Shy

Eli has been going through a shy phase. When we meet new people he feels scared or nervous. Even when we are with people we know, he hides behind my legs and doesn't want to answer questions. We knew it would be hard on Eli to have so many family members in town in December because of this new phase (and we had several major tantrums as the result of overstimulation) but he seems to handle the situation pretty well, especially after a few days of adjustment. Case in point:

After feeling a little shy around his Aunt Jessica the first day, Eli and Daddy read books together upstairs. At one point, Eli stopped Daddy and said:

"Daddy?"

"Yes Eli."

"I'm getting used to shy."

Eli feeds his brother!

Eli loves to help with baby Ewan. He hadn't expressed much interest in helping to feed him until this December (he usually is a bit grossed out by the baby's messy mouth). Ewan loves his brother so much that it is super exciting when Eli feeds him.

Ewan is 6 months!

Ewan turned 6 months old today.

He is still a super smiley baby. He now recognizes Mama and Dadda and gives Dadda the biggest smiles ever. His hair is coming in more and it looks dark. He still has his blue eyes. No teeth yet!

He is eating solids -- rice and oatmeal cereal with pureed pears, apples, bananas or peas. He hasn't been sleeping great but we are working on that. He is out of his too-small bassinet and in the pack-and-play until we get his crib set up. We are waiting for Eli's big-boy bed to arrive.

He can sit up by himself for a few seconds and he is very interested in all the toys around him. He immediately puts everything in his mouth.

He is very cuddly, and it seems like he wants to hug me sometimes. He also grabs my face and wants to shove the whole thing in his mouth. Too cute :)

At his well-child check, we found out he is 18 pounds (55th percentile) and 28.5 inches (95th percentile).

Happy half-birthday Ewan!

Eli is 3!

I cannot believe Eli is 3.

He blows me away when he uses words like "unravel" (as in "I am unraveling these Christmas lights") and "pleased" (as in "Grandpoppins will be so pleased when they see their bed!" after helping to put on the sheets) and "recognize" (as in "Mama, help me turn my shirt around to see if Grandma can recognize what's on my shirt.)

He also tries to reason his way into anything he wants: like cookies, hot chocolate and playing during rest time. His reasoning is often very good but sometimes makes no sense at all.

He is very opinionated about what he likes and doesn't like: He told a friend's father that he didn't want to go play in the train room, he likes to build -- he is a building man!

He still has temper tantrums, sometimes very very long and raging temper tantrums.

He is sleeping in his crib-turned-toddler-bed right now but we are waiting for a twin mattress in the mail, and as soon as it comes, he will be in a big-boy bed. He still wakes up at night calling for Mama or Dadda or a glass of water but he'll go many nights without any wakings.

We had a birthday party for him earlier this month but he knew his birthday was on Dec. 22. When we went swimming at the Kroc Center in November, he saw the climbing wall. We found out that you had to be 3 to go on the climbing wall and Eli wanted to go as soon as he turned 3. We made a special trip on his birthday and he had a blast. He tells everyone how high he climbed (about as high as Mama!) and we went back to the wall 6 or 7 times to keep trying.

Eli's 3rd birthday party!

We celebrated Eli's 3rd birthday early this year. We had a total blast!

Ewan rolls, Eli praises

About 3 days ago, Ewan rolled over and he hasn't stopped since! You can tell he is super proud of himself because he gets this huge smile on his face once he is on his belly. YAY Ewan!

In another first, Eli told me I was a "nice mama," yesterday. It was cute and sweet when he said it: we were cuddling on the chair in his room.

An airplane to Minnesota

Eli loves to build things. Last week he built an airplane out of blocks and lots of animals boarded. They were going to Minnesota. Check out the video to find out more about their trip.

This kid needs a toolbelt!

Ewan is 5 months old!

Ewan turns 5 months old today.

For the past month he has been a terrible sleeper -- giving me a 2- to 3-hour stretch and then waking every 1- to 2-hours after that. Ugh! But we starting giving him some mashed banana about 4 days ago and he already is sleeping better. I'm getting about 2 3-hour stretches. Today we gave him a bit of mashed avocado -- he doesn't like it nearly as much as banana but he ate it. About 2 weeks ago we tried some homemade rice cereal and he wouldn't eat it at all. He wants to get straight to the good stuff!

His hair is coming in and his head is super soft because of the fuzz. He still has his blue eyes. His smiles are getting bigger and bigger, if that is possible. He definitely feels happiest around his family and loves watching us interact. He also loves sitting in his exersaucer with a mirror next to him. He talks and laughs at the baby next to him :)

He hasn't rolled over again, but we are helping him practice by giving him tummy time. We are also helping him to sit up on his own, but it still seems like it will be awhile.

Eli is still super sweet with Ewan (wait until Ewan can regularly grab Eli's toys!). The other day during a walk Eli said: "When Ewan grows up, he will be a Mama; when I grow up, I will be the Daddy."

Eli also talks a lot about what he and Ewan will do together -- swim, take baths, and sleep in the same room. Eli is VERY excited to get bunk beds with his brother. He likes the idea of sleeping on the top bunk because he is bigger.

At Ewan's checkup

Ewan saw the doctor today for his 4-month checkup and here are his stats:

At 15.9 pounds, he is in the 53th percentile for his age.

At 27 inches, he is in the 95th percentile for his age.

With an almost-17-inch head circumference, he is in the 55th percentile for his age.

He is almost too long for his bassinet now! We are going to have to transition him to a crib...

The SJ boys

It's become an annual tradition to get the four boys born to SJ mamas together on Halloween for a photo. It has always seemed chaotic, but this year was especially so for the Casper family. For one, we had Ewan, who is hard to get dressed even when it doesn't involve a monkey costume. And then there is ornery Eli, who did NOT want his photo taken, even under threats of no trick-or-treating. Sigh...

Happy Halloween!

Eli, being obsessed with Bob the Builder, wanted to be Scoop for Halloween. If, for some really strange reason, you haven't watched Bob the Builder over and over again, Scoop is the back hoe digger or excavator or some such yellow dirt-moving machine. For weeks, Eli wavered between wanting to be Bob (read: SUPER EASY costume) and wanting to be Scoop (read: OMG HOW ON EARTH WILL WE MAKE THAT COSTUME!?!?)

In the end, Scoop prevailed and Mommy and Daddy bucked up and spent a Sunday afternoon designing and building Scoop. Eli was very interested in helping (Can we make it? YES WE CAN!). He colored the wheels and banged the cardboard with a hammer.

In the end, it turned out super cute. And Eli loves his costume, which is what it is all about, right?!?

When we went trick-or-treating at Daddy's work on Friday, Eli ran into his friend, the ring-tailed lemur!

More pj shots

Like I said, I love the matching pjs.

A first haircut

OK, so I love Eli's hair and have been reluctant to cut it even though it hangs in his eyes, gets all crazy and weird after nap, and turns to dreadlocks if we don't use conditioner. I've actually had to cut out several knots.

But I gave in and cut his hair (myself) and it looks cute. The bummer is that a lot of the curl is gone. He definitely looks like a little boy now and less like a baby.

Pre-haircut (and playing on a tractor at an apple farm)


Post-haircut (and still sucking on the lollipop that was necessary to be able to cut his hair)

Moose antlers

Whenever we go for walks in the neighborhood, Eli brings home things he found -- usually sticks, acorns or leaves.

On this walk, he saw a stick and said, "Look, moose antlers!" Then he picked them up, stuck them in the back of his sweatshirt and declared, "I am a moose!"

First roll

Ewan rolled over for the first time!

Of course, Michael was at work so he missed it.

I was in the other room, so I missed it. I put him on his back on his playmat in the living room and when I came back he was on his tummy!

A big brother's job

Eli was so so proud to be cleaning Ewan's exersaucer with Grandma. He kept saying, "We need to clean this for baby Ewan" and "This is a lot of work!" and "Mommy will be so proud!"

Meta-morph-o-SIS!

Funny stories about Eli:

1. In the car the other day, Eli was practicing his pronunciation. With the word "metamorphosis."


2. We were playing in the backyard (OK, Mama was sitting on her butt and Eli was running back and forth to the supermarket to buy food!) Eli asked if I wanted eggs.

Mama: "Yes, I love eggs!"

Eli: "What kind of eggs?"

Mama: "Poached, please."

Eli: "I can't get you poached cuz why they only have those at the farmer's market and I am going to the supermarket. How about scrambled?"


3. One day when I was eating leftovers from a restaurant for lunch, Eli couldn't stop asking me questions about them. Why didn't I finish my food at the restaurant?; Why was I too full?; and why did I bring them home? After going around and around about it for quite some time, Eli said, "I know! You should have waited for a long time and then the food would go into your legs and you would have room in your stomach for more food!"


4. Over dinner one night, Eli asked Daddy why he had to go to work the next day. Daddy said he needed to make some money. Eli said, "So you can buy...(waving his left arm for emphasis while he thinks of the word)...ingredients for pancakes?"

Ewan is 4 months old!

Dear sweet Ewan is 4 months old today.

He still has his super blue-blue eyes, and they follow anything in front of him, especially brother Eli.

Ewan is still crazy about his bath and shakes his right leg so much that he splashes water all over Mama and the floor. (He takes a bath in the infant tub on our dining room table.)

He is fairly easy to distract unless something is really wrong. For the past few days I've been able to stop his fussing by singing him "Ally Bally Bee." He just stares at me with a little smile on his face.

A little over a week again, Ewan started sitting in his exersaucer. He can only stand it for about 20-30 minutes, but he really likes the different perspective. And his neck and back muscles are getting much stronger.

Partly because he is a big guy, and partly because he is in cloth diapers, Ewan now wears 6-month clothing.

For the past two weeks he has been drooling like crazy, probably in anticipation of some teeth on the bottom. (although I bet we don't see them for a few months!)

Happy birthday sweet Ewan!

Eli is Eli

I just love that my toddler makes me laugh (when I am not pulling my hair out!)

Here are a few funny stories:

A few nights ago, I asked Eli if he wanted to help me give Ewan a bath. This is usually something Eli asks if he can do, especially if it is past time for his own bath. Instead of yelling "Yes!" like I expected, he said in all seriousness, "I can help you just a little bit and then I have to run buck naked. Sorry."

When he was putting broccoli on the ground and laughing wildly when Zula ate it, I asked him to stop feeding Zula. He said, "I'm not feeding Zula, I just put food down on the ground for her to eat."

When he was screeching some nursery rhymes at the top of his lungs, I asked him to please sing more softly. He said he didn't want to. But he came up with a great solution: going into another room and closing the door. Except he decided to go into the hall closet. After a few minutes of loud singing, Eli came out and said, "It's too dark. I can't see my words!"

Yesterday, when we were reading books upstairs, he said he wanted to read Babar. I told him the book was downstairs and I asked him to get it. He said, "No, you get it. And don't dawdle, cuz why you might get hurt."

Gymnastics

On Thursday mornings, Ewan and I take Eli to a gymnastics class. It's called Tumble Tykes. Eli doesn't love it but he likes all of the fun mats and the balance beam.

Pajama party

I just think it is adorable when Eli and Ewan wear the same pajamas.