Rough Night For Dad

Usually when Huts and I go to bed, Eli has fallen asleep and we put him into his bed. Not last night. As I came up the stairs, there he was. He told Huts he wanted to sleep with him, so I went to Eli’s bed. Poor Huts. When I came into the bedroom this morning, he was scrunched on the edge of the bed with Eli in the middle. Maybe tonight Eli will fall asleep and Huts will get a reprieve.

Toys, toys, toys. Eli is totally into dragging out as many toys as he can and scattering them around the house. I bet I spent 20 minutes this morning picking up toys and putting them away. I wish I knew why Eli had to get out all of his toys. It’s not like he plays with them. Oh well. Soon he will be picking up his own toys. That should produce some wails, like it did when I told the kids they had to pick up their bedrooms. Christian and Tori did it quickly. Eli gave it a shot—his dad found him in his room crying because it was too big of a job. I can’t believe he took me seriously.

Eli the Maniac

Eli had a great Easter! He was wild the whole time, running down people with his bike and cars, tossing eggs, shooting his watergun at trees, ramming his head into the couch and anyone sitting on it, and so on. According to him, Santa is the only one who brings toys. The Easter bunny hides eggs and brings Legos—the very gifts he got for Easter!

He wasn’t into dyeing the eggs, but he did like painting them and made a real mess of that. He snacked a lot, but not on the candy like I thought he would. He got a Cars 2 airplane and ran that all over the house. He crashed his head into Christian and then me, and then cried about it. This morning, I found him in the hallway with Junior. It was 4:30, and apparently he had gotten up and was lying in the hallway. Not sure why he didn’t come into our room like usual. He slept another hour in our bed and then got dressed and grabbed his new toys to take to Sharon’s.

And He's Off

Eli got a bike with training wheels, and there was no looking back. He hopped on that bike this weekend and biked all over the parking lot. Then he biked all the way home, about a mile, without stopping and without complaining. “I can do it. I can do anything!” he told me over and over. He took another short ride yesterday and told me he was done with his trike and I could sell it. Watch out world, we may have an athlete on our hands!

Disaster

Eli is our free spirit. He is more open and more vocal about his needs and wants. Last night was a good case in point. All five of us went to Christian’s Boy Scout Banquet. Was Eli good? Not a chance. He ran around the cafeteria until it was time for the program to begin, then he fell onto the mat by the door and whimpered. I figured he was going to throw a major fit soon, so I hauled him out of there. We walked up and down the hall, then we returned to eat. He was ok during dinner, eating but interrupting his dad often with the question, “What’s so funny?” He threw yet another fit when Huts was working through the volcano. He wanted to help, got food coloring all over his hand and threw a huge fit when the kids booted him out of the way. We went to the hallway for a second time and stayed there through most of the ceremony. I got to see Christian get his badge while Eli played under the table. What a mess!

Eli is lively and has no qualms about getting your attention. The other night during dinner as we were helping the other two, he yelled out, “Are you listening to me!!!!!!” We all cracked up laughing because it was so shocking. What a mess indeed!

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.