Elliott - 4/30/2015

Elliott ate raisin english muffin and blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he had bites of turkey sandwich, ate green beans, and ate his strawberries.

This toy which Elliott is holding up to his ear plays music and he was holding it just like he does when playing with the phones. And this wasn't an isolated incident; he played with it several times this morning.  It plays different songs and makes different sounds.  He was cracking up at some of the sounds.

Elliott was watching Mia and Cooper wearing tutus and spinning like wild kids.  (Until they were quite dizzy!)  He was laughing and of course joined right in with the fun.  :)  Later he crashed and came over to me and laid his head on the arm of the chair.   I loved on him and he was just jabbering; telling me all about the crash.  It was so cute.  He followed that up by repeatedly coming over and laying his head on the arm of the chair for repeat loves.  :)

Elliott frequently plays in the legos drawer like you see in the picture.  Sometimes (today was one of those times) he faces the opposite direction and hangs on.  It's kind of slippery with the legos in there and his feet shot out from under him and all I could see was his head sticking out.  It looked so funny and I was roaring.  He was trying to whimper, but couldn't help himself; he started laughing too!  :)

Elliott - 4/29/2015

Elliott ate most of his jelly toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate half of beef & bean burrito serving, ate sweet potatoes, and most of tropical fruit.

I wanted to show Mia and Cooper doing a good job (usually - and with my help) of allowing Elliott to be a part of some of their activities.  He's handing legos to them for their project.  He's really never intentionally destructive with their building activities and that's the primary key to him being included in the process.

I could include a picture of Elliott reading every day.  (Well maybe I have been!!  Ha!)  I love how he has all those books piled on the floor around himself.  And I also love how he's been wanting to be included in our daily Story Time.  Very cool!

Today was the first time I've tried having him participate at Art Time.  We obviously do very simple things with "art," but they get to experiment with markers, stickers, paint, etc.  He's on the young end of when I usually start giving them the opportunity to participate.  And it mostly hinges on them keeping things out of their mouth.  :)  So today we did some "dot painting!"   Doesn't that sound like something he'd love!?  Bang bang bang with the dot paints!!  :)  He did really well and stayed on task for a few minutes.  He never did try to stick it in his mouth, but just grabbing with the other hand.  I waited before giving him some dot paints while he watched Mia and Cooper painting so he had an idea of what was going to happen.

Elliott - 4/28/2015

Elliott ate cinnamon roll and canned prunes for breakfast.  For lunch he had bites of scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, and sausage combo.  He ate waffle and had bites of cantaloupe.

Mia found a "brownie" that had some issues; "Gaaarrrrreeeeee!!" She yelled.  "I have a problem!!"  Ha ha ha!  "He chewed on it!!"  "He" was Elliott and the brownie had drool all over it!

I had the camera and was peeking up over the changing table at Elliott and he was cracking up laughing!  I love his smiling face and I just have to take pictures of it!!  :)

I took this picture of Elliott reading a book under the table.  I'm in agreement with you Elliott - anywhere is a good place to read a book!!  :)

Elliott played with lots of toys and did some more stomping his feet and yelling "hooray" while I sang "If you're happy and you know it."  I added another line today and it's right up his alley!  "If you're happy and you know it spin around..."  So he did some spinning and laughing as well!!  :)

Elliott - 4/27/2015

Elliott ate a bite of kix cereal and had three servings of fruit cocktail for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ham sandwich, half of his peas, and a bite of mandarin oranges.

Elliott sat on my lap for all of Story Time this morning.  That's the first time!  We looked at a total of seven books and he sat real nice the whole time.  I love it!  We were also singing, "If you're happy and you know it..."  Elliott has two favorite actions so far; "stomp your feet" and "shout hooray!" When we shout "hooray" we throw our hands up in the air.  He gets to stomping like crazy and laughing - it is so cute.  Lauralea got to watch him this morning and loved it.

Cooper stretched this house out so it was sitting on the legos table and the chair.  But Elliott didn't quite get the whole "bridge" effect; rather, he was certain he was trapped and didn't like that!!  :)

There's not really a story with this picture; I just wanted to get a picture of the "haircut boy."  I love fresh haircuts on little boys!!  And he was laughing at his Gary, so it was a good time for a picture.  :)  Love you Elliott!

Here's Elliott and Sophie hanging out and having fun together.  They are grabbing each other's hand and I like how she's pushing against his cheek with her foot.  He's grinning and chuckling and getting a kick out of the whole thing.  :)

Elliott - 4/24/2015

Elliott ate bites of oatmeal and ate canned prunes for breakfast.  For lunch he had bites of meat loaf, bites of pita bread, ate carrots, and apricots.

Elliott had actually been packing blocks (four or five) over for Mia and Cooper (handing them off to Mia) as they were building a block tower.  Mia is standing on the arm of the chair in the picture below and Elliott is handing blocks up to her.  Elliott then moved on to the legos table, but Mia was yelling for him to come help them some more!  "Come and help us Elliott!"  :)  So Cooper went over and started trying to drag him back!!  (See the 2nd picture below!)

Elliott grabbed Mia's blanket and sprinted off before laying on it!  :)  Cooper was trying to help get him off Mia's blanket (following Mia's instructions from the chair!).  I asked Mia, "What do you think of Elliott laying on your blanket?"  Mia answered, "Not terrific!"  Ha!

So here's Cooper determined that Elliott needs to continue helping pack blocks.  Elliott is trying to peek around Cooper to see what Mia is yelling about!  Ha!  Forced Labor did not work in this case!

This story is more about Cooper, but Elliott is inadvertently involved in it and I thought you might like it.  Here's a morning ritual: I put Sophie's high chair in the Big Daycare Room to feed her about 11:00 and of course Elliott, Cooper and Mia play around and underneath it.  Well this morning Sophie was sitting in her highchair and I was getting her food and Cooper started howling.  (Elliott had been nearby, but I couldn't figure out what the crying was about!)  Then he showed me his pants and there was a spot of puke on them!  Ha ha ha!  Cooper blamed it on Elliott!  "Elliott puke on me!!"  (howl howl!)  Well it was actually Sophie.  Cooper wanted those pants off immediately and said, "Pants off me!!"  Well there was only a couple of small spots and they cleaned off just fine.  :)

Elliott - 4/23/2015

Elliott ate half of his cinnamon toast and ate grapes for breakfast; that was after the waffles he'd already eaten with you guys!  His lunch was smaller; bites of chicken, dinner roll, and hash browns.  He did eat all his mandarin oranges at lunch.

He was holding the bowl over his face (see the picture) and charging around the room.  Which was working pretty good as long as he kept his eyes open!  He walked right into the block shelf, but the bowl took the brunt of the crash!  :)  I was laughing and I'm sure that was just adding more fuel to the fire of silliness!

Cooper and Mia were building these really tall towers and Elliott was pushing them over.  Cooper asked me, "Can we put Elliott in the box?!?"  Ha!  (It was actually much safer in the box for Elliott anyway!!) So I took a picture of him immediately playing with the legos we had in the box.  Later, Elliott was grabbing Cooper's sandals and Cooper said, "That's not a baby toy!!"  Ha!  He loves to pester his Cooper!

Elliott had plopped down on Sophie's lap so I moved him off and he just sat there.  So I grabbed the camera before he decided to move!  I like how she has her arm on his back.  As soon as Sophie arrived and I sat her on the floor Elliott went over and was waving to her saying, "Hi hi hi."  Then he also went with us to the window to wave bye at her Daddy and Sissy.

Elliott - 4/22/2015

Elliott ate whole wheat bagel and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate a large serving of mac-n-cheese, most of ham, had bites of corn, and bites of apple pieces.

Mia and Cooper were playing and hanging on the front of the igloo and Mia said, "Gary, Elliott, Sophie!!  Look at me!!  I'm upside-down!"  (Elliott and Sophie are especially impressed Mia!!  Ha!)  Later Elliott was drooling (he does a LOT of that!) and Mia said, "You keep your spit in your mouth!!"  :)  Uhhh, he's really not spitting!  (Although I've gotten on his case for spitting and he rarely spits now!)

Lauralea was watching Elliott "read" aloud one of the books this morning and said, "I should get a video of that for my language class!"  So she got her camera out and naturally he stopped immediately!  After she left he probably read aloud again at least two more times!  Ha!

Yesterday afternoon he was playing near the neighbor's fence and their dog was just across the fence, although at first I don't think Elliott saw it.  That dog scares the tar out of Cooper - it will suddenly start barking loudly and fiercely and it's only a few feet away even though he's unseen on the other side of the board fence.  (And he barks LOUD!)  It scares Cooper and he runs and cries like he's dying!  So the same thing happened yesterday except it was Elliott this time.  Elliott didn't even flinch or jump!  He just stood there looking at the fence like "what is your deal dog!?"

Mia was hoarding toys in this purse (that you see in the picture) and not really playing with them; just keeping others from playing with the toys.  As soon as she put the purse down and was distracted with something else, Elliott moved right in and started searching - taking toys out and adding a few of his own as well.

Elliott - 4/21/2015

Elliott ate waffle and half of his pears for breakfast.  He had bites of lunch: tuna and crackers, sweet potatoes, and canned cherries.

Mia used her blankets and built this "bridge" for her and Cooper to play.  At first, Elliott was peeking around the corner at them and then he crawled into the legos table and grabbed the pillow that's holding down the corner of the bridge.  A little later Cooper and Mia were sitting in the chair (you see in the picture) reading books and Elliott kept coming up behind Cooper grabbing his arm.  Cooper wasn't impressed and that's all the encouragement Elliott needed to continue terrorizing him.  So I got Elliott moved away and distracted with playing in another area.  :)

Elliott was playing with this house toy (in the picture) for a long time.  We have little people, animals, and furniture, but of course that's not what he was playing with.  He was trying to stick random toys through the window openings.  (None of which are some enough to fit of course.)  I took this picture and less than ten seconds it all ended up on the floor!  Ha!

Kimberly, your little turkey son Elliott totally bellowed "bye bye" at Lauralea this morning!!  Now here's the funny part;  Lauralea and I were talking as she was going out the door and she'd forgot to say "bye" to any of the kids.  Elliott was playing around the corner by the big box and he must have heard her leaving.  He yelled, "bye bye" before we could even see him.  I turned around and he's standing at the end of the changing table waving like a mad man!  Ha!  Little Rascal!

Elliott - 4/20/2015

Elliott ate chex cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate roast beef sandwich, taste of tomato soup, and ate lettuce salad.  I got some tomato soup on his lips and he tasted it.  He then covered his mouth with his hands when he saw more soup headed his way!!  Ha!  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange so there were lots of "new" goodies for everyone to explore. He was gravitating toward the tutus so I had to put one on him and take a picture.  (He'd been watching Mia and Cooper play with them.)  :)

He was holding up his hands for Story Time and sat for at least 3 books.  That's a record for him here at Daycare!  :)  Good job Elliott!  He loves looking at books on his own, but he hasn't been too interested in sitting while I read them.

I was enjoying watching him walking and bouncing on the mattress.  The mattress really makes them use their muscles to stay upright and is also good for their balance.  And, of course, the added benefit of a soft landing when they do tip over!

Elliott played with the food toys and was sitting by Sophie trying to feed her a "brownie."  At least it was a good dessert choice.  :)  He played with the pop-up toys, xylophones, and lots of other things.

Elliott - 4/17/2015

Elliott ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch; he wouldn't let the hash brown casserole touch his lips, ate biscuit, and ate mandarin oranges.

After Cooper's family left I asked Elliott, "Do you want to wave at Cooper's family?"  He knows exactly what that means; as he sprinted for the window.  His receptive language development is in full speed ahead!  :)

Elliott had a good morning playing with the legos, packing Cooper's blankie to Cooper whenever he found it, playing with the phones, and experimenting with the "stapler tool."  He discovered it has a unique sound when you pull on a piece of it.  He's a great explorer and very adventurous!  :)

Here's a couple pictures of him hanging out with his Sophie friend.  Yesterday he was trying to sit on her, but he hasn't done that yet today!

I don't worry too much about Sophie because she can hold her own!!  Elliott really doesn't care when she grabs him like this; he just gets an amused look on his face.  :)

This picture pretty much illustrates what a game of "Hiding from Elliott" looks like.  :)  Cooper and Mia are hiding and Elliott's not even aware of his involvement in the game, but that really is irrelevant to them and their fun!

Elliott - 4/16/2015

Elliott ate cinnamon toast and bites of melon for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bite of turkey, bites of dinner roll, ate green beans, and ate mangoes.

Hey Kimberly, when Lauralea was leaving for work Elliott was totally waving at her!  I knew you'd want to hear that!  Sorry Momma!  Little stinker, right!?!  He knows you want him to wave at you! :)

Lauralea was messing with her phone in the Day Care room.  Elliott was watching her and then went to the toy shelf and got his own phone.  It was so stinking cute.  He's watching Lauralea in this picture.  I said, "Say hi, say hi!"  And he was - "hiiiii,  hiiiii"

He found a new place to stash the books - behind the book rack.  There's a heat vent there and that's as far back as the shelf can go.  Actually I was surprised that spot wasn't already being used for a stash!!

This picture represents the kind of play that Elliott thinks is hilarious!  Cooper was thumping (gently) on his belly with both hands and Elliott was cracking up.  Mia saw them and said, "My turn, my turn!!"  Yikes!  Uhhh, it was kind of like tag-team wrestling, but she wasn't as gentle!

Elliott - 4/15/2015

Elliott ate half of whole wheat toast and ate canned prunes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate everything: ham, crackers, bean & bacon soup, and strawberries.  At breakfast he was making silly laughing sounds and Mia said, "He thinks he's funny!!"  Ha ha!  Yes he does and actually he is really quite funny!  :)

His hair was cracking me up this morning.  Even Cooper noticed it and said, "Who did that?!"  LOL The funny part about that (to me) is the fact that Cooper is the "Chief of Bed-Heads!"  And this picture pretty much illustrates our conversation perfectly!

I would label this picture as "Double Trouble!"  Elliott joined Sophie under the table for some play time.  Elliott was being a riot this morning.  He started spinning in circles and chanting at the same time and it was very entertaining.  That's the first time I've seen him spin and drool was flying everywhere!  Ha!  He'd fall down, get a silly-dizzy look on his face, get back up and do it again.  He was having a blast experimenting with it all!

I took this picture while Elliott was building with the legos because I liked the keys hanging out of his mouth!  :)  I also should mention his grabbing one of Cooper's blankets and running for his life! I'm sure you've seen that many times with grabbing brother's toys as well!

Elliott - 4/14/2015

Elliott ate half of whole wheat bagel serving and ate apricots for breakfast.  For lunch he had a couple bites of chicken, ate elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, ate peas, and applesauce.

Cooper and Mia had blocked off a corner by the block shelf and were "hiding" from Elliott.  When I took the picture below they were yelling, "Help us!  Here comes Elliott!!"  (Ok, but I have to get a picture first!)  Mia is peeking around the corner and Cooper is in the picture as well, but harder to spot!!  (And of course that is Elliott in the front.)  Did you see Cooper yet?  :)  He's there!

Cooper was sitting on Lauralea's lap and Elliott found one of his three blankies laying on the floor.  He hauled it right over to Cooper and handed it to him.  Nicely done Elliott!  Cooper said, "Can you find my other ones?"  Ha ha ha!  That was funny!  Elliott went charging away on his mission (he's starting to understand language real well), but got distracted by the legos drawer within the first ten feet!!  Ha!

Elliott was tired around 10:15 this morning so I put him down for a little nap, but I went in to get him for lunch.   Mia went with me and when I said, "Come on Elliott," Mia said, "You can't sleep all day!" Ha! If she hears a phrase she remembers it!

The first thing Elliott did this morning was head right for the legos drawer and started assembling legos!  So cute!!  Have I mentioned how adept he is at that activity!?!

Elliott - 4/13/2015

Elliott ate half of bran cereal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate cheese pizza, half of corn, and ate tropical fruit.  He had a great morning and played steady.  He is such a pleasure to watch and I enjoy him a lot.

I know this picture has part of Elliott's face gone (sorry), but it's stinking hard to catch him doing something and by the time I grab the camera he's on to something else!!  I just thought it was cute what he was doing and a picture tells the best story!  The groove in the table bench is where they run their cars, trucks, tractors, etc. around and around!  So Elliott is using a "catsup bottle" from the food toys and running it in the groove and he's carrying his tractor!  Ha!  Love it!

Elliott was sitting in the block toy shelf and Cooper was "getting" him and Elliott was cracking up.  It was so cute.  Then Elliott was helping Mia and Cooper build on their towers.  He carried all four blocks (already hooked together) that you see in the picture across the room to stack them on this tower.  I've mentioned this several times before, but it's pretty fascinating to watch him work with these blocks; he'll work and work to get them just where he wants them and he doesn't get frustrated! And he was pushing stacks of them across the room as well.  That too is pretty funny because he's focused on the floor and not watching where he is going so it's always an adventure; and he's usually going pretty fast!

Elliott - 4/10/2015

Elliott ate malt-o-meal cereal and raisins for breakfast.  (raisins mixed with cereal)  For lunch he ate a bite of ground beef (I mentioned yesterday that a "taste" means it came right back out.  Well a "bite" means it stayed in his mouth and he ate it!), several bites of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, ate bites of apple, and ate mixed fruit.

Lauralea was sitting in the chair by the big window before leaving for work this morning.  She was sure Elliott wanted to snuggle with her so she put her iPad on the floor beside her.  And of course that was what he was really after!  Ha ha!

After Cooper was dropped off I noticed his Mom was sitting in her car outside the big window looking at the Daycare.  I yelled, "You want to wave at your Mom, Cooper!?"  Elliott heard it of course and came running, yelling, and waving at the same time.  And he made it up to the window in time to wave!

Here's a couple pictures of Elliott passing by Sophie on the floor and then deciding to stop and say "hello!"  (You shouldn't have told me you think they are cute together Kimberly!  You might be seeing lots of these kind of pictures!!)

Elliott was standing at the window with two books open and had them resting on the window sill.  He was reading loud and it looked very cute.  He also played with the masks.  Not really putting them on, but stretching them across the top of his head, spinning in circles, and making funny sounds.

Elliott - 4/9/2015

Elliott ate whole wheat english muffin and blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate chicken, crackers, most of sweet potatoes, and ate canned cherries.  He was kind of dozy at lunch time and he didn't even really look at the chicken when I was feeding it to him!  This was the best he's ever eaten the canned chicken from Costco.  (or the baked chicken I do as well)

I took these two picture yesterday afternoon after nap time, but I like both of them so I'm posting them today!  :)  Elliott made this block tower all by himself!  As I've mentioned before I'm impressed (and so is Lauralea) with how well he manipulates these bigger blocks and the little legos as well!  Nice job Elliott!

I'm not sure what he was doing in this picture; just jigging, jiving and and being goofy Elliott!  I love how easily he self-entertains and gets a kick out of everything!

I may have mentioned this before as well, but Elliott impresses me with how much "control" he exercises when experimenting with different situations.  I'll give you a couple examples of what I'm referring to.  He is an adventurous little fellow, but he's way more cautious than I would have guessed he'd be!  Yesterday outside was the first time I've seen him go down one of the slides by himself.  He went face-first on his tummy and used his hands to slow himself down and went down slowly and under control.  Nice job Elliott!  Another example was when he first made it to the top of the table in the play room.  He got on his belly and eased himself off backwards, going in slow incremental steps until he could feel his feet hitting something solid.  Again, nicely done Elliott!

Elliott - 4/8/2015

Elliott ate biscuit and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he had a taste of baked beans, ate half of dinner roll, several bites of peas, and ate pineapple.  (Usually when I say he had a "taste" of something that means it was at least in his mouth, but usually right back out!)

Elliott's usual morning ritual when he arrives is to have some milk.  (The boy loves his milk!)  Cooper's Dad got a chuckle out of watching the procedure this morning!  When Elliott sees me heading his way with his cup of milk he immediately flops on the floor, lays on his back, and waits expectantly for me to give it to him.  Cooper's Dad thought it was a great Pavlov Experiment!  Put simply - it's Programming!  :)

Cooper was SO concerned when he saw Elliott grabbing Sophie!  He yelled at me, "He was bugging Sophie!!"  Ha ha!  Which is basically true!  He was grabbing her legs and tugging on her.  However, I've learned that Sophie likes Elliott's playfulness and she can totally hold her own!  Yesterday I was just about to tell Elliott not to grab Sophie's binky when she reached up and snatched his binky!!

And here's a picture of what I'm talking about!  This was a few moments after the above picture.  Sophie was grabbing a handful of hair.  Elliott thought it was funny at first, but it started to hurt when she continued to hang on!

Elliott - 4/7/2015

Elliott ate several bites of breakfast: waffle and hash browns.  For lunch he ate a bite of chicken and cheese quesadilla, ate carrots, and mandarin oranges.

I happened to have the camera in my hand when Elliott found Cooper's blanket across the room.  Mia was reading books to Cooper so he didn't even notice Elliott had it.  Elliott just marched across the room and handed it to Cooper.  (Well, it was more like Cooper snatching it from him the second after this picture was taken!  "Hey!  That's my blankie!")  Elliott knows who it belongs to - from previous encounters!  :)  Notice Elliott has one of the shakers in his other hand!  Love those shakers!!

Cooper and Mia asked for the Big Bears and of course Elliott enjoyed them as well.  Here's a picture of him relaxing beside Panda Bear and chewing on a phone!!  :)

Whenever Elliott hears me open one of the gates (and he ALWAYS hears it regardless of where he is at in the room) he makes a bee-line for the open gate.  And he's pretty fast!!  :)  I might be carrying a food tray to the kitchen or lunch room and he's on the other side of the play room; oh, I've got time, I'll just leave it open!  He's proven me wrong several times!!  :)

Elliott continues to impress me with his ability to manipulate the large blocks (actually I guess they are legos) and the smaller legos.  He had a fairly tall tower of big blocks built up and he just chuckled when it tipped over.

Elliott - 4/6/2015

Elliott ate a few cheerios and ate banana for breakfast.  For lunch he ate cheese sandwich, turned up his nose at tomato soup, ha!  And ate lettuce salad.

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange so there was all kinds of new stuff to explore.  He played with the tools especially the drills and staplers.  They make cool sounds and he found a variety of ways to play with them.  He also played with the cars, tractors, legos trucks, and laughed at Mia and Cooper when they were trying on masks.  (Especially the big bad wolf mask!)

He found the shakers and as you know he loves anything that makes loud noises!  I was demonstrating how to use them - rather than pounding on the table like you see in the picture.  (But Gary, this is soooo much fun!!)

And here's a picture of him finding something else to do with them; sticking the handles in the hole.  Nicely done Elliott!  Earlier, Mia and Cooper were playing under this table and Elliott crawled on top of it, laid on his belly, and was peeking underneath watching them.  And chuckling of course.

Elliott - 4/3/2015

Elliott ate several bites of oatmeal and a bite of dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch I mixed it together - ground beef, elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce.  He did fine with that unless there was too much meat in the bite, and out it came.  (two times)  So I avoided feeding the meat.

The blog is heavy to pictures today, but there was not any pictures I wanted to cut out!  Besides, the pictures tell a good story of his morning.  I thought this first one was real cute.  He was experimenting with sticking the carrot in the hole of the phone.  He'd been watching Mia do this and that's how they frequently learn new things; seeing others do it.

Cooper was being sweet to Elliott - touching him gently as he passed by.  I noticed and said, "Cooper, that was so sweet."  And here's a "re-enactment" picture of what Cooper did next - gave him another love.  So sweet.

 Not much to say about this picture!  Just so stinking cute!  :)  And with lots of teeth!  Ha!

Sophie was practicing sitting up.  She's getting so big and strong.  Elliott likes to plop down beside her and sometimes will land on her lap.  But she doesn't care!  They actually have similar temperaments.

Elliott - 4/2/2015

Elliott ate half of his whole wheat english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  I limit his blueberry intake due to his diaper rash, but he LOVES them.  For lunch he ate a bite of turkey sandwich, ate green beans, and strawberries.

I took this picture yesterday afternoon.  We've had so many kids at this age bend over and look between their legs.  It's almost like one of the stages of development!!  :)  Except Elliott was experimenting with it and raising his hands off the floor.  And chuckling of course.  Super cute!  He kept doing it long enough that I had time to get the camera and get a picture!

He played with the big legos blocks first thing this morning and then moved on to some small legos. He works hard at this and is quite successful!  I'm impressed.  It obviously shows good small motor skills, but problem solving skills as well.  And his temperament fits nicely with this kind of activity as well; i.e., he doesn't get frustrated, but keeps at it until he has some success or gets tired of it.

Mia had gotten on the floor and Elliott climbed up on the table and got her blanket which she'd left behind.  That's one of his favorite tricks.  He'll grab their blankets and run like his life depends on it.  (And it just might!!)  :)  Mia spotted him and jumped back on the table to rescue her blanket and I took this picture when Elliott was giving her his cheesy look.  :)  Ha ha!

Elliott - 4/1/2015

Elliott ate jelly toast and mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of beef & bean burrito, most of sweet potatoes, and ate tropical fruit.

One of Elliott's daily highlights is when I'm fixing Mia's hair.  I always have a spray bottle and he comes over with a huge grin on his face.  The older kids were chanting, "Spray us, spray us!"  So of course I have to spray a little water around!!  :)

Elliott was also mimicking Cooper and Mia when they were spinning in circles and chanting.  He was going around and around and being loud just like they were doing. Then he played with the phones like they were doing and it looked like he was trying to "pin it" to his shoulder with his chin.

He really likes to play with the blocks and he stacks them, takes them apart, re-stacks them, and pushes them all over the room.

This picture makes it look like Elliott is grimacing.  But he's really not!  He was totally focused on reading and reading aloud!  I tried to catch him with his mouth open, but this is what we got!  :)