Eliot supports the arts

I have a Support the Arts tag on my car. Every afternoon as Eliot walks past it in the garage he and Daddy have to stop to look at it. He points to each square. "See the dancin'? (ballet slippers) See the smiley face? (theater mask) See the colors? (painter's tray) See the (my personal favorite) muskat? (music)"

Valentine

Wow, it looks like I've been gone for a while, doesn't it? So sorry for that - I've been quite busy. But clearly Eliot's little blog needs a little update. Surely he's been doing some things since February 13th.
I guess I could start with Valentine's Day. He gave us a little card with thumbprints all over it. The cover reads, "THUMBbody loves you." HAHAHAH! On the inside there's a picture of him at school holding up a hear-shaped sign that, I'm pretty sure, says, "I love you." He's a little off center, so all you can read is "ove You.." He's standing in front of a heart-shaped backdrop. I'll try to get a copy of it up here soon. It's terribly sweet.
His class had a delightful little party. Eliot really racked up the cards and candy, although he was adamant that Ms Wendy was his official Valentine. As a result, he's learned a new word - CANDY. Well, it's not really a new word, but he uses it more often than he was before. We put all of his candy in a basket on the kitchen counter. Every night he points at it and says, "CANDY!!!" After correcting him to use his "nice words" to ask for something, I'll usually say that he has to wait until after dinner. A few minutes later, he comes back in, holds his arms up and, in his sweetest voice he'll say, "Mommy hold you? Mommy uhnuhnuh-uh hugging you?" (He always says "you" when he means "me" and replaces many words or thoughts in a sentence with an indecipherable "uhhnuhnuh-uh" sound. It's unbearably cute.) Of course, I have to pick him up and smother him in hugs and kisses, knowing good and well that it's just a ruse to get closer to the coveted candy basket.
One night he picked a gummy bear from the basket. It was not a normal sized gummy bear, but a giant gummy bear. Before I knew what was going on, the whole thing slid down his throat and lodged. His face turned red and his eyes watered as he "gak-gak-gaked" to get it up. I rubbed his back and said comforting things, even though I didn't feel very comfortable. I thought I was going to have to dust off the ole CPR classes. After an eternity, he finally swallowed the thing and coughed. With teary eyes and red face he croaked, "that's bettah, that's bettah, Mom." (He's way too cool to call me MOMMY, unless he's trying to be sweet for candy.) Needless to say, I took all of the scary candy out of the basket that minute. We're sticking with peanut-butter cups for the time being.

odd encounter

On Sunday afternoon I left Eliot alone in the living room for a few minutes while I went to the kitchen for a snack. When I returned, I found that he had busied himself with dropping all manner of things into my glass of water. There was a roll of tape, a bouncy ball, a couple of pennies and a pair of nail clippers. I walked in just as he was about to drop a cat toy into the mix. We stood there staring at each other, his hand poised over the glass, dangling a toy mouse by the tail. "What are you doing?" I asked casually. Eliot looked at the glass, then back at me, mouse still a-dangle. "Please quit dropping random household items into my glass," I requested. "Go away, please, Mommy." "Ok, let me get this straight, Eliot. You want me to go away so you can continue dropping things into my water?" Eliot considered my summary. Then, decisively, he responded, "Yes."

The most important thing EVER...

By popular demand, the "thing" that Eliot was doing in the kitchen that was OH SO IMPORTANT: I think I've mentioned before about how quirky Eliot is about his routine and how everything must be just so. Well, we got the playdough out to play with but he wanted to put the container back in the kitchen drawer before he played. Everything in it's place, ya know?

This weekend I had two lovely opportunities to let Eliot spend some quality time with Daddy while I went out with my girlfriends. Sunday evening Eliot finally had me to himself and he was thoroughly enjoying our time together. We were playing with playdough at the table. He got out of his chair and looked at me intently, making sure I was paying attention. With the serious tone of a man on a mission, he said, "Mommy. I'll be right back." (pause, then finger pointing..) "right back." He paused for a second to make sure that I understood, then went to the kitchen. Then he briefly turned around to make sure I was still sitting there before moving on to what he was doing.

4 Things Meme

It looks like Eliot has been tagged by Mandy for the 4 Things Meme. So, here it is.

Four jobs I've had:
Alarm clock, town crier, morale booster, reality checker

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
Finding Nemo, Baby Einstein Neighborhood Animals, Baby Einstein Shakespeare, Monsters Inc.

Four Three Places I've Lived:
In Mommy's tummy, Brookwood Medical Center, Hoover

Four TV shows I love:
Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, Maisy, Max and Ruby

Four places I've vacationed:
Panama City Florida, Boca Raton Florida, Ft. Morgan Alabama, Gigi's house

Four of my favorite dishes:
Corn, pistachios, PB&J, Pop Tarts

Four sites I visit daily:
Noggin – that's pretty much it.

Four places I would rather be right now:
swimming, at the zoo, at Lauren's house, at the park

Four bloggers I'm tagging:
I do not know what "bloggers" are.