Santa, Eli wants a city bus for Christmas!

A Christmas tree!

Eli helped Dadda and Poppy get the Christmas tree from a farm south of Salem. Then he helped decorate the tree. He absolutely loved it. When he came out of his bath and saw that Dadda had put the lights on the tree, he said, "WOW!"

Then we put on Jingle Bells and he ran around the living room with his jingle bells ringing!

Eli's 2nd birthday party!

It was definitely one of Eli's best birthday parties yet!

Elliot, Koren, Alex, Dixon, Oscar and Journey came to join the fun. Eli was much more shy than usual but by the time we put on the Elmo song, he was dancing up a storm!

Too high me

Sometimes things are too high or too hard for Eli. He's pretty good at admitting it.

When his toy was accidentally put on the top shelf:

"Mama," Eli said pointing to his toy. "Too high me!"

And then when he couldn't put something back together:

"Too hard me."

We like that he gets straight to the point and eliminates all the superfluous words.

Far away?

A new linguistic milestone:

On our way home in the car from school today, Eli asked, "Is E-i's house far away?"

His most complex sentence yet! He has been obsessed lately with how far away places are. The other day he asked me how far away Alex lived (although not in quite so many words.)

Westle Dadda, westle!

Eli loves to wrestle with his Dadda. He giggles the entire time and screams and laughs and it is the funniest thing to watch. Sometimes before Dadda gets home from work, Eli asks me, "Dadda westle?"

"Yes, Dadda will wrestle you when he gets home," I say.

Santa's many vehicles

Eli doesn't really know who Santa is. BUT, he does know that Santa gets to ride on cool vehicles.

The day after Thanksgiving, Eli saw Santa arrive on a train in front of the Riverfront Carousel. He still talks about the train horn that blew right before Santa came off the train. If Eli could read, he would have appreciated the fact that the train was called "Casper Mountain."

In early December, Santa rode in the bucket of the ladder fire truck to Riverfront Park to light the Christmas tree there. The fire engine had its lights and sirens on and then the ladder extended and Santa rode to the top of the tree to light it up! (sorry, I don't have photos of that!)

That same weekend, Eli watched as Santa landed in a helicopter at Volcanoes Stadium! It was freezing, and the wind blew like crazy when the helicopter landed, but Eli kept asking to watch the helicopter some more -- even after it flew away. When given the opportunity to sit on Santa lap, Eli said "no." But he did request a ride in the helicopter (and fire engine and train!)

Now, when he plays with his "chop-chop," he talks about the doors opening and Santa coming out.

How will I ever explain that Santa actually rides in a sleigh pulled by reindeer?

Friends

This month, Eli had two friends over at night -- for playtime, bath and books before bed. Eli absolutely loved taking a bath with his friends Koren and Alex. Michael absolutely loved reading books to two boys at once on the couch. And Mama got the biggest kick out of Eli trying to hug his friends in the bathtub. All in all, they were great evenings!

A visit from Grandmoppins!

Grandma Myra came to visit in November ... Eli was so excited to see her that he didn't care if Mama or Dadda was around. And every morning, he ran downstairs and swung open her door to wake her up! He especially loved reading books (he had to have the blanket on) and dancing...

So many suds!

I caught Dadda and Eli taking a very bubbly bubble bath a few weeks ago. Eli was in heaven, even though soap got in his eyes.