How Come?

A few weeks ago Elijah and I were having some lunch when I noticed an eyelash on his face. I told him to hold still while I carefully removed the eyelash and held it on my finger tip for him to see. "Think about Daddy" I told him; he paused for a moment and then smiled. "Now blow the eyelash off my finger!" He did so audibly by puffing out his cheeks and blowing out a huge rush of air with a few strings of spit. Elijah was very delighted upon the realization that he could "wish" on eyelashes and wanted to do it again. The next time an eyelash was discovered, it accidently fell from his finger and he became very upset. He quickly remedied this dilemma by picking his nose and wishing upon a booger. So now whenever there is an eyelash or a booger in question, he gets very quiet and whispers that he is thinking about Daddy before blowing it off his finger. Not that boogers come off of fingers easily, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Elijah has begun asking "Why", only he says "How come?" instead. I always knew that kids enjoyed playing the
Why Game, but now I realize that, for now, Elijah doesn't really expect an intelligent answer most of the time. Sometimes I know that he is actually interested in why he shouldn't do something, but other times I know he is just trying to get some wiggle room in which he can change my mind on the subject so he can get his way. Now the answer "Because I said so!" has quite a bit more meaning for me. I don't say that to him... yet. In other news, the potty strike rages on. Occasionally the potty has the privilege of experiencing Elijah's bodily functions, but not nearly as often as I'd like. Aren't those olive hands impressive? I didn't even tell him to do that; I think it's just part of being a child to put olives on the ends of fingers. Better than sticking his fingers in cat poop. Which he did do. He was digging around in the yard and unfortunately discovered some buried "treasure". This resulted in me telling him to extend his arm out in front of him as we marched inside to the nearest sink.

Speaking of treasure, Elijah had his first experience in a candy store.

His mouth was hanging open half the time as he hesitantly opened each plastic lid with thumb and forefinger, peering inside. I could practically hear his thoughts; "So this is where candy comes from. He was in awe of the gigantic suckers, and thankfully settled for one of the smaller 60 cent versions.

There is a small play area for children in the mall. I've always avoided it in the past because it's typically a madhouse. Not just madhouse in the sense that there are too many children there. More like, there are kids in there that are clearly too old to be running around in said area, knocking down the younger kids who are attempting to build confidence in their walking and climbing abilities. I met up with a friend who has a 19 month old daughter and thankfully all the little ones were age appropriate, so Elijah had a nice time warming up at his own pace. He's shy at first and isn't pushy like other younger children. He likes to explore with me with him. I love that.

Emily is pushing 15 pounds and she'll be three months old soon! She's a big 'un, for sure. My little love lump. She's got the biggest thighs and I can't keep my hands off of them. And I can't keep diapers over them. I use 100% unbleached cotton prefold cloth diapers on Emily, and started with size small. (I also use the snap fitted diapers, but as of now they're too small. At $70 for six diapers, I'm going to just wait until she thins out a bit instead of buying a bigger size.) The diapers I use quilts over each time that its dried, so buying a bigger size would result in difficulty with pinning. I had to buy the next size up and decided to buy cloth wipes as well. Why use disposable when I'm already washing cloth diapers anyway? I absolutely love these wipes. They are luxuriously soft to the touch and I look forward to wiping my little Em&Em's tush, no joke. I know that these wipes are gentle on her skin and chemical free. I purchased some bum cleaner and the ingredients are all natural. Guilt-free diapering, people. Do it! If you have kids, that is...

Emily is quite the curious little girl, and always has to be facing the action. I believe she'll be quite the social butterfly. She already is, as a matter of fact. Emily is extremely verbal and is constantly engaging her onlookers in conversation.

Her little noises have worked themselves into various vowel sounds. She works her mouth and tongue in different ways to produce different sounds. It's just adorable and fascinating. She is adorable and fascinating. She just wants to sit up and can even withstand her own weight on her feet. I love watching her wake up. She's just all smiles. It's inspiring, really. Waking up smiling, and ready for all of the experiences? Definitely something to be learned from that.