "Dayee" (Daddy), "hey", "be bye"
Wes mentioned last night that he doesn't seem to babble as much as Jay did. Jay talked for the sake of talking (big surprise, right) but Eli speaks only when there is purpose in it. Uhhh, is that me and Wes or what!? :)  

He loves being pampered. Back rubs, brushing his hair (because you know that is so necessary), rubbing lotion on him, even brushing his teeth. He likes doing that on his own sometimes too.

He eats anything he can feed to himself. See the picture above...eating some cake while doing serious police work. He has a good life.
It is rare that I get to feed him with a spoon these days. His favorite foods are bananas, blueberries, black beans, lima beans, chicken, yogurt, and goldfish. And he enjoys Moe's Monday just the like rest of us. ;) 

He loves faces and points to the nose, eyes, and mouth. He gets them mixed up some but normally will point to whatever you call out.

I love this wooden baby swing! It will be Wes' first project when we move. 

He unloads drawers constantly (and I load them back up constantly, fun times). Even with his toys the sole purpose is to empty them all out and move on. No need to play with them, just destroy each room, wait until I clean it all up, and start again. And, can I remind you, that we have the house on the market...makes for some long days!

These next few are from the zoo. It was so much fun for Eli now that he's walking. The two of them just went off exploring together.

Walking around in circles in this big room

Making a break for it

Mesmerized by the penguins

I know I mentioned how crazy he's been lately. Well last week I noticed his top two molars had come in. No wonder he was acting possessed!  He has definitely been better since then. So he has 8 teeth total (6 on top, 2 on bottom).

Malayah brought Eli some cotton candy. Because I love it when people give my toddler mouthfuls of sugar. ;)    I was happy to see he wasn't a fan.

And this is why you don't leave soda cans within his reach. (the neighbors caught this on camera and I just saw them! haha)

He loves outside. Thanks to Jay, we are outside several hours a day, especially with the nicer weather lately. He just walks all over the yard chasing balls and following Jay around. He loves stroller rides and loves police car rides even more. Unfortunately there is not always room for Eli due to the large assortment of police tools that Jay feels are critical for the job at hand. Soon, Eli will start fighting for his seat so Jay better enjoy the solo rides while he can.

These next ones are at Monkey Joe's yesterday. A few months ago Eli screamed bloody murder if I sat him in a bounce house. Yesterday he loved it. It was quality time with just me and Eli as I only saw Jay racing past me to get to the next thing.

He would occasionally go up to the big slides and yell for "Day!" to come down. Sadly, Jay was way to busy to give baby brother any mind.

Speaking of, Eli has learned how to fight over toys. There have been several times that I've been in another room and hear the most dramatic, ear-piercing, devastating scream from Eli. I run in thinking something horrible happened only to find the two of them pulling a ball, car, etc back and forth. It only takes a few screams until Jay usually gives up and decides the toy isn't worth permanent hearing damage. Yesterday morning they had it out over Jay's new soccer ball. Eli claimed all of the balls in the house long ago and Jay went along with it since he is into trucks and superheros right now. But this was his new soccer ball. He was not letting Eli take this one!  And, oh my, they were pulling and screaming over that ball all morning. And I didn't fuss at Jay because it was his ball but you can't really explain that to a 1 year old. It was fun.


That's all I can think of and Eli will be up soon but here is a short video of Eli practicing his soccer skills while Jay had his first soccer practice. I just caught the end of it but he kicked the ball around for a while. I think Eli may just make us rich and famous with his athletic skills one day.

Updates

My riding partner down to Ga....I love my kids but Jake won the travel companion contest by leaps and bounds

Picking grapefruit at Granny Curry's house.

I loved the warm Florida day!  We are so ready for spring!

Eli joining in.

I love that Jay gets to enjoy the exact same places Wes and I did growing up. Every time we go to Tifton, Valdosta, Clyattville, Dixie, and Palatka we get to relive precious memories with the boys. The fact that they find all those places as exciting as we did is priceless.

He's pretty sure he can do this on his own.

Eli and his Mimi

Trying to get a sweet smile....

he wouldn't cooperate so I stole a kiss instead

Passed out on the way back to Valdosta

Nothing pleases this child more than to tear a napkin into a million pieces.

Riding in the wheelbarrow. Check out Eli's sweet smile!  Melts my heart!

Lately we've seen more of this face though....hitting the terrible twos early!

Pitching a fit because I told him 'no'....and this boy has some lungs!

Playing with a superhero mask from Jay's party

Valentines Day sign for Daddy

14 reasons why Jay loves him....Jay thought of every one himself. They were so funny and so sweet!

Wes was working in Gainesville, Fl last week so the boys and I spent some time with Mom and seeing family. It made me so thankful that we will be closer to everyone in just a few short months!  And Mimi even convinced Eli to walk!! Finally! Lazy boy would prefer to be carried around forever. The first day she had him walking with one hand. A few days later he only needed her pinky. The last day he took off without her at all!  Since we've been home he's been seeing just how far he can make it before plopping over. Every time he falls, he gives himself a big round of applause and then starts over. I will post a video below.

I hope that, distracted by his new skill, he will tone down the "I am the boss and I will scream it to everyone around me" attitude. Oh my....I don't know where my sweet, calm baby went. I swear some days this boy is demon-possessed!  Even Jay is getting annoyed with his temper tantrums and you know that is saying a lot!  He is showing out at church too and that drives me crazy!  I have always prided myself in the fact that my boys are pretty good in child care groups. Even when they are awful with me, their caregivers always brag about how good they are with them. But lately, Eli has been hard to handle in the nursery, mainly Wed nights since he knows his Sunday teachers so well (and really does love them) but night time is different!  It's not him I am worried about, its the poor workers who have to deal with him. But more than that, it hurts my pride that I am now "that mom with the fussy baby." I sure hope it passes quickly!

As for Jay, he is four and big now and had a cool Batman party, or so he tells everyone he meets.

He is working on writing the alphabet, he can probably write 8 or 9 letters without any help. He loves to trace after me though and can write just about anything if I'm guiding him.

He is so excited that we just signed him up for soccer which will start within the month. I am bound to have some funny stories about that! 

He keeps us laughing daily with his "deep thoughts" and questions. The other day he pulled a dollar bill out of my purse and said, "look mama!  It's one of the three stooges!"  I told Wes and he cracked up. We don't teach our kids about the presidents but they sure know who Larry, Moe, and Curly are!

He made me laugh last week when I was trying to get him to help carry his toys upstairs. After the 3rd or 4th toy he said, "mama! I can't carry anything else, I'm not an octopus!"  I told him I know exactly how he feels.

He is better about sleeping in his bed now but probably once a week I'll go upstairs to find him curled up next to the dog. He is very concerned that Jake doesn't have a bed as high as his and I've had to promise to try to find one soon. He says that "Jake really really needs a higher bed so that we can push them together and sleep right next to each other."

Oh and one last story about Wes. I wish you could hear it from his point of view but he's not home so I'll do my best to tell it just the way he did. The dates that he had to be in Gainesville overlapped with a shower I had at our house so he, in a brief lapse in judgement, volunteered to drive the boys to Valdosta by himself. I just kept asking him, "are you sure you want to do this? You know it's six hours of torture, right?" But he did it and I had a very relaxing ride down the next day with Jake.

So for his ride down, the boys were actually very well behaved and didn't give him a lot of trouble at all (probably because we cheated and turned Eli forward facing for the week), and they stopped at Bass Pro for a break. Eli had a dirty diaper so Wes took them in to the bathroom, started the diaper change and told Jay to go pee. Right as he was in the middle of getting Eli cleaned Jay walked over with his pants around his ankles and a metal knob in his hand. "Daddy, I broke the potty!"  Wes couldn't leave Eli so just told Jay to go put it back from wherever he found it and pull his pants up. Men were walking in and out with naked Jay just standing right in the middle of the bathroom continuing to fret about the broken potty. Then the wipes were stuck in the holder so Wes asked Jay to come help him but Jay just couldn't hold it the right way and after a few frustrating moments for all 3 boys, a nice man walked over and asked Wes if he needed some help. It's a sad state of affairs when one man asks another man if he can help with a diaper change! Finally they got the wipes out, got Eli dressed, got Jay dressed, and put everything back. Except Wes had to pee too, so he stood at the urinal, holding Eli (who was very curious about what his dad was doing, by the way), and trying to keep Jay from breaking anything else. I told Wes those men must have thought, "that poor single dad. his sorry wife left him with those kids and he's doing the best he can."  But they made it out and safely to Mom's and I have to say, Wes handled that drive so much better than I ever have, so I need to step up my game!

My next post will be a 15month update on Eli. I am making a list already so that I can remember everything to include!  Here are a couple videos:


Just a few moments playing peek a boo...

His first day walking by himself!