Eli is 20 Months!

My little dude,

Last weekend, someone asked how old you were. When I replied that you had just turned 20 months, their comment was, “Wow! Almost 2 years old!” I can hardly believe that you will, indeed, be two in just a few short months. You seem to be learning everything exponentially now, yet we’re still surprised and amazed at each new achievement.

We’re pretty sure that a parrot now lives in our house! You try to copy everything we say, sometimes with hilarious results. You’re the master of the word ‘no’ and after using it indiscreetly for the past two months, you’re now much more selective and serious about it. Now I often find you chasing Bailey around the yard telling her, “Nnnnnnoooo Bay-yee, nnnnnooo!” (Though I’m never quite sure what her wrongdoing was.) You’ve also learned to say ‘uh-oh’ and it seems that it’s taken over the status that ‘no’ once held, acting as a noun, verb and adjective. After spending a week with Kaylee, you also learned to say her name. Amy said that any time she went out of the room, you wandered around calling, “Kay-eee, Kay-ee” until you found her. Each day brings new attempts at talking, but my favorite of all happened yesterday. I was putting away clothes in the closet and could hear you ‘singing’ (well, as close to singing as a toddler gets). When I walked out, you were carrying Daddy’s bible with both hands, walking around and pretending to sing hymns. I can’t even begin to tell you how much it touched my heart to see you developing a love for what we value most in our lives.

Summer agrees with you, little man! We traveled to Auntie Heather and Uncle Andy’s for Memorial Day and had a chance to do some swimming. You took to the water like a duck! Your favorite part was standing on the edge of the pool waiting for Daddy to count, “1, 2…” then you’d yell “Go!” and jump into his arms. You don’t seem to have any fear of the water and that makes me feel happy and terrified simultaneously. And it seems that your fearlessness doesn’t end at the pool. Last night, the Youngren’s generously gave us their outgrown swing set. Before I could turn around, you’d already climbed the ladder and were flying down the slide! You should have seen the look of pride and glee in your eyes! And even after you took a spill off the ladder, you kept right at it. Since it’s been so warm, you’ve been wearing shorts a lot…your bruised and scraped knees are evidence of how many times you dust off and keep going in a day. I hope that it will always be so easy to pick yourself up and try again no matter what kind of spill life brings you.

There are so, so many things I want to remember about this time in your life. Like the way that you taught yourself how to open an Oreo cookie and eat the frosting first, how you ask for “dip-dip” (ketchup) on everything then gleefully lick the ketchup off whatever you are dipping. Or the way that you like to slurp green beans like noodles. Or the way you concentrate while you are making your giant 5 block tower. Or how you kissed my hand during meeting, then looked up and smiled at me. You are a precious, sweet, wonderful little boy! When Joey dropped off the swing set, he stood back with a look of wonder and exclaimed, “It was just yesterday that I put that swing set together for my kids.” And I can see how I, too, will be saying the same. I just wish I could capture every moment and memory and hold it forever because I know you are growing up much too quickly! I love you, Littles!

What happens when you leave the bathroom door open...

Eli "blowing" his nose...

A little of this and that..

Snuggles with Bailey.

All set to go out to dinner to celebrate our 8th Anniversary!
Auntie Jeanne hung out with Eli so we could go out...so nice of her!

We decided to try out the suit for meeting on Sunday. Eli gets really cool hand-me-downs from his cousins!



First time to play with playdough!

I made myself a poor man's mocha (That's what it's called, right Jeff?) the other day. Turned around to find this little bandit helping himself to the chocolate syrup...
One of the current favorite toys.

Helping Daddy!
Eli tried out my grungy flipflops the other day and I couldn't resist this picture!
Taking a break from all the yard work to have a little snack.

Eli has had so many haircuts at this point, I've lost count! (I think we may be on number 7?) This was his second time to sit in the 'big boy chair' all by himself!

Have a seat!

Lately, Eli's been entertaining himself by finding interesting places to climb in/sit on...

Tulip Town!

Shane, Eli and I tried to make a trip to see the tulips last Sunday. Apparently, so did everyone else. It was so crazy that we threw in the towel and walked around the marina in Anacortes instead. Itried again later in the week, this time dragging Maddy (Eli's amazing nanny and my good friend) along with us.

The tulip fields are definitely a sight worth seeing!

Eli's "girlfriend"

Eli's favorite part? Stomping on and throwing the dirt clumps...

Big shoes to fill...

All in a days work!

We've been getting creative with house projects lately. With the economy the way it is, we haven't wanted to spend much. So that's left us finishing things we already had materials for, projects that are labor only, and/or projects that can be completed on a tight budget (as was the case this weekend).

Our back yard was looking pretty redneck with the old and new septic tanks peeking through the grass. SATURDAY, 11:30

We can't pour a patio or build a deck (given the aforementioned septic tank and also aforementioned budget contraints), so we came up with what we think is a pretty good solution-an outdoor entertaining space with a fire pit! It's not finished yet (the raised bed will be planted with flowers and the firepit and flower beds near the house will be rocked), but I'm thinking not bad for the price of gravel. (We're lucky to have a generous brother-in-law who doesn't mind sharing his skidsteer, other wise we would have been including the price of a rental!)

SATURDAY, 6:30

Daddy's Little Helper