Chatterbox

Eli can be moody, but yesterday afternoon, he was in a great mood. He had loads to say and loads of questions. Why are we going to the bakery? Where are Tori and Christian? What we getting at the bakery? And so forth. He kept up the chattering in the car and long into the night.

This morning, he woke up with more questions. Why are there school buses? Who is getting on the bus? Where is the bus going? And so forth. Who knows what he asked his dad on the way to the sitter’s.

Eli appeared to have fun at the waterpark this past weekend too. He liked the swimming and the games. He rode a few rides. Then he got tired and was a real stinkpot. He laid down in line at the sweet shop—people got a kick out of that. He laid down on the floor many times at the rides. Ugh—finally we got him back to the room and Huts got him to sleep. He was better on Sunday, though he ran off from me several times. Yeah, he’s a runner. He loves to run off when you are trying to shop. He gets into trouble for it, but it never seems to curb his behavior. We’re hoping he settles down by age 4. If not, I guess he is going to be seeing the time out chair a lot!

At Home Boy

Like his siblings, Eli likes to be at home alone.  While we went to the Globetrotter's game last night, Eli stayed at home with his Mama.  He was better for her by himself than he is when everyone is home.  He gets a bit riled up by the extra people and activity.  He watched the shows he wanted to watch and sang along with Dora and Diego.  He got fewer snacks than usual and was happy to play by himself.  He was laying down in the bed when we got home from the game, but he got up, ran and hugged my leg when he saw me.  After that I had him lay back down and shut the door so the other kids wouldn't keep him up.  He usually falls asleep in our bed watching a show and that night was no different.  It all depends on how tired he is when he falls asleep.  Later this year, he'll be put to bed on his own at a decent bed time.  


Eli also likes playing by himself or with Mya at the sitter's house.  He usually gets lost in the shuffle when there are a lot of kids there.  Most days, he's there by himself and loves it.  He gets to watch TV in Sharon's room and can crawl under the covers and get comfortable if he wants.  He runs errands with her and is always well behaved she says.  Now if we could only get him to stop running over our ankles with the grocery cart.

Flying Solo Again

Eli is once again going to the sitter’s on his own. He takes some toys, chooses a TV to watch and has a lot of fun all on his own. He is fantastic at playing by himself. He makes up games all of the time at home and off he goes. He also does a pretty good job of playing with Tori. He loves to play house with her. What he does not do is play well with kids he doesn’t know. He gets mad at the store when other kids are playing with the train table or games. He is not into sharing at all! Imagine that—the youngest not being into sharing.

Weave Me Awone Daddy!

Shocks of all shocks, Eli turned on his dad last night. As most of you know, Eli is a Daddy’s boy. He wants Daddy to do everything for him. He only turns to me when Daddy is not around. Last night, after an argument with Daddy in the bathroom, Eli decided he would rather deal with me and told Huts to take a hike. Huts was never so thrilled in his life to be dismissed and relegated to supper duty. Mommy was the name of the game until this morning when Eli was back to being Daddy’s boy.

Eli typically wakes up crabby, and in addition to telling me to leave him alone, he fought with Tori. He insisted that he was the only one going to Sharon’s, which, of course, he wasn’t. Tori tried to tell him otherwise, but he wouldn’t listen. She broke down in tears, and I put an end to that conversation. Hopefully, everything went OK when the two went into Sharon’s. Eli is the youngest and accustomed to flying solo with Sharon, so who knows how well he reacted to another day of kids.

Hyper

We took the kids to see the lights and the dinosaurs this weekend. The lights were great; the dinosaurs, not so much. Oh well. It was something to do. I really thought the kids would get bored on Sunday, but they played all day long, never once asking if we were going out. They ran around the house in their PJs all day long, chasing each other and playing games. Our house was NOISY but pure fun. They finally settled down on the couch with us around 8—Eli fell asleep fast, and Tori and Christian went to bed at 9. Everyone seemed a little tired this morning but happy.

Don't Worry Mom

Once I showed Tori my stitched up hand, I decided to show Eli. I removed the bandage, He jumped back, put his hands on the sides of his face and said, “Ewww, gross. Put your band-aid back on!” I fell into the floor laughing, to which Eli sighed and reassured me the band-aid would take care of everything. Band-aids are miracles in our house. Eli uses them all the time, whether he has a real need for them or not. They will solve all of your problems, don’t you know!

Sharing or Not

Generally Eli is pretty good at sharing with his siblings.  He'll play with Tori and she'll lead the playing, but mostly he's playing with his toys with her toys.  He'll help Christian with his lego's and other activities, but once again he is usually the 'helper' or gopher.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, a four year old came to visit.  Eli usually isn't around kids close to his age or boys that are interested in his toys, so this was a true test.  For most of the weekend he seemed to play with C.J. and share his toys.  He had a few instances that were not so friendly.  Eli was playing with is fire trucks in the living room and C.J. came into play.  Eli wasn't playing with his police truck, so C.J. started playing with it.  As soon as Eli noticed, he started crying that it was his toy and C.J. couldn't play with it.  Unfortunately he got a hard lesson in sharing that day.  He was told several times that he needed to share, but this didn't stop the tears.  Luckily he seemed to eventually accept it and a pre-school brawl didn't break out on the playground that day.  Sharing in kindergarten may be his big lesson for that year.

Weave Me Awone!

 Yes, Eli is back to that again, letting everyone know when he is in a foul mood. He has quite the little temper, and sometimes, it can be downright funny. Take the other afternoon, for example. We wanted to know whether he was going into the school to get the kids or sit out in the car and watch his DVD. He put his hands on his cheeks, shook his head really hard and yelled, "I can't do both things at once!" Huts and I burst out laughing, to which he immediately told us that it was not funny,. It was funny and it was funny five minutes later when he yelled at all of us that we were being too loud! There is no guessing with Eli. He flat tells you what he thinks!

A Real Trooper

Eli could not wait to go trick-or-treating. He talked about it all week and got ready fast. Our little firefighter lasted longer than we expected. He hates all things scary, and there were a lot of scary decorations, hut Eli dealt with them. He went halfway around  the block and out again with his dad and sister. He came home with a big bucket full, and amazingly, he ate little of it. We have given much of the candy away already! On to Thanksgiving!

Improvement

Last night we decided to go out to eat. Christian and Tori were happy and surprised. We usually do takeout because Eli cannot sit still. Even with crayons and cars, he likes to get up and get out of the restaurant, leaving Huts and me to scarf down our food so we can deal with him. Last night, however, he did much better. He got a bit antsy from time to time, but for the most part, he sat at the table and made very little fuss. He also ate some of this dinner—a miracle these days—and left the restaurant happy. Eli is growing up fast!

Scrape, Fire and More!

This weekend a lot was happening with Eli.  On our way home Friday night after running a few errands, Eli fell asleep in the car.  Usually he might take a quick nap and be up by 7...not this time.  He slept until 11 pm!  Since I was still up, he and his brother played until Christian went to bed at midnight.  Eli ate a pancake and played fairly quietly until 2 am when he decided, at my suggestion that it was time to lay in his bed.  Luckily he slept until 7 and was ready for our garage sale.  Then during our garage sale, he was out riding his Mickey Mouse fire truck vehicle and lost control and tipped over scraping his head.  He requested a band-aid.  He got a little medicine for the pain in his head.  He wanted me to take it off later in the day, when I tried he kept ducking his head down, making it really difficult to get the band-aid off.  Eventually, I got it off, causing pain, then he wanted another band-aid for the pain.  Again he ducked his head every time I approached his head with the band-aid.  I got it on eventually, but it wasn't great.  He didn't even realize he still had it on Sunday night and requested we take it off, but him ducking prevented that.

He also had to go garage saleing with Tori and I.  While she got a giant doll house to play with, Eli got 4 small Mouse's for his train.  He played with those most of Saturday.  That night we took him to the store to pick out our treadmill.  While I was getting it, he went with his Momma to the coin operated rides.  He played nicely until another kid tried to get in the ice cream truck with him.  He was having none of that and threw a fit.  I heard him still crying when his Momma was walking him out of Sears.  He was still crying when I got to the car and continued his fit when we moved his seat so we could get the treadmill in the car.  He was upset most of the way home, but calmed down eventually.  Luckily he went to bed at a decent time and slept all night until 5 am when he walked downstairs and slept on the couch with his Momma for a few more hours.  He played the day away and even stayed at home with his Grandma  and big brother while we ran some errands.  He fell asleep around 9 while laying on the couch with us and was a little crabby this morning, but was fine by the time we got in the car.

Eli is a Big Boy Now!

Hold on to your pants, folks, because Eli is nearly potty trained! He toyed with it for months, and then bam, he did it this week. Jayden got on board first at the sitter’s and then Eli followed. He told Sharon no thanks one day, that he had his own potty at home, and then he decided to hop up on hers the next. He has had just two accidents—at the park when he was playing too hard to realize what was going on. Last night, he slept through the night in underwear and stayed dry. He also did #2 for the first time on the potty yesterday afternoon. What a big boy, and what a snap compared to Christian who was not trained until age 4! Way to go, Eli!

Teary Boy

Eli did not take to the fact that he was going to the sitter’s by himself very well. He cried, and cried, and cried without Tori. Sharon did her best to comfort him and said the other little girl, Jayden, had done the same when her sister went off to preschool. When we picked him up that afternoon, he was tired and cranky. It took about an hour before he stopped telling me to “weave him alone!” Yep, he tells me that a lot. He is a daddy’s boy most days and wants me to leave him alone. It’s quite funny. Eventually, Eli came out of his bad mood and spent the rest of the night snacking on goodies and giving his big sister kisses!

Train Boy

Eli has become a train fiend this summer. He got a Mickey Mouse train for his birthday and has already run the new batteries out of it. Every time we go to Toys R Us, he immediately goes to the train table and plays with them. While we were there last time, he found the Chuggington toys. They are bigger and more electronically advanced than Thomas the Train toys. He wanted a BIG train. So we got him a remote controlled Wilson train. He loves it. He tries to run it over everything. He keeps asking about trains and if he can have a bigger train. Eventually we'll have to get him a full size one!

He inherited Christians Thomas trains and plays with them when he can get someone to open them for him. He loves putting them in long rows and playing with them in his batman house. Not sure what he'll be into next, but for now, he's got his train obsession satisfied.

Birthday Boy

Eli turned 3 on Sunday. He got a Lego truck and a Mickey Mouse train, plus a few other things. He also went to a water park on Saturday, where he went up and down the big slide with his dad a dozen times. He also played in the baby pool and on the jungle gym. He had a great time and was one happy boy. Does he know that he is 3? Sometimes. Other times he is 6, 18 and so forth. He is ready to grow up before we are ready for him to! Just like his big brother.