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.