E is for Echo

Eli is trying to say everythingng. No one can really understand him, but he's trying. He's like a little echo following you around. He has also perfected his high pitch squeal when something is not going his way. It's worse than a girl's. We're working on "help please". I hope it takes soon!
But he is a lover for sure! Scott drove his truck to Tampa and was gone for 4 days, which is the longest he has ever been away from Eli. When he came in the door, Eli burst into tears, it was so sweet. He then hugged him for a long time with that half smirk (his shit-eating grin). But he loves on everyone. Unlike his sister who cried anytime someone came over, Eli runs to them with open arms.
My children love to run naked through the house before bath time. It's funny how quickly Eli picked up on this from Evi. One night while Scott was getting them ready for a bath I was doing something with mom on the computer. Eli comes tearing in butt-naked. Matti (mom's Toto dog) comes running at him and licks his weewee! Mom and I squealed and laughed, and Eli just stood there for a full 60 seconds at least, unsure of what just happened with a blank expression! Scott finally had to pick him up and take him to the bath.
Gigi & Chacha bought a large battery operated vehicle for the kids at their house. It's a Jeep, and it's almost as big as Mali's Jeep Liberty. Eli hasn't figured out how to work the peddle yet thank goodness! (Nor are his legs long enough to do so anyway!) So he enjoys being Evi's navigator at the moment.
Living with Gigi and Chacha has been, well, exhausting! Mainly for my mother, I'm sure. Thank goodness we have an entire upstairs living area (with big screen & our own DVR) and 2 whole bedrooms. It would definitely be really rough otherwise. And here I gave my parents a hard time when they bought such a big house!

We, once again, went to Tampa and hit a couple parks: SeaWorld & Busch Gardens. We also fit in a celebration of cousin Mya's 3rd birthday and beach trip or 2. Eli was finally big enough to ride some rides with his big sister. He loved it!


Eliisms:
truck, stuck, duck, look = all sound about the same, and like the f-bomb
milk
watey = water
bubbles
Tooti = which he says like the kid from "The Shining" says "REDRUM"
and he pretty much repeats whatever your last word was.

Conversations with Evi:
discussing poop...
Scott: "How does something so big come out of someone so little?"
EVI: "I EAT A LOT OF CHOCOLATE"

Talking about going to see Beauty and the Beast and all the singing that will happen
EVI:"I KNOW, AND WHEN THEY START SINGING I WILL BE LIKE, TOTALLY OVER IT"

While mixing her ice cream with toppings:
EVI:"I'M MEXICAN IT UP"

Well, we've made a big decision this month...we're putting our house on the market and attempting a move to Florida! YAY! I'm so excited! We have cleaned out our house of ALL extra items...and I mean ALL! It's amazing! Scotty & I have decided we want to be minimalists in our next house, it just feels so big and clean now. The kids have a different plan though. I boxed up all their toys, except for 3 storage containers full of toys, plus a few odd items that won't fit. Poor Evi, after a couple weeks of those toys, she's utterly bored and keeps asking where something is, and doesn't like my response of "it's in storage". And on the note of cleaning things and boxing things up...I have no idea where my cameras are at this moment, so there are hardly any pix to add to this post. Plus I've had no time to take any!!!
So now we're moving in with Gigi & ChaCha in Houston so that I can drive to work and not have to leave a day early 5 times a month in order to start a trip. I can't wait!! Gigi can though!!
...Now on to my kids...
Evi had her last month of school. At first I wasn't sure if we should send her, but she begged to go to see her friends, and the house was no where near ready, so we let her finish out January. I'm a little sad because she absolutely LOVES school this year. And she has this great group of friends that I like the moms too. But she asked if she'll get to visit them after we move, and was perfectly alright with leaving when I said yes. Although she doesn't really grasp the subject entirely, I'm sure. I let her invite Addie, Lainie and Julia on a play date just the 4 of them, as a going away party.
Evi is totally jazzed about living near the beach, Mickey Mouse, Sea World, Busch Gardens , and of course her cousins, that it seems to be enough to trump everything else. Plus, she wouldn't go to school with these girls next year either since we aren't in the same school zone as any of them. At least, that's what I keep telling myself and everyone else in my own defense!!
Evi still has been sleeping with me, or Scott when I'm gone. How can I say no when she has a smile ear to ear as she crawling into the bed with me? Or when she says, "let's do your favorite cuddle mom," meaning spooning. Surely she sleep in her own bed by the time she goes off to college, right? I've been doing my best to ruin Eli too. If I go into him when he cries, then there is no way he's letting me lay him down anywhere but my bed. But if Dad goes in, he doesn't usually fight it. So needless to say, Scott has all but banned me from being the responder...poor Eli.
Speaking of Eli, he now says his name with the "L" in it. It used to be "E - I!!" Now he says it exactly as his sister does when she's annoyed with him, the same inflections and everything, it's great! If you think his name is short, it's not when Evi says it.
He also tries to say "stinky", "okay", "mickey", "nose", "eyes", and "soda". (Don't even try to have a Dr. Pepper around this kid without sharing! He's already a Pepper!)
We recently went through a 4 day stretch where Eli threw up once a day around 6 to 7 pm. The first day, we think he was just gagging on some drainage. But after that, we highly suspect he was forcing it because he figured out how! So nice, we have a buelemic year and half old son...great! Luckily, after the 4th day he seemed to have forgotten about it...for now.
We had some photos done this month. Bebe has an outfit and rocking horse that both Scott & his dad had their pictures taken on around Eli's age, and I had a costume that was mine that wanted Evi's picture in. Evi unfortunately kissed the concrete with her nose at the zoo a couple of days before we did it though. Still they turned out cute.

Conversations with Evi:
when talking about how Eli sleeps in his bed by himself,
EVI: THAT'S BECAUSE ELI'S A BIG BOY

Mom: "My sweet, silly girl!"
EVI: "I'M NOT SILLY, I'M PRETTY"

after falling at the zoo, while sobbing,
EVI: "WHY DOES THE CONCRETE HAVE TO BE SO HARD?"

EVI: "I'M SAYING THE BAD WORD IN MY HEAD, AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT, SEE..." she looks me in the eye for a few seconds with a huge grin on her face
"I SAID IT IN MY HEAD AND YOU CAN'T HEAR IT!"
Mom:"what bad word?"
EVI::"I CAN'T SAY IT! IT'S A BAD WORD! IT'S THE ONE YOU SAY SOMETIMES"
(that list has several options)
Mom: "just whisper it in my ear"
EVI: whispers"OH MY GOD"
Mom: "yeah, let's just say that one in our heads"
That could have been so much worse!

Scooby-Dooby Doo!!!

I swear to you, we live with Scooby-Doo!! Eli tries to repeat everything, and it all comes out sounding like Scooby-Doo. Especially when he tried to say "where are you?" Imagine it, it's hilarious!

He also says "there it is" and pretty much calls everybody "daddy" He has gotten "momma" down a few times lately which is just so sweet.
He tries to sing the "hot dog" song at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too.

He answers "nuh'huh" to any question and waves his arm out in front of him like he does when his sister is in his face. Doesn't matter what you ask, the answer is "nuh'huh".

And according to certain people (and by certain people, I mean my family) he is a cry baby... And he is. And I blame his sister, not that she cries a lot (which now that I think about it, she kinda does...she's sensitive) It's that she has what he wants. He knows he's likely to get what he wants from her and possibly us, if he cries. And he wants everything she has and wants to do everything she does. And my theory is that Evi got everything she wanted and didn't have to share at 18months, so I usually make her let him see what ever the item is, and he usually looses interest in it. And she's usually a good sport about it. (of course, I use the word "usually" loosely all 3 times) Evi's a pretty good big sister! But in his defense, he is only a year and a half, and doesn't have many means of communicating. (speaking of crying, Evi is doing just that after her brother whacked her in the head with his monster school bus)

He loves his bath, that is, unless cousin Mila is in it. He ran to Gigi's bathroom excited to get in the bath, and when he saw Mila was already in it, he began saying "nuh-huh", waving his arm and running from the room. Too funny!

Oh yes, and he can open the front door! Damn handles instead of knobs! And of course, he runs straight for the street, giggling all the way.

Evi had her first "parentless" outing. She went to a movie for a friend's birthday with just the friend's parents. She was okay with it until they called on the way to get her to see if she wanted to spend the night. The look of panic in her eyes when I asked was evident. I don't know why I asked, other than pure entertainment value for me. So then after that, she was a little leery of getting in the car with them. But she did, and she had fun. But I was a mess knowing my baby was in someone else's car...

Evi is Miss 20 questions. Seriously, every answer just leads to a new question. And while I hate to squash her curiosity, I also grow very tired of ALL the questions. And some of them are just too deep:
"Where does God live?", "What's a soul?", and my all time fave, "What do they do with the poop after they clean the water?" (when trying to explain the stinky water plant we drive past)

And of course, there were pictures with Santa! Evi did better, she at least wasn't kicking and screaming this time! But after all the big talk about how she would stand next to him, she wouldn't do it, and Eli was untrusting of him too. So in the end, I had to sit with the kids and Santa just sat next us. By the time we left, Evi was talking to him though, she had to in order to tell him what she wanted, and she wasn't going to miss out on a present!

We spent a quick weekend in San Antonio with my family. On the way home, Santa was taking pictures in the airport. And Evi actually sat on his lap! As you can see in the pix, she was holding my hand the whole time, of course. But still, major improvement!!!

Christmas was a success. I went a little overboard, I can't help it. It's in my blood. I blame my mother! Not that I'm complaining, just blaming!
It took 5 different Christmas celebrations for Eli to finally get the hang of opening a gift and
knowing that there was something exciting inside it.


(By the way... All the pix in this post are from my sister & her husband. Thanks guys for some great shots of my kids! I had a hard time choosing!!!!)

M is for Mimic

Evi and I had a girls' night this month. We got dolled up (Evi wore her "high shoes," aka, her plastic play dress up shoes-luckily mommy packed another pair of shoes in anticipation of those hurting her feet, which they did!) We had noodles at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant "Lido's" and then it was off to see Shrek the Musical. She really seemed to enjoy it as she danced in her seat. But sadly it started about the time she's usually getting ready to go to bed, so about 20 minutes into the 2nd act, she fell asleep hard! The clapping, laughing and singing didn't bother her a bit. But she said she had a really good time even though she couldn't hang with the big dogs!

Evi had 2 more birthday parties this month too. One with her friends, a "tea party". It was cute, they all came dressed up and it was all girls. I kept miss counting how many would be there by 2, but luckily 2 girls were last minute sick, so we ended up with enough goody bags, thank goodness! Next time I'll make myself do 5 extra regardless!
I made rainbow cupcakes that were a hit! They looked pretty neat. I am a little proud of them, if I do say myself! We once again did a book exchange instead of gifts, which all the girls really enjoyed. Evi enjoyed it too as long as she didn't think about all the toys she was missing out on by not getting presents!
Her last and final celebration was a fun day Old MacDonald's farm in Houston with family and some close friends. And she raked it in gift wise on this one! Thanks everyone!

We spent a weekend with cousin Mila, who is technically 8 weeks younger, but she was showing him up! Poor Eli, once again, falling behind because he's a second child! Mila was spouting monkey and elephant sounds on demand, pointing out facial features. The only body part Eli could identify at this point was his weewee. "Eli, where's your weewee?" and immediately he looks down to between his legs. Bet'ya don't know that one yet Mila!
We also made a trip to Ren Fest in Houston. It was fun, as always, and spent WAY too much money, as always! Eli rode his first pony (in picture above) and LOVED it! And yes, that is a unicorn horn sticking out of Evi's head (her souvenir of choice). But what struck me the most that weekend is the fact that my son's head is still gigantic in comparison to Mila's! Seriously, it's like he's a pumpkin head and she's a pea! So totally not fair! (from a birthing standpoint!)

One of Eli's favorite things to do right now is say "ah-ah-ah-choo!!!" Fake sneeze, it's so cute. He does the build up and everything. While Evi cried everytime someone sneezed, Eli thinks it's hilarious.
He is all about imitating his sister. He likes to brush his teeth. But not only does he want a tooth brush, he wants to do all the other steps too, like put it under the water and have toothpaste put on it. God forbid you don't put toothpaste on it. He is trying to say "shew-wee" when he gets his diaper changed, but hasn't quite gotten the sounds right yet, just the inflection of his voice. Same with thank you.
He wants to sit in her booster seat at the table any time she's not in it. Usually she plays at the kitchen table if it's something she doesn't want her brother to interrupt, like Barbie, or coloring. But what is cute is that as soon as she's done, he's in her seat, picking up where she left off.


Conversations with Evi:

Evi wanted to play with her easybake oven one night when it was just too late to get it started and I told her no. So she went to her daddy,
EVI: DADDY, YOU NEED TO BE THE BIGGER BOSS AND LET ME PLAY WITH MY OVEN, BECAUSE YOU REALLY WANT COOKIES

Evi is 5!!!

Evi is 5!!!! My sweet baby girl is 5! She once again, gets to have several birthday celebrations. We went to Tampa for a week and she celebrated one night with her cousins Grace & Mya. After opening 2 presents from them, she asked why she only got 2. (just wait, there's a theme here) She celebrated again on the actual night of her birthday with just us, and after opening 4 gifts, she asked why she didn't get more!!!! From there we had a little talk about being greatful for what we have and what a lucky little girl she is to have all the toys she has. I told her that we needed to pick 5 things in her playroom to give to other kids who don't have as much and she tried to talk me down to 3! And then said she knew what 3 things she wanted to donate, but she couldn't find them! Turkey!
When we celebrated for the third time with Scott's family, she asked how many presents she was going to get. I said "it doesn't matter how many gifts you get, remember, so if you only get one present..." "I'll be happy" she said. So at least my talk got through a little! She still has her friend party and a party in Houston with my family to go.
Halloween this year fell on a Sunday, so living in the bible belt, they of course, moved Halloween to a Saturday. Evi ended up having 4 days of costumes: school Fall Festival, Pirate Princess; StoryBook Forest Trick-or-Treat, Cinderella; neighborhood Trick-or-Treat, Mulan (which everyone just thought she was a geisha, yes, I dress my 5 year old up as a Japanese prostitute, come on people!!); and finally a costume birthday party as Sleeping Beauty.
Eli was a dinosaur, and got the hang of trick-or-treating pretty quickly. He would walk up to the door and knock harder than Evi, and really wanted to go in when they opened the door. He wouldn't carry his bucket, but knew how to pick candy out the bowls when they let him choose.
His communication skills are getting better. When he's hungry, he beats on his chair, when the tv is off, he will bring you the remote. (much like his father, the tv always has to be on). He says "hot" and tries to sing with the ABC's song that's on the fridge. He was starting to say "daddy" pretty well. But while in Tampa starting referring to everyone as "nya-nya." No matter who he's talking to or looking for, he says the same thing. He says "meow" for the kitty, and pants like a dog for puppies. He came up with that on his own. And says "WOW" a lot. His great sleeping habits are starting to crumble a little. If he cries out in the night and I respond, he will not let me sit in his room, only stops crying if I lay him in my bed. Damn kids! Always little control freaks!

The week in Tampa was great, as always! The girls got along better than ever. Eli loved the beach. We spent 2 days at Sea World and a day at Busch Gardens thanks to a pass I have from work.
As you can see from the picture up top, Evi is finally not deathly afraid of large characters. After tears every time we've been Disney, she actually ASKED to take a picture with Shamu. When she asked, I moved quickly so she couldn't change her mind. Eli on the other hand was very excited to see the Count walk by. When he tried to tickle him, you could tell Eli wasn't sure of the situation, but at least he still laughed!
The roller coasters were AWESOME!! One of my favorites was the Manta, where you basically ride face down. It was a pretty cool sensation. We even convinced Evi to ride a coaster that did a loop. I had to turn to my top mothering skills of bribery to get her to do it. She kept saying no, so I asked, "what can I promise you to get you to ride this?" She said, "a toy...no a penny" (a flattened penny that we had been collecting every time we saw a machine anyway, and it only costs 50 cents) So I said, "OK! A penny it is" (sucker!) She rode with me, with Scott & Grace behind us. After you do the loop you go into a spiral and she shouts "I WENT UPSIDE DOWN, AND I LOVED IT!!!!"
Needless to say, they loved it and immediately wanted to do it again.

Caveman stage

September was a somewhat uneventful month. Lots of Frontier City roller coasters. We did the Great State Fair of Oklahoma with the unwashed masses. Just kidding, but there is some great people watching to do there. And the Indian Taco was YUMMY! And that is pretty much the whole reason we go, for the food. Now on to my children:

Eli can now remove his own diaper, letting him find his "friend" whenever he would like! So now we'll have to keep pants on him to challenge him. I did catch him trying to climb into his crib to get his Mickey the other day. It's only a matter of time until he figures out he can climb out of it. Great! He has, however, seemed to have found his voice in the last couple of weeks. I was beginning to worry that he may not ever have the chance to speak with his sister around, but I guess her being at school 3 days has let him discover how vocal he can be in her absence.

He is cutting 2 more teeth on top, so that will be 4 on top and 2 on bottom. And while Evi had a fever with every tooth, Eli just seems to not sleep well. But for the most part, he is still an excellent sleeper. Very easy to put down.

There are now some signs of intelligence too. He's getting better at the signing. And when I asked him to go get me a diaper, he went to the right place, brought me a toy instead of a diaper, but he was in the right place. Obviously the toys just distracted him.
And he is starting to understand more statements. He's also gotten "Dad-dee" down pretty good when looking for Scott. Other than that, he's pretty much at the caveman stage: pointing, grunting and growling.

Evi had her first dentist appointment. The dentist's office is right next to where she takes gymnastics, so I scheduled it for after her class. And that smarty pants noticed that I made a u-turn and was asking, "why did you turn around?", "where are we going?" I did not warn her in advance that she was seeing the dentist. So when we parked and I told her we were going, she immediately began crying. I, being the excellent mother that I am, pulled out "The Bribe". I told her if she could be a big girl, and let them look at and clean her teeth, when we to WalMart, she could have anything she wanted. And amazingly enough, she actually did pretty good. The hygienist was excellent with her and she let her clean her teeth and even let her use the vacuum in her mouth. I was shocked at that one. The doctor said that her teeth looked excellent. No cavities. YAY! She gave Evi gloves and a mask, so needless to say, we have been playing a lot of dentist lately. And she says exactly the same things to me that they said to her.

True to my word, she was able to pick out anything she wanted at WalMart. She went down every row, methodically, not wanting to make a rash choice. She had her eye on a few expensive things, but when she saw the "I can be a Dentist" Barbie she was sold. Luckily, it was actually cheaper than some of the other Barbies, and came with a chair and little girl doll all for $10 bucks!! I got lucky on that one!

Scott has expressed a couple of times recently how much he is enjoying his Mr. Mom roll. How he feels he missed out on stuff with Evi with having to work. I am so glad he has gotten to take this time off to enjoy our children. Because I know that soon, they won't be quite so cute!!! :) And I think he might actually be better at the stay-at-home thing than I am. I think he actually plays with the kids more and is more creative with them. And even more patient. Sadly, I feel like I am constantly saying, "just a minute" and getting them to self entertain so that I can do other things around the house. But he's gotten pretty descent at cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry too. I think overall, it's been a good experience for us all.


Conversations with Evi:

EVI: I DON'T HAVE ANY CAVITIES, YOU HAD CAVITIES MOM, THAT'S FROM TOO MUCH SUGAR, YOU SHOULD STOP THE TOO MUCH SUGAR


On the way to the library, we were discussing that we were going to get books for mom & dad too:
EVI: I REMEMBER WHEN DAD HAD THAT BOOK, HE READ IT ALL DAY. THAT WAS NOT MY BEST DAY!
(in Scott's defense, I too have completely ignored my children to read a book- 4 of them to be exact, hello Twilight!)

While fishing with her dad, Evi had a fish put up quite the fight when reeling it in
EVI: NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT, BABY!

Tickles my dog

August went by so fast!! Eli is walking/running everywhere. And is at that point that he wants to go, go, go, not be held. He has been busted several times jumping on the couch and in his crib. Does he hold on to anything to jump? NOOO! He enjoys the falling part too much! No fear! He is so funny to watch in the blow up bounce house because he just rolls his eyes upward and falls backward, loving every minute of it. If you are not right on top of him while on the playset, the next thing you know he's trying to slide down all by himself.

He has tinkled for the first time standing up, which was funny. It's like he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Having a son is giving me some insight into my husband's male psyche...Eli has found his weewee. It is obvious when he's found it in the tub because he just stares off into space with this blissful look on his face. Anytime the diaper's off, his hand goes right for it. And I put him in the back of the truck naked the other day and his weewee accidentally brushed the side. He turned and smiled at Scott and then continually bent his knees and leaned forward in order to make his weewee touch the side again and again. All three of us were cracking up watching him. (above pictures: Eli drowning himself with the water hose; Eli playing hide and seek; Evi playing golf in a princess dress and crown...gotta love her flare!)

He has learned the power of the cry...getting what he wants.(sometimes!) And has become pretty clingy to mom and dad when around other people. He goes down easily for naps and bedtime as long as he has his Mickey (mickey mouse head with blanket). And so far still sleeps in his own bed....

Which leads me to his sister. She has been sleeping with me (or Scott when I'm gone). And I have decided that I wasn't going to fight it. She'll sleep in her own bed before she goes off to college, right? I just keep talking up being a big girl and almost being 5. So maybe she'll just do it on her own like giving her nuby cups. Besides, she'll be shopping for her own wedding dress soon enough. (she's wearing mine in this picture)

I took her with me to my dentist appointment because she has one in September and thought she might want to see what it's all about. She was fine until the girl asked her to come out and push the button to take my picture (trying to get her out of the room for xrays). She stood up with her back plastered to the wall and refused. She ended up crying hysterically and I could not calm her down. There was office right across from the room I was in, so I just sat her in it and let her scream and cry until the girl was done. (she probably never moved so fast to take xrays in all her life!) After that, Evi finally calmed down. And of course when we got home she wanted to play dentist.
(this picture of Eli is in tribute to his name, "LoneStar", and yes, it was empty!)

Speaking of playing, anything she sees on tv, she wants to play. Right now we play a lot of "American's Got Talent" where she is interviewed by a judge (us) and then sings her heart out, (her lyrics are great) or dances. And then expects us to respond like the judges do on the show. Eli has joined her a few times, always wanting to be in on the action. (see videos below on the blog site) She also likes "Wipe Out" and "Minute to Win It".

This last week of August Evi started pre-school again. It is at the same church school program that she has gone to the last 2 years. Her classroom is 8 little girls!!! Can you imagine the drama, and nonstop talking those poor teachers will have to endure!? She's done well with drop off though. After our drama at the dentist the day before, I was a little worried about going to school. She was a little clingy but once she was in the room and saw her old friends, Julia and Lily Star, she was set. See 'ya mom, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out!

Sweet cousin Mila had her first birthday too. She basically schooled Eli on how to eat your first birthday cake! We drove down on Friday, which both kids did really well. Had a ball on Saturday at the party. Evi and cousin Lucas played HARD! Then the drive back on Sunday. Eli did not enjoy it so much. But we did stop again at Turner Falls, which both the kids really enjoyed. Seeing as it's only 1hour and 15minutes from our house, we'll have to do it more often.




Conversations with Evi:
To her Daddy:
EVI: DADDY'S KNOW THIS MUCH (holds her hands apart about the width of her body)
AND MOMMY'S KNOW THIS MUCH (holds her hands as far apart as she can)