Sippy Cup

I believe I am sippy cup obsessed. I am always trying to find the perfect cup that won't leak or drip or anything else. Eli is so hard on them, they really have to be durable. I just picked up a new one at the store and what I didn't realize is that when Eli drinks out of it it looks like he got a double mocha half-caf latte with skim milk no foam cinnamon blah blah from Starbucks!

but so far so good!

Yee haw! Let's Rodeo!

Mom was here for the rodeo and Eli had a bunch of first time experiences.

It was his first trip on the metro, or as we called it the Train! Here are some picks of his reaction:

(and for those of you who don't know, this is an Eli Trademark face!)

We tried the petting zoo, and as you can see, Eli found the idea of touching the animals to be rather beneath him.

His favorites of the rodeo included large tractors, piglets, and hatching chickens. In other words, if the animal was safely contained behind a fence or window, Eli was more than happy to get up close and personal!

Grammy was also here during his "I will only sit in the kitchen chair and not in my booster seat" phase. Mommy and Daddy have since instituted the booster as a must. The dogs were starting to get fat again!

Words

The other day Eli was practicing jumping and spinning.

After one particular round of this he fell to the floor laughing.

When he recovered, he picked up the corner of the rug, looked at me and said "dirt."

Joy.

On a slightly related note: If the dust in my house decides to join forces, we are done for.

A good weekend

Breaking News!!

Some of you know, some of you don't, but our family is growing again!

We just found out today that we are having a little girl this June!

Following are pictures of her face (which is a little creepy, so don't look to long at it) and her feet (same picture side by side).

We had been referring to the baby as Brister since we didn't know if Eli was going to have a brother or a sister, but we can now say Brister is a Sister! When we tell Eli, he doesn't seem to care, or rather doesn't understand quite yet. I'm sure his uncle Scott will have lots to tell him about having a little sister!

A note about Eli. He is working on his language, he's really good at choo choo and hot, and has finally started saying Mama with meaning! He shakes his head no, says dog when he deems necessary and looooooooooves Thomas the Tank Engine.

Everything gets lined up in train formation. Even his snack. His head wounds are now healed, but here they look pretty gross.

Snow!!

He kept fighting the hat, but once he was on the sled, he totally forgot about it.

Stuck in the three inch snow.

Trains!

I know you can hardly see the train, but it is constantly running today.

I guess one man's outdated mode of transportation is another's preferred background music.

Christmas Part IV

We were in PA for round four of Christmas. Grammy had a rocking horse and Eli loved it!

Pop decided that it was time to start a train hobby. Much to Eli's delight that not only included trains but building as well. In this photo he is stressing the importance of measure twice, cut once. You never know who might be pushing on the tape measure!

Eli often work the hat of "Supervisor" during the construction. Here is approving of Pop's technique with the screwdriver. After Pop was finished Eli made sure the screw was flush, pronounced it "ot" and blew on it. They made a good team.

Eli's skill with a hammer was also excercised and perfected.

I believe this was an "oh no" reaction to Madelyn causing train wrecks with overly rapid acceleration.

Christmas Part III

We had a quick layover at home and then we headed up to PA to see my mom and brother's family. We were able to finish up Grammy's present with a little finger painting, and set up our two workbenches in the garage.

Notice how he chose to play with the recycling instead?!

Christmas Part II

From the lake we headed a smidgen further north to see Jason's family. It was short and sweet, but a good trip.

Eli loved his very own set of oven mitts!

The tool bench was even more exciting...and I would like to add that once you set it up, it is quite loud! There is nothing cuter then watching him change his drill bits and run around tightening all our loose screws! (no pun intended, just bite you tongue.)

We also got to visit the model train display. I know you can't see a train in this picture, but this is the only picture we have where you can tell how excited he was!

He also got to go to a football game. Air Force played some other team, I think the other team won, but Eli still had a good time. I was informed that his applause did always match the plays, but you can't blame him for a lack of enthusiasm!

Christmas Part I

Our first stop on our holiday tour was Granddad's house. The following pictures are of Eli enjoying "Texas snow" ...and sticks.

It was my first stick bouquet!

It wasn't super cold, but cold enough that I begged for a fire every day! Eli knew it was hot and would walk up waving his hands at it and saying "ot" but he still liked to sit in front of it because mommy and daddy always did. He also liked hunting for pine cones and trying to throw them into the fire. We managed to divert his aim towards the wood bucket which wasn't "ot".

Here he is dragging some newly picked pine cones. His coat is on backwards because I'm all about choices. And that's what he chose.

We always eat well at the lake, it is one of the major attractions. Eli likes it too.

Toddler Talk

I just wonder what sort of communication is happening between them in this shot. Are they just posing because they know they are cute, are the planning their next song on the piano, or did they just discover they were sitting next to each other?

Christmas Practice

What better way to work out your un-wrapping muscles than to un-wrap a zillion rolls of toilet paper?

We also praticed opening gift bags.

I even got him to clean up a little.

I believe he is now an expert. Mission accomplished.

Turkey and Football

He liked the food, the company, and the way Uncle Marc did his hair!

He also liked to sit really close to the tv to watch football!

Future Pirate?

Who knows, but he sure was cute wearing my t-shirt!

Thanksgiving is around the corner, I can't believe. If only it didn't still feel like summer outside I'd be a little more convinced. There is something wrong when the weather man considers temps in the 70's to be a cold front. Geez.

Jason is almost finished at the VA, where long hours and grumpy patients have been wearing him down the past month. Hopefully a hospital switch and an influx of family and friends will give him the boost he needs to finish out this rotation.

I have been thoroughly enjoying JOY program and having conversations with the women. I wrote out some sentences phonetically for them and they really laughed when they saw: Whaddaya wanna do? I had to repeat it several times until they understood what it really meant! We had a Thanksgiving lunch with them afterward and they loved saying squash. It is such a fun group.

Halloween

We didn't go trick or treating last night. I was thinking it would be nice to delay a candy fascination as long as possible. Clara was going to be dressed in a poodle skirt, so we pulled dirty clothes out of the hamper and dressed Eli to match. They were cute together even if they didn't get it.

So begins the holiday season. I was explaining to my Joy Program class (english as a second language) about holidays/festivals here and they told me about some from their home. I was surprised to realize that Americans have a holiday every month, sometimes two. We also have three big ones in the last three months. I was thinking about how we jam big extravagant stressful family get togethers at the end of the year and wonder if that is healthy. Perhaps we should space them out. Give the turkeys a break too.