Elliot Updates

Elliot is rocking and rolling on his way to two. He is at the stage where he picks up new words and phrases every day...his newest ones include "That way!" (to tell you where he wants to go), "Army guys" (in relation to Henry's toy soldiers), and "A-B" (said whenever he sees letters anywhere). His first full sentence the other week was "no bite mama". He has FINALLY started saying Henry's name (somewhat - still usually just "Hen") which makes Henry very happy. When Henry is doing something or eating something that Elliot also wants, he beats on his chest like a gorilla and yells "ME!!!!!!!!!!" He knows most of his colors and will point them out correctly when asked, but can only say "Blue", "black", "white", "brown" and "purple" so far.

Elliot is a touch possessive. He is NOT a fan of sharing. In fact, he likes to run into Henry's room and yell "MY ROOM!" at Henry - ha! Henry still adores Elliot and is very protective, but also very much enjoys teasing him, so sibling fighting is fairly common these days. Elliot's new favorite trick is pulling the kitchen stool around to turn on and off the lights. He thinks he is VERY funny when he turns off the lights when I am trying to cook dinner.

Elliot is great with the physical skills - easily goes all over the playground equipment and has learned to jump recently. He loves walking backwards. Still not the best sleeper - he usually wakes a touch before 6 each day (not terrible) but isn't a great napper. There are still mornings I need to go in and sleep on the floor of his room so he will go back to sleep (I never once had to do that with Henry!) and I still need to rock him to sleep most days for naps. He went through a glorious sleeping until 6:30 AM plus 2 hour nap stage a month ago, but alas it was short lived.

He doesn't eat. He is a tiny little guy and just doesn't seem to care much about food. He doesn't eat any bread, which I find bizarre. He will suck off whatever you put on the bread (butter, cream cheese, etc) but won't touch the actual bread. He also doesn't like chocolate milk, peanut butter, or nutella. He may not really be a Powell.

He loves books. Any books about trucks, cars or construction are still tops, but he also recently found Henry's old "Berenstein Bears" books and has become enamored of them. He also loves any toys more appropriate for a 7 year old boy. 2 year old toys are WAY too immature for him. At our weekly playgroup he only wants to hang out with Henry and his friends, and follows them around wherever they go.

He takes Music Together and My Gym class each week and loves both of them. He is a ham in music and gets up to dance in the middle of the circle. He has fotten great with the routines and knows exactly when it is time for the hello song, time to put instruments away, time to lay down for the lullaby, and time to sing good bye. In My Gym he runs around like a crazy man chasing all the balls. His favorite activities are the balance beam, and the trampoline (here relaxing on it with his friend Ben):

Only 2 more months until we officially enter the Terrible Twos!

Can you spot Henry?

I took Henry to see "Frozen" today for his day off of school. He loved it, but was even more excited by all the ads for the upcoming Lego movie...

Children's Museum

We continued our circuit of indoor winter activities with a trip to the Children's museum this afternoon. This was actually Elliot's first trip to the museum and he LOVED it! We had to split up for a while because the little kid room is only for ages 3 and under, but Henry liked going off and doing the "big kid" things with Mike while Elliot and I played with trains and cars.

Heat Wave

It was almost 40 degrees today - playgroud time! (your perspective on temperature tends to easily change in winter!)

Polar Vortex

Walks to school don't stop just because of the Polar Vortex

Snow!

We had a big snowstorm come through - right in time for Henry to go back to school. He started back up on Thursday - but it was touch and go - most other towns cancelled school that day. It was a messy drop off and pick up, but we lived (Elliot did NOT like it, though). Friday, school was cancelled. We got about a foot of snow and with the windchill it felt like 10 below. But after two weeks inside I was determined to get out of the house (one day back to school was not enough for me!) Luckily, Henry was invited to a playdate at his friend Penelope's house down the street, so off we went in the snow:

Elliot was not a fan of the sled. He wanted to amble about investigating the snow at a leisurly pace. But at 10 below I figured speed was of the essence.

Today was a lot warmer, so Henry and I met some friends for sledding!

Christmas 2013

It was a whirlwind Christmas! Henry was almost collapsing with anticipation this year. He literally Could.Not.Wait. He had three different advent calendars to change every day (a wooden block countdown, a felt hanging one Aunt Gina made us, and his favorite - a Lego Star Wars calendar that gave him a different mini Lego creation every day) and every morning of December he would leap out of bed to count down one more day until Christmas.

Elliot obviously didn't quite get it, but he loved our tree (well, he cried hysterically while we transported it home on the car roof, but once it was inside he enjoyed it), was remarkably well behaved about not pulling off ornaments or playing with the wrapped gifts under the tree, and was OBSESSED with our Elf on a Shelf. Any time he was upset about something all you had to do was ask "Elliot, where is Whizby today?" The tears would instantly stop and he would run to point out Whizby's new location (I am very sad Whizby had to return to the North Pole today!)

Christmas Eve we did our usually cookie decorating:

And new PJ opening:

Along with the boys opening their gifts from each other (Elliot "picked out" a Lego Star Wars thing for Henry, and Henry selected a train/construction vehicle set for Elliot):

Milk and cookies were left for Santa:

And after everyone was asleep Santa arrived:

It was a Christmas miracle in the morning when our early bird Elliot slept until 6:30 (!). We got him and went to wake Henry, who was sitting wide awake in bed. As we all walked out to see what Santa brought Henry was TOTALLY busted when he yelled out "Elliot, lets go look at the bus Santa brought you!" Ha! He had snuck out in the middle of the night to see what Santa had brought. Seeing as how I did the same thing nearly every Christmas of my youth, I couldn't fault him :)

The day was spent all in our PJs, eating various baked goods, and playing with new toys. Henry spent literally the ENTIRE DAY building all of his new Lego sets. We could barely get him to stop for lunch.

Happy Holidays to everyone!