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...

Driving to December....presents for pee

My conversations with Eli these days often make me laugh out loud. I love these insights into how his mind works. Here's two great recent conversations:

Eli sees the Happy Birthday card he made for Michael's birthday on the wall.

Eli, singing: "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you, Mama."

Mama: "Do you know when my birthday is? It's in December just like yours."

Eli: "We get presents!"

Mama: "Yes, that's right. We get presents on our birthdays."

Eli: "Get presents right now?"

Mama laughs. "No, we aren't going to get any presents right now. December is really far away."

Eli ponders this for a moment, and then gets this I-can-solve-that-problem look on this face.

"Let's drive there!"


Not that all of our conversations are about presents, but this one also happens to also fall into that category:

Daddy: "Do you want to sit on your potty, Eli?"

Eli: "Get a present?"

Daddy: "If you pee or poop in your potty, you will get a present, yes."

Mama: "Do you want Mama to sit on the toilet while you are on the potty?"

Eli: "Yes!"

I hope this isn't too much information: Mama pees.

Eli yells: "Daddy, Mama get a present now!"

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!