"Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him."
Isaiah 53:4-6
Eli has a good amount of persistence. When he sets his mind to something, he will get it accomplished. I love this about him, but there is one particular application of this persistence that tests my patience more than a little. :)
He will randomly think of something or someone, and it takes a good fifteen minutes and perhaps 500 repetitions of the same word to get it out of his brain. And he wants me to answer him with every repetition.
Example:
Eli: [random thought popping into his brain] Bike?
Me: Oh! Did you remember that you took a bike ride with Daddy yesterday?
Eli: Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike?
Me: Yes, you ride the bike with Daddy sometimes.
Eli: Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike?
Me: Honey, we can't ride the bike right now- we're driving in the car right now.
Eli: Bike? Bike?
Me: No, baby, not right now.
Eli: Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike?
Me: Maybe later. Please stop asking about the bike now.
Eli: [loudly, with more persistence] Bike? Bike? Bike?
Me: No, sweetie.
Eli: Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike? Bike?
Me: [beyond annoyed, trying to exude patience] No.
And this will go on for literally fifteen minutes. It's cute at times, and it definitely make me laugh, but it drives me nuts at times, for sure! :)
He does this with people, too. His latest favorites have been Nick and Sarah, which, the way Eli says it, sounds like "Nice and Rara." Heaven forbid that Sarah call during the day, because that will set Eli off on a monologue about their whole family that will last a good portion of the morning.
Have you heard of P365? Not to be confused with P90X, this is a much more fun and much less exhausting project to embark on.
P365 is basically just an effort to document every day of your child(ren)'s life for an entire year. It was created as a scrapbook thing- take a picture and then scrapbook about it. But I am about as far from a scrapbooker as a girl can get, so I decided instead to just do a daily picture and write a little note about each one in a notepad document, so that I can look back and see what has happened in this year of Eli's life. Ideally, this would have either started on Eli's first birthday or on January 1, but I always forget my camera. :)
For the past 5 days, though, I have successfully snapped a picture of Eli. And thus begins P365- I will not be thwarted!
Here are days 1-5. And no, I will not be posting all 365 pictures, much to your relief. I tried to choose pictures that were indicative of each day, not just a random "good shot."
March 5- playing on "cars" in the driveway. He spends hours on end riding up and down the street, up and down the driveways, with me and/or Eric frantically chasing after him.
March 6- watching Eric work in the vegetable garden, soon to be planted with all our tiny seedlings!
March 7- a rainy Sunday spent at church and then inside. This was when I remembered that I had to take a picture that day and made Eric and Eli stand outside on the porch before bath time. I'm an outstanding photographer of candid moments, I tell you.
March 8- another rainy day spent mostly indoors. Eli's favorite rainy day activity is banging with metal spoons on metal bowls. I tolerate the racket only when there is no other option for entertainment. :)
March 9- I worked all day and then left 30 minutes after I got home to go to Awana, so the picture I had to resort to was Eli totally sacked out in bed when I got home. Eric wore him out with hours outside this afternoon, and I looooove the deep sleep of a little boy tired from playing!
I wished so much I had my camera this afternoon when I watched Eli run around outside for a few minutes after work. He ran into our neighbor's garden and sat down on a little stone deer to "go for a ride." :)
Have I bored you yet? Regardless of the bore factor, I am committed! I heard it said once that you will never look back on a picture of your child's life and say, "I wish I hadn't taken so many pictures of him." I am trying to soak up and remember every minute of this toddler phase. So here's to P365! :)
Can it be that we have said goodbye to the last of the extremely cold winter days? Oh, how I hope so! I am soooooo ready to devote long mornings and afternoons to taking walks, feeding ducks, climbing on playgrounds, finding sticks, swinging, digging, exploring, and all the other pleasant outdoor things that come with having a toddler boy. I honestly never thought much about winter besides, "Boy it's cold." But now that we have a toddler that thrives when he is outside and wilts when he is not (much like a plant!), I've been wishing this winter away every since it began. So bring on the spring!
The one thing I am dreading about spring is daylight savings time beginning (or ending- which is it?). I loathe anything that messes with Eli's schedule, and I'm pretty sure most moms of young kids feel the same. Eli already likes to go to bed late (8 or 9pm, which we consider late!) and sleep late (8:30 or 9am). I'd much prefer him to go to sleep around 7pm and wake up around 7am, thus giving Eric and I a decent chunk of time alone together in the evenings. He goes to work at 5am, so he tries to be in bed by 9pm at the latest. Anyway, all that to say that I am dreading daylight savings when Eli will want to go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 10am. Any tips on slowly changing a child's schedule to look more like you want it to look would be greatly appreciated.
And, on that extremely boring note, I will wish you all a happy beginning of spring (unofficially) and head to bed to rest up for the fun day of outdoor activities we have planned for tomorrow!
I haven't posted in a few weeks, mostly because I've been trying to limit my time on the computer to the times when Eli is asleep. And then when he is asleep I think of 103 more pressing things to do, so blogging has fallen to the bottom of the list.
Eric is putting Eli to bed now, so I thought I'd take a minute to give a little recap. Here are the top five things happening around the Wilson household lately:
1. Snow! Like every other Dallas-ite has already mentioned, we got a foot of snow a couple weeks ago! It was insane! Eli was entranced by it, but he quickly figured out how miserable it is to be soaking wet and freezing cold, being as the closest thing we came to snow gear was triple layers of clothing. :) We Texans just aren't prepared for snow! But we enjoyed it while it lasted, and now we wait all too eagerly for the hot Texas summer!.JPG)
2. Injuries. Eli has a few things going against him when it comes to injuries, head injuries in particular. One: He has a really big head and a really little body. He's fairly top-heavy. :) Two: He is fearless. Three: He looooooooves to climb. This kid gets more bruises, scrapes, and bumps on his head than any kid I have ever seen! He is contantly running at top speed only to crash into something, climbing up onto something insanely high only to jump right off, and biting his lip as he tumbles wrecklessly over whatever is in his path. We jokingly talk about getting him a crash helmet, but I think Eric and I are both seriously considering it! :)
3. Valentine's Day. On Valentine's weekend, Eli and I baked cookies for friends and family and made a red velvet cake for Eric. Eric cooked me a fancy steak dinner and had a huge bouquet of tulips delivered to me! (I know it's so cliche, but the way to my heart is truly through flower delivery! :) ) Eric got new Crocs, and Eli got a new tool set. And, of course, what Valentine's Day would be complete without huge boxes of chocolates? :)
4. Words, words, words. Eli's vocabulary has exploded lately. I thought he would never talk, and then all of the sudden he is repeating most everything that I say. Of course, 90% of what he says is not understandable, but still. :) I'm really proud of how much he's learning!
5. Gardening. Eric is starting our seedlings for our spring garden, and this weekend he and Eli spent a good amount of time digging out the garden plot for the spring/summer. I'm so excited to have home-grown veggies again! And I love watching my two boys dig in the dirt together. :)
That's about all from our little house! I hope all is well with you guys too!
Eli has always been a climber, but recently he has gotten just tall enough to finally accomplish most of his climbing goals. I walk into rooms and find him standing on the chairs, the couch, the toy piano, the table, his toy fire engine, and, most recently, a combo of windowsill and elliptical trainer. He is adventurous, curious, fearless, and strong- a bad combo. :)
I don't know what to do, because, on the one hand, I love that Eli loves to climb, and I don't want to stifle his natural abilities and what he likes to do, but, on the other hand, I don't want to watch him get himself into dangerous situations and just sit by and let it happen! I'm trying to strike a good balance, but I'm sure I'll kick myself when he falls from somewhere high and ends up in the emergency room!
Either way, he's an adorable little monkey, and I love watching him learn and grow.
I kept Heather's kids for her today, and, while three kids is definitely taxing at times, I had a blast watching Eli and Cooper (both around 20 months) play together.
Their main activity was pushing each other around on a fire engine push toy that we have. One of them would sit on it and the other would push (at maximum speed) until they ran into a wall. Upon impact, they would both scream, "BOOM!" at the top of their lungs, and then they'd dissolve into laughter. They did it over and over and over again, taking turns with who pushed and who rode. It was such a joy to watch my son and my nephew play so well together. I doubt there was anything else in the world that they would rather have been doing than playing together this afternoon.
My baseboards may pay the price for all the "BOOM"s, but it was, without a doubt, so worth it.
