My Big Boy

As I get closer and closer to D-day for baby Owen, I find myself getting more and more sentimental about my current "only" baby.  Since I know that once Owen makes his appearance it will be harder to find time to write down things I don't want to forget (I mean, lets be real, I haven't updated this blog in months and I only have one child).  So here is a post about Eli mainly so I can look back at this years from now and become overly emotional about how much my boy has grown.

Loving swinging on the big swings now instead of the baby ones

Eli is a big 2 year old.  I am unsure of his current weight but in December he weighed 34 lbs.  I imagine he is about 35 lbs.  He has really leaned out in the last 6 months and his chubby baby face has nearly disappeared.  His daycare class consists of two boys that are a year older than him, but Eli is still the largest in his class.  ;-)

Wrestling at daycare with Foster and Gavin (both are 3 about to turn 4)

His favorite activity is wrestling or playing "hi-ya" as he calls it which consists of fighting you with a sword or sword-like object.  He truly believes that when JT or Brent (Mark's friend) come to visit they are only there to chase him around the house and wrestle on the ground with him.  There actually is probably more truth to this assumption than we know. 

The downfall to having an open closet, Eli has full access to all of our shoes!

Eli is completely potty trained and has been for a few months.  He still wears a pull up at night and nap time but I am not too worried about that.  If he is awake he will use the potty.  The most challenging part of parenthood so far was potty training Eli.  It was a battle of the wills and there were a few days where I happily dropped him off at daycare for Ms. Di to handle him.  It was the combination of Eli's new sense of independence, his experimentation with testing the limits, my pregnancy hormones and genetically gifted short temper (thanks Dad!) and the potty training rolled together that made the experience challenging.  He did want to be good and potty like a big boy but it completely irritated the heck out of him that we would ask him relentlessly throughout the day if he had to go potty.  Now that I know I can trust him to tell me I hardly ever ask him if he has to go potty because I know undoubtedly his response will be "NO!". 

Daylight savings time has really messed with Eli's sleeping: "Mommy it not wake time, it sleep time, the sun is NOT up!!"

Eli has also transitioned into a big boy bed and moved into his new big boy room across the hall from his nursery.  It was a step I had been dreading since he has always been such a good crib sleeper; never even once attempting to escape.  I had contemplated just leaving him there until I actually needed the crib for Owen (we keep the baby in our room in a pack n play for about the first 4 months) but decided against it since I didn't want to stir up any more jealousy with the baby taking his room or his bed at some point.  After such a challenging potty training experience, I was floored by how well he took to his bed and how well he stays in his bed.  Do not get me wrong, we still experience nights where he is up and running around in his room but these are not very common. 

Helping with the landscaping projects we have going on right now

I have recently got into the habit of crawling into bed with him at night to read him a book and lay with him until he falls asleep.  I started it one night when I was completely exhausted and the idea of just laying in bed with him for a bit sounded way better than having to fight him in going to bed and having to actually get ready for bed myself.  I know that this is not the best habit to form right before a new baby is about to rock our whole bedtime routine so I do not do it EVERY night but have done it several times in the past 2 weeks.  It is actually the highlight of my day.  I have found that with no distractions around and his mind coming to a rest he will spill everything that is going through that little mind of his.  I hear about things that happened during his day and things he learned at school.  For example, the other night he looked into my eyes and told me my eyes were blue and I said "That's right!  What color are your eyes?"  And he pointed his fingers at the corner of his eyes and squeezed them shut as he said "My eyes are brown!".  Knowing that I had not had this conversation with Eli previously I knew they had talked about eye color at class that day.  He also surprises me by putting his fingers in the shape of a triangle and telling me that it is a "triangle" or doing the same thing with a circle.  It amazes me how quickly he is retaining information recently.

Snuggling and goofing off in Mommy's bed

My absolute FAVORITE times with Eli are when he suddenly becomes sweet and loving for no reason or without prompt.  He is a very sweet boy but would rather spend the day wrestling you then giving you hugs and kisses.  If I am sitting on the floor on occassion he will tell me he is going to make me a princess and starts to play with my hair.  He has even been known to run up the stairs to bring down a hair brush to brush my hair.  He then stands in front of me and swirls my hair in his hands to get it exactly where he wants it and when he is finished he stands back and says "Done!  All pretty!"  I absolutely melt.  Another reason I love laying in bed with him is that he will often roll over and wrap his arms around my neck and eskimo kiss me (where he rubs his face and nose on mine without actually kissing).  I have the hardest time not kissing his face while he does this but if I do he says "NO Mommy!  No kissing!"  and he starts over.  Last night I didn't get in bed with him and had actually scolded him earlier for hitting me with one of his toys on accident.  He was tired and had cried when I took away the toy that he had hit me with but as I was kissing him good night he grabbed around my neck and said "I sorry mommy for hurting you.  I love you."  I had completely forgot about the incident prior to him uttering those sweet words to me and it broke my heart that he was still thinking about my reaction when he hit me. 

Playing his guitar with Papaw

I planned for this post to be a simple recap of things I want to remember and as I have started to type more and more things come flowing out.  I will finish with these last few things as I am pretty sure I could go on for days about each of the little things he says to me.  Eli is still playing with his train board he got for Christmas and really likes Thomas the train.  Occassionally when we are quiet we can hear the train toot its horn as it is going across Buford highway.  When he hears this he responds the same way every time gasped by surprise as he whispers: "You hear that?!??  Thomas!!".  I love it that he thinks Thomas is always coming by and toots his horn to say hello. 

Lastly Eli has started taking a gymnastics class for 30 minutes once a week.  He absolutley loves it even though he is often the only boy.  My only wish was that it was an hour instead of 30 minutes because dragging him out of there at the end has been quite a chore.  I believe he would live in the foam pit if we allowed him to.  :-)

Watching Uncle Chase play baseball

So that is Eli right now, I am soaking in my one on one time with him and praying that this transition to big brother goes smoothly.