Eli: 2 year update

We spent New Years Day fighting off a virus...Wes was worn out from taking care of all of us...he was happy to go back to work the next day!

Eli loves his "hot cocoa". Mama Ross started this for the boys and they don't understand why I don't make it every time they ask like she does....but I give in every now and then

He loves the laptop, my phone, and the kindle. His favorite thing to watch are videos of himself and Jay (he asks to watch them over and over, even I am tired of seeing them!) And he brings up all kinds of menus that I never knew existed with his crazy finger tapping.

This is one of his favorite books right now. It about the beach, boats, and fish (of course!).

"jay! see fish!"

he carefully placed all of these in a row and exclaimed, "eli build Gracie's bench!"  (Wes built her one for Christmas so Eli was copying his daddy, of course)

Eli still loves his paci, "wa-wa", and "baby" for naptime (he used to prefer one over the other but now he just has to make sure that he has two in hand)

Jay vacuuming up his mess after he spilled crackers on the floor

Helping Daddy with the fire

Kissing Jake "nite-nite"

Jake is so patient with these little hands

"no jake! no eat fish! no jake!"  Eli was about to panic until I intervened.

This is his movie-watching pose, thanks to Jay....It is so funny because he is so uncomfortable and fidgets around the whole time but, since Jay does it this way, he has to also.  haha

Mouth full of food

Showing it to me now....and look at how pretty those eyes are!

Jay convinced Uncle Alan to watch "Yogi Bear" with him at Granny's. Jay was thrilled to have a partner in crime that night!

Playing at Mimi's with Gracie

Jay and Gracie came up with a new game that day. They both chased each other around screaming as loud as they could and then cracked up laughing. Sweet Gracie crawled as hard as her little legs would let her. And that girl can scream!  I couldn't tell who was louder most of the time.

This is how we've spent most of this week...snuggled in blankets trying to stay warm. Eli had to have his own blanket this time.

For some reason he has started to call this chair "the boat"...it took me a few times to figure it out but when he says, "Eli sit in boat" this is where he means.

Playing on the ice today. The snow missed us, much to Jay's disappointment, but he still had a good time sliding on the ice.

Eli was cracking up every time Jay fell over but it only took him one fall to decide he was ready to get out of there.

Jay is smiling for the camera

Eli's watching from the sidelines

"Jay fell down!"

Ice ball fight.....hurts like crap, in case you ever wondered.

Maybe this child should live up north...he scraped my whole porch off. 

I haven't written an official 2 year update on Eli so I am going to try and capture all of those little memories I don't want to forget.

- He is 33.5 inches (34%), 28 lbs (37%). Jay was 36 inches at 2 so Eli is a good bit shorter but so it his weight so he will most likely be smaller overall.

- He says a lot of words...basically repeats anything we say. The other day Jay was telling a story and Eli was his little echo at the dinner table. He says 3 to 4 word sentences as well. It is amazing to watch as his little brain figures out how to get out what he is thinking. If Jay isn't around he constantly talks, narrates the day for me ("get in mama's car", "go play outside", "read tractor book"), says "hey" and "bye" to everything (as he is eating he says, "hey milk!" "hey soup!"), but when Jay is here he usually is quiet and just listens. He is such a thinker, he absorbs everything and spends a lot of time pondering how to do it before actually trying. Is that a little Wes or what?!

- He isn't a picky eater at all. There are few things he won't try and finishes his plate most days. His favorite meal is spaghetti, favorite drink is hot cocoa, and favorite snack changes daily. Even though he likes most foods, he is very opinionated about what he is in the mood for. There have been many times that I've emptied out the pantry before finding just the right snack.

- He loves his gummy vitamins. And remembers every morning without fail. I have been much better at taking mine just because this child is unfailing in his regimen. He says, "bidamin? eli's bidamin?" Then as soon as I get it out he says, "mama's bidamin?" If I don't take it right then he keeps on..."mama's bidamin! mama! bidamin!!!"

- He is just starting to pretend play with his toys. He basically mimics Jay and makes the cars talk, yell, and fight with each other. It is hard to follow, thanks to his limited vocabulary, but he has a plan and at the end he just looks at us and grins. Like, "that was a good story, uh?"

- He wears size 4 diapers. I am going to really start potty training soon (I know keep saying that). He is somewhat interested but not enough to actually give it a real shot. He sits on the potty for a minute, then stands up and says, "all done!" very happily. But nothing is there so the diaper goes back on. It is so cold right now that I can't let him run around naked outside, or inside even. But as it warms up, I am going to have to stick to a plan...and bring out the bribes.

- He has several favorite books that we must read each night. There are two about tractors, one about boats, the beach one in the picture, two train books, a baby animal book, and "Elmo goes potty". And yes, we read all of them before he's ready to go "nite-nite". Luckily, he doesn't know that I read only a small portion of each page and usually skip a few in the middle.

- He sleeps from about 8pm to 7-730am each night. Rarely wakes up at night. When we've read the last book he looks at me and says, "nite-nite?" which is my cue to lay him down with paci and two loveys, and shut the door for him to go on to sleep. I seriously think he trumps all other babies in this department!  Except for when he's not at home, then he is a pill to get to sleep!

- He has been a little more clingy to me than Wes lately, which is unusual for him. He is a daddy's boy for sure. He knows when Wes calls that he is done at work and he will say, "Daddy home soon?"  And drops whatever he is doing when Wes walks in to run into him yelling, "Daddy, Daddy!!" Jay is right beside him doing the same thing of course. This has got to be every Daddy's favorite part of the day.

- He always runs now, I rarely see him walk unless we are holding hands in a parking lot. He jumps (which was a very proud moment for him the first time he did it), dances, loves to pretend fall down, kicks a ball forward, is a great thrower, tries to catch and does about half the time, loves pushing things around the house (chairs, baskets, boxes), and loves to wrestle.

- We go to music class on Mondays and have a great group of friends there. He watches everyone a lot, again taking it in and figuring it out, but will usually get going by the end of each song. He has is favorite songs and ones he doesn't care for. Depending on his mood he can be kind of belligerent about this. Last Monday he stomped over to the corner every time a song came on that he didn't like. He would just stand there and scowl at us until one he liked came on. He is opinionated and stubborn!

-  I finally gave him his first "hair cut" the other day. Wes had been telling me that we needed to cut it...he said he looked like he "had horns" and was "disheveled". I thought the long hair around his ears were precious little curls. But I gave in and gave him an all around trim. You will see the change in the videos. He looks so old now!

I have spent the last few weeks taking little videos of him talking. You can really tell how his language is coming along, and I've learned that the boy loves giving interviews. I think he'd sit forever as long as I'd keep asking him questions. So here are all of my "Interviews with Eli"

                                               notice the "horns"....

                                         Here is his grown up hair cut....

Here is he showing off his new dance moves...there is a funny story about this. He started with those dance moves out of nowhere one day and I kept asking where he learned them. Finally he said, "like Papa Rich, Eli dance like Papa Rich!"  And I figured it out. I had been converting old home videos to DVD so Eli saw Dad doing karaoke and dancing (obviously, "dancing" is a loose term here). He watched them over and over while I worked on them and I guess was figuring out his moves!  I know Dad would be so proud! 

This is one precious of the boys playing. Eli truly laughs the hardest with Jay. They fight as hard as they play but these moments are the ones I will cherish forever.