Look on video

It's just another sign of the era Eli is growing up in. He knows what texting is. Doesn't know why some phones have cords. And thinks the Internet has all the answers.

When we are reading books, he asks us what some of the animals say. If we don't know, he says, "Look on video." If he wants to find out the name of a Sesame Street character, he says, "Look on video." If he wants to know how to do something, like cook, he says, "Look on video."

The scary thing is that the video, presumably YouTube, preempts his parents' knowledge. He asked me what a rabbit says. I told him rabbits don't say anything — they are quiet. He looked at me skeptically and said, "Look on video." I insisted that I knew. I told him that I had a rabbit when I was a kid. He furrowed his brow. "Look on video," was all he could say.

Cooking up some stick soup

Eli and I went for a walk to Bush Park today after Eli's nap. On the way back, Eli wanted to collect some twigs, sticks, lichen, tree leaves and berries for "cooking at home, Mama." I gave him a plastic bag and he filled it up and carried it most of the way home.

After dinner, he ran to his play kitchen put lots of the ingredients from his bag in pots and delivered it to our (thank goodness) empty plates, where we told him it was delicious and we wanted more. See how proud he is? That's after Michael said, "You are quite the chef, Eli."

Eli's garden

Michael and Eli planted starts for a garden together on Saturday. Eli is very excited to watch it grow. When Michael asked him if he wanted to water his garden, Eli said, "Thirsty?" And when people ask him what he planted, Eli gets very excited and yells, "SEEDS!"

I can't wait until harvest time to see how excited he gets...

I can't believe I just said that!

People often focus on the cute, funny or bizarre things that 2-year-olds say. But have you ever stopped to listen to what parents of 2-year-olds are forced to say? I find it quite amusing. Here's just two examples from yesterday:

Eli, in learning to use his potty, often has accidents. Yesterday morning he pooped in his pajama pants (no diaper, no underwear). Once I had cleaned him all up, I reached for a diaper.

Eli: "No Mama, pajamas."

Mama: "Oh, those are dirty. I am going to put you in a clean diaper and pants."

Eli, starting to cry: "No, Elmo pajamas!" He reaches for the balled up pajama pants.

Mama: "Oh, I'm sorry Eli. We don't wear pants covered in poop."

Later that day, Eli is helping Mama set the table for dinner. He is not wearing any pants (yes, yes, this is part of potty training also, I swear!)

Mama: "Here is the silverware Eli. Can you put it on the table?"

I carry out plates just a few seconds behind Eli.

Mama: "Oh Eli! We don't put silverware in our butts!"

Singing

Eli's favorite song continues to be "Wheels on the Bus." I've sung it every night since he was a baby. He wants to dance to it in our living room during the day too. But now he can actually make up his own lyrics!

He was playing with some Elmo stickers two days ago and he put them on one of his buses. Then he started singing, "The stickers on the bus go stick, stick, stick!"

Patxi

Eli has named his baby brother "Patxi." (sounds like Pah-tchi). Pretty much since we first told him Mama had a baby inside her, he called the baby Patxi. He has been amazing in his consistency and insistence on this name also.

What if we name the baby "Joe?" Mama asks Eli.

Quizzical look.

"You mean baby Patxi?" Eli asks.

We are a bit worried about breaking the news to him when we tell him what the baby's real name will be (which we don't know yet, by the way!) It may just be easier to call the baby Patxi, which is the Basque form of Francis, in case you didn't know. It also happens to be in our baby name book....

A family vacation to Mexico

In early February, we traveled to Playa las Tortugas (70 miles north of Puerto Vallerta) with the Rice family. It was a beach-and-pool vacation for Eli and his friend, Elliot. As you can tell from the photos, the boys couldn't get enough of the water and sun...