Quota

Eli is 18 months old and he has already met his childhood quota for trips to the ER.  Today marked number 2.  While playing at the sink this morning he fell off of the chair hitting the ground and somehow cut a gash in his forehead.  It bled a lot (as head wounds will) and it was pretty deep so...5 stitches later he was on his way again.  The ER gets some sort of medal in my book because we were in and out of there in 30 mins!!

Just another routine stop on the way to church. 

Nap time

I  think he might be tired?

This is what I'm up against...

While I was cleaning this morning, Zach was doing 'a little' building...  Here is his finished house!!

I do believe it includes every toy and piece of living room furniture that we own.  If you look carefully you can see the windows I cleaned, the laundry I folded, the furniture I dusted and the oven I cleaned!  All in a days work, right?!?

Duckpin

We took the kids duckpin bowling while in Rhode Island last weekend.  It was great because the smaller balls enabled both boys to bowl, they even had a ramp for Eli to use!  Eli had a lot of fun and after each 'shot' he would cheer and clap for himself and then give each of his cousins high-fives.  Zach would roll the ball down the lane and then intently watch its slow progress to see how many pins he knocked down.  I think both boys scored better than I did!

Spring Pictures

Vigilantly watching the boys.

This is the face I get when I ask for a smile...

...or there is this other option too!

Why?

I didn't expect this question phase to be like solving a hundred riddles every day.  I stumble along trying to answer each one correctly until I hit upon the "right" answer.  Why do dogs bark?  Why does the sun shine?  Why do we have hair? Why do cars go?  What happens if there isn't any food?  What happens if I couldn't walk?  I struggle between trying to give Zach a serious answer but also not making it too complicated for him to understand (that's assuming I actually know the complicated answer). You can fill in any of the hundred why/what questions I get and they pretty much go like this:

Zach: Why do we have noses?

Me: So that we can smell things and so we can breath.  (Good answer, right?)

Zach:  But why do we have noses?

Me: (trying my same answer in case it works this time)  So we can smell things and it also helps us to breath.

Zach: What happens if we don't have noses?

Me: Um? We wouldn't be able to smell anything!

Zach: Would we die?

Me: No. We can breath through our mouth too.

Zach: Why do we have noses?

Me: I don't know anymore.

Zach: No mommy, why do we have noses?

Me:  (trying another tactic) Because God made us with noses?!?

Zach: Oh!

Dinner...

Turned around one day and found this sight!
I'm still looking for the lock...

While preparing dinner tonight, Zach and I had the following conversation:

Me:  It's almost time for dinner, I thought you and Eli could have ravioli tonight!

Zach:  No, I be hate ravioli. (No idea where this child learned to talk-but I should add that he always says this phrase very politely.)  I want a snack instead!

Me:  Sorry, no snack.  We need to have dinner.  If you'd like you could have the leftover burger or macaroni and cheese instead.

Zach: Um, no. I be hate macaroni.  I be hate burgers.  How about a sandwich or a banana??  That would be a good idea!

Me: No, you can have either ravioli, macaroni or a burger.  (He doesn't usually have this many options but it was clean-out-the-fridge night.)

Zach:  No, I be hate those.

Me:  (defeated) Zach, you 'be hate' everything tonight.

Zach: I don't be hate bananas!

New Years in the mountains!

4 Years Old

(Thank you Krista for the "4" cake idea!!)

(4 years old and still won't smile or cooperate for pictures, ugh.)

Christmas Pictures

Cutting down our first tree!

Eating Monkey Bread, YUM!!

Playing a new board game

Halloween

All of my boys dressed up for Halloween this year...some were cuter than others!  Eli was a monkey that Zach had been only yesterday, I swear.  Zach was a very terrifying monster (which ended up being much cuter on the rack...he will kill me some year for not only the costume but also taking pictures of him in it--turns out by 4 yrs kids need to move away from the cute cuddly costumes...who knew?!?).  And Steve, who was running a Halloween tournament all weekend and had to dress up, was 'the doctor' (For those of you like me who have no idea who that is he was a basketball player for the 76ers in the '80s). When he decided that he had to dress up his only comment was that he had to be someone with hair!!  (Jesse, I'm sure you will be able to come up with a way to use this picture in the future!)

Soccer

Zach played soccer this year for the county and Steve was his coach!  This is not a sport that we have played much of at our house and Zach was definitely not a dominant player....  The first day he ran around behind the group looking over at me and smiling a largest smile I have ever seen.  As the weeks progressed he started to understand the concepts more and by the last two weeks he even scored 2 goals!!!!  We went into this sport just wanting Zach to have fun and run around with other kids but I was a little disappointed in myself with how inordinately pleased I was to see him score!

Scoring a goal during practice.

This was the little mob that followed Steve around!

Waiting his turn for 'coach' to call him back in the game!

This was one of Zach's breakaway goals!

One Year Later

I'm finding it very hard to believe that Eli is already 1 year old!!  We celebrated his birthday last weekend with family and he fully enjoyed being the center of attention.  Zach was very excited about Eli's birthday and helped wrap the gifts and then later helped unwrap them! 

My 'baby' is trying to run, loves to eat anything!! (finally an eater!), and already loves to wrestle and play baseball with his daddy and big brother.  He seems to be very determined also because a locked cabinet or a barred entryway does not necessarily stop him from accomplishing what he wants.  And if he can't out smart the obstacle than he frequently sits down and screams in anger at the offending object before he moves on (I'm guessing there must be fierce temper in there as well).  I am really enjoying having Eli be a little more independent and I love to watch he and Zach begin to play together!

Summer Sayings

Here are some of my favorite 'Zach sayings' from this past summer:

• While walking through our small zoo one day an announcement was made over the PA system.  Upon hearing the voice Zach said, "Mommy!  It's God!!" 

• Sunscreen was called 'sunscream'.  (Which was appropriate because he really doesn't like having it put on!)

•  When we're with another family and he wants me he calls out, "My Mommy!"  For example he will say, "My mommy, I want a drink." or "My mommy, watch me go down the slide."

• One day after church Steve dropped me off at Walmart while he and boys circled the parking lot.  Steve said that he never verbalized that they were waiting for me but after one turn around the lot Zach said,  "Where is that craaazy mommy?" 

• Zach's prayers have progressed from a simple "Thank you for this food!" to this one a few weeks ago; "Thank you Lord for wrestling, heffalumps, catching heffalumps and mowing the grass--Amen!"

Summer pictures