Last week we had a pretty "average" week as far as activities: outside time at park and yard/drive way, chiropractor visit, etc. We also had our monthly play date and attended Mallory's 3rd birthday party. There were also some new activities we took part in. I FINALLY started a yoga class last week that meets twice a week. I have been told a lot that I should do yoga to help my back, posture & flexibility but never actually took a real class. My chiropractor recommended yoga, too, so I finally made the commitment. The local community center offers yoga at a great price and it is really good so far. Very excited about it!! Okay, on to pictures:
Eli enjoys coloring (or "colors" as he says) on the large floor mat. He's much more coordinated these days and can almost make scribbles that resemble shapes! I make shapes, letters & numbers each time we play with the crayons and he does awesome at identifying them:
One new activity was that daddy brought out the antique video games of Ms. Pac Man, Pole Position, and a few others (all on the same joy stick that they sold a few years ago in the stores). Eli was very enthralled by Ms. Pac Man in particular. Watch out....future gamer in the works (Uncle Chris would be proud :):
Eli continues to enjoy trying on any shoes he can find. Here he is wearing daddy's shoe:
We had a couple of rainy days this week including some storms. Before the rain came on I took Eli out on our porch and talked to him about the clouds, thunder, and lightening. He was VERY interested in it and kept saying "tunder?", "raining?", "cowds?". I remember my dad enjoying watching storms roll in (and sometimes DURING) out on the deck and I always thought he was crazy. Here's Eli playing with the "gumbella" in the house (bad luck, I know):
Eli has an Elmo toy that I had downstairs and while down there one day he brought it up and has played with it all week! Here he is in his Elmo p.j.'s and his Elmo toy car:
Another new activity is that we finally put up Eli's $2 garage sale swing! While it is a short swing (due to our "short" trees), Eli enjoys himself nonetheless:
Eli won't wear his OWN shades, but loves to try on mama's!:
Aunt Sarah & Aunt Stephanie bought Eli a sun shade to go on the wagon that Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris bought. We put it on and took it out for a spin....yay for shade!:
My cousin Emily's little girl Mallory turned 3 this weekend and we went to their house for a cook out. They have really large trees in their yard and therefore have a really BIG/TALL swing:
Mallory's sister, Chloe, enjoyed the party in her exersaucer:
Eli checking out Mallory's lute:
Have to stick out your tongue to hula hoop ya know!:
This was too cute. Mallory got a rockin' wagon from her grandma and Eli just hopped on the back of it for a ride with Mallory:
As you can imagine, Eli has beat up his legs quite a bit lately with all his tumbles and falls outside. The "ouchie" on his right knee he has re-opened twice so it's having a hard time healing. Many more to come I'm sure!!:
Grandma Bidney thought it would funny to help Eli watch cartoons in the laundry basket. I guess he enjoyed it!:
This week is my last week of school and the last week of my current job. I have the whole week off next week and then start my new position on June 1st. I am not sure what my schedule will be yet as it will depend on the families/kids I am assigned and what their needs are. I will still work 20 hours but my schedule will be changing every couple of months as I get new cases. I think the flexibility will be nice and not having an "office" to go into (I will do all my case notes at home) but there will be more driving. So, we'll see how it goes! In addition, for the first and last couple of months of the 2009-2010 school year I will give some students in the district I work in now an assessment (pre/post test) for the school-based program I CURRENTLY work for. They are establishing a control group through the assessment and wanted someone who knew the test, knew the district, and the program. I was actually approached by my supervisor and asked if I was interested and then met with the vice president. Should be a good opportunity and might be a way to keep my "foot in the door" for future openings within the program. ALSO, if all this works out, it would help keep our family planning on "schedule"! Wish me luck!
Friday is our 5th wedding anniversary (wow!) but we plan to celebrate next weekend due to having family in town for a variety of birthdays (Aunt Susie, Sarah, & Laura). I will definitely dedicate a post to our anniversary so look out for that :) I love you sweetie!!
We have beautiful weather here this week so we will continue to spend most of our days outside. Yay to nice spring weather that isn't too hot! Have a great week everyone!
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:
We had another park playdate last week and I got a few fun snapshots from the occasion:
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:
Today was a great day....made that way by my wonderful hubby & son! Daddy & Eli started the day with buying me Starbucks and donuts (yummy!) and I got to open my fun cards & gift. Eli's card said "Mom, one thing I've learned from you is that 'When the going gets tough...the tough call Mom! Thanks for always being there!" and it played NKOTB "Hangin' Tough" play as you open it. This was kinda a joke as I was obsessed with NKOTB in high school. My gift was along the same "joke" lines as I got this:
No, not a costume from "Star Wars", a "Slanket" (close cousin of the "Snugglie")!! Ever since I saw this lovely invention, I have been hinting around that I wanted one. I have ALWAYS hated not being able to sit on the couch and be on the computer or read a book without having my arms cold. Eric has heard me say numerous times "This would be the perfect time to have a Snugglie!" so he thought this would be a great Mother's Day gift. He said he looked online and found that the "Slanket" is actually better made and larger so he ordered mine from QVC. Yay! My wish has been granted!
Later today we had my mom, aunt & uncle, Eric's parents, and Eric's brother Blake over for a cook out. It was a good time with yummy food and endless entertainment from Eli. He loved getting "chip" from Uncle Blake, "juice" from Great-Aunt Char, and laughing like a crazy kid with Grandma Clarkson. He really is starting to be quite the ham when a lot of people are around and TOTALLY knows when he is the center of attention. It's too funny. Here's a pic of the "moms" (& Eli):
What else can I say about Mother's Day? Last Mother's Day I posted a poem about being a mother that I re-read today and it is still such a great description of what what it means to be a mother. Here it is again for those who missed it last year:
Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or memorized the words to a lullaby I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations. Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night. Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a child sleep. Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping child just because I didn't want to put him down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom. Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry child. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy. Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.
I am so blessed to have a son like Eli who everyday warms my heart with his smiles, laughter, kisses, hugs and overall tenderness. All my stress from "grown up" matters at work melt away when I am greeted at the top of the stairs with a huge smile and a "MAMA!!" followed by an immediate hug, kiss and run to the couch with a "milk?" for our re-connecting time. So many things have changed since last Mother's Day (I'm working, he's mobile, he's talking, etc.), but my love for our little guy continues to grow & grow each day (how is that possible??!) and each stage is more fun (& challenging in it's own way!) than the last. I'm excited to see the next Mother's Day and where we are as a family then (maybe #2 on the way???). How did I get so lucky!! I love you Eli for being my son and I love you, Eric, for making me a mommy!
Mother's Day 2009
P.S. Come back later this week for our regular weekly post!
....while Eric danced with his mommy....
....and at the end of the night, kissed some more!
