My Eli-bud

We have had a terrific triumph in our house regarding this cute little boy . . . he's off the paci!!  Woohoo!  I was pretty amazed how easy it ended up being getting rid of it.  I thought it would be one long, painful, emotionally scarring process.  Instead I became much better about not letting him have it outside of his bed, and then he eventually stopped asking for it even at sleeping times.  No whining or fussing has occurred over it since!  I bagged up all the pacis (found 7 of them still lying around), and they are now goners!  So proud of my big boy!

Eli continues to be the best big brother!  Some moms told me that about this time was when their older child started having a harder time because they realized the baby was here to stay.  But we're still doing good in that department!  He's so protective of Clara.  When we go places like the library with lots of little kids around and one of them tries to peek at Clara in her carseat he quickly moves her shade down and blocks her from their view.  Clara loves watching Eli play, and it makes Eli really happy when I tell him that.  : )  He's always excited when she's awake.  And one day when I told him that Clara's getting bigger he clapped his hands together and said, "Yay!  She can play cars with me!"  : )

I wanted to help Eli learn his letters (as well as numbers, shapes, and colors), so I bought a pack of flash cards with letters on one side and pictures on the other.  I thought it would be a good thing to work on while I feed the baby.

Eli is really into the traffic lights.  He is so observant when we're driving, and loves to say "Green go!" or "Red stop!"  For a while now he's enjoyed "stopping" people while walking.  He'll run in front of you, put his hands up, and just stay that way until he moves out of the way.  He's a real-life stop light!  Yep, definitely drives me crazy much of the time.  : )

Eli's rarely fully dressed.  If we're home then some article of clothing is not on his body.

Washing the cars with Daddy!

Loves trying on Clara's hairbows!

We have a book we read called Silly Willy, where the title character puts his clothes on the wrong parts of his body to be silly.  One day I looked over and Eli had placed his pants on his head, just like Silly Willy.  : )

We had fun exploring a new (to us) park in Carmel.  Needless to say, it was a blast, and we will for sure be visiting it a lot more next year.

Kids are able to play in these little tunnels.

As the evening weather cooled down more and Clara became less fussy and better capable of handling being in her stroller, we started taking some walks after dinner.  So fun to do!  In this picture Daddy was helping Eli try to push the pedals with his feet.  For those walks David would push Eli's big wheel with his feet so Eli would move fast and far.  Eli LOVED it.  Now he always says, "Let's go on family walk!"

After only watching a few episodes of the show "Handy Manny," Eli took on the persona of Manny and started wearing his boots and hard hat everywhere.  Adding to this new interest, David bought Eli a children's tool set (a happenstance purchase while picking up something bought on Craigslist).  I never would have thought to buy Eli tools, but man alive have they been a favorite present to him!  Since he got his tool box about a week ago it has barely left his side.  It's gone to the park, to Target, and to bed with him for every quiet time and bedtime.  It's fun watching him enjoy something so much (especially something that's not cars!).

Eli mentions almost daily that it's almost his birthday.  : )  He loves talking about blowing out the candles, having a party, and having balloons.  He also enjoys practicing this song--

And here's the latest round of funny/common quotes from Eli--

"I wanna go to work and get money for my piggy bank."

"Let's do eskimos!" (Referring to eskimo kisses)

"Oh, no!  I can't reach my bowl!  What will I doooo??"  (bowl just a couple feet away from him)

"NO!  I don't wanna be a good boy!"

"I don't wanna be quiet!  I wanna be loud!"

(While trying to get something in the dark) "I need sunshine!"

"There's an airplane!  Grammie's in it!  Hi, Grammie!"

"Here we do" (instead of "here we are" or "here we go")

"Sorry, Mom!  Oh me, oh my"

"Do you hear that sound?" (He loves to ask me this when he's eating a crunchy food or making some kind of noise)

"You have to be careful with me!" (Says this in a rebuking tone when Dave or I accidentally hurt him a little while taking him out of the car, changing his diaper, etc.)

(Looked at a small clock and then said,) "Oh, I'm late again!"

"I didn't mean to scare you!" (Said this a lot after watching some Casper shows)

While driving in the car and Clara was crying: "Clara, you have to wait!'

While at Music Makers: "Please, can we sing "Child of God?"

After I tried a shirt on him and told him I thought it was too small, he responded, "It's not too small!  It's perfect!"

"There's an airplane!  It's not a shooting star!"'

After looking for the remote for a couple minutes, he wiped his forehead with his hand and said, "Phew!  That was hard work!"

(Picked up a dirty sock and sniffed it) "Yuck!  That smells awful!"

Love this boy so much.  Can't believe he's almost 3!