Two and a half is worth an update, no?

We're hardcore into the train phase (and clearly any and all Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise). I must say, Curious George is a much better show.  Eli never takes a hobby/obsession halfway. He wakes up and reaches for one of the trains he had to take with him to bed. Then he gets out of bed and walks over to the tracks on the floor. Before leaving, we have to fit as many of his trains as he can into his backpack. On our walk to the train, he accuses at least half a dozen non-train things of being trains or tracks.

He now sleeps in his bed all by himself all night long. We often have to wake him up on the weekdays. It's glorious.

He's become quite the chatter box which is a big relief. He's most articulate of course when he's informing me of something I need to do or give him. "Mom, no stop that." "More juice, pleeeeease. More juuuuice, please?" He uses his hands/whole body to talk and gets comically expressive when inquiring about the whereabouts of any given object. 

We've really committed to doing at least something fun each weekend. We used to be too caught up in chores, and you know what? Chores do not make memories. Virtually every weekend this summer we either went to the pool or to the beach or on a bike ride. After having all of our bikes stolen last year, we're finally restocked. I got a junker with an awesome bell (which I ring practically non-stop) and Kenny got a family man's bike complete with bike seat.  It's been allowing us to better explore the neighborhoods near us. On my favorite outing thus far, we rode to the Shakespeare in the park (50% of Eli's parents got to watch the play) and then stopped for a banana split on the way back.

In a few days, I am going to DC all by myself! This will be my second night and first real time away from Eli. I'm going to do my best to be particularly irresponsible. I of course have mixed emotions, but Eli will be with his father and Mimi and Paw Paw so he probably won't even know I'm missing.  Kenny went on a man/baseball/road trip a couple of weekends ago. Apparently we've reached that point in our family life where we vacation separately.  Next time Eli stays home and Dada and Mama go somewhere ;-).

The man I called Pop

Dear Eli,

Your Daddy is sitting on a bus and he loves you very much. I am on the way back to Chicago after a very long and emotional weekend in St. Louis. The family has just said goodbye to our patriarch, your great-grandfather, and one of the nicest men I have ever known.

I am making this trip by myself as you and your mom left the day after the funeral. I am glad I stayed behind. Family is one of the most important things in life. Never take them for granted.

Your Pop-Pop. my Pop, the man Mimi called Dad loved you very much. Your existence along with his other great-grandchildren gave him the motivation to live his life to the fullest until the end. He recounted just a few weeks ago that he was not ready to leave his great grandkids. It was his time to go. He was 91.

Monte Abrams was born in St. Louis in 1920. He was a big believer in the importance of education. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. There was nothing that he did not know a little about. He loved to read — fiction or non-fiction—it did not matter. Over the last week when describing your Pop-Pop to people we would say that he was our Google. Before we had search engines we had our Monte and a phone. He was the smartest man any of us knew.

He was funny too. Not in a joke telling way, but he brought out the best in all of us. My Pop would walk over to me as a boy and “steal my nose” and then flash his megawatt smile. You would get that same smile when you got caught admiring him from afar, but that also was a combined with a wink. His wink and smile I will always carry with me.

The man three called Dad was selfless. After graduating from college, but before getting to marry the love his life he answered the call of war.  He gave two and a half years so that we could live free. This country and all of the gererations that followed were built on the sacrifices of men like Pop-Pop. He never liked to talk about it. I wish I could tell him how prould I was of him.

After he came back from the war he lived the life that all strive for. Married, started a family and went to work in the family business. His life was full of friends that truly loved him. It might be idealized, but I think his life was the great American dream.

Pop meant so many things to so many people. More than just a dad, grandfather or great grandfather, he always knew when he had to fill more than those roles. He was the father Paw-Paw never had. He was more grandfather that Anut Robin and I ever needed. He was a rock in bad time as well as good.

Your Paw-Paw loves to point out how much Pop loved sports. That he was proud to have live to see all 11 World Series won by the Cardinals. He was the truest of fans. He spent most of his life rooting for the then St. Louis football Cardinals, and then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, two of the most long suffering fan bases ever. Never complaining about it, he keeped watching and rooting. He did finally get his football championship after over 40 years. Think about that for a secound.

My Pop was smaller in stature than the life he lead. Coming it at only 6’3” he was the one we all looked up to.  He gave me my height. I always  hoped to grow as tall, but never made it. We never tired of standing next to each other to see if I had grown. Near the end, long after my growth stopped, and time called for him to shrink we would play this game, but unlike as a kid I never wanted to surpass him. The last time we measured up I cheated a bit. I never straightened my legs. He was my Pop and I will always look up to him.

Along with his smile I can still imagine his hands. Large and strong, able to reach high to get things off the top shelf. Agile and nimble able to fix anything, or so we thought.  They were attached to his strong arms that were good at hugging. I am going to miss them.

If I had one wish, it would be for you to live the kind of life that Pop lived. He died surrounded by a loving family and friends. He had a full life. The words in this letter could never live up to the man. We as his legacy will have to do that. This is a big challenge for such a small boy, but it's one that we must take up. Your Mimi and Paw-Paw will help show you the way. The leseons that my Pop taught me will be passed down to you. Live your life to the fullest, in the end, that what Pop-Pop wanted for you. 

Love,

Daddy

Monroe (Monte) Abrams, died May 31, 2012 at age 91. Beloved husband of Gloria Abrams; dear son of the late Robert and Bertha Abrams; dear father and father-in-law of Jane (Michael) Shook, Thomas Abrams and Mary (Robert) Kodner; dear grandfather of Lisa (Matthew) Steinkamp, Betsy (Chad) DeMarco, Tina Merrill, Erin (Mathew) Sameck, Lauren (Zoey) Engel, Robin and Kenton (Emily) Kodner; dear great-grandfather of Ethan Steinkamp, Sophia and Dax DeMarco, Stella Overstreet, Harrison Sameck, and Elias Kodner; dear brother and brother-in-law of Stanley (Ann) Abrams, the late Robert (late Deedy) Abrams and Steven (Brenda) Burack.

Beach

We are going to the beach. If one statement will make up our summer, it will be it. When we moved three years ago one of the big things we liked was how close we were to the lake. The last few summers we have not taken advantage of it. This year we will not make that same mistake. By the looks on Eli's face, he will not let us forget. 

Sand!

Water!

Fun!

WAAHHHH!

I get to play in dirt!

What you doing Dad?

I can't move!

Fort Eli.

And we get ice cream!!!

Bubbles make cleaning up more fun.

Don't need pants.

Lets do this again!

Help!

Non-baby post here. I need your help. New glass are a must because this happened:

 Well that happened, because this happened.

Well not in that actual photo, but I can assure you that Eli 1) loves my glasses, and 2) Will find anyway to get his hands on them. Long story short I took a shower, Eli found my glasses and the next thing you know they are only held together by solder and tape.


I am  trying something new this go around. Online glasses. They ship me five pairs. I get to try them on and put them on the blog for you to see. Then you all help me pick with comments.

Thanks for the feedback!

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Two things

1. Eli has quite wisely started calling Leroy "dog" and Jack "cat."

2. He has also started stashing his food around the place -- careful to put it where the dogs can't reach.  He keeps goldfish in the desk drawer.  Yesterday he hid a bun on top of a window pane and came back for it hours later.  Kenny retrieved part of his bagel from a cabinet in our bedroom this morning.

Video of the week: Whats a guy got to do to be picked up?

Last night Eli just did not want Mommy to go to the bathroom. I could have helped, but I thought that video tapping him was worth it.

Dear online baby book

I am a mother of a two-year old.  No more counting his age in months, which makes it okay that I'm nearly a month late in posting this.

He loves his routine.  When the alarm goes off in the morning all I have to say is, "Eli, do you want to go watch George and have Cheerios?"  He pops up and points saying, "Door!"  At really any chance he gets he asks for a "bar!  bar!  bar!  bar!"  On days when Kenny works, I wear him (all 27 pounds) to the train.  The train comes and he points and says, "Choo!  Choo!  Chooooooo!"  He says everything with exclamation points.  We get on and he gets upset when strangers talk to him.  We get off after one stop and meet his sitter in a parking lot (because we're classy).  He barely acknowledges that I'm leaving him and is happy as long as Carmen hands him his bag to hold.  If any given step in this routine does not go as expected--if for instance, Daddy drops him off or we're out of Cheerios, he has pretty impressive meltdowns.  Just like his father.

His language is finally exploding.  Something has clicked and he'll pick up a word after only having heard it a few times.  His key words are: bagel, cheese, cheerios, bar, juice, dinosaur, car, bump, choo choo, hat, tree, ball, kite, door, go go go, eat, duck, dog, Ja' (Jack), Dada, Mama, uh oh, George, boat, cat, box, two, shoes, no, yeah, water, hi, thanks.  I'm sure he has a word for Leroy; we just can't make it out.

When I pick him up when he's crying, he pats me on the back just as I pat him on the back.

He's become anti-bath.  Just like his father.  We got some bubble bath which seems to be moderately effective.

It's getting harder to get him to sit still for a book, but he will for his favorites.  I'm really tired of, "Are You My Mother?"

He's not a morning person.  He'll gladly sleep in to some degree and doesn't really want you to talk to him for about an hour or so.  Just like his mother.

He's become quite fond of pajamas.  Likes to pick them out and hates to take them off to change into day clothes.  Just like his mother.

He's become more child-like and less wild-animal-like when it comes to meal times.  We may start willingly taking him to restaurants again.

His favorite toy is an old box with a handle that he keeps plastic food in.  He insisted on taking it to the park this weekend and often tries to take it to bed.

He dumps the dogs' water bowl over less but keeps drinking out of it lately.  Sometimes he dumps it on the floor so he can get on his belly and try to suck it up.  He's so gross.  Speaking of which, he's sick all the time and gets us sick all the time.  I had no idea being a parent would mean so much personal illness.  We don't get better around here; we just get sick with something new.  We've each had at least 3 distinct illnesses in the last month.  He's on his third round of antibiotics for some stubbornly infected ears.  If they're still infected tomorrow we're headed to a specialist.

Some people think it's time to cut his hair.  Some days I think those people are right, but then others I just can't bear to part with his curls.