Teacher Observations for 2011

Play preferences:

Eli continues to love cars, building with any materials, sensory choices (especially playdoh), “adventures”, games (outside motor and board games), music class, and yoga.  He has a wide variety of interests.  He likes to hang out with Sammy, Cash, Denali, and Rosalie.  He’s a very curious guys, and will join any activity a group of peers is excited about.

Peer relationships with children:

He is keen on asking people “What are you doing?” He is agreeable about rules in dramatic play.  He waits for turns pretty easily.  He is an emotional guy and can have trouble navigating problems with peers.  With a little coaching he’s able to find a solution and express himself.  This will be a big part of the next year of life.  He seeks out his friends’ attention frequently.

Relationship with teachers:

Eli continues to have a positive relationship with N & V.  So far, he really digs Sara (she’s a new teacher there).  He seems to realize that adults are helpful to him, so he’s most congenial (aside from the summer potty training resentment–we get that all the time).  There seems to be a shift from solely listening to us to negotiating (in a pleasant way–he’s always trying to help us clean, choose activities, set the table, etc.)

Language skills:

Eli has come far in the last year.  He is fond lately of using the past tense (everything happened “yesterday”).  He starts conversations easily, and contributes without hesitation.  He answers questions logically.  He is curious about our schedule and will ask questions to clarify (“Is it clean up time?”)  He will narrate much of what he’s doing.  Abstracting happens often–if play reminds him of something not present, he gives a detailed description.  Over the next year, blended consonants will be worked on: “Smith, spoon, snake”  (Eli doesn’t pronounce the S at the beginning of words most of the time)

Emotional expression:

Eli always participates in the “how are you feeling” exercises in morning circle.  Kelly is teaching the kids breathing exercises in yoga and showing them how to use them to calm themselves.  He’s improving at telling people “That makes me ____” in arguments.  This is a slow and steady area of growth; he’s probably continue to make great strides over the next year.

Fine motor abilities:

Eli still gets in much puzzle play, drawing, building, and painting with a brush in his time here at BP.  Over the next year we’ll keep on the scissors, letter practice, and putting the zipper on his coat by himself (although they report that he is able to work the zipper on the coat Lolli and Pop got him by himself–success!)

Gross motor abilities:

Yoga and music class have been great for the BP and Eli is excited to participate.  He’s no stranger to a dance party but Katy’s class is more structured with its dance moves.  He is very keen on trying new skills, even when unsuccessful at first.  Outside, he is always in a game running around.

Conceptual grasp:

I already mentioned abstracting.  Two-step instructions are consistently under control, he names all colors, separates fantasy and reality, can retell stories, etc.  Over the next year–concept of same/different, three part directions, approach problems with a “best” solution idea.

Learning trends and other notes:

Eli is a sponge! He is in good spirits much of his time at the BP and this contributes positively to his learning experience. He likes to “do” learning–that is, any experiential activities or repeatable activities are positive experiences.  He loves contributing either with ideas or by helping set up activities. 

 

Stubborn

Andy and I were talking the other day about how odd it is sometimes to be around Eli.  At 3 years old, he’s full of ideas and opinions and he’s often quite well spoken regarding them.  It catches us unaware that he’s just this little PERSON and he says PEOPLE things that MAKE SENSE.  I don’t intend this to sound like we talk to him like a baby all the time but every once in a while he will say something with a particular tone or a certain matter of factness that we double take–did that come from my kid?  

For all of the sense he does make, he doesn’t make any sense quite a lot.  I catch myself slipping into a battle of wills with him a lot–my will that he do what I’m telling him to, his will that I repeat myself 50 times until my head explodes.  That is getting curbed by consistently disciplining him after the first request instead of asking another 49 times until we blow our top but boy, he sure does seem amused when we blow it–all super innocent, “Meeee?  I know we’re late and you’ve asked me 20 times to put my shoes on but LOOK, MOMMY.  SODOR IS HAVING A FIRE AND THOMAS AND BELLE HAVE TO COME PUT IT OUT BECAUSE BELLE IS A FIRE ENGINE AND CAN SHOOT WATER”

It could easily happen over food.  Good example–yesterday I was bored and needed something indoor to do so I asked Eli if he wanted to help make a berry crisp.  He loves helping out in the kitchen, loves sampling whatever we’re making, and stirring things.  He responded “How about you make it yourself and then when you’re done I’ll eat it.”  Obviously I did not endorse this idea and he ended up helping me quite a lot anyway.  We had a bunch of berries that needed to be used up and he happily snacked on stray blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries that were going into the crisp.  He helped me make the crumb topping (sampling the brown sugar, sugar, smelling the cinnamon and ginger).  He “helped” me put it in the oven (moral support from a few feet away) and went and checked on it several times during baking with the oven light.  He remarked, “That smellls yummy!” while it was baking and the house did smell pretty nice.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

Wouldn’t try it.  Acted like it was going to attack him.  Acted like it would be the very last thing he ate and he would DIE if he even so much as licked a TINY TINY speck off his spoon.  I took the bait for about five minutes and was getting pretty annoyed–I mean, COME ON, KID, you sampled EVERYTHING IN IT already but then I caught myself.  He’ll never eat it if I push him and what do I really care if he tries it anyway?  So what if he’s eaten this same dessert countless times?  So I gave up.  Bigger fish to fry.  I offered him some today and he refused it.  Eli-1.  Oh well, more for the rest of us. He’s usually pretty good about trying new food as long as you don’t act too excited or pushy about him trying it.  If you just leave it in front of him and he sees somebody eating it, he’ll try it when nobody is paying attention.  So silly.

We had a snopocalypse this week and I am so happy to go back to work tomorrow.  My work was shut down Wednesday and opened late on Thursday.  Since Eli’s daycare closes if the schools close, I was at work for a grand total of two hours on Tuesday and that’s it for the week.  Eli’s of an age now which is pretty fun and we have tons to do around the house and in the community.  He’s also pretty self-entertaining so I get a lot of downtime.  However, we were trapped at home for the entire perriod.  Also mostly inside since he had a cough and aside from two hours in the morning, he really did not like the idea of getting bundled up to go outside.

We had a great time sledding on our hill and had a lot of snowball fights and built the bottom ball of a snowman (the boys got bored with it).  Andy was scheduled to work through the entire thing so it was just me and Eli and occasionally Will, who worked through some of it but mostly just lives on his computer in his room.  We watched movies, we built lego houses and towers, we painted, we read books, we cooked, we cleaned, we made crafts, we made games that involved running laps around the house, we started to go a little crazy and get a little bit cranky with each other.  All in all it was fun but I think I would prefer Andy home for the next big snow.  Eli is great company but there’s something to be said for having another adult to talk to!

I put a few more pictures up.  I haven’t really been taking many.  Some of that is intentional–I find that at so many things I take Eli to, all of us parents are watching our kid have fun doing X through the camera/iPhone lens.  It started to weird me out.  I’m not really present for whatever is going on because I’m trying so hard to CAPTURE it.  Also, Eli has an uncanny ability to stop doing whatever hilarious thing it is as soon as I get my phone out or get a camera.  I also get the fake smile anytime he sees the camera now, even if I don’t tell him to smile so I think he needs some detox for a bit.  He had a blast on his trip with Andy and talked about it for days.  I don’t think Andy got to see as much fencing as he wanted but he had a good time as well.  We’re going to Oregon for the weekend in March so we can drive Will to his OC practice in Salem and I’m not quite sure what we’ll do yet.  

That’s about it for now.  Andy’s been on nights for the last three nights (worked three days before that) and he’s on two night OT shifts the next two nights.  Then home for Weds and Thurs then 12 hr days Friday-Monday.  I sure will be happy when I get to see him again!

Cute thing-Eli and I usually sit in the chair for an hour or so in the morning while we wake up. He watches cartoons, I play around on my iPad while we have some coffee, milk, etc.  Several times this week he’s snuggled up to me once we’ve sat down and said “I love cuddling with you in the morning, Mommy”. AWWWW. 

 

Randomosity

This video just really sums up what he does when he’s really digging something but is also a bit unsure of what to think.  He just sort of sits, paralyzed with an odd expression.  He’s done it since he was a baby.

Tim, Jocelyn, Erin and Nathan came to visit and we put Erin to work reading Eli some of his nightly books.

10 days in 2012 and things are going swimmingly.  Nothing but pretty boring day to day news to report.  Things are going well at Berry Patch and we’ve pretty much decided to keep him there until he starts kindergarten.  I was having trouble discerning the difference between that and preschool since it seems like what they do is the description of every preschool I’ve seen (except preschool hours are a JOKE–how do these people have jobs?)  So it’s nice to have put that to rest.

I’m running every 2 or 3 days and I’m doing about 2.5-3 miles and then about 20 minutes of weights per workout.  It’s nothing crazy but it’s a good workout and it’s comfortable and keeps me (relatively) sane because work is just crazy crazy stressful right now.  I thought that with all of the budget cuts that 90-100 clients wouldn’t really be THAT much different than 70 to 80 but you know what?  It’s a lot different.  It’s also the first of the year, a time that is hard for everyone with the holidays just passed and the sun is rarely out and it’s gloomy.  I’m hoping things calm down soon because I can’t take too much more if it continues on like the last two weeks!

Eli decided he wanted a camera of his own so I told him if he kept his room picked up and got himself dressed in the mornings and ready for bed every day for a week that I’d get him one.  He held up his end of the deal with nary a complaint (I think there were only two reminders). I ordered it for him and it finally came in today.  He’s had to keep doing his part of the deal to actually get it even though it’s been longer than a week since I was really just trying to get him into that habit.  He still has trouble taking shirts off, he just can’t seem to figure out how to get his arms out of shirts, especially if they fit well.  He’s having fun taking pictures of pretty much everything (I think he has about 40 pictures of the floor and our feet).  It’s a cool little camera, very durable and kid-proof.  It’s not the best picture but it’s a digital and will also do video (!) and has a few games on it.

Andy fenced in a tournament on Friday night and didn’t last long but had a good time nontheless.  He’s talking about taking Eli to Portland for a night this weekend so they can go to a national fencing tournament there.  He’s really working hard to get Eli into fencing.  He and Andy “play” with the foam swords quite a bit.  A few weeks ago, Eli and I watched a movie that had some kind of sword fighting in it.  Eli watched for a minute then pointed and yelled “But they’re not doing anything but just blocking!”  I told Andy about that when he came home from work and I haven’t seen him smile that big in a while!

Well, Eli is in the bathtub and I should get him washed up since we’re coming up on his bedtime.  Everyone have a good week!

 

2012

Today’s post brought to you by iPad keyboard! Think my mom is dropping hints? What about the idea that three different people were going to get me a keyboard? In any case, it’s nice to have one.

Tim, Jocelyn, Erin, and Nathan just left this morning after a trip up here. They stayed with Jocelyn’s parents for a few days then came to Seattle and stayed with us. Erin and Eli got along as famously as ever and although he’s 99% okay, he’s pining a little bit for her. I think right now he’s just too tired for anything. We did a ton while they were here–the aquarium, lots of eating out, the Hyak Sno Park–hopefully they will send us some good pictures because I forgot the camera for the Sno Park.

Eli and I are just taking it easy today, lots of movies and staying curled up on the couch–I think we’re both pretty tired from what was a pretty fun week.

In lieu of original thought, I figured I would do the Q&A from the last few years for consistency’s sake!

I just noticed that I did this meme on last New Year’s Eve as well. This either means I am rather timely or I have no life. It’s Andy’s fault, he keeps picking up OT shifts on NYE.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Hmm. I have no idea. Wow, maybe nothing new? That’s kind of sad. I gave Andy a sailing lesson as a present so we went sailing. Granted, it was February and SNOWING but it was fun all the same. I even steered for about .5 seconds. I’m fine at assisting but I’d rather not be in charge, thanks.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Two years ago: “I want to challenge myself more in the coming year and do things that make me nervous because it’s putting me outside my comfort zone. I’d like to do a triathlon, maybe run another half or two, and I also need to study and get my licensure done. I’d like to make some decisions regarding my career and my goals around that.”

I didn’t do much on any of these goals last year. I did another half in July this year and improved my time. Although I haven’t done many races, I feel like a much stronger runner and I am a lot faster. I passed my test and was licensed in June, woohoo! No real decisions about my career other than it’s time to leave my job and there’s some work around that going on and you’ll know more in coming months.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My friend Emily had a baby boy, Nicholas, in November. Christine had a baby boy, Oscar, in January. It’s a baby explosion around here.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
I think for future iterations I’m going to change this question to “What vacations did you take?” because let’s face it, with a young child, I’m not going out of the country anytime soon. I also want to make it a point to take more breaks, even if it’s just camping in the forest or driving to Oregon and renting a hotel for the weekend with the family–little trips here and there to look forward to and enjoy that don’t necessarily require gobs of money, planning, and time.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
I’d like to be more mindful in the future and learn how to shut my brain down some.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Eli’s third birthday. He finally got the idea behind presents this year and seeing his excitement at presents was just too great!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passing the license exam! I was very nervous about that test.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Less than stellar parenting moments during which I just get way too frustrated and yell or just react really poorly. I am way more susceptible when I’m tired so I try to stay aware of that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing significant, thank goodness.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The iPad. Everything that moving into a house entailed. Yard equipment! We got a lot of family time out of working on the yard. My treadmill!

12. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, daycare, car payments, the house.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I got pretty excited about living in a house again. I was also pretty excited about Christmas since Eli gets it now and was pretty excited himself!

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?
ELO “Don’t Bring Me Down” An oldie but a goodie, Eli and I jam out to some ELO in the car.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? probably about the same.
c) richer or poorer? richer

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Making the most of my time. Cultivating hobbies. I dabble in redoing furniture here and there but now that I have the garage space, I really have no excuse not to finally get a few projects done.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being too lazy to do the things I need to do. I’ve fallen into the trap of zoning out when Eli goes to bed even though there are a lot of (enjoyable) things I could get done between 8 and 10.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
We spent it at our house in Seattle and friends came over for Christmas dinner.

19. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Not with anyone new, nope.

20. What was your favorite TV program?
The Walking Dead, Up All Night, Parenthood, American Horror Story.

21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I got no time to hate. (same as last year)

22. What was the best book you read?
The Hunger Games trilogy was a mighty fine set of books. Quick reads but very fun.

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I’m not the music discoverer, Andy is. I pretty much listen to whatever he puts on.

24. What did you want and get?
Probably go with the iPad on this one.

25. What did you want and not get?
At this point, a kid who will get out of his own bed! I know everyone says to be careful what you wish for but it’s been 6 months now and he STILL will not get out of bed unless we come get him. It makes potty training awfully hard, you know? I think we’re just going to have to fly without a net and lose the pullups for sleep since that might make him get up. He still will just play in bed for an hour or more even if he hears people up and about, just waiting for someone to open his door. So weird.

26. What was your favorite film of this year?
Crazy Stupid Love was hilarious.

27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Not a lot–just dinner out the weekend before. We had just finished the move so we were pretty tired from all of that. I turned 37.

28. What’s the one thing that made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Netflix streaming.

29. What kept you sane?
Running, good friends, great family, a comfortable bed. (same as last year)

30. What political issue stirred you the most?
Congress is making me want to go stick my head in the sand. It’s embarrassing.

31. Who did you miss?
My parents. My brother. Oscar. My faraway friends, Megan, Carrie, Wendy. (same as last year)

32. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Same thing I tell my clients–if you’re feeling on edge, run the list: HALT-Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? See how you’ve been treating yourself lately and pay attention to what you need to. It stops a lot of bad moods before they start.

33. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Oh, I’m terrible at this one.

 

Countdown to Christmas

I did get a Santa picture of Eli this year.  I got the pkg with one 5X7 print and three digital downloads.  The photographer gives you a website with a password and you go there to print your photos or order any number of items with the picture printed on it.   I tried it on my iPad but the site uses Flash–no dice.  Since my laptop is a little rusty, I took the info to work and tried it there.  My work blocks the site entirely–I really don’t understand the reasoning behind which sites they block (Facebook is allowed for instance–how does THAT make sense?).  So I am back at home on my rusty laptop and I pull up the site.  It requires a newer Flash version than what I have so I download that.  Hey, I can’t install it!  My Mac OS is too old of a version, I need 10.6.  Then that puts me back where I was with the whole upgrade issue in that I have to upgrade to Snow Leopard first (another 10.5) before I upgrade to Lion (10.6).  However, my CD drive doesn’t work so I have to find a way to get Snow Leopard on a thumb drive to upgrade to Snow Leopard then I can upgrade to Lion as a digital download. 

I solved this problem by doing nothing other than banging my head against a wall and giving Andy the forms for him to take to his work where they don’t block websites from the employees.  So now it’s up to him. 

Eli did great with Santa.  He was all gung-ho in the line but as soon as it was his turn, he got shy.  We let two other people go ahead of us before I told him that he was either going next or we were leaving and once I pulled him about halfway to Santa he decided to man up and sit on his lap.  He looks a bit cautious in the picture although he was smiling–it’s a very nervous smile.  He told Santa what he wanted for Christmas–no trains, no soccer balls, not for my boy.  He wants a KITCHEN.  With lots of cabinets and black countertops.  Perhaps I watch too much HGTV around him?  Santa’s face was pretty funny, I wonder if he thought we were homeless and the poor child was just wishing for a kitchen with food in it.  I think it’s good that he realizes the importance of storage and counter space now because he’ll make smarter housing choices in the future! 

The nap issue (knock on wood) seems to have settled down.  Getting him up by 6:30 every morning seems to have solved most of the problem and most days he is back to taking good, long naps.  He’s been pretty agreeable and fun the last few weeks–no big meltdowns or periods of preschooler willfulness for no point, just mostly in a good mood.  We’re going on almost a week of no accidents and all the poop in the potty although he’s still in pull ups for naps and overnight.  His naps are dry since he goes right before he gets in bed so we’ll probably phase him into underwear for that soon.  Nights will take longer and that seems about par for the course. 

I am off next week and I am happy about that!  Work has been kicking my butt lately.  Various budget shenanigans have resulted in a pretty crazy high caseload–I think I’m in the high 80s, low 90s now?  I got 6 clients in the last two days.  I can’t really keep anyone straight anymore and it’s getting pretty frustrating and exhausting.  Tim, Jocelyn, Erin and Nathan will be here for three or four days next week and we are all excited about that.  We are doing a post-Christmas Christmas dinner on Monday since for all intents and purposes, that’s our Christmas since Andy works on Sunday.  Several people are coming over to eat and it’s nice to finally have room to host holiday meals, it should be good!

Obviously, we’ve been watching a lot of LSU football:

Sometimes (rarely these days) I will let Eli use my phone to entertain himself while he is on the potty.  Lately when I do that I end up with about 25 seven second clips of this nature:

 

 

Video catch up and etc

Posting from work since my computer here works a little bit better than the one at home. I have several videos to upload but can’t post them to YouTube from work. These are what I already had posted to YouTube but hadn’t yet posted here.

Everything is going well. We got Eli an actual big boy (twin) sized bed two weeks ago and he’s done really well with it. He’s very proud of it and told everyone at daycare about it. He’s also pretty into the whole idea of Christmas this year and is getting pretty excited about it. We succumbed to the whole Elf on the Shelf craze. Although I maintain that the elf is creepy, Eli seems to dig it. The idea is that there’s this elf who basically acts as Santa’s spy. He lives at your house and observes the kid for naughty/nice behavior then each night magically flies (or something) to the North Pole to give Santa the report. The fun part is that the elf is never in the same place when he comes back. I think this is mostly the fun part for the parents because we spend WAY too much time trying to figure out clever elf placement. Eli is always amused at the elf placement–yesterday, Andy had posed the elf on the table with an empty cereal bar wrapper on a plate in front of him. At first, Eli thought the elf had gotten him one of his cereal bars for his breakfast but then realized the elf ATE one of his cereal bars–”I do not like him eating my cereal bars, Mommy!” Eli was annoyed but it was pretty funny. Today the elf is on the extended ladder of Eli’s fire truck, working on straightening up the ornaments on the tree.

There’s not a lot to report–Eli can talk to you now pretty much as normally as anyone else although his speech is usually a lot cuter than most people. He says the “t” sound instead of a hard “c” so you have to keep that in mind. He’s got the letters and sounds totally down and we’re working on putting sounds together to make words. He loves reading to himself and I’ll be happy when he’s got some actual reading down because wow, I am really tired of Go Dog, Go! Most of the time he loves being helpful and he’s pretty good at setting the dinner table and takes great pride in it. I’m trying to remember to encourage him to do more things on his own–pick out his clothes, get himself dressed (getting t shirts off is a bit of a problem), that sort of thing. Berry Patch continues to be great–they recently started a yoga class for the kids on Mondays! Eli does better if there’s a good bit of physical activity during the day–he doesn’t really handle being inside all day long very well, even if there are a lot of activities.

He’s more resistant to naps than he’s ever been. He skips probably 2 naps a week and that’s a big improvement over a month ago when he wasn’t napping for days at a time. We’ve tried putting him to bed early but that doesn’t seem to do a lot as he’ll just play in bed until he normally would go to sleep. So now I get up early (GREAT) in order to wake him up early and he seems to be more tired by naptime and more likely to at least take a short nap at Berry Patch. At home he’ll nap his usual amount but it’s quieter here, there are less distractions, and he still won’t actually fall asleep until 2 or so, even when we put him to bed at 1 and he’s exhausted. I have no idea how to get him back on schedule but I’ve decided not to sweat it.

No big races for me anytime soon, I just haven’t been getting around to it. I’m running three or four times a week at home and doing at least 3 miles each time so I’m staying in the habit. I’ve started watching Nova episodes on Hulu on my iPad while I run and it makes for a pretty enjoyable run! Maybe I will look for a shorter race in January, a 5 or 7 miler. We’ll see. Andy’s fencing every Thursday night at our local community center with a fencing club and he’s really enjoying that even if he is discovering that his knees aren’t in high school anymore! It’s good for all of us to get some exercise.

Here are the videos, I will try to put the rest up at home tonight.

Trick or treating. I really thought I had put this up already!

Stomp rocket fun on his 3rd birthday

 

Gearing up for Christmas

We put the tree up last weekend along with other decorations. We were going to do outside lights but that’s become a bit of an issue because we don’t have the right shingle clips and it seems that Andy has some strong feelings about how Christmas lights should look. We have to order them so we’ll do the outside stuff next year.

Miracle of miracles, I’ve managed to get almost all of my shopping done and I’ve started wrapping a few things for under the tree. I hadn’t gotten anything yet for Eli because he’s pretty much always with me. I wrapped a few gifts for Andy and one for Will yesterday. Eli was all dejected over his lack of gifts and asked in his most pitiful voice, “Mommy, do I get any presents?” As luck would have it, I got out for a bit without him today and picked up a few things and wrapped them during his nap. He noticed the extra gifts pretty quickly once he got up and asked whose they were. I told him they were his and his eyes lit up. He turned to hug me and said, “I love you getting me presents.”

Typing this on the iPad with one finger is slow. It’s also time for Eli to go to bed (although we are watching “Its the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown” because we are holiday confused). I’m refinishing Andy’s dresser and once Eli is down I have to attack it with a putty knife since the stripper has been on it a bit. Hopefully it won’t take too long to do!

 

Intermission…

I’m really sorry for the lack of updates, pictures, videos, etc. We finally bought a new hard drive so I should be able to take more pictures soon. Our camera is full so I’ve been having to delete pictures (after I uploaded the good ones to flickr, of course) in order to take more. I’m hoping a complete reinstall of my OS will make my laptop a little more friendly and not so prone to freezing every 2 minutes. I also hope to get a keyboard dock for the iPad soon because I really use this 99% of the time now and it doesn’t really lend itself to the long, rambling, stream of consciousness entries to which you have grown accustomed.

It’s backing up my laptop now and it’s taking hours. Then i have to dump my camera and back that up, then do the updates on my phone and iPad and back THAT up. I’m hoping to be back to speed by Monday.

 

Three.

Oh, what an absolutely fantastic weekend. We had a Halloween party at Berry Patch on Friday. Eli was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people at first so we had to sit outside a few minutes so he could adjust–he gets really spooked when he’s going in a place and all of the sudden the attention is on him. After a few minutes of crying, he was fine although he hung back for quite a while before he ditched me and got into things.

We originally planned to go to Remlinger Farm on Saturday for his birthday. We went last year and had a blast so we thought it would be a good birthday outing for him. Things were getting sort of stacked schedule wise so we decided to play his birthday more low key and go on Sunday instead. I was a bit worried about what the weather would do since Saturday turned out to be a bit sunny. Eli made out pretty good on his birthday–an Emily engine, a stomp rocket, a box of Gears, some stickers and glow in the dark stars to decorate the ceiling in his room. It was so fun watching him open his presents. He gets the idea now and his cries of delight when he rips the paper off to see what’s underneath is almost too much joy to handle!

We spent most of the day outside playing with his new soccer ball (oh yeah, that too) and his stomp rocket. He helped me make cupcakes and he got guacamole for dinner (his request) and also some chicken enchiladas since the rest of us could use a little more than a big bowl of guac. He also ate those and declared his lover for guac and enchiladas. We finished the night with a viewing of his latest favorite movie, Mary Poppins.

We went to the farm (the “barm” as Eli calls it) the next day and it was just deserted. Last time, we had to park in a field about 1/4 mile from the actual entrance. The weather was a bit chilly and overcast but there were maybe 40 cars there when we got there? Last time it was shoulder to shoulder sardine time walking around the park. This time, no lines. Straight onto anything you wanted to ride. IT WAS AWESOME. He rode ponies, the train, and all of the rides with no waiting. Last year, we never even made it to the part that had all of the rides because it was so packed we were in lines a good part of the time–we never even realized there WERE rides. They had a toddler sized carousel, ferris wheel, two spinner rides, a whirlygig, and even a roller coaster! The faster rides were also adult friendly and Eli really loved the roller coaster (for a pint sized version, it was actually pretty fun) and we rode that one twice.

They had two huge bounce houses–one for kids five and under and one for six and over. Since the park was pretty empty, there wasn’t anybody on the bounce houses at all and the three of us had the big one to ourselves for a long time! It was so great! Eli really liked riding the pony and said it was his favorite part of the day. I thought he would freak once he was on it–he tends to get really excited about dogs but then gets very nervous around them. He walked straight up to the pony and once we put him on it, he was fine. He had that sort of reserved, somewhat apprehensive expression he gets when he’s sort of feeling things out and he held that expression for most of the ride although you could tell he really liked it.

He threw a pretty royal screaming fit once we had to go but part of that was just that it was that much fun. It was well past his nap time and we couldn’t really get him to stop and eat AT ALL when we were at the farm so all of the hungry and tired hit him at once along with general fury over being forced to leave the super fun farm. He screamed for about 5 or 6 minutes in the car and then calmed down. We stopped and ate lunch before driving back (about 40 minute drive) and before he fell asleep he said, “We had a really fun day today, Mommy and Daddy”. Then Andy and I literally passed out from the sweetness. So awesome.

I’ve been on a bit of a watching what I eat kick so when we stopped for lunch I opted for a salad instead of fries with my sandwich. I felt fine most of the evening but around 8, started to feel a little squeamish. Around 9 it was clear that something was wrong. Andy and I split most of our food yesterday except for that salad so we figure that was the culprit. That salad haunted me until around 5 PM today and I stayed home from work. Not the best way to end such a great weekend but what are you going to do? I’m just glad to be feeling better.

Andy is on nights this week so I took Eli trick or treating tonight. I wondered how it would go–he obviously gets it more than he did last year but he’s also shy around new people and not that into the whole costume thing so I thought it might not go well. Oh, little did I know. He asked for my escort for the first house and once his “If I say this I get candy” suspicions were confirmed, he wanted nothing to do with me other than show him the next house that had a light on. I received several stern instructions to “Stay back there, Mommy! I will do it myself!” and he went on up to each house like a little pro. He might have gotten a little mixed up with saying “Happy Halloween!” when he meant “Trick or treat!” and there might have been a few times when instead of saying “Thank you!” he said, “Now I’m going to go to the next house!” (okay, he actually did that a lot) but everyone seemed really sweet and understanding and man, he was pretty cute in his dinosaur costume.

He got a pretty good haul. We came home after about an hour–he actually asked to come home because he was tired. We went through his candy and I let him pick three things to eat tonight and the rest he can have a little each day. He picked Dots, Junior Mints, and a Reese’s. He ate one dot, declared it “good”, but didn’t touch the others. He ate two Junior Mints and had no opinion. He wouldn’t even taste the Reese’s (again, peanut butter). He ate about 2/3 of the sucker and said he was done and didn’t ask for any more candy. What a good kid! Next year he’ll probably try to eat a ton of it.

Time to eat some dinner and settle down for sleep. Still have to work tomorrow! There are some videos up, I will link those tomorrow.

 

Guessing game

Right now I am sitting with a bundled up Eli playing a game of “Is he coming down with something?” He’s been a little tired all morning and a bit whiny. I don’t think he has a fever but he’s been content to lie down most of the morning and he hasn’t eaten at all so something is up. If he has to feel bad, he picked a good day for it. We had a busy weekend of housework, errands, and a birthday party for one of his friends.

Last night after Eli went to bed, Andy and I snuck out to sushi with some friends. We got home about 11:45 and I went to cover up Eli. He was in bed but his light was on (although dimmed) and his trucks were in the middle of his room–they were all put away when I put him down. I asked him how his light was turned on and He told a long story about how Teddy fell out of bed twice. I then asked if he turned it on to find him and he said he didn’t turn it on. He agreed it was off when I put him in bed but didn’t really seem to come up with anything re: how it got on. I asked how his trucks came to be in the middle of the room and he then started trying to change the subject by wooing me: “Mommy, I want a hug. Mommy, I love you.” What a stinker!

Aaaaand the fever has started. Almost 100 now, not too bad yet. Poor little man. Looks like most of today will be spent in the chair watching movies. I can’t say as I’m too disappointed about that!

Yesterday Eli and I worked on the front porch for Halloween. We made Halloween luminaries a few weeks ago and carved pumpkins. Yesterday we put up that spider web stuff and Andy going to switch out the porch lights for red and black lights in a day or so. I’ll e sure to get a picture of it when it’s finished!

Will bought himself a plane ticket and he’s going to Dallas in November to audition for the Blue Devils. He’s pretty excited about it and with all of his practice probably has a good shot of getting in this year. Last year they gave him several areas to work on after his audition so I imagine he’s been focusing on those. I think he’s meeting up with his mom there but I don’t really know any details.

I think it’s time to do some cuddling on the baby. He looks miserable. Hopefully this doesn’t get too bad.