Changes

Sad to say, we are no longer doing The Little Gym, even though I bragged about it so much here and here. The session has ended, and we are not re-enrolling for the coming semester. About halfway through last semester, Eli decided he was afraid of The Little Gym. He stared whining when we walked in the door, and by the time was walked into the classroom he was in full-blown panic. Crying, clinging to me, asking to go home. On some days I could get him to participate, but he obviously was not enthralled with the gym anymore, so why spend the money and put him through that every week?

Instead, we are doing a music class that was organized by one of our friends. Most of Eli's little friends are in the class, it is a small group, and there is lots of singing, clapping, jumping, and playing instruments. Right up Eli's alley. Plus, it is MUCH cheaper than The Little Gym, and if Eli stops enjoying it, we can stop the class right away. I think (hope) that he will enjoy it, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

It was bound to happen sometime

Eli injured himself climbing today. If you are really interested, you can see pictures on Yahoo photos. He turned over the trashcan in his room and was using that to reach onto his dresser to get his piggy bank. Instead of getting the bank, he got a fat lip. And a bruised cheek. And a guilt-stricken mommy.

Because he was tired of eating gruel

The most popular phrase in our house these days (besides “No” and “Listen Raffi”) is “Eli do it.” He has all of a sudden become very independent and wants to do EVERYTHING himself, especially if it is something he sees mommy and daddy doing. Today, he got a piece of cheese out of the fridge. He tried so hard to get the plastic off himself, but eventually gave it to me to help him. I took it off only part of the way so that he could learn how to do it himself. He grabbed the partially unwrapped piece of cheese and ran into the living room. A minute later I heard him coughing, at which point I realized that I sent my toddler off with a plastic sheet and right now he could be holding it over his nose and suffocating. Luckily this was not the case. The cheese was sitting on the coffee table with several bites taken out of it, still half-wrapped in the plastic… which also had several bites taken out of it. In fact, plastic has become part of his daily diet, because at least once a day I will find him sitting in front of the open fridge door (after just 3 weeks, he figured out how to undo the childproof lock) trying to bite his way though a piece of plastic wrapped Kraft cheese or a cheese stick. And he usually succeeds in getting at least one bite. I really don’t think that plastic is on the FDA food pyramid.

So long, farewell, aufwiedersein, goodbye

I guess that I’ve put it off long enough. We finally took away Eli’s pacifier. At his 18-month appointment, I asked the pediatrician by what age we should take it away. Dr. Boudreau just stared at me for a minute, and then said, “Now would be a good age for that.” I have a feeling he was thinking that we should have taken it away a long time ago. But Eli was just so attached to his binkie that I was not ready to deal with the separation. I really just try to avoid confrontation any time I can, because, let’s face it, Eli is a toddler and we sometimes have whole days that are nothing but confrontation. So I set the deadline that when Eli turned 2, the binkie went bye-bye.

January 8th, the day after he turned 2, Eli took his first nap without a pacifier. OK, I cheated because he fell asleep in the car, so he really did not even realize that his binkie was missing. That night, when we got to the point in his bedtime routine that he would normally get his pacifier, we did not give it to him… and amazingly his head did not explode! I’m not sure he even noticed. In fact, he has only mentioned the binkie once since then.

It has not been smooth sailing completely, because the binkie was his sleep cue. All of the progress that we made transitioning him to a twin bed went right out the window. He goes down for naps relatively easily, but will only sleep for an hour or so. Bedtime is a struggle. He often will not get to sleep until well after 10:00, and then is up early in the morning. I have considered getting rid of his nap altogether just to get him to sleep at night. Without a nap he is actually fine until 4- or 5-o’clock, but after that he is just grumpy. Hopefully all it will take is some time, because I really need his naps, even if it is only for an hour.

Moving up in the world

Just after Christmas, be bought Eli a little wooden stool. Now the reason that we bought the stool was so that Eli could reach he sink to wash his hands and brush his teeth. It has instead become an extension of his arms. Eli carries that stool all around the house getting into all sorts of previously unreachable places. Often I will be doing something (like making dinner) and I will hear a thunk beside me, then Eli’s head pops into view and he says, “Mommy doing?” I can’t wait until he figures out that he can use the stool to climb to even higher places, like the bookshelves in the living room.

Finding creative uses for household electronics

Chris went into the living room one day to find that Eli had pulled the front off of our wedding video. The next day, we got the VCR out of the attic so that we could transfer our videos to DVDs before he destroyed anything else. Unfortunately, Eli had broken the VCR before it went into the attic in the first place, so it spent a few days on the kitchen table before we threw it away. One day, Eli was sitting at the table in front of the VCR, and he said, “Oh no! Carrot go?” which translates to, “Mom, I put my carrot in the VCR and now I can’t get it out. Can you help me?” So I went and stuck my hand in the VCR in search of the lost carrot. The carrot I did not find. I did, however, find Eli’s toothbrush. The most amusing part of the story is that I had spent a good 30 minutes looking for his toothbrush that morning, and I had already checked the VCR. Because if I were Eli, I would have put the toothbrush in there, too.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Kitchen decorations for the family party













Presents!!!













A keyboard! It goes nicely with the drum set that he got for Christmas.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Angie just earned themselves a bunch of very noisy toys for their kids.








The cake.

Can you believe that this only took me 8 hours to decorate? My hand hurts just remembering it.









Eli hid every time we sang Happy Birthday to him. Either he is being selectively shy, or he REALLY does not like our singing.











Eli's friend party at Going Bonkers













Pizza, friends, and fun













A kid can never have too many presents

Eli's new room

I mentioned in an earlier post that Eli has left behind his crib and made the move to a twin bed. The transition was not an easy one, but as not as painful as I had expected. We prepared for the move by taking off one side of Eli’s crib and putting the twin sheets on the crib mattress. This gave him the security of still being in the familiar crib and the freedom that his new big boy bed would allow. We also lengthened his bedtime routine to give him sufficient time to calm down before going to sleep. He gets a long bath (with lots of play time), several stories, and a couple of lullabies before finally settling into bed.

Even with all of these changes, the first week and a half was pretty rough. Did I mention that he also learned to open doors about the same time that we switched him to a new bed? That made the game even more fun. We would put him in bed, tuck him in, and leave the room each night. A minute later, we could hear Eli fiddling with the doorknob. So one of us would go in, tell him to get back in bed, and leave the room. Next thing we know, Eli is at the door again. This would go for, oh, 2 hours. Eli was getting to sleep at nearly 11:00. Then I would be up half the night, worrying that Eli would get up in the middle of the night and do something dangerous, like diving off the back of the couch, and I would not hear him. Naps were just as bad, so Eli was really sleep deprived.

And then one day, he decided that he was tired of the game. Or maybe he was just tired in general. Now he may get up once or twice before finally settling in, but even that is a rarity. It is nice that Eli can get himself out of bed in the mornings, because more often than not he just crawls into bed with us, and I can stay under the covers where it is warm for a few more minutes. Even better, if Eli has a rough night, I no longer have to sleep on the floor. I can just climb into bed with him.

Here are some pictures of his new furniture (including the train table that he got for Christmas) and the blanket and curtains that I made. He ended up with a baseball-themed room after we found some cute stuff at a garage sale in Jefferson City, and the Cardinals blanket is to balance out the Cubs pillows that his Aunt Sarah made him. They are cute (and VERY comfortable), but I am from St. Louis, and having Cubs paraphernalia and no Cardinals stuff is just sacrilegious.

Crime and punishment

I have once again been outsmarted by my toddler. At work today Eli kept throwing his toys. Because he can very easily start setting a bad example for the other kids, I am a little stricter there than I am at home. He gets no warnings, but is sent straight to time-out. It did not take very long before Eli figured out that he could do what he wanted as long as he was willing to deal with the consequences. Soon he was throwing toys, and then immediately putting himself in time-out. Once he just pretended to throw a toy and gave himself a punishment.

What is worse is that he is pretty cute in time-out. He just sits and faces the wall. He (usually) doesn't cry, or get upset, or beg to get up. Just sits there. Occasionally he will let out a really loud sigh, to let us know that he is bored. If he is really bored, he will make popping sounds with his mouth. Like Donkey in Shrek 2 when they are traveling to Far Far Away. I have to leave the room to keep from laughing, because laughing will just encourage him. How can I punish him when really I just find him amusing.

I really wish that I could find the instruction manual that came with him.