Valentines

We picked Ben up from the train today, and when he got in the car, Eli noticed he was holding a package in his hands. I could tell that the package had flowers for Valentine’s Day, but they were wrapped in paper so Eli didn’t know what was inside.

“Is that a present for me?” Eli asked.

“No, it’s a present for Mama,” Ben said.

“A present for me and Mama?” Eli said.

“Okay, a present for you, Mama, and Charlie,” Ben said. “So what do you think it is?”

Eli’s face lit up. “A helicopter?”

“No…” Ben said, trying not to laugh. (Eli was being sincere)

“A train?”

“No…”

Needless to say, Eli wasn’t very excited when we got home and opened the package to find a bouquet of beautiful, bright pink tulips. I love them, especially since Ben’s not known for giving flowers. :) (He would say this makes it more special) It definitely was a nice surprise. Ben wrapped up a cookie for Eli after dinner as a consolation prize.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve continued to try to get a cute picture of the boys together so we could send photo Valentines to family members. But nope, didn’t happen. I think the pictures are cute, but not what I was looking for (but who am I kidding??).
Both boys like to stuff cars in this cement mixer that we bought at our neighbors’ toy sale to raise money for Haiti relief.

But Charlie gets frustrated when the cars get stuck.

Mellow Charlie:

Doing play-doh together, sort of (more like Eli doing play-doh and Charlie playing with the tools):

We had a foot of snow this week. Thankfully, the sun has been shining and melting a little bit. I am embarrassed to say I have yet to take Eli out to play in the snow. It’s been cold (20s). Ben said he’ll take him out tomorrow and they can build a snowman. You can see below that I finally tried to put the cover on the sand table, but one of the bulkier toys was stuck, frozen in ice, and preventing me from closing the cover entirely.

I went to Eli’s little preschool Valentine’s party, where they decorated heart cookies.

Eli doesn’t waste much time decorating. He puts minimal amounts of frosting and sprinkles, then digs in.

He was in a silly mood…

Charlie and Ava were having fun watching the teacher’s dog running around outside. I can’t confirm or deny if Charlie ate any dog food while he was over there (yuck!!).

The preschool is taught by a Montessori teacher, so the kids use glasses and practice pouring with little pitchers.

Next – we have Charlie in the early morning (for the last few mornings, he’s woken up for the day at 5:30 a.m. – it’s wayyyyyy too early for me). He was climbing and getting into all sorts of trouble today. He is so opposite Eli in that way (since Eli has never been a climber).

But later, when Eli was awake, he kept running back and forth from the family room to the living room.

Doing his favorite trick along the way (downward dog, then sticking his leg out behind him)

Tonight I made sausage and lentil soup. My mouth fell open when I saw BOTH kids actually taking spoonfuls of the soup. I had very low expectations. Charlie really enjoyed it (though I’m not sure how much actually made it into his stomach).

Here’s Eli with his present – the cookie.

And cute Eli during bathtime tonight, washing off the cookie crumbs:

Charlie took really long naps today because he was up so dang early, so I wanted to keep him up a little bit later with the hope that MAYBE he would sleep later tomorrow. I kind of doubt it, but you never know… So instead, he kept running behind the couch over to Ben, who was exercising on the bike. Finally Ben picked him up and put Charlie on his shoulders. It was pretty funny.

Ben also tried putting Charlie on the handlebars, but that didn’t work very well (Charlie is too wriggly).

And finally, some random stats for the week:

• Funniest word Eli used this week - "wrangle" when he heard me asking Ben to wrangle Charlie (used in the definition - "to herd")
  
  
• Second funniest word Eli used this week - We've had lots of time together at the potty. We've taught Eli the correct terminology, but he has chosen to call his unit a "peanut" - it's all I can do to not start laughing every time he says he's pushing his peanut down (we've had some accidents where the pee was all over the place so now he's more careful. Sorry for TMI)
  
  
• Number of times I changed Eli's clothes yesterday (it was an especially bad day w/ potty accidents) - 10. Seriously. We started doing pj pants by the afternoon because I was running out of regular pants. I’m sticking with the potty training though, energized because…
  
  
• Number of potty accidents today - 0 (Yeah!! HUGE improvement over yesterday's problems) The highlight for me was when I was cooking in the kitchen and came in to the office to find that Eli had just pooped on his potty. Totally on his own volition, pulled his pants down and everything. Seriously, I could have jumped up and down, I was so thrilled. More TMI, I know. I think he might be getting it. I had him go pretty often... he probably sat on the potty 12+ times today.
  
  
• Favorite toddler potty/easiest to clean and use - Baby Bjorn potty
  
  
• Loaves of bread we consume in a week – 2
  
  
• Gallons of milk the boys drink in a week - 2 1/2
  
  
• Boxes of cheerios the boys eat in a week - 3/4 of a box
  
  
• Number of bananas inhaled in a week - 14+
  
  
• My favorite new cooking/recipe blog of the week – For the Love of Cooking

Wintry Days at Home

You would think that after not blogging for over a week, I would have some stories of a terrific vacation or other exciting adventures. But no, we’ve just been home, occasionally venturing out to playgroup, exercising at the gym (Eli actually gets EXCITED when we’re there – he’s come a long way since he was 11 months and screaming in the kids club. Charlie is warming up to the idea. Slowly.), running a few errands, seeing friends. But no exotic trips, despite our great desire to escape this cold place and visit family or friends in warmer locales.

Other things keeping me busy - I’ve had some freelance deadlines and have also decided to donate photography sessions to a few school auctions in our area, partly to be nice and help the schools, and also to make new contacts for future photography sessions. The first auction is this Saturday, so I’ve been scrambling to get my site together and figure out some sort of publicity/postcards that people can take if they’re interested in a session outside of the auction.

On to the pictures. You know I have a bunch since the last post was a while ago… :)

Eli dressed up after church on Sunday. I love his cute tie. Though keep in mind this is after church, so his tie is loose and shirt untucked.

Later in the afternoon, this guy was so pooped. But not willing to take a nap, just lay on the couch and watch a show. Eli is my stubborn non-napper :)

The day before, we picked up Davey for the weekend and went bowling. Eli LOVES bowling and had a blast. Here he is with the ball helper thing.

It was so sweet to see him cheering each time, even if none of the pins went down.

Meanwhile, Charlie was practicing the art of narrowly not getting his fingers smashed between the bowling balls.

It is hard to bowl with a 1-year-old who wants to wander where he pleases. Eli was trying to keep him in check, which wasn’t really working. Do you see that sad scratch on Eli’s cheek? He tripped and fell on the sidewalk as we were walking into the bowling alley, poor guy.

Cheering once again -

Davey is a serious bowler and usually bowls in a league every Saturday morning. He beat us all, I think with a 117?

He also did a good job of wrangling our busy Charlie.

Back at home on a different night, I think maybe Monday evening? These are Ben’s eyes at the end of the day. Tired. But happy to be home. And Charlie is the blanket snuggler, it’s very sweet.

He is also sporting the shirt that is too big for him (sizes on kids clothes can be so wacky sometimes) -

Charlie is still dragging his birthday balloon around the house – it makes him light up when he sees that funny thing.

We’ve tried to use the potty off and on, especially on days when we’re mostly just at home all day. It’s sort of working.

Eli likes to string the markers together, like this:

And Charlie is constantly chewing on something.

I love how his jammies scrunch up after sleeping in them overnight. Jennie Blum, if you’re reading this, know that I think of you every time I put these on my little guy! They are my fav. pjs.

More things in his mouth.

Charlie also likes to open boxes. This is potty #2. Eli’s preschool teacher, Nancy, suggested we have a potty on both floors. I decided what the heck, she’s right, it would be easier than schlepping the one poppy up and down constantly. And have I confessed my love for Amazon Prime? I love it. Love it. Love it. There you go.

Here’s Eli coming home with his other preschool teacher, Rebekeh, who gave him a ride home on the “big blue bus.” Normally she gives him a ride in the morning (since Charlie’s napping then) and then I pick him up, but Charlie was sleeping funny that day and she offered to give him a ride home too. Thank you!!!

Eli loves the big blue bus (her blue minivan). I love it too.

Now we’re back to Charlie on a different morning, when he snuck into the cookie jar and was helping himself. I’d like to think he was learning his letters at the same time. At least that makes me feel better that he’s consuming all of that sugar at 8 a.m. (I’m totally kidding of course)

Back to the things Charlie chews series. Water bottles…

Little toys that are probably choking hazards, but I promise I’m watching him…

Next is the “brothers interacting series.”

Eli: “Here Charlie! Pass me the ball!”

Charlie gives it to him, and Eli immediately takes possession and doesn’t give it back.

Then he runs away (it’s blurry, but he’s in the family room, about to throw the ball behind the couch).

Charlie is extremely disappointed and starts crying. Eli walks back to him with a slight smirk, little stinker!

He acts so innocent sometimes, but I know he likes to tease Charlie too. Eli is also obsessed with the random fliers/ads that come in kids’ dvd cases.

Later today, I decided to try to get some shots of the boys together. Hah! That was a lofty goal.

To Charlie’s credit, it was time for nap #2 and he wasn’t in the mood to have my camera in his face. I gave up and put him to bed.

And here’s Eli on the red potty. Yes, I’ve been keeping it in the office during the day because it’s sort of a central spot in the house. And our first floor bathroom is COLD. I don’t want to hang out in there all day long!

Eli went without a diaper all day and only had three accidents from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Not bad! He’s a pro at pooping in the potty (sorry, I know not all of you care about these details), can usually pee on demand (if I ask him to try and go to the potty), but sometimes has a hard time stopping it if he is playing and doesn’t notice that he’s going.

It’s okay, I feel happy we’re making progress at least. Happy February!