nonconformist

As I've mentioned before, Eliot has always liked to have everything in it's place. He always puts his play-doh in the container with the corresponding top. He gets very upset if I try to put the yellow ball in the red slot and vice versa. Last night he was in the bathtub playing with his musical dolphins. There are several different colored dolphins that fit into corresponding inter-tubes. Of course, they were all in their assigned color-coordinating inter-tubes. Eliot sat and marveled at his achievement. For some reason he started thoughtfully rearranging the dolphins into DIFFERENT COLORED TUBES! Then he mused to himself, "I'm changing my mind!"

snippits

Scene: Mommy returns home from a business trip to Milwaukee.
Mommy: I think you grew two inches while I was gone!
Eliot: I'm bigger than EVER!

Scene: Eliot sings his ABC's
Eliot: ... next time won't you sing with MEEEEE!
Mommy: (clapping wildly) Yay! Bravo! Bravo! Encore!
Eliot: (bowing deeply with each iteration, arms spread wide) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Scene: Late afternoon. Eliot and Mommy relax on the glider on the deck.
Eliot: (extending his juice) You wanna sip?
Mommy: Oh, no thank you.
Eliot: (shrugging) Well, you've got your beer.
Note: I know I should feel guilty about that last one, but somehow I just don't!

rose-colored glasses

Last year when we were at the beach, we bought Eliot his first pair of sunglasses. We had no idea how much he would love them. This year, while he still had his old pair, we thought it would be prudent to get a back-up pair, just in case. Before we decided on these VERY fashionable blue sunglasses, Eliot went directly to the pink ones. "Want those pink ones, Mommy!" Deenie and I were able to sway him to the blue ones successfully without saying anything negative about pink, just positive about blue. Well, it turned out to be a good thing that we got these back-up glasses, because while we were at the lake, his original ones finally broke. By this point, we know that Eliot LOVES HIM SOME SUNGLASSES. So, we decided to get him some more - just so we'd always have two pairs in case of emergency. After perusing and trying on every single pair of pink sunglasses that CVS had, Eliot settled on a nice pair of black ones with Mickey Mouse on the side. Quick summary - first sunglasses, broken. Second sunglasses, blue, in-tact. Third sunglasses, Mickey, almost new.
So. We were on our way to Holly's house to go swimming last weekend. We stopped by CVS for sunscreen. Eliot saw the sunglasses from across the room and made a B-line! He went directly for the pink ones. He tried on every pair they had, and kept telling me, "but I YIKE the pink ones!". Finally, my concience could no longer take it. I bought him the pink ones. And I gotta admit, he's pretty cute!

on the lake

Uncle Donnie and Aunt Robin got a boat! So for Memorial Day weekend we took a trip to Atlanta and went out on Lake Lanier for the day. Eliot had a blast! They have some friends with a houseboat, so we were able to dock for a little while and regain our "land legs". By about 6:00 Eliot couldn't stand it any more and took a brief, naked nap on the deck of the boat. We were too tired to do another day, but we'll be back for more before the end of the summer. Pictures here! Note: I have cropped the thumbnails down to a portion of the picture. Click on the image to see the full photo.