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.

Day 2 of Potty Training

This morning didn't start out so well. Not by any fault of Eli, but by Mommy. It was a late night with Eli and I ended up falling asleep before I could finish the laundry. So when he woke up, I didnt have any training pants ready and waiting. Then last night, I realized I only had one diaper left for the morning so we also had to make a trip to the store.

Now at this point you might be thinking how incredibly unorganized I am. Don't worry, so am I. I usually have my diapers shipped to me from Amazon and I also have a back up pack in case I run out. Well when the diapers ship over the weekend they take longer therefore I ran out of my back up. When I got home from the store, (with the diapers) my diapers from Amazon were waiting on the front porch :). Oh well. I needed more training pants anyway cause 7 pairs are just not enough! Now we 13 pairs. And I wont have to do any laundry tonight.

So after Eli woke up from his nap, we had dinner and he was playing at the table with playdough (wearing a diaper). I was finishing up the dishes when he came over to me with his diaper. He has been so helpful* lately with changing his diaper for me. So I figured we'd get in at least a few hours of wearing training pants so the whole day was not a loss. We put on the Old MacDonald ones. He requested them. I asked him if he had to go pee pee, and when he said no I reminded him that he was not wearing a diaper. We went into the bathroom to at least try about every 20-30 mins. We were approaching almost two hours without any pee pee so I knew an accident would happen soon if we didn't do it.

I've been luring him in there on and off with the promise of M&M's. This may backfire but for now I'm using this method. While he was sitting on the potty, I went to the kitchen to get some candy and when I came back he had a weird look on his face. I sat on the toilet across from him and hear his tinkeling! I screamed "you're going pee pee Eli". I was so excited!!! I almost missed his first time going. He started after I left. We called Daddy in to see and made a big tada out of it. We poured the pee pee in the big potty and Eli got to flush it down. I'm so encouraged for Day 3!!



*Insert sarcasm here

Day 1 of Potty Training

I placed Eli in front of the TV cause I thought that might keep him still but towards the end of the day I moved him back to the bathroom

Seven accidents and no pee pee on the potty on Day 1 of potty training.  Looks like I'll be doing laundry tonight cause Eli blew through all seven pairs of training pants, haha. I guess I'll buy more.  On the positive side, he's learned how to pull down his pants and he's beginning to run to the bathroom as soon as he starts to go, although it's always been too late.  I'm still encouraged for tomorrow!  I think we might have some progress, at least some pee pee on the potty hopefully!