More Eli-isms

Still busy here with moving, baby, and BSF, so no time for pictures and all that fancy blogging stuff. So more Eli-quotes only this week:

• Eli and I were having lunch at the mall and I said that I needed to check his diaper before we left. Eli insisted that he had a, "Clean diaper, Mommy! No poopy diaper!" I told him that it was okay if he had a poopy diaper, because everybody poops. He looked at me very funny and said, "Everybody poopy?" I said, yes, everybody goes poopy. Mommy goes poopy and Daddy goes poopy too. Eli thought about this and said, "Daddy go poopy. Not Mommy." I told him that yes, even Mommy goes poopy. Again thinking, he replied, "Daddy go poopy. Mommy go poopy. Lexi-Tori go poopy?" I told him that yes, Mommy goes poopy, Daddy goes poopy, Lexi and Tori go poopy, and even Noah goes poopy. Eli recited the list again very excitedly- "Mommy go poopy, Daddy go poopy, Lexi-Tori go poopy, Noah go poopy!" - and then said, with a tone of wonderment in his voice - "Aunt Lori go poopy too?" I told him yes, everybody goes poopy, so he promptly started shouting, "Everybody go poopy!" at the top of his lungs and with great joy. The people near me had overheard the whole conversation and could not stop laughing. Eli doesn't seem to be upset anymore when we ask him if he has a poopy pants, so I think realizing that EVERYBODY goes poopy was a breakthrough for him!

• When we went back to Canton to pack a few weeks ago, we had all the boxes (we have a box allowance for relocation) stacked and leaning against the walls of our garage. Eli took it upon himself to use his big plastic sandbox shovel to take pop cans out of our recycling bin one by one and stack them end to end on top of all of the boxes. I wish I had a picture of it, but I hadn't brought the camera! Every single box had a line of pop cans on top of it and they were all matched up perfectly. When we asked him what he was doing he told me he was, "making a flower garden for Mommy!" When Daddy got to Canton (Mom and I had gone earlier in the day with Eli), Elijah had to proudly show off his flower garden. And when the packing started and the cans had to be relocated to get to the boxes Eli patiently would realign the cans every time he found them out of order. He took better care of his pop can flower garden than his Mommy has ever taken of a real garden!

• Also while at Canton packing, Eli lined up pop cans on the kitchen table and "hid" Gordon his train in among the cans. He started playing, and apparently all the reading we do to him is rubbing off, because as he was doing his dialogue between his trains we heard him say - ""I'm stuck in here!," Gordon said. "I need help!"" He literally said the "Gordon said" part as part of the conversation. It sounded just like he was reading a book!

• We moved some things in to our storage unit last week and Eli came along. As we pulled up to the unit and got it unlocked Eli studied it for a bit and then said, "This is a funny new home!" Jon and I cracked up, and then we tried to get across to him that this wasn't a new house for us to live in, just put some of our things in. But he kept saying, "Eli's new house!" and, "This is a funny home." All this moving stuff must be confusing for a little one (especially when you don't have a new home to introduce to him as Eli's new house).

• Playing last night Eli said something about asking Daddy something or doing something with Daddy (I confess I wasn't listening well). I pointed to Jon and said, "This Daddy?" Eli looked at me and replied, with a duh-Mom tone, "Yes, my Uncle Jon Daddy!" Good to clarify which Daddy we're talking about, and yes, Eli, that was a silly question on Mommy's part.

• This morning Eli was talking about Mommy's baby in Mommy's tummy. Then he asked me, "Where's Eli's baby, Mommy?" I said, "I'm not sure. Is it in Mommy's tummy or Eli's tummy?" He thought for a bit and then said, "No, Eli's baby in Lexi-Tori's tummy!" Didn't quite know how to reply to that one!

• Overheard this morning while I was cleaning up breakfast and Eli was playing construction with his crane, dump truck, and bulldozer: "Crane, you look so pretty today! I have some hay for you!" Can you tell Eli's been hanging around Lexi? She always comments on how pretty people look. I couldn't help but laugh. That's one comment I bet has never actually been heard at a construction site!
  

Eli Quotes

I haven't done an Eli quote post in a while, and he keeps saying the cutest things (some of them managed to be scribbled down to remember for later and some not unfortunately!). Here's some of the things he's been saying lately:

• Daddy knocked over some of Eli's trains a few weeks ago and said sorry, and Eli replied, "That's okay, Daddy, I still love you!"

• In the car Eli was asking what movies we had in our visor CD storage. One of them was an old Baby Einstein video that he liked to watch. He wanted it put in, but after about five minutes told me to, "Turn off, Mommy, that baby movie is not fun." I didn't think it would be at age almost-three, but he had asked for it!

• We were in the play area at one of the local malls, with a breakfast food theme. There was a GIANT plastic waffle for the kids to climb on, and I asked Eli if he wanted to have that waffle for lunch. He looked at me with a Mom-you-can't-be-serious-look and said, "No, that waffle too big for me!" I asked him who could eat it and Eli turned and looked at it thoughtfully, in serious contemplation, for literally, about 15 seconds, then turned to me and said, "Maybe Daddy?"

• Mommy: "Do you want a sister, Eli?" Eli" "No!" Mommy: "What do you want then?" Eli: "A girl!" He'll figure out they're the same someday. Until then, just for the record, Eli is not having a sister, he's having a girl. :)
  

• After playing at Lexi and Tori's one day and becoming completely obsessed with Harvey the Crane Engine (he has a book about Harvey too), Eli was quite upset that we had to come home and not take Harvey with us. He asked Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, and even Aunt Lori if he could take Harvey home and we all said no. When we got home Eli immediately went and told Grandpa the story about Harvey not coming home. Jon and I went out for coffee, but when we came home Grandma told us that Eli had told Grandpa about Harvey about four times, and kept saying, "I wanted to take Harvey home, but Mommy said no. Daddy said no. Grandma said no. I tried Grandpa, but everybody said no!" Eli still wants to take Harvey home with him every time we're at Lexi and Tori's house - so of course Grandma went running out and got Harvey for Eli. Mommy is making her wait to give it to him though since this kid already has more toys than he knows what to do with. He'll be happy to have Harvey though!

A Visit to the Butterflies!

Even with all the house craziness going on, we have managed to do some fun things over here - I just haven't managed to post about any of them! A few weeks ago Lori and I took Eli and the girls over to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens to see the butterfly exhibit and play in the children's garden. The day was just beautiful, with clear skies and sun. The kids liked the butterflies for about two minutes and then were pretty much done with experiencing the wonder of being surrounded by hundreds of butterflies. They liked the cave (below), though:

Eli: "We're in a dark dark place."

One of the beauties that I was able to snap a picture of.

We also stopped and looked in the little hatching house where they have the hatching cocoons of the butterflies. The kids thought that was interesting for much less time than Lori and I thought it was interesting . . .

This one was on the inside of the glass,
so I got a neat shot of the bottom of a butterfly!

After spending not very much time in the presence of the butterflies, we headed outside to the children's garden. I think the kids could have spent much more time out here than what we had - we needed to leave to eat lunch and pick up Noah from school. I'll definitely be heading back to the children's garden with Eli and the girls too now that spring looks like it's going to stick around!

Heading through the little gate to the garden.

Where should we go first?

Eli's favorite - the little sandbox
(he wouldn't play in the BIG one next to it)

Chasing each other in the maze was another hit!

Only a child could make "candy" out of a pail of rain water,
some leaves, and a stick.

I don't want that baby in here with me, Lexi.

Haha! Lexi stepped away and I just threw her baby out of the cradle!

While we were at the gardens we ran in to my cousin Catherine and her son, Joshua, which was a fun reunion. We caught up with them again at the giant sandbox play area, so we got to chat a bit. I had a great day at the gardens, though I would have liked to spend even more time actually looking at the butterflies. But kids' attention spans and fascinations aren't the same as mine.

I asked Eli later if he liked the butterflies and he said, "No, the butterflies made me sad," complete with little hunched over shoulders and a pouted lip (he got his dramatics from his Mommy, yes indeed). So then I asked him if he liked playing outside and he shouted, "Yes," and ran around in a circle with his arms up. I'm guessing it will take a few more years before he really likes the butterflies, since the girls at age 4 and a half also weren't impressed with them for long. Maybe Mommy will have to go by herself to enjoy the full beauty of the butterfly exhibit! I know that we'll be back to the gardens again soon, butterflies or no butterflies!

Sold!

Jon and I were beginning to think we were never going to be able to say this - but our house is SOLD!!!

Goodbye, house, you served us well!

It's been almost a year since it went on the market, and after three price cuts and some good negotiating with buyer, we were finally able to sell our home. I'm so thankful that we will be all moved out and everything settled before the baby arrives!

We officially close on May 5, and will be moving everything the weekend before in to a storage unit here in GR. We have the truck and movers lined up and the storage unit set, so packing will begin in earnest this weekend.

Jon and I are looking forward to starting the new chapter in our life here in GR officially, without the monkey of a house on our back. We're excited to see what God has in store for us now - and glad that we've been able to get off the roller-coaster of the housing market in Michigan. The plan is to keep living with my parents for a while and recoup some of our losses from the house so that we have a down payment for a new house - hopefully one where we get the awesome deal instead of losing our shirts! :) Here's to new beginnings!

On an interesting note, the buyer asked if he could purchase the art in our kitchen. That art is a series of framed photographs that I took in Thailand and then hung. We turned him down, but it made me feel good to have someone want to buy one of my pictures! Maybe my dream career in photography isn't that far off . . . :)

Eli's favorite number

Eli's favorite number, for the moment at least, is 6.

If we ask Eli how old he is, he'll say, "6!" (He'll actually turn 3 in May.)

Sometimes when Eli is counting something, he'll skip to 6 and then just end there (even if there are more things to count). "1, 2, 3... 6!"

It's just another aspect of Eli having is own unique personality. I don't know where he picked up 6 as his favorite number, but it's cute that he has!