Beautiful Boy

This is a mostly "for the grandparents and my journal" post - I apologize. I have been meaning to post "all about Eli" for his 18 month update, but now he's 20 months so I will just have to go with it! It seems like he has changed a lot in the last two months. He has gone from a vocabulary of about 40 words to an extensive list that I can't even number. He is also spouting out sentences that make sense, along with his random babbling and story telling. He is such a crack up. His favorite thing to say is "I see a _____" fill in the blank with a word he knows. Some of his common sentences are:
"I see a .... bur (bird), a bee, a ba-ba (ball), appo (airplane), meeam (meow, or cat), diggun (digger)" and his latest and greatest - "I see a bum! Mama, bum!" Brad said something about there being sand on my bum this past weekend (we were at the beach) and now Eli loves to tell me he sees my bum. Wonderful. It is even more hilarious when I echo "you see a bum?" and he will respond "Yeah! A bum!" He is also now aware of his bodily functions. He emphatically tells me, "Mama, pee pee!" whether he is going pee, poop, or tooting. Brad thinks this is a sign of readiness for potty-learning. I told him to feel free and take charge of the operation then =). Eli has also become fascinated with burping (he is SUCH a boy!). Whenever he does it, he points to his mouth and says "there!" and then tries to make himself do it again. Oh boy. He is doing well with his sign language and tries really hard to imitate new ones we teach him. His most used signs are: amen, baby, more, eat, and car - though he can sign many others when prompted (such as airplane, dog, fish, shoe, I love you, bird). Some of his most repeated words are: "Dare!" (there), "Dis un" (this one), "Nun" (sun), "Ky" (sky), "ah duh" (all done), Mama! Mommy!, "Uh Oh", "eyes", "hi" and "huwo", "pee pee" and "psss", "ba ba" (ball), "bye bye", "diggun" (digger), "gobeej" (garbage truck), and "caw caw bur."

Eli is really into cars and trucks. He gets super excited everytime the garbage truck goes down our street, or the mailman comes, or a fire truck or dump truck drives by. He plays with his little matchbox cars on a daily basis. He is also fascinated by birds! We put a feeder outside our front window so he could watch them, though he mostly likes to bang the window to scare them. He points out a bird whenever he sees one, and he insists that
birds say "caw caw." It sounds really funny when he starts screaming excitedly "ca-ca bur, ca-ca bur!" He seems to like animals in general, and has also become fascinated by cats, even though he isn't around them much. He has a cat and dog puppet that my mom made for him, and he favors the cat and calls her "meeam" (or meow for cat). Meeam is a mixed blessing - it's great that she inspires his creativity so much, but really gets annoying when I have to spend half the day with her on my hand - using her to throw balls, read books, play cars and puzzles, etc. Sometimes I flat out hide her to save my sanity. As for other toys, Eli also loves his See and Say (it makes animal sounds afterall) and this little toy dog that he can pull around. He has a sand table out back that he will fiddle with now and then when we are outside, but he much prefers to throw rocks or go for walks when we are out there. Bubble blowing is also a favorite. I do try to keep him busy with constructive activities, but I do turn to the TV when I need a break and Eli is not willing to play alone. He enjoys PBS cartoons like Curious George and Clifford, and LOVES the move Cars. He also likes Finding Nemo, Signing Time, and his Baby Einstein farm movie - he asks for this one (or the Little People zoo movie) by saying "E-I-E-I" (for the Old MacDonald song). Books are still his number one favorite. We sometimes read books 3 -4 times a day. Some of his favorites are: Are You My Mother?, The Eye Book, Buzz Buzz Buzz, I am a Kitten, Where Is my Cat?, and a picture book of trucks and one of whales (of all things!). He also knows quite a few of his letters and likes playing with his wooden letter puzzle (with Meeam of course). Although I have to watch him because the other day five pieces were missing - I found 2 in the trash and 3 in the hamper! We affectionately call Eli the "little organizer" because he can really get into sorting things. He often goes through our shoe basket by the back door, my bathroom cabinet, and of course the laundry. He will sort, rearrange, put them back, then start over. It's pretty cute. This behavior will keep him entertained at a restaurant with the little sugar packets too.

At his recent well visit, Eli was 26 pounds and 34 1/2 inches tall. I think that puts him around 30th percentile for weight and 80th for height. He has turned into a tall and slim little toe-head. Everywhere we go we get comments on his white blondedness. Eli is very sweet and loving, cuddly and affectionate. The other morning I went in his room to get him and he wanted me to lay down with him a while. When I tried to get up I got a charlie horse in my belly - it hurt so bad! I grimaced and grabbed my belly and said "ow, ow, ow!" Eli got really concerned and crawled over to me and onto my leg, pointing at me saying "mama, ow, mama, ow" then he started bawling. It was so sweet... I had to just suck it up and pretend it didn't hurt anymore so he wouldn't be distressed.

Eli is also shy and slow to warm with strangers, particular and stubborn, intelligent, clever, and cautious. He will usually stay pretty close to me when I take him out in public - except at the store now. I am tempted to start ordering all my groceries online, lol. He hates riding in the cart and will not do so quietly or willingly, yet if I let him out he wants to run up and down the isles - not out of my sight usually but still. He is learning to go up and down our stairs - he goes up great by himself but insists on walking down like a big boy instead of scooting or crawling down backwards. At least he waits for me to come and hold his hand to help him down. We did have a scare a few weeks ago when he reached for my hand and took a big step at the top of the stairs before I could grab it! All I could do was stand there helplessly screaming as I watched him cartwheel down the stairs and land on his back. He was definitely surprised, but I think more frightened by my reaction than he was actually hurt. I never even found a bruise on him, but I am emotionally scarred forever! I really. hate. stairs. I can't wait to have a ranch level again.



Our biggest challenges with Eli are eating and sleeping. He has made great strides in the sleeping department since we moved - he now sleeps in his OWN bed in his room (as opposed to smack in the middle of ours) though it is still common for him to wake up 1-2 times a night. There are a few occasions when he sleeps all the way through, but we're still working on it. Whe he wakes up, he yells "mama!" until I come in there, and will even get out of bed and bang on the door if I ignore him - then the crying of course. He just wants me to lay with him and cuddle/nurse and will go back to sleep. So, it's like musical beds for me some nights as I tend to fall asleep in there with him then wake up and sneak back to my room. As for eating, Eli has PICKY down to a science. He has always been picky (really didn't take to solids until after a year, and refused baby food all the way) but he got really bad during and after the move. I think it was the stress - I've noticed when we take little trips away from home he will not eat even some of his favorites while we are out. I have to really plan and be sneaky to get him eating a balanced variety. At least he eats avocado sandwiches or peanut butter and banana. He is starting to eat apple slices again too, but I have to leave them sitting out on a plate while he is playing to nibble on - he won't eat them if placed in front of him at mealtime. Of course he loves pizza and nutri-grain bars (I buy whole grain/organic ones). So yes, feeding a toddler is probably the most stressful part of parenting for me, lol. Well, that and the emerging tantrums. Wow, it's crazy when they hit that craving for independence stage and start having meltdowns over little things. I have to remind myself constantly that I am NOT 2 years old and can't have a tantrum back - it's tough, lol.

Anyway, this is such a long post, but I wanted to record a snapshot in time. Eli has just grown and changed so fast, I can hardly believe my little baby is a walking, talking person with opinions! Brad and I both adore him and are so proud of the little boy he is.