Two-word sentences...

Eli is definitely working on his verbal abilities. He continues to repeat everything we say but now he is also coming up with his own sentences. Today, when his eggs were too hot, he said, "Daddy, blow" to get Michael to cool off his eggs. This evening, he said, "Mama please" to get a cookie. And he's been identifying himself more. "Eli ride" he said today about wanting to get on the bus. "Eli walk" when he wants us to put him down. Of course, he doesn't quite say Eli. More like "E-i."

He is back in swim lessons again and he loved it today. Mama's arms are a bit tired though from having to go through all of the songs with a much heavier child! He is really good at getting out of the pool on his own and getting his ears wet. He kicks a bit but still doesn't move his arms too much. We've got 5 more weeks though...

Words, and lots of them

Eli says all sorts of new words these days. After getting a moose in the mail from his Grandpoppins in Minnesota, Eli now knows how to say "moose." If I tell him I missed him while he was in school, he says "miss." Yesterday I cut up some ham for Eli and he kept saying "haaam." He sounds British when he says it. Anyway, it is super fun to listen to him try out new words. Today for the first time, he put two words together: "mama" and "drive." I was taking him home from school. We are working on getting his subjects and verbs to agree :)

Getting socks on

Eli has been trying to put his own socks on for a long time. The thing is, it's hard to put on socks. BUT... it's not hard when you find a pair of Mama's stretchy, never-wear-in-public clown socks! They are super soft, super stretchy and oh-so-big to get over Eli's toes, feet and knees!!! So for the first time, Eli was totally successful at putting on socks today.

Making pizza...

Eli and Mama made pizza together tonight. Eli loved helping. He helped chop the mushrooms and zucchini and onions and spinach. He washed the spinach and loved spinning all the water out in our salad spinner. Then we took a break while the pizza dough rose. Then he helped roll out the dough (that was his favorite part!) and spread the sauce, drizzle cheese on the pizza (some on the floor) and then add the toppings. Most of the toppings went in his mouth before heading to the pizza, but we managed to have a pizza with some toppings, mostly lumped together in Eli-sized handfuls. Didn't matter... it tasted great! And he was so proud of his work to make the pizza :)

Eli can count to Beesh!

Michael, Eli and I walked home from work today. When Eli was in the middle, holding our hands, we were counting to 3 and swinging him in the air. As any child would, he loved it! He even started counting by himself, "One!" ..... "Toooo!" ..............."BEESH!"

I was right

Eli does NOT want to walk home from school anymore, he wants to take the bus. Oh dear, today was a long slog home. Eli wanted out of his stroller and there's only so many times I can say, "When we get home, you can get out of your stroller."

Michael met up with us and Eli played at the playground for a break. But he did not want to leave the playground so he cried the entire way home from the playground. For those of you who know where I live and know where the Crooked House Playground is, you understand my pain.

Night night.

The bus

This summer, I've been walking to work with Eli. In the morning, Eli and I set out in search of kitties and squirrels on our way to work and school. In case we get antsy about not finding a kitty, I have all sorts of yard art that we stop and look at along the way: painted turtles, a bridge, etc. Once we are through Bush Park, we see trucks, motorcycles and the most favorite wheeled vehicle of all: buses.

Given the hot weather this week, Eli and I have walked to work and then taken the bus home. It is so exciting for Eli that he doesn't even protest getting into his stroller at school (usually a bit of a fight) because he knows he is heading to the bus station.

On the ride home today, Eli kept looking around and saying, "bus" "bus" "bus" over and over again. He even got to pull the cord when our stop came up.

I am a bit afraid that he will never want to walk home from school again....

Beating the 100-degree weather

In an effort to beat the heat on Monday, which reached 101 degrees, Eli ran through the sprinkler with his friend and neighbor Ella, played in the pool with his Daddy, played with his friend Alex shirtless in the living room and ran through a spray park. It still wasn't enough: we had to hose him off just before bed time!

Eating local food

Eli is obsessed with the food growing in our yard (oh, that makes me so happy!) He loves to go in search of ripe (mainly semi-ripe) tomatoes. Every night he points to the hanging baskets and wants to find a strawberry. There is almost always at least one strawberry, which makes him squeal with excitement :) And yes, our garden does look like a jungle -- not just to a 19-month-old. Perhaps that's why Eli felt the need to get in his firefighting gear the other day -- he just needs an axe so he can take out the mass of vines and weeds among the tomatoes....

It's hot!

Eli and Daddy ran through the sprinkler this week to beat the heat. Eli and Alex took a dip in the pool, in their clothes. Eli's diaper filled with so much water he could hardly stand up!

Middle of summer fun...

I am playing catch-up because I have been terrible about posting this week. Sorry. Here are some photos of Eli, Elliot, Alex and Koren playing at the spray park in downtown Salem on Monday. OMG, they loved it. Also, Eli checks out the flowers at the farmers' market.

Eventful weekend...

Eli had a very full weekend. On Saturday, he watched his Mama run very slowly in a 5k race at Bush Park (it was Art Fair weekend). Then he went to the Salem Saturday Market with his Mama and helped her set up the Friends of SSM booth. He was great -- mainly because he was eating a delicious sugar waffle and drinking lemonade at the booth, and then wandering in the aisles at the market. He loves to explore -- particularly things that, to adults, don't look worth exploring. For example, he loves to check out all the different ways the vendors keep their canopies from blowing away. Some use buckets of sand, others have jugs of water hanging near the stakes and others have rocks loaded around the stakes. I am sure Eli will offer a full report on how sturdy each of these techniques are. I'll let you know. That night he ended up back at the Art Fair listening to music, dancing and eating dinner.

On Sunday, he went to Denison Farm in Corvallis to see where all of the organic produce from our CSA box comes from. He absolutely loved it. He was happy riding on my back while we walked around the farm. Then he really liked walking among the tomato vines and strawberry rows. He ate about 10 strawberries (huge berries!), 8 blackberries and several cherry tomatoes. It was fun to see him hunt for the fruit. And he even did a little experiment where he picked a whitish-green strawberry, bit the tip and realized that it tasted terrible. He stuck to red ones after that :)

Then Eli went to his friend Koren's house for a BBQ (that's where the photos are from). His friend Elliot was there too. The dump truck was a big hit and despite some of the wrangling over it, everyone had a great time.

Darn those back teeth, holding hands and picking berries

Eli is getting in some big bad back teeth and he is having a terrible time. His fever skyrocketed this weekend, he's drooling a river every day, he is super cranky without medicine, he wakes up several times a night and he doesn't want to eat much. It just started on Saturday so I hoping he gets some relief soon. Can you keep your child on Ibuprofin permanently?

Even with the teeth issue, Eli has had some great moments. When I dropped him at the Y this morning, he didn't want to go. He was hanging on my leg and whining. But then his teacher said, "OK, Eli, we are going to the gym. You need a partner. Can you take Adelaide's hand?" And he nodded yes, walked over to Adelaide and took her hand. Then the class walked out the door, hand-in-hand, to the gym. I saw that same thing happen last week when Eli took Alex's hand. It is so adorable.

Then tonight after dinner, Eli, Mama and Daddy went for a walk down "blackberry lane," which is an alley near our house with blackberries growing. Eli likes to pick them and eat them and get purple juice all over his face. We met another family with two little girls -- ages 3 and 5 -- and they loved Eli. They kept picking blueberries and raspberries and feeding them to him.

Ferris wheel

I can't believe I forgot to mention the fact that Eli rode the ferris wheel at the Marion County Fair. What a brave boy!

Marion County Fair

Eli went to the Marion County Fair with Mama and Grandpa Jim on Friday. He climbed inside a fire truck (and through a tunnel next to the fire truck), a military tank, a Marion County sheriff's car and a Marion County command RV. He also rode on a train around the fair. He loved it!

Laundry

When Eli woke up from his nap, I asked him if he wanted to help me fold the laundry. He said, "yes" very confidently. And he actually did! I had three baskets full (yes, I realize that they have been sitting there since Sunday getting wrinkled, but Eli is 18-months-old, remember?). I dumped one on the bed and told Eli to put all of his clothes in the empty basket. He did! He searched out and found all of his own clothes and put them in the basket. OK, a few times he stopped to put my underwear on his head or his leg through the arm of Michael's shirt, but for the most part he really took to the task at hand. Ahh how I love the 15 minutes of productive play!

Row your boat

Check out the new video of Eli screaming for "Row your boat." Pretty funny stuff...but actually, he used to scream right after we would sing, "Row, row, row your boat." That was even funnier!

Today was pretty low-key. Eli helped me go grocery shopping. He said "hi" in his bright way to every person who went past us. He ate scones and cheese while he helped me shop. The only bad part is at the car, where he insists he puts the key in the lock. Which would be great, if he could actually put the key in the lock. Of course, when I "help" him, he throws a fit. So when we got back from shopping, I put him in the front seat with the keys while I took the groceries out of the truck. He spent a good 15 minutes trying to put the key in the ignition. Then he found the Purell and poured that all over the driver's seat. At least I got the groceries in the house!

While I picked blueberries and cherries this afternoon, Michael found Eli a big wheel sort of thing on Craigslist. It has a handle in the back for us to push him. It will get him used to pedals at the very least. Mostly, for now, he likes to get on and off of it.

I am hoping for more warm weather tomorrow so I can go to a spray fountain with Eli!

July 4th!

The fireworks still haven't started going off in our neighborhood and Eli is already asleep.... so he will miss the nighttime show this year, but he still went to a BBQ to celebrate. He even wore a party hat!

Oh, and the photo of the four boys -- Eli, Dixon, Oscar and Alex (from left to right) -- is an ongoing tradition. They were all born to Statesman Journal employees within 9 months of each other.

Boogers and batteries

This morning, while Michael was hanging out with him, Eli tried to stick a AA battery in his ear. Michael said," Eli, we don't stick batteries in our ears." Eli scowled at him, looked at the battery, and then pretended like he was sticking it up his butt.

Aside from working on his comic routine, Eli is working on saying new words. Tonight while I was rocking him and he was drinking his bottle, I said, "Oh you have a booger." And I wiped his nose. He then kept sticking his finger up my nose and saying, "boo-her." My favorite though is when he says, "juice." Her purses his lips as if he is going to kiss you and says, "ew-se." Tonight he was saying it, and I kept kissing him on the lips and he laughed and laughed.

Tur-tel

Yesterday, while walking to Bush Park, Eli found metal garden art shaped like a turtle. He picked it up and started taking it with us. I said, "Oh, you found a turtle. We can't take the turtle to the park with us. Can you put the turtle back?"

Then, he said "tur-tel." Which is his first complicated word.

But what's really funny is that this morning, Michael got Eli out of his crib and Eli kept saying, "buh-buh" (that means book) and Michael tried to get some books down from his shelf, but Eli said, "No, tur-tel" and pointed at his "Yertle the Turtle" book. Very cool that he can now tell us which book he wants to read :)