Part Boy, Part Girl

Eli got Flicker and Rip for Easter, along with some cars. He carried the tools all over the house, outside and to the sitter’s this morning. He loves Flicker the Flashlight and told me he needed a new one (Grandma already fulfilled that wish for Christian’s birthday). He loves his Handy Manny tools.

When he wasn’t fixing something, Eli was hanging out with his sister, carrying her new purse and playing with the dollhouse. He helped me set up all the furniture and told me where to put the people. Then he did the same for Tori. He followed her around for a few hours, playing with whatever she told him to and singing her songs.

Tori has been teaching Eli his colors, and what’s the first color he has learned? Pink! Everything is pink, though he does know the color blue. Yesterday, he ate all of the pink candy he could find and identified everything that was pink. The girl is rubbing off on him!

Another Cold

Eli rarely gets sick, but he does get colds, and the radical shifts in temperatures had brought on another. He has had a hard time sleeping, and Huts has spent many a night in his bed with him and alone. Sometimes Eli wants his dad to sleep with him, and sometimes he wants to sleep with me in our bed. We’ve had a lot of restless nights here lately. Wish the weather would get warm and stay warm, and Eli’s cold would go away once and for all!

Just A Little

When I got into the car yesterday, Eli was fussing just a little about his brother and sister not being there. Late that night, he got a little sadder when I asked him if he missed them. He seems to, but not much. He played all night long, enjoying the fact that he had Mom and Dad and all of his toys to himself. At this rate, he may never want them to come home!

Busy Little Bee

Eli is a night owl like his dad and sister. Seems like when 9 o’clock rolls around and his brother and sister are in bed, he perks up BIG TIME! He plays and plays and plays, chattering the whole time and always begging for 5 more minutes. It is getting harder each day to get him to settle down and snuggle up by us on the couch. Too much adrenalin I guess. What does seem to wear him down is playing outside, so hopefully, he will get lots of outside time this summer and get into the habit of going to sleep at a decent hour and sleeping in his own bed all night long! Can you tell how much Huts and I long for sleep?

Better This Time

Eli was a monster the last time we had parent-teacher conferences. He squalled and wriggled around. This time we had a sticker/coloring book for him, and that seemed to help. He got a little restless in the second conference, but he much better there than he was last time. He got lots of Chinese rice and fortune cookies as a reward. He also got some candy from Christian’s teacher.

Snakes

That’s what Mom came huffing and puffing about to Huts last night. Piper, our little yellow cat, found herself a baby garter snake and brought it up on the deck. The kids, Mom and I watched Huts sweep it into the shovel and toss it across the creek. At first, it appeared to be dead, but eventually it started wiggling and Huts swept it up into the shovel.

Christian refused to come downstairs and see it. Tori and Eli watched from inside. They were both pretty scared and Eli kept telling Piper “No more nakes, Piper.”

It did not scare me as much as an adult snake, but it was definitely gross and gave me the willies. Piper seemed really confused that we weren’t happy about her little gift. We kept her inside in case she had plans to go get the rest of the family. She stalked around from window to window, eager to find her way back outside. I don’t know if Mom let her out today or not. If so, I hope the snakes had made their way elsewhere.

That cat. She will go after anything that moves. This is not the first time she has played with a snake or brought one up on the deck. Last time, she dropped it in the kitchen and Huts pushed it out. Ugh!

Got A Cold Again

Eli felt like crap on Monday and stayed home. Now he has a cold, lots of coughing and a runny nose. Poor boy! He just can’t get a break. He couldn’t fall asleep last night and Huts said he was all over the bed. He wants his daddy this week, so I am not much help. Maybe he will switch parents tonight and Huts will get some rest. We’re hoping to get some yard work done and it would be nice to be awake enough to do it.

Mr. Crabby

Eli stayed at home Monday because he was sick. He is better now, but he is awfully crabby, and the only person he wants is Daddy. Poor Huts. He has to carry Eli everywhere while trying to make lunches, fix dinner, etc. Eli sounds like he is getting a cold, so maybe that is the reason he is so crabby. His sister is getting a cold, too, and that’s making her tired and crabby in the mornings. Ugh! Spring better come soon so the kids can get well and stay well!

Me Too?

When we get into our subdivision, we tell the kids they can unbuckle. The older two usually say yay and unbuckle their seatbelts right away. Eli always wants to know if we mean him too. I don’t know why he thinks he would be excluded from this; he isn’t excluded from much. We tell him that he too can unbuckle and it takes him just a second to get out. Then he tries to climb into the front to mess around with things. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he doesn’t, which usually ends up with him throwing a fit!

Last night he didn’t get to unbuckle. He fell asleep once we got to school and he slept for a couple of hours on the couch after we got home. That made for an easy dinner for the rest of us but a crabby Eli later. He was very whiny but fell asleep rather quickly. We were worried he was going to stay up until midnight.

Pzzzzzz

Like his sister, Eli also likes to pick out things. This weekend, it was a Star Wars gun, which he could not work much less would play with. His way of getting us to buy toys—PZZZZZZZZ (please) with an earnest look on his face. Sometimes it works, but not this weekend. The gun got put back on the shelf and he turned his attention to the games set up. He played with those for a few minutes, or rather fought with his sister over them, before it was time to leave. The trip was worthwhile because we got a microwave and an idea for an Easter toy for Eli—another tool from Handy Manny.

Eli loves Handy Mandy tools. This weekend, he got out his hammer and helped me move the kids’ stuff around on the walls. I would hammer the nail and then he would get on the stool and hammer it a couple more times for good measure. When I put my hammer away in the closet, Eli put his little blue hammer on the shelf below mine. He is quite the handyman!

Moving Toward 3

It’s hard to believe, but Eli will turn 3 in August. He is talking a lot and letting us know what he thinks about things—man, is he loud. He is running around with ease, up and down on stools and stairs like they are nothing. He even tries to put on his own clothes and shoes and often succeeds. I have to remind myself constantly that our house is now baby and toddler free. We have a little boy on our hands now. He even got a big boy haircut a couple of weeks ago, sitting on the bench instead of his dad’s lap.

No more babies, no more toddlers. It’s kind of sad, but liberating. By this time nest year, Huts and I will be free of diapers and hopefully sleeping through the night—Eli is still working on potty training and sleeping all night long in his bed. We haven’t had six months of uninterrupted sleep in nearly eight years. How great that is going to feel!

No Nap

Eli missed his nap on Sunday—wouldn't take one for anything. Then when we got to the sitter's, we learned that he and Jayden had missed their naps yet again. Too hyper I guess. They finally crashed around 4, but that's when we arrived so Eli was asleep for about five minutes. He was a bit crabby that night and did his best to stay up, but Huts finally got him to crash around 9. That boy! We're starting to think he may be done with naps. He's not even 3 yet!

On another note, it is warming up. The snow is melting big time, and the days are growing longer. We can finally see the grass, and before long, the kids will be able to go outside and have some fun!

My Pie

I wanted a French silk pie for my birthday, instead of cake, and Huts and Eli stopped off to get it on their way from the sitter’s. Eli likes pie, so it was his pie, not Mom’s. “My pie,” he told me over and over, even after we got home and he got a couple of slivers. We accustomed to him wasting more food than he eats, so we gave him just a dab. He asked for more, but I don’t think he ate much of it. “My pie” is almost gone, so Eli will soon be sad.

Eli also had fun in the snow, but I didn't get too many pictures of him in it. Below is the video of what we got this past week. Over 14 inches! Hopefully we don't get anymore this year!

Snowed In

Aunt Diane took lots of pictures of the snow when she came up for Christmas. Uncle Travis shoveled the driveway and deck in no time. Well, you two and all of other readers, you ain’t see nothin’ until you see the head-high piles on our driveway now. We were in the path of the blizzard, and it took us a whopping two hours to dig ourselves out. Good thing we shopped for groceries on Sunday. The kids went to school Monday and haven’t been back since. I am betting they will be going tomorrow, but we’ll see. It all depends upon the temperature.

The snow was like powder and easy to shovel. There was just so much of it that we tired quickly. The kids played in it for a while, but eventually, we all made our way back inside where we stayed until this morning.

Pooh Fan

Eli liked the Lady and the Tramp movie so much Huts got out Winnie the Pooh, and he loves it! He says Pooh all of the time now. After a few days of the DVD, Huts decided to switch things up and put in the Lion King this morning. Eli seemed interested, but we’ll see this afternoon. Sometimes, the movie has his undivided attentions and sometimes it doesn’t. He seems to like animal movies, but I don’t know if the lions scared him.