Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Month 23

Twenty-Three. If tradition holds this is the last month photo that I will ever post. After this, photos are to be taken in half year intervals until twelve and one year intervals until 21.

Emily reminded me that when this tradition started 34 years ago that film, time, and the cost of producing a photo every month made it a much different proposition to produce. I don't know, maybe we will shoot one of these every month until he goes to college. Maybe he will find it interesting himself and want to keep doing it himself long after he has left the nest. On the 13th of next month I will be 368 months old. What would that be like to see if I had month photos going back that far? Just after Eli's 83 birthday he could shoot his 1000 month photo!

I am going to have to think about this some more.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Our equal


Now that the weather is bad we always take our shoes off in the hall before we come in to our condo. We don't take Eli's off because most of the time he does not get to run around in the muck.

Well last night mister mister refused to come in last night until he took off his shoes. Its funny the things they pick up.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Video of the Week: Dolphin Show

Last week we went to the Shedd Aquarium with some friends. We went to the Dolphin show. Eli had a good time. Socks and shoes were optional.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Video of the Week: Climbing

This is my first video post in a long time. Its funny naming it a "video of the week". When I first started this video posting thing I was planning on doing it every Tuesday. Well I still use that tag for video posts, but I post when I can... um.. when I think about it.

This video sums up life for us very well. Elias can and will use anything to help him climb if he can move/stand on it. These things include, chairs, suitcases, sit and spins, step stools, flipped over bins, Daddy, file boxes, and many many other things that I can't list (or always predict). Also, will you look at that mess in the background of the video? We clean and clean, but never get anywhere. We live with a monkey. A very messy monkey.  

When Elias was more little than he is today we were concerned that he was going to learn things from the dogs. Things like drinking from a bowl or just barking at things. Well it looks like we should have been more concerned about the dogs learning from Elias. When I got home from work yesterday I found an almost empty tray of brownies. On top of our bar. Nothing else was out of place. How did Leroy do it? He went from our desk chair (slightly pulled out), to the desk, to a bar stool (also slightly pulled out) to the bar. Who do you think taught him how to pull off such a daring move?

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Month 22


Your Mama just wrote a very nice long post. She yelled at me that I was going to bump her post with this one. So go read and love her post.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

State of the Eli

I just got to spend 2 uninterrupted weeks with my sweet boy and haven't blogged about him in approximately 99 months, so I thought I'd better catch up.


Natural Disasters

My darling Eli is a small tornado.  His hobbies include:
  • Knocking lamps onto the floor (successfully breaking FOUR to date)
  • Dumping boxes or bags of food out on the ground
  • Picking up food that he has dumped on the ground
  • Climbing anything and everything.  He is, in his heart, a monkey.  He’s been found atop kitchen counters, dressers, dining tables, bar stools.  We’re trying to be really firm on the no crawling on the dining table rule.  
  • Dumping dog water onto the floor (and then frequently getting on the ground and licking it off the floor).  Our floor is warped from all of the water and Jack can frequently be found inside the bathtub licking water from the drain as we often move his water bowls to the counter.
We just spent the last two weeks at our family’s homes feeling stressed about his relentless destruction.  At our home, all drawers are tied shut, there is no access to the kitchen, and no plants are within reach.  When we go out into the real world, we fail.  He is fast, strong, dexterous and excellent at problem solving.  My mom thought she could stop him from opening some drawers by sticking a yard stick through the drawer handles.  He had the stick out and was waving it around in about 5 seconds.

Monkey indoctrination is finally paying off


Eli’s life can be measured in week, months, and entertainment obsessions.  So far, we have encountered:

  • The “Hush Little Baby” phase (short-lived)
  • The “Old MacDonald Had  a Farm” phase (we sang no fewer than 3,000 verses of that song)
  • The Dr. Seuss phase (featuring Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat)

And now, the Curious George phase.  He loves that little monkey in books, TV shows, movies, and pictures.  Many people have speculated that his love for climbing and seeming indifference towards verbalization are related to his obsession.  Word about the monkey boys has gotten out; for Christmas and/or Hannukah, among other things, he received a monkey blanket, monkey clothes, monkey pajamas, a monkey pillow case, a monkey pillow pet, 2 sets of George books,  a DVD featuring 8 episodes of George, and monkey slipper socks .  I am considering redecorating his room in George, but I am afraid we’re just weeks away from the next obsession.  Perhaps it will be Elmo next.

Apparently a toddler can survive on bread alone


His diet stinks.  We continue to put fruit and vegetables in front of him and he continues to immediately identify them as plant life that the dogs might be interested in.  We’re currently experimenting with freeze dried fruit.  He’ll often eat cheese and meat.  Most reliably he eats carbs.  Z Bars (the kid version of Cliff or Luna Bars) are his crack.  We limit him to one Z Bar a day max, and he has let us know through very long tantrums that he thinks our policy is B.S.

Who needs words when you can stomp and cry?


He learns the important words: Z, George, Mama, Daddy, thanks, hello, no, shoes, choo choo, go!, tree, ball, bubbles, bump, box, shhhhh,  Jack and Leroy (or at least his names for them), PawPaw (twice so far).  He signs “more” and for nursing.  Rather than say yes, he usually claps and smiles excitedly.  He clearly understands when we ask him questions about what he wants to do and will usually point at the right person or dog when we test him on family names but generally gets annoyed at our “where is the ___” games

His Nature

Its funny how much of what is essentially Eli has been around since day one.  The kid is particular and lives life at the extremes.  So often he is either on top of the world laughing and squealing with joy or the world is ending and he is screaming in agony.  As I read it described on the Dr. Sears site once, he is “an impressive crier.”

Much like his mother, he is not a morning person or a too-soon-after-nap person for that matter.   We don’t like to see or talk to people for a requisite period of time after opening our eyes.

He is affectionate and cuddly.  He gives unsolicited hugs, kisses, and raspberries.  When he’s sleepy or scared he’ll put his arms around Kenny or me  and lay his head on our chests.

He loves dogs of any size and likes to hug and pet them.   Barking thrills him.

He is generally slow to warm to new adults.  Every now and then he’ll fall immediately in love with an old man (particularly those with interesting facial hair) or a youngish female.  He likes to play with other kids but often forgets not to pull hair or push them.