Elliott: Year 2, Week 34 (4/11/2004

Elliott: Year 2, Week 34 (4/11/2004 - 4/17/2004)

(this blue background is a picture of the sky last week.. not a cloud in the sky.. amazing!)

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Elliott find a High Bounce Pinky in his easter basket - Thanks Nana and Grampa George!
Ooh, a wind up chicken!
Rachel ("Ray") brings Elliott out for some fresh air

Gotta keep up appearances!
Saying ByeBye to Chip, the piggie!
busy piggie is all done with laptime

Entropy Boy senses excess order in the universe
Elliott loves his little easter trucks
tow truck - help - hook!

Elliott watches Dada make virgin strawberry daquiri - yum! (he just wants to see the "fan")
Deer eat our garden
Wow!

Elliott eats his first chocolate bunny!
Mmm, yummy!
Tragedy - mom tries to take the bunny away!

That's one way to add calories to his diet!
Elliott wants to butter his own english muffin
Now what might he be scheming about???

Oh, you are the cute one!
"puhpuh wowuh!"
our earliest crocuses (before the deer ate them - GROAN)

Elliott and his favorite "bahn"

"outdied!"

OK I'm ready - hey, where did the pool go?
Elliott's first barefoot experience of the year (it's all fun and games until the baby gets a splinter - time to reseal the deck!)
Elliott checks his flowers every day

A bee hides in our crocus
aww...

Elliott continues to be very interested in flowers, seeds, etc., so we planted some seeds in a narrow glass container that we filled with soil. After letting him dig in the soil with a chopstick for a while, and pour silly amounts of water into it, we put the seeds in (a random mix of kitchen beans, squash seeds, four o-clocks and zinnias), and let it sit.. so far, one bean (a black bean from the kitchen) has sprouted! We can see the roots through the glass, which is really cool.
We've been reading a book called "planting a rainbow". Elliott seems to have an insatiable desire to memorize random vocabulary words - he can point out poppies and irises from a book now, and knows bulbs from seeds. Watching him makes me realize why they say picking up languages is easier when we're young. Of course, his mind is free to absorb new information since he certainly doesn't waste any thought cycles on things like self-preservation! (he almost fell to his death on the front steps this week - I caught him by his pants).
We guinea-pig sat for a friend of ours this weekend. Elliott was very interested and kind to the piggie. He can enthusiastically rattle off the piggie's "diet" - "appuh, oyan, baahnanaaaah, peppuh (sweet red peppers), yettud (lettuce), and hay. He's respectful of the pig, petting him gently, but he's obviously jealous - I can't pick up the pig in my lap for more than a few seconds before Elliott comes up and wants to get into my lap, or says, "down" and "done" repeatedly to the pig. It continuously amazes me that some people actually have another baby when their toddler is this age - and that the baby (and parents) actually survives!
Elliott's generosity doesn't stop at the piggie. He loves to share his leftover fruit and veggies with the bunnies, and he often shares his toys, cups of water, treats, crackers, etc. with Shadow. She's rarely interested, but it's very cute to see him shove his favorite truck under her chin. He really does seem to be an animal lover.
His obsession with soap continues. He absolutely loves water in all forms, but he especially likes to wash his hands with soap. He calls it "lippee doo dah" (I guess I sang "slippery doo dah" too many times). He's starting to get a fastidious streak, which conflicts with his tendency to stick his fingers into things and make a mess.. in a typical meal, he'll sit in his high chair, with me, the ever-attentive waitress standing nearby.. within a minute, he'll have dipped his hand(s) into his sprinkle cheese, yogurt, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, or whatever, and he'll hold his hand up to me and plaintively whine "cleanit!! cleanit!! hand! din! (chin)" until I wipe him clean with a wet washcloth. This scene repeats until most of his meal is in the washcloth. Goofball. I could go on and on about his bizarre eating habits. Sometimes I feel like my entire day is spent trying to come up with food that he'll actually eat. He does eat, I just can't predict what the "hit of the day" will be.
He's really getting into mimicking now. He likes to sweep when we sweep, and he really likes to snatch sips of whatever we're drinking, especially tea. We drink a lot of herbal tea, and he's actually quite fond of most of it. He likes my black tea too, but I try to limit it, since the last thing I need is a caffeinated toddler. Sometimes we can trick him and just give him warm water, which he scoops from his bowl by the cupful and downs.
He was terribly sick for most of last week, and was really not feeling well for Easter. He had a yucky cough, a fever, no appetite, and a big old booger nose. He was clingy and mopey and miserable, and Mike and I were also feeling a touch under the weather. We were quite a sorry scene. In spite of all that, Terry and Rachel came over for a little while for easter, and brought some goodies. Elliott loved the easter trucks, and we've been rationing the jellybeans and chocolate eggs, which he's quite fond of. We gave him his first chocolate bunny this week too. He was extremely impressed, and I had a heck of a time getting him to give it up. I finally cut the ears off and took the rest of the bunny away for later. Mike's parents dared not come over with all the germs in the air, but they sent home a few delicious suppers instead, which helped us immensely as we all sat around coughing and blowing our noses.
I notice that it helps to ask him to give something back, rather than take it. Sounds obvious, but saying, "ok, now you put the soap back" will get you an 80% compliance rate, whereas if you try to grab it when he drops it, or slide it out of his hand and say, "ok, all done", he acts completely betrayed and tricked (how appropriate since he was!), and pitches a fit. It's strange to have to learn to be polite to a 20 month old. I'm not sure why it doesn't come more naturally to treat kids with respect. Usually, it does, but sometimes I think we just treat kids like we were treated by thoughtless adults, without realizing what we're doing (not that I'm saying I was raised by thoughtless adults!). I'd like to see how Mike reacted if I casually walked by and snatched his half-eaten brownie, and said, "all done!".
Elliott's sleeping habits continue to evolve. He's sleeping much more soundly now, so I can creep away, but naps continue to be unpredictable. He will stay up as late as we let him, and in general, the earlier we try to get him down, the more insane it is. Sometimes it takes me an hour to get him to give up and go to sleep. He is in good spirits the whole time, bopping around on the bed and crib, climbing all over me, trying to get me to play games, doing penny drops over my leg (which I use as a barrier to getting off the bed).. it's funny, but exhausting and boring at the same time, since I'm anxious for some me time. Still, it beats making him scream all by himself, I'm positive. Thank god we're still nursing or I don't think he'd ever actually conk out - that's one of the only things that will reliably get him to chill.
We've been singing easter songs lately, which Elliott really enjoys (he's a big bunny fan, not surprisingly). He can anticipate all the lyrics now, so if I'm singing the easter parade song, he'll excitedly say "bunny bunny!" and then "yamb!" (lamb). It's very cute. He decided we should say "puppy" instead of "chicken", so now we throw puppies into the song too.
As I look back at my notes from previous weeks and months, I am sometimes surprised that a behavior that was driving us batty just gracefully disappeared, and I didn't even notice - probably because it was replaced with something even more confounding! I'm sure someday, Elliott will not feel a deep need to pour his bowl of food out onto the high chair tray/his lap, and then put the bowl on his head, looking at us with this serious "seeking approval" expression (this is especially likely right after a bath when his hair is nice and clean). What on earth? Is this some sort of developmental milestone? It doesn't help that he gets his hair washed afterward - one of his favorite activities, since it involves soap and water. In a few weeks no doubt, he'll have moved on to something else. It's a comforting fantasy, anyway.
Things really do change though. He might still eat dirt and lick his mittens, but he doesn't eat rocks anymore - most of the time. I can "trust" him more and more every day, when we go outside. I actually got a load of compost shoveled onto the flower gardens, a bunch of raking done, and cleaned out the garage a bit, in the last week or two, while he runs around throwing rocks and dirt, picking up his plastic tools, stirring buckets of soil, throwing sunflower seeds all over the ground, and having a grand old time. He's getting quite good at climbing up and down stairs without assistance, though he does tumble going down with some regularity (someone's always spotting him). I realized as I tripped over the tub seat in the bathroom today that I haven't used it in months. He's very good at staying in control in the tub. In fact, he started lying down in the water on his belly and putting his face under on his own, which I think is so cool. We can't wait to take him swimming this summer.
Elliott loves to run around naked, so we were happy to have some warmer weather this week. Unfortunately, I sort of forgot that he has no callouses on his feet, so letting him runn around barefoot in the grass was probably a bad idea. He ended up with a yucky splinter in his foot. We showed him the tweezers and told him he had wood in his foot, a booboo, and we had to use the tweezers to get the wood out. He sat down on the floor of the bathroom and intently started working on his foot, twirling the tweezers like a screwdriver. He cracks us up. We finally did manage to remove while reading stories and distracting him. He was really quite good about the whole thing, and earned himself a cute sesame street bandaid, which I had purchased ahead of time in a rare moment of forethought.

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Elliott find a High Bounce Pinky in his easter basket - Thanks Nana and Grampa George!	Ooh, a wind up chicken!	Rachel ("Ray") brings Elliott out for some fresh air
Gotta keep up appearances!	Saying ByeBye to Chip, the piggie!	busy piggie is all done with laptime
Entropy Boy senses excess order in the universe	Elliott loves his little easter trucks	tow truck - help - hook!
Elliott watches Dada make virgin strawberry daquiri - yum! (he just wants to see the "fan")	Deer eat our garden	Wow!
Elliott eats his first chocolate bunny!	Mmm, yummy!	Tragedy - mom tries to take the bunny away!
That's one way to add calories to his diet!	Elliott wants to butter his own english muffin	Now what might he be scheming about???
Oh, you are the cute one!	"puhpuh wowuh!"	our earliest crocuses (before the deer ate them - GROAN)
Elliott and his favorite "bahn"		"outdied!"
OK I'm ready - hey, where did the pool go?	Elliott's first barefoot experience of the year (it's all fun and games until the baby gets a splinter - time to reseal the deck!)	Elliott checks his flowers every day
A bee hides in our crocus	aww...
Elliott continues to be very interested in flowers, seeds, etc., so we planted some seeds in a narrow glass container that we filled with soil. After letting him dig in the soil with a chopstick for a while, and pour silly amounts of water into it, we put the seeds in (a random mix of kitchen beans, squash seeds, four o-clocks and zinnias), and let it sit.. so far, one bean (a black bean from the kitchen) has sprouted! We can see the roots through the glass, which is really cool. We've been reading a book called "planting a rainbow". Elliott seems to have an insatiable desire to memorize random vocabulary words - he can point out poppies and irises from a book now, and knows bulbs from seeds. Watching him makes me realize why they say picking up languages is easier when we're young. Of course, his mind is free to absorb new information since he certainly doesn't waste any thought cycles on things like self-preservation! (he almost fell to his death on the front steps this week - I caught him by his pants). We guinea-pig sat for a friend of ours this weekend. Elliott was very interested and kind to the piggie. He can enthusiastically rattle off the piggie's "diet" - "appuh, oyan, baahnanaaaah, peppuh (sweet red peppers), yettud (lettuce), and hay. He's respectful of the pig, petting him gently, but he's obviously jealous - I can't pick up the pig in my lap for more than a few seconds before Elliott comes up and wants to get into my lap, or says, "down" and "done" repeatedly to the pig. It continuously amazes me that some people actually have another baby when their toddler is this age - and that the baby (and parents) actually survives! Elliott's generosity doesn't stop at the piggie. He loves to share his leftover fruit and veggies with the bunnies, and he often shares his toys, cups of water, treats, crackers, etc. with Shadow. She's rarely interested, but it's very cute to see him shove his favorite truck under her chin. He really does seem to be an animal lover. His obsession with soap continues. He absolutely loves water in all forms, but he especially likes to wash his hands with soap. He calls it "lippee doo dah" (I guess I sang "slippery doo dah" too many times). He's starting to get a fastidious streak, which conflicts with his tendency to stick his fingers into things and make a mess.. in a typical meal, he'll sit in his high chair, with me, the ever-attentive waitress standing nearby.. within a minute, he'll have dipped his hand(s) into his sprinkle cheese, yogurt, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, or whatever, and he'll hold his hand up to me and plaintively whine "cleanit!! cleanit!! hand! din! (chin)" until I wipe him clean with a wet washcloth. This scene repeats until most of his meal is in the washcloth. Goofball. I could go on and on about his bizarre eating habits. Sometimes I feel like my entire day is spent trying to come up with food that he'll actually eat. He does eat, I just can't predict what the "hit of the day" will be. He's really getting into mimicking now. He likes to sweep when we sweep, and he really likes to snatch sips of whatever we're drinking, especially tea. We drink a lot of herbal tea, and he's actually quite fond of most of it. He likes my black tea too, but I try to limit it, since the last thing I need is a caffeinated toddler. Sometimes we can trick him and just give him warm water, which he scoops from his bowl by the cupful and downs. He was terribly sick for most of last week, and was really not feeling well for Easter. He had a yucky cough, a fever, no appetite, and a big old booger nose. He was clingy and mopey and miserable, and Mike and I were also feeling a touch under the weather. We were quite a sorry scene. In spite of all that, Terry and Rachel came over for a little while for easter, and brought some goodies. Elliott loved the easter trucks, and we've been rationing the jellybeans and chocolate eggs, which he's quite fond of. We gave him his first chocolate bunny this week too. He was extremely impressed, and I had a heck of a time getting him to give it up. I finally cut the ears off and took the rest of the bunny away for later. Mike's parents dared not come over with all the germs in the air, but they sent home a few delicious suppers instead, which helped us immensely as we all sat around coughing and blowing our noses. I notice that it helps to ask him to give something back, rather than take it. Sounds obvious, but saying, "ok, now you put the soap back" will get you an 80% compliance rate, whereas if you try to grab it when he drops it, or slide it out of his hand and say, "ok, all done", he acts completely betrayed and tricked (how appropriate since he was!), and pitches a fit. It's strange to have to learn to be polite to a 20 month old. I'm not sure why it doesn't come more naturally to treat kids with respect. Usually, it does, but sometimes I think we just treat kids like we were treated by thoughtless adults, without realizing what we're doing (not that I'm saying I was raised by thoughtless adults!). I'd like to see how Mike reacted if I casually walked by and snatched his half-eaten brownie, and said, "all done!". Elliott's sleeping habits continue to evolve. He's sleeping much more soundly now, so I can creep away, but naps continue to be unpredictable. He will stay up as late as we let him, and in general, the earlier we try to get him down, the more insane it is. Sometimes it takes me an hour to get him to give up and go to sleep. He is in good spirits the whole time, bopping around on the bed and crib, climbing all over me, trying to get me to play games, doing penny drops over my leg (which I use as a barrier to getting off the bed).. it's funny, but exhausting and boring at the same time, since I'm anxious for some me time. Still, it beats making him scream all by himself, I'm positive. Thank god we're still nursing or I don't think he'd ever actually conk out - that's one of the only things that will reliably get him to chill. We've been singing easter songs lately, which Elliott really enjoys (he's a big bunny fan, not surprisingly). He can anticipate all the lyrics now, so if I'm singing the easter parade song, he'll excitedly say "bunny bunny!" and then "yamb!" (lamb). It's very cute. He decided we should say "puppy" instead of "chicken", so now we throw puppies into the song too. As I look back at my notes from previous weeks and months, I am sometimes surprised that a behavior that was driving us batty just gracefully disappeared, and I didn't even notice - probably because it was replaced with something even more confounding! I'm sure someday, Elliott will not feel a deep need to pour his bowl of food out onto the high chair tray/his lap, and then put the bowl on his head, looking at us with this serious "seeking approval" expression (this is especially likely right after a bath when his hair is nice and clean). What on earth? Is this some sort of developmental milestone? It doesn't help that he gets his hair washed afterward - one of his favorite activities, since it involves soap and water. In a few weeks no doubt, he'll have moved on to something else. It's a comforting fantasy, anyway. Things really do change though. He might still eat dirt and lick his mittens, but he doesn't eat rocks anymore - most of the time. I can "trust" him more and more every day, when we go outside. I actually got a load of compost shoveled onto the flower gardens, a bunch of raking done, and cleaned out the garage a bit, in the last week or two, while he runs around throwing rocks and dirt, picking up his plastic tools, stirring buckets of soil, throwing sunflower seeds all over the ground, and having a grand old time. He's getting quite good at climbing up and down stairs without assistance, though he does tumble going down with some regularity (someone's always spotting him). I realized as I tripped over the tub seat in the bathroom today that I haven't used it in months. He's very good at staying in control in the tub. In fact, he started lying down in the water on his belly and putting his face under on his own, which I think is so cool. We can't wait to take him swimming this summer. Elliott loves to run around naked, so we were happy to have some warmer weather this week. Unfortunately, I sort of forgot that he has no callouses on his feet, so letting him runn around barefoot in the grass was probably a bad idea. He ended up with a yucky splinter in his foot. We showed him the tweezers and told him he had wood in his foot, a booboo, and we had to use the tweezers to get the wood out. He sat down on the floor of the bathroom and intently started working on his foot, twirling the tweezers like a screwdriver. He cracks us up. We finally did manage to remove while reading stories and distracting him. He was really quite good about the whole thing, and earned himself a cute sesame street bandaid, which I had purchased ahead of time in a rare moment of forethought.