Blue Face, Blue Skies

Eli loves these Crayola window crayons and spends a lot of time decorating the sliding glass door. However, he’s also discovered that it’s fun to use them on his face – I discovered this blue face after coming back downstairs after putting Charlie down for his nap last week.

I thought maybe it was a one-time thing, but nope! Here he is on a different day, this time with the red window crayon… in case you’re wondering, these are washable and I was able to get MOST of the blue and pink out of his skin, but there was a slight, subtle color remaining for a day or so after each time he decorated his face.

We’ve had some beautiful blue skies! Saturday was a wonderful day – we spent lots of time outside in the back yard and then headed to the park in the early evening.

Eli is capable of swinging by himself, but he wanted to be like Charlie and swing on his dad’s lap too.

We got them to play on this for about 10 seconds together (before Eli was ready to hop off and try something else).

Then today we had another wonderfully sunny, unusually warm Spring day, so we headed to the park to meet up with our playgroup. Charlie had a blast climbing all over the place. I think he only bonked his head once while we were there. He is in the most crazy busy phase – always on the move, climbing, exploring, falling, and getting back up in a matter of minutes.

My embarrassing parenting story of the week is from Sunday when we were at church – it was the third hour and I had arrived to class late, so the only seats available were in the front row. I sat Charlie down next to me, but he was all over the place, moving around the room like always and staying very, very busy. Finally I got him to sit back down next to me on the chair, but at some point he managed to fold in half and slide through the back of the chair, falling on his back on the floor behind the chair.

Of course this happened while someone was making a comment and it was pretty quiet – well you can imagine the reaction of the women in the room and we were all waiting for that expected scream out of Charlie’s mouth (it took a few seconds – he was pretty upset). I was trying to move my chair out of the way so I could get back to where he was and get us out of that room as fast as possible… I was pretty embarrassed. Charlie was fine and calmed down pretty fast once we were out in the hall and he could roam freely. Crazy boy!!! I’m glad he was okay though. This kid keeps me on my toes.

Some other comments about Charlie right now at nearly 15 months… he LOVES animals, especially dogs, squirrels, and birds since he sees those often in the neighborhood. He is constantly saying, “Hi!” to animals that he spots, even if it’s a bird far, far away. Charlie is still my snuggly little guy, and sometimes when he wakes up too early in the morning or from his nap, he insists on me holding him while he holds his favorite green blankie and sucks his thumb, burrowed into my arms. I kiss those round cheeks nonstop and love the way his skin smells. Is that weird?? :)

Eli has had an interesting couple of months. He’s become VERY opinionated, strong-willed, and a curious child who asks a lot of questions. Every time we pass the Northwestern football stadium, he yells, “Go CATS!” and asks why we can’t go inside. “Mama, do you want to go to a GO CATS game?”

Eli also likes to say regularly that “yesterday” was Christmas and Santa brought such and such toy. Or every time our annoying smoke/carbon monoxide alarm goes off (says it’s testing???), Eli says, “Remember yesterday when the smoke alarm went off and Charlie got scared?” When actually, it was Eli who freaked out in the instance he is talking about.

Eli has all kinds of phrases or interests that we hear often -

“No, I say that” – with lots of emphasis on the “I”

“Why????” over and over and over again : )

“Okedoke artichok-e”

He says “cookie” in a way that kind of rhymes with “who” and has a very nasal, Midwestern way of asking for a “snaaaaaaack.”

He loves saying his prayer on behalf of someone else, like his Froggy or dolphin or whatever other stuffed animal is nearby.

“I guess I…” and finishes it with “need a treat” or “don’t need to go to bed” or “need to play outside a little longer,” etc. Tonight it was, “I guess Froggy doesn’t need help saying the prayer” when I was trying to prompt him to say some things other than, “Thank you for mom and dad, Eli and Froggy and Charlie and books.”

He, like his dad, is obsessed about the next time he is going to go fishing. He loves it.

He can be a stinker to Charlie, but then has moments when he is so sweet with his little brother. I know that deep down he loves Charlie :)

He can be extremely emotional still and has moments when he totally explodes, whether it’s about not wanting to share his toy with a friend who is over at our house (or with Charlie) or he doesn’t want to leave the house or change what he is doing… I keep thinking this will improve as he gets a little bit older since he wasn’t always this way. I love him like crazy (but by the end of the day, I’m often emotionally spent from trying to stay calm through all of his antics).

But on a positive note – we’ve had two days of zero potty accidents!! That’s a record for him. I still have to remind him and take him to the bathroom once an hour, but I feel like we’re finally making some progress. Hooray!! (he RARELY initiates it on his own still, but hopefully we’ll get there soon) His physical therapy is also going very well – we LOVE his therapist and she has helped him make a lot of progress in just a few months. He has orthotics in his shoes now, which I’m hoping will also help with his leg strength (his feet are pretty flat and fall inward, so this should give them more support).

Here’s Eli, playing with two of his girl friends, Ava and Evelyn at the park. He loves these girls.

Ring around the rosie…

And finally in this very random post, these pictures are from my back yard this evening – our little tree has finally bloomed and I love the pretty white flowers!