putting it together

Right on the heels of "read a book", Eliot has started putting even more words together. Not exactly into sentences, but into coherent thoughts. For example, this morning when he woke up he threw his teddy bear over the side of the crib. From the other room I heard him say, "UH-OH! Bear-bear! Mommy! Uh-oh, Mommy, Bearbear! UH-OH!!" Sometimes he'll come to me and say, "More banana. More more banana. Eat." This one is complete with sign language - finger pointing to palm of hand for "more" and then finger pointing to lips for "eat".

something important to say

This morning Eliot was sitting between us on the bed. He was much more awake than either Brian and I were at 6:30 in the morning. Brian was laying on his side. Eliot got up on his knees and poked him, "daddy? daddy?" He got nothing, so he tried shaking him by the shoulder, "DaddyDaddyDADDY!" Finally Brian turned over. "yes, Eliot, what is it?" Eliot smiled ear to ear, stuck his chunky little finger out and poked him in the eye. "EYE!" he shouted, very proud of himself. Brian responded calmly. "Yes, Eliot. You are very smart. That is my eye." Eliot seemed satisfied that we all acknowledged his important, early morning revelation. He sat back down and continued watching cartoons.

scientific theory

I have discovered that the amount of sleep that Eliot gets at night is directly correlated with the amount of sand that I dump from his shoes after school every day. As an added bonus, if there's sand in his diaper, we can usually count on a tiny bit more sleep in the morning.

how to eat Jello, by Eliot Cornett

1. Smash your entire face into the tiny container as hard as you can. Avoid spoons at all costs. See if you can get Mom to hold it for you.


2. Contemplate an ulterior method with jello dripping off your cheeks.


3. Attempt drinking jello from the wrong side of tiny container. In the process, dump jello onto Mom's hand.


4. Not to worry. Now that jello has been liberated from tiny container, it's prime for slurping.


5. Stare longingly into empty tiny container. One of the gullible adults is bound to bring you another.

back to the zoo

Yesterday for Father's Day, I fixed a nice big breakfast for Brian. Eliot helped (eat the biscuits, that is). After nap, we took Daddy to the zoo. You can see a photo montage of our journey here. Eliot was exhausted by the end of the day, and slept well last night.

no use crying over smashed glass

Sunday afternoon Eliot created a new game for himself. Sneak around the house when Mommy and Daddy are not looking, find something glass, then smash it on the kitchen floor. What a fun game that was! Ya, Eliot liked smashing the glass a LOT. He'd rare back going, "uhhhh..." and then smash it , "UH!" with a huge grin on his face. The first time was with some meat sticks from the pantry when Brian was alone with him. So Brian cleaned it up and closed the pantry door. Then when I got home I left the pantry door open again, not knowing. Before I know it he's smashed another jar of meat sticks. So we clean that up, and now we are on the same page about keeping the door shut. Then, a little while later, Eliot rounds the kitchen corner with an empty glass bottle. Brian looks down and says, "do NOT throw that!!!" Almost before the words were out of his mouth I hear, "Uhhhh... UH!" *CRASH!!!!* In the end, the score was: Eliot - 3, Mom and Dad - 0. But we had the last laugh, though, when he didn't have any meat sticks for dinner, as they were all smashed upon the floor. From now on he's stuck with COLD CUTS which come in a PLASTIC container.

picky

Believe it or not, Eliot has become a very picky eater. Even with some things that he used to love, if even a tiny hint of the food crosses his mouth, he'll stick out his tongue and wipe it off with his hand - very dramatic. Oh, there are some tried and true items: graham crackers, goldfish, fruit of any kind... But last night he had potato and ham casserole for dinner. I gave him a bite. He chewed and chewed, swallowed, then "PTUI" - spit out the tiny bit of ham. This went on for a while, but finally he stopped trusting me. He would not take a bite from the spoon if I was the one that scooped it up. He'd look and me, smile and say, "no." Very calm, very polite, and always with a smile. He'd shake his head gently and just say, "no", with an air of "I've thought about this for a while, weighed all of the options, and I've decided... no."

isn't it amazing?

Every day Eliot surprises me with something new. It amazes me how much he develops in such a short time! Do you need an example? Here are a few:

Tonight he had some toenail clippers. He tapped them on my toe and said, "Snip! Snip!"

Last night he brought a book up to me and said, "read a book." But it sounded a little more like, "reeeeeead a-buk!"

He knows yellow, blue and red. He says, "neh-no", "boo" and "ded".

He bounced a ball down the hall and said, "boing, boing, boing."

See? New and exciting things every single day.

special delivery

Brian got a package in the mail today. The box was medium-sized, about a foot and a half cubed or so. I sat it by the door so Brian could open it when he got home. As soon as Eliot rounded the coffee table, he saw the package out of the corner of his eye. His eyes lit up and he pointed, "BOX!!" He ran over to it and pushed it into the living room (his new game - pushing things around while yelling, "BEEP BEEP!"). I went to get him a cup of juice in the kitchen and when I got back he was standing squarely on top of the box. He had climbed up on top of an eighteen inch tall box and stood up, in the brief time it took me to get some juice from the 'fridge. He looked over his shoulder at me and said pleadingly, "down? Down?" "OH no," I said, "you got yourself up there, you can get yourself back down." Before I even had time to get the camera he was back on solid ground. But he didn't climb back up there again.

zoo dream

Yesterday we went to the zoo for a while. Eliot had a great time in the petting zoo. He knows all of his barn-yard animals. He speaks their language - mooo-ing at all the cows and baaa-ing at all the sheep. He was a little confused by the pig, who was neither pink nor curly-tailed. He ran himself ragged, chasing chickens and petting goats. He fell asleep on the way home and woke with a start when we pulled into the driveway. He sat up suddenly and yelled, "BABY DUCK!" Then closed his little eyes again. I guess he was dreaming about the day.