Thanks for checking back for this week's (I guess last week's) update!
Here are a few tidbits from the week:
1) Eli goes through phases of favorites when it comes to his books. He will like certain books for a week or so and want to hear them several times a day. Right now he loves Little Golden Books in particular "Bow Wow Meow", "Color Kittens", and a book called "Dancing Duck".
2) Eli says "ok", "come on" and "hold on" ALL THE TIME. When you have a toddler, you start to realize what phrases/words you use a lot because they mimic them back to you!
3) Eli is doing better with cleaning up his toys....especially in the bath tub. He also seems to have taken after me with his organization. He will take everything out from under neath our bathroom sink and then put it all back in different places in his own way. Too cute.
4) Eli is really into playing/exploring everyday things around the house. He will play with a mat, sack, chair, for quite awhile and actually seems to be ignoring a lot of his toys lately!
5) All balls are footballs to Eli no matter how many times we try to correct him.....maybe he'll play football when he's older!
6) Eli knows his primary colors really well! Here are 2 videos of him identifying colors (ignore him playing with himself.....boys!):
7) Eli definitely loves the outdoors and always asks "otside?" while holding the door knob to one of the doors.
8) He also enjoys running errands (for the most part) and pretty much anytime we tell him we need to put on his shoes. He then says "shoes?" and goes to sit down to wait for them to be put on and I then inform him what we are doing (going to Target, Hy-Vee, etc. or outside), how we will get there (I say we are driving in the car and he says "drive?" "car?"), what we will do when we get there, and how he WILL stay in the cart and eat snacks to help mommy/daddy shop. This pre-teaching really helps him and I know he understands what we say to him. Even though he can't SAY everything he wants to, he certainly understands and I think he likes feeling included and informed about what is going on. After all, he is part of the family, too! I also notice a difference for the times I forget to pre-teach or am in a hurry as he seems more grouchy and defient.
9) Much to my dismay, Eli has picked up on and enjoys saying "no, no, no!" over and over again to almost everything. He even says it when he doesn't mean it. For example, I'll say "Eli, do you want milk?" Eli says, "No.....okay?", and then he asks for milk. Right now it's not really a defience thing as he seems to just like saying it. Don't get me wrong, he does say it when he doesn't want to do something, but since he also says it when he doesn't mean it, I know it's not really defience. Plus he is still easily distractable and can be re-directed for the most part. BUT, he is ALSO starting to do things such as hitting and throwing things and laughing. Once again, he isn't hitting/throwing things out of anger most of the time (although he will if he starts to have a tantrum, which don't happen often), he thinks it is funny and gets excited to the point where he will hit over and over or throw things at us or the cats and our response of a stern voice saying "Eli, hitting/throwing ____ hurts us/cats and gives us ouchies.....no hitting!" and then trying to re-direct. But there are times (more as of recent) where you cannot easily re-direct him and he just gets a little crazy! Pretty much all you can do is NOT LAUGH as much as you want to but continue to say not to hit/throw things with a stern voice and get away from him and re-direct. He also does this with things such us standing on the couch and chair. We are still trying to do positive/gentle discipline but some times it is trying! I just remember that spanking/swatting may stop the behavior at the moment, but it also is TEACHING that hitting is okay which is often what we are trying to get him to stop doing. AND the goal of discipline is to TEACH appropriate behavior so teaching them what to do instead of what not to do is better overall. So, on we go through this toddler journey!! Oh, and Dr. Sears has some great tips for parenting toddlers. Here are a few:
8 Tools for Toddler Discipline
9 Developmental Reasons Why Toddlers Can Be Difficult to Discipline
13 Ways to Encourage Toddler Good Behavior
10) These last few weeks I can really tell that Eli understands what we say to him. We can ask him to do a variety of things and he will do them such as throwing things in the trash, picking something up, going to a certain room, preparing to leave the house, brushing his teeth, drinking his water, etc.
Now for fun pictures:
Remember that I said Eli likes to play under our sink? He found my tampons and thought they were very fun to throw around:
Here are a few tidbits from the week:
1) Eli goes through phases of favorites when it comes to his books. He will like certain books for a week or so and want to hear them several times a day. Right now he loves Little Golden Books in particular "Bow Wow Meow", "Color Kittens", and a book called "Dancing Duck".
2) Eli says "ok", "come on" and "hold on" ALL THE TIME. When you have a toddler, you start to realize what phrases/words you use a lot because they mimic them back to you!
3) Eli is doing better with cleaning up his toys....especially in the bath tub. He also seems to have taken after me with his organization. He will take everything out from under neath our bathroom sink and then put it all back in different places in his own way. Too cute.
4) Eli is really into playing/exploring everyday things around the house. He will play with a mat, sack, chair, for quite awhile and actually seems to be ignoring a lot of his toys lately!
5) All balls are footballs to Eli no matter how many times we try to correct him.....maybe he'll play football when he's older!
6) Eli knows his primary colors really well! Here are 2 videos of him identifying colors (ignore him playing with himself.....boys!):
7) Eli definitely loves the outdoors and always asks "otside?" while holding the door knob to one of the doors.
8) He also enjoys running errands (for the most part) and pretty much anytime we tell him we need to put on his shoes. He then says "shoes?" and goes to sit down to wait for them to be put on and I then inform him what we are doing (going to Target, Hy-Vee, etc. or outside), how we will get there (I say we are driving in the car and he says "drive?" "car?"), what we will do when we get there, and how he WILL stay in the cart and eat snacks to help mommy/daddy shop. This pre-teaching really helps him and I know he understands what we say to him. Even though he can't SAY everything he wants to, he certainly understands and I think he likes feeling included and informed about what is going on. After all, he is part of the family, too! I also notice a difference for the times I forget to pre-teach or am in a hurry as he seems more grouchy and defient.
9) Much to my dismay, Eli has picked up on and enjoys saying "no, no, no!" over and over again to almost everything. He even says it when he doesn't mean it. For example, I'll say "Eli, do you want milk?" Eli says, "No.....okay?", and then he asks for milk. Right now it's not really a defience thing as he seems to just like saying it. Don't get me wrong, he does say it when he doesn't want to do something, but since he also says it when he doesn't mean it, I know it's not really defience. Plus he is still easily distractable and can be re-directed for the most part. BUT, he is ALSO starting to do things such as hitting and throwing things and laughing. Once again, he isn't hitting/throwing things out of anger most of the time (although he will if he starts to have a tantrum, which don't happen often), he thinks it is funny and gets excited to the point where he will hit over and over or throw things at us or the cats and our response of a stern voice saying "Eli, hitting/throwing ____ hurts us/cats and gives us ouchies.....no hitting!" and then trying to re-direct. But there are times (more as of recent) where you cannot easily re-direct him and he just gets a little crazy! Pretty much all you can do is NOT LAUGH as much as you want to but continue to say not to hit/throw things with a stern voice and get away from him and re-direct. He also does this with things such us standing on the couch and chair. We are still trying to do positive/gentle discipline but some times it is trying! I just remember that spanking/swatting may stop the behavior at the moment, but it also is TEACHING that hitting is okay which is often what we are trying to get him to stop doing. AND the goal of discipline is to TEACH appropriate behavior so teaching them what to do instead of what not to do is better overall. So, on we go through this toddler journey!! Oh, and Dr. Sears has some great tips for parenting toddlers. Here are a few:
8 Tools for Toddler Discipline
9 Developmental Reasons Why Toddlers Can Be Difficult to Discipline
13 Ways to Encourage Toddler Good Behavior
10) These last few weeks I can really tell that Eli understands what we say to him. We can ask him to do a variety of things and he will do them such as throwing things in the trash, picking something up, going to a certain room, preparing to leave the house, brushing his teeth, drinking his water, etc.
Now for fun pictures:
Remember that I said Eli likes to play under our sink? He found my tampons and thought they were very fun to throw around:
We had another park playdate last week and I got a few fun snapshots from the occasion:
Eli & Lily:
Eli & Lily:
Callie & Brody swinging:
The boys hanging out sharing the balls with each other:
Here we are, at the park, and for some reason the push toy was one of the most played with toys! Go figure!:
We brought our bubbles that has 3 wands and DOESN'T SPILL so that was also a hit with the kiddos. Here's Jack & Kennison:
Sidewalk chalk.....always a favorite!:
Eli also loves this toy. Any place we go that has this musical push toy, he immediatley wants to play with it:
Climbing UP the slide!:
Eli only took one ride in the swing and it lasted about 2 minutes. Too many other things to do!:
Jack practicing to be a big brother (his brother is due on MY birthday!):
Here is Eli sitting on the rocking chair I brought back from Iowa. He likes it but thinks it's fun to stand on so it often has to be put away :(
Eli continues to improve with his eating skills with a spoon/fork. Here he is enjoying his snack of apples and yogurt:
Eli enjoys sitting on the ottoman part of the rocker in his room. He pulls it to the middle of the room and reads books to himself:
Eli decided one day to try on my shoes. Thankfully they were flats and he did really well walking around in them. Daddy's shoes are too big and heavy for him to successfully walk in them right now. I think we need to make a trip to the thrift store to buy some grown up clothes for dress up!:
And an Eli post wouldn't be complete without a dance video:
1 comment:
Nice moves buddy! That cloud question was hilarious, you could tell he was really thinking hard! It'll be really fun to see you all again in about a week!
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