Stuff I Want To Remember

Being the avid scrapbooker-preserve-history person that I am, one would think I have every one of my child's milestones thoroughly and carefully documented. I don't. In fact, whatever you read here on the blog regarding E's milestones, that's it. I use this info in his scrapbooks, but lately, I realize I haven't recorded much of what he's been doing! I want to print out this blog (eventually) to have in book form, so I know at least these milestones are recorded somewhere!!! Now that he's almost two, here's some stuff I want to remember:

This afternoon, I was in here on the computer, while Doug and Eli were in the den area. Suddenly I heard a great clattering in the kitchen area. I dashed in there, to find Eli holding a small frying pan, and three steak knives at his feet on the floor. Doug had asked him to go get a towel, not thinking E would really understand that direction - but he DID. He went straight to the kitchen, and pulled the towel on the counter, on which sat the frying pan and steak knives that had been hand washed earlier and were set there to dry. When he pulled on that towel, they all came crashing down of course. No harm was done thankfully! Once the shock wore off, Eli then took his towel, went to the den, and began trying to wipe up the spilled drink on the floor, just like his Daddy had asked him to!

Eli has not been wanting to eat lately - or rather, he doesn't want to eat what is placed before him at mealtimes. For example, he was eating his cereal snack in the car on the way home from church, and once we were inside, he just wanted that and not the sandwhich I had fixed him, or the fruit. So he ate dry cereal for lunch. I know toddlers go through strange eating phases, but, I really want him to get a nice variety of fruits and vegetables, you know, so he can GROW and have brain development and all that good stuff! I find this eating thing very annoying. Anyway. Doug and I sat down to eat dinner on Saturday evening, at the table. We didn't call E over to the table, as he had already refused to eat a little earlier. We said our prayer over the food as usual, and began eating. Eli must have realized we were eating without him, because he came running into the kitchen and climbed onto his booster. He then reached out his hands to each of us, indicating it was time to pray! I thought that was so cute. So, we said a prayer again and gave him a little something to eat. Which now I can't remember if he ate or not. Most likely  he threw it on the floor, which leads to my next story.....

Every mealtime at the table, Eli ends up throwing his plate or bowl or whatever onto the floor. Sometimes I think he's frustrated with it (tonight, had a hard time scooping up the beans with his spoon), sometimes I think he just doesn't want it, sometimes he's just playing with it - the list goes on. It's so frustrating to me! I hate the waste of the food, and also that he's not eating balanced meals! I hope I look back on this and laugh at myself. I'm sure he will turn out fine, but right now in the moment, I find myself frustrated over his sudden disinterest in food. And, it's really hard to "reason" with a toddler to get him to understand NOT to throw his food. We make him clean it up, put his bowl or plate in the sink, sometimes sit in time out - but so far, nothing is deterring this behavior. Sure hope he outgrows this soon!

He's learned to imitate "night night" and "ove u" for "Love You." I LOVE hearing him say these things, sooooo sweet. He also likes to leave out middle consonants, so he's taken to calling me "mah-ee" instead of "moMMy." I feel like he's ordering up a seafood dinner, as he usually likes to say it over and over "mah-ee mah-ee mah-ee."

He's starting to tell us when he pooped in his diaper. Gross, gross, I know, but it's still a milestone. I want to wait until after he's two to start potty training; I've also heard it's good to do potty training when nothing else is going on in the child's life that might cause stress. Since he starts Mother's Day Out in September, I'm not sure when will be a good time to start the training - I want him to get used to that first. And then I wonder, well if we get our baby sometime in the next few months, that will REALLY throw him off, so potty training may have to wait a bit. We'll just have to see.

The activity level has jumped tremendously!! He's definitely an (almost) two year old. In the evenings when he's getting tired, he fights sleep by getting MORE active. He loves to start dumping out all his toys and pushing his wagon and toy shopping cart around. While I'm taking a shower in the morning, he loves to open and close the doors to the bathroom, closet, and bedroom, and loves taking everything out of the lower drawers of my jewelry armoire. He also likes throwing stuff over the banister to downstairs.

He found my new lipstick sitting on the kitchen table and made a few slash marks on the white dog's fur before I caught him. Bye, bye new lipstick. Thankfully it was a cheap one.

He also loves to say "da-ee" too (notice the missing middle "d"). Doug likes to be the one to pick him up from the church nursery on Sundays, as Eli will come running to him, saying "da-ee!" over and over.

Hearing a few more phrases and new words being imitated, such as "I get it" and "mine." The speech therapist in me has been coming out lately, really encouraging and modeling words for him, especially when he is making requests for things. He much more readily says "peese" than "thank you," but it's coming.

Lately he's been wanting to nap and sleep with his toy cars. We've let him. I haven't seen the harm in it (yet). They don't keep him up, he just lays them next to him and goes to sleep. In the morning, I find them in the room next to his crib or behind his crib. I think when he wakes up in the morning he pushes them between the crib slats. Yep, he's still in a crib. Not sure when to transition to the Big Boy Bed. Most people tell me not to rush it. He seems fine in his crib so we're just leaving that alone for now.

It's so hard not knowing when we will get our phone call from the adoption agency about our future child! I know that will rock Eli's world - and our world too of course. So things like potty training, moving to a big boy bed, maybe changing bedrooms - all this new stuff getting ready to happen on the horizon! Thankfully lots of people have been on this road before me and can give advice.

That's the main stuff I can think of for now! As exasperated as I get sometimes, my love for my little critter just grows and grows. It DOES feel like time is kinda of going in a fast forward motion.....