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