School Boy

this is how we nap

1st day of school!

My baby boy has started school!  And he LOVES it! He had the complete opposite reaction as his sister, who cried for a year at drop off.  His first day, Eli walked in and had no problem when Scott said he was leaving. He just looked at Scott like, leave already Dad.  There are days we still have issues with Evi!  His teacher is Miss Brenda, and his class is all boys.  And he has become so much more a "boy" since starting.  He has also become a master at Super Mario Bros on the Wii and his sister's DS.  It's ridiculous how quickly this boy catches on to games on the electronics.  And shameful to his mother that he plays them better than she does.
His sister is going through another emotional phase.  But what's new?!?!  I don't even know where to begin with her.  I only hope that her sensitivity, her ridiculous amount of sensitivity will benefit her in her future...somehow.

I wish I had more to share, but it has been life as usual...school, dance, gymnastics, and drama.  We should have our own reality series.
 

Convos with the kids...

Gaspirilla - Pirate Parade

One evening we were playing in Eli's room, which is pirate themed.  He was at his steering wheel directing Scott and I onboard, and from the bathroom we hear Evi call out "I'm on the poop deck!". It was a riot!

Eli's big thing right now is responding with a thumbs up when he likes something or when something is good (shocking I know). So one morning Scott asked Eli if he slept (thumbs up), Eli said, "no, I slept (folded his hands like a prayer against his cheek and closed his eyes).

All I want for Christmas...

riding Thunder Mountain with Tuti

Finally Evi has lost BOTH her front teeth! The first one to fall out was knocked out while tossing a football with cousin Lucas.  And it wasn't the really loose one.  How that ball didn't get the one right next to it hanging by a thread, I have no idea.  But it was very traumatic.  Then I had to torture her for over an hour to get the second one out!  It was so gross and just hanging there.  I was trying to get her to pull it but she would barely touch it.  Finally I held her down and I tried (Scott is NO help in the holding down department, I have to do all the dirty work).  Well, I ended up turning it around backwards, but couldn't get a grip on it.  And boy was the backside nastier than the front!   Finally I chased her around the house tapping her mouth with my finger as she cried until it fell out.  Yes, I am a great mother, I know.  Just giving her stuff to work with her therapist with when she's older.  So when she was leaving it for the Tooth Fairy, she said she wanted to keep it.  Since she was already in bed, I left a note for the Tooth Fairy asking if she could.  The Tooth Fairy responded in teeny tiny handwriting, "Yes, she can keep it, it's pretty yucky!"  Evi loved it! Man that tooth was nasty!  But she is so cute with that big whole in her mouth!

getting ready for some renfest action

We have started at a new gymnastics school closer to our house, and have moved up to a "team" level.  And while Evi is learning a lot, she is stressing out a lot too.  She has nightmares about gymnastics now.  I think while she may be physically ready to move up, she is not emotionally ready.  She is such a "pleaser" and just wants to do things right to make the coach happy.  I think it might be taking some of the fun out of it.  We'll see. 
Eli is sensitive in his own way.  He gets very mad when he gets embarrassed.  He doesn't like it when we laugh at him.  Poor guy, he better learn to get passed this, because his mother can't help herself.  If he falls, gets in trouble, does something unintentionally funny and we laugh he scrunches up his face and gets very upset.  Then, he boohoos.  Oh, the emotional ups and downs of a 3 year old.

his mad face

Kelf, the Elf on the Shelf, is back this year.  The kids have so much fun locating that damn elf each morning. And Eli is raring to go on the present front.  He was a little hesitant when it came to pictures with Santa, but since his cousin Mila had done it no problem, and his sister was with him, he man'd up and did it. 

Aunt Tuti FINALLY came to stay with us.  And Eli was up her butt.  Even when I came home from a trip, he cuddled with his Tuti and followed her everywhere.  We showed her how rockin' Tampa is...from the comfort of our couch!  Other than a trip to Disney, it was rather boring for a college girl, I'm sure.  But we loved having her.  

One night Eli slept for over 12 hours.  When he finally awoke Scott asked him if he a grown a foot overnight, and Eli looked down at his feet to see if there was another one.  It was too cute.

7 Years Old!

My sweet baby girl is 7!!! It's like someone is stabbing me with a knife, 7 sounds so old. So pre-tween!  This will be the year her big front teeth come in, which, to me, has always meant that the baby years are over.  She's sleeping most nights in her own bed. She reads books to herself and her brother at bedtime.  All things I've been waiting for, but it makes me sad just the same.  But she still likes to cuddle and pulls my arm hair every chance she gets, which proves in some ways, she's still my baby.
I was a failure as a mother and never organized any kind of party.  Luckily she was happy just having her two BFF's go bowling with us.  And since Eli's used to being the only boy, he was right in the middle of it all.
She came into some cash for her birthday. I took her to target to buy what she wanted for herself. We came home with one $6 box of easy bake oven mix because she couldn't pull the trigger on anything when it was her own money being spent.  She had me take pictures of all the things she wanted so she could look them over and decide.  She definitely doesn't get that quality from me!  But I hope she keeps it!
Our Disney passes expire at the end of the year, so we had a last hurrah weekend in Orlando.  Everyone greatly enjoyed themselves.  We had to all share a king size bed, which posed some challenges, but we all survived, and were exhausted upon our return home.

Here are two sentences Eli said one right after the other, and when taken out of context sound, well, just read for yourself...
"HEY, I SEE A HOLE. I GOTTA GET MY WEEWEE OUT."
And he proceeded to actually try to do just that.  While it's not like it sounds, it is pretty funny.  He has recently learned that he has a hole in his manties meant for retrieving his weewee. We honestly think the word 'hole' just led him to remember that his underwear had a weewee 'hole'.

terrible threes

Eli has so much to say now that his sister is in school all day and he finally has one on one time again with his parents.  He has so much personality, partly his sister's and partly some of the boy next door, help us! He is so much fun right now.  Of course he's also in what should be referred to as the tantrum threes right now too.  He's not terrible, but he can become very emotional on the days he doesn't nap.  But if he naps, he never goes to bed.  But when he's emotional, it's somewhat entertaining, you know, in hind sight... It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he swings from deranged to sad to deliriously happy; not wanting something to wanting it all with in a matter of seconds.  At least we can find humor in it! He has definitely learned the power of a fit, and is taking whining lessons from his sister.

Evi is doing well with school, dance and gymnastics.  She has made a friend in the neighborhood her age and makes the most of every waking moment at home playing. Her front teeth are so loose! Any day now she'll be singing "all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth".  If the space between her front teeth gets any bigger, the new ones will be able to grow between the baby ones!  And it's started...I got the phrase " ughhh, I do everything around here!". Seriously, my six year old ,who does almost nothing, uttered those words! Really?!?!
We also bought a new used car, the Mazda5 minivan, or micro-mini as Scott calls it. We love it. Great gas mileage, sporty and we all fit! The third day I drove it was home from Orlando after a trip. We were getting back in the car after my arrival and there were ants all over the sliding door rails.  We got to the front of our neighborhood and looked back to find ants all over the back seats. We quickly got out and started killing and ant removal only to turn around and find more ants where there just was none.  Ends up they were flying out of our AC! No wonder we got a good deal on the car!

Eli-isms
I had a headache and Eli was cuddling with me upstairs. Evi was downstairs yelling for me, Eli responded, MOMMY'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Instead of mommy doesn't feel good, but in the end, it was the truth, right?

Someday he will absolutely die that I wrote this, but...


When riding in the stroller on the way out of a park, Eli started trying to pull his pants down and his weewee out saying "there's something wrong with my weewee!"   I'll let you guess what was wrong...All we could do was pull off to the side and giggle.

School Days...

School has started back up and Evi was beside herself with excitement! And so were mommy & daddy! She was ready to see her friends and right now she actually enjoys school and most things come easily for her.  And I am so grateful for that. The first day of school this year was a far cry from last years!  She was all smiles and waves and sugar and spice.

a personal, obviously reflective moment

She also started dance lessons this month.  She is doing ballet (courtesy of Gigi & Chacha for a birthday present...best idea I ever had ) and musical theater.  It had been over a year since she had a dance lesson, and it was like she had two left feet the first week! It was funny to watch. But luckily I am not a complete idiot in her eyes yet and she let me work with her on the steps when we got home.  She got it quickly with a little one on one. And I purchased "it's a hard knock life" for her to be able to practice her musical theater routine at home.  I think I am I turning into one of those moms on the reality shows?!?
Eli has started swim lessons, and it is not mommy and me, just 4 kids and one teacher.  I let daddy be the one to break his heart and take him to his first lesson.  There were tears at first from all the kids, but Scott said he was nothing compared to his sister at that age!  And by the time the lesson was over he was enjoying himself. Plus it helped that daddy bribed him with a new toy if did good ( yes, we have excellent parenting skills). Now he still says he doesn't want to go, but goes in once you get there.  And it's so impressive to watch the process.  He'll be swimming like a fish at the end of this, no problem.  The day I took him I told him I would clap and say "yay Eli" and he said "stop talking mommy!" And every time he would climb up out the water I would quietly clap and mouth "yay" and I could tell he mumbling things about wanting me stop.  At 3 I already embarrass him! I love it!
Gymnastics has started up as well and Eli was ready to go.  There was no looking back, he ran in and follows everything the teacher says, copies the other kids and has a blast.  It surprising that he doesn't get distracted since there is so much going on at the same time, but he doesn't.

A couple of weeks ago I was joking that Eli couldn't work a mouse for the computer yet because he's so used to everything being touch screen, the mouse is antiquated to him.  But he's figured it out this month.  He now can get on ANY electronic device and get to Thomas.  
And by the way...Evi has been sleeping in her own bed, all night!!! On most nights!! Hey, gotta celebrate the little victories, right?

proud log owners

July is over and what a month it has been!  We went on family vacation with Scott's side to Frisco, CO.  Which is always a hit.  The girls got along great and Eli kept up with them every step of the way.  He was a putt putt playing machine and Evi loved the bungee trampolines as usual.
One day was all about Eli.  We took him to ride the Georgetown train.  Well actually, we took him to go watch the train, but who were we kidding?  That boy wanted to ride the train!  He loved every minute of it. A lot of the trees have been cut down due to the pine beetle, so there are logs laying arond everywhere which Eli calls "jobi logs.". What's a jobi log you ask...Well the trees they used to build the rescue center on Thomas the train are jobi logs, so every log is a jobi log. So the whole train ride Eli is yelling about jobi logs.  Afterward we went to do a little fishing.  There was a piece of tree trunk floating in the water while we were fishing that Eli , of course, said was a jobi log.  During our time there the log kept floating right toward us and Eli was more and more excited.  Finally Scott decided to cast his line at it and caught with his first try and reeled it in.  More excitement ensues.  It was caught up on some rocks but Eli was determined to have this log.  He directed Scott as to how to reach it and was beside himself when it was pulled from the water!  It was too cute.  He wanted to take it home with us, and with all his enthusiasm, how could we resist?  We put it in the back of our car and took it back to the house with us.  The car ride home was filled with Eli repeatedly saing "we got a jobi log. We got a jobi log!" As each person showed up after us he would take them out to show off his jobi log.  So being the good parents we are, we bought a duffle bag and checked that bad boy for our flight home.  Eli and Scott have worked to buff, stain and seal it.  It looks pretty good, and Eli has his jobi log!

My children have become slightly vegetarian.  They almost both refuse to eat their meat most of the time, but love their fruit and veggies, and who am I to argue since I too have been eating less meat for health reasons.  But they are no fools.  They never pass up a good filet mignon!
Evi was running around the house the other day wearing one of her tiaras.  Scott was telling her about a Disney story book he had gotten with multiple stories in it.
Daddy: "it doesn't have any princess stories, just stories Eli might be interested in"
EVI: 'I'M NOT THAT INTO PRINCESSES ANYMORE"
Daddy: "says the girl with a tiara on"

the infamous Jobi Log!

Evi has been having major issues with bedtime...and I know, what's new?  Well now she's letting fear get the better of her and is always telling us she has bad thoughts or she feels like someone is right there when she  closes her eyes.  So my response was, maybe it's fairies you are feeling.  You could see the wheels turning and a smile on her lips, but alas, it's still not working.  Her 3 year old brother does better about going to bed and staying there than she does.  Oh well. I just keep telling myself she won't go off to college still sleeping with us...right?

"I a big boy, member!?"

driving the lawn mower at Bebe's

My baby is three!  Of course, if you asked him, he would say, "fours" and hold up 2 fingers.  We don't correct him. 1, because it's cute and 2, because we want to still say he's only 2 for the rest of the year so we don't have to buy him a pass for the parks!!! So don't ruin this for us people!

He has thoroughly enjoyed all of his birthday celebrations and loved people singing happy birthday to him.  After he had cake at his Auntie K & Uncle Mikey's house he turned to Kristi and said "I'm ready for my present." Turkey!


We took care of our neighbor's dog for a week and were also granted access to their pool.  We got to see how the other half lived, and now we want a pool more than ever!  The kids were like fish.  In the pool every chance they could.  And Eli is ready for swim lessons.  He has no fear.  He swims with his face down in the water and his eyes open.

the brown bean and whitey riding in the wagon at Bebe's

In June we spent some time in OKC, Scott and I got 2 nights out in a row for his 20 year high school reunion.  It was a lot of fun. But we are definitely too old and too out of practice for that kind of behavior! On the second night, when we were heading for the door, Eli was right behind us with his little roller bag saying he needed his trains to go to daddy's house. He started crying when Scott told him he was staying.  It was very sad!  As we were driving to our party Terri called a couple of minutes after we had left and said everything was perfect and all were happy.  When I hung up I said to Scott, "the sad part is, I had not even thought twice about the fact that we left Eli crying."  Poor Eli! He definitely gets the second child treatment sometimes! And yes, Gigi, I can feel you cringing!

Evi is loving summer and having all the girls in neighborhood at her disposal.  She is having a great time with them.  Any plans we make are usually wined about because she will be missing out on opportunities to play with the girls! The down side to always playing with tweens is that she is picking up on sarcasm and thinks it's alright to speak that way to us.  It's everything we have not to laugh when she cops an attitude.  If it wasn't so scary, it'd be cute.

Evi's sleepover friend, Savanah

She had her first friend sleep over at our house recently.  Luckily the friend, Savanah, lives across the street.  Evi still woke up at 4:30 and I had to put her back to bed, but she made it through the night with her friend.  Which is amazing, because she never does for us!  And has been difficult every night since!  She knows how to work her daddy when I'm gone so that she can watch TV in our bed to go to sleep! 

the neighbor kids at our house for fireworks