Eli at age 2

I haven't blogged about his birthday party yet - that's coming - but right now I want to take the time and write down things I remember about Eli at his current age - TWO.  Busy, busy, busy, and learning, learning, and learning.

He seems to have stretched out and gotten really tall in the last 6 months.  He's also heavy.  I don't know how much he weighs but close to 33 lbs would be my guess.  I wonder when he'll pass up Vanessa in weight.

As I type right now I'm sitting in the basement on the floor with the laptop on my...well...lap. :)  There are tornado and thunderstorm warnings for the next hour so the kids are happily entertained with Curious George and Eli is sitting next to me rolling a big wheel from a truck.  The truck is upside down.  He's just spinning the wheel with all his arm's might.

Earlier today I noticed Eli sitting in a kid sized lawn chair which was set up in the dining room against the wall.  It has a little cupholder.  I walked by him sitting in the chair and glanced at him and got a mental thought that all things seemed normal and he was fine so I kept walking to wherever I was going.  But then my gaze stayed on his activity and I noticed he was drinking something.  Both his hands were cupping something to drink out of.  He stood up with the drink in his hand, then slowly and carefully put it in the cupholder and walked away.

I walked up close to the little chair and saw a long stemmed wine glass full of water.

I'm just thankful the glass didn't break.  I took the wine glass with water in it and put it by the sink in the kitchen out of his reach....calming my mind and beginning to be thankful nothing broke and he wasn't hurt.  I started investigating how in the world he'd gotten this in his hands and Violet told me she'd taken a wine glass from the side of the sink where dirty dishes pile up (must have been from an adult the day or two before).  She rinsed it out and filled it with drinking water for HER to drink, but she must have set it down within Eli's reach, and he'd gotten a hold of it.  *sigh*

aaaaand there's the wine glass....

Another interesting story about Eli is the fact that he really prefers to sleep in one of the hanging chairs in his room.  We'll put him to bed IN HIS BED at night and for naptime, but he'll wait until we've left and gone downstairs to collect all the blankets he can find and climb into the little hanging chair (the lower of the two, the only one he can get in), curl up into a ball, and fall asleep.  Its so, so cute.  I'm at the stage in my "parenting" when I feel seasoned enough that this is just something that will pass and he'll outgrow it.  I remember fearing Vanessa would only sleep in a swing when she was a baby because from birth to about 6 months that's where she spent her naps/nights.  Eventually she outgrew it.  Eli made the switch from crib to twin earlier than the other three kids and I think it was a bit of a shock to him when the kid's room got re-decorated in March.  He's always the first one awake yelling and waking all the other kids up.

When he'll outgrow it, I don't know.  But for now I'm just going to think its super adorable and let it go.  I'm happy he's sleeping somewhere peacefully.  Sometimes we find him snuggled up to his blankets on the floor too, maybe he falls out, who knows...but Eli and his twin bed aren't really meshing yet.  I'm just thankful he seems flexible enough to find a cozy spot and sleep.

So here's some things I want to remember that he does consistently right now.  Because I know in a week or two, he'll have a new set of things he'll be doing and I'll have forgotten all this stuff I want to remember.

• He connects sweet treats with birthdays.  He knows the "happy birthday" song ends with "to you" because when he wants a treat, cake, or something sweet, he'll say "to you! to you!" reaching for it.  
• In the car if the kids are loud and yelling, he'll shout "Quiet!" but it sounds more like "Cwyyy-ett!" Making it a long two syllable word.
• He's not scared at thunder.  Its been a stormy summer and it seems normal to hear thunder lately.  But he gets a surprised look on his face when he hears it and says, "boom boom!"
• I brought my guitar to small group one Wednesday night a few weeks ago and played "happy birthday" for Julie Elmore.  Eli heard us playing.  A week after I got my guitar out to play and at first glance of it, he said, "happy to you!" remembering the song I played.
• He naps during the day...sometime.  Usually once.  Sometimes he's tired and ready to sleep by 10 am, sometimes he's ready later in the day.  
• He loves airplanes, choo-choos, and cars.  He still knaws things with his mouth.  I frequently find him with a squishy lego wheel in his mouth.  He'll never swallow anything but food, but he likes chewing/sucking on little squishy things.
• He'll happily sit on the toilet.  If I know he hasn't gone yet and has eaten a big breakfast, I sit him on the toilet right after he eats and he'll go poop on the toilet.
• I've given him about 4 haircuts.  I pull his hair straight up and cut it all to the same length, and the curls tighten up even tighter.  Every couple weeks or so it starts looking really fuzzy (like a dandelion ready to blow seeds) and I give his hair a little trim.  
• He loves the pool on the deck.  He copies the older kids.  He puts his arms up, yells "whoa whoa whoa!" and splashes his whole body in the water belly first.  He submerges himself and comes up laughing.  We sing, "Alligator crawl, alligator crawl, Eli's doing the alligator crawl!" and he immediately puts his hands on the bottom of the pool (which is only 18" deep or something like that) and moves his body along the pool.  
• He's pretty tolerant of the chaotic moments in the house.  He doesn't seem to get stressed out by fighting or not getting enough attention.  When he does throw fits its because he's trying to do something and it isn't working right.  
• He still needs the occasional mommy snuggle complete with blankets.  He says "bunk-ee" for blankie. 
• The first bite of every meal is a struggle.  He fights the first bite and refuses to eat anything.  I usually pry open his mouth, get the bite in with a lot of screaming/yelling.  Tell him not to spit it out.  He will chew, swallow, then usually want more bites with no fighting.  It really gets old fighting him all the time to take those first bites.  He's generally a good eater.  His favorites are oatmeal, nutrigrain bars, apple slices with no skin, pretzels, raisins, cheese slices, cooked carrot pieces, pancakes with peanut butter, PBJs, chicken nuggets (he's liking ranch lately), pizza, bagels, rice, corn, and noodles.

He struggles with normal things a 2 yr old does.  He speaks some words clearly ("wook at me mom!") but most of his speaking is mumble jumble.  His attention span for things is really, really short.  If he wants to read a book, he'll bring one to me, sit on my lap, we'll open up the first page, then the second, then he's done.  He shuts the book and hops off my lap.  Then gets another book, does the same thing, decides he's done after 2 seconds, then moves on to something else.

I forgot to mention this ~ if he's left alone and unattended for longer than...um...12 seconds...this is his "top 5":

1. Go to my bathroom, dig through my make up and smear it all over, or take out as many bobby pin from the pin bucket and spread them all over the floor.
2. Take the toothpaste from the upstairs kid's bathroom and squirt it in his mouth.
3. Open the little half drawers in front of the kitchen sink and take out my bottle scrubbers, scrubbing toothbrushes, and other little sink items and spread them around the kitchen floor.
4. Open the food cabinet and open the pretzel tub or the raisin container and start eating as much as possible.
5. Splash in toilet water.  His favorite is to take the toilet brush used for scrubbing the toilet and bang it in the toilet water.  The toilet water is flushed about half of the time this occurs.

(okay, there's more to add to it....I'm on a roll here)

6. Climb up onto a chair, lean over on to the table as far as possible, and grab a marker or a crayon that he knows he's not supposed to have, and start coloring on things he's not supposed to color on.  His favs are the floor and the wall.
7. Open the garage door, go into the garage, and wander around and play with things he's not supposed to be into.

8. Throw everything he can get his hands hands on into the pool. This includes swim towels, potted plants, swim suits, toys, etc. 

All these things occur when I'm legitimately doing something important.  I do not ignore my child.  His wear-abouts are my top concern and if I'm tied up doing something I really can't stop then he'll get mischievous.  I often order Violet or Calvin to go grab him and play with him.  They do a decent job most of the time.  Violet especially helps in the morning.  She takes him downstairs (if she asks permission and I say yes) and changes his diaper and feeds him cold cereal for breakfast.

Anyway...I write these things (not to complain) but to grasp reality with Eli.  He really is a joy to have in our family.  The older kids dote on him like he's such a little cutie pie (ok, the older two do, Vanessa just still lives to drive him crazy).  He's got a wild personality with lots of spunk.  He fits in here just like the last piece of the puzzle!

 

hangin' with the older kids watching Curious George