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.

Wally

We had a tough week. We had to put Wally down on Monday morning. He had a kidney disease, and his kidneys finally gave out.

We explained to Eli that he had to say good-bye to Wally. But for a few days afterwards, he would ask about Wally. "Wa-ey walk?" Eli asked after his nap on Monday because we would often take Wally to Bush Park to catch a ball after nap.

Mama told him that we said good-bye to Wally, so we can't take him on walks anymore.

Then Eli said, "Yeah. Mama sad."

Mama: "Yes, you are right. Mama is sad."

Eli: "Dadda sad."

Mama: "Yes, Dadda is sad too."

Eli: "Zoo-la sad."

Mama: "Yes, Zula is sad too."

Eli: "Ee-i sad."

Animals...

Eli loves animals. His Grandpoppins send him a different animal each month, so Eli has quite the collection.

He plays with them at least once a day. "Pay animas, pay animas," Eli says. Then he gets his basket of animals and dumps them on the ground and arranges them on the floor (or one time on his step stool). He also gets to take some animals in the bathtub, so he runs and picks them out and then they play with him in the tub.

Tonight when he was playing with them, he would say its name and then the noise it makes.

"Ion, roooaaaar!" (lion)
"Horsss, neigh!"

Bathtime

Lately, Michael and I have been taking baths with Eli (one of us will join him -- we can't fit 3 people in the tub!)

Eli loves it, plus it has helped us eliminate the nighttime bottle (yes, yes, it has been forever!) On Tuesday night, I took a bath with Eli upstairs and then instead of going downstairs to make a bottle, we just went straight to Eli's room to read books and go to bed. He didn't even mention the bottle! And he hasn't had one since. YAY! It certainly helped that for 2 weeks we had only been drinking a bottle downstairs on the couch -- so it didn't seem weird to him to not have a bottle in his room.

Happy Halloween!

Eli had several Halloween celebrations -- starting yesterday at Dada's work, then a Saturday morning costume contest at the Salem Saturday Market, then a photo shoot of the four boys from the SJ and then ending today with trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. At first he had absolutely no idea what was going on, but by the end he was an old pro -- even saying something similar to "trick-or-treat."

Oh, and kissed a goat dressed as a baby at the market!

Almost...

Eli is quite good at putting together puzzles. Before Eli could talk, Michael would say, "almost, almost..." while Eli tried to fit the piece into its proper place.

Then when Eli could talk, he started saying "almost, almost..." (although it comes out, "ahmost, ahmost) to himself as he was trying to fit his pieces in the puzzle.

And tonight, when Michael was doing a puzzle with Eli, and Michael was pretending to have a hard time fitting the piece in its spot, Eli said, "Ahmost Dadda, ahmost Dadda..."

Tools

Yesterday when Eli woke up, he was rubbing his eyes.

I said, "Do your eyes hurt?"

Eli said, "Yes."

I said, "Do you want me to fix it?"

He got this bright look on his face and said, "Tools!"

Ride?

Eli is obsessed with riding animals. Every animal we see in a book -- snakes, porcupines, alligators, giraffes, bugs -- he says, "Ride?" "Ride?"

I have been very careful to tell him which animals people ride and which animals people don't ride. It seemed to me like he was categorizing the animals: those we ride, and those we don't ride.

Michael thinks I am being too literal. So Michael tells Eli, "Yes, Dadda rides alligators. In fact, Dadda rode one to work today."

Eli gets a confused look on his face, and then nods and says, "Yes."

Dadda is magical :)

Mama play too!

This morning, Michael got Eli out of bed and was playing with him in the living room before I came downstairs. When Eli heard me coming down, he raced up the stairs to meet me and took my hand to bring me to the living room.

"Are you playing with Dadda?," I asked him.

"Mama. Play. Too," Eli said.

I believe that is his first three- word sentence. Pretty sophisticated stuff!

No voice

Eli has been very patient with Mama since she lost her voice on Tuesday (a head cold thing).

I've been whispering all week to Eli, and he usually stops what he is doing and listens very carefully to what I say. He definitely knows what a tap on the shoulder means now too.

When Zula is barking in the backyard, Eli runs and opens the backdoor and yells, "Zooo, la, come!" One time, Zula actually listened.

He's been very good about playing low-key games since I've been sick. He is having so much fun with his animal sticker book and drawing with markers. During our typical dance time, he is OK if I sit on the couch and watch and clap instead of actually dancing with him.

A random note: one of my favorite new Eli words is mayonnaise. It comes out "may-maise."

Boo-boo, er, rosy cheeks

Lately, Eli has been very concerned by drawings of rosy cheeks on kids or animals in books. He furrows his brow and points to the rosy cheeks and says," Boo-boo," or "Owww."

He also sometimes tries to pick up pictures in the books and asks for help. Not sure if the picture looks so real that he thinks it should be 3-D or if he thinks it is a sticker book!

Duh, Mama, I used my hands!

Eli likes to drive our car. In order for that to be a safe playtime, I make sure the driver's side window is halfway down, Eli has keys that do not include the actual key to the car, the emergency brake is on, the car is in the garage, the garage door is shut, and the garage door opener is on the roof of the car. Only then is Eli allowed to play in the car, and only then am I comfortable enough to be in the kitchen for 45 seconds or less before checking in on him.

Last week, while Eli was playing in the car, I went inside to grab his shoes for a walk. When I walked back to the garage, the garage door was opening.

I was shocked. I pointed to the roof of the car. "But the garage door opener is on the roof."

Eli smiled broadly and stuck his hand, clutching the opener in his fist, out the halfway-opened window. Then he pointed to the roof and nodded.

"But how did you reach the opener, Eli!?!? It was on the roof of the car!"

Eli furrowed his brow. He looked at the opener. He looked confused.

Then he smiled and said: "Hands."

A pumpkin patch!

Eli and his good buddies Koren and Elliot went to E.Z. Orchards Friday to pick pumpkins, pet some farm animals, eat pumpkin donuts, sit on hay and ride miniature tractors. It wore Eli out so much that he slept for 3.5 hours when he got home.