Things we're working on

Five minutes ago, Elliott and I were watching Bob the builder on the couch, when out of nowhere, he smacked me in the forehead. He's been a little more aggressive lately, taking other kids toys and grabbing them in the back of the head to get to whatever they are working with. He likes to watch the adult in charge, too, so he can see just what he can get away with.

So after the forehead smacking, he got a firm talking to and lost his show. When he got upset about losing his tv show, I walked away from him acting out. He came over to me and said, "You watch Bob the Builder, Mommy?" So I told him "No, we are not watching shows because Elliott is being mean. Mommy is not happy, Elliott."

To which he replied, "Where'd Mommy's happy go?"

Things I love...

Elliott sings himself to sleep. Tonight's concert has included "Do you know the muffin man", "The wheels on the bus", and now "Old MacDonald". All of these are sung loud enough that we can hear all of the words from upstairs, even though his door is shut.

Also, forgive me for being crass, but my friend Lizann insisted I share this with the blog...

This morning Elliott and I were playing with his new train set, and he (ahem) passed a little gas. Being the paranoid mother of a potty-training two year old, I start questioning him:

Me: "Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

Ell: "NO."

Me: "Are you sure?"

Ell: "No. I burped?"

Me: "You burped?"

Ell: "Pants burped."

You're welcome, and please forgive me. Thanks.

Birthday party!

Are you bummed you couldn't attend Elliott's second birthday party? Well, bum no more. I have some treats for you guys, and aside from missing out on the cake and fajitas, it's almost like you were there with us!

First off, we all know this wouldn't be my blog if there weren't a picture of an adorable little boy with no pants on. So here he is. He got a skuut balance bike (and I realize the bike is put together wrong. I had to flip the frame to accommodate some small little legs) on Thursday morning. It's still a little tough for him to maneuver, but look how proud he is!

I dug out his birthday banner, the birthday table cloth that grandma made (although it is pulled up in this picture to avoid staining it with pumpkin oatmeal), and his birthday crown. He LOATHES the birthday crown. See his little hand? He is going to yank it off his head for the fourth photo attempt in a row. Booyah, Elliott. I got a picture anyway.

I decided since he has really been into trains lately to have a train themed party. I found the most adorable cake pan that made individual train car cakes, and it was a pain in the neck to decorate. My initial plan was to make one long, elaborate train cake. Three cars into decorating, I made a sheet cake and decorated it like a track with some grass around it and plopped six of the cars on top. I don't have time for that mess right now.

We ended up having a party for our friends since Elliott's friends are really more like people who fight over the same toys. We had fajitas, chips and dip, cake, punch, and frosty cold beverages :)

Elliott cleaned up. This is a toy that holds four wooden balls, and when you pound on them, they roll down the wooden tracks and get spit out another side. He loved it. He also got some new books, a wooden tool set, and a soccer goal!

Elliott also got a wooden train set, and he really liked it. He provided the party entertainment, and we watched him play for most of the night. The cars to the train are magnetic, and he had a little trouble with matching poles and then getting the whole train to stay on the track. One of our friends, Adam, kindly gave Elliott a lesson on how magnets work, and then later another friend told us that the freight car is carrying "soda pop". Love that, don't you?

Another awesome thing to know? When the train cars fell off the track or came apart, Elliott said "Aw, snap!" When he managed to put them together and get them successfully on the track, he'd say "Teamwork!"

He knew how to blow out candles this year, which made it all the more fun. He saw his cake when he got up from his nap, and could not understand why he couldn't eat his "birthday" right then and there. "Wanna eat my birthday! I get it. No mommy. I get it." I'm very lucky that my reflexes were awake today, otherwise he would have succeeded in pulling the cake on top of his head.

Happy birthday (party) E Monster.

Happy birthday to El

Two years ago, on this day, Elliott made me a mother and David a father. He has really enjoyed having a whole day all about himself. We took cupcakes to preschool, pizza for dinner, and opened presents. He still is convinced that he's one and a half instead of two. Anything in the mail that isn't bill-sized is a PRESENT for EYYITT! Anyway, here is a video of me letting him break his Aunt Sissa's birthday rules (Whoops! Sorry Aunt Sissa!) and open presents early.

Also, he opened Grandma's present yesterday:

And here's a video of him playing with his new Duplos.

We're having a little get together for him on Saturday, and he'll get his last present (a wooden Thomas the Tank Engine train set) then. I will do my best to get good pictures of that too. And again, I apologize that my child seemingly never wears pants. I promise he does own them, and occasionally he even puts them on. Just not if a camera is around, I guess.

Deep, healing breaths

Today, featuring Nicki and Elliott

6:00- stumble out of bed, and quickly try to prepare myself for the day before I have to wake E.

6:40- wake up Elliott, who stumbles out of bed and wraps his arms and legs around me in the biggest morning hug ever

6:45- fight with Elliott over him taking off his pajamas and diaper so that I can send him to the bathroom

6:50- After an enthusiastic "I did it", try (unsuccessfully) to get Elliott to finish, because if he doesn't then I will be changing his underwear and starting a load of laundry before leaving the house

6:55- Decide that if he won't finish, he won't get to put on the bottom half of his outfit until he does. Elliott decides that the world is crumbling immediately afterward.

6:57- Decide to leave the hollering lump of child in the bathroom floor and take myself (and the bottom half of Elliott's outfit) upstairs to get coffee, breakfast, and lunches together.

7:00- Feed pumpkin oatmeal to a half naked little boy. He gleefully finishes all of it, and then dumps a glass of milk on the table. "Wha happen a milk?" Proceed to clean up milk, and then deposit said half naked little boy on the potty seat so we can finally go to work.

7:01- Half naked little boy proudly proclaims "He did it!" Which he did. Proceed to dress him and try to shuffle us out the door.

7:10- Remember he needs to have his medicine. And he wants to carry his bunch box (not a typo). Almost leave the house without his coat. When he has to put down the bunch box to put on his coat, he falls apart again.

7:12- Take deep breaths before scraping the mess of a child off the floor, stuff him into a coat, carry him to the car and proceed to work.

7:55- Finally get to work. Haul Elliott to his class, where he proceeds to sit just outside of the doorway and look at me like "What are you going to do now?" Luckily his saint of a preschool teacher interceded for me. I love her.

Entire day at school and work goes by.

4:01- Walk in Elliott's class and am greeted with a hug that involves both arms and legs. Notice that he is miraculously in the same underwear I sent him to school in! Smell something weird.

4:02- Go change Elliott's clothes.

4:10- Go to pick up David to enjoy this gorgeous weather we are having. Make sure a backup change of clothes is in my bag

4:20- Wait outside of parking garage for David. Avoid weird people and hide from the panhandlers. Explain what a motorized wheelchair is.

4:25- Notice a ladybug lands in Elliott's hair. This means good luck! Carefully remove it and let it crawl across my hands so that Elliott can see. Explain that he must be gentle, but he can touch it.

4:27- Casually remove the squished ladybug from Elliott's hand and wonder how much bad luck that means. "Wha happen a lady bug?"

4:30-6:15- Have a wonderful meal with David and Elliott in the sunshine. Decide to press my luck and meet some friends afterward.

6:25-7:30- Unsuccessfully try to explain personal boundaries, why Elliott can't climb on other people, why we can't jump on the booth in the restaurant, and eventually hand him off to David.

Once in David's lap, he is still and quiet for 10 minutes. David hands him back. He immediately resumes acting like a chimpanzee. Decide to go home.

8:00- Agree with Elliott that I'm tired too, and we are going straight home to go to bed.

8:05- Brush Elliott's teeth and ruin his life by doing so. Not that I did anything unusual or painful. He just didn't want his teeth brushed, and I didn't let him win that one.

8:06- Take lots of deep breaths. Finish getting him ready and put him in bed.

8:08- In between dramatic sobs, hear "I wanna go night night, Mommy". After telling him, "Then go night night", hear him actually say "No, I wanna go night night with Mommy" and decide that he's sad, and tired, and my baby. I'm not sure how long he will actually want me to lay down with him while he settles down. So I tucked him in, snuggled in beside him, and watched him settle himself down and fall asleep. And then I (almost) forgot about the rest of that other stuff.

The end.

No Jack in the Box

So, Elliott received a Jack in the Box at Christmas, and he has a hot/cold kind of relationship with it. He likes the music and singing pop goes the weasel, and if he has enough warning he thinks it's funny to watch the clown pop up. But there are many times that the clown sneaks up on him, and he nearly jumps out of his skin. Being the horrible woman that I am, I think that this is hilarious. But now that Ell has gotten a bit older, he can hold his own against his cruel-natured mother.

Snow days

A few weeks ago we had several inches of snow dumped on us, and Elliott's preschool was cancelled, which meant we both got the day off. Now, this guy is pretty busy these days, and I hae to be pretty creative to keep him entertained. I drug out some butcher paper and we started coloring. Actually, when I say "we started coloring", I actually mean I was ordered to draw fish and pumpkins and trucks and Elliott would grab a crayon and "color" them, meaning he would scribble all over it before I even finished. Once I learned how this worked it was fine, but was pretty frustrating at first.

Anyway, we colored two three foot long pieces of butcher paper, front and back, and I decided to bow out after a while. I was bored and running out of things to draw. I put my crayons away and told Elliott, "Mommy is all done coloring, but you can keep coloring as long as you want to." Elliott picked up the crayon I had put away, handed it back to me, and said "No. You not finished. Draw a fish." This video is how I finally negotiated my way out of it.