Lately, we have been working with Eli on his letters. It's an easy game since they are everywhere. Sometimes we write a letter on each of his hands before sending him to daycare. He loves it, he thinks he is getting stamps. When I go to pick him up he always has those same letters on his hands but in a different color. I can envision exactly how it happened, too. Eli goes to the potty and then has to wash his hands. He freaks out because he realizes that, in all likelihood, he will lose his letter Bs in the washing process. In order to appease him they rewrite the letters on his hands. More than once I noticed letters on other kids' hands as well. :) I have tried to start him with writing some using this great little dry erase writing book my mom got for us. You can tell from the video that he's a natural if we can just get him to sit still long enough to do it.

The force is strong with this one.

Ever since I explained what the lightsaber on Eli's Star Wars shirt was he has been all about them.  Rather than have him grab the swiffer to swing it around as a lightsaber, I made a couple rudimentary ones out of watercolor paper.  They only stayed intact for a few days but despite their falling apart, he and I are still battling the cookie monster in the never-ending war to keep him away from the toy box.  I love this kid's imagination.  With him, a blanket suddenly becomes a kitchen where we make spaghetti or a chair suddenly becomes a riding lawnmower for us to use.  He is at a really fun stage right now except for the last 3 days of getting up and walking into our room at the crack of dawn.  If only we could Jedi mindtrick him into staying in bed til 7.

Summer fun

Big Boy Beds and Sleepy Heads

I know its ridiculous and probably unsafe, but Eli has been sleeping in his crib up until now. He loves it and why mess with a good thing? He sleeps from 7:30-8pm until 6:30 or 7 am and never tries to get out. We knew our days were numbered because he has started wearing underwear. Diapers will soon be off our grocery list! Tonight Eli did not want to wear a diaper to bed. I told him he needed to sleep in his big boy bed before he could sleep in his underwear. Tonight was the first night he said he wanted to sleep in the toddler bed, so I went with it. We did the same bedtime routine (reading books, brushing teeth, singing songs, saying 'Night, night. Sleep tight. I love you') and I didn't hear another peep. I'm not crazy enough to think it will be this easy every night, but for now, I'm very grateful. What will the morning have in store for us?

How could he not crash at night? The kid doesn't stop moving! Yesterday he paused during one of our afternoon walks and when asked what he was doing, he replied "I'm relaxing." It was odd to see him stop even if it was just for 30 seconds. Of course I thought he was having an "accident." The word "accident" takes on a whole new meaning when potty training a toddler. I won't go into all the trials and tribulations, though I will say that road trips are much more interesting and lengthy.

We're also seeing a more sensitive side to Eli. Tonight Pepper was participating in her favorite activity, counter cruising. I sternly said "Pepper, down." Eli looked at me and said "Pepper's sad. Mommy scared Pepper. Mommy are you mad at Pepper?" This parenting thing is hard. Every moment seems to be a teachable moment for all of us and sometimes that feels like a lot of pressure. Luckily, most of the time its fun.

World Cup Fever!

Eli has caught World Cup Fever! Inspired by the US team's unlikely tie against England (thanks, goalie!) Eli decided to get ready for the 3 year old leagues early. Go USA! The reason he's running around with no pants is that we are in full-on potty training mode at the moment. Why soil shorts unnecessarily? We do enough laundry as is. :) It's going pretty well so far but we have a little ways to go. After this stage comes the toddler bed and I can't begin to tell you how much Rebecca and I are dreading that. Anyway, remember this video because it won't be long before our little Pele' is abusing David Beckham's kids on the national stage.

Let's hear it for... Conjunctivitis!

This little guy has been through it the last couple of weeks.  The last blog chronicled his adventures getting tubes in his ears.  Right on the heels of that Eli contracted conjunctivitis, which made his eye swell up like he'd gone a round or two with Mike Tyson.  With the tubes, we had to put drops in his ears a couple times each day and he was not very high on that process.  Well, of course the medicine we were prescribed for this were eye drops.  We have had to come up with some really interesting distraction techniques to get a drop in his eye but none of those as nearly as effective as watching daddy put a drop in his own eye first (not of his medicine but Visine).  The things we do for our kids. 

In just a few short days, Eli will officially be 2 1/2 years old!  If you ask him, he'll tell you he's 3.  I can't believe some of the stuff he is saying these days.  It is amazing to have conversations with him because he will constantly surprise you with something.  We recently went on a trip to Charlotte in which Eli kept urging me to drive faster.  I tried to explain the speed limit to him and how we need to stay at a certain speed.  At that very moment, a car passed us going at least 80 mph and Eli said, "He's going faster."  What do you say to that?  I couldn't stop laughing.  A couple days ago he pointed to the sky and said, "Look, Daddy, an enormous airplane!"  Enormous?  It's times like that when I realize he is hearing EVERYTHING we say.  Guess I better watch my colorful descriptions of bad drivers on the road.  :)

Totally tubular.

Poor Eli had to be taken to the hospital to have tubes put in his ears. Originally, they gave us a 12:15 surgery time, which meant he would have to miss two meals and cut into naptime. We were pretty annoyed by that knowing that the morning would most likely prove brutal to get through. We were fortunate on two fronts, the hospital bumped our time up an hour and Eli was totally amazing all morning. He didn't complain about being hungry once. In fact, the only thing he really complained about at all was the hospital smock he had to wear for the surgery. He wasn't a fan of that at all. The doctors said he didn't fuss at all, just looked curious about everything. Sure, he was a little cranky when he came out of it but who doesn't feel that way after being put to sleep. We tried to feed him when we got done but he just ended up puking all over the kitchen floor. He went down for his nap and after sleeping for 4 hours he was like his old self again. This video was taken shortly after. What a little trooper. :)