Tracing Letters

Eli has started to trace his letters. The other night I wrote the entire alphabet on the driveway with purple chalk as large as I possibly could stand. After I did that, Eli went over them with yellow chalk. He talks about the alphabet ALL DAY LONG. He sings the alphabet, plays with the alphabet, makes me sing the alphabet, we draw letters in the bathtub with soap, etc. It's no wonder he needs to move on and is starting to read some words, and spell out words with his letters. I think I am going to take his lead and start having little lessons a few times a week. Nothing major. Target sells these activity books in the dollar section for preschoolers.



These are really great books and they are only $1! I scooped up all the variety that they had. Some of them are probably out of his range right now. But they will be fun for him to have in the years to come. I haven't been able to find these anywhere else.

That's Not Right Mom

I was reading Eli his toy story book tonight at bedtime. It's a Toy Story Christmas story and he really likes it. I hate the book because it's a huge collection of stories and it's really heavy. The Toy Story one is the first story in the book so my right hand always starts to hurt before the left one....anyway. I was reading the line "even the green army men looked glum". Instead of saying glum, I replaced it with sad. As soon as I said it, Eli goes, "No mom, glum, they looked glum." Oh. You're right Eli. Smart kid.

WTH?

So Eli picked up a naughty phrase, but we have corrected him and instead he says "What the heck". (Just in case you were wondering, he was saying what the hell). Not sure how I feel about this, but it's not a bad word so I guess it could be worse. He has started to say it a lot the last couple of days and I hope he gets over it soon. This is just a reminder that our little boy is quite a sponge and we need to watch what we say around him. He will say "What the heck", and then look over at me and say "I can say that right, Mommy?". I try to tell him to just say what, or oh no instead but it's no use.

*Update--Thankfully he has stopped saying this over and over.

Auntie Anne's Pretzel Tour

We went on a tour of the pretzel shop at Quail Springs Mall. We all washed our hands and the manager showed us the process of making pretzels. We all put gloves on, even the kids. Eli didn't care for his too much but he kept them on nonetheless. Each kiddo took their turn and the whole time Eli kept saying "Can I make a pretzel now, is it my turn?". He was the last in line, haha. He really had fun when it was his turn. The manager was really nice too, helping all the kids. Mommy is a piggy so Eli got to roll out two pretzels :)



After they were done cooking (only 7 minutes for fresh, hot pretzels), he dipped them in butter and swished them in cinnamon sugar. They were sooo yummy. Eli licked the sugar off of his, maybe he took a bite or two.

Cow Appreciation Day

Eli and I went to Chick-fil-a with our friends for Cow Appreciation Day. If you dressed up like a cow you got a free entree. I made a t-shirt for e-mail with puffy paint and got him a cow bell. I turned a headband into horns with some chenille stems. He had a lot of fun dressing up and ringing his cow bell. Our friends were dressed up cute too. There was a surprising amount of people dressed up. Maybe I'll do it next year too :)


Here's the shirt I made for Eli

Toy Dialogue

Eli was playing with his large Rex dinosaur and another large unnamed dinosaur and wearing Daddy's flip flops. He took the flip flops off and put them on Rex. Rex preceded to say "I dont want to wear flip flops". Eli said "Yes you do. Okay you don't have to wear flip flops".

Last week he was playing with his barn and animals and singing Old MacDonald. As he finished the chorus, he says (as the piggy) "Wow Farmer, that was a great song!". And then he speaks for the farmer and says "Thank You Piggy". That was hilarious.

I'm going to try capturing more of these funny made up dialogues between Eli and his toys. He has me cracking up most days and I want to remember this imagination stage.

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. We went to my neighbor's house on Sunday and enjoyed some BBQ. Sunday night we watched fireworks from our driveway for the first time this summer. Eli thought they were really cool and he wasn't really phased by the loud noise.

It's been really hot here this summer, forecast is 100 everyday (at least) for the next 10 days. When we went outside to watch the fireworks we were surprised at how nice it felt outside. We found out a few minutes later why, there was a storm rolling in. We had some big rain drops for about 15 minutes, enough for us to take cover.

Eli really enjoyed throwing the snappers. I call them poppers and Eli calls them pops. We went through two boxes on Sunday and that was nothing. The next morning we went to Dunkin' Donuts and on the way home picked up 10 more boxes of snappers and Eli used up four more boxes Monday night. There were a ton of fireworks on both Sunday and Monday night. It's so nice to just watch the show from our driveway and not have to go anywhere.

Eli really loved the "pops" and if they didn't pop he would step on them and smash them!

Week 1 of Potty Training

This is Eli's proud face after going pee pee.

Well we've definitely slowed down on the potty training. Eli didn't go on the potty at all today. After giving it a try, I just don't think he's quite there yet. I'm okay with putting him on there occasionally and we will go from there. I'm not disappointed, I didn't have high hopes. I just thought he was telling me all the signs but he's missing a big one….the ability to tell me he has to go (you know, before he has an accident). I realize it's early on, but it never happened once. So I think we'll just try again next month.

Day 3 and 4 of Potty Training

I have to say I'm really thrilled with how the potty training is going! Eli went pee pee a few times yesterday and had a couple accidents. Today he went on the potty all morning and didn't have an accident until around 3:00. He didn't nap today so I didn't push the issue too hard this afternoon. He did go once before bed tonight for Daddy :). He's got the hang of making himself go when he sits down. He still hasn't been able to tell me when he's about to go, so I really have to bug him every 20 minutes or so. He definitely shows some reluctance each time we have to make a trip to the bathroom. I've been offering him some M&M's for trying and a few for going. Sometimes he'll go without though.

So all and all, I'm excited. He went a total of 5 times today on the potty! He's also taking his diaper off (when he wears them) the moment he pees so he's at least recognizing now that he's wet and he doesn't like it. As soon as he woke up this morning "Mommy can I wear undies?". And earlier today he asked me if he was wearing underwear (he wasn't). I think he wanted to know if it was safe to poop :)

He likes to help me flush the toilet after I dump his potty out. He asked me "Can we put it in the big toilet?". So cute. I love my big boy.