3 1/2

Eli is almost 3 1/2. The thought of "four" being on the horizen just feels SO crazy! In the last six months, we have seen so much change in him! He is growing and maturing and is losing his "baby" look. Every day I am surprised by how much he's grown. We have absolutely LOVED age three. The terrible two's are fading more and more into a distant nightmare! I can have long conversations with Eli now, and it is so fun! He talks loudly and non-stop. He is constantly saying the funniest things and catching us off guard with something he remembers. He is so smart and has a passion for learning. This age is so wonderful because he literally is a sponge soaking up at all we talk about on our daily adventures. At 3 1/2:

1. His favorite things to do are: marbles, cars/airplanes, jumping from the trampoline into blankets, making bird nests, wrestling with Dad or Cora, playing at the park, swinging, playing with Cora, cooking, playing educational computer games, walking Rica, listening to stories, reading books, running in the sprinkler, swimming at Cessna, snuggling, listening to music, playing with toy animals, going to places like Pump It Up, Botanica, and Exploration Place, getting ice cream, playing Memory and other games, painting, playing hide and seek, etc.

2. He loves traveling! He absolutely loves flying and talks about it all the time. His favorite places to go that he talks about ALL the time are my parent's farm, Lake Tahoe, and Texas. Traveling is easy with him now that he is older. He is wonderful on car trips or flying (and has no motion sickness). It's a real treat for him to get to sleep with Brandon when we're out of town (although Brandon never sleeps well because Eli moves around a lot at night).

3. He is SO sweet and affectionate. He gives us all a lot of hugs, kisses, and snuggles. I love that even though he is such an active little boy, he still will take time to snuggle and show us that he loves us!

4. He is talking so well! He has made a lot of improvements with the help of speech therapy and can now say his "s", "f", "v", "sh" sounds. "K" is still a problem, but he is making improvements. We are in the process of getting him into the school system's free speech program before we go broke (insurance doesn't cover ANYTHING involving speech)! During Cora's morning nap, I have always done a little special "learning" time with Eli. Now, we also work on his speech homework. He is such a great sport about it and works really hard! During speech itself, which is half an hour a week, he sits at the little table and does what Miss Emily asks him to! He really has done an amazing job...I am really proud of him! He has a great attitude and really enjoys going to speech.

5. He knows his ABC's, phonics, shapes, colors, numbers to 20, days of the week, can write his name with some help, can write correctly with a pencil, can recognize a lot of different signs and words, can sing a lot of songs, and more. He loves to learn, so I try to make it fun! The only area he has some difficulty in is cutting. I am curious to see how much that improves through preschool.

6. He loves books and reading. We read a lot of books a day. Some of his favorite books are: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Nurse Nancy, Doctor Dan, Walter the Farting Dog, all Little Critter books, Elijah the Prophet, Dr. Seuss's ABC's, Ferdinand the Bull, Twinkle and Boo, We Help Daddy, Snuffy has the Sniffles, Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street, etc.

7. He still likes Elmo and Sesame Street videos and Veggie Tales also.

8. He is stuck like glue to Brandon when he is home. He wants to do whatever Daddy is doing. He loves helping him with projects in the garage or even running errands. Brandon loves to take him out on little guy outings to do fun things. They have a great time together!

9. He has a great sense of humor. He says the funniest things all day long and loves to laugh! I love being with him and listening to all the crazy things he comes up with!

10. His favorite sayings right now are, "Mmm...that looks GOOD!" and "That's AMAZING!"

I need to document all of the funny little things he has said over the past six months.

*He prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank you for Mommy, thank you for Daddy, and thank you for Easter Bunny!"

*He got mad and said, "I'm going to eat you Mom, I'm REALLY going to eat Mama!"

*I said, "Stop yelling like that!" and he said, "Mama, I'm yelling LIKE THAT!"

*If he gets mad sometimes say, "I'm not listening to my mom!"

*He went through a phase where he would say, "I ONLY want my Mom/Dad/my Cora"

*We were talking about how Jesus lives inside of us and about him being everywhere and he said, "Jesus is in my heart, Jesus is in my tummy, Jesus is in my penis!"

*He says he "wants to live at the farm" and be a "farmer"

*Before we went to Texas he kept saying, "Papa not working, Papa is getting the pool ready for me!"

*I told him that God has an awesome plan for his life and he said, "To take care of my rabbit?"

*Eli yelled, "MOM ARE YOU DEAD?" when he couldn't find me in the house.

*He said, "I don't want to grow up. I want a LITTLE tiny penis!"

*Earlier I had mentioned we were going to Walmart. Later he asked, "When are we going to Walnut to get our pictures?"

*He said to his lunch, "Nice to meet you grilled cheese!"

*He saw a statue of Elvis and said, "That looks like Dad!"

*I asked him my real name and he said, "Mama." I said no, my real name, and he said, "Mama mia?"

*He was pooping and said, "My poop is sleeping in there, then it comes out my bottom."

*I told him Dad was going out with the guys for a night and he said, "Eli a guy!"

* On Mother's Day he said, "I'm celebrating my mommy today!"

*For a while he was saying everything was "REALLY REALLY ___"

*I asked him what he learned in Sunday school and he said, "Jesus loves me!"

*He sang me Happy Birthday on Mother's Day ;-)

*He was playing kitchen and said, "Eli doesn't like pickles, but Eli likes pretend pickles!"

*He told me he was scared of "sheep" and "scrat (a squirrel he saw on a preview) in the crack between his bed.

*When Brandon's Great-Grandma died he said, "Munnis is NEW, not old anymore!"

*He said, "Jesus in my heart, I really want to take Jesus out to see him!"

*"I see Jesus in Heaven when I'm OLD!"

*Now if he doesn't want to wear something he'll say "That's ANNOYING!"

*He says, "Oh my gosh, oh my goodness, oh my word" a lot.

*If he doesn't want his shirt on he'll say, "My shirt's not listening to me!"

I love him so much!