We went for Elliott’s 2 year old check up a couple days after his birthday and the doctor pronounced him a happy, healthy guy. He weighed in at 26 lbs. 10 oz and 33.5 inches which means he’s trending slightly smaller than his older brother. Unlike Jonah though, Elliott is talking up a storm already!
Just this morning as I was finishing up my workout on my yoga mat in the office and he walked over to me and said, “I lay down with you on this place mat, Mama?” And to Jonah, “No! Get out, get out!” Ah, so cute, right?
Elliott still isn’t the greatest sleeper but he goes down around 8:00pm now and sleeps at least until 5:30 most mornings. It’s like has an internal clock. No matter what time he goes to bed he still wakes up at 5:30. I’d love him to sleep to 6:30 like Jonah but so far haven’t found the magic to make him do that.
We had Elliott’s birthday at Grandma & Grandpa’s house along with mother’s day. He requested a birthday cake with a monkey on it so that’s what he got!
Elliott is loving the back yard at our new house and was thrilled to get a sandbox and new toy boat to play in for his birthday. He can often be found helping me in the garden or flipping over rocks in our yard with his shovel in search of worms and other bugs. We even have butterflies at home that we are waiting and checking on each day to see when they will emerge from their chrysalis.
He’s in a couple gym classes now and goes to swimming once a week where he tells me he, “Goes underwater like a dolphin and swims like a fish.” And it’s true, he really does go underwater and everything. We’ll have a couple little swimmers in our house in no time.
Oh and he’s also become a puzzle master. We have about 20 wooden jigsaw puzzles at home and Elliott is a wiz at all of them. He can do them with out any help. We have some with pegs but he quickly moved on from those to the standard 12 piece ones that don’t have any pictures behind the pictures. He can even do Jonah’s 48 piece ones with a little help. There’s a puzzle game app on my Kindle Fire too that he’s mastered. It’s to a point where I don’t ever use that tablet, only the boys do.
All in all, he’s at a great age and we are really enjoying it. Elliott and Jonah play together really well and seem enjoy each other’s company. It’s very sweet to see. Part of me wishes he could stay this age forever.
At night you can usually find some all of us in the family room for a quick game of chase, tickle and tag. On this night apparently Chris didn’t feel like running…
Elliott is turning into a real little chatterbox. Tonight after we read stories before bed I could hardly get him to stop talking. We rocked and instead of snuggling in with me like he usually does he started chatting away.
First he looked at his toy horse and declared that no, he didn’t want to go for a horsie ride he wants to ride a cow! And Jonah should come to the farm too to ride a sheep, Daddy should ride a pig and Mama is the one who should get on the horse.
He’d been to Wagner Farm earlier this week with our sitter so I asked him about that. What animals he saw and he told me he got to climb on the tractors. He said he got to drive them. Then started to tell me how we should get a “new one” for him to drive and that I’d have to sit in back while he sat up front to drive.
From there we somehow got onto trains and again he was driving. He said Papa takes the purple train (he does, take the Purple Line L sometimes) and asked about the train I take to work. I told him that one didn’t have a color. He talked about how the choo choo train drives on train tracks - he is right about that.
Then we started talking about flowers. Earlier tonight we passed a flower shop and he said, “Looks like a nice place.” It was too cute. I asked him if he was going to buy me flowers for my anniversary next week and of course he said yes. We agreed that he’d buy me pink ones, Jonah wanted red ones, Elliott wanted white ones and we’d get yellow ones for Daddy. Now he’s all set to go shopping.
And fehw! After that I had to tell him it was time for bed! I KNOW Jonah was not talking this much at this age. I don’t know if Jonah talks this much even now! :)
We had a fun Saturday as a family staying at home this weekend. The kids literally stayed in their pj’s the entire day. Including when we went outside to play in the snow.
Jonah made snow angels, Elliott threw snow at us and Bianca had a great time running in the snow. We also created a snow “mountain,” pulled up a deck chair and helped Jonah sled down it. Check out the photos and video below.
This is the point we’re at with E lately: Wakes up at 5am and cries for Mama. I get him around 5:30 and bring him to bed with me where he is content for about 10 minutes. I wrestle for him for another 10 while he asks for Daddy then let him go find him since he’s now done showering. The minute he finds Daddy he starts crying and heading back for my door, saying, “I want Mama.” But of course isn’t happy with me at that point either. And thus the day with a clingy 20 month old begins.
Just as Elliott learned to kiss overnight it seems Jonah has gone from pure scribbles to drawing actual recognizable forms over night. We’ve always encouraged art and creative projects but until now he’s dabbled in it a bit but has been more into developing his physical skills vs his artistic ones. By that I mean that he’d prefer to run and jump or hit a ball with a bat rather than sit at the table coloring. Maybe things are changing due to age or his interests are changing or it’s the influence of school…I have no idea. Regardless, it’s fun to watch this change and see the new skills develop.
Check out the post it note drawings he did for me from the back of the car today. I think they are pretty good. Way better than the scribbles I was expecting. And lest you misinterpret, those first few are of “mama’s drill.” Can you tell we’ve been doing a lot of work around the new house?
The one with the 2 people shows one running, but only one…can you guess which?
And lastly, a word he wrote out after eating lunch at Johnny Rockets.
Hanukkah and Christmas shared a weekend this year so needless to say we’re still digging out from all the new toys. Below are some photos of Hanukkah at Nana & Papa’s house on Christmas Eve. Highlights were the ride-on Thomas train for Elliott and the pirate ship for Jonah. Julie was also excited about her new Kindle Fire and Chris put his Leatherman too right to work.
I think Uncle Tim’s shirt in the photo below says it all.
