These Boys, starting with Eli

I've been wanting to document everything that the boys are up to at this stage of life, but I keep putting it off, afraid I'll forget something or not have enough time to do them justice.  But let's be honest, even documenting a little is better than nothing at all.  So enough procrastinating!  Here's what Eli is up to these days. (warning: very long)

Ah, Eli.  I love this kid.  He is so wonderful and so crazy 2-year-old-I-want-to-go-berserk all at the same time. :)  He loves to run down the hall while yelling at the top of his lungs in his low manly way (he has a very unusually low voice and it's quite entertaining).  He also has recently learned how to jump and likes to jump on and off of everything...we're working on that.  He loves to "swing the bat!" and practice baseball - a bat usually being a water bottle or pencil or something. :) (We're getting him a real bat for Christmas - well, not a real real bat, but a good 2-yr old version).

Eli is a TALKER.  He wakes up full of energy and talks my leg off.  I love it.  It's really funny to hear him say things we say.  For example, he calls me hon' (or hun) as in "Honey".  Yep.  I guess I say this a lot and now he does too.  Haha.  He'll say things like, "Where we going today hon'?" or "What we having for lunch hon'?"  It's pretty hilarious.  He says all sorts of things and has a great vocabulary - until we go somewhere new.  Then I can hardly get him to say 2 words together.  He's a major people-watcher and likes to observe everything for awhile before feeling at ease.

Eli has been really into drawing lately.  He will sit at the table for a good chunk of time and draw circles and snowmen and kings and whataver else he tells me.  (Some is actually recognizable and it's pretty exciting).  He loves to color and draw pictures and write letters ("lellers").  He can actually write his name all by himself now!  It helps that we gave him one of the easiest names ever to write.  All lines, no curves...and only three letters, but he's proud and we're proud of him too. It's adorable.  He also likes to "write directions" - or squiggles over and over on a piece of paper.  He sees me doing this a lot since we've lived here (Pittsburgh is confusing, okay?!), so he's started doing it too.  It's pretty cute.

He has also developed very good manners.  All that reminding him to say please has really paid off.  He says it for everything and it's really sweet.  He's also learned that saying please greatly increases his chances of getting what he wants, but he usually doesn't abuse that too much :).  It's nice to hear him talk nicely.  Last Sunday he was so extremely tired during dinner.  We'd had 2 late nights on Friday and Saturday and then Sundays are always crazy with no naps.  It was 5:55 pm and we were eating and he looks at me with barely opened eyes and says, "Mommy, please give me a nap?" and I obliged.  He went to bed and slept clear until morning.  What a sweetheart.

Eli has always loved to help me in the kitchen.  At our old house he would scoot a chair over to the counter all by himself, but now that our chairs are on carpet it's a little more difficult.  But he says "Please get me a chair?" and he comes up and plays with the measuring cups while saying things like "quarter cup buttermilk", "cup of flour", "I put it in the oven", etc.  It's awesome.

He adores his brother to pieces and loves to make him laugh. The other day I put them both down for a nap at the same time (I usually try to get one asleep first), and they spent 40 minutes giggling at each other before I finally just took Connor out until Eli fell asleep.  Hard to get mad when they're being sweet with each other. The other day he kept saying to Jeremy, "This is my brother Connor!" like he was so excited.  As Connor gets more mobile, Eli is adjusting to someone else taking his toys!  It's pretty funny to see determined little Connor going for his blocks or cars or trains or whatever and Eli saying "Don't gwab that Connor! No Connor!  Stop gwabbing dat!"  Of course he is sometimes too rough with him, but as Connor grows and Eli learns, they are really starting to have a good time together.

That's about all for now!  Everyday I think of more things he says that I need to write down, and I'm really going to try to start doing that.  He is a great kid.  He drives me nutso sometimes and really tests my patience a lot of times (which is good for me, as I remind myself daily), but he also is my buddy and brings me so much joy.  I love you Eli!

Oh, and here are a bunch of pictures.  Enjoy.

...stay tuned for Connor....