New skills

E requested a "jeddy sanwhi" (jelly sandwich) for lunch today and ate most of it. He washed it down with a cup of water.

In a cup without a top.

In the house.

And, my floor stayed dry.

After lunch, I helped my little boy down from his highchair and we set off to climb the stairs for nap. As I was wondering how the back of his shorts was the only thing that got wet during lunch, I noticed he was counting as we climbed.

I didn't really pay attention until he got to 5 because, well, he's been counting to 5 for awhile.

When he got to 7 (for the first time!) I was fully focused on what he was doing, no longer on his dampness.

He continued on to 8, 9, and 10. I wanted to cheer but I held back. And he continued.

11, 12, 13,14, 15.

He counted to 15!

It was very nonchalant, he was climbing the stairs on all fours and counting to himself.

The Mav heard it all from the office at the top of the stairs. I'm glad he was there to witness it; I don't know if he would have believed it otherwise.

 

23 months old

 

 

 

A Taste of Summer

 

 

It's been about 2 weeks since the Taste of Champaign, a yearly weekend-long food and music festival in the park around the corner from us, but I wanted to at least post some pictures since this was our last one. E had a good time eating pizza and trying to jump in one of the inflatable bounce houses. He also enjoyed the water spray set up to help mitigate the extreme temps.

Difficult

It's been over a week since my last post and I had every intention of spending my evening updating you with the recent events in our lives. It's been a busy, fun, and demanding week and a half.

Today was difficult though and I don't have the energy to catalog our comings and goings. Instead, here's a little story.

The diaper wars have begun anew. The combination of a raging diaper rash and a toddler on the verge of two sparked a mighty battle this afternoon. E refused to lie down to have his diaper changed and my attempts to force the issue were overturned (he's unfathomably strong and I'm trying to protect the 10 stitches that I got in exchange for a mole on my side).

I took toys away. It didn't phase the little boy.

I sat him on the floor and instructed him to stay there, looking at the wall until he was ready to get his diaper changed.

He sat.

and sat. and sat. and sat.

He cheerily called out "hi" repeatedly. He tried to eat his socks.

I removed his socks.

5 more minutes pass.

He sticks one of his big toes in his mouth and tells me "eat tootsie".

It was very difficult not to laugh.

Happy Father's Day!

They are two of a kind, the big one and the little one. Everyone comments on their physical likeness; E resembles his father more every day.

My handsome boys are father and son in more than just appearance. We've been so fortunate to have a lifestyle, so far, that provides the Mav and his small son with lots of quality time together. For over a year, the Mav has had first shift, wake up to 8 am, while I work. He handles week day breakfasts. Breakfast foods are the only ones E eats with gusto and I imagine this has something to do with his Dad.

Though I take over from 8 to 5 (minus school and nap), the Mav works primarily from home and so has observed and influenced his son's life in rare and wonderful ways.

The Mav knows what the kid likes (and more abundantly, doesn't like). He knows "the rules". He knows E's favorite books and toys. He knows how the boy is behaving. He knows, better than me sometimes, what the boy is saying. He knows his son.

We are on the verge of a serious lifestyle change. Soon, the Mav will be starting a new job. (No, we don't know where yet) This job will most likely require him to be in an office at least 40 hours a week, probably more. While he has opted away from a course that would regularly require 80+ hours per week of his time, there will still be significant changes to his, to our, lifestyles.

My wish and hope is that the father and son, despite this change, will only grow closer as time passes.

Also, I wish that father-son bonding would involve more vacuuming and, say, mopping. That would be truly wonderful.

It was a dark and stormy night

Ah, life in the midwest. Where else can a rain storm take out 10% of the trees in a neighborhood and no one thinks that's odd? The picture above was taken from our front door. This is minor compared to what happened a block north of us and a block south of us.

A little while later I got a text message that a tornado was headed toward campus and then the sirens went off. We didn't see much action in that flare up but more storms are coming tonight.

Little E's party was called off for tonight. He handled it rather well, on promises that the party will be back tomorrow. He managed to keep his spirits up; runing laps around the house and tormenting playing with his best buddy.

Pictures

When I turned last year's blog entries into a book I decided that I wanted to include at least one picture with every future entry. I had a lapse with the last post and so here is my attempt to make amends.

Now, to go and see why the little dear is not yet asleep ...