Eli's food obsessions . . .

Elijah is hooked on two things right now - croutons and jelly beans. The crouton thing has been going on for a while, and now we actually hide the crouton boxes since he figured out how to open the closed boxes and the sealed bags to get at them! Very industrious child here, let me tell you! He says, "coo-ton, coo-ton?" and looks up at you with big puppy dog eyes. And when you say no or not right now he gives a mournful little, "Pease? Pease?" for please please. It's hard to say no to that, but we manage to 95% of the time. :)

Now, since Easter, Eli's become obsessed with jelly beans. In retrospect, making a candle arrangement for the downstairs bathroom that had jellybeans as an anchor for the candle wasn't the smartest thing I ever did (one of the cutest things, but not the smartest). Eli didn't discover the beans for a few days, but then he found out they were CANDY!

He was doing very good when we limited him to one bean a day, and was just leaving them alone after that. I felt so proud at my well-behaved little boy. Until about a week later when he had already had a bean and was asking for another. I said no, and thought the matter was closed. Then, I was doing the dishes and he was playing in the living room, when I heard the pitter- patter of feet going to the bathroom door, the bathroom door opening up (he has been able to open our doors for about a month now), and then closing. Eli didn't turn the light on though - I guess that would be a dead give-away he was in there! When I went over, I found him in the bathroom, in the dark, with two handfuls and one mouthful of jellybeans!

Needless to say, the jellybeans don't reside in the bathroom anymore. Eli can still have one a day if he wants, which he usually does. "Bean, bean, pease, pease," is the usual refrain. In fact, when I called Eli from Hawaii and Lori put him on the phone, all he wanted to talk about was "beans." He is obsessed that's for sure!

E-mail?

Eli woke up from his nap on Friday and I was finishing up doing some things on the computer in the office. He came back in there with me, and pointed at one of the monitors and said, "e-mail."

He was right! My e-mail account was open on the monitor he pointed at. I guess he's heard Jon or I say that we were going to check e-mail often enough to remember the word, and then was used to seeing the screen we brought up on the monitor after we said that. I was still pretty surprised though. I never thought "e-mail" was going to be one of the first 200 words he said!

Now the next question - is he too young for his own e-mail account? (Just kidding Mom - I can just hear you now and know exactly what you're saying!) :)

A future in commercials?

Elijah's newest phrase - "mmm mmm good."

He heard me say it when I was eating last week and started saying it too. The "mmm mmm" part sounds more like little throaty grunts, but that only makes it cuter. Maybe Eli is preparing to be the Campbell's soup baby and be in a commercial for them? Hmm, that might help pay for college . . . :)

Baby Jokes

Elijah has a silly sense of humor, and likes to tell what Jon's Mom has dubbed, "baby jokes." It started when he was probably 15 months old and would look at Jon or I with a particular look in his eye and then call us the others parent's name, and then laugh. Mama would be Dada, and Dada would be Mama, and he thought that was hilarious. Over the months I haven't written down the other "jokes" for some reason, but last week he had several in just a day or two, so I can still remember them.

I was giving him a bath and reading a bath book which has a duck and a boat in it. Eli got his look, and magically the duck became a boat! At least to Elijah anyway. Every time I would point to the duck and ask what it was he would get a huge grin and say, "boat," and then just start to cackle he was laughing so much! A few days later we saw an actual duck in our back yard and I asked Eli what it was, and he said, "duck," and then got a grin and shot me the look and said, "boat!" Silly goose.

We were playing with Play-doh last week as well (if refusing to touch it and just wanting to take the caps of the little tubs on and off is really playing), and we were practicing our colors at the same time. Eli had them all down - orange, green, yellow, and red (he can say all of them but red, but knows which one the red is when I ask). Then he pointed at his shirt, which was blue, and said, "blue." I agreed with him wholeheartedly, and then told him that we did not have any blue Play-doh. Out came the look, and then the green Play-doh suddenly became blue! All the other ones were the same color, but he would open up the green tub, yell, "blue!" and then start laughing like he had said the most hilarious thing in the world. It was so cute.

His other favorite game is that at dinner time he will point at Jon or I and say, "night night." At which point we'll pretend to be asleep. And then he'll yell, "get up!" or sometimes, "wake up!" Of course we play our parts and act like we were completely startled awake. Which sets of the most joyous sound to any parents' ear - our child's laughter. Eli would play this all night if he could, and never stop laughing the whole time. So if you're ever eating by him and he tells you, "night night," now you know to play along and get some big laughs from Elijah.

Eli is such a goof-ball and I love it! I'm glad he is so silly because then I can be silly too. And it's fun to see what "baby joke" he's going to tell us next when he gets that little look in his eye!

Moving!

The latest news around the Schneider household is that Jon has taken a new job in Grand Rapids - so we're moving across the state back to where I was born and raised! We're pretty excited, and I'm really looking forward to being closer to my family and extended family after being gone for 12 years. We've been staying very busy getting the house ready to sell (I've never done so much cleaning and organizing in my life!), and Eli has been very patient, with me especially, as we've had to focus a lot on things other than him.

This morning I was getting ready to mop the guest bathroom floor, and Eli was playing with his train set in his room. I filled the tub with a little water and then went to get the vacuum out of the master bedroom to vacuum the floor first. When I came back I was met with the sight of Eli sitting in the tub of mop water! Fully clothed of course! I was gone for less than 30 seconds and he ran from his room to the bathroom and climbed in the tub without me hearing a thing. No splash or anything, so obviously he didn't fall in. Plus, the look on his face told me he was proud as punch that he managed to get in the tub without my help! Everyday is a new adventure with Elijah, and I hope that his guardian angel is getting some hazard pay for watching out for all the mischief Eli gets himself in to!

We're Back! Aloha!

Well, Jon and I are back from our sunny vacation in Hawaii. We had a wonderful time, and will post some of our adventures later, but I've got over 500 pictures to wade through first (I can just hear my brother-in-law, Jeremy now. Even I don't know how I managed to take that many!). :) Here's a taste of a few of the sunsets we saw . . .

Elijah was with my sister-in-law and brother while we were gone, and then Jon's Mom had him for the last part of our trip. She brought him back to us on Wednesday morning, after Eli being away from us for 11 nights. And man did I miss my baby by that time! I was so ancy that morning it was unbelievable. I'm glad Jon and I had the chance to be away together, since it was very relaxing and refreshing, but 11 days with no Eli is a long time!

We had talked to Eli on the phone a few times while we were gone, but the last time I heard him I was quite sad - he didn't sound like what I remembered at all. It was kind of surreal seeing him again - he looked so tall and like he'd grown so much older! He smiled when he saw me and then ran away to explore all the things on the porch. He seemed happy to be home though, and very happy to be back to his slide in the living room. Eli didn't say anything at all for a while, but eventually said "bus" and "crash" as he slid his toy bus down the slide to crash at the bottom. :)

After just a bit of being back together it was just like old times. By the afternoon he was hugging and kissing me and chatting up a storm again, but not liking when I would go in to another room. When Jon got home Eli was very happy to see him, and then ran away from him too (whew, it wasn't just me!). :) He had a lot of fun playing with us after dinner though - and loved his presents from Hawaii (a truck with a surfboard on top, a few matchbox cars, a Veggietales DVD, and a Hawaiian shirt - okay, he didn't seem to care about the shirt, but he liked the cars!).

I've got the blond hair to be a surfer,
and now the board and truck too!

Eli's looking snazzy in his Aloha shirt!

Since we've been back Eli's been a little attached to me - not wanting me to leave the room, crying when I dropped him off at nursery for MOPs today, wanting to play with me EVERY minute, and wanting to play with his cars underneath my legs (not next to me, it HAD to be underneath my legs!). I've been pretty happy to oblige all the playing since I missed him so much, but the leg thing got tiring after a bit. :)

I'm pretty comfortable under Mom's legs playing with my cars.

I think Eli's punishing us (well, mostly me) for going away though, as he's been throwing mega-tantrums almost non-stop. He's screaming at diaper changes, getting dressed, at mealtimes, at naptime, any time I have to stop him from doing something, etc. Screeching at the top of his lungs is actually a more appropriate description of the sound he's making. And if I leave the room to ignore it he just follows me and keep screeching! Today he wouldn't eat lunch and went straight to nap at 12:30, after screaming about one thing or another for over an hour. Whew, I'm tired! I think the screaming is just him adjusting to being back with us and letting out the emotions of missing us, but I sure hope it is a short-lived phase and he goes back to being our laid back super happy boy again! Despite the screaming, I'm still really glad to be home and back with Elijah, especially when he looks so cute napping . . . :)

He could scream all day and I'd still love him, he's so cute!

I'm ready for a vacation!

Jon and I have been getting ready this week to head out for a vacation in Hawaii tomorrow, so we've been a little busy this week preparing. Eli hasn't been too happy with much of my attention during the days not focused as much on him, and has been a bit of a handful this week. Here's a recap, since I'm too tired to write connecting sentences. :)

- He decided to start taking 30 minute naps every other day this week, which was stressful for Mommy (I like my little break during the day to get things done efficiently!). I hope he goes back to longer naps when I get home because I'm really not ready to have a non-napping child. :)

- Eli is talking more and more and trying more and more two word phrases (coat on, shoes on, get up, etc.). He said his first three word phrase this week as well, when I was tickling him. He started saying "don't" and I said, "You don't want me to do that? Just say, don't do that!" So he did! "Don't . . . do . . . dat!" - said very sharply and with a little pause between each word. I started laughing and so he said it again and again. Now he's only walking around saying, "do dat" and not saying the don't part. Still cute as a button.

- Eli discovered the word "no" for the first time this week. Unfortunately this was the same day he discovered the power of the word "mine" as well. EVERYTHING in the house was his, and he was quite perturbed when Mommy was touching ANYTHING. I was so sick of hearing "no" and "mine" after that day that I told Lori, my sister-in-law, that instead of just watching Eli for the week we are in Hawaii that she could have the option of keeping him. :) Thankfully he only spent one day this week saying "no" and "mine" to everything, so I've since rescinded the offer.

- Jon and I were packing feverishly Thursday night to get Elijah and ourselves ready for our trips, and Eli got a little bored watching and helping us. So he just climbed on the bed with a book and sacked out for a bit. So cute. :)

Let me know when you guys ready to play with me again.

Jon and I leave early tomorrow for our trip, and Elijah is safely at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lori's house. When we left it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do - though Eli didn't seem upset at all. He was engrossed in playing with a cool trainset of Noah's, and when we said good-bye, he just said, "bye-bye dada" and "choo choo train" to me. We're going to miss our little guy, but are ready for a week of fun in the sun! Hawaii here we come!

Is this a sign I drink too much coffee?

When we're at the mall and we see this logo . . .

. . . Eli starts pointing and excitedly yelling, "Mama's, Mama's!"

Then yesterday Jon was flipping through a business magazine that had a story about Starbucks in it, and Elijah got all excited and started running around yelling, "Mama's mama's!" and then running back and pointing at the logo.

If only I were so lucky to own a piece of Starbucks Eli's statement would be more comforting, but instead I've just been convicted that I drink a few too many White Chocolate Mochas. When your kid associates a business logo as being yours, that might be a sign to cut back a little! :)

Eli's first song!

I was putting Eli to bed last week and doing the usual routine - diaper, pjs, teeth, stories, pray, and sing. I love to sing to Elijah and snuggle for a few minutes before putting him in his crib for the night, and I vary between singing a lullaby or hymns, and then finish with Jesus Loves Me. When I got to Jesus Loves Me, Elijah started saying, "Je-us" and then when we got to the "me" part of the song, "sang" along, saying, "meeeeee" (with the little e going on and on.) He says it in this little high-pitched voice, and doesn't miss a single "me"! He also loves to sing all the "sooooooooos" and sometimes says "Bi ble" when you get to the "Bible tells me so, part. I was so proud of him!

I thought it might have been a fluke, but he's been doing it ever since. Last night when I gave him a bath he was playing with his Bible stories bath book (with foam figures of a sheep, the whale from the Jonah story, baby Moses in a basket, and of course Jesus). When I told him the man figure was Jesus, Eli said, "Je-us meeeeee sooooo." I guess he really does know the song! We sang through it a few times and my heart just melted. I think it is a wonderful gift to grow up knowing that Jesus loves you, and I'm glad Eli is learning that right from the start!