Nothing Bubbles Can't Fix

I love hearing Elijah say his and Emily's name. It comes out as "Ya-ya" and "Emmy". Elijah is pretty much speaking full sentences now. It's incredible how he went from 2-3 word sentence to 5+ word sentences in just a few short weeks. His personality is developing at full speed now and a sense of humor is working its way out. He loves to be silly, tell jokes (well, more like say things that he thinks are funny, like, "Mommy's mouth smells stinky" and then proceed to crack himself up), dance, and help out with anything and everything. One thing that he likes to help with is to call the cats in. There are three cats that live in my Mom's house; Tigger and Unjuy (pronounced yoon-jee) belong to my Mom, and Loki is mine. A few days ago Elijah was trying to call Unjuy in from outside.

"Yoooo-neeeeee!!"

No Unjuy. I told Elijah that Unjuy was probably upstairs sleeping in Grandma's room. Elijah thinks this over for a minute and then opens the door again and calls out:

"Mouuuse!!:

At this point me and my Grandma are laughing that Elijah was trying to call a mouse to the back door. But, unfortunately, Elijah knows that Unjuy brings mice home, frequently not alive. Elijah was getting frustrated at this point because there was no mouse coming to the door despite his efforts. My Grandma suggested he call for "Mickey". That wasn't such a good idea because Elijah proceeded to holler for Mickey Mouse before getting sad that Mickey Mouse wasn't coming to the door. Bless his heart.

It was nice enough one day last week that Elijah and I were able to go on the back deck to play with bubbles. He loves bubbles. Elijah does get rather aggravated at the lack of bubbles that emerge from his wand in his overly-excited attempts to blow the bubbles, so we bought a bubble machine. (Yes, his shirt is on backwards. Can't argue with a two year old when it comes to getting dressed.)

So with Emily sound asleep in her pack & play, Elijah and I danced, kicked, stomped, and clapped at bubbles. It quickly turned into a game of "I can get more bubbles than you", which was great fun. All I have to do to get Elijah to participate in anything is to compete with him. A simple "it's my turn" with a charge in the appropriate direction is usually enough. All of this being demonstrated brought on bouts of shrieking and laughing from Elijah. I think he knows how to "hi-ya" now after watching me karate chop a few bubbles. He found that amusing.

Emily has started giggling now. There were a few times that I was fairly sure that's what was happening but now I'm positive that's what's happening. I was able to record it on my phone so I do have some sort of documentation of it! Another amazing thing she has started doing is mimicking sounds! Sure, she was copying me when I raised my eyebrows, opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue, but when I (or anyone else) say's, "Hi" she will copy the sound back! Of course a smile, and/or gurgle of some sort will follow, too. Would it be safe to say that her first word was "Hi"?

She has bouts of excitement as well. Her legs get kicking and her arms flail as she takes a few sharp, excited, audible breaths. It's too cute. Emily was super excited over this little toy cow I was holding tonight. She wouldn't take her eyes off of it. Emily has some awesome focusing abilities. No matter which direction I moved this toy, she would follow it. She even knocked it out of my hand once. I know that she's too young to reach out and grab yet, but she certainly looked like she was trying! I love her hair. It's just too light weight to lay on her head, so it stands straight up. My hair did the same thing according to my baby pictures. I think it's pretty silly that both of our kids, as of now, have my hair (which is fine and thin, compared to my Husband's thick hair). Also, I have green eyes while my Husband has brown eyes. Elijah's eyes are starting to turn green (as opposed to the striking blue they were) I think, and Emily's are blue right now.

I can't believe she'll be two months on Sunday! She's such a big girl already. That's a six month outfit she's wearing in that picture. It is a little baggy on her, but not by much. Like I said, big girl. Big and healthy is how I do!

I think the potty strike might be lifted. The past few days Elijah has been using the potty. My Mother-in-law had an idea to give Elijah a "big boy" treat if he pooped in the potty at her house. Well, he did poop in the potty and Grandma Chris busted out some strawberry Pocky. Elijah had never seen nor tasted this before so he truly believes that only Big Boys can have this treat. He tried to share it with me, which was so sweet, but I told him I wasn't a big boy, so I couldn't have it. We have not used another diaper during the day since Sunday. And since he is determined to use the potty every time now, I stuck him back in cloth diapers at night without worrying about him pooping in them.

Elijah and I went to the store to get more big boy treats since the little box Grandma Chris gave to us wasn't going to last long and Elijah saw different flavors of Pocky and other delicious Japanese treats. So not only did we leave the store with more strawberry Pocky, we also had chocolate Pocky and Hello Kitty Strawberry Marshmallows. I didn't want to potty train using treats in the beginning because of the strange association with food as a reward. But I feel that it's different this time because Elijah knows now, compared to when he was first learning to use the potty, what he's doing when he decides to pee/poop in his diaper rather than the potty.

Plus I feel that this is a nice way to acknowledge him in "big boy" behaviors that are coinciding with him being a big brother. It allows me to give him positive reinforcement and attention in his big boy actions rather than giving him the same sort attention I give Emily when I'm changing her diaper. I think this is part of the reason he went on the potty strike in the first place. That and because Daddy had to go back to work.

In any case, way to go, Elijah! Rockin' the big boy status. (Though he'll always be my baby boy...)

Neighbor Man to the Rescue

After two days of not seeing my cat, Loki, I had just about given up hope. When my mom came home from work she had a weird look on her face and said, "I think I hear a cat crying somewhere outside." I flew out of my seat and ran to the garage door and called out to Loki. Sure enough, I heard a faint cry in response that was most definitely Loki's meow. Emily in my arms, and Elijah at my heel, I frantically started to slip on shoes ready to bounce out into the night in search for my dear feline. Mom stopped me, reminded me that I needed a jacket and more than just my crocs on my feet. She started looking for the keys for the rooms under the house but I didn't think it sounded like Loki was under the house. It sounded like he was outside somewhere.

Mom took Emily from me and I grabbed a flash light, clicked it on and the most pathetic stream of light shined out. Getting rather flustered at this point, I threw down the flash light in search of another. The next flash light sucked as much as the first one! I let out an irritated groan and decided to find some batteries.

Once equipped with an adequate flashlight, I'm outside playing Marco Polo with Loki. His cries bring me to three huge trees that are tangled together with huge branches. Pointing my flash light into the trees, I'm searching for the only indicator that will allow me to know where he is in the trees: his eyes. Loki is completely black. I heaved a gigantic sigh of relief when I saw a pair of eyes reflecting back at me, bright as headlights.

Now the questions was: how in the world was I going to get him down?

A phone call was made to our neighbors and Mr. Neighbor came to the rescue! I had to wait for him to finish driving home. But as soon as he came home, he changed his clothes and was out with a 24 foot ladder climbing up into this massive tree. Once he was at the top of the ladder, he ventured another eight feet into the tree. Loki was near the end of a branch, unwilling to cooperate his rescuing, so Mr. Neighbor scooted out on a branch (in the dark! mind you) and grabbed hold of Loki.

I thanked Mr. Neighbor about 40,000 times, but I still don't feel that was enough. I've been thinking about what I can do for him to let him know just how much I appreciated his heroism.

Fast forward to today. It was actually nice enough outside to play with bubbles! Elijah has loved playing with bubbles since he was about 18 months old or so. I love to play with the bubbles with him, but I couldn't really play with him this time. Emily was awake and apparently didn't want to miss anything because whenever I put her down, she cried. And while it was nice enough to go outside, it wasn't all that warm. I made sure she was properly bundled before going out and attempting to interact with Elijah one handed. It's so cute, he pronounces bubbles, "bubbies." He used to say it another way when he was first starting to talk, but I can't remember how it sounded now! Time goes by too fast. Well, sometimes it seems that way.

Another activity I was able to partake in with Elijah today, was to sit down and read a copy of Toddler Highlights with him. Emily was sleeping at this point, which made it all the more possible. I want to give all of myself to Emily, and all of myself to Elijah. At the same time. If there is a possible way to do this, I don't know what it is. Finding a balance in sharing my attention is extremely difficult right now. I want to be able to interact with Emily in the ways I did with Elijah when he was a newborn. I just don't think that can happen. I've got Elijah who needs attention, too. Back to topic, to be able to do something that was just me and Elijah felt really nice. We snuggled and read the short stories, found the hidden pictures, and talked about the shapes and animals.

I believe the attention and efforts that go into Emily's diaper changes has reverted Elijah back a few paces. He has lost interest in using the potty. He was on such a roll, too! I've heard that this is to be expect, not at all uncommon. It's frustrating, nonetheless. Since I'm doing cloth diapers, it ups the diaper laundry load and is all around a challenge to be changing two children during the day. Plus knowing he can pee in the potty but chooses not to is, well, annoying, to be honest. Classic two year old behavior I suppose. I try to remind myself to embrace the "two year old-ness", otherwise I just might go crazy. And also, who really wants to argue with a two year old? I don't.

Elijah is sleeping with me tonight, which is not how it's been the past few nights. He has been sleeping with my mom and sometimes it's just easier that way. But in all honesty, I don't sleep as well when Elijah isn't with me. He has his own bed in my room, but still chooses to sleep with me. I'm okay with this because I know he will sleep in his bed when he wants to. He was a few months ago, but with all of the changes going on he has decided his bed isn't for sleeping, but for jumping.

So now, as I bring this post to a close, I've got Emily sleeping on my belly, Elijah snuggled against my side, and Loki next to my head. The only person I need now is my husband home from Afghanistan and my circle of love will be complete.