Elijah quote of the week . . .

I was doing dishes with Elijah's help this morning, and he kept dropping some bowls back in to the water to make a big splash of course, and I was telling him not to do that. He was not listening at all and after going back and forth a bit this was heard:

Mom: Elijah, are you disobeying?

Elijah: Yeah!! (said with great enthusiasm and a big grin)

Good moon-ing to you too, Eli!

I walked in to Elijah's room on Monday morning and found him like this . . .


I thought you only saw full moons at night? Apparently Daddy didn't redo the snaps on Eli's jammies when he changed his diaper before bed, and somehow one side of the diaper came undone. Needless to say, the sheets and blankets were a little wet. :)

That's one way to surprise your Mom in the morning, Elijah! This was "Good Morning Moon" instead of "Goodnight Moon" I guess!

Cold cake!

Elijah was being watched by Grandma on Sunday afternoon (along with his cousins Lexi, Tori, and Noah) and after dinner they had dessert - an ice cream sandwich. This was Eli's first ice cream sandwich ever, and when he started eating it Grandma told us that he said, "Mmm, cold cake!" Isn't that so precious?! Jon and I arrived in time to see him eat the last quarter and he was still telling us that is was a cold cake and going mmm-mmm. Guess he liked it!

Where have you been hiding these cold cakes, Mom?

Eli the acrobat.

I was folding laundry at home a few weeks ago and Eli was sitting on the couch watching tennis with me. Then he decided Mom would make a fun thing to climb on top of. A minute later we had this . . .

I have a better view of the tv from up here.

Now Elijah tries to get on my shoulders all the time - unfortunately not always when Mommy is quite ready for it! I think he's inspired by his gymnastic-taking cousins!

How do you make chores fun? Have Eli help!

Mom and I were cleaning the mudroom closets a few weeks ago, and Eli thought he should get in on the act and help. He hid in an empty closet and kept jumping out at us and laughing his head off. We played along of course, pretending that we lost Eli and couldn’t find him, acting super scared when he would jump out at us, etc. It was so much fun, and made a not-so-great activity a lot of fun!

This is a great spot for a hide-and-seek game!

Boo, Grandma! I scared you!

I don't think they can see me.

Ahh! You found me!
I'm tired now, I'll just lay down for a minute.
I'm awake again! Boo!

I always knew he was corny.

Eli really likes corn on the cob, and is really enjoying the sweet corn season. He’ll eat at least one whole ear of corn himself and usually wants more. One evening especially he was really funny with his corn and had us all in stitches at the table . . .

Elijah insisted on corn holders for his corn.

Let's see if I can get this one in my mouth at the same time.

Elijah is so good at corn eating he can do it no-handed!
Grandpa, you're so corny, I can't stop laughing!

Mom got up to take my picture, so I stole her corn.Another successful dinner;
I ended up with my corn, Dad's corn, and Mom's corn!

Just like the shirt says - Eli is a corn dog!

This place is a zoo . . .

Back in June (yes, I know it’s the end of July but I’ve been busy) Elijah and I went on a special zoo trip with Nana Sherry and her friend Carol, Carol’s daughter Lisa, and Lisa’s son Lucas, who is just a bit older than Elijah. Nana was pretty excited that we were all able to actually find a date and time that worked out, since she had been trying to plan this for over a year!

We went to the Detroit Zoo, and it was really a perfect day for a zoo visit – not too hot, perfect blue sky, no rain, and not very crowded either! Elijah didn’t seem to understand all the animals yet though. I guess it takes a certain level of understanding to know that seeing an animal up close is different and more special than seeing them in books. I showed Eli a lion and he was excited at first (“lion lion!”) and then just stuck his thumb in his mouth and looked around like, “okay I saw it, so why are we still standing here?”

Since it wasn’t that busy at the zoo, Elijah had the privilege of being able to run around a bit without having to be holding our hands all the time. He really liked running around on the grass (the zoo has beautiful grounds) and finding the lampposts.

I think his favorite thing was this giant polar bear sculpture at the entrance to the polar bear exhibit. He kept running around it and climbing on the rocks behind it, and then I even set him on top of the bear’s paw to have him look around a bit. It was really cute. The polar bear exhibit is cool too because they have an underwater clear tunnel that you go down in to and then the polar bears (or in our case bear) are swimming around and over top of you. Elijah thought the tunnel was cooler than the bear I think. It took me a bit of coaxing to get Elijah to actually look up and see the bear when he was over our head, he just didn’t seem to get the concept of looking up in time. When he actually saw the bear he was excited though (but only the first time!).

Right after visiting the bears we went in to the little zoo store and Nana picked out a stuffed polar bear for Eli – which he cuddled with and would barely let go of. Until Nana bought it of course, at which point he treated it like it had a disease and threw it out of the stroller. What a fickle boy!

After lunch (Eli’s came in this cool tiger head carrier) Elijah was in a much better mood and had a lot of fun running around again. When we saw the monkeys most of the monkeys were inside sleeping on one side of the while the large baboons were outside on the other side of the exhibit. You could see both parts by running back and forth between one window and the next though. So Elijah would run to the sleeping monkeys, peer in, and then yell, “Wake up monkeys!” over and over again. Then run back and look at the big baboon.

Elijah also found a fence that he could be on one side of while I was on the other. He would run around and then look at me and laugh, while I pointed out to everyone the wild baby that was now in captivity. Then he would “escape” and run around the fence back to me. I think he could have done that for quite a while except that everyone else (including Mama!) wanted to get going to see other animals.

The other cute thing Eli did was share Nana’s frozen lemonade with her. He was in the process of falling asleep when we stopped to get it, and then perked right up when he saw her eating it. He of course wanted a bite. At first his face just puckered right up and he held his mouth funny going, “cold cold.” Then he got a grin – he liked it! After that he wanted more and more. One time Nana was taking a bite and Eli expressed his displeasure at not receiving that spoonful. Nana told him it was her turn, to which Eli replied, “my turn!” He got his spoonful then when Nana said, “Nana’s turn” and had a bite Elijah said, “Eli’s turn!” It was really cute.

Eli did end up taking a nap (Lucas too), and by the time he woke up we had seen a lot more of the zoo ourselves and were on to eating ice cream. There is a huge play area at the zoo but we didn’t visit because it was time to head home (we were all beat!). Next time we visit I think we’ll budget more time for that play area because it looked really awesome.

After a quick visit to the main gift shop and Elijah picking out a leopard spotted truck we headed home. The last think Elijah played on was a stone hippo at the entrance to the zoo, and we had to drag him off it of course! I think we definitely need a return visit next summer!

Debate tactics, Eli style!

The other night while the family was eating another of Missy’s delicious dinners, Eli was doing pretty well with eating his veggies and bread, but he hadn’t eaten much of his meat. I asked Eli, “Can you eat some meat?” and put a piece of meat on his fork and tried to hand it to him, but he just looked at it and said, "No!"

Just for fun, I decided to mock-argue with Eli, and told him, "Yes!"

Eli: "No!"

Dad: "Yes!"

Eli: "No, no, no, no, no, yes, no!"

Missy, Missy’s mom and dad, and I couldn’t do anything but laugh at that rapid-fire statement from Eli, particularly at the "yes" he stuck in at the end there! He definitely managed to get the last word in on our little debate with that argument!

Phone Conversations

A really cool present that Eli got for his 2nd birthday from his Grandma Amanda and Grandpa Terry is a play kitchen. The kitchen came with a little play wireless phone.

Eli has started carrying on little conversations into his phone. He’ll put the phone to his ear and say, rapid-fire, “Hello, yup, yup, yup, bye-bye!” and then hang up the phone! Where could he have picked that up – is that what Mommy and Daddy sound like when they are on the phone? :-)

Occasionally, a recognizable name or two will come up in one of Eli's phone conversations as well. "Lexi-Tori" and "Dora-Boots" are names that have been heard amongst the "yups" from time to time!

Counting to 10!

Last week (on June 24th), Eli counted to 10 by himself for the first time!

Prior to that day, Eli had been able to count to 3, and had been able to count a couple of numbers in a row (in particular, he would say “8! 9!” after hearing someone say “7”). But yesterday, Eli counted all the way from 1 to 10! He started with “1”, and Missy, Missy’s mom, and I repeated “1” after him. Eli went on to “2”, we repeated “2”, and to our surprise, Eli continued all the way up to 10! (And it was indeed Eli saying the number first and the rest of us repeating after him, not the other way around!) :-)

Eli is starting to understand the concepts behind the numbers, too. The next morning, Eli was in his high chair eating breakfast with Missy. Eli had his sippy cup in front of him, and he reached out for Missy’s cup as well (“Pease! Pease!”), and Missy gave it to him. When he had both cups in front of him, Eli said “two cups”! And that was all by himself, with no prompting (or talking about numbers at all beforehand) from Missy!

Sweet Dreams

Elijah just adores his cousins Lexi and Tori (twin 3 year old girls), especially after spending more than a week with them while we were in Hawaii. Almost every time we go to the van he says, "Lexi-Tori house," and thinks we are going there for a visit, and the days we actually do go there he is beside himself with excitement the minute we pull up to the house! Eli can't tell them apart either so they are both "Lexi-Tori" to him, which is just precious.

Last week I heard him talking during his nap and went to check on him. I found him, still sound asleep, but laughing (his big belly laugh). Then he said, "Lexi-Tori, Lexi-Tori!" and started laughing again. It was so cute I just had to post it. I'm friends and like to hang out with a lot of my cousins (with two of my cousins, Kelly and Stacy, being my two best friends), and I'm hoping that Eli grows up with that same kind of bond. Looks like it's off to the right start!

It's Lexi-Tori! (or is it Tori-Lexi?)

Elijah, Lexi, and Tori, at Christmas time -
looking like they could be siblings, not just cousins!
I love Lexi-Tori!