It's rather strange to realize I now have a "preschooler" (though he is not in preschool yet). Eli has really grown, developed, and progressed in the past year. We got rid of the paci, the highchair (about a month ago), and the crib (a couple weeks ago), so in many ways he's really been feeling like a "big kid" to us. He's grown in leaps and bounds in his speech. He's talking non-stop now in long, full sentences, and we understand him almost all of the time. He's also a little parrot, and loves to repeat what we say.
He had his wellness check-up last week, along with Clara's. He had a cold and was not feeling so well, and the appointment was AWFUL. He did NOT want anyone to touch him, did NOT want to get weighed and measured (usually he loves doing that), thought the world ended when I had to take off his pants for them to check him, and was basically just a nightmare through the entire thing. Phew! (Thank goodness he didn't have to get a shot, too!) The dr. was pleased with his size, as he's gained 5 pounds in the last year and is almost average height. Here are his stats:
Weight: 29 lbs. (25th%)
Height: 36 3/4 in. (40th%)
I've been realizing lately that Eli's quite a sentimental little boy. He gets quite attached to things and hates parting with things that have been with him. Even though he was excited to get his new toddler bed, he was pretty sad to give up the crib. He hugged it on its way to Clara's room. : ) If he ever sees me trying to toss a toy or book that's broken or ripped, he freaks out and stops me in advance. He looks in the trash can daily and "rescues" items that he deems are too important to be thrown away. He loves to use all 4 of his favorite baby blankets with him to sleep every night.
As I said, Eli just recently moved from his crib to a toddler bed. It was a pretty unfortunate change, since he was doing so well in his crib and never tried climbing out of it. Some nights after he's been put to bed he'll come out once or twice right away, but most of the time he stays there well. A couple times he's come into our room in the middle of the night, but I've just put him back in his bed. The problems lie in him waking up earlier than he did before, and also not having any "quiet time," (which was the one thing keeping me sane and happy through the day.) I need to work on a tactic to keep him in his room happily on his own. I bought a stop light/go light timer, and since we've started using it he hasn't gotten up at all, and has been sleeping longer in the mornings again. Since Eli's transition, he's also become a HUGE fan of nightlights. : )
Here's some info on Eli and a list of some of his 'favorites.'--
Clothing size: 24 months/2T in tops, 2T in jammies, and 3T in pants (they are too big, but 2T are pretty short on him.)
Diapering/Potty: Wearing size 5 diapers. Hates getting diaper changes. Has no interest in potty-training, so I'll wait til after David's busy season ends in March to work on incentives for him to use the toilet.
Favorites
Food: Most any bread or crackers
Drink: Chocolate milk
Show: Doesn't have a favorite, happy with most anything. Enjoys Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Thomas the Train.
Book: He enjoys all the books we read, but Curious George and his new set of Train Man, Fire Engine Man, and Digger Man are favorites.
Clothing item: Dumper jammies
Candy: Suckers and M&Ms
Dessert: Cookies
Song: "I am a Child of God" and "Jingle Bells"
Toy: Firetrucks, his mailman car, and toolbox
Place to go: Grandparent's houses and Music Makers class
He has become enthralled with snow plows! Talks about them all the time.
Personality-wise, Eli is usually a very sweet, fun, helpful, loving boy. He thrives on one-on-one quality interaction. He doesn't do great playing on his own, so he loves being played with. He's quite observant and curious, and loves to ask questions to "figure things out." He's very stubborn, bossy, not very flexible, and trying to find the balance of wanting to be independent and wanting Mom to do everything for him. : )
Since the first day with baby sister at home, Eli has been super loving and protective. He's always sweet with her and is happy to have her around. He likes to "tickle" her cheek and talk "baby talk" to her. : )
Eli is quite a snuggly little boy. He LOVES having me hold him, and always wishes I could just sit and cuddle with him while he watches his shows. We give lots of hugs and kisses, and he still loves to be rocked in his chair while singing "I'm a Child of God." He's definitely a "mama's boy" and prefers my help over David's.
Other things Eli loves to do--
- Play peek-a-boo
- Help in the kitchen--cooking, cleaning, emptying the dishwasher
- "Roughhousing"--being thrown or spun around, riding on Daddy's back playing 'ostrich' or Mommy's 'wobbly horsey.'
- Making forts to play under
- Acting out what he sees in his shows. For example, when watching Pingu, he loves to walk around the house like a penguin and do different things the penguins do.
- Paint
- Play with bubbles and playdough
- Playing board games (though he won't at all follow the rules yet)
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| Wanted to wear my apron for a couple days, and danced around calling himself a "princess." |
We've had our fill of poor behavior lately. Eli has thrown some massive tantrums. I haven't figured out how to do time-out successfully. When I've actually tried putting him in time-out he bawls like crazy and keeps trying to run to me (he HATES feeling like he's being banished). Or if he's just mad he'll throw or kick things around him, so I struggle coming up with a time-out spot where he can stay put and not cause harm to himself or anything around him. Hmm. Generally what I do is hold him through a fit and talk to him about his unacceptable behavior and what I expect of him. I get sooo much whining and fussing from him as well, which drives me plum-crazy. I'm trying to help him to express his wants and needs with language instead of whining. It ain't easy! Lately he's developed the bad habit of "whistling" when he wants our attention but we don't respond right away. It was kind of cute and funny at first, but definitely something I'm working on getting rid of!
I've talked in the past about Eli's pickiness with food. Earlier this year he was doing so much better and trying (and liking) lots of different fruits. Currently, though, he may be in his most picky phase yet. I can't even get him to TRY foods, even ones he used to like, such as spaghetti, chili, peas, corn, etc. It's pretty bad. He hasn't been wanting to eat fruits at all again, so I keep buying fruit (and sometimes veggie if it's on sale) pouches since it's the only way he gets those things in his body. Ugh, if only all the necessary vitamins came in bread/cracker/cereal form, we'd be good to go!
Eli's getting the hang of learning his numbers, shapes, and colors. (Letters are slowly starting to peak his interest. Right now he thinks everything starts with 'E.' : ) He can count from 1-10. He knows the colors red, orange, yellow, blue, black, and green. Shapes he knows are circle, triangle, star, and heart. Obviously we'll be working really hard in the next several months to help solidify his knowledge in these areas. While he may not be a genius in his numbers yet, he can sure name every type of "things that go" imaginable!
Turning 3 is a big deal at church because then you can move from Nursery to Sunbeams! I can NOT believe Eli will start Sunbeams in a couple weeks!! He will be one of the very youngest, since it's all kids who turned 3 in that year, and he was at the end of the year. There will be two big Sunbeam classes. He'll have an excellent teacher and good classmates. It will be a lot different going from 2 hours of playing with toys to having to sit in a chair and listen a whole lot. Hopefully he'll be a good boy and a joy to his teacher!
We attempted a little in-home photo shoot with Eli. Boy was it crazy hard! He absolutely did NOT want to sit and pose for pictures! Even being bribed with candy didn't help much...
This picture was a result of me asking if he'd like to hold his favorite stuffed animal, Spot. Not exactly what I had in mind . . .
We sure love our Eli to pieces!
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