Bob The Builder

I have been horrible about updating the blog lately.  Life really took over for a while there.  In the meantime, Eli had his second Halloween.  Originally, he was going to be R2D2.  The first time we put the costume on him he seemed ok with it.  The second time (the day before Halloween) was not so smooth.  Rebecca brought him and costume by my work so he could meet everyone.  She tried to dress him in the parking lot and not only was he not having any part of it, he was screaming "Help!" at the top of his lungs.  Time for plan B.  As you can tell from the photo above, plan B was successful.  He went as Bob the Builder from the kid cartoon of the same name.  He was psyched about the tool belt from the get-go and he even won second prize in the little neighborhood costume contest!  Kudos to Rebecca for the idea.

Last year I carved a Frankenstein pumpkin in honor of his first Halloween.  This year I did two because it's easy and fun.  One is Chewbacca and the other is Ash from The Evil Dead.  I think this will become a tradition.  Halloween might be my favorite holiday because it is weird, fun, not too cold, and there are no crazy obligations that go along with it.  It's not about anybody or anything, really.  It's just an excuse to dress up and eat candy.  I can get behind that.  So I'll do the pumpkins and Rebecca has taken on making his birthday cake each year.  Last year she made a train cake that was awesome.  This year's will be even better and made cooler by the fact that he is going to understand what it is.  We are wondering whether it will upset him when we cut it apart.  Who knows? 

Speaking of Eli's birthday, in one week he will be 2 years old!  It's been a great but tiring 2 years.  We were originally planning on doing a small party for him at a park somewhere but Rebecca has since changed it to our place.  She has taken to planning events at our home as a way of forcing work or cleaning to get done on the house.  :)  The irony is that kids are going to come over and undo a week's worth of cleaning in about 10 seconds.  Hopefully the weather will be good and we can play outside.  I can't believe he is going to be 2!  Happy Birthday Eli!!!

      

Eli and his favorite book

Can you tell Eli likes this book? :)

22 months old!

The last couple of months have been very busy around our household.  The addition we did on the house is pretty much done or, at the very least, done enough for us to move into it.  It give our little boy another 400-500 square feet to run in.  He loves it and so do we.  Much needed space.

I have said before on this blog that Eli has a fearlessness that is both endearing and scary.  Over Labor Day Weekend we got to see a new level when our 21 month old was ecstatically jumping off the pier into the Pamlico river.  Bear in mind he had a life vest on and was jumping into the waiting arms of mommy, Uncle Mike, or Aunt Em.  Regardless, if his cousin could do it, he should be able to as well (his cousin is a year older).  I swear this kid will be skydiving by the time he's 10.  I don't know where the risk-taker gene came from.  I'm still scouring the family tree for that.

My favorite new thing that Eli does is jamming.  He will go pick up his little Elmo guitar and then point to me and say, "Daddy, guitar!"  This means I have to go get my guitar too.  Then Eli says, "Daddy, jam!"  That's my cue to start rocking.  Eli dances around with his guitar too and he's even starting to add some vocals in there.  He wrote his first song a few days ago, an ode to Papi Bill (not me, another family member).  When Eli says it, it sounds like Paca Bell.  The lyrics, if I remember correctly, are, "Paca Bell, Pacaa Beeeell, Paca Bell, Paca Beeeeeell."  You get the point.

Only a couple more months until we officially have a 2 year old!  Whoa.

Almost!

Lots to report from Eli-land... Eli is now joining us at the table for family dinners! He will still use the high chair sometimes but now he gets to sit in his booster seat at the table and eat with us. He seems to enjoy it quite a bit and tends to eat well when he does. We have also figured out a new way to get him to eat more vegetables, the ready-set-go! method. Both of us get vegetables in our hands and then it's ready, set, go, we eat them! Pretty funny. When he is done eating he starts sliding his plate and cup as far away from him as he can. Very subtle, indeed.

We have also started sitting Eli on the potty to get the potty training ball rolling. He understands what it is all about and tries very hard. The other day he sat there and was obviously trying to do something. Then he looked up at us and said, "Almost!" Rebecca and I fell about the place laughing. You just never know what you're going to get from him.

Eli's new favorite book is 'The Big Book Of Things That Go." The boy loves that book like you wouldn't believe. He recognizes tons of stuff in it and tries to pronounce a lot of it. Yes, he mangles 'excavator' but you know where he's going with it. We don't expect him to really bust out with 'articulated fire truck' anytime soon but he'll point to it when we ask him where it is. He also loves Thomas the Tank Engine. I can't tell you how many times in a day we hear "Thomas Too Too Tain" around the house. Sometimes it is the first thing he says to me in the morning. This morning the first thing he said was backhoe. One thing is clear, it's time for another Big Book of Things that do something else.

Chris Webber would be proud.

Eli turned 20 months old this month! It really seems like he's been part of our lives a lot longer than 20 months. We are in a prime phase right now. Even though we do get the terrible two-esque tantrum from time to time we also get a super sweet little boy who goes right to bed and sleeps through the night. He gives hugs and kisses and says 'love you' before going night-night. Now he is really into helping you do things and that helps us when it comes to everyday life. He helped me clean the den the other day while Rebecca worked in a different part of the house. I picked up some empty wrappers and paper scraps off the counter the other day to throw away and when I turned around he was standing right behind me and said 'helper.' Well, alright then. Have at it, little guy! What a great kid.

There are, of course, those times when he thinks brandishing the broom around the house like a drunk Zorro is a good idea. These times call for time-out. He knows what it is and what it means now. For example, the other day he was trying to hit something. He did it after I told him not too and I said, "Do you need to go to time out?" He replied, "Uh huh" and went and sat in the middle of the floor in his room. Even in time out he's so cute and pitiful that it's hard not to laugh sometimes.

It's been a crazy 20 months but Eli makes it all worth it. He's awesome.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing!

This last month has been very busy! Rebecca's sister got married at the end of last month and everything went great! Eli and Jack were in the wedding (sort of) and got to walk down with the processional. Their Aunt Dena even had some cool little matching outfits made for them. I have to admit, when I first heard the idea I was not too keen on it. In my mind I was picturing little frilly sailor outfits with lace all over them and some ridiculous knee high socks. Obviously, from the above photo you can tell that it didn't go down like that at all. They were well-dressed, handsome little dudes. The wedding was outside and other than Eli yelling "Airplane! Airplane!" at the sky during the middle of the service he was remarkably well behaved. Rebecca and I were both in the wedding (she was a bridesmaid and I was the music) so policing duties fell on Nana, who did a wonderful job. He partied hard with the rest of us and tore up the dance floor, showing off all the moves he learned from mommy's So You Think You Can Dance episodes. Needless to say, the boy was tuckered out at the end of the day.

A Hitchhiker's Guide To Understanding Eli

Eli runs his mouth 24/7 so in order to get the most out of your conversation with him, we thought we would provide a key for understanding some of his favorite words. Most of them sound like what they are supposed to but others (especially his foray into 3 syllables)... not as much. Here are the ones you might not get unless you heard them a million times a day like us.

eh pane = airplane
heh cop o = helicopter
umbaba = umbrella
wah ma mo = watermelon
ap pee talls = applesauce
bah tee = vacuum
cue come um = cucumber
mo tee bye = motorcycle
mon tore = monitor

Hope this helps!