Christmas Spirit

We're really having a lot of fun with Elias this Christmas season, and I plan to do a post after the holidays about the traditions we're starting with him in our home and how we're celebrating Christ's birth.  However, he's also just at a great age where he is starting to be able to understand and participate in everything, and we're just having a great time!  Here he is singing "Jingle Bells."  Note that what he lacks in lyrics, he makes up for in enthusiasm!  (He's shaking a snowman-shaped bell ornament in one hand, and a little jingle bell craft we made in the other.)

Elias-isms

There are so many cute things that Elias says, and I don't want to forget them when he's all grown up and talking like a Rhodes Scholar! So I'm going to make a list of the ones I can think of to capture them for posterity:

- He has a toy cell phone, and he combines "telephone" and "cell phone" to call it a "cellephone."

- He pronounces "Thank you" like "Gank you."

- Just like his mommy, he loves getting out and about each day - we both hate being stuck inside.  So every morning about 10:00, he'll start asking to "Get in the car, go bye-bye!"  We've usually always left for our daily errands by then, so it's rough on days we don't have anything to do!

- He loves to go with me to do the grocery shopping, and every day when we're getting ready to leave the house, he asks if we can go "Do some shoppin's." I confess, I taught him the word "shoppin's" - I didn't realize it would stick!

- He likes to cuddle, and when he wants to be held, he comes to us and says "Hold ya, please!" We're trying to get across the concept that it's "Hold ya," when we say it to him, but it's "Hold me," when he says it to us!

- As noted above, he refers to everyone in the third person, including himself. He calls himself "Elias John," which I think is precious. I've realized, though, that I model to him talking in the third person all the time, so instead of saying "Mommy loves you," I need to start saying "I love you."

- Both Justin and I have mentioned it before, but he sometimes calls Justin "Captain D's." We have no idea why.

- When asked "How are you?" he often replies "So big."  This always gets a big laugh, so I'm sure it encourages him to keep doing it!

- He's taken to spouting out some of the phrases he always hears us say to him.  Some of the ones that make me laugh the most are "Be careful!" "Don't touch!" and "Thanks for being patient, buddy."

- Speaking of patience, he knows every word to the old Kid's Praise song "Have patience."  (Remember the old Music Machine album??  To listen to the fruits of the Spirit section, go here.  Skip to about 0:41 to hear just the Herbert the Snail patience part.)  So whenever he starts fussing because we're not doing something fast enough, I'll say "Be patient!" and he'll automatically start singing the song!

- He's starting to learn opposites like on/off, up/down, etc. but he hasn't quite figured out exactly how to word things.  For example, when he's riding on Daddy's shoulders and wants to get down, he'll say "Daddy's shoulders off, please."  And today he asked Justin "Window off, please" when he wanted Justin to shut the blinds.

- He is very polite, though, and almost always says "please" when he's making a request!

I'm sure there are plenty more, but I've been slowly adding to this list for a couple weeks, and it's time to post it!  I'll begin another post with any new ones I think of.

In Mommy's Shoes

Since cold weather came, I've been wearing my purple slippers around the house.  Elias calls them my purple shoes.  So whenever he catches me not wearing them, he'll claim them for his own and shuffle around in them.

A Shutterfly Christmas

Many of you may have already seen people talking about the 50 free photo cards that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers who write about them on their blog.  So here is my little plug!

I'm a big fan of Shutterfly and all the really cute photo products you can get there!  I have given their photo books and photo mugs as gifts before, and honestly, when you have a kid as cute as mine, who WOULDN'T want a gift with his sweet face plastered across it?!?! 

They have a whole lot of cute options when it comes to their Christmas photo cards, though, and I'm really looking forward to designing one to send out to our family and friends.  They have a really neat feature on the left side of the page where you can narrow down exactly what you're looking for instead of having to browse through all 800+ of their options!  My choices of 5x7 folded cards that use 3 or more pictures narrowed it down to 85 cards to choose from - that's manageable!

A couple of my faves:

So watch your mailboxes in a couple weeks, and you'll see one of these sweet cards with our good-looking mugs on them!

And if you're a blogger, there are only 2 more days to take advantage of this awesome deal, so head over here and sign up RIGHT AWAY!

Walking Buster Doggie

Elias loves his Pound Puppy named Buster, and he enjoys an Elmo's World episode where Mr. Noodle shows us how to walk a dog. So I decided Elias might have fun if I tie a shoestring to Buster's collar and we take him for a walk. He loved it! It cracks me up when he says "This way!" to Buster, and you'll notice how "gentle" he is when petting his dog... This is (only in part) why we don't have a real dog.

He got a little tangled up there at the end, but I was proud of him for figuring out how to get out himself.

Side note about Buster: That Pound Puppy used to be Justin's when he was young!  Sweet family heirloom.  His name wasn't Buster until recently - Elias named him Buster after the little brown dog in the Boz the Bear show.

Denied!

Elias and I like to play a game where he tries to throw the couch cushions over the back of the couch, and I play defense while shouting "Denied!" each time I prevent a cushion from falling. He thinks this is HILARIOUS, and I think it's pretty fun myself!!

100 Hoops

Justin is absolutely awesome at finding fantastic yard sale deals on toys for Elias.  One of his home runs was a toy called 100 Hoops, an electronic basketball hoop that combines basketball with learning how to count.  It has several different settings, but one of our favorites is where each shot earns 10 points, so you learn to count by tens to 100.  Here is Elias playing it:

You'll notice, of course, that Elias cheats and just pushes the button in the net instead of actually putting the ball through.  Ah well, at least he's learning to count the higher numbers!!! 

At one point, you'll hear him ask me to "Put it up."  We hang it on a higher hinge and I lift him up for each shot.  That's fun, but Mommy can only lift her 40-pound boy that high so many times!!!

Autumn Leaves

I've had these pics/video of Elias playing in the autumn leaves for a full two months.  I hadn't posted them yet, though, because I've been intending to get more video of the way he would play in the leaves.  But I never did and now it's 30 degrees out, so leaf-playing is over for this year.  Soooo, I'll post what I've got.  And what I've got is majorly cute.

Elias LOVED playing in the leaves!  His favorite thing to do what just sit and crush them in his hands - this is what I was waiting to get a video of.  Here's a video, though, of him "throwing" the leaves at Mommy and laughing.  Silly boy!

Sigh.

A full 2 weeks since I've posted on here.  Actually I thought it had been longer, so I guess 2 weeks isn't all that bad.  We went out of town for Thanksgiving, and I finally feel like I have my head back on straight!  Of course, 2 more weeks and we're leaving again for Christmas travels.  Ah well.  I have a whole bunch of awesome pics and videos that I'm hoping to get edited and posted here in the next few days!  Then it'll be another month before I post about Christmas.  ;)