Eli loves his Woody doll. Loves him so much that he decapitated poor Woody. I have super-glued that stupid doll's head on soooooo many times, per Eli's request. And then he goes about, banging it on stuff (like the oven) until the head falls off again. It's a sick cycle.

Eli and Ben making faces in the mirror. This was so funny. They made so many faces and Eli just laughed and laughed.

Eli loves putting my hat on his head and dancing around. He thinks he's so cool.

He's right.

I had a girls' night with my sister. We watched 'Pride and Prejudice'- the good one, the BBC version. Eli loves Jane Austen movies. He has watched 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'P&P' and a few others, and for some reason or other, he loves them. I think it's the animals- he quacks and neighs when he sees the animals. He also bursts out laughing at random times, I have no idea why. Anyways, Christine and I were watching our movie, and it was way past Eli's bed time. I had to keep putting him down, and he kept sneaking out to watch with us. I kept catching him and sending him off to bed. I underestimated his sneak-skills, though. I thought I got him every time, but when Christine and I finished for the night, we saw the little man, fast asleep in the hall. What a funny kid!!

What a stud! 18months old, and already playing with tiger cubs! This 7-week-old tiger cub, named Tippy, LOVED Eli. She kept coming up to him and rubbing against him and just loving on him. He didn't even flinch.

I'm not ready for this!! He's growing up too fast!

Eli at the George Bush State Park in Houston (17 months old)

Rodin's "The Thinker"

Note to Eli- YOU ARE NOT TWO YEARS OLD YET! SO STOP ACTING LIKE YOU ARE!!

So... Eli locked me out of the house today.

No, let me back up. Yesterday, he took off his diaper so that he could pee on the kitchen floor. Later, he covered his entire body in cortizone cream. Then, we went to my parents' house to watch General Conference, and he knocked over my mom's wall divider with family pictures on it- the one we all chipped in and got her for Christmas this year- and shattered a pane of glass on my younger brother's head.

Then I had to take Ben to the airport for Week One of Three of his business trip.

And then I had to put Eli to bed. We just started putting him back in his crib (after consulting innumerable sleep books and pediatricians and parents, and after about a week of him absolutely destroying his room, we decided to go back to the crib). He hates the crib. He HATES the crib. He screamed and called for me and cried and threw his blankets out. By the time Ben called me to let me know he had landed safely, I was completely in tears.

And then, today, Eli locked me out of the house. I just took the garbage down to the dumpster, and I came back up the stairs, and voila! the screen door was locked, with a highly amused 18-month-old on the other side of the glass. I cajoled, I laughed with him, I instructed him. I knelt there for ten- fifteen minutes, praying I would not have to bust in the glass. Finally, after an eternity of him laughing at me through the door, he was able to unlock the door. First thing I did when I got inside was hug him. Second thing I did was grab the screw driver and take off the dang lock. Who needs a lock on the screen door??? Who is that going to keep out? Moms, that's who. The people who do NOT want to bust in the glass.

Come home, Ben. Come home.

Playing Catch-Up

So, Eli is 16 1/2 months old. I should probably blog something, since it's been awhile. Here are just a few little updates, with completely unrelated pictures. :)

Toy Story: Eli is on a major Toy Story kick. Every time he sees anything Toy Story, he yells, with delight, “Dee-Dee!” and then grunts. For those who don’t speak Toddler-ese, “Dee-Dee” is his name for Woody, and his grunt is either his name for Buzz Lightyear, or for Rex the dinosaur... or something else altogether, I'm not really sure. It’s so cute! He loves his Woody doll and plays with him all the time, giving him hugs and kisses, and pulling his string, and talking to him. Recently, right after his bath, I was drying him off and was about to put on his diaper. He saw his Woody doll, aimed for him and deliberately- and quite accurately, I might add- peed on him. I was a bit horrified, as I was not sure how to clean his Woody doll. I also thought it’s a good thing Woody doesn’t really come to life, because that was really demeaning!


Duck Pond: So, my wonderful friend, Tonya , came to visit with her little girl Maddy. We hung out for a few hours and then we decided to go visit the duck pond by the university. We stopped and picked up a cheap loaf of bread to feed the ducks and geese and then we went to the pond. The entire time we were there, Eli quacked like a duck. I mean, the entire time. It was SO funny. His quack sounds like, “Wha-ack?” He sounded like he was asking them questions and having conversations with them. Even as we were leaving, he quacked the whole time. And now, whenever I ask him what a duck says, he says, “Wha-ack?”



February 2, 2011: Eli gave me a black eye today. He really did. My son could beat me up with his hands tied behind his back, if he wanted to. He just head butted me, right in the eye. And the best part is? I am conducting the music for Stake Conference on Sunday, in front of over a thousand people. I wonder what the stake president will think when he sees my eye? Poor Ben...


So much snow!! And so cold! Ugh. I don’t even want to blog about it. So…

What is Eli doing? Well, he copies so much of what Ben and I do. He says so many things (not on demand, naturally). For example, I gave him a little snack food, and told him to say thank you. I said it in a bit of a sing-song voice, and he said, “thank you” in the same sing-song tone. It was too precious. Eli also knows many body parts. He knows eyes (he blinks them, very seriously and methodically), mouth, nose (which he sometimes points to, sometimes picks), ears, hair, belly button, tongue (which he sticks out), toes, fingers, neck, chin, and cheeks. It’s a fun game, and I can often distract him from a bad mood by asking him where his body parts are. This is particularly helpful while I am changing his diaper.

He also loves making animal noises. He pants like a dog, meows like a cat, moos like a cow, and makes a weird hacking sound for a monkey. I’m not quite sure where that comes from. When I told Ben Eli was being a monkey, Eli overheard and made the sound, so that’s definitely his monkey sound. Go figure.

What is Merrilee doing? Merrilee is busy trying to get Eli to sleep through the night. It has been hellish. No other word for the many hours I spend every single night, trying not to pass out so I can get Eli back to sleep. What else? Well, I am trying to write more. More on my novel, more guitar songs, more blog posts. Well… we can all see how successful that one’s been.

I am still in Young Women’s, where I work with wonderful, amazing, inspiring girls and am lucky enough that the other leaders are some of my closest friends. I’m also still the ward chorister, and I love that too. I love picking the hymns, sitting up at the front, leading the music, and watching a number of young children in the congregation imitate me. They probably do a better job than I do.

Ben is enjoying his job. He also got called recently to be the secretary for the Elders’ Quorum presidency. He enjoys being active with that. Lucky him, he gets to go to all the service projects, like Saturday, when he helped rebuild a fence that was destroyed by a huge fire.

Ok, I feel like I did a half-way decent job of catching up on the blog, and right now- as sleep deprived as I am, and with an eye somewhat swollen shut- I feel quite satisfied.