Eli's Funnies (23 month edition)

Our boy is 23 months old today. That means only one more month before he is 2. CRA-ZI-NESS. Love him and all his little quirks. 

We play a game called "no smiling". I'll look at Eli and give him a play-stern face and say "no smiling". He makes this face back at me

and then gives this cheesy grin. 

When he sees a duck (in a book or in real life) he says "Aflack Aflack". He has a little duck that when you push it, it says "aflack". 

He can whistle. Not on cue, but usually does it once a day.

He lines up his little cars and says "choo choo". Poor kid thinks he made a train with cars. Guess maybe a train should be on his Christmas list.

We went to Lowes the other day and they have their Christmas decorations out. When he sees those lights or the ugly ginormous polar bear, his eyes light up and he says "more more more". (Now I understand why people have those blow up things in their yard. Its' for the kids.)

I can tell Eli to go to time-out and he does, willingly. He'll walk over very calmly, sit down, and then start fake crying. Sometimes he'll go to timeout without being told to. He'll sit for a little while and then stand up and say "sorry". 

His favorite thing to say is "Ut oh. I drop it."

Sometimes when he's really excited he shimmies his body with a big smile. 

He says "Sit dooooown" when he is starting to stand up in his high chair and he knows he isn't supposed to. 

This one isn't so funny, but it's still an oddity. When he's looking at books by himself, if he sees a little boy or girl in the picture he says "nooooooo" while pointing at them. We've been working on it, but I'm not exactly sure what it's about. 

He has a Little People car that plays music when you push different buttons. He never lets the song play through. He just keeps pushing buttons. I'm convinced he does this simply to drive me crazy. 

When he says bye-bye to anyone, he also blows them a kiss.

He counts the stairs as he walks them (yeah, no more crawling the stairs yikes!) 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and any combination of other numbers from 1-15. 

Says "Where are you?" and "Doing?" when he wants to know what's going on. 

Our First Public Meltdown

It was the most beautiful day ever. 65* cool breeze and sunny. Eli and I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up just a few things. He was doing really well, so I decided we should go to Big Lots as we had some birthday presents to pick out. Instead of driving, we walked. Approximately 200 yards. No big deal. 

Inside the store, I tried on some hats on Eli and he loved it. When I started walking away he started throwing a smallish fit. Crying like he couldn't believe his mommy would be so mean. He soon found his composure. We picked out the presents for the princesses and saw a dump truck at the end of the isle. Side note- Eli has like no outside toys. He's got a tiny slide that he plays with for like 10 seconds and a wagon. That's it. Not trike, no nothing. So, I thought this little plastic dump truck would be a good addition to his toys. As soon as I picked it up, his eyes lit up. He was so excited. So we headed to check out. When I put the truck on the counter to pay for it, Eli freaked out. He was so mad/sad/distraught. I grabbed his face and did the close talk thing. It didn't faze him. If I were a good mom I should have left the dump truck, but truth be known, I really wanted him to have it. Oh, it was also at this time that I noticed he had a nasty yellow dried on booger on his nose. Mom of the year, folks. 

Was it worth it? 

We get outside. Eli is still in the cart and it is then that I realized that I have to figure out how to hold the hand of a toddler that has no idea that cars could really hurt him AND carry a dump truck and two other small bags 200 yards. So I get everything adjusted in one hand/arm and grab Eli's hand and we're off. Except Eli decides he's still mad so he sits down and starts crying. So I set the merchandise down, pick him up (discipline his little rear right there in front of anyone who cared to look) and tried to pick up the merchandise. Off we went to the car. He had composed himself by now, but I wasn't about to try to readjust by having him walk. We get to the car and I pop the trunk to put the stuff in. He sees that stupid dump truck again and proceeds to throw his head back and start crying. I put him in his car seat and he blows his nose in protest. The boy has allergies and there was a ton of snot every. Would you believe that there wasn't a napkin, wipe, kleenex anywhere???!?! 

I had planned to stop by the grocery store after Big Lots because we need milk. I wasn't about to take my emotional snot-faced child into another store. 

If this doesn't call for a trip through the drive-thru, I don't know what does. 

Chiefs Kingdom

The Chiefs have been and always will be my favorite NFL team. It is especially fun this year because they are 8-0. That's right. 8 wins, 0 losses. It has maybe happened in my lifetime, but I don't remember it. My brothers, Josh and Jobi, were kind enough to let Brent and I go to our very first game this last week (very generous considering the undefeated streak they had witnessed). The Chiefs were playing the Browns. My mom watched Eli so we could go solo. 

Before the game. 

My favorite Chief is in the background practicing his punt return. Dexter McCluster. He's standing at the 11 yard line. You can't tell it's him, but we all know who's using the camera. :)

I was too chicken to ask anyone to take our picture together. So this is proof Brent was there. I should have recorded him doing the Tomahawk Chop. He thinks he's a Cowboys fan...barf.

Chiefs win!

We had so much fun! What a day. If you haven't experienced a game at Arrowhead, you really should. Thanks again to Jobi and Josh! 

Just 5 Loaves and 2 Fish

Today as Eli and I were running errands around town, I turned on the local Christian radio station. There was a lady speaking about how God can use us even though we lack much. I don't know who she was and I'm not even sure what program it was on (maybe Focus on the Family) and didn't hear it in its entirety. The part I heard she was talking about the time when Jesus feeds the 5,000. He had been healing and speaking all day and they just kept following Him. It was late and the disciples had the brilliant idea to send everyone home and get their own food (no sarcasm intended, I'm pretty sure I would have said the same thing). 

My paraphrase, for entire version go to John 6:1-14

Jesus: How are we going to feed these people?

Disciples: Uh, send them home? Even if we spent all our money from this year, it wouldn't even give everyone a bite.

Andrew: Uh, Jesus...there's a boy that has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. 

Jesus: Tell the people to sit down. (Then Jesus gave thanks for the food and began distributing it.)

There was enough for everyone. EVERYONE. Five freaking thousand people. And 12 baskets left over. 

Did the boy with the food have extra special gifts that made it multiply? Did Andrew get extra God-points because he spotted the food and then gave it to the Master? 

Or, did the Son of God take what little measly gift that was presented, use it, and through His power make it MORE THAN ENOUGH for EVERYONE. 

Wow. This has huge implications for my life. 

But God, I'm not educated enough. But God, I don't know anyone here. But God, I'm too busy. But God, I don't have enough money. But God, (fill in your own excuse). 

But God owns me. He captivates me. He rules my life. So why am I limiting Him? 

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21