Almost Three

Here are some stories for Papa's notebook:

Elijah keeps telling me that he is three.  I tell him, "no, you are two".  He says "Robin says I almost 3". Well, ok, but you are still 2.

The other day we were going to a play group and we were in the car.
Elijah: Dis not the way to the playground.
Me: We are going to a different playground tonight.
Elijah: I no wanna go to different playground. (repeated several times during the 5 minute drive)
Me: Well, that's where we are going.
We pull up to the playground.
Elijah: I love the new playground!!

We have been potty training and it's been going pretty well except for he seems to be holding in #2.  We've gotten it a few times on the potty and Elijah gets chocolate when he goes poo poo in the potty.  So as soon as he is done he says "I get chocolate".  Last night he went and then when I was tucking him into bed later he says, "Mama, say prouofyou"
??
"Mama, say proufyou. I go poo poo on the potty"
"oh! I'm proud of you for going poo poo on the potty".
Then he grinned.

Catch up

Wow, it has been a while since I posted. The summer is almost gone already. I've been busy with my new job along with everything else.

Fourth of July weekend we went to my parents house and Elijah got to see his cousins from Indiana that we don't get to see very often. They played in the water and Elijah got to see lightening bugs (which later he was calling "yellow ants").

Elijah is getting so big. At the beginning of the summer he started talking in sentences, which I thought I would never get used to. It surprised me everytime he said something. But now, of course, it doesn't phase us. Although he cracks me up with some of things he says. We got rid of his booster seat at the table and I said, "Now you have a big boy chair!" And later he said, "Mama, you have a gurl chair?" He's lost almost all the little kid chub that they have on their hands and legs. I love watching him get bigger and understand things. Even though the constant "why" asking drives me nuts sometimes. Well, the next big boy thing is potty training...ugh.

Introducing Thor!

This is Thor the Turtle or "Door the Tortole". We got Thor at the Lincoln Park Zoo on a drizzly Sunday. It was actually a great day for the Zoo because it wasn't hot or crowded and all the animals were out. We saw the lions, tigers and jaguars. Of course we went to the primate house and then while we were in the reptile and amphibian house there was a huge downpour. But we didn't notice because we were petting a ball python. Elijah loved the reptile house with the snakes and frogs and turtles (some in the sand and some in the water). Of the two turles at the gift shop, Elijah selected the more realistic one as opposed to the lime green and purple one. He has also pretty much not let go of it since we got it.

Candy Grab!

Yesterday, they had an Easter "Candy Grab" at Soldier Field. They spread a bunch of candy out on the field and then let the kids go out and fill their buckets. They do it in age groups to avoid little ones getting trampled but the age group was 0-5 years old. So they said "Go" and the 4 and 5 year olds rush the field picking up all the mini candy bars and good stuff, leaving tootsie rolls and hershey kisses for the little ones. Whatever, not that big of a deal, except that it was about 32 degrees out so all the tootsie rolls were hard as rocks. Micah was able to sprint a head and at least get 1 mini candy bar, funsize-if you will, which Elijah enjoyed. And seriously amazing how fast kids can clear of football field full of candy.

Yeah Spring!!

The forecast all week was that it was going to be rainy and storming all weekend. So, after playing on the soggy playground on Saturday morning, we were really excited to see the sun in the afternoon.

We took the "L" to Chinatown for the afternoon. Elijah loves to ride the train. We walked around and saw lots of fun stuff, including live eels, lots of things with dragons on them and we had some smoothies with boba (that's tapioca - which sounds gross but is actually awesome). Elijah got a school bus at one of the stores, very Asian. When I put him to bed that night he said "I pway 'chool bus". That was $4 well-spent.

Sunday was hot and sunny. We planned to go to the zoo but the bus was rerouted for some marathon downtown and we ended up checking it out. We went for a walk by the river, which Elijah still recalls had the "green water" from St. Patty's day. We walked down Michigan Ave. and then, then we went to Baskin Robins. Elijah and Micah "shared" some cinnamin "red hot" ice cream that was bright red. I tried to share my peanut butter cup ice cream but Elijah just wanted "red i'e cream". I'm pretty sure he ate as much, if not more than Micah. After ice cream we went to the Lego store which had tables of legos for Elijah to play with and crazy huge displays made out of legos. Lots of excitement wore our little guy out and he fell asleep on the "l" on the way home.

It was great to be outside and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. It's not quite as warm today, but hopefully more days like those are on the horizon. I wish I had thought to take the camera with us, but oh well.

Watch me!

Elijah: Mama! Mama! Mama!
Me: What?
Elijah: Mama! Mama!
Me (going to the hallway where he is yelling from): What?
Elijah: I go fast! (as he pushes his dump truck down the hall)

Counting

Happy New Year

This free greeting card generated with Smilebox

First snow and Christmas

Not on the same day, but I had not gotten around to posting the snow pictures yet.  There was snow on Christmas eve, but it was relatively warm on Christmas day so not much to play in. 

Merry Christmas!