Eli - 18 months (ok, almost 20 months)

 

I'm behind blogging about Eli.  I meant to get his 18 month check up done on time, I was a month late.  I also meant to write about him when he was 18 months old, but now he's 2 months past it, he's changed already since then.  I wrote down a list of things he says and a couple weeks went by and I added 6 things to the list.  I can't keep up with this kid! Any of the kids, for that matter.  :P

Anyway.  I am now finally doing this so I can take it off my to-do list.

I really do love blogging.  I love reading posts from the past and remembering life when it was different.  But lately blogging has felt more like a chore because I can't pack it in to my day.  As I sit here, the living room has a trail of 20 books across it that Vanessa created so she "wouldn't step in the lava" from one room to the couch.  They're not put away yet.  There is laundry to flip around, dishes to wash, and tons of papers to file.  Dave is also out of town and school was canceled today so its been a "stuck in the house" feeling kind of day.  Not sure what all this has to do with Eli being a year and a half old but anyway, I digress...

Eli is quickly growing out of "being a baby" and into a full blown toddler (ok not true...he's totally NOT a baby anymore and IS a toddler...c'mon mama...admit it).  He runs constantly from place to place, unless he is strapped to the high chair or in my arms.  He's still sleeping in the crib in Calvin's room.  I should start calling it "the boy's room" because that's what it is now.  He still loves his paci and his blankies.  He's chewed up the tips of three pacis in the last week though, I think he's finding the powers of his new sharp canine teeth.  Funny timing.  All I could find a few months ago were pink pacifiers from when Vanessa was a baby and Dave was tired of seeing his little boy suck on a pink paci (I really didn't care!) so on a run to Target around Christmas time we picked up a couple new packages of blue ones.  This meant I had 4 new pacis for Eli.  And now I'm down to one new blue one and a pink one floating around the house again...just can't win that battle I guess.

He seems to have a growing sense of humor.  He loves any game that involves hiding and then suddenly appearing.  Peek a boo with hands/blankets/doors/boxes...anything goes in that department.  He likes when I say "I'm going to get you!" he will immediately run away laughing. The other kids picked up on this and do it to Eli too.  Sometimes he gets trampled.  Violet tends to "mother him" by picking him up and hugging him if he gets upset.  He tries to communicate with words but a lot of what he says is mumbo-jumbo, but he is very expressive and points and babbles all at the same time so most of the time its possible to figure out what he wants.

I still put him right in bed with a dark room and a fan and he generally goes to sleep before the other 3 kids, then Calvin slips in quietly and goes to bed after we finish up reading stories/Bible.  Eli has started to protest the bedtime a little by standing up and bouncing in his crib or purposely dropping his stuff on the floor.  But overall he goes to bed well.  Sometimes he cries in the night.  Sometimes we hear him, sometimes we help him, sometimes we let him be.  If he goes on long enough we do so Calvin doesn't get woken up.

He's moved to one nap a day now.  I try get him to sleep by either 11 after a snack or if he's not ready then, definitely by 12 or 12:30 after his lunch.

Here's his list of verbals:

- Wat dis! (watch this!)
- one, two, twee
- what dat? (what's that?)
- no
- what?
- der mom (there mom)  --> usually said after he gives me something
- done (said when high chair when he's done eating)
- more
- tanks mom (thanks mom)
- mouw (milk)
- Eyi (his name)
- dada (says this sometimes when wanting me to hold him, don't know why)
- owie
- ba-dee (blankee)
- gumbee (gummy)
- he mumbles what he thinks are letters when he hears the alphabet song
- BIOLET! (Violet!) ---> he yells for her all the time!  He doesn't have words for Calvin or Vanessa (yet).  **update a week later. He can now say "calbin!"

- a-doo-doo!
- he'll copy "oh-trotro" somehow - like "oh-tow-tow"

He likes:

- when I count to three and toss him in the air.
- playing with circular magnets when I change his diaper. He knows that its time to put them back when diaper changing time is over.
- turning off and on light switches when I hold him (he notices that stuff now)
- putting hot wheels cars on a little hot wheels track if Calvin is kind enough to let him play with it
- playing with cups in the kitchen cabinet where kid cups are stored.
- spinning on bounce n spin zebra
- climbing up on chairs and finding markers to pull caps off of
- climbing up on chairs by legos and playing with them
- being tickled.  His little grunty giggle is great!
- tromping around with my shoes on
- oatmeal, eggs/toast, cold cereal with milk, peanut butter and jelly, raisins (have to cut him off of these), cheese sticks, steamed carrots, pancakes with peanut butter
- taco soup
- cut up chicken nuggets
- cheese crackers
- smoothies (this is when I sneak in a banana)
- white string cheese sticks
- noodles
- nutrigrain bars (I save these for Sunday morning)

 He does not like:
- bread
- bananas
- burritos
- shredded cheese or cheese cut off a block.  Apparently he likes only string cheese sticks that are individually wrapped.

I know!  He won't just eat a hunk of bread like a dinner roll or something like that.  Toast with stuff on it all cut up, maybe.  But not a piece of soft bread.

At his doctor check up, he got one shot (second Hep A).  He weighs 28 lbs 12 oz, 33" tall and 19 1/2" head.
I was surprised to have Vanessa weighed at that same visit and she was only 33.  I thought they were closer in weight.

 

Violet's 8th birthday celebrations

Violet's preferences for the day:
breakfast: #8 pancake
lunch: mac n cheese for lunch
dinner: chicken taco soup with tortilla chips and funfetti birthday cake!

We celebrated Violet's birthday on January 25, the Saturday after her birthday.  She woke up to purple streamers over her doorway.
I made fun pancakes and created a number 8 for her.  The night before we cut out a cardboard 8 and she wanted to decorate it with me, so we used markers and stickers and made one side rainbows and the other side a "world of stickers".

Most of the morning and through lunch we stayed at our house.  I baked her a funfetti cake with white frosting and a pink sparkly 8.
For a fun activity, we used a loaf of thawed out bread dough to split among the kids and they got freedom to create whatever shape they wanted.  It was hard for them not to play with it like playdough, but instead they had to shape and create a thing to let sit for awhile and rise, then bake when ready.

Violet made a teddy bear she named "Pooh Bear", Calvin made a big donut shape thing that Dave helped him put sprinkles inside a groove in the middle.  Vanessa wanted to make a snowman.  The sprinkles got everywhere and spilled on the floor!

We let the bread rise, then baked it.  It blew up so huge!  Violet put honey on her bear and ate some of it.  Calvin splattered honey all over his and ate the entire thing.  I think Vanessa ate the head off her snowman but left the rest.  I put together the soup in the crock pot.

Kids all enjoyed mac n cheese and broccoli for lunch and then the plan was to go ice skating at Young Arena from 3-5 pm.  Rachel joined us at the skating rink!  Dave sat back with Eli watching (he was still wearing his walking boot at the time, keeping weight off his healing foot) and took a bunch of pictures.  Rachel and I helped Violet and Calvin skate.  Vanessa wanted to skate too so we took turns pushing her around the ice.  Violet learned how to skate better and could skate around on her own some.  It was a really fun time!  Dave was sitting on the sidelines with a very grumpy Eli but managed to take a lot of pictures.  Violet seemed to really enjoy the time.  When the two hours was over we took our skates off and watched the zamboni machine clean off the scraped up ice and make it slick again.

We came home to a yummy smelling house and ate the chicken taco soup with tortilla chips - then we lit the candles, blew the candles out with the happy birthday song, and she opened her presents!

Rachel got her a "Super Cute Activity book", scratch-off black art book, big set of twist-up colored pencils, Mom and dad gave her a cute zebra/pink dress, her own roll of scotch tape, V8 fusion juice (Violet is EIGHT!), and cat's cradle; Grandma Jo sent along more cotton loops to make potholders with, Grandma Martha sent a rainbow loom to make rubber bracelets with.

We also wanted to watch The Jungle Book but couldn't find it on the roku and it wasn't available to rent, so we watched Despicable Me instead.

What a great birthday!  We love watching Violet grow up!!

For fun I "interviewed" Violet.  I asked her these questions and I recorded her answers.

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole wide world?

My family!

2. What is your favorite color?

pink

3. What is your favorite thing to watch on TV?

Hmm. Probably...I have a lot of favorite ones.  Maybe, um, I'll say Woody Woodpecker.  He's hilarious.

4. What's your favorite thing to wear?

Oh boy.  I think the zebra pattern dress.  And swimsuits!

5. What sport do you like best? Or favorite thing to play?

Favorite sport is ice skating.  My favorite thing to play is helicopter.  You swing a rope in a circle and everyone jumps over it.  We play it in gym at school, and at recess.  

6. What is your favorite song?

Oh boy. Hmm. Does the Interlude count? 

7. What's your favorite breakfast cereal?

Life. 

8. Who is your best friend?

Uhh, I have a lot of best friends.  Selah.  Can I say three?  Selah, Alexis, and Casey.

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Ooh!  A doctor so people don't get sick!

10.  What is your favorite book?

Wow. You know, I like to read books.  I don't like reading.  Oh, I think I know.  Um. Epossamondas! And the pooh bear book.  It's so cute, I love it.

11. What are you really good at?

Ehh. *laughing* I don't really know mom.  *laughing again* I'm good at - I don't know - do you know what I'm good at?  Legos, writing books, making pancakes with you, piano, build snow forts outside in the snow, I love ice skating, making rubber band bracelets, I'm also good at wanting a lot of candy.  I'm good at making forts.  

12. Where do you want to go on vacation?

to Michigan and to my cousin's house, to waterparks, and I like to go on dates with mom and dad

13. What is your best memory?

oh my, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok....mom, do you have any ideas? GOING TO BYRNES POOL IN THE SUMMER!

14.  What you do with $1000?

Whooo-hooo-oooo!!!  I would buy myself a big pool that filled the whole second lot!

15.  What is your least favorite food?

probably, oh, um, cabbage.  and celery.

16.  If you could have a wish, what would it be?

oh wish, wow! okkkk....this is going to be a hard one.  to have my own kindle, right now, and my brothers and sisters not make me angry.

17.  What's your favorite flavor ice cream?

ohh. the green ice cream with oreo chunks in it and moose tracks. those two!

18.  Who's your hero?

God

19.  What's your favorite thing to do with your friends?

to have like, i've always wanted to bring all the girls from second grade and invite them to byrnes pool with me. I've never done that, but it would be fun. 
Play helicopter and tag and actually, nothing else.

20. Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

yeah. John 3:16

this one is a little out of order, taken on her actual birthday (Mon, Jan 20th, before going to school)

Violet's cardboard train

I helped Violet make this - she saw a pic of this in an arts and crafts book and wanted to make her baby the driver.  Its so cute!

Today is Violet's 8th birthday!

She had school today, so it was a "typical" morning, but I tried making it special for her by taking her out on a quick trip last night to choose some treats to hand out at school today to help celebrate her birthday.  We went to Target. She chose rice krispie treats with little chocolate candies on top and a bag of Hershey's milk chocolate nuggets - enough for her class to each have one rice krispie treat and two nuggets.  We got milk on the way home and she helped me carry it all to the car.

We put the treats in little zip lock baggies and she wrote her classmates' names on the baggies.  She recalled the desk seating arrangement in her classroom so she wouldn't forget anybody.  We put four hershey's nuggets in Miss Oppman's bag.  

This morning I made her a number 8 pancake to help make the morning a little more special than a normal day.  We plan to make her favorite mac n cheese for dinner tonight - and the official party will be on Saturday the 26th when we have more time to celebrate.  She really wants to go ice skating.

I'm enjoying Violet growing up!  She's developed a larger sense of responsibility and thoughtfulness.  She will initiate helping out with things like vacuuming and dishwashing.  She still changes clothes in the middle of the house and leaves things laying on the floor.  But her "growing up" personality is emerging and she's becoming quite the young little lady.  

She went to a school friend's birthday party on Saturday the 18th at Chuck E Cheese and determined to win enough tickets so she could spend them to get prizes for Vanessa and Calvin.  She got a magic wand for Vanessa and a little cup of playdoh for Calvin to play with.  She got herself a big bag of cotton candy.  We were impressed by her thoughtfulness - just like the way she spent her Awana bucks to get everybody Christmas presents.

Vanessa and a typical morning

A few moments earlier we can hear bonking around upstairs.  She's probably woken up, turned on EVERY light she can find.  Her room, the bathroom, the hallway.  She leaves the lights on.  She comes downstairs and peeks around the corner to see the kitchen.  She's wearing her "bunny" pajamas and thinks she can hop hop hop and eat carrots.  Then she runs back upstairs, changes into nothing but underwear and a tutu, and dances and twirls around the kitchen like a little princess.  She says that princesses sing, and Calvin told her princesses don't sing, so she wanted to ask me to make sure she was right, that princesses in fact DO sing.  She is right.  :)
I poke her belly.  She responds, "My belly doesn't squeak!"

She always asks for oatmeal squares.  It is her favorite cereal right now, and doesn't seem to love Berry Kix like she used to.

After breakfast she asks, "Where are Violet and Calvin?"  I always respond, "They are at school."

She runs away to change into something else.  She leaves a trail of clothes behind her all day.  She puts on her princess dress up dress and then find a pile of toy dinosaurs and is now playing "family" with them.

Aunt Rachel and Violet's "play date"

 

A coupon was gifted to Violet at Christmas time from Rachel for an overnight playdate.  We picked a date that worked and she got to go last weekend, Saturday night, Jan 11th.  Violet packed her suitcase with a change of clothes for Sunday morning, pajamas, toothbrush, and saved a pretty dress to change into for when Rachel picked her up at 4:00pm.  She was so excited!  I don't know many details, but I know what they did.  

Rachel took her to Pursuing Picasso to paint a mug and then they had pasta/meatballs at her house, then they went out to Culver's a split a mint chocolate shake which they were both too full to finish.  They got ready for bed, watched some cartoons before bed, spent a lot of time choosing an alarm clock ring tone, and got to sleep.  I think Violet slept in Rachel's bed with her. :) Violet wanted pancakes in the morning and Rachel made some then realized she had no syrup, so she gave her peanut butter and honey to top them with.  

She brought Violet to BBC in the morning.  I am so glad they had a chance to connect.  It made me want to take Violet out on a date! :) 

Violet and Calvin's (oh, and Vanessa's!) first experience "at the movies" seeing Frozen

After reading some good reviews and hearing good feedback from some friends of mine, I decided it would be really fun to take Violet and Calvin to their first "theater" experience to watch the movie Frozen.  It was a movie Rachel and I were interested in seeing as well so we decided to go tonight.
Just so happened Dave had started feeling pretty sick earlier in the day and was feeling rather yucky.  Flu symptoms and everything.  He decided to stay home so I put Eli in bed at 7:15 after bathing all the kids ~ and Rachel, Violet, Calvin, Vanessa and I went to the 7:45 showing at College Square.  I had originally intended on leaving Vanessa home but seeing Dave was not able to do anything, so we brought her along.

I kept "going to a movie" a surprise until we pulled into the parking lot.  I only told them we were going somewhere fun and new.  I waited until Rachel pulled up for me to tell them all together.  There was plenty of whooping and hollering in the parking lot when they found out they were going to get to see Frozen in the theater - of course, the movie ALL their friends seemed to be talking about at school.

They seemed perplexed that we had to pay for tickets and then not give them to anybody when we walked into the theater.  

We treated them to popcorn and all shared a big Sierra Mist with two straws.  We found theater #7 and Calvin was wowed by the size of the screen.  Vanessa ate popcorn and sat on my lap for most of the movie.  She snuggled up to me after awhile and might have fallen asleep but she kept her attention on the movie too and seemed to like it.  She said it was "not too scarey". 

The movie was super adorable.  Rachel and I were laughing at so many scenes!  Violet and Calvin were cracking up at the goofy little snowman who was funny among even the more tense scenes.  A few growling wolves and a big giant snowman monster who guarded the ice castle was about as scary as it got.  And the end wrapped up very nicely with a message about true love and sacrifice.  We all loved it!

two extra days of Christmas break

The last two days (Mon, Jan 6 and Tues, Jan 7) were supposed to have been the first two days of school starting up after Christmas break.  Because of the extreme cold temperatures hitting -19 and windchills way colder than that, school was called off.  I wasn't mentally prepared for those two days with all the kids alone so cabin fever hit us pretty bad.  Violet and I did manage to accomplish organizing the "crafty" area in the house yesterday - we pulled every coloring book, puzzle buzz magazine, marker, glue stick, pencil, eraser, craft, bead, book, you-name-it, out of the closet, threw away a TON of stuff that was written/scribbled on, and organized the drawers and two shelves.  They look much better and a ton of things that collected in the dining room was cleared off too.  And in the process they found a bunch of "new" things to do. 

Over Christmas break the highlights were

- the cardboard slide
- Calvin's new hotwheels car race track.  He and Violet build cool stuff and they like to hook it up high on a bookshelf to race their cars down.  They named a bunch of their cars and my favorite its a made-up word they called "infloodable blue". 
- T.A.P.E.  They love, love tape.  They "need" tape all the time.  Attaching things to things.  It drives me crazy.  I find tape in all parts of the house where tape shouldn't be.  But they love it and keeps them occupied for a long time.  Violet even wants her own roll for her birthday.
- the 1000 piece candy wrapper puzzle.  I let it sit done for about a week and just put it back in the box today. 
- celebrating Calvin's 6th birthday
- spending New Year's with Shawn and Kim
- seeing my family all together on Christmas day and getting to "play" in the gym

Eli answered me

Yesterday I was trying to distract Eli to get him away from messing with Calvin's hotwheels track.  I brought Eli over to a different part of the house and built him a tiny track to put his cars down and while I was building it he kept walking away from me.  I said with more energy than normal when speaking to him by saying his name to call him back to me.  He stopped in his tracks, turned and looked at me, and with what seemed like annoyance, he answered "What!"  Turned the tense moment into a laughing one!  He's never answered me that directly before until today.  His usual response is "no".

last day of 2013 - New Year's Eve

We continued tradition again to wrap up the year 2013 with Shawn and Kim Thompson.  Shawn's parents were staying in a hotel in CF (Country Inn and Suites) and let us come and swim at the hotel pool on Monday night the 30th of December.  This made for a late night.  But it was such a fun treat to do this on a cold winter night!  As we swam we could see snow falling outside the windows.  Felt like we were in a snow globe. 

Shawn and Kim both got in the water with their two kids, Caleb (3) and Genevieve (1) ~ (they refer to her as Jenny).  Violet and Calvin swam around like crazy (and when did Calvin learn to swim?) and Vanessa wore a life jacket and had enough confidence to swim with her jacket.  Eli was with me and splashed around.  He eventually got sick of the water and wanted to walk around.  I don't think we got out of the pool til 9:00.  I changed the kids into their PJs and they got to bed as soon as we got home. 

On Dec 31, we slept in sorta late, had a late breakfast, I went grocery shopping for new year's snacks, and as a group, we had decided to meet at Panchero's for lunch with Shawn, Kim, Chuck and Carolyn (Shawn's parents).  Kim and I both had things to grab at Walmart so we got the kids settled at our house after lunch and the littles down for naps, and we got to go out together for a bit.  I had an errand to run to drop off our baby swing at Rachel's so she could take it down to Jay and Molly's for Theodore.  Kim came with me and I showed her where Rachel lives and works.  We made a run to Walmart for some random things. 

Its always nice to see Shawn and Kim.  They are an encouragement to us like we are to them.  We talk about parenting, life, God, and have fun together.  We play games, eat lots of food, and prayed together to bring in the new year.  We had a funny moment trying to find the ball drop on our roku TV player.  We thought we were tuned in to a local news channel but it wasn't right so we missed the moment.  Dave looked at his phone and it said 12:02 and he was like "oh, its 2014" or something like that, and we just shrugged, toasted our champagne glasses, and laughed.

The next morning we had egg/ham muffin bakes, donut muffins (yum!), and lots of coffee.  Kids played around and S&K left about 11:15 to meet Chuck and Carolyn for lunch at Red Lobster. 

finished the 1000 piece candy wrapper puzzle

On New Year's Day the puzzle got finished.  This was a Christmas present so it got opened the day after and worked on daily over Christmas break.  I think Violet completed well over half of it.  I helped her but she loooooved putting pieces together!  Calvin helped a lot too but he has less of an attention span for such concentration. 

It was a fun puzzle to work on because it was as if we were putting together a whole bunch of individual puzzles and then putting them together.