Changes

This is a week full of changes for us! Tuesday (8/31) was Eli's last day at the Mother's Morning Out program he's been going to at Jackie's. He started there last September, and we all enjoyed the year he had there. Lots of memories made with the ballet, tap, swimming, and gymnastics he did there! Eli was okay with ending his time at Jackie's and seemed sort of indifferent about he whole thing. I guess he was ready to move on. I'm pretty sure the gymnastics and maybe dance will continue through classes at the YMCA.
Here's a picture of Eli and his ballet/tap teacher, Ms. Carley:
















As of tomorrow, Eli will be going to his first day (9-noon) of pre-school at Faith United Methodist Preschool. Today, we went to go meet his teacher and get more acquainted with the school. Eli is excited and looking forward to it, thankfully! As usual, he acted timid when we went there and met his teacher, but I'm sure he'll warm up in no time. I'm excited for him! I think he'll have lots of fun and meet some new friends who are boys. The majority of his friends now are all girls, so I was glad to see that there are 5 boys and four girls in his class. His class is called The Rockin' Robins, by the way. I was surprised to find out that Eli already knew what a Robin was today. He said cousin Grayson, who is pretty much an ornithologist by now, told him about Robins. Anyway, more to come on Eli's adventures in preschool!
Here Eli is in the room where his class will do small group time. His circle has a frog on it, which I liked!

















We had to bring some photos of Eli and photos of us to Meet the Teacher so that they can use them for a project. These are the ones I sent. Aren't we cute?

















And these are some others we took, but didn't make the cut. Still cute though.

Lem-ah-lay

Do you remember how Eli used to say "potato" when he was about Jed's age? He would say, "po-tay-tay-tay-ko-ko-ko". Well, Jed says "lemonade" in a similar way with the added syllables. It's usually "lem-ah-lem-ah-lem-ah-lay". He's gotten better at saying it since I took this video last week, which makes me sad. I don't know what it is with them trying to say three syllable words, but it's so cute!

Jed the Singer

Jed sings a lot these days. Actually, he's always liked singing now that I think of it. E-I-E-I-O has been his song of choice for several months now. He still likes that one, but lately he's been adding more songs to his repertoire. Here are couple videos of them. The first is "You Are My Sunshine" and the second is a song that he made up that he usually sings while he's playing or in the car.

Fireman Helmet

While we were in Dallas last weekend Eli's cousin, Grayson, gave him a real fireman helmet that he had when he was about Eli's age. Needless to say, Eli adores it! Thank You cousin Grayson!

Jed's Markers

For some reason Jed loves markers. He is usually carrying around a marker or crayon in one of his hands at all times. This means that he usually has marker colored on some part of his body at all times. Thankfully, he has gotten better about coloring on paper instead of the walls, but we're still working on not coloring on himself. Thank God for washable markers! Jed loves his markers, or "mahk" as he calls them, so much that he eats with them, sleeps with them, and even puts them in his little stroller and pushes them around like his babies! He's even gotten to where he prefers to carry (and wear) a specific color marker each day! Maybe he'll be an artist?

Dodge!

As you probably know, Eli is crazy about all kinds of trucks! He has quite a collection, as you can see in the photo. Recently he's been all about pick-up trucks. Lately, Eli has been asking us what the names are of different pick-up trucks that he sees while we're out and about. He really wants John to get a truck, more specifically, a silver or light blue Toyota Tundra with dual wheels in the back. The problem is Tundras don't make dually's, so Eli's second choice is a Dodge Ram Dually with a big grill on the front. Oh, and a trailer for hauling stuff, too. Dodge's are Eli favorite, but John said he likes Tundras, so of course Eli likes them, too. For Eli, the bigger the truck, the better! It's pretty impressive how he can name the trucks he sees while we're in the car. I think he's got all of them down now...Tundras, Dually's, Tacomas, all types of Fords, Chevy, etc. He's even recognizing the sizes, like 150, 250, one ton, two ton, etc. I'm learning a lot about types of pick-up trucks, too!
As I said Dodges are Eli's favorite, so whenever he sees a Dodge truck, he'll say, "Dodge"! It's funny because he says it in the middle of whatever he's doing or saying. One time when he was upset and being grumpy, he still said, "Dodge", but with a frowny face and a mad voice. Have you seen the movie, "Up"? There's a dog in the movie with a collar that talks for him and says what he's thinking. Whenever the dog would see a squirrel, it would perk up and the collar would say "squirrel"! It's the same with Eli and Dodge trucks. It's become like an involuntary reflex!

Undies!

Remember the post when Eli picked out his new undies? Well, I got some pictures of Jed in the same underwear. So far, Jed just wears hand-me-downs from big brother. I've taken him to pick out his very own special undies, but I haven't found any small enough! I love the tiny little undies!

Mama Can Sew!

I mentioned in a previous post that I took a sewing class and learned to sew back in May. Well, I took another class at the same place this month, The Stitch Lab. It was a more in depth sewing class for beginners. I learned more and gained some confidence in my sewing skills! I think the hardest part about sewing is the measuring, mostly because I'm horrible at math. I love being creative and sewing stuff, and it's easy to do in my home, as opposed to when I made pottery where I had to go somewhere with a wheel, kiln, etc. I hope to keep it up! One downside to my new hobby is that I could see myself spending too much money on fabric and being tempted to take all the classes at the Stitch Lab. I will try to control myself!

Here are some pictures of my sewing projects. I know some of you have seen these on Facebook, but now you get to see them again! I get most of my fabrics at the Stitch Lab because I have yet to find one I don't like there.
This is the first bag I made in the Crash Course.















Here is the pillow we made in the Beginner's Series, complete with piping and a zipper!













This is a simple drawstring bag we made in class.












This is the skirt I made in class. It has an elastic waist and it's reversible!

















I made this drawstring bag for Eli with the John Deere fabric he picked out. There is a red patch on it because while I wasn't looking, he put the iron down on it and it made a burn mark...yikes! He uses it for his stuffed animals.












These curtains were so easy to make!












I had an empty frame and got some foam board, wrapped fabric around it, and stuck it in the frame to make a pretty picture. Looks good above our bed!












These are some necklaces I made with scrap fabric and wooden beads. Again, very easy to make.













And finally, this is a dress I made! It's a LeSac dress, which is basically two rectangle pieces sewn together with a drawstring at the top. You can tie the string many ways to style the dress. So, it's like 20 dresses in one! Here's how to make one if you want. I'm going to make another LeSac dress using jersey fabric so that it's more flowy and not as stiff.
The pics aren't great. Eli took the one where my face is cut off and the one that's sort of smeary and artsy.

Same Room, Same Bed

About a month ago, John and I decided to see how Jed would do sleeping in Eli's room. At first, we put the crib mattress on the floor next to Eli's bed, which we also put on the floor. Jed didn't want to sleep on his bed and always ended up on the bed with Eli, so the mattress on the floor thing only lasted a week. They both like sleeping in the same bed and have done great with the new sleeping arrangement. I think Jed just wants to do everything Eli does and thinks it's cool to sleep in Eli's bed, and Eli likes having the company in there while he sleeps.
John and I were pleasantly surprised with how smoothly this transition went! It's made bedtime much easier because we can walk out after stories and prayers and the boys usually talk or sing for awhile and eventually fall asleep. They do a pretty good job of staying on the bed, too.
I love to listen to what Eli tells Jed at bedtime. For example, Jed: "I want Mama", Eli: "Jed, it's okay, you'll see her in the morning". Or, when Jed is being loud (usually singing), Eli says, "Jed, go to sleep! You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!". Eli does a good job of trying to take care of Jed and calming him down. He usually gives Jed a stuffed animal or a drink, which works most of the time. Of course, there is still some crying because one or the other has been hit or pinched or different stalling tactics by the boys, but for the most part it's a success!
Plus, John and I have our room back, which has been an added bonus. There's a little part of me that was sad to see Jed move out because it means he's not a baby anymore and he's growing up too fast! The fact that the boys have their room, a little bonding time at night, and have done so well with sharing a bed makes me feel better.

This pictures are so darn cute, I can hardly stand it!

Singin' and Dancin'

I finally fixed the video issue with the computer, so here are some good ones for you.

Eli singing his favorite song, You Are My Sunshine. We sing it every night before bed.


These two are from when I went to Eli's tap class to see their "Boogy Shoes" routine. I found out that my camera's memory was full when I started recording. I had to delete stuff while trying to record, so I only got parts of the dance. Love it!



Here's another song from Eli:


This is a fun activity in our house...dancing and playing instruments while Dad plays the guitar. Fun!


I caught Jed dancing while we waited in the car for Eli's class to be over.


Here's another Knock Knock joke by Jed. I love his hair in this one!


Say Cheeeeese!

Eli decides to swim!

It seems like it happened overnight! The day we left Port Aransas to come home, John and I took the boys to the pool by the beach house. Much to our surprise, Eli jumped right in, went under water, and paddled right over to us. I think maybe playing in the waves helped with the confidence, I don't know. Of course, the floaties help, too.
Before, Eli didn't like getting his head and face wet and wouldn't wear the floaties, so this was a big change! I'm very thankful Eli has decided to swim because it is much more pleasant and less stressful for me to take the boys swimming by myself during the day. Now, I don't have to keep my eyes on both of them at all times and keep both of them within arms reach at all times.
My favorite part of Eli's new swimming skills is when he kicks his feet under the water and his little wet head bobs up and down really fast. So cute!
I have a feeling Jed is not far behind in his swimming skills! He's always loved the water and definitely doesn't mind getting his head wet!
I promise to have some swimming pictures once we get a new, working camera.

Jed is Potty Trained at 21 months!

Yes, you read that right!
After hearing about this idea of potty training before age 2 and then seeing it work first hand with my friend Jen's daughter Eleanor, who is 19 months, I decided Jed could do it and it was worth a try.
The idea is that when they are younger, learning to use the potty is just another skill that they learn, like using utensils or talking. There are no emotions involved, it's just a physical thing. You take away diapers and make the potty the only option, so they just figure out that that's what expected of them. You make it matter-of-fact, so that when they potty, you just say something like 'pee pee goes in the potty' and maybe a good job or high five here and there. There's no praise, no shame, no pressure.
Sounds too easy, right? But it truly works if you stick with it, have some patience, and are willing to clean up some messes and do some extra laundry for a couple weeks.
I figured it's better to do it now rather than dragging it out for months. Eli did a great job potty training and was totally out of diapers 3 months after he turned 2. Now that I think of it, we did a lot of these same tactics with him so that he was mostly out of diapers before 2.
Jed did well overall with potty training. There were times when I wanted to quit or wasn't sure he was really going to do it, but perseverance prevailed! I gave it two weeks, and by the end of the two weeks, he was doing great using the potty. He still has occasional accidents, and I do have to initiate him going to the potty most times. We still put him in a diaper at night for now, but he's been dry lately in the mornings, so I'm thinking we'll try no diaper at night soon. The hardest part for me was staying home for a week to get him used to the sensations and going on the potty. I think I only made it two days at home. After that I just made sure he went or tried to go often when we were out. There's only been a couple accidents while we've been out. No big deal, though.

I am a believer now! It's so nice not to mess with diapers anymore. I did mostly cloth with Jed but had gotten lazy the past few months and was using disposable diapers. Now, we use none! Hooray! We did it!

PS- there are several cute potty pictures that I can't get and some that I've missed
due to our broken camera....booooo!

Beach Vacation

Last week we went to the beach in Port Aransas for 5 days with my family. The vacation was my dad and step mom's Christmas gift to me and Brynn and our families. Thank you Grandpa and Gramma Ninny! We stayed at a beach house, which was a very short walking distance to the beach. It was fun staying in the same house, all 10 of us.
John and I didn't realize that it only takes about 3 and a half hours to get to Port A. from here. It takes less time to get there than it does to get to our family in Dallas and we go up there all the time. I think that we definitely should take advantage of that and go to the beach more often! We've even dreamed about owning a house in Port A. and renting it out. That way we could go whenever we wanted and have a place to stay. Maybe someday!
I grew up going to the beach because my grandparents had a house very close to where we stayed last week. I don't think I'd been back there since my dad and uncle sold the place about 10 or so years ago. While we were there last week, went by the old house just to see what it looked like. It mostly looked the same except for some upgrades to the house and the palm trees in the back yard are now taller than the house. So many fun memories there!
Every time we visited the coast growing up, we had to go to Snoopy's restaurant. My grandparents had a boat that we would ride up to Snoopy's from the house, which was always fun. Of course we went to Snoopy's this visit. It was fun to bring the boys there and introduce them to Snoopy's fried shrimp and ice cream.
Another fun restaurant we went to was The Crazy Cajun where they dump your food (boiled shrimp, crab legs, craw fish, and potatoes) on the table and you eat it all with your hands! Needless to say, the boys loved this restaurant! The man playing the Cajun music while singing and playing a harmonica, accordion, and bass with pedals was pretty entertaining, too. I had his silly "beer, beer, beer" song in my head the whole trip, I think.
The other restaurant we went to was fun, too. We sat on the patio and got to watch boats bring in their catches of the day. All the fish were pretty big!
When we were trying to meet up for dinner the first night, it was chaos! We were on the way to Snoopy's to meet Brynn and her family with my dad and Cindy in the van. As soon as we pulled out onto the highway, John realized that the van was out of gas, and we were then stranded on the side of the highway...with the heat and mosquitoes. Miscommunication ensued! Brynn called to say that Snoopy's was closed due to high water and cars not able to get there. So we sent them to get some gas for us on their way in. John also ended up getting us gas as well when we thought he was just going to get my dad's suburban. He got to us first and filled up the tank, so Brynn and David got an extra can of gas for their ride home. Brynn and her family finally met up with us and we went on to The Crazy Cajun. Meanwhile, John went back to the house to get the gas washed off of him. He thought we were going to pick him up so he calls while we're ordering drinks at the restaurant and asks where we were. He was actually walking down the highway looking for us, waiting for us to drive by and get him. Finally, he made it to the restaurant after going back to the house, getting my dad's car again and driving to the restaurant! Not that you really care about all those details, but I wanted to write it here so that I could remember it later!
The only other glitch on our trip was that our camera broke the first day at the beach. So, I only have a few pictures right now. I also can't figure out how to get videos from the camera to play on the computer right now. Big bummer! I hope to get some of Brynn's pictures from the trip so I can post them here.
All in all, it was a fun trip filled with plenty of great memories! I'm thankful that the weather cooperated and also the oil...didn't see one tar ball!