Elias's Blog

my kids so smart

2009-11-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

We're raising a smarty pants ;) He knows is basic colors, red, blue, green, orange, yellow. He can identify numerous farm animals. And his memory!! The other night he was taking a bath and had a lil toy coffee pot in the tub with him. He said he was 'making coffee.' Ed nor I, nor anyone he is with everyday, drinks coffee. I asked him "who drinks coffee??" and he replied, offended almost, "Poppop and Abby!!" My dad and youngest sister. Well, he hasn't spent a day over there for months! Since probably mid september.

Well I'm proud of him anyway ;) He amazes me.

Bedtime is now quite the routine. He has to have 'cook cook', his big cookie monster stuffed animal that used to be Eds. The three cabbage patch dolls, his lil baby dolls, spok (yes, from star trek), and any other lil animals. Cookie monster has to be covered up, and the lil babies have to be under Eli's blanket. The kid is just silly sometimes.

He knows the 'golden arches' of Mcdonalds and is obsessed with frenchfries. He's going to turn into a frenchfry. We can't pull into walmart without him screaming FRENCHFRIES!!! We were driving to Mifflinville a few weeks ago on the interstate and when we got to the bridge he could see the M sign and started yelling in the car 'FRENCHFRIES!!!"

Ok that is all for now ;)

more photos

2009-11-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

Lelan

2009-11-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

photos

2009-11-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

shortie

2009-11-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

I love nothing more then to see my little boy learning everyday. He amazes me with his knowledge, his reasoning skills, his language. Some examples: He pulls a pill bottle out of the drawer and proclaims, Empty! The fact that french fries come from ‘Donalds and that his “GaGa” will take him there. His babies need burped and fed and he whips up some invisible goop in a little bowl to spoon feed them. We can watch Elmo on the kiki (computer- on youtube), and that the pee video (Elmo potty time song) is his favorite. Mommy’s toothbrush tastes better then his own. O.o If he doesn’t like what’s on tv he’ll just go turn it off. Sometimes he tries to work the remote to find ‘bob’ (spongebob) or elmo. If he feels you are not listening to him or giving him your full attention he’ll grab your face and make you look right at him.

We are getting him a pretend kitchen for Christmas. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see the things he comes up with.

He also has a lil boy cousin now, Lelan. When I told Eli we were going to see the baby for the first time, he was so darn excited I could barely keep him from running out the door. When we got there, he immediately wanted the baby on his lap so he could hold him. Then he wanted to feed him, and give him lots of kisses, and rub his head. It was very sweet. I have some pictures which I’ll try to get up soon!

Today

2009-10-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I have been a bad blogger for the past some months. And I can't promise to be better at it. I want this blog to be sort of like a baby book since I don't have the time to make one otherwise. So it is nice to recall Eli's accomplishments here. I will recall some stories and maybe do better. But chances are I won't ;P

Where to start.

Eli is amazing. He is learning so much everyday. He is starting a language explosion, trying to repeat everything we say. Sometimes it's understandable, sometimes it's only understandable to those closest to him. Last night he was trying to hard to say his name. It was coming out like "E I E I". Friday I came home to the phrases puppy poop and butt paste. Walmart is officially known as frenchfries (which he's gotten REALLY good at saying). No and Mine are very big parts of the vocab. Mine is mostly used when he's gotten a doggie toy and is running around with it. No it used for just about everything. He very much has his own opinion and isn't afraid to tell you about it. It won't be so long until he's really talking and we all will know what he is saying. Oh and mama is officially in his regular vocab now!!! He could say it before but it was a struggle. The past few weeks though it has become easy for him. It's ok except when it's 3 in the morning and all I'm hearing is "maaamaaaa."

It's exciting. Of course he seems like the smartest boy in the world to me. He also loves sitting on the computer and watching you tube. He likes mickey mouse hot dog song, any choo choo soul songs, animals sounds (cows, chickens, geese, sheep etc), elmo videos, and Old Macdonald. We had a brief obsession with cows after we contracted with an amish guy to put a new roof on our house. We went out to his home, and he takes care of milking cows. He said we could go look and Eli was amazed. Then it was fair time and we were able to take him though all of the live stock barns. He loved it. We were standing in front of a pair of cows, and Eli was admiring the one, while the other next to his started a nice deep Mooooooooooooooo. If I could have captured the look on his face, it would have been perfect. He leaned back into me and his eyes got as big as saucers. By the 3rd barn he was running between all of the animals waving and saying "hi" and even petting some.

He follows simple commands, which is nice. Like "shut the door!" or "throw it away." he does not follow other commands like "dont flush the toilet!!" or "put that down!!!" Instead commands like that usually end up with a toilet flushed 10 times or him running behind the recliner with the telephone and hurrying up to push all the buttons before you can get him.

He's very good at running and hiding. He likes to get up the steps quick then hide half under the bed, or hide right in the middle, behind Ed's recliner. He also likes hiding under the kitchen table but I really suprised him this weekend when I went right under with him. Oh the giggles. I need to get a video camera with sound so I can record him.

Anytime you have a 'booboo' he gives kisses. Ed just had his gallbladder out and when Eli saw the lil marks from it he gets his squinty eyes and goes "oooowwwww boo booooo" and starts giving kisses. He's such an affectionate child. Giving hugs and kisses (even to virtual strangers, like the waitress at Bassetts).

We had a lil stint where he had to go to daycare. I think he was temporarily tramatized from it. He apparently is not much for playing with other lil kids his age. It was tramatic for all of us and took about 2 weeks to recover from. Not sure I'll be trying that again until he's a bit older.

He has his little 'babies' that go to bed with him (glow worm, a puppy dog, elmo, spok (like from star trek)). Oh and of course his burpies. And it's not just one burpie, it's often 3 burpies. He takes his glow worm and puts him over his shoulder, and pats his back then goes "BURRRRRRRRP!" like the glow worm let out a big one.

He can put his shoes on by himself..most of the time on the right feet. He almost entirely uses his left hand for everything and I really do believe he will be a lefty (much to Dads dismay!)

He loves playing outside and I'm a lil weary about winter setting in. And he loves going places, although you have to either go in the morning, or after afternoon nap. He's cut himself down to 1 nap a day, mid afternoon. It's working ok.

Well that is my updates for now. I will try to post some pictures and the link to the youtube with his video's.

And if I think of anything else of course, I'll update!

Crazy Dancer

2009-07-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

Mom's a bum

2009-07-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken any pictures lately. I will. This weekend :-D Eli is doing fantastic. He's very small for his age but I am tryin to take that with a grain of salt. He is in the 5% for his height and weight and actually lost half an inch between his 12 mo and 15 mo appt. o.O (someone measured wrong).

He's getting teeth galore and they are causing some issues. I feel so bad for him. I'm just hoping they come in quickly and we get it over with!!

He's a very active little kid. Always running away from you. Climbing on the table. Getting into everything... *sigh* :P It's so hard to not be yelling no all the time. He's always amazingly affectionate. I love it. He gives the best hugs and kisses and is blowing kisses now. It just melts my heart.

He loves the fact that he can go outside and pick rasberries or fresh peas (although dismayed that the strawberries are gone). He understands so well! He tries to repeat about any word you say, and often times it's just a jumble but he's getting there. He's also attempting to potty train. He can't say poop (or has no desire to?) but he will say dirty. At first it was AFTER he went. Then in the middle of it.. but now he's attempting to tell us he's dirty "right" before it happens. I've sat him on the seat a few times and he squeezes, but nothing has happened yet. It's okay. He's young and we aren't pushing it! Now if I could get him to be a little more enthusiastic about brushing his teeth.

Time is going by fast and and my baby is now a toddler. A walking, talking, able to make simple decisions on his own toddler. :-D

Life is grand!

Some words

2009-06-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

I know I mostly post pictures..so now I need to explain some of them.

I'm at work though and can't see what the pictures are, which I posted last night, so I'll have to go from memory.

I know there is a messy face one.. that's not abnormal. The kid is a pretty messy eater. He also enjoys throwing his food all over the floor and whatnot. I guess he thinks the dogs are starving or something. Every now and then he'll throw a fork or a plate and hit one of them. Then we get a "yulp", but in dogs the need to scrounge off of their human counterparts is stronger then their self presservation instincts.

I know there are some pictures of 'glove hands' :-D Eli likes getting into the kitchen drawers and taking out the oven mits. We then put on our glove hands and smack each other silly.

Theres some pictures of Eli messing around with vaseline. ;P The other night I left him alone for 5 minutes. 5 minutes I swear!!! He got the tub of vaseline opened and had it gobbed all on his hands, his face, the keyboard, the mouse, and the computer chair. I wasn't to happy but I wasn't that upset either because it was funny. And fyi diaper wipes work really well at cleaning up that greasy slop.

What else is going on...

Eli got in a molar. Which is strange. I thought he would get on the bottom, the teeth next to his two front teeth. Instead he threw us for a loop and got in a tooth on the top, way in the back. And of course he won't let you see in his mouth, or brush his teeth for that matter. He's very tight lipped at times.

His understanding his so amazing. For awhile now we have noticed he understands when you ask him to do certain things, like finding a pair of shorts or picking up a certain toy. My mom was babysitting him one day and said "hey you got a new toy!!" which Eli immediately ran over to and grabbed to show off. Last night I told him 'Da da' was in the bathroom and to go 'knock on the door and tell him to get the hell out of there". Eli gave me this lil look, ran over to the bathroom, started banging on the door and yelling his own jibberish version of get the hell out.

He also enjoys pushing me around when he wants my attention, which is pretty much all the time. He's pretty strong too! But he can be content to sit and get into things on his own. Especially if it's something I don't really want him to get into.

He is obsessed with our strawberry plants. You take him outside and he goes running right over 'straw straw straw" and will push through the plants and pull off the berries. I just need to teach him how to figure out what is ripe and what is not.

Well I think that is a fairly good update for now. :-D I'm sure this summer is going to be a blast!

Vaseline

2009-06-11T19:05:00.001-07:00

Glove hands and Egg ears

2009-06-11T19:03:00.001-07:00

Knoebels

2009-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Quad and the Potty

2009-05-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Breaking news

2009-05-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Eli has 6 teeth!! Well 4 full and 2 almost there teeth. His eye teeth are coming in well, and it looks as though they have broken skin. I thought Eli was having allergy issues but apparently it was teething. (everytime he gets teeth he has a runny nose for 2 weeks prior). More teeth is trouble though. I'm paranoid he'll become a biter. He gets a kick out of biting my big toes for some reason. I can't help but laugh but the more I 'pretend scream' the more he laughs then I laugh and it's not good. Luckly that is ALL he has been biting. He is turning into quite the handful though. He's figured out how to pull out the chairs and climb onto the kitchen table or the computer desk. He's quick to! You turn your back for 2 seconds and he is standing on the table. I've had to turn my chairs all upside down. I know that'll only last so long. He'll eventually gain the size advantage and just flip the chairs back over. He also REALLY enjoys looking out the windows so I take an unused laundry basket and turn it upside down so he has a bit of a stool to stand on.

He has been imitating the dogs for a few weeks now, oof oof. What's cute is he takes out this little dog stuffed animal toy he has and will carry it around going oof off. The other night he learned how to 'quack' like a duck. If you ask him what does a duck do he'll go 'qwack qwack.'

Not *EVERY* time but most of the time I can get him to count to two. If I say "one" and hold up another object he'll go 'two.' He's a smart little bugger. He watches you do something once and he wants to do it. He watched me unscrew the battery cover to his one book and then was insistant he had the screw driver and that was going to unscrew it. He also keeps trying to put the car keys into the door lock. He's a little too short to reach though. He's following commands very well. If you tell him to give something to mommy or daddy he will. Tonight his drink was empty so Ed said "give it to Mommy." I was out in the kitchen and he brought it right to the baby gate and threw it over. He'll throw his diapers away as well : X He's drinking out of a straw very well and eats a good variety of food. Some of his favorite things are kidney beans, frenchfries, mcdonalds cheeseburger, pickles, cheese, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, marshmellows, gold fish, club crackers, cheesey hot dogs, grapes, oranges, mandarine oranges, strawberries, any kind of cereal, mac and cheese crackers, and teddy grahms.

He got his first hair cut on May 2nd (my birthday, which by the way, makes me very old). He did so well! I was so proud of him. The hair dresser I could tell was reluctant. She's so very nice though. She put the booster on the chair and sat him in it and put the little cap around him. She kept remarking how 'tiny' he is. ;P I told her just to get above the ears because if that is ALL she can get, I'll be happy. Eli though was perfectly content and fascinated by the entire process. He sat still the whole time and she was able to get all of his hair. It was a great birthday present! He now looks like such a little man.

I think I might have to start considering potty training. I know he is so young but he seems to be gearing up for it. When he 'goes' he often squats down so you know exactly when he's doing it. Most of the time when he poops he'll come running over and be pulling as his diaper. Saturday night I took his diaper off and got up quick to get the diaper cream. He of course ran away, squatted on the floor, grunted, and peed. I've had him do this outside too while running around without a diaper on.

Ok well that was a lot of update and I think that's all I have for now ;)

First Hair Cut

2009-05-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Getting there..

2009-05-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Below is some pictures :-D Eli discovered the hose as we were filling the pond up. He thought it was the greatest thing on earth. He also likes pretending to drive my car ;)

Pictures

2009-05-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Easter

2009-04-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic easter egg hunt today! A friend invited me to her church for their egg hunt today which was very nice since there were not too many kids there. The eggs were all spread out in a large area. Eli walked around and I held the bucket and he put his eggs in there. He got two prize eggs and two eggs with candy. He had a fun time and so did Dad and I :-D\

Sorry no action shots :-D

More pics

2009-04-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Other pics

2009-04-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

Flordia Pics

2009-04-10T18:53:00.001-07:00

Easter time

2009-04-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

We have been practicing with Eli for the egg hunt Saturday. I think he'll beat all the other kids out ;) well maybe. He also likes dumping his bucket and playing 'scrambled eggs' so we'll see. A co-worker was very nice to invite me out to her church and she says there are very few kids. At least this way I don't have to worry about him getting trampled over. With other little kids around he's very likely to lose focus. Oh well. It's more for me then it is for him. :-X

Eli now has two top teeth and two bottom teeth. He's very good at tearing at things. He loves eating whole apples or tearing off a peice of toast. He is really picky with eating though. He likes having his own plate and fork and not just a toddler fork he wants a big boy fork. He just stabs it around like crazy until he gets something. And he LOVES ranch dressing. That's probably not good haha. I figure though if a lil dot of ranch dressing makes him eat a bunch of peas or greenbeans, it's a keeper.

He's spouting off words left and right lately. He's saying juice, shoes, keys, hiya, down, ontop of already saying whats that, book, mama, dada, daddy, kitty kit, shut up, and a few random things.

Watching him play anymore is so entertaining in itself. He loves being outside. We have a little shovel and he walks around outside and digs at everything. He doesnt like any garbage in his dirt either, like sticks or rocks. And get that kid near water and WATCH out. I think he'll have lots of fun this summer in a little wading pool. He likes to gather up some plastic easter eggs and put them in a bucket and smashes at them with a little plastic shovel. He'll get one on the shovel and bring it to his lips and act like he's tasting it. We got rid of our couch and put our futon in the living room and he's able to crawl up on there. He loves sitting up there and just playing. I wonder what he's imagining. ;)

He's at such a fun age right now and is growing by leaps and bounds. I can't wait for the weather to get warmer and to visit parks and whatnot. He has a very independent personality though so I know he'll be trouble. He wants to do what he wants to do! He doesn't want to hold mommy's hand and he doesn't want to sit in the cart. And if he wants to throw food on the floor darnit, he's throwing food on the floor!!!

AND he really doesn't want to sit still in the airplane ;) We took our first airplane ride down to Flordia. The way down wasn't so bad. He fell asleep and it was nice. The way home was a disaster. Flight delays, lost baggage, lay overs.. ug. It wasn't pleasant for anyone. And I'm sure it's not something we will be doing again anytime soon.

I will add some pics from Flordia this weekend!!

March of Dimes

2009-04-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm walking for March of Dimes. :-D

If you want to sponser..

;)

http://www.marchforbabies.org/twylashaffer

A year's reflection

2009-03-19T11:10:00.001-07:00

It seems like Eli has been around forever. I can barely remember him being a tiny little thing. I do know I'd get a lot more sleep without him, but I'd rather go with the 6 hours a night ;) He has grown so much! He is 18.9 pounds and 2 feet, 6 inches tall. He walks so good and he loves the nice weather. He's learning how to walk around the yard pretty well which was a challenge at first since our yard is hilly. He's a very happy kid, except when he's tired, but hey who isn't cranky when they are tired! His vocabulary is amazing! (or at least I think so). He says 'see ya' and 'byebye'. He's been saying Ma ma lately but usually just when he's upset. He even said cracker the other day in walmart. He likes to tell the dogs to 'shut up' when they are barking. He's very vocal all the time. His favorite pastime is crawling all over his mom and beating on her ;P I don't mind though. And if you are REALLY lucky, he'll give you a smooch. Life is so exciting with him around. He has two teeth on the bottom and one tooth on the top. He's a very picky eater. I suppose all kids are at this age. He loves his pickles and cheese. He'll also eat a cheesedog and a half but we save that for every once in awhile. And of course he'll eat just about any kind of fruit. Give him a cut up banana, and he'll refuse it. But if you give him the WHOLE banana, he'll eat it down! I guess theres a difference ;)

So an entire year, come and gone. Soon we will embark on another first, a plane ride to Florida. Hopefully all goes well!

Birthday 2

2009-03-10T19:08:00.001-07:00