Wally

We had a tough week. We had to put Wally down on Monday morning. He had a kidney disease, and his kidneys finally gave out.

We explained to Eli that he had to say good-bye to Wally. But for a few days afterwards, he would ask about Wally. "Wa-ey walk?" Eli asked after his nap on Monday because we would often take Wally to Bush Park to catch a ball after nap.

Mama told him that we said good-bye to Wally, so we can't take him on walks anymore.

Then Eli said, "Yeah. Mama sad."

Mama: "Yes, you are right. Mama is sad."

Eli: "Dadda sad."

Mama: "Yes, Dadda is sad too."

Eli: "Zoo-la sad."

Mama: "Yes, Zula is sad too."

Eli: "Ee-i sad."

Animals...

Eli loves animals. His Grandpoppins send him a different animal each month, so Eli has quite the collection.

He plays with them at least once a day. "Pay animas, pay animas," Eli says. Then he gets his basket of animals and dumps them on the ground and arranges them on the floor (or one time on his step stool). He also gets to take some animals in the bathtub, so he runs and picks them out and then they play with him in the tub.

Tonight when he was playing with them, he would say its name and then the noise it makes.

"Ion, roooaaaar!" (lion)
"Horsss, neigh!"

Bathtime

Lately, Michael and I have been taking baths with Eli (one of us will join him -- we can't fit 3 people in the tub!)

Eli loves it, plus it has helped us eliminate the nighttime bottle (yes, yes, it has been forever!) On Tuesday night, I took a bath with Eli upstairs and then instead of going downstairs to make a bottle, we just went straight to Eli's room to read books and go to bed. He didn't even mention the bottle! And he hasn't had one since. YAY! It certainly helped that for 2 weeks we had only been drinking a bottle downstairs on the couch -- so it didn't seem weird to him to not have a bottle in his room.