Christmas Lights and Luminaria

Eli got to enjoy Christmas lights extraordinaire this Christmas! Grandma had us meet her in Bostwick. At first we weren't too sure, I mean, Bostwick is known for their blueberry festival, but Christmas lights? There were so many lights, we had a hard time taking it all in! Here's a post with a few details, and a few pictures:

The lights were fun, but the true highlight for Eli was Cain. He saw a barn when we got to the light show and asked Thomas (dressed as an elf) who lived in the barn. Thomas told him his neighbor's cows and horses. Eli really wanted to go see the cows and horses to tell them goodnight. After we saw all the lights and were headed back to the car, he wished them a goodnight in the barn, then started singing Rudolph. Cain (a beautiful brown and black, large horse) heard and headed toward the fence. I'm not sure knew what to expect, but Cain came right up to him and nuzzled his cheek. It was honestly one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Jimmy didn't want to take a picture since he was afraid the flash would spook Cain.

Eli also enjoyed Luminaria this year, in style. He was very helpful in setting up the luminaries in his neighboorhood (we do the whole block with the help of Jerrod and Jeannie) and in keeping Harper warm in their ride:

Christmas Party, Office Style

Eli really wonders why mom doesn't like going into the office more. I mean, they have a bounce house, juice boxes, snacks, coloring pages and crayons, Christmas themed rubber duckies, reindeer, an elf that does puppet shows and face paints and of course, SANTA! What more could you want?

Here are a few pictures with Santa. Eli was really enthralled with Santa's gloves.

I had to break it to Eli that all that was just for the children's Christmas party, not something there every week. I mean, if there was an elf that does a puppet show and face paints, who wouldn't want to go into the office everyday?

Birthday Tiger!

We celebrated Eli's third birthday today with a some friends. He very much enjoyed having everyone over in his honor and was dressed as a birthday tiger (and later moonlighted as a doctor to celebrate!

Here are a few pictures from his Happy 3rd Birthday Party!

Thanks to everyone who was able to be a part of it!

Grrr, Halloween 2010

Eli got the basic premise of Halloween down pat this year... grr and candy! His pal Harper came over and they hit houses up and down the street and got so much candy, he could barely carry his pumpkin home! Here are a few pictures of Halloween and fall events leading up to it to enjoy:

The pumpkin patch!


Spooktacular at the Jacksonville Zoo! Let's just say we picked the wrong night to go, somehow thinking that most people would be involved with Florida Georgia activities instead. Traffic to get there took about 45 minutes... from the 95 exit. The line to get in was crazy. Thankfully mom had purchased tickets in advance. Once it, even more craziness! When it was all said and done, it was fun, but if we go next year, it will not be toward the end.

And the big night... Eli chose to be a tiger vs a giraffe, so someone will inherit a really cute etsy giraffe costume! Here he is, picture smile and all, with Harper, puppy daddy, mom and his silly jack o'lantern!

Eli's 2.75 Year Old Update

Yeah, I know. 2.75 years sounds a little weird and 2 3/4 sounds even weirder. Let's just say Eli's in that awkward place between 2 and 3.

Mom actually just realized she didn't add the picture border she normally does on the update... she had the cutest puzzle pictures picked out and everything. Oh well... there's the 3 year update coming soon enough!

Eli is really pretty amazing when it comes to puzzles. He has two floor puzzles he's a wiz at and has a few board puzzles he has pretty much memorized. When we go to the zoo now, it is not to see Quito the gorilla, it is to go the the Discovery Center so he can check out their puzzles. Seriously.

School has been a bit more enjoyable these days too, which is quite a relief. Eli has actually commented a few times now that he likes school, believe it or not! They apparently have puzzles there too, and a few that are kind of challenging. He comes home to tell tales of the puzzles he mastered that day.

He's also figured out a way to delay bed time. Each night, just before we put him down after reading a story, having some milk and brushing teeth, he suddenly remembers he has to do #2. We can't very well ignore his plea to sit on the potty, and in most cases, he produces, but it is pretty amazing how quickly his little mind has added it all up to equal postponing bed time... at least for a little while.

We've all been getting over a pretty nasty cold lately. Suffice it to say there was plenty of phlegm between the three of us.... Eli and dad still have a residual cough they are trying to shake. Eli's pretty excited though that out of it, he got to start getting gummy vitamins (it seems that's all they make kid's vitamins in these days) every morning. Guess that's something to look forward to.

Eli's looking forward to Halloween. We're still not sure he understands what it is all about, but does get that he can dress up and visit around the neighborhood. There's even rumor that Harper may join him that evening.

Until the next 3.0 update... enjoy!

Eli's First Day of 'School'

Eli started 'school' this week at Academie de Montessori in San Marco. Its been pretty smooth so far, only a few tears and whistful "I don't want to go to schools"... he went 1/2 days the first two days and 3/4 days the next two, leading up to full days (hopefully) starting next week.

Daddy and Dot took him to school on Tuesday, the first day. Here are a few pictures...

The Florida Aquarium!

We decided to visit the Florida Aquarium in Tampa before Eli started school... much fun was had by one and all!

Eli enjoyed all there was to see, but especially liked the water park.... he really wanted Uncle Charlie to see this picture of him on the shark's back (Uncle Charlie recently caught a shark while fishing offshore in his kayak):

The water canon was also a big hit (yes, that's Eli to the far right!) because you could shoot the dry adults with water!

Eli also enjoyed staying in the hotel and bouncing back and forth between hotel rooms. He was pretty elated to push buttons on the microwave, safe and open and close the mini fridge.

Eli and Penny

We visited the Morningside Living History Farm (see http://www.cityofgainesville.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wdWSe%2bPitOA%3d&tabid=182 for some details) in Gainesville this past Sunday and Eli fell in love.... with Penny.... the cow. So much so that he asked a few times if Penny could come home with us and share his pillow (surely the sign of true love to a 2 1/2 year old!). Here are a few pictures from our visit. Thanks to Uncle John for directing us around town!

Docious

This is a portion of a word that Eli giggles about every time he hears it... it comes from

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

For those of you not in the know, it comes from Mary Poppins and is quite catchy... you might even find yourself tapping your foot and singing along after watching the following:

Eli hasn't seen this video yet, but we're sure he'll build it into his repetoire and will be singing it right along with 'Caught in a Trap' (i.e. Suspicous Minds by Elvis) and 'You Know?' (i.e. What's Going On by Marvin Gaye) soon...

'Duh and the Llama', part deux

We headed up to North Carolina again this summer. Eli did so well on the trip up! He wore undies and didn't have any accidents (which is saying a lot for an 8 hr ride). He was so excited to get to see Silverado and the goats and Uncle Doug (we can officially call him that now) and Aunt Sandi!

Nana had the great suggestion of purchasing our own bag of grain, so we roamed the greater Vilas, NC country side in search of farm animals to feed and watch poop. What fun was had by all, especially some lucky farm animals that belonged to a friend of Sandi's, some of which we got pictures of last year too, so they're making a repeat show here on Eli's blog:

For those that noticed, yes, Duh outwitted the photographer. He got his points in with Eli though by demonstrating true farm equipment and not showing Eli the smallest bit of attention... yeah, right.

Thanks Aunt Sandi and Uncle Doug, we had a blast!

On the way home we stopped at the Sunflower Farm Festival in Madison, GA and caught up with Joe and Sarah and Cindy and Brittany. Eli had a ball in the petting zoo and corn box, not to mention the acres and acres of sunflowers! Here he is on a few tractors that were being displayed: