Obsessed with Thomas

Elias' deepest love and heart's joy is Thomas the Tank Engine. Seriously. He adores Thomas and all his friends. He knows the theme song. He knows the motto ("Making tracks to great destinations"). He knows the names of all the engines. He asks to watch Thomas all the time. He carries his Thomas toys with him everywhere we go. Obsessed. And honestly, I don't mind so much. I'm so relieved to be done with Elmo that I will take Thomas any day of the week!

Here's a video of Elias singing the first half of the Thomas theme song. (If you want to see the actual song, you can watch it here.)

He knows the whole thing, but I haven't been able to get him on video doing the whole thing. He gets distracted or wants to stop and watch himself on the video camera. In this case, we had our shoes on and were getting ready to go run errands, so he just wanted to get on with it! You hear him say "Get in the car!" at the end... He's a man of single purpose.

You'll also notice in the above video that he has a little toy train that is not Thomas, but he loved it and called it Thomas. This was before his birthday when he got several toys that actually WERE Thomas. Now his other trains are no longer "Thomas," they are "Train."

In his birthday post, I promised a video of him playing with his new remote-controlled Thomas that Nana & Granddad gave him. There are several components to this one, so it's pretty long. The first part is him just playing with the train. He was afraid of it the first time I pulled it out and used the remote, so we turned it off and he loved just playing with it. You can hear him saying the motto in that part. In the second section, Daddy convinced him that it's not scary to play with the remote, so you'll see him learning how to do that. And the third part is what I mentioned in the birthday post - he loved Thomas so much that he wouldn't put him down to eat his snack! So Thomas ate snack with us that day. In that part, you'll hear him saying the opening to the Thomas & Friends show: "Who's that puffing down the tracks? It's Thomas! Hello, Thomas! Hello, everybody! Welcome to the Island of Sodor!"

So Thomas is our new love and obsession, and I think there are far worse things he could be obsessed with! Thank you to all the grandparents who sent him Thomas toys for his birthday! They're all big hits! :)

Squishing Peas

Elias LOVES peas. They are by far his favorite green vegetable, and they may be his favorite food altogether. But one day he discovered how to make them even MORE fun to eat!

Counting His Blessings

Elias doesn't do this much anymore, but he went through a phase where he would "count his blessings" whenever we would pray over our food. After we prayed, he would say "Thank Jesus food... Animals... Daddy!" So food, animals, and Daddy are apparently the top 3 things he's thankful for! When I was taking this video, he actually added Mommy to the list for the first time, and that melted my heart!

Um, Guess I've Got a New Look

One of my faithful readers (Thanks, Mom!) let me know that my previous blog template stopped working, and it had an error message that was blocking some of the text. So instead of going to the trouble of finding a new template I liked and uploading it, I just personalized one of the generic Blogger templates. So let me know if you hate the colors or if there's something that doesn't work on your screen. But I'd rather spend my time editing and posting cute videos of Elias than searching for another great template... Maybe someday!

No Boot Camp Required!

I mentioned in this post about our upcoming transitions that after Elias got settled into his Big Boy Bed, we were going to begin No-More-Paci Boot Camp to get him off the pacifier. I had really been dreading this because I thought it was going to be a huge ordeal. But Justin was more convinced than I was that we needed to do it soon and that he would be ok, so he managed to convince me. So this weekend, a temporary insanity struck me and I decided to just give it a try. I figured there's no way to know how he'd do without it until we tried it.

Elias turned 2 on Friday, so I thought Saturday would be a good day to see how he did without a paci. There was nothing I did to prepare him for it - I didn't even tell him I was going to do it. I just put him down for his nap without it, not mentioning it at all. He knows how to ask for it, so I figured it he was going to have a problem, he could just ask for the paci. But he didn't ask for it. He did whine a bit, and he didn't nap at all that first day, but he never asked for his paci. And that night he was so tired from not napping that he went right to sleep without it. And he slept all night and woke up at the normal time! Score!

The second day was Sunday, and he went down for his nap fine without the paci. I wasn't really surprised at this because church makes his nap later than usual and wears him out, so he was tired. Then he also went to sleep Sunday night. He did wake up pretty early Monday morning, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Monday was a little bit of a setback because he didn't nap at all, but he still never asked for the paci. And like Saturday, without the nap he slept great Monday night.

So dare I say it??? I think we're done with the paci! WOW! That was WAAAAAAAY easier than I expected! It's only been 3 days, so the struggle may not be over, but I think he has proven he can do without it, so we won't be giving it back to him. What a relief that there was no Boot Camp required for this transition!!!

Two Years Old!!

My precious boy is two years old today. That brings me a whole lot of joy and just a tiny bit of nostalgia. The nostalgia didn't really hit until today when I received my first edition of "Your Preschooler This Week" from BabyCenter in my email inbox - no longer will I see "Your Baby" or "Your Toddler..." My big boy is a preschooler! Aaaaaaaaack!

Buuuuuuuuuut, the vast majority of my baby growing up is joy. He is such a treasure, so smart and precious, growing so fast and developing so well. We had our 2-year well visit this morning, and he is perfectly healthy, and we thank God. Here are his 2-year stats:

Height: 38" (99%)
Weight: 38 lb. (99%)
Head: 20" (95%)

So he's still gigantic, but still proportionate and perfectly healthy. Today I asked the doctor about being able to switch him to 2% or skim milk instead of whole and she heartily approved. She laughingly said "I understand if you want to slim him down a bit... Next time you come in, he'll be carrying you!"

We'll be having his birthday party and his 2-year portraits made next week, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, here's a little bit of our birthday celebrations so far. We received packages in the mail from all Elias' grandparents, but we're opening the presents slowly instead of all at once. The first one we opened was from Nana & Granddad, and it was a remote-controlled Thomas! Be still Elias' heart! He's deeply in love with it, and I couldn't even convince him to put it down long enough to eat yesterday! So Thomas joined Elias for his snack:
Notice how Elias won't even take his hand off of Thomas long enough to eat... I'll post a video soon of Elias playing with the remote control.

Then we opened the card from Grandma & Grandpa, and it had Elmo singing happy birthday! More pure bliss for my little buddy. Here's a video of him pushing the button to hear Elmo OVER and OVER and OVER... Seriously, he did it for like 20 minutes. I spared you that, though, and only posted 50 seconds of it here.

I'll post more about our celebrations, and I have a backlog of videos I hope to get edited and up soon. But we are so thankful for our precious and healthy boy, and thankful to God for carrying us these two years! May we really have many more!

Believing Truth

I am so thankful for my friends and family! You guys are so precious to me, and I really appreciate your love, support, and prayers for me in the battle that I shared about in my previous post. It means so much to me to have people who understand and will support me in prayer.

This has been a long road, and I believe it will still be a long road before I reach the end of this particular struggle. This particular season, though, the battle has just intensified, and I find myself making one step forward, two steps back, a half a step forward, three steps back... I'm really trying to at least keep FACING the right direction, though, even if I am moving backward sometimes. A huge part of keeping myself facing the right direction is knowing what is truth and believing it. That sounds simple, but I really think it's the crux of my struggle, at least the emotional and mental facets of it.

So in my prayers and meditation over WHY I'm facing this battle and WHY it affects me so badly emotionally and mentally, God gave me two precious truths that are key to keeping it all in proper perspective and therefore keeping my mind and emotions in check. These two things are Truth, and I believing them will allow me to face trials and accept them in faith. Here they are:

1. Everything God allows into my life is coming from His great love for me.

2. Trials that God allows me to go through are for the purpose of refining me to reach my full potential in Him.

These two things are HUGE, and it is so precious to me that God gave me truth in response to the exact things that I'm struggling over in my mental battles. Because when I'm struggling, my mind tends to say things like this: "I'm supposed to believe that God loves me. But God can't really love me or else I wouldn't be dealing with stuff. He would intervene if He really loved me. He would answer my prayers for relief. He would keep me from stumbling. He would protect me from attacks. He would keep me from believing lies..." etc, etc, etc until it makes me want to curl up and die.

But now when I start going down this road again, I can refer to the Truths above. God does in fact love me, which means that He wants what is best for me, not necessarily what is easiest. To help me understand it better, I thought about the way I love Elias. I love him so much that I want him to grow into a responsible and mature adult, so I discipline him now. That's not easy and not pleasant, and he would be a lot happier right now if I would just let him do whatever he wants. But that wouldn't be love and it would lead not only to misery later, but it would prevent him from being a useful and valuable member of society in the future too.

And that leads right into the second point, which is that God has a purpose and point to the suffering I go through. In this particular case, He has shown me a LOT of doubt and rebellion that lies in my heart, which I never would've known was there if my life had always been all hunky-dory. So he uses pain and suffering to reveal that so it can be dealt with and cleansed, thus enabling me to be happier in Him and also a better representative on earth of Christ and His character.

Sometimes, though, I don't always get to see the purpose behind what He's doing, and that's where faith comes in. It's hard in the middle of suffering to understand and believe that God is allowing this out of love. And so I just have to believe it. So that's where I am right now. Just choosing to believe God and praying that He'll bring me out of this valley into a place of rest soon.

My Shield & Refuge

I think I've posted a bit about this on here in the past two years, but not much. I don't like complaining about things that aren't going to change, and I prefer keeping this blog a light place to share mostly about Elias. However, I want to share about where I am right now. If there are any of you that even still check this blog, you know that I have majorly slacked off on posting here, and that is partly because of the personal stuff I'm dealing with. I have had major trouble in the physical/hormonal adjustment since Elias was born. I won't go into details in this public forum, but it has affected me deeply both physically, mentally, and spiritually. I have called it depression and hormonal imbalance, I've thought I was just crazy, and I've believed it is a spiritual attack. In truth it is probably all three of those things, along with other factors that I don't realize. I keep believing/hoping/praying that it will just resolve on its own. I've been to the doctor a couple times, but those visits just end in frustration because she can't really explain or help either. I mean, of course a woman's body and mind go through difficult transitions upon becoming a mother! And since no two women respond the same way, it's not easy to diagnose a problem or find a surefire solution. So I wait. And wait. And wait. Not very patiently at times.

The past two weeks have been very, very difficult ones for me on this front. I've been the lowest that maybe I've ever been. One thing that has been different about this particular valley is that the spiritual attacks have been fierce and blatant. I have found myself doubting my faith and the truth of Scripture. I have wondered if maybe I should be institutionalized because I am completely losing my mind. I have been deliberately disobedient to God out of anger because I felt like He is not coming through for me in this area. And I just don't understand why I'm struggling in this area, why I am praying for relief but it instead just seems to get worse.

But today I came to a crossroads of faith. I either need to believe in God's love and faithfulness that are promised in Scripture, or I need to "curse God and die. (Job 2:9)" I can't keep living on both sides of the fence. So I got on my knees before God and just cried "HELP!" I flipped open my Bible to a random page and saw this:

Proverbs 30:5
Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

So that's a pretty clear answer to which of the two above choices is the right one. God's Word not only is true, but it PROVES true. It has been tested and proven. I need to take refuge in Him and He will be my shield.

Then I flipped to another random page and just stared in disbelief at what God took me to:

Jeremiah 29:11-13
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

These are incredibly meaningful for my current situation anyway, but most of you may not know that these are the verses I have always claimed as my "life verses." So it was no coincidence that He opened my Bible to these verses right when I was doubting the truth of His love and faithfulness in my life. He knows, He sees, He hears, He answers. I still don't understand what I'm dealing with or why, but He is here, He is available to me in my time of need, and He has good plans of hope for me.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

OBBB: Day 6 Update

I just thought I'd post an update to let you all know how Operation Big Boy Bed is doing. I was counting up the days to put it in the title, and I can't believe it's already been 6 days! He's doing very well, and I think we're starting to get the hang of it.

Naptime
Naptimes are our biggest challenge. He is just so excited at his newfound freedom to explore his room that sometimes it's hard for him to settle down and go to sleep. I've been consistent about employing the Supernanny method of watching the video monitor and as soon as he gets out of bed and starts playing, I go back in and put him back to bed. I tried doing it without speaking the way she recommends, but I really don't think he understood what he was supposed to be doing. So instead I say something like "No play. Go night-night. Stay in bed." We've settled into a consistent routine of him taking just over an hour to go to sleep after I put him down. Today it was a little longer, but it was also different in that he actually stayed in bed on his own for the vast majority of that time. I only went in there to put him back to bed about 4 times in an hour and a half, when previously it's been like 20 times in that amount of time. So I'm hoping this means that he's catching on to the concept that he's supposed to stay in bed at naptime!

Bedtime
He has done awesome from day 1 with nighttime sleep. I don't think he has once gotten out of bed, even though it usually takes him about an hour and a half to actually fall asleep after we put him down. He just rolls around and talks to himself to wind down. Tonight I had to laugh because I was watching him on the monitor and he was holding his hands close to his face and counting his fingers... He got to 14, though, so I'm not sure what that means! :)

The only trouble we're having with this now is that his bed is up against the wall that is shared with our room, and one of his favorite pastimes is kicking that wall when he's in bed but can't sleep. I don't want to encourage that at any time, but it's especially wearing when he does it at 2 or 3 in the morning! Dude! Easy on the kicking, please!

Roomtime
I am also thrilled at the way he has been able to make the transition from crib playtime to room playtime. He does awesome playing by himself in his room - I just put the safety gate in the doorway to keep him in. He's still learning what he's not supposed to do - opening up his wipes and throwing them around the room was a new one he tried today. He also can reach the light switch if he stands on his bed, so that's a battle to keep him from playing with that. But in general he does great with just listening to music and playing with toys by himself.

He seems to be really proud of his big boy bed, and he knows that he's a big boy to be sleeping in it. Often when I tell him it's time to go night-night, he'll say "big boy bed!" quickly followed by "Thomas the Tank Engine!" who is on his sheets. So he likes it, and I think we're going to make it!

OBBB: Night 1 Success!

Elias slept for 11.5 hours last night! In fact, I had to wake him up for breakfast! I know he needs more sleep, but I want him to stay on schedule and hopefully nap this afternoon... My big, big, big boy! I snuck in to check on him last night after he fell asleep - I wanted to make sure he was ok. He was sound asleep, and I took a picture of his position because it made me laugh.He had his face all smooshed into the mesh of the rail! I actually anticipated this because he always slept with his face pressed into the bars of his crib. I was actually worried about moving into the bed because he wouldn't have as much to smoosh into - didn't seem to stop him, though! You'll also notice that he has his hand in his hair - he rubs his hair to put himself to sleep.

We never heard a peep out of him all night long. I woke up about 4:30 and decided to check the video monitor and make sure he was ok... But I didn't see him in the bed... So I went into his room, and he had thrown his pillow on the floor between the bed and toy shelf, and he was sleeping on the pillow on the floor! I wonder if that just happened or if he did it on purpose because he missed the enclosed feeling. I just left him where he was, but a few minutes later I heard movement and so I checked the monitor again. He stood up, looked around dazedly, and then stumbled around and climbed into bed where he promptly fell right back asleep! He stayed there until I woke him up at 7:10.

I'm so proud of my big, big boy!!!!! So now we'll see if he naps today.

*Note: I could have cropped this picture closer, but I left it big on purpose. My mother-in-law bought that toy shelf for us back in January, and I've been promising to show her a picture of what it looks like in his room ever since then. But the slacker I am, I haven't done it! So this is for you, JoBeth! We love the toy shelf!!! Thank you!!!

Breaking News

Operation Big Boy Bed Breaking News Story:

He's asleep! Only took him 10 minutes and he's out like a light! This is exactly why we decided to introduce the bed at naptime - we knew that if he didn't sleep then, he'd be so exhausted he'd go right to sleep at night. Praise God that part of the plan worked! Now we'll just see if he STAYS asleep... Updates will follow as events take place.

Operation Big Boy Bed - Day 1

We made the big switch this morning! Justin and I disassembled the crib, did as much as we could think of to make the room safe for an unsupervised Elias, and brought in the Big Boy Bed! Here's Elias' first encounter with it:
I was fairly encouraged by the things he was doing in this video, since he clearly understood the bed was for sleeping and he kept laying down and saying "Night night." This, however, was NOT an indication of what his first nap attempt would look like! No nap on Day 1. I think he was just so excited at being able to explore the room on his own that he would lay down, but just be so excited and have to get back up again. So although he didn't nap, he was content to stay in his room alone for the entire nap time AND roomtime (what used to be crib playtime now has to be roomtime since there is no crib!). So I call it a success.

I must confess that I was a BASKETCASE this morning worrying about how it was going to go and just imagining all the ways he was going to seriously injure himself being able to wander the room alone. My fears were, of course, blown way out of proportion. He did knock over his table once and break the stand of a picture frame, but there were no opportunities for serious injury, and he did a good job just playing nicely on his own. So I'm much calmer now after having survived four hours of solitary play. I had the video monitor on and kept an eye on him the whole time, and I'm encouraged at how well he did.

Soooooo, I'm hoping that tonight he's so tired he'll just sleep in the bed without much ado. I'll keep you posted! And you keep praying for us!

Major Transitions

My big boy is growing up, and we've got three major transitions ahead of us! Today we finished collecting everything we need for the first one:

Twin bed - check
Safety rails - check
Pillow - check
Waterproof mattress pad - check
Thomas & Friends sheets - check
Thomas & Friends blanket - check

So Operation Big Boy Bed is set to begin this weekend! I'll post pics and updates once we get it in motion. When we got home with the sheets and blanket today, I pulled the blanket out right away so Elias could see it and get excited about it. He seemed to enjoy the wrapper more...My goofy boy! Once I got the blanket spread out on the floor, though, he REALLY enjoyed laying on it and rolling around on it, so hopefully that's a good sign he'll want to lay on it in his bed, too!

Once Operation Big Boy Bed is accomplished, we'll begin No-More-Paci Boot Camp followed by Mission Potty Training. Wow, what a summer we have in store! Pray for us!

2+2=4

So my child seems to already be grasping math concepts. Well, not really. But one day he just randomly started saying "Two plus two is four!" I guess he picked it up from a toy or a show, but I don't know where! But Justin and I both just about fell over the first time he said it!

Playing in the Backyard

I have been looking forward to warm weather because I just knew that we would have so much fun playing outside with Elias. And we do! I snapped a few pics and videos of Elias and Daddy playing in the backyard last week. He likes to kick and throw his ball, point out the "flowers" (dandelions), run around, and look at clouds in the sky!
This picture is from another day when we were playing outside. I just wanted to show off his yellow crocs that we got in Kentucky! I think they're so cute! They're still a little big, so they weren't good for running around in the yard, but Elias loves wearing them. We're so thankful for the nice weather and the ability to play outside! One of these days I'll take a camera to the playground to see if I can capture us playing there.

Raising Him Right

This weekend I went together with a friend and we did a yard sale at her house. It was awesome to get rid of so much stuff, and we made about $150 in the process, so that's definitely a win-win! Since I was there all day, Justin had Elias for the day, and so he thought he would be a cool dad and do something fun and special with Elias. They went yard sale shopping themselves, and Dad got Elias some really cool toys! He hit a home run with a big helicopter that makes noise. (Elias calls it Harold like the one in Thomas and Friends, although it's actually The King's helicopter from Cars the movie.) Then after they finished buying the coolest toys in the neighborhood, Dad thought he'd take him to McDonald's for lunch - how cool is that? Well, Elias wasn't so sure. Here's what Justin wrote about it on his blog under the title "I guess we're raising him right...":

Today I had the care of our almost 2 year old while my wife did a co-garage sale with some friends from church as part of Bolivar's annual city-wide garage sale celebration.

For lunch, I decided we'd do a father-son outing to McDonald's. It's a weird idea because Elias has probably never eaten at McDonald's and we almost never eat fast food as a family. But I know McDonald's has a power similar to Elmo's-- I knew a 2 year old in a third world country whose first words were practically from the McDonald's menu, something she saw maybe once a month. I sort of wanted to test this power. The main appeal of our McD's is that it has 45 cent ice cream cones and I thought it'd be fun to share that treat.

I got Elias a Happy Meal and myself a grilled chicken club, and 2 small cones. Elias is always a huge lunch eater, so I expected him to do well with the chopped up burger, bun, and fries.

He literally turned his nose up at the burger, bun, and fries. He ate most of the cheese off the burger, and a few bites of the bun. He wouldn't believe me that it was bread. He spit out the french fries, he clearly didn't like them. And the only thing he would eat off of my sandwich was the tomato, he ate most of it.

He ate most of his ice cream, although he didn't seem to like it as much as the sugar-free stuff I give him at home. He didn't know it was ice cream until I told him.

So, feeling guilty about this idea, we went home. The fact that he likes his Happy Meal toy is little consolation-- we could have bought plenty of similar toys today at garage sales for a much lower price. At home, I heated up his leftover green beans, ham, and rice from last night along with some sliced strawberries. "Mmmmm!" he exclaimed as he began chowing down.

Elias is right, of course, McDonald's food is fake processed crud and no one should eat it. So, I feel guilty about taking him to McDonald's. It might be the last time.

I love it! I'm proud of Justin for trying to be a cool dad and make the day special for Elias, and I'm also proud of Elias for not knowing that McDonald's is "cool!"

Straw Sippy

We didn't have much trouble when we moved from bottles to sippies with Elias a long time ago. However, we seem to be stuck there, and we're having trouble trying to move on to anything else. We had a major victory last week, though, with a straw sippy cup that Uncle Emmitt and Aunt Linda gave him when we were in Kentucky. (Thank you, Uncle Emmitt and Aunt Linda!) He FINALLY learned how to drink from a straw! We haven't perfected the technique yet, but I'm glad to just be making any kind of progress at all! Don't get me started on trying to just drink from an open cup. Disaster so far - all he wants to do is shake the cup and splash his water everywhere. If anybody has any ideas or suggestions that could help us get there, that'd be great!

Don't Throw!

Elias has a set of picture flash cards that he likes to look at and play with. I took this video because we're trying to teach him not to throw them, so we say "Don't throw" whenever he does. So now he just throws one and then says "Don't throw." The goober. He also identifies the "bugs" flash card and the "rabbit" flash card. What a big boy!

Banana All Gone!

Elias eats a whole banana every morning for breakfast. He loves them! He calls them "ma-na." We usually cut them up in bite-sized pieces for him, but one morning a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd see what he did if I just gave him a half a banana. He did pretty well taking bites at first, but then he just stuffed the rest in his mouth - about 1/4 of a banana at once! He managed to get it all chewed and swallowed, and then he said "Ma-na all gone!" Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that! Here's a video of it for your viewing pleasure:

Couldn't Resist

My sister posted her family's Easter adventures yesterday, and they are SO PRECIOUS I couldn't resist stealing this photo and showing it off here.Look at my handsome nephews in those hats!!!! I sure do love those guys! Go here to see all their Easter madness.

Happy Easter!

He is risen! I am truly filled with joy at Easter this year. God has been doing some major work in my heart the past couple of months (Well, it's probably been years in the making, but the major stuff is going on right now.) to show me lots of wrong attitudes I've had and ways I've been deceived through past experiences into believing that His promises aren't true for me. But praise God they ARE true, and His death and resurrection bought my freedom and eternal life! Today I just want to jump and shout at His goodness and power and grace and love for me and for all mankind! So happy Easter to all - He is risen indeed!

Elias wore a new outfit to church today in celebration of the occasion, but it was pretty hard getting him to hold still for a picture! We resorted to blowing bubbles, and that let us catch a couple good ones.We also tried him sitting on Daddy's lap, which didn't really work to show off the outfit, but they're cute nonetheless!I am so thankful for these two men in my life!!!

Note: That t-shirt and sweater vest are a size 4T! Yes, that says FOUR. My child is huge! Also note his new summer haircut. My big boy with the short hair!

Spring Break, Part 5 - Going Home

So after a lovely week, it was time to head back to Missouri. Here's Elias blowing kisses and saying bye-bye to Nana & Granddad as we drove away.

We are so thankful that Elias is such a good traveler! He doesn't sleep much in the car, but he is very content to play with his toys and books. He actually did sleep for an hour or two on the way home, which I think is a record for him! I had to capture it:
Before we headed home, we stopped in Jefferson City, which is the capital of Missouri. Justin had a school event, and so Elias and I hit the town together. I didn't realize it until I got home and was uploading pictures, but I didn't take a single picture of us in Jeff City. Ah well. We didn't do anything really scenic anyways... But we did have fun! We visited a nature center, played at the mall, and enjoyed the hotel, including swimming in the pool, watching TV, and wandering the hallways! You can't accuse the Tapps of not finding a way to have a good time!

We are so thankful for the blessing of family to relax with! Thanks to all who helped us have such a nice Spring Break!

Spring Break, Part 4 - Loving the Family

We were blessed to see quite a bit of Justin's family while we were in the state. His Uncle Leighton & Aunt Kay drove in from Bowling Green to visit us, which was a LOT of fun! I'm kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture with them. Well, I didn't exactly forget... I had intended to take one after Elias woke up from his nap, but he woke up extremely grumpy and there was no picture taking going on at that point.

But I remembered the next day when Justin's Uncle Emmitt and Aunt Linda visited from Madisonville! Elias was at least pleasant then.We went out to eat at a restaurant, and Elias cracked everybody up by picking up the menu and reading it like he was trying to decide what to order!You can't fool us, buddy. We all know you already want the mac & cheese.

We also had great times with Nana & Granddad, although I didn't take many pictures. Elias and Granddad were the two earliest risers in the house, so they often got to spend time together in the mornings. Here they are reading the paper together. (This week, Elias learned a new word: newspaper.)You'll notice through the window behind them that it's still dark out! Sheesh. Thankfully, Daddy was the one who was awake to take this picture. Mommy was snoozing!

And Granddad was extra special in the fact that Elias gave him high-fives! High-fives are a coveted thing from Elias - he doesn't favor just anybody with them. I missed the actual five in this picture, but you can see the aftermath - Elias' hand is still up.

We tried to get a picture with Nana & Granddad, but Elias wasn't cooperating again. This is the best we got.Sheesh. Granddad had already fled the scene at this point. What really cracks me up about this picture is the HUGE smile on my face while Elias is melting down in my arms. Ya know, a toddler mama just does the best she can sometimes.

Spring Break, Part 3 - Eddyville Playground

We had a few days of really beautiful weather while we were in Kentucky, so one day Nana and I took Elias to the little playground they have in the town near their house. It's a really great playground that has the soft rubber on the ground instead of wood chips or gravel, so it was easy to let Elias just run and play because I knew he probably wasn't going to fall and hurt himself. He loved it!! He's finally started to get old enough to really enjoy playing on a playground, and this child is fearless!

Saying "Can we slide some more??"Here's a short video of him swinging. He says "Swiiiiiiing! Wheee!"

Rocking in the racecarAnd on the rocking train.He called the train Thomas (the Tank Engine), who is his newest obsession. Here's a video of him rocking on "Thomas."

They also had a tic-tac-toe board and he loved spinning the pieces! He would run back and forth from the slide to the tic-tac-toe board saying "Slide! Spin! Slide! Spin!" It made Mommy a little dizzy, but E had fun.Even sitting on a bench is fun when it's at the playground!

Spring Break, Part 2 - Big Boy Toys

The one thing that Elias always associates with Granddad is a tractor. Granddad has given Elias a couple toy tractors, and if you ask him who drives them, he'll always say Granddad. (See old video here.) So imagine his delight when we actually got to see Granddad's REAL tractor!Here's a video of him riding on it with Daddy. He even gets to steer the wheel, and he says "Up" and "Down" when Daddy controls the bucket.

Then in the garage behind the tractor, Justin found the little red wagon that he used to play on when he was a little boy. So he took Elias for a spin on that too.Here's a short video of Elias saying "Whee!" during the ride. He thought it was fun!

Spring Break, Part 1 - Nana & Granddad's House

For Spring Break last week, we took a vacation to Nana & Granddad's house in Kentucky. I'm going to do a series of posts with pictures and videos of our trip, so keep checking back for more!

Nana & Granddad's house is so much fun because they live on a lake and have a dock and a big yard. Elias loved being able to look out the windows and see the water, and he especially loved walking down to the water and going out on the dock!
Walking down the hill with Daddy & Granddad:On the dock with Daddy:I think it's neat that we did the same thing for Spring Break last year, so here's almost exactly the same picture from exactly a year ago! My precious boys. What a difference a year makes!

And then walking back up the hill. Elias has never walked up and down such big hills, but he tackled these ones like a champ.

I Walk Around

I have no idea where Elias got this, but he suddenly likes to grab a toy and then walk around the house saying "I walk around. I'm walkin'. I walk, walk, walk!" He'll seriously do this for 15 minutes. What a hoot!

I have no idea why he needs to hold Tippy the Turtle behind his back while he's walkin'. My favorite part is at the end when he flops on the couch and says "I'm sleepin'!"

This does show, though, how he's doing great at making sentences. He says things like "I want to," and "More crackers, please." I am so proud of how quickly he's learning!

Make sure to scroll down if you're not using a reader - I posted 3 more blogs yesterday too!

Fun in a Box

We recently had someone give us some advice to give Elias a box to play with so he can learn how to climb in and out. So I gave him a box, which he does like to climb in and out of, but he also loves to play with it in other ways!

He likes to stand in it:Sit in it (and look exceptionally cute, I might add!):And he also likes to open and close the flaps. He actually tore open the bottom part too, so he could crawl all the way through it. So he would put it over his head and let his feet poke out the bottom.My silly boy! We're not hurting for entertainment around here.

Yummy for the Tummy

Elias is talking SO MUCH! He's doing great at echoing whatever we say, and he's learning how to express himself with words too. This gives me hope that at some point he'll be able to express his needs WITHOUT throwing a tantrum first!

We always exclaim over his food about how yummy it is as he's eating, and I recently taught him to say "Yummy for the tummy!" (Well, he says "Yummy the tummy," but I think that's close enough.) He always associates that with Elmo because he has an Elmo toy where you can press his body parts and he'll say the name out loud, and tummy is one of them.

When I took this video, he has just eaten breakfast and was playing in the kitchen, and he was saying "Yummy the tummy!" over and over again.

Swish, Swash, Swoosh

Elias is growing up so fast! It's really a shame I don't blog more because he is just a piece of work! We've been battling illness around here - both me and Elias - for the past month, so that has just had me in survival mode. (Justin hasn't been sick at all... He claims he drinks his coffee so strong that no germs can survive in his body!) Anyhow, I'm going to try to do a marathon tonight of video editing and blog posting, so expect several blogs in a row here!

Elias likes to steal my kitchen towels and the arm covers off the couch. He loves to play peekaboo under them, or he likes it when I drape a towel over his head and he shakes his head until it falls off. Here's a video of two other things he likes to do with them. He'll hold one in each hand and twirl around saying "Twirl, twirl, twirl!" or he'll swing them back and forth and say "Swish, swash, swoosh!" So silly!

Elias' New Car

We got a big box in the mail yesterday... Nana and Granddad bought Elias his first car! (Well, really it's more like a 4-wheeler, but he calls it a car.) Thankfully it's not motorized - it just runs on foot power. Here he is playing with it:


You'll note that he likes to sit on it sideways:Or backwards:But he refuses to sit on it forwards. Go figure. He also likes to sit beside it and play with the buttons. In the video, you'll also hear him pointing out the stickers on the side, which he really likes!

THANK YOU, Nana and Granddad, for the fun new toy!

I also left in the clip where he got distracted by the camera and just kept saying "picture" over and over again. He LOVES it when I take a picture of him and then let him look at it on the camera. He'll look at the picture and say "Elias John!" as if to say "That's me!" Very cute.

Free YoBaby 3-in-1 meals

This deal was just so great, I had to pass it on in case any of you frugal mamas out there hadn't seen it yet. I first saw it here at Freebies 4 Mom. Click over to read her instructions on how to do it.

I had never heard of YoBaby's 3-in-1 meals, but they're awesome! It's a cup of organic, baby-friendly yogurt that also has a fruit and a complementing veggie mixed in. So it's like a whole meal in a cup! With the above deal, I got 5 of them for free, and Elias loved the one he has tried so far.

Block mania

Elias has a set of big lego-type blocks. He hasn't figured out how to build with them yet, but we still have BIG FUN with them anyways!

Airplane Crash! Oh no!!!

Elias has a little wooden puzzle piece in the shape of an airplane. He has started running around with it in the air and making a noise like it's flying, and suddenly he'll throw it on the floor and shout "CRASH! OH NO!!!!" Cracks me up!

Walgreens Madness

I don't want this blog to be entirely about saving money, and so I don't post on here all the time about what I do and great shopping trips I have. But I am still doing the Walgreens Game, and I regularly get GREAT deals there. I just can't resist posting today's shopping trip. I got all this:
...and made money doing it!

First of all, our Walgreens is AWESOME because they give a 15% discount to students and faculty of the local university. Off your entire purchase! So since my husband works there, we rack up on savings that way.

Secondly, I use coupons, and I check the money-saving blogs. The main two that I check for Walgreens deals are Money Saving Mom and Mommy Snacks. Then I also page through the ad to see if there's anything else I want, and I use Hot Coupon World's coupon database to see if I can find any coupons to use on top of what's already on sale.

Third, I take advantage of their Register Reward deals. Most weeks they have at least one item that will be free after Register Rewards. (Register Rewards are coupons for so many dollars off your next purchase at Walgreens.) When I combine this with my faculty discount and coupons, I often make money on these. For example, last week they had the new Dove Men's Body Wash on sale for $5.99, and when you buy one, you get a $6 RR. However, I only paid $5.09 for it with my 15% discount, and then I used a $1.25 coupon. So I only paid $3.84 for it, but I still got the $6 RR. So I'll often buy the free-after-RR stuff even if it's not something we need... (Justin wasn't really excited about me buying him Dove Body Wash!) But I can donate it to a local shelter or ministry. That way someone else benefits and so do we!

So anyhoo, with sales, discount, coupons, and then using $21 worth of RR's from last week, I only paid $4.14 out of pocket for everything you see in the picture above.

THEN I got a $4 RR back for the razor.

THEN I'll submit the 3 Olay products for this $15 rebate.

So I'll end up MAKING $14.86 for purchasing all these things at Walgreens today. Oh yeah.

Eating with a Spoon

I've only in the past week or so started really trying to get Elias to eat with a spoon. He's been doing a fork for a while now, but I haven't been willing to attempt the spoon because he turns it over and everything just falls off and makes a mess. He's starting to get the concept, though, so I've been giving it a try with his breakfast cereal and applesauce. He's doing pretty well! This morning, though, was the first time he actually dipped the spoon back in the bowl himself to try to get more. Usually he just hands the spoon to me and I put food on it for him to pick up and put in his mouth. (You'll see that at the end of the video below - I left it on there so you could see.) I happened to have the video camera handy this morning, so I captured a little bit of his first attempts to get himself a spoonful of applesauce. So we're making progress!


Note: I've posted 5 different videos today, so if you're not using a reader to view this site, make sure to scroll down so you don't miss anything!

Dinosaur Train

There's a show on PBS called Dinosaur Train that is one of our new favorites. We only started watching it because it's on at the prime time between lunch and nap, when Mommy is ready for a break and Elias needs to start settling down. So we turned it on one day, and Elias just LOVES it! I'm really not even sure why, because the science and information is too old for him. I guess he just loves the colors and characters, and maybe he's learning too! I'm certainly learning a lot of things about dinosaurs I never knew! I'd highly recommend this show for anybody whose littles are a bit bigger than mine! I took a video, though, of Elias saying "Dinosaur Train" and calling "All aboard!" like the conductor. This TOTALLY cracks me up because he says it at a pitch that could shatter glass. Prepare to laugh out loud at the video. At least I did. Then at the end there's a clip of him saying a couple of the characters' names. He's gotten to the point where when he's done eating lunch, he'll start saying "Dinosaurs? Dinosaur train? Tiny? Shiny? Buddy?" Mommy doesn't mind if we turn it on. :)

Rollin'

It was late afternoon a couple days ago. Daddy had just gotten home from work, so Elias was excited. And the floor was clear since I had just vacuumed it. That's our only explanation for why Elias decided he wanted to roll like a maniac! This video is less than a minute long, but he did it for seriously like 5 minutes straight! I had never seen him roll in a circle like this, so maybe he was just excited at figuring out how to do it. Either way, he's silly!

Learning the Alphabet

My little smartypants is doing great learning the alphabet! Here he is yesterday singing the Alphabet Song with Mommy.

A few notes about the video:
-The ones he knows best are the letters at the end of each phrase in the song. He actually sounds like he's singing them, since he says them in a lower tone and holds them out longer.
-Every letter between L and O is O... But he knows the P comes next once we finally get there!
-He takes a break after V to look at the letter magnets we have on the fridge. Those are one key to him knowing so many letters already.
-For the last line, he decided to majorly start chowing down on his bread. But he managed to get all the letters out!
-I left it running at the end so you could hear him say "alphabet." He has a little musical elephant that plays "Twinkle, twinkle little star," but ever since he learned the alphabet song, he prefers we sing that instead of Twinkle Twinkle. The elephant is hanging next to the chair where he drinks his bedtime milk, so every night when he's done with his milk, he says "Elephant! Alphabet!" and we have to pull the tail to make the elephant sing the alphabet!

Bathtime Fun

Bathtime remains one of Elias' favorite activities, and mine too since it's always Daddy who gives him his baths! (Thanks, babe!) He loves to play with his toys, but most of all he just really loves playing with the water. On this particular day, he grabbed the plastic cup we use to wash his hair, and he had a LOT of fun filling it with water and pouring it out. Even poured it right on his face and didn't mind... Hopefully that means he's going to be good with swimming when the time comes!

The Meaning of Motherhood

I'm reading a book right now called The Power of a Positive Mom by Karol Ladd. The first chapter talks a lot about the significance of motherhood and the importance of the role we play, especially in the lives of our young children. To help enforce the point, she copied this poem, author unknown:

I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day;
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It moved and yielded at my will.

I came again when days were past,
The form I gave it still did last
And as my fingers pressed it still,
I could change that form no more at will.

I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day,
And molded with my power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart.

I came again when days were gone;
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change it never more.

Monkey on the Couch Cushions

Last week we were stuck inside for several days due to illness and weather. So I was getting a little desperate trying to find ways to keep my child entertained. Some friends suggested building a fort with couch cushions, but I thought that was a little beyond my little guy's skills. Instead, I just piled them all on the floor so he could climb on them! MAJOR FUN!He jumped, climbed, bonked his head into the cushions, and threw them around. We will definitely do this again.Side note: One of Elias' new favorite things to do is repeatedly bonk his head into the couch cushions. I've read that this is normal toddler behavior, but it freaks me out sometimes! And it hurts when he decides to use ME as the target for his head-bonking!

At one point he was jumping on the cushions, and he started saying the rhyme "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed..." Well, he can't say the whole rhyme, but you hear something about bumping a head and a doctor, and then he says "No, no, monkey!" Very cute. So I pulled out the video camera to catch him saying the rhyme. You do get a bit of the rhyme in this video, but it's more the infamous head-bonking. So enjoy!

Peyton Mania

Last night we were watching the Super Bowl while we ate dinner. Although I wanted the Saints to win, I was also rooting for Peyton Manning to do well, since he is my favorite player. (Side note: Did anybody see the interview with President Obama before the game? He said he thought Peyton might be the best quarterback EVER! That's what I'm talking about!) So I was cheering "Peyton! Peyton! Peyton!" and Elias thought that was just HILARIOUS! So he started cheering for Peyton too! I've created a little fan!

Unfortunately, Peyton seemed to fall apart after his little fan went to bed... But at least the Saints won!

Still Here

Just wanted to do a quick post to say we are still here! And I have NOT forgotten my blog! Elias and I went traveling last weekend, and so that had me in a frenzy of preparation beforehand and then completely exhausted afterward. And THEN I got sick with a cold, and I just haven't felt like blogging.

The REAL reason, though, that I haven't been blogging is that I'm so far behind I just can't catch up. There are so many things I wanted to post on here, so many ways Elias has developed and so many cute pics/videos I should've posted, that now there are just too many and I'm overwhelmed. And instead of just getting started and posting them all bit by bit, I just decide to not think about it. As if that helps the situation. *sigh*

So what I'm going to do is just start fresh from here. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on! If I ever miraculously get some free time, I'll maybe try to post some of the backlog. But that is most likely not going to happen. So I'll just start fresh with new pics/videos, and you guys can catch on if I mention something that you didn't know Elias could do already... :) Sorry to be a slacker, but I know most of my readers are also young mommies who GET IT!