Saturday, December 20, 2014

My Baby is 2

What is it about a baby turning two that is so sad?  Of course it's wonderful at the same time but still.  It's hard to shake the sadness of a baby becoming a full-on toddler/preschooler.  Turning two in our house does call for getting out the 2T suit.  It was an awesome hand-me-down we scored years ago.  And it fit!  The pants were a little big but it worked alright.
Here's Nate in the same suit:
It's hard to believe he's not that little 2 year-old anymore.
Back to the present:
Elijah had a nice little birthday.  We started the day off at church.  Then we had dinner, presents and cake.  
Here was the table for dinner:
I thought it was cute how Elizabeth copied the cover of his favorite book and then taped it to the chandelier (more on that book in a minute).
He seemed to like his presents:
 
He got a lot of books this year (he's the 4th child--he really doesn't need any toys).
He didn't seem to mind, though:
Natalie made him this cute worksheet:
Hugs for sister:
This plasma car we got him was a hit, too.
Check out that face:
 Here was his cake:
Eli LOVES Elephant and Piggie books and his favorite book is Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems.  I love it when he says, "NOOOOOO!" with me on the page when Gerald drops his ice cream.

We just love our little Eli.  He has added so much love and happiness to our family.  He makes everyone feel better with his chubby smiles and hugs.  

He can be a bit of a troublemaker these days--there's no question about that.  One of his favorite things to do is to push our dining chairs around the kitchen, getting into whatever he wants on the counters or in the drawers.  He also loves to experiment with his food and drinks--dumping, mixing, smearing, etc.  
I took this one after he dumped a bunch of cream of wheat all over himself:
Note to self: don't give Eli cream of wheat.  Not so fun to clean up.
Because of all of this messiness with food, we're having a tough time at dinner with Eli.  He's not always the most fun to eat with.  He whines a lot, refuses to sit in his chair, and doesn't eat much.  We probably need to crack down on that better.  

There are some things he does like to eat, though.  He still loves yogurt and cheese.  He loves quesadillas, bananas, apples and oranges.  He also loves smoothies, broccoli, and pasta.  

Elijah is still not much of a talker and says "uh" most of the time.  He is learning more words every day, though.  Some of his new ones are: "owie", "juice", and "cheese."  He can say a lot of animal sounds, too, and then calls the animals by those sounds.  One day we were driving somewhere and this exchange happened:
Eli: Ma, baa! Ma, baa! Ma, baa!
Me (finally responding): Oh, did you see a ball?
Eli: No, baa!
Me: Oh you mean a sheep. Did you see a sheep?
Eli: Uh. (translation: yes)
You see, even though Eli refuses to say a lot of words, he still wants to communicate a lot of things and tell me stories.  It's pretty funny.  I think one day he'll realize it's a lot easier to use words.  That kid is smart, though.  One of his favorite things to do right now is have me draw different letters for him.  So, even though he still refuses to call Nate anything but "uh", he does know a bunch of his letters.  :)

Eli also loves for us to sing to him.  He won't sing but he loves to do the actions to songs that have them.  His favorite song right now is The Wise Man/Foolish Man.  He also loves Jingle Bells, especially the "ha ha ha" part.  

He is a great snuggler and has the most delicious cheeks.  He loves having lotion rubbed on him.  He has to be allowed to get into the car on a certain side and to push the button to close/open the garage.  He hates burgers, fries, nuggets, basically anything found at a fast food restaurant--except soda.  He looks so cute in his snow clothes:
We love Eli!