A goat dairy

Eli went on a farm tour of Fairview Farm Dairy on Sunday. We fed baby goats, milked a mama goat and saw chickens, pigs and geese. Afterward, he was treated to two cones of goat-milk ice cream -- YUM! He loved it!

Learning to balance

This spring, Eli has been biking almost every day. He is very proud of his bike, and very interested in riding it everywhere. He puts on his helmet and rides to work (which is just around the house and back). He definitely is trying to be like his Dadda, who rides to work. A typical scenario goes like this:

Eli: "Need to ride to work Mama."

Mama: "OK honey."

Eli: "I'll come home for lunch/dinner. You make it."

We are working on having him see Michael make lunch and dinner so he doesn't grow up with gross stereotypes in his head :)

Accidents happen

When we started to seriously try to get Eli to sit on his potty, we offered him his portable DVD player and his Elmo Potty video. A big hit! He watched it multiple times and learned all the songs, including one called "Accidents Happen (and that's OK!)"

We use the phrase a lot -- for potty accidents, but also for other kinds of accidents. Like the one that happens weekly around here: spilling juice across the table.

But the other day, Eli pulled it out at exactly the right moment.

I was putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher, Michael was at the stove finishing preparing a yummy omelet breakfast and Eli was eating some fruit in the dining room.

I put two large glass containers precariously on the top shelf of our cabinet and turned away. They (predictably) fell, landing on two glasses of orange juice on the counter. All four glass products shattered into billions of shards of glass — all over the clean dishes in the dishwasher, the sink, the omelet, the floor, the moon, etc etc.

Michael sent me in to the dining room to watch Eli, who was VERY curious about the whole event and wanted to wade barefoot through the wreakage. I sat down at the dining room table with him, and he asked me multiple times what happened.

Then he put his little hand on my arm and said, "Accidents happen, Mama. It's OK."

Instead of crying, I started laughing. Perfect timing, Eli!

Baby birds, nests and eggs

Eli is very interested in baby birds, nests and eggs right now. Michael found half of a robin's egg several days ago and gave it to Eli. Before Eli smashed it (I like to think accidentally) in his fingers, he asked all sorts of questions about it: Where is the baby bird? What kind of bird? What color is it? etc etc.

Last night in the bathtub, he told me that the loofa sponge in the bath was a bird's egg. We pretended a bird hatched from it.

Then this morning he put his blanket on my bed and said, "Look Mama. I made a nest! I'ma a baby bird." (that's the photo above!)

4 mommas and 4 (plus 1) boys!

It is getting harder and harder to get our four SJ boys to be still for a camera. Here is an attempt, and as you can tell, none of the boys are looking at the camera!

Swing

We brought the swing into the backyard now that the weather is nicer and Eli was SO excited to get in it. He kept trying to reach the cherry blossoms on our tree. I haven't seen him laugh and smile this much on a swing since his first swing ride (which made it onto his Christmas card his first year!)

Interesting dinner attire....

Eli was fascinated with the bibs that I brought up from the basement for the baby. He decided he wanted to wear one for dinner that night (hmmm, I am hoping that he doesn't get a desire to be a baby again!) But he also decided to wear his construction hat at the table. It made for interesting dinner attire...

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

On April 18, we took Eli to the tulip festival in Woodburn. It is a Mid-Willamette Valley tradition and we felt like we should experience it. The tulips — fields and fields of them — are amazing. The rest of the experience was like being at a state fair.

Earth Day at the Oregon Garden

Eli celebrated Earth Day on April 17 at the Oregon Garden. He had a blast playing in the band, Recycleman and the Dumpster Divers. He also loved playing in the sand garden, going in and out of an earthen tunnel, learning to roll down a hill for the first time, and pumping water for watering a garden!

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...