January 31, 2006
(age 3 years and 3 months)We have survived the holidays - and due to the confligration of Hannukah and Christmas this year we are fairly certain that Eli is fairly confused about how long the various holidays last. He is convinced of Santa's existence (I mean - just look at http://www.noradtracksanta.com and you can see him flying too!). We also lit candles for all 8 nights of Hannukah - and he got to hunt playing 'hot and cold' to find a present each night (a tradition from my childhood).
Even now a month later he often hides me 'presents' (such as a sock, a book or a pen cap) and makes me look for it.
He got a bike for the last night of Hannukah and loves it. David got one too as his big holiday gift - so the two of them can ride together.
He has taken to saying very grown up things:
Today when I got home from work he greeted me with "How was work mom?" and last night when we had dinner together he paused in the middle to ask "How is your food?".
And last week he reported a great many details about the 'Lunch Ship" about which he had just dreamed.
Here are an assortment of details in no particular order:
* the lunch ship is green
* it is very large
* it has wings like a plane
* fire comes out of these wings
* it lands at an airport (where the helicopters and planes land)
* it tells people when it is time to eat lunch
* it carries food and groceries and furniture and presents
November 8, 2005
(age 3 years)Yesterday morning I woke up with a very sore shoulder. I am not sure why - but when I told Eli my shoulder hurt, he gave me the sweetest hug and patted me gently and said "Don't worry Mommy, it will heal."
An interview with Eli:
What is your favorite color?
ELI: I like purple and red and lots of different colors.
What is your favorite food?
ELI: Pancakes and eggs and french toast. And some chicken noodle soup and sandwich.
What is your favorite toy?
ELI: Lots of toys.
Who is your favorite stuffed animal?
ELI: Roo and Fritz.
What things do you like?
ELI: Fire trucks and pumper tricks and fire works.
What else should I tell them about? Your new snowboots?
ELI: Yes.
They are dark blue and warm and water proof.
Should I tell them how tall you are?
ELI: Yes.
Eli is now 3' and 3/4" tall.
While on a trip to NYC in September, Eli reported that a small invisible dark pink sheep had joined us. We couldn't pronounce the name properly - so Eli let us give the sheep the nickname of 'Eek Eek'. Eek Eek aparently escaped the Central Park children's petting zoo to come away with us. He is small enough to sit in your hand. Sometimes he flys around in his invisible purple airplane. We discovered after we returned home that Eek Eek's mom and daddy had come with us too. Eek Eek still comes out to play sometimes.
July 29, 2005
(age 2 years and 9 months)It seems like it shouldn't be possible - but I swear that he has grown an inch in the past month. We had best start saving now for food when he turns 12.
We have taken the step of letting him play internet kids games and he loves both the Sesame Street and Nick Jr websites. Really loves them. Would play them all day long if we let him. Lucky for us he still loves playing with his trains, cars, legos, dinosaurs and reading tons of books. He has a passion and a nack for wiffle ball and loves playing in the water at the local outdoor pool. If anything, he asks 'Why?' even more often now than he did a few weeks ago.
And the good news is that we have nothing to fear about any lack of imagination.
From about a week ago:
ELI: There are flying monkeys.
MOM: Really? What color are they?
ELI: Red.
MOM: And what color are their eyes?
ELI: Orange.
MOM: and what color are their wings?
ELI: Black.They live in the trees.
MOM: Are there any that live near our house?
ELI: Yes. Five. A mommy, a daddy and babies.
MOM: Did someone tell you about the flying monkeys?
ELI: Yes.
MOM: Who?
ELI: Darth Vader.
Epilogue:
We repeated almost this exact exchange the next day to tell daddy about the flying monkeys.
DAD: Who told Darth Vader?PostScript: The main 'action' figures Eli has are the Toddler Star Wars figures.
ELI: My wookie.
June 8, 2005
(age 2 years and 7 months)The last two weeks have provided the following fun quotes:
"I love you too." in answer to Jeanne saying "Goodnight Eli, I love you."
"I am as tall as Daddy's pocket." to his grandmother and referring to David's pant pocket.
"I am going to be tall like my Daddy."
"Why?" followed of course by "Why?" and "Why?" and "Why?" (yes, it truly has begun)
"Why my toes stick out?" Eli in bed and heard over his monitor after 10 minutes of silence.
With regards to his height - our most recent attempt at measuring him turned up a measurement of 38".
Another fun milestone. Eli slept in his big boy bed for the 2nd time ever on Sunday Night June 5th. It has been months since the first and only other time (the day we bought and set up his bed). Of course on Monday it was back to his crib again, but we think it means that he might actually sleep in his bed before he no longer fits in his crib.
May 19, 2005
(age 2 years and 6 months)Way overdue for our update. We just returned from a week and a half trip to Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler out in British Columbia, Canada. We had an amazing time. My favorite quote from the trip was when Eli explained he wanted to play on our road. By name. I didn't even know he knew the name of our road - never heard him say it before.
Much longer more complicated sentences. Figuring things out faster.
Much more certain about what he wants to do (tonight it was that he really wanted to play more with the egg beater - not go pick out bedtime books).
Food habits snapshot: today he ate (in no particular order) oatmeal, milk, water, yogurt drink, cheese, chicken soft taco, strawberries, tortalini and crackers.
He spent a good while today playing with the 'new' old trucks that grandma brought. Carefully loading dirt into one.. dumping from that one into another.. dragging that truck over to a different place and then dumping the dirt on the ground. All with great conviction that it was very important.
Has discovered the joy of trying to hit a wiffle ball with a wiffle ball bat. Seems to enjoy both batting and pitching.
Mostly stood still for me to cut his hair. Mostly.
Sat still for me to read both 'Eloise' and 'Eloise Goes to Paris' this morning. Over a 1/2 hour to get through both - and that was reading at quite a clip.
Has a much improved imagination... on the trip he invented a game in which he would announce that he had a ball. The next step is that you ask him what color it is.. and then you get to play catch. Fabulous invention really - can play anywhere.. never break anything and never loose the ball. A few days after inventing that game he held out his cupped hand to me and announced that there was a small animal in it. (this was after a trip to the Bug Zoo in Victoria) I asked what kind of animal. He said it was a Rhinoceros. More prompting uncovered the details that it was a green Rino with an orange horn.
Recognizes many letters. Will tell you that his name is 'E-L-I' if you ask. And that he is 2 (while holding up appropriate fingers).
Most mornings he announces "I want a Milk bottie and something to eat".
February 28, 2005
(age 2 years and 4 months)Eli had his first new swim class today - having been promoted to the 3-5 year old class with his same instructor from the last session of classes. He loves the water!
Eli loves his books. He made a stack of 26 of them this morning and seemed quite keen on the idea that we were going to simply read our way down through the entire pile. We made it through 5 of them before he decided to do something new.
He has discovered playing in the sink with cups and water. 45 minutes later and he is still doing science experiments with the water.
Eli now plays Hide-And-Seek. As you look for him and ask out loud 'Is Eli behind these pillows?' -- you will often hear Eli respond with a sing-song 'Nooo...'. Sometimes he makes you help him get into his hiding place. But if you find him too fast - he will tell you that you have to long longer.
He is getting into the full swing of wanting to either do everything himself or wanting a specific person (often Mom) to do it for him. In the case that Mom is supposed to do something - no one else may even be involved. If the wrong person starts part of the process, you must put everything back and begin again.
A new favorite food: Cereal Bars with jam in the middle... and the JustRasberries, JustStrawberries and JustBannanas that are freeze dried with no additives. He loves them!
Running faster. Speaking more clearly. Stronger willed...but also sweeter at the same time (Mom cannot leave for work without a hug and kiss).
January 6, 2005
(age 2 years and 2 months)Eli has been working on long sentences for a while now. He will often make three or four attempts at expressing his ideas, each time rearranging the words. It is great seeing him working at figuring out the oddness of English grammer. He also seems to have made a leap forward in remembering plans for the future.
We just got him his first remote control car and he is mad for it - keeps telling us 'I want to press buttons' - which means that he wants to hold the remote control. His control isn't very good - but he seems quite pleased when the car crashes into things.
His favorite foods (as recently evidenced by him emphatically selecting them in the grocery store) include yogurt drinks and cantelope. He also loves Cheerios, bacon, eggs, waffles, crackers, noodles, cheese, dried fruit and milk.
He sings the ABCs all the time now (often while falling asleep at night.. or just after waking up in the morning). His version goes:
ABCDEFGHIMOPQRSVWXYZ (note - he says 'double' instead of W)
He is also counting a lot these days.. but seems to have something against the numbers 5 and 9. Asking him to count to ten will often get you: 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10
He uses a friends old iMac (thanks Simone!) often... 'playing' solitaire and checkers (a version with mines which explode the checkers which he loves).
He seems to have inherited both of his parents' love of taking things apart.
He loves reading books and drawing with crayons and helping around the house (especially cleaning and folding laundry).
He also seems to be enjoying his AquaTots swin class which he takes with David two mornings a week.
October 7, 2004
(age 23 months)Okay. It has been amazingly too long, but Momma took a day job and has less time for fun things like updating this page. So here it goes.
Three weeks ago we started keeping a list on the fridge of all the words that Eli says now. Almost a week ago now we stopped adding to the list because we couldn't keep up with it. We started out adding more than 3 a day, and picked up speed from there! So here is an excerpt of that list of just over 100 words, phrases and names - in no particular order, but vaguely classified (and with translations in parenthesis where necessary):
Animals: turtle, bird, hippo, bunny, owl, dog, butterfly
Actions: draw, throw, roll, read, wait, stop, off, go, get, sweep, eat, give, play, dance, run run run
Objects: moon, bottie (bottle), bus, ball, vacuum, noodle, cheese, bellybutton, stick, rocks, beebee (bacon), tree, cloud, light, stripes, flower, hat, shoe, boot, baby, bike, blanket, boat, balloon, money, legos, broom, straw, book, roof, egg
Phrases: I want that one, I want to read, I want to walk, I want down, Mamma - that way, off that, "Go, Dog, Go" (one of his favorite books)
Misc: hot, day, night, music, bye bye, please, down, up, want, me hot, no, uh hu (yes), oops, uh-oh, all right!
Colors: yellow, orange, green, red, blue
Sounds which represent something specific: mmmmmm (truck), ba ba, neigh, bzzzz (any bug), woof, oink, hoo hoo (owl)
And names for people and stuffed animals (this list is in the order in which he first said them):
Daddy, Momma, Mmmama (grandma), Ba (grandpa), Roo Roo (a toy rooster), Bear (a specific toy bear), Chris, Walter, Glenyss, Fritz (a toy frog), Jenne, Robbie, Jason, Bruce, Robin, Sache and Liz
He is still using a few signs, sometimes to help clarify if we (his foolish parents) can't understand what he is stating so clearly.
Signs which are still in use: music, more, sleep, brush teeth, food, eat, thirsty, throw, roll, done/finished/no, book/read, egg, please, bath
He still loves running in circles, reading books and figuring things out. He loves helping do anything - the more complicated the chore the better (especially things that involve large tools like mowing). He has just started doing simple jigsaw puzzles, playing with toy fire engines and trains and having stronger opinions about everything every day.
Foods which he will sometimes eat these days (in no particular order): noodles, breakfast cereal, yogurt, bacon, hot dogs, cheese, sliced turkey, orange, grapes, chicken, dried fruit, grilled zucchini and crackers.
July 14, 2004
(age almost 21 months)July highlights:
- New favorite words: mine, Ba (his name for Jeanne's Dad), Maa (His name for David's Mom), bird, "I do it", up (both stand up and pick me up), "Bye, bye" and Hello.
- Running in circles
- Reading 18 books in a row with Mama or Daddy
- Climbing, running and exploring with new dexterity. Can climb onto tall beds and all chairs without help. Does not understand why he can't sit and stand on tables.
- Growth spurt which has him now as tall as the counter tops (33") and with no shoes big enough to still fit his feet
June 9, 2004
(age 19 months)News flash - Eli has a new favorite word. No. He used to just shake his head and say 'Nuh-uh, Nuh-uh'. But now he says a clear and solid 'No. No.'. He also is of the firm belief that we are the meanest parents ever because we don't let him play in the refrigerator.
May 27, 2004
(age 19 months)Okay.. Eli has made a super word breakthrough since our last update. He has used the following words and phrases over the past week: "I want down", "that one", "Baby Bear" (his name for one of his stuffed bears), bottle, ball, more, Momma, Daddy, no, bird, bye and book. We keep realizing that what we thought was gibberish is in fact full phrases. It helps to listen to the whole set of sounds without trying to focus on his phrasing. There are more phrases.. we will add them to the list as we remember them. And of course he still uses a lot of signs.. some while saying the word (such as more, bye and book).
He loves water. He loves it in the bathtub, in our friend's pool and just in pots and pans out on the deck.
He sometimes wakes up in the morning saying "ball ball ball ball ball". It is like he has been dreaming all night about playing ball and now he can't wait to actually go play.
We also heard him talk in his sleep the other night.. about 2 minutes of "I want down. Down. Down. Want Down" -- but it kept fading out into murmurring. So cute!
April 12, 2004
(age 17 months) The latest breakthrough has been words. He now says Momma all the time and clearly understands it's meaning. He also says Daddy, Diaper, Bear, Bellybutton and Bottle - though less often. He still uses his signs to communicate most things... and is still making his long sentence sounding sounds. His favorite toys right now are balls, legos (the big duplo kind) and books. He has started taking a weekly music class with his Dad. He giggles a lot and never seems to stop moving. The most common question we get about him these days is "Is this normal speed?". We probably need to trim his hair again soon since people keep thinking he is a girl.March 13, 2004
(age 16 months)Eli now has a brand new sign for egg. He seems to be trying to say bottle.. and often comes out with what sounds like full sentences which his parents are not smart enough to decipher. He also makes animal sounds for dog and cat. He is very independent and insists on feeding himself most of the time. He actually does quite well with a regular fork and spoon. He wishes he could dress himself - it frustrates him to no end that he cannot put on his own socks and shoes... or shirt and pants. He can get his shirt over his head.. but after that half the time he ends up pulling it off and starting over again.
January 26, 2004
(age 15 months)Communication:
Eli is learning new signs fairly easily now. It is mostly a matter of us figuring out what we want to teach him and what signs won't be too hard for him. Our new signs this month - book, cheerios, sit, music & thirsty. Still no words, but he seems to be trying hard to figure out how to say book.
Dexterity:
Eli climbed out of his playpen for the first time today. He was standing on the old computer keyboard we gave him to play with (yes, a bit of a strange toy - but he sees us use them all the time and loves 'typing' on his keyboard) so we do have a short reprieve until he grows another smidge, but the easy "put the baby in the playpen" days are over! He can also now pull himself onto our regular dining room chairs and likes to sit there with his chin about the same height as the table itself and eat his food. If there is a foot stool nearby, he knows how to use it to climb onto the couch.
Music:
Now that he is armed with a sign to ask for music - he does so almost every time he comes into a room with a stereo or boom box that *doesn't* already have it playing. He has also started to dance more - he especially likes Los Lobos and Tom Petty.
December 22, 2003
(age 14 months)Food:
Eli is currently going through a growth spurt and consequently eating virtually anything we put in front of him. His favorite foods right now are blueberries, scrambled eggs, cherrios, grape tomatoes and muenster cheese.
Communication:
Eli still isn't speaking (other than his quite eloquent multipurpose sound 'Da', usually accompanied with pointing), but he has learned how to communicate using an assortment of signs. So far he has signs for done, more, hungry, tired, play, nurse and shower.
Motion:
He is in constant motion. He is running, laughing and clapping. He likes to sit on the couch and chairs (preferably without anyone next to him of course). He will play hide and seek with you until you fall over from exhaustion. He will chase you up the hall. He will giggle as you chase him down the hall.
Favorite Things:
He adores spatulas (really anything with a handle that increases his reach, especially tools he sees his parents using). He loves his books. He loves our books. He cheerfully will sort and shred all our junk mail and sales flyers. He has a big blue green ball (you know the kind - the ones you buy in the grocery store from the big wire bin display in summertime) - he will bring you the ball and chase after it when you throw it for him (hmm, maybe this part should be listed under "Motion" above).
Music:
Eli loves music. He is especially fond of the soundtrack of Philadelphia Chickens (this is really great - the entire Kramer-Smyth family recommends it), but he is also fond of most songs with a good dance beat.
