This weekend- In pictures

We started out our Halloween weekend in festive (handmade) undies, since Elliott is currently learning how to use the potty. His preschool teacher is on board, we have an Elmo Potty DVD, and little potties scattered throughout the house. Also, when you let your kid play with water in the sink, it's pretty hard to tell if he's had an accident when he dribbles the water all over himself and the rest of the kitchen. Just in case you didn't know that already.

Then, after church this morning, we finally drug out the stuff to carve a pumpkin. Elliott helped, and he was really, really excited about it.

He danced, he jumped, and he used his little wooden spoon to scoop in the pumpkin. He would NOT touch the guts this year. Maybe I traumatized him by letting him eat all of those seeds last year.

This year Elliott was the Cat in the Hat. I made this costume, and I made it entirely too large. But it was cozy and fleece and he seemed to really dig it.

Well, he did like it- until it was time to leave and David and I were scrambling around like crazy people. Setting out candy, spray painting our hair blue (yes, blue), dressing Elliott up, then forgetting all the things we needed to leave the house, and finally just grabbing two to-go cups of spiked cider for Mommy and Daddy to warm up on this chilly Halloween. He lost it for just a little while.

Then he got over it. Maybe he understood that eventually we would take him to get lots and lots of candy.

See those tears? Halloween is hard on a little guy.

It took a couple of houses, but eventually we had established a rhythm. He wouldn't say trick-or-treat, but he did say thank you and "Haween!"

Thankfully, we managed to get a lady to take our picture while we were out and about. Our hair was a little dark to show off the blue all that well, but we had a good time taking Elliott around our little neighborhood. And we really like to "check all his candy", too. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

The many faces of 5pm

5pm, post preschool. Elliott has discovered this book recently, which he loves because it has BIG TRUCKS and QUACK QUACKS and Meow....'s in it, and thus he can read it to me.

I can't get enough of this face...

Or this one, which is usually given if I mention something he'd really like to have or do, like go outside or crackers.

He isn't shy in front of a camera, and likes to get up in the lens. I think he's trying to see what I'm looking at in there.

These blue eyes get him lots of attention, sweets, and balloons from the people at the grocery stores and banks.

And this is usually when 5pm becomes 5:30, and he get cranky and cantankerous.

This is what mischief looks like

I know better than to leave Elliott unattended. I know not to leave hot beverages within his reach or candles going. I know to keep the gates up and my laptop closed. And now, I know to put the lids on candles when I'm finished burning them, because he will pinch off the top of the burned wick and smear it all over the place, leaving him looking like he ate charcoal for dinner and the chair he was standing on smudged with carbon.

Doesn't he look guilty here? That's because he is.

Don't worry. It obviously didn't slow him down at all. I don't think anything could.

whoops.

Our bathtub has been giving me problems. Out of nowhere it stopped draining last week, leaving the bath water standing until the next morning. We keep a little catcher over the drain because my hair has a tendency to collect, but I think at some point David got tired of cleaning it out that he removed it.

I bought a bottle of Drano Pro and emptied it into the drain, and although it took a while, it seemed to eventually loosen whatever was stuck in there enough to let the bath water slowly drain out. But after a couple of days the water was still standing, so I bought another bottle of Drano, figuring that two bottles of harsh chemicals should surely work.

Yesterday after my shower there was still about three inches of water in the tub. My landlord was coming over to replace the air filter on our furnace, so I asked him if he could bring a snake or something to help me fix the blocked drain. I was pretty exasperated, because we have had a few issues with the apartment, like a dishwasher that doesn't do a great job on the dishes and a dryer that doesn't vent out properly, making our bottom level damp and sticky. After a little while though, his head popped up over the banister smiling, and he dangled a small baby washcloth in his hand.

"This was in your drain. I think that was the problem."

I feel dumb.

Round here

I'm home sick with a sick Elliott, so I figured I ought to put up some new videos and pictures while we're waiting for him to feel better.

Last night we read this picture book while waiting for Daddy to come home. I got it on camera, because he is trying hard to say all of these words. Watching it today, however, showed me that it may not be terribly clear to anyone else. The "Eat" at the end is as clear as a bell though.

Today we had to stay home from sch

ool because Elliott is running a fever, and he had a banana for his morning snack. I LOVE the way that he says "banana".

These were taken a few weeks ago when it was still sunny and hot here. I took Elliott to Fuller Park Pool, where he learned how to be brave enough to jump in the pool with no one to catch him. Luckily for everyone, he was only in the kiddie end, where the water was about 8 inches deep. Whew.

Considering myself lucky

Elliott just finished dinner, and I took him downstairs to change his diaper afterwards and didn't put his outfit back on. We went upstairs and I resumed cooking dinner, and turned around to find my baby naked as the day he was born, and the diaper laying in the floor beside him. He looked partly proud of his accomplishment, and partly a little nervous about the response I was going to have.

Luckily it was only number 1, so I didn't have any response at all other than to put another diaper on him pronto. Also, he says diaper like this : Bah-per. And when he goes down the stairs, he counts them by saying, Bah...? Boh...? Hai...?

16 months

So, toddlers keep you busy! In fact, Elliott and I are going to start at a new preschool next week because I am pretty sure that he is ready for some new areas to explore. He's growing quickly and trying very hard to prove that he is NOT a baby and can do all things himself. And if he can't, get ready for him to launch that thing across the living room, followed by "Naaaaooooo!!"

So. Yeah. Other goings on have been hiding things from Elliott now that he can climb on our furniture, rescuing crayons from his mouth, hiding the mops and brooms, and trying to convince him to eat something besides crackers and fruit. He's almost mastered stairs, which is terrifying, and he's starting to say lots of words, which are becoming harder and harder to say no to.

Mo? (More)

Peees (Please)

No

Tish (Kiss) - He uses this to manipulate more time from bedtime. It works.

EEEEAAAATTT (Eat, Hungry, Breakfast, Snack)

Teey! (Kitty!)

Tees (Teeth)

Hasses (Glasses)

Iss (fish)

OH? (phone, or any object that could resemble a phone)

Bup (drink, cup)

Baaee (bye)

He can also wink (except he uses both eyes), dance, sing along with Itsy Bitsy Spider, and destroy the shelf that houses his toys in seconds flat. He finally likes to go on the slide at the park, and LOVES other kids. He likes most people, but especially of the younger and older variety, since he gets the most attention from them. He flirts with ladies when we go out to dinner, says "Haaiiii" to burly men with big beards or bald heads, and chases little girls while chattering and trying to imitate their conversations.

It's fun around here, but also challenging, and tiring, and filled with head scratching as we try to figure out Elliott's frustrations and how to get him to stop climbing the walls.