Beautiful Fall Day – Eli at 2 1/2 yrs and Charlie at 10 months

We have had the most gorgeous November. Possibly the most beautiful fall month in our seven years here. I love the cool, crisp air, the bright sun, the crunchy leaves on the ground. Yesterday was in the 50s and so nice outside, so we spent as much time in our yard as possible. I am happy to say the sicknesses have LEFT our house. Whoo hoo! It’s nice to all be back to normal again (I felt sick on Friday, but never threw up).

It’s fun to see Charlie up at the sand table with Eli now.

We still heard plenty of “No Charlie!” yells from Eli, but it wasn’t too bad.

Charlie at 10 Months:

*He is still super snuggly. He goes to bed pretty easily – when I lay him in his crib, he sucks his thumb and snuggles with his blankie (he loves the soft green blanket from Brooke Diva!).

*He loves to be where the action is, which usually means following Eli around (and driving Eli crazy)

*He has 3 1/2 teeth

*He usually sleeps at night from 6:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. and takes two, two-hour naps during the day

*He rarely falls asleep in the car – even if he’s exhausted, he somehow can stay awake until we get home, which is a blessing and a curse.

*He tries to make a break for it every Sunday during Sacrament Meeting – if i put him on the ground in our pew, he’ll immediately start crawling forward and under the other pews. He’s pretty hard to contain in general when we’re at church.

*Ben and I think he could walk, because he can move around barely holding on to one of our hands, but he gets nervous and falls down after one or two steps. I think he’ll be walking pretty soon though.

*It’s really easy to make him smile or laugh. And he gets especially excited when Eli surprises him/plays peekaboo.

*He loves bananas, crackers, deli turkey, and apple slices

Eli at 2 1/2 years old:

*Still says “NO CHARLIE!” at least 50 times a day (my dad joked that I should get one of those clickers to keep track of how many times Eli says it – it would be funny to see actual stats)

*But there are a FEW times each day when I get this glimmer of hope that they will play together someday.

*Eli loves the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Talking Words DVDs and is pretty good at hearing a word and saying what letter it starts with. We spell a lot of words together and he likes to try to figure out what the words are in books we’re reading. It’s fun to see him get so excited about it.

*He also loves a few tv shows – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tigger and Pooh, Barney, The Wiggles, and Little Einstein’s are his favorites. He gets to watch one 30-min. show in the morning after breakfast and one after his nap.

*Eli loves his preschool class. He has become more independent and I think it’s empowered him to vocalize his feelings. He has great teachers and the kids in his class are all really cute – I think he considers them his friends and gets excited when he sees them outside of class at our playgroup or church.

* Breakfast is his favorite meal – currently he has cheerios and rice krispies mixed together with milk. He barely eats dinner.

Back to the day -

Charlie crawled under the sand table yesterday, which was pretty funny (it’s not very high off the ground):

Seeing Charlie chew on this made me cringe – it’s not the cleanest thing to have in your mouth…

This tool wasn’t quite as dirty:

Later in the afternoon, Ben went out to rake the leaves in the front yard. Eli wanted to join him, so Charlie and I hung out inside, watching where it was a little warmer. It was cute seeing Charlie stand at the window.

But then I felt like I was missing some great picture opportunities, so I ran out really fast and started snapping. Here’s Eli in the yard waste bin, smashing down the leaves:

He had fun running through the leaves too:

Charlie just stood at the window, watching the commotion outside:

I felt like Charlie was missing out, so I ran in, bundled him up and brought him out to play in the leaves too. Here he is in the bin with Eli:

Eli wasn’t so thrilled about the additional passenger to the bin:

So we took them out and threw them in the leaves:

See – there are some sweet moments between the two of them :) I love this picture.

Eli hugging Charlie (I’m not sure what came over him!):

Then Ben wanted me to jump in the bin to pack the leaves down further – and Eli joined me.

and Charlie too:

And finally, throwing the leaves in the air -

it’s raining leaves!

We filled the bin completely full, but there are still plenty more to rake and put in there after this week’s pickup. I love fall!