Eli's THIRD

Just a little shout out to my third child on his third birthday! 

We hope you stay sweet and super silly just like you are right now!

I seriously am in denial that he is three years old.  For so long it seemed like my children would never age.  I felt like I would always have at least one baby in diapers, needing my constant attention with other toddlers running around getting into mischief.  I mean when Eli was born, my oldest child was only three years old.  But somehow time continues to flow, and suddenly you realize that you no longer have any babies at your house.  But not today for me: today, tomorrow, and possibly for a long long time I am going to continue to claim Mr E as my baby, even if he protests and announces that he is a "big little boy".  After all, he still sleeps in a pack and play and is quite happy about it...oh and continues to use a pacifier for bedtime/night time :-)

Until he gets in for his well check visit at the doctor and gets his official stats, I wanted to make a list of things I don't want to ever forget about Eli at THREE:

*You are my happiest child hands down.  You almost always have a grin on your face, even when you're getting into mischief.  You are also very content and can play for hours building legos or playing make believe.

*You are the clown of our family and loves to make us all laugh.  The other day after you used the restroom you put your underwear on your head and were running around butt naked yelling "you can't find me".  When I ran over and said "I got ya" you screamed with joy and did your infamous deep belly laugh.  You are seriously so silly at the dinner table and keeps us laughing in the car when we go places {sometimes we wish you would be just a little bit quieter when Mommy or Daddy are talking on the phone or having a conservation, but it still cute and funny nonetheless}

*Eli, you are also my most tender hearted child and can get your feelings hurt easily.  When Nona and Papa were getting ready to leave to go back home, you were so excited to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them. Nona wasn't feeling well and politely declined a sandwich.  The next thing I know you were sobbing on the stairs because you were so sad that Nona didn't want a PB and J that you had made.  You also tend to break down easily when you get disciplined.  The moment you get placed in time out, the water works start and it takes every ounce of restraint inside me to not let you out when this happens.  You are very sweet after time out is finished and run right over and tell whoever you wronged sorry.  You can always tell us why we put you in time out and what you would do better next time.

*Eli, you hate to hear anyone being unkind to your Mommy and you are my little protector.  When Robby gets angry and starts to say mean words directed at me, you are the first to pipe up and say "Uh uh, not s'posed to say that".  If I ever get hurt, you will run right over and ask me if I'm okay and give me lots of kisses and hugs.

*You are still a great sleeper at night and go to bed fairly easily.  Initially you are never happy to hear it's time for bed and just a tiny bit cranky as we walk up the stairs, but once we brush teeth and use the restroom you are completely willing to grab a few books and sit on the bed for stories.  Typically once you are put in your pack and play for the night you rarely, if ever, get out of bed.  You still go to bed around 7:30pm and sleep until 7:30-8am, depending on when the other siblings arise.  You are also doing incredibly well at being potty trained and are dry at least 50% of the time in the morning.

*Speaking of being potty trained, you are a champ during the day at announcing you have to use the restroom and then running in the bathroom and doing your business.  Every once in awhile an accident happens {typically at the babysitter or with Daddy} otherwise I never have to think about setting a timer or reminding you to go.  You make us laugh with your enthusiastic "I've gotta go potty" that you belt out when it's time.  We have been a tad bit lazy around these parts and so on a normal day you run around in only underwear and a shirt, because it takes just too much darn work to worry about getting those pants on and off all day long.  It's a good thing you rock that style and look pretty cute with your little underwear bum :)

*Eli, you are also our most grateful and easy to please child.  For Christmas all that you asked for was a flashlight, cowboy boots and legos.  When I asked if there was anything that you wanted you just kind of gave me a confused look and said "flashlight, cowboots, and legos please".  You are also very polite and when we buy/give anything to you, you always tell us "thanks so much" and give us a big smile.  Most of the time going shopping with you is easy peasy because you rarely get the gimmies and will sit and play with one toy at the store.  When we get to the front to check out, you will put the toy back on the shelf without throwing a single tantrum.  Thanks E, it makes life sooo much more bearable.

*You are coming into your own as far as independence.  You like to pour your milk all by yourself, you like to put the movie in all by yourself, you want to start the bath water all by yourself......the list goes on and on.  Most of the time it is really cute and makes me smile to see you take responsibility for yourself and wanting to branch out on your own, but occasionally it can be irritating when we are running late and I just want to leave!

*You love to sing, especially at church! It has been really cute to watch you troop in with all your friends in Nursery that are preparing to go to primary in January.  You come walking into the Primary room with a big smile on your face and your arms folded.  You will enthusiastically jump to your feet and try to copy the teacher in singing all the songs.  You also love to sing several songs at home, some of your favorites include "Jingle Bells", "Happy Birthday", "If your Happy and you Know It", and "I am a Child of God". You also still love to jam out on your 'Paper' Guitar, which is one of the funniest things to watch. Sometimes at night when I put you to bed you will softy ask me to sing you a song; our favorite one is "Silent Night".

*You have really started to love Legos recently, which has made both of your other siblings also become more interested in them.  We have spent hours this month building pirate ships, houses, cars, space ships, you name it. You will even go up to your room and spend hours building to your hearts content. 

* Your favorite foods right now are pancakes, chocolate milk, anything dipped in ranch dressing, pepperoni pizza, ice cream and salad (no joke- you get so excited whenever you see that we are eating salad with our meal and it is the first thing you eat on your plate)

*Your favorite movies/shows include: Little Einstein's and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the cartoon series from the 80's)

*Your favorite restaurant/fast food joint: McDonald's--I think mainly because this is about all we have got in West Lebanon, NH

*Your favorite animal is a horse because that is what cowboys ride!  You always tell me this when I ask, but really I think your favorite is a doggy.  You and your sister spend hours pretending to be dog, to the point it almost makes your father and I crazy. 

*Your favorite color is Red because that is Robby's favorite color. Your favorite color used to be green when Robby's was also green. Before that it was blue.  I'm sure at some point you will settle on one color in particular that you actually like for yourself :)

*Your favorite books are All About Tractors book, 10 Little Ladybugs, Dinosaurs Love Underpants, and any of the Berenstein Bear Books.  You are really starting to get interested in books and love when we read stories at night time before bed. I still put you to bed separately from your brother and sister.  I hope you don't mind that we read our own stories together.  I love how you carefully pick out your stories and then come right over and sit on my lap during your stories.  I really enjoy the one on one time we spend together at night and I also like how much easier you and brother go to bed when I put you down first!

*You love to be Mom's big helper in the kitchen and are constantly dragging the step stool from the bathroom into the kitchen to "help". You get so excited when it is your turn to stir the food and constantly announce that you want to "help you cook dinner", even when we just finished eating breakfast. You are learning how to be patient and take turns with ingredients because both your sister and brother also normally want to help cooking at the same time as you.

*You and your sister have a really great relationship with each other.  For the most part you two always get along and she loves being able to baby you.  She will normally let you get in the bath with her and she does a great job soaping you down and then helping you with your towel.  You think it's hilarious though to run away laughing when she tries to dress you in pajamas.  Normally after several unsuccessful attempts, she will give the job of dressing you back to mommy.  You too have so much fun together and Maddie loves to have you come in her room and build forts with her.  Occasionally there are tears between the two of you, but mostly there are loves and hugs.  I hope you will always cherish and look up to your sister like you do right now.  I hope that you two will remain close throughout life and that your relationship will only grow stronger as you age.

*You and your brother have a love/hate relationship.  You think he is probably one of the coolest people around and always want to mimic everything he does.  Sometimes he likes this and sometimes it annoys him.  Case in point: Robby hates that you always want the same color cup/plate as him BUT he loves how he can get you to playfight with him at the drop of the hat.  Robby hates when you pick the same exact car or train to play with as him, but he loves how you are always willing to play whatever game he comes up with. Although some days I feel like you two live in a constant struggle at getting along, other days you two will spend hours building train tracks, putting together legos, playing with matchbox cars, and doing puzzles. A few weeks back, the two of you pulled out some old cups we have in the cupboard that have lids that sort of look like the end of a rocket ship.  You and Robby spent close to two hours running around the house "shooting" your rockets into the air and flying them all around.  I wish I had pictures because I loved how into it you two were! I think that next year when Robby is gone to Kindergarten it will be quite the adjustment for you to not have your fun, active brother around to constantly provide you friendship, entertainment and a built in playmate. I hope that as the two of you get older, you will continue to build a close relationship together.  You are so lucky to have a brother that is so close to your age!  We always remind the two of you that you both have "built-in best friends for life".

For your birthday we mainly just hung around the house and spent time as a family.  I am always amazed by how perfectly content my children can be to just do nothing.  Maddie is already on Christmas Break so it was a pretty lazy day where we watched movies, played games, went outside and played for a little while, cleaned the house and constantly reminded you that it was your birthday.  I loved how you just appreciated the little things that we did.  Such as inviting friends over for your birthday dinner and having pizza, veggies, and fruit for dinner.  We mainly just talked and played over dinner, and then we had a simple cake and ice cream.  You thought it was the coolest thing that we sang to you and that you got to blow out your birthday candle {after R blew it out five times during the birthday song....grrrrr}.  Never mind the fact that the only candle we had at our house was a "six".  Oops, I guess I will have to plan a little better next year when you know your numbers...this year it was fine!  You also loved practicing holding three fingers up and saying "I free" when we asked you how old you are.  The greatest part about your birthday is that there was no expectation of gifts. For the past few years we have celebrated an un-birthday for you every summer on your half bday mark.  For your Un-Birthday we typically have a family party with dinner, cup cakes and presents. And so for your real birthday we try to only do a family dinner with cake and the traditional birthday song. This year I simplified it even more and didn't even do any balloons.  I absolutely loved the fact that you still enjoyed yourself and felt like you had a great birthday.  Thank you for being such a simple, sweet, grateful, happy child!  And please, no more birthdays for awhile Mister E.  Momma can hardly stand the fact that you are already THREE!