Eli funnies.

• I was driving Eli home from Bible Study Fellowship last Monday and took a different exit than usual on the highway to get cheap gas. As I got back on the freeway we were at roof level with an office building with a big sign on it. Elijah asked me, “What’s that say, Mommy?” I read him the sign and told him it was for a business that makes auto glass. Eli asked, “What they do?” so I more clearly explained that they made glass for the windows and windshields of cars. Elijah replied, “What a good idea!”

• Grandma was watching Elijah last week and Eli told her that Mommy was his friend. Grandma asked if Daddy was his friend, and Elijah said no. So Grandma asked who was Daddy’s friend. Elijah replied, “Daddy not my friend! Daddy Mommy’s friend.” Daddy is certainly Mommy’s friend, that’s right (and could have something to do with how you got here little boy!).

• Elijah told Grandma and Daddy Monday night that Mommy had babies in her tummy. Not one baby – BABIES. That’s right, he says that Mommy is having two babies. When Daddy followed up that line of questioning with, “What are we going to name the babies?” Elijah told him, “Tigger and Pooh!” Guess those two usually do go together, but I’m afraid there’s no chance the baby (or babies) will be christened with those monikers. I don’t think Eli has the baby prognostication all figured out yet though - he says that he has a baby in his tummy too and that it’s coming out “tomorrow.” If boys can incubate babies that quickly maybe they should be the ones having them!
  

Who's throwing up now?

You’d think it would be the pregnant lady being the thrower-upper, but this time around it was Elijah. On Thursday night (after a fun day at the Children’s Museum with Lexi and Tori), Elijah woke up about half an hour after going to bed not looking that great and wanting to be rocked. Shortly after he sat up, looked me in the face and got a very peculiar expression – quickly followed by a baptism by you-know-what for Mommy. Thursday night through Friday morning he threw up 9 times – once on Mom and Dad’s bed (yuck) and then mostly in his crib (we had towels down so cleanup was easier those times). On Friday night, after the second time he threw up, he was all chipper and when I asked him if he was okay he said, “I’m great! I feel much better!” Half an hour later he was singing a different tune – “I don’t feel much better, Mommy.” I slept in Eli’s room on Thursday night, and the longest he went without throwing up was about 2 hours in the middle of the night (from 2:45 until 4:45). It was a long long night, with an ever expanding laundry pile.

This was Elijah’s first real experience with throwing up a lot and understanding what he was doing. He really didn’t like it (as you would expect), and did not want to use the bowl Mom and Dad kept offering after he used it once and SAW everything in it. But after having to have his clothes changed about a zillion times he grew to appreciate the handiness of the bowl. Friday morning he was reaching for it whenever his stomach felt funny. And for once Daddy was thankful that Mommy likes to shop, as we went through all but two of Elijah's shirts (see, I just have incredible foresight and practicality, not a shopping addiction!).

On Friday Elijah couldn’t really keep anything down but was throwing up more like every two hours instead of every half an hour. We thought he was doing great Friday night when he ate some toast at 5 and was still okay at 7, but then the pukey-monster struck again. Saturday he was doing a lot better but was still really tired. And Saturday was the day that Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lori were moving to their new house, so Daddy went and helped while Mommy and Eli had to stay home (they really didn’t need to catch what Eli had!). On Sunday we knew Elijah was going to be okay when he inhaled four pieces of toast (even without jelly or peanut butter on it) and was still asking for more. I don’t think he said hardly three or four sentences all day Saturday and wouldn’t move out of his chair, so it was a relief to see him on Sunday afternoon and Monday return to his usual self – playing with toys and talking up a storm. It was horrible to have to watch him all scared of what was happening, and as much as I don’t like to throw up, I would rather have me be sick than Elijah. I hope we don’t have more puking episodes for a long long time!

I "spotted" Eli in the tub!

For Christmas Eli had gotten these bathtub finger paints which I had read a lot about and had put on his list. Turns out that they don’t seem to work to draw paintings on the tub very well, but they do work great to make splotches all over Elijah! That’s actually what he’s most interested in doing anyway, so it all works out. We’ve been having fun in the tub turning Eli into a spotted-Eli, and that’s pretty much all Eli wants to do in the bathtub now. Mommy splotches him up (which we turn in to a game in itself) and then Elijah takes the fish sponge that came with the paints and tries to clean himself off before Mommy can put more spots on him. We may not be using the paints like I thought we were going to, but I think we’re having a lot more fun playing with them our own way!

Mom's painting me blue!

Hey, Mommy got some on my arm.

I'll just get rid of this a second.

How did Mom do that?
First she dipped her hand in here . . .

Then she painted my tummy, like this!

It's fun when I do it too!

Here's your dress, Eli . . .

We’ve been keeping Lexi and Tori’s dress up box here at Mom and Dad’s house until they move in to their new house (later this week!!), so when the girls are over we have been having fun playing together. Elijah has gotten in on the act and wanted to dress up too, so I showed him the dress options in the trunk. After rejecting most of them, he finally settled on a manly pink and grey number, which he accented with a nice purple and pink wand. He and Tori (in her brave knight outfit) were promptly off to hunt some dragons together and run up and down the hall, while Lexi (all decked out in princess regalia) painted her fingernails at the table. They have such a fun time together, and last weekend Tori got dressed up and then brought Eli his clothes, saying, “Eli, here’s your dress!” I never thought I’d hear that in my life, but at least Eli’s having fun playing with his cousins!

I've got my wand, my peanut butter crackers, and my dress.
I'm ready to hunt some dragons.

We're still looking . . .

Princess Lexi paints her nails while the knights defend the castle.

I think Tori found a dragon!

Ready, Set, Go!

Since living at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Elijah has discovered the joys of a very long straight hallway. He can RUN RUN RUN! So I thought it was time to post a little blurb about his fun so that one day we can look back and remember what good times Eli had.

Eli loves to “race” up and down the hallway, usually with Daddy (he knows Daddy doesn’t get sick of the game as quickly as Mommy does). So when Daddy comes home from work Eli usually asks, “Wanna race Daddy?” If you say yes then you hear, “Ready, set, go!” and Eli takes off like he’s shot out of a cannon. We’re pretty sure he’ll have a future in track if he keeps his speed and endurance. He already can run almost faster than Mommy (which isn’t saying much, but when I’m trying to run as fast as I can and he’s keeping up with me it’s still surprising). And he seems to have two speeds which he can employ – a loping run where his arms flop around and look adorable, and then his “see ya later” hyperdrive. He will literally run up and down the length of the house for half an hour or more straight, with barely a stop. Mommy usually gives up trying to keep up and plants herself in one of the bedroom doors to cheer him on, and Daddy considers it his workout to keep up with Eli for the whole time he wants to run. But even then, Daddy is the one who says he needs to stop running – not Elijah!

I think we may need to look at houses with this “long hall” feature eventually – I can’t imagine not having a place for Eli to run like he does! And in just a few years they’ll be another one to try and keep up with him!

"Ready, set, go!"Eli running in the floppy arm position.I'm running! Let's race!

Choo-Choo Train out-talks Chick Hicks!

Next to Eli's newly expanded wooden train set, the biggest hit of the Christmas season for him has been his new Lightning McQueen cars from the Cars movie. He loves to play with Mack the truck, and with the McQueen and Chick Hicks cars (the latter two being anthropomorphic rival race cars).

In the Cars movie, Lightning McQueen has a catch phrase, "ka-chow!" (supposed to be like the sound of a bolt of lightning), and Chick Hicks comes up with a variation on that catch phrase of his own, "ka-chigga!" (maybe supposed to be like the sound of a thunderclap, but mostly just sounding kind of silly). :-) Missy and I sometimes use those catch phrases when we have the cars "talk" as we're playing with them with Eli.

The other day, I was playing with Eli; I was playing with the Chick Hicks car, and Eli was playing with one of his toy train engines. I had Chick Hicks "say" to the train, "ka-chigga, ka-chigga!" Eli then said (by way of the toy train's reply to Chick), "ka-choo-choo, ka-choo-choo!"

Missy and I laughed and thought that was adorable. I thought it was pretty good pattern recognition and creativity on Eli's part to come up with that!

Is his name Chester?

Pop Quiz: Name this animal.

According to Eli, you're right if you said... "a Cheetos"!

Apparently Eli must have remembered what he'd seen on the bag of a certain orange poofy snack and got his terms a bit muddled. But it's super cute to hear him say it. :-)

You Rock!

For Christmas Jon got the game Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii, and we've been playing it with Jeff and Noah and the family. Last Saturday was a guitar marathon for the boys, and even though Eli didn't play or even watch much, he apparently picked up on the phrase the game uses - "You rock!"

I went on an afternoon shopping/returning trip and when I came home the first thing Eli said to me was, "Mommy you rock! While I was gone Eli had first told Noah, "Noah, you rock," after he finished a song, and then started getting everyone in on the rocking action. At dinner that night Eli went around the table and told everyone, individually, that "you rock!" Everyone thought it was the funniest when he said, "Grandma, you rock!" What's really cute is that it usually is accompanied by a little fist pump in to the air to emphasize the word "rock." Our son the little headbanger. Aww. :) Eli, you rock!

Eli knows the Grand Canyon?

I was looking at the travel section of the paper this week and the front page had a big picture of the Grand Canyon on it. Eli walked by and peeked at the picture and then said, "Mack go there! Lightning McQueen go there!"

I was confused for a minute, and then realized that in the Cars movie Mack loses Lightning McQueen in the desert and McQueen ends up in a town with scenery just like the Grand Canyon. Eli was all excited and kept telling me that Lightning McQueen was there. I thought it was pretty astute for him to remember the scenery of the movie and then match it with a picture in the paper. Of course, he's crazy about Cars so maybe that's all he thinks about now!

Pregnancy Update

Well, I haven't done an update about the new baby in a while, and a lot of people are asking me how I feel, so I thought it was time to share what's been shaking in baby land.

I'm still feeling pretty good as far as my stomach goes, though I am not really ever that hungry and hardly ever feel like eating anything in the morning. It isn't until I've been awake a while that anything at all sounds remotely good to me. And I find myself more nibbling throughout the day than eating a whole lot at meals. And I threw up for the first time yesterday. Turns out my prenatal vitamin is not meant to be washed down with a glass of milk. At least not if you don't want to see it again in about 10 minutes. I've lost two pounds, which wasn't my goal of course, but I'm not going to complain since I know I'm going to make up for it later.

When I do feel like eating things I often get cravings for one thing and want to eat a lot of that for like a week. I still love pickles, and eat a lot of those, and a few weeks ago Jon mentioned Chinese food and I almost made him go out and get me some right then and there. Since then I've had Chinese food a lot, and it still is one of the only things that consistently appeals to me. I've been hankering for peanuts in the worst way too. And I really like spicy foods where as when I was pregnant with Eli they were pretty revolting to me. The other kick that I've been on is eating "Everything" bagels. I saw them and HAD to get them (even though I've hated them for as long as I've known what a bagel is). I think I had one Everything bagel every day for over two weeks - and they were all slathered with chive and onion cream cheese (another thing I've never liked that much before). Don't know if all these food things mean anything, but people ask me a lot about my cravings, so there you go.

I've been going to bathroom a ridiculous amount of times (if not quantity). It gets rather annoying after a while to wake up 2-3 times a night or more to go, or to feel like you are about to explode if you don't go the bathroom, just to hear "tinkle tinkle" and then nothing else. Seriously, that's all?! There has to be more in there somewhere! Even Eli will say, "Not bathroom again Mommy!"

Our ultrasound will be in February sometime, but I'm not sure when. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so I'm sure we will schedule it then. We will find out the sex, but haven't decided yet how (we had a baby gender party last time but may just go for being told this time). I'm 16 weeks along, and, according to my Babycenter.com e-mails, little bean number two is 4 and a half inches long and the size of an avocado! Kind of scary to me that he/she is that long already! I still feel like I just got pregnant, but I'm in my second trimester and time keeps moving. Even though I'm not posting all the weekly details like I did with Eli, I'm still amazed every week when I read the e-mails on the baby's development and read that he/she has fingerprints, and a heart beat, and all their organs! This week he/she started growing fingernails! The miracle of life is truly a miracle!

Schneider Christmas

To celebrate Christmas with Jon’s family, we headed over to the other side of the state on Friday before New Year’s Eve – driving in a yucky snowstorm for the first hour! Then it cleared up and the roads were fine (which was good since we were almost ready to turn around and head back home). We stayed with Jon’s Mom and Terry on Friday and Saturday night, and Jon’s Dad and Sherry on Sunday night and Monday night. Jon still doesn’t have much vacation since starting the new job, so he had to work on Wednesday and we had to head home on New Year’s Day.

Opening Presents with Grandma Amanda and Grandpa Terry

Before we opened presents on Saturday morning, Elijah had already spied the stockings by the fire and was very concerned about who each stocking belonged to. He found his pretty quickly actually, and then was interested in the little red one hanging off the end of Mommy’s stocking. This was a tiny stocking for the baby! Elijah wanted to know where the baby was, and we said in Mommy’s tummy. So Eli promptly walked over to me, poked me in the stomach and then lifted up my shirt. Then he said, “Open it! Open it, find baby!” and poked me again. That’s the first time that Elijah’s been interested at all in the baby or responded when told that the baby was in Mommy’s tummy!

Once Uncle Jeremy woke up (oh to be on a college schedule again), Elijah was so excited to open his stocking he was dancing around the room. We all found cars from the movie Cars in our stockings, and Elijah quickly claimed everyone else’s cars as his own. And of course there was candy, which is always a winner!

Once we moved on to presents Elijah wanted to open everyone’s presents for them, though if told it was someone else’s he would either bring it to them or say “oh” and bring it back to the tree. Elijah was a pretty lucky boy and got train cars for his new tracks, a book all about the University of Michigan (complete with Eli’s picture in it, not that we have any expectations or anything), a parking garage with a really nice set of 50 cars, Red the fire truck from Cars, a nativity play set, and personalized luggage for all the traveling back and forth he does (just in time too, since the diaper bag will soon have a new owner).

I think the train cars were the biggest hit, though Eli had a bit of trouble sharing them with others. It was funny to watch him and Uncle Jeremy play together. Uncle Jeremy was touching Eli’s trains and Eli was whining, “No, that’s mine!” over and over. After insisting that he needed ALL the cars himself, he finally conceded the yellow engine (the one that came with the track originally) and he played with his new red engine and his new Gordon engine. If forced to share Elijah always picks to keep Gordon (and don’t even touch it or you hear, “No, that’s mine!”).

On Saturday night we had another treat of having dinner with Jon’s Grandma and his Aunt Cheryl, who was visiting from Georgia! I took some pictures of all of us together, but I think I had the wrong setting on the camera because they all turned out blurry. We had a great dinner together though!

Opening Presents with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Sherry

On Sunday we basically relaxed all day and played, and then headed over to Jon’s Dad’s house in the early evening. Elijah fell asleep for about 10 minutes in the car on the way over, and was pretty cranky when we got there. Eli loved running around in the basement though (Jon’s Dad is finishing it, and right now you can run around between the studs), but when he started banging some of the doors and not listening that fun was over. Then he threw a tantrum and ended up going to bed early. Oh the joys of two and a half year olds! Jon’s back threw a tantrum of its own when Jon was carrying in our bags, and so for the rest of the time Jon was out of commission and had to pretty much stay on the couch and couldn’t get around!

Since Jon couldn’t upstairs to the tree and presents, on Monday morning we brought the presents down to him! Eli thought that was fun and he helped carry some of the smaller presents. And since this was his fourth time opening presents, Eli was very excited and eager to help everyone open all their presents. By this time he had present opening concept down pat! And he did so many cute things while we were opening presents too.

First, when Eli ripped the paper off his first present he yelled, “Yay, a box!” and then moved on to the next gift without opening the box. If we had known boxes made you happy we could have all saved some money, Eli! Then, after he/we opened each gift, Eli started yelling, “Let’s open it!” And when Jon opened a new Mario game for the Wii, Elijah was very excited about that. He sat right down to look through the manual, and when Grandpa asked him to help him open a present, Eli didn’t even look up and just replied, “Just minute, Grandpa. Finish reading this book first.” Okie dokie then! To cap off the cuteness, when I opened a present which was packed with styrofoam peanuts, Elijah had to climb in the big box and start jumping around in the peanuts and acting silly.

Eli made out like a bandit again and got new bathtub blocks and paints (we were in serious need of new bath toys!) and then a computer of his own, called ClickStart, that you plug in to the TV and then he can play games on. It has a its own little keyboard and mouse that are so adorable!

Elijah was really in to the ClickStart, and after rigging a new mouse set-up (the included mouse pad isn’t very big and doesn’t work that well) Elijah was off and running and playing on his own! He just loves it! He’s not so good at sharing it though; we’re still working on that. He didn’t want to share with Grandma Sherry, and gets quite upset when the other kids touch it now. Good to know he loves his present at least!

On Monday night we took it easy (it was New Year’s Eve) and I got the treat of taking a Jacuzzi tub bath at Dad and Sherry’s (I adore baths if you don’t know that, but we don’t have a deep tub so I never get to take one). That pretty much made my evening. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if I had an iced coffee to sip while relaxing in the tub, but seeing as it was snowing like crazy (they got almost 8 inches overnight) I wasn’t going to try and get that. :) We ended up shoveling out and leaving in the early afternoon on Tuesday, and watching most of the Michigan game on TV when we made it home. Michigan won, and that capped off a great extended weekend of family, fun, and football. :)

I Got a Block!

Somewhat uncharacteristically, I (Jon) was on time with my Christmas shopping this year, and managed to have all of Missy's gifts wrapped and under the tree by a couple of weeks before Christmas.

One night before Christmas, Missy was out, and Eli and I were at home by ourselves. I stepped out of the room for a minute to do something, and when I came back, I saw that Eli had started unwrapping one of Missy's gifts! He was really excited and proud of himself, and showed it to me, saying, "look, Daddy, my block!" Sure enough, the partially-unwrapped gift Eli was holding was one of his own building blocks!

What I had done was wrapped one of Missy's gifts, a memory chip for our camera, together with one of Eli's building blocks, to give the wrapped gift the appearance of being a larger item.

Eli, though, just thought he had found one of his building blocks, and he was so excited about it! He wasn't very happy with me when I told him it needed to get wrapped up again and go back under the tree.

I'm not sure how Eli decided to unwrap that particular gift – whether he had recognized the wrapped item as being the same size and weight of one of his building blocks, or whether it was just by chance. Whatever the reason, though, it was pretty funny that he happened to pick that one, and he was excited to see it for the second time when Missy unwrapped the gift when we celebrated Christmas!

Today's Grammar Lesson from Eli

Yesterday evening, Eli snuggled up to Missy, put his head down on her shoulder, and told her, "I love you, Mommy." Missy was charmed, of course, and told Eli, "I love you too!"

Then Eli looked up at Missy and told her, "No Mommy, *I* say 'I love you too'!" Apparently Eli had figured out that since it's usually Missy or I telling Eli that we love him first, he's the one who is supposed to tack on the "too" on the end!

Pretty good pattern recognition there by Eli, even if not precisely correct from a grammatical standpoint. :-)

Our Christmas!

In between Christmas and heading out to Jon’s parents to celebrate Christmas with them, Jon and I squeezed in our family Christmas with Elijah on Thursday night. My parents were gracious enough to head out, so we had a nice dinner just the three of us, and then opened presents. During the day while I was finishing wrapping presents and getting ready I told Elijah that we were going to open presents that night. He said, “More presents? For me? Yay!” and started running around all excited.

Before we opened presents we opened our stockings, which was a new concept to Elijah. The stockings had been hanging over the fireplace for a few weeks, with Elijah paying no attention to them since he didn’t know they actually had things in them. Once we told him there were things inside them though he was all excited. He wanted his first of course, and we had to explain that there were more things in it than just the train ornament that was on the top. Once he realized that he started taking things out with gusto.

He found a platter of play cookies, just like one he already had but had lost some of the cookies to, and shouted, “More cookies!” as he tossed it to the side. Then he found a bag of popcorn which he said, “Open please,” and handed to Jon. We kept telling him to keep looking, and he was quite excited when he made it to the bottom and found an Elmo train car and then a Lightening McQueen car to play with. Then of course there was a little bit of candy at the bottom too, which got the biggest smile. “Ooh, candy! Ooh, more candy!” Once he emptied his stocking, Elijah quickly stood up and said, “I go get Mommy’s. Open Mommy’s stocking.”

Once we got to actual presents he was really excited when he opened up a set of matchbox cars which had pictures of Mario on them (I was really excited when I found them in the store too, since Elijah loves Mario). Eli had the paper partially ripped off when he spotted a picture of Mario on the back of the package, and then he shouted, “Mario and mushroom man! Yay!”

The baby got Elijah a present too – a Thomas the Tank Engine water doodle pad. Elijah wanted to play with that right away too, and insisted on coloring in EVERY part of the page before going to the next. Fortunately this gave Mom and Dad time to open presents, so it all worked out well. Elijah would open, and then play while Mom and Dad each opened a gift. By that time Eli was ready for more presents of his own. And since we kept ourselves in line this year (Go me! It’s a Christmas miracle!) Elijah had a nice amount of presents, without breaking the bank or spending much.

The biggest hit of the night was when Elijah opened up his new train set though. His eyes got really big and he started wiggling around. Then Mommy and Daddy could not open it up fast enough for him! He got another set of tracks to extend the track capabilities, and after Jon made him a pretty sweet train set-up, Elijah just played and played with his train. Definitely a winner!

We had such a nice night celebrating as our little family, and even if we did squeeze it in between lots of other goings on, we had a great night and made some wonderful memories.

Extended family Christmas parties!

Once again this year we were able to pack in both extended families Christmas parties in to the Christmas visit, with the Doezema party on Saturday night, and the Koorndyk party on Christmas Day in the late afternoon. It was fun to see everybody again, and to see all the little kids playing together.

At the Doezema party the younger kids tried to play basketball, but the net was too high, so Uncle Jeff rigged a lower “net” for them out of an empty box and a chair on a table. The kids most enjoyed playing hiding and seek with Grandpa Doug in the hallways of the church. At the end of the night, after we were all cleaned up, the boys wanted to race around the gym, so all the kids took off running, including Elijah. After a few times around the other kids stopped for a break, but Elijah kept running . . . and running . . . and running. He ran for a good 15 minutes straight without stopping. He eventually stopped once, but then took off again immediately, and we had to make him stop so we could all leave. I think running could be in his future, just like Daddy and Uncle Jeremy! We also discovered that Jon can run faster backwards than Grandma can forwards (and that was entertaining to watch). :)

The Koorndyk party was fun too, and the sheer number of little ones to play with made it extra fun for Elijah. He would grab something from the snack table and then be off to play and run with everyone again. There were 12 little ones there, with most of them under the age of 5, so Eli had lots of play companions. Jon played with the kids a lot too, so he had lots of companions as well. He was pushing them around on this riding toy from the church nursery and the kids really thought that was fun. Too soon it was time to go though, and it felt like I hadn’t had much chance to talk to many people (I say that every year, and every year it’s true!). I think we need set up a play date for all the kids since they seemed to be having such a blast together!

Fun in the snow? This time yes!

While everyone was in town for Christmas this year we happened to get a big snowstorm, which dumped a nice amount of snow on us so that we could go sledding (without having to wade through deep deep snow)! Grandma corralled the kids into getting outside, and I’m glad she persisted because the kids (and adults) had a blast. Elijah was much more cooperative this time as well (see previous post), once he saw that the other kids were getting on all their snow gear and heading out.

We just went down the little hill behind my parent’s house, and that was great since the kids could walk back up it on their own, and if the adults pulled them it didn’t tire us out. Grandma had bought a big family sled which worked the best, especially when it was loaded down with little ones. :) Elijah liked to lie in the sled instead of sit, and he and Andrew rode down the hill quite a bit that way.

After sledding for a while the attention turned to snowball fights! The boys ganged up on Uncle Jon a bit, but Uncle Jon got them back pretty well, throwing snow furiously backwards over his head. We played snow tag and made snow angels too, and then the littler ones headed in, while Jon, Grandma, me, Noah, Nathan, Andrew, and Tori, stayed outside and had a snowball fight in the woods. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in quite a while. We all ganged up on Grandma, and then Uncle Jon, and then of course me. No pictures of the snowball fight (I’m not crazy enough to put my camera in that kind of danger!). What a fun afternoon playing in the snow!

Eli's underprivileged? I don't think so!

Elijah got one present which I just had to tell the story of – a moose Webkinz, from Nathan. At Nathan’s school a lady organized a toy drive where the kids were given a toy that they had to give away to an underprivileged child. Nathan got a moose Webkinz, which he told Scott he wanted to give to Noah. Since they were already actually giving Noah a Webkinz for Christmas, Scott said that they couldn’t give it to Noah. Nathan deduced that they couldn’t give it to the girls because there was only one moose and two girls, so that wouldn’t work. So then Nathan decided that he should give the moose to Elijah. Scott explained that Elijah wasn’t an underprivileged child, to which Nathan replied, “Well, he doesn’t have a house!” I guess it is hard for a seven year old to understand why Elijah is living at Grandma and Grandpa’s house instead of in his own house! So, Elijah is now an underprivileged child, at least in Natey’s eyes. Poor Eli, his life is so rough. :) At least he has a furry moose to cuddle with now!

Special present for the girls!

For Christmas I had the idea to paint a dress up trunk for Lexi and Tori and fill it with dress up clothes. Lori has asked the girls, separately and at different times, how they wanted to decorate their room at the new house. Lexi said that she wanted it to be purple with green polka dots, and Tori said that she wanted it to be green with purple polka dots. Lexi’s favorite color is purple, and Tori’s favorite color is green. So I thought it would be cool to paint a trunk with green and purple polka dots, with their names across the top! Jon found a trunk at IKEA which was a good size and fit our budget (a solid wood trunk is very expensive it turns out). And I was able to paint the wood frame and then stencil polka dots and their names on the white inset of the trunk. It was a lot of work but I had a lot of fun doing it!

When the girls come over we often play “brave knights in armor,” where Lexi is a princess, Tori is a brave knight, Eli is a prince, and I am a dragon (which they either fight or they ride depending on their mood). Lexi is super in to princesses and Tori likes them too, but prefers to be a knight. I found some great princess and girly dresses at resale shops, and found some princess "beauty sets" as well. And then at Costco the day before we opened presents I stumbled upon a knight’s dress up costume which was perfect for Tori! So the dress up trunk had princess clothes and a knight’s outfit too!

When they opened the trunk up the girls were excited, and I’m really glad I got the knight’s outfit, because Tori looked at one of the dresses and said, “Princesses wear that, not me.” Then she put on the knight’s costume and looked super-cute. Lexi got all decked out as a princess, complete with tiara, and I was so happy to see them so happy. Lexi came up to me the next day and gave me a big hug and told me thank you for her pretty trunk and pretty clothes. All the hours of work were worth it paid off to see the smile on the girls’ faces and hear that they liked their present!

Koorndyk Christmas

Me and my brothers and their families and Mom and Dad had such a good time all being together over the Christmas holiday, that I can’t even begin to tell everything that happened. All of us were staying at my parent’s house pretty much the whole time, so we were packed in, but the cousins loved being together, and Elijah was constantly entertained (maybe 6 kids isn’t such a bad idea? Naw, don’t think so.) Here are the highlights:

• Jon hooked up his Wii to the TV in the living room so the kids could play games out there, and the three older boys loved playing Super Mario Kart together. Aunt Missy played a bit too; even Elijah tried to get in on the action. The boys were so cute with Eli, who just held the controller and didn’t make his car move. They would tell Eli he was doing great, and at the end of the race that he won. Eli would throw his hand in the air, cheer, and say, “I won!” Natey told Grandma, “He’s not really winning; we’re just telling him that.” It was cute though when one time Elijah got his car to move a little bit. The boys all started shouting, “He’s moving! Yay, Eli, you’re moving!”

• We lost power in a storm on Saturday night at 3 in the morning, so we had breakfast by candlelight, which the kids thought was pretty cool. We got power back in the late afternoon of Sunday, just in time to open the kids’ Christmas gifts (and not freeze our butts off with the furnace not working!).

• There was a rousing game of Uno Attack, which was quite hilarious to watch. Elijah was playing with Grandma, and all the kids would just go nuts when the launcher would spit out a bunch of cards to one of them.

• Elijah had a transportation Christmas, getting Mack from the Cars movie, two Lightening McQueen cars, a big Lightening McQueen, a Thomas the Tank Engine Aqua doodle set, and a CAT bulldozer! He loved them all; though I think the gift he was the most excited about was the play food which the girls got to go in their new play kitchen. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t HIS and why we weren’t opening them!

• On Christmas Eve we had a fantastic dinner all together (14 of us around the big table – I don’t know where the baby is going next year!). Then afterwards it was early to bed for the younger kiddies and the adults opened presents. No pictures of that though (we’re just not as cute as the little ones). The boys stayed around to watch us open presents and all of us thought it was nice to have the presents shuttled to us by the youngins. Using child labor to hand us lazy bones our presents is a great idea.

• Grandma had the great idea to make snowflakes out of paper, and it only took four adults to decipher the directions from Martha Stewart on how to fold the paper. The kids were interested for a bit, but not nearly as long as the adults were. Jeff made a snowflake with the Michigan block M on it, and Scott made all kinds of intricate snowflake designs. I went traditional for a bit and then decided to do some contemporary designs, and made one with polka dots (which the girls thought was cool). Grandma and the girls hung some of the snowflakes in Elijah’s room to surprise him when he came home from celebrating Christmas with the Schneider side of the family, and they look really pretty.

• Overheard by me – Lexi was explaining to Elijah that she was his cousin. Elijah replied, “No, you not my cousin. Andrew my cousin.” Lexi tried to tell him that Andrew and Lexi were both his cousins, but he couldn’t quite grasp the concept. Apparently, though, by the time you are four you understand perfectly!

• The adults had a great time playing games together (I think we played every night!), and spending 5 days together, which is a treat. Uncle Scott got sick at the end of the visit, so that wasn’t so great though. He missed out on some of the gaming, so we’re going to have to have some makeup sessions I think. Let’s start planning our next get together!

Moments like these . . .

I was out finishing Christmas shopping one night, so Jon had put Eli to bed long before I made it home. When I did get home I had to check on Eli though so I crept into his room to peek in his crib. Elijah immediately rolled over towards me and stretched out his hand towards mine. Then he opened his eyes and looked up at me. I thought, “Oh no! I woke him up!” but Elijah just whispered, “I love you mommy,” and closed his eyes again. What a sweetie. Moments like these make all the hard work of parenting worth it!

A morning at the museum!

A few days before Christmas Eli and I got an unexpected treat – we went to the Children’s Museum with my cousin Catherine and her son Joshua! Joshua asked for Elijah to go with him, and I’m so glad that Catherine listened to his suggestion and gave us a call – we had a great time!

The day started with some excitement however, as about 15 minutes before we had to leave Elijah grabbed a box from the counter and said, “What is this? Grandma’s pancake?” and then proceeded to put the box (which was indeed Grandma’s OPEN box of pancake mix) upside down over his head. His head was instantly coated with pancake mix. I didn’t have time to give him a full bath so up on the counter with his head hanging over the sink he went. That mix was quite stubborn and it took me forever to get it all out! And then he had to change clothes too. We still made it on time to meet Catherine and Joshua though.

Once at the museum Elijah had a blast. There was a penguin exhibit with slides and such, and a toddler area with a kitchen and a fishing boat and cars. Then there was the grocery store, which was the biggest hit with Elijah. He immediately spotted the carts, ran and got, “My cart!” and started filling up. He started with the produce, but then spied cereal and “popcorn!” on the shelves. What fun. Joshua got in on the action too, and it was hard to tear Eli away to go upstairs and check other things out. Even when we were upstairs he wanted to go back down. And now (2 weeks later) he is asking to go back to the grocery store.

At the end of our visit Catherine helped me corral Elijah in to looking in this mirrored box which reflected lots of Elijah’s, and I got some cute pictures of him. My favorite thing from the day was seeing the two boys start to play together, and having Joshua come up to me and ask to have me read him a book. I love to read, so it was a good memory to read to both of the boys. I’m already planning our next visit, and I’m glad I bought the membership so we can go whenever we want! Thanks for inviting us Catherine!

Cookie Time!

Over the holidays I baked cookies a few times, and Lori, Mom, and I got together this year to have a cookie-making day just like we’ve been saying we wanted to for years. We made about a zillion dozen cookies, and the kids even got in on the action. The girls were really good at their parts, and Elijah was mainly interested in getting the sugar he was supposed to be rolling his cookies in into his mouth instead.

One of the days that Mom and I made cookies with the kids we made the kind of “cookies” where you lay out circle pretzels, stick unwrapped Hershey’s kisses in the middles, soften them in the oven for a few minutes and then press M&Ms on top. The kids laid out the pretzels on their cookies sheets, and were working diligently at unwrapping the kisses. Even Eli was helping unwrap, though occasionally one frustrated him. At one point he looked at me and said, “Who wrapped these?” Mom and I started laughing, and without missing a beat Lexi chimed in, “God did!” Eli seemed okay with that answer and Mom and I were laughing too hard to try and sort it all out. :) At the holidays Elijah brought the tin around to all his cousins so they could eat the pretzel cookies, but then when Noah and Nathan took the last ones he brought the tin back to me and told me that “Noah Natey eat all cookies. Not nice.” Hey, if you’re handing them out you’ve got to expect people to eat them, Elijah! Now when he asks for cookies I’ll give him the choices of what we have and he invariably wants the pretzel cookies! They were a hit!

Fun in the snow? I don't think so.

Elijah’s first time playing in the snow this year didn’t go quite as Jon or I expected. Jon was so excited to take Eli outside after our first big dump of snow, but Eli wanted nothing to do with it. Jon listened to, “No! No! No! No! No!” as he got Eli’s snowsuit on, his coat on, his hat on, and the boots and mittens. It took about half an hour to get all of that on a struggling 2 year old, and that should have been a clue that all was not going to go well. I was helping Mom and Dad clean Dad’s office, so I couldn’t really help much either. Jon dragged/carried/pushed Elijah out the door and then put him in a snowbank so they could start playing. Elijah immediately ran back to the door screaming his head. Jon picked him up and Eli promptly kicked his boots off. I helped get them back on and then Jon tried to get Elijah interested in running up and down the driveway, throwing snow, sitting on the big snow-covered rock, etc. Elijah wanted no part of it though, and within a few minutes they were back inside. Elijah decided he was so traumatized that he needed to walk around the house for another half an hour crying. And Jon was disappointed and upset, even going so far as to say, “Other little boys know how to have fun in the snow.” That’s about as upset as Jon gets, so he took an Eli-break for a little bit. :) Our little boy certainly knows what he does and does not want to do, I’ll give him that. Let’s hope his future snow outings go better!

This is NOT fun, Daddy!

Hmm, I don't think he liked it.In case you haven't heard over the last
half an hour, Mom, I'M NOT HAPPY!