Eliot's full of stories

Eliot had the rare opportunity to sleep all night in our bed last weekend. It was quite a novel experience for him, and while we didn’t sleep very well Brian and I agreed that it was kind of nice to have him in the bed with us for one night. So we were discussing the fact that he doesn’t normally sleep with us because Daddy might roll over on him and smoosh. Here’s what he thought about that:

“And maybe when Daddy and Mommy are sleeping, Daddy will roll over and smoosh Mommy flat, like a pancake. Then we’ll eat Mommy for breakfast. And and and… then I’ll ask Daddy, ‘where’s the syrup?’ And Daddy will say, ‘I don’t know, go ask Mommy.’ And I’ll say, ‘I can’t ask Mommy – she’s smooshed flat like a pancake!!’”

crisis narrowly averted

Boy, am I sleepy today! I haven’t been this sleep deprived in years! Since Eliot was a baby, probably. We lost Bear Bear last night and Eliot couldn’t sleep. When we all went to bed everything was fine and dandy. It all started around 2am. Eliot wet the bed so I had to change his pj’s in the middle of the night and I just snuggled him into our bed so I wouldn’t have to change his sheets. We’re all settled in and he whispers, “where’s Bear Bear?” I felt around for a minute and couldn’t find him in our bed. I went to his room and couldn’t find him in his bed. It all escalated until all the lights were on and everyone was searching. Still, no Bear Bear. I told Eliot he’d just have to sleep without him tonight and we could look in the morning. He took the news okay, but was very sad. He tossed and turned. Then I realized he was softly crying. “I just can’t sleep without Bear Bear.” I hugged him and tried to calm him. Every few minutes he’d suggest another place that we could look. Unfortunately, most of which we’d already searched. When morning finally came, his first words were, “I wish I had Bear Bear. Maybe I left him at school. Maybe he’s in the laundry.” All of a sudden, out of the blue, it struck me! I sat up straight in bed and said, “Hey, go look in your underwear drawer!” He jumped out of bed and ran to his room. I had remembered that when I changed his clothes, I had reached in his drawer and accidentally got underwear instead of pj bottoms. So I scooped up the pile and put it back in the drawer and grabbed pj’s. In the pitch dark, in my sleepy stupor, I must’ve scooped Bear Bear up with the wad of cloth and thrown him into the drawer, too.

I heard a squeal and a giggle. He came back in rubbing Bear Bear against his cheek and holding him lovingly like a newborn baby. I don’t even know if I can describe the look on his face. His eyes were closed lightly. His mouth was curled up into a gentle, easy grin. His cheeks were tinged with a rosy hue. It was pure contentment. I knew Bear Bear was pretty special but I didn’t realize how attached he was. At any rate, it was a joyous reunion, even though he was only missing for about six hours. Even still I’m thinking of putting a pager on him, just in case.

Irondale Cafe

“Let’s put our napkins in our shirts. That’s how they do it at the I-RON-DALE Café.”
“What did you eat at the I-RON-DALE Café?”
“Blackeye peas and corn”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Well, DUH! I made a happy plate!”

well, DUH!

The word of the day is “DUH!” As in, “I have to finish this show before I can go to bed, well DUH!” Or “I need to color a picture before I go to school, well DUH!” Or, “I can’t get dressed until I do this little dance, well DUH!” I think I know where he picked it up. He has a tendency to have a “well DUH” tone in his voice anyway. I’m sure that someone (maybe even me and/or Brian) were laughing about that one day and said, “Yeah, Daddy, DUH!” after he said something with that tone. So I can’t exactly blame him for doing it. And truth told, I think it’s a little funny.

Butterfly Class

The new school year has begun! Eliot has moved from the Shining Stars class to the Butterfly class. His favorite teacher, Miss Melissa, moved to the new class as well. So we’re very happy about that. What we are not happy about, however, is that most of his friends skipped Butterfly and moved up to Ladybugs. Eliot’s taking it better than I am probably, but I miss all of those friends. Also, I’m not sure I like it that he’s the oldest kid in the class. The activities that they are doing are a little below his level, in my opinion. I suppose this affords him the opportunity to be a leader, though, so that’s a good experience. And, chances are, he’ll end up moving up anyway. Remember last year? When we were separated from Adeline?
Anyway, we already have two homework projects, both of which I’m behind on. He’s supposed to bring in pictures of his family (including pets). We are so bad about taking pictures these days. The ones we do have are just him, not with anyone else. We’ll have to improvise this weekend.
The other project, due Monday, is a “scrapbook page”. We’re supposed to decorate this page with all of Eliot’s favorite stuff. Last night we spent the evening removing labels from vegetable cans and attempting to take a picture of “The Orange Monster”, who flatly refused to cooperate. When this project is finished, I’ll try to remember to post a picture. I’m sure it’ll be great!

Check in Time

We’ve been tagged by Steph (and Lauren) with the Mommy Blog Meme. Here’s ours.
Right now, what is your child's favorite:
- color – Orange, purple, blue and pink – consistently.
- tv show – Maggie and the Ferocious Beast
- food - spaghetti
- time of day – right when we get home from school
- book – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
- friend - Gaston
- place to go/play – swimming pool
- outfit - the black and white “Alaska” shirt that Grandmother Galloway brought back from her recent trip. It changes colors in the sun!
- toy – any and all video games.