Elliott - 7/28/2015

Elliott had bites of cinnamon roll and ate canned prunes for breakfast.  (More prunes than cinnamon roll!  Geez!  Ha!)  For lunch he managed to eat bites of scrambled eggs and hash brown combo (with cheese and sausage), bites of waffle, and ate his cantaloupe.  At least he managed that before he fell asleep!  (See bottom picture.)

Snuggling with Lauralea was basically what he did while I finished prepping the meals for today.  You may notice he has a regular binky in his mouth.  Lauralea's sister was sleeping in the room where Elliott's crib is at and his frog binky was in there!!  I was surprised he took this binky, but Lauralea worked her magic with him!!  :)

Here's a picture of Elliott doing Dot Painting at Art Time.  He was just thumping the dot paints so I kept moving his paper around and he pretty much filled up the paper!  Ha ha!  We were being a good team!!  I like the determined expression on his face.  I showed Cooper how much paint Elliott was getting on his paper and Cooper kicked his dot painting into high gear!!  Ha!

It's hard work for Elliott to try to keep up with Cooper all morning!!  Ha!  I thought Elliott was acting pretty tired this morning and this is what he looked like when I got back from tucking Layla in for her nap.  Now I see why he was so snuggly this morning!!  :)

Elliott - 7/27/2015

Elliott had bites of kix cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ham sandwich, peas, and half of mandarin oranges.

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Elliott played with the airplanes, shape sorters, tambourines, and other noise makers!  :)  Then he went back to the old standby legos and was poking the skinny legos down the hole of the table that you see in the picture.  Cooper was on the floor under the table and Elliott was highly amused by that.  Cooper would pitch that legos piece back out from under there.

Cooper was hanging out in the igloo and Elliott was at the entry to the igloo.  Cooper started crawling through Elliott's legs so Elliott just sat down on Cooper's head.  And of course that just led to more fun and games!

Cooper started crawling around on hands and knees with Elliott riding on his back.  Elliott thinks this kind of play is just hilarious.  He was laughing hard.  Elliott also read lots of books and played with Sophie and Layla.

Elliott - 7/24/2015

Elliott had several bites of brown rice and ate raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he avoided the meatloaf, ate most of flat bread, ate carrots, and apricots.

I was poking Elliott's belly this morning and that reminded me of yesterday afternoon when Sophie found Elliott's belly button.  :)  Two or three times she was poking his belly and he thought that was so funny!

It was pretty quiet around here this morning; comparatively speaking!  Elliott, however, carried on just like a normal day, so that was very cool.  Here's a picture of his normal morning routine - reading books.  This is usually the first activity of the day.  Routines are so interesting to me!  He moved on to stacking blocks, stacking legos, and flopping on the mattress.

He played with the dump trucks outside and with the climbers.  He was also experimenting with walking backwards.  He walked backwards from the patio down the sidewalk to the gate; grinning each step of the way!  It was cute and I was impressed!

He was happy when Layla woke up from her morning nap and he played with her on the floor for several minutes.  He'd been crawling on the balance beam and slipped off and I laughed, so he started laughing.  He then started intentionally "falling" along with some forced laughing, and he'd look to see if I still thought it was funny.

Elliott - 7/23/2015

Elliott had bites of cinnamon toast and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate no chicken, ate most of dinner roll, ate hash browns, and canned cherries.

Cooper and Elliott were having a raucous and rowdy good time this morning - playing with the blocks, then running and flopping on the mattress.  The crazier Cooper acts, the harder Elliott laughs and that's all the encouragement Cooper needs!  :)  And Sophie was getting on the mattress and laying right where she was most likely to get jumped on!  Right before I took this picture below the three of them were all kind of in a big pile.  She likes to be where the action is happening!  Cooper said, "I did a somersault!  I did a donkey jump!!"

Elliott also read lots of books and played close to Sophie.  She was crawling under the climber so he crawled in from the opposite side and they were laughing and enjoying the moment!  :)

Cooper was on the big climber outside showing them a few more tricks.  I got this picture of him swinging and Elliott is watching how it's done!!  And Sophie was watching as well.

Elliott - 7/22/2015

Elliott ate bites of "maple french toast mini bagel" and ate peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of ham, ate mac-n-cheese, most of corn, and bites of apple.  Yesterday at snack he wanted more so I held out the two choices and he pointed at which one he wanted.

I love how much Elliott enjoys building with legos and the large building blocks, which are basically large legos I guess!  And he is really good at it!!  When I took this picture he kept saying, "did it, did it, did it..."  Yup, you did it Buddy!  Sophie was just hanging out around the table.

However, as soon as Elliott was distracted by me taking pictures Sophie moved in for the destruction of the tower!  :)   (Actually she never did push it over.)  And he was basically done at this point anyhow and started building something else.

Cooper got on the floor and He, Elliott, and Sophie were all crawling across the floor.  Cooper was loving it when the little ones were following him and doing the same thing as he was doing!  Super cute!  Outside they were playing on the little climber and Cooper was getting ready to run down the slide and Elliott was busy trying to pull the velcro on Cooper's sandals!  Ha!

Elliott - 7/21/2015

Elliott had a couple bites of waffle and ate pears for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of tuna and crackers, ate a large serving of sweet potatoes, and ate half of mandarin oranges.

Elliott LOVES being able to flop off the climber onto the mattress and was doing it again this morning.  We (Elliott, Cooper, and I) also went outside and put bird feed in the feeder.  When we came back in Elliott was standing on 3 or 4 blocks and hanging on to the changing table with his finger tips.  The blocks started moving and he hung on, but was leaning hard and actually pushing the blocks out from underneath himself.  He crashed down of course and it was all in slow motion and looked so funny.  It may have hurt a little bit, but I was laughing so hard he forgot about crying and started laughing too.

Cooper and Elliott played lots on the climbers outside.  Cooper invited Elliott to play with him and it was really cute; "You wanna join me?"  Then Elliott strolled off to get a dump truck and Cooper asked, "What's that Sucker doing now!?!"  LOL  Then they started playing with the wagons and Cooper was pulling him and said, "I got this trailer going....I'm really strong!"  :)

Cooper was wanting Elliott to pull him, but Elliott had to stop and say "Hi" to Layla.  "Oh, that's so sweet! I have to get a picture!"  Then I realized what he really wanted was her Baby Toys!!  Ha!

Then Cooper asked Elliott, "You wanna pull me?"  So they switched places and as you can see in the picture below Elliott really doesn't have a clue about watching which direction to go!?!  I just looked at the picture again and they are both facing backwards!

Elliott - 7/20/2015

Elliott ate half of chex cereal and most of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate roast beef sandwich, no tomato soup, and ate lettuce salad.

Elliott was diving head-first and flopping off the climber onto the mattress again this morning.  (Remember the Blog from Friday.)  Lauralea was cheering for him and oh man, that really got him going and laughing.  He'd flop and then look to see if Lauralea saw the spectacular move!!  :)

Cooper has gotten pretty attached to Elliott; especially the last few weeks when Reid has been gone so much.  After hugging Elliott this morning He said, "I gave him a big love."

Cooper found a new place for the books - the top of the dress-up clothes rack.  He said, "This is where I put my big load of books!  I have a lot of books!  I got a hundred books!"  Ha!  And of course Elliott was reaching up there to swipe a book and run like crazy!

These two boys played in the sand table this morning.  This was Elliott's first time and he did quite well and kept most of the sand in the sand table.  He was copying what Cooper was doing, but I don't think he ever got any sand into the container.  However, he was proud of it all anyhow!!  Chuckling and giggling.

Elliott - 7/17/2015

Elliott ate a couple bites of oatmeal and ate canned prunes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of hash brown casserole, ate biscuit, and half of mandarin oranges.

The boys spent LOTS of time building this morning!  Cooper and Reid were building tall legos towers and then intentionally crashing them and everyone, including Elliott, would roar with laughter.  Then Elliott started building his own towers and saying, "did it, did it..."  Over and over.  He's saying it very plain now and it's easy to understand.

Cooper and Reid were playing in the igloo and Elliott had to crawl inside to see what was going on!  Then we went outside about 10:30 and Cooper was putting the wooden building blocks in the wagon.  He actually started putting them into the dump trucks, but the trucks were not big enough.  So he tried the wagons next and every time Elliott was sitting in the wagon.  Elliott probably kept wondering, "Why am I at the bottom of the load?"

"Hey, Mom and Dad, look what I started doing this morning!!"  Ha ha!  Elliott started by kind of falling onto the mattress, but he soon started diving off onto the mattress.  It won't be long and he'll actually be jumping off.  Man was he excited!  Laughing, giggling, roaring, and totally proud of himself!!

Elliott - 7/16/2015

Elliott had bites of whole wheat toast and ate most of cantaloupe for breakfast.  For lunch he ate half of turkey slices, half of dinner roll, ate most of green beans, and ate mangoes.

I this was pretty cute when Elliott saw the mirror at the end of the dress-up rack.  I'm sure he's probably seen it before, but it looked like this time he really saw it for the first time!  There is no shortage of mirrors in the Daycare Room - four of them!

Like I've mentioned several times - and I can now say with confidence - Cooper LOVES to pester Elliott.  There is nothing "mean" about it, just LOTS of pestering.  And Elliott also loves it and is soaking up all the attention!  In the picture below Cooper had put the legos together, but as soon as he put it down Elliott was right there!  Cooper is playing with a car and just waiting to pounce and retrieve what is rightfully (according to his perspective) his.

And, as the picture below illustrates, the babies get in their fair share of pestering too!!  (It's just a different kind of pestering!)  Cooper had built this big "T" and as soon as he fixed what Sophie wrecked, he had to race down and fix Elliott's mess.  However, this did not make him angry or aggressive to the younger ones!  I was very impressed and I was also ready to step in, but it wasn't necessary.  They soon wandered off and Cooper continued to play with the wood pieces.

Elliott - 7/15/2015

Elliott had a couple bites of whole wheat toast and ate mixed berries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ham, crackers, bean & bacon soup, and strawberries.

Elliott was strolling around before breakfast chanting, "Mommy Mommy Mommy" again.  At first I thought he was doing that when he wanted something, and that may be true, but he also likes to hear himself chatter!  Loudly!  He was standing in front of the mirror, looking at himself, then roaring with laughter.  And it really was quite funny!!  :)

He was being silly (again) and hanging backwards out of the toy shelf when Sophie spotted him and headed right over there.  Then right after that he was sitting on the yellow bench and she came close to him and he held out his hands inviting her to join him.  It was really cute.

It was pretty funny when Elliott was playing with Baby Layla and I took the picture below.  Layla was kicking like crazy (like babies frequently do) and some of the kicks were getting Elliott in the tummy.  He was chuckling and getting the biggest kick out of that.  Pretty sick pun, right?  :)  In today's vernacular "sick" means awesome, right!?

He had five blocks stacked up and was trying to lift them up on the little step into the dining room.  He was getting frustrated when he couldn't lift them, but he wasn't about to give up!  And he finally succeeded!  I was watching and thinking - Is it a case of logic (or lack thereof in this age group) or an abundance of stubbornness!?  And by lack of logic I'm referring to splitting the blocks into more manageable sizes such as two or three at a time.

Elliott - 7/14/2015

Elliott had a bite, or maybe two bites, of whole wheat bagel.  He ate a Large Lunch!!  He had chicken, elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce.  I mixed it together and he ate it all; and it was a large serving!!  Good job Elliott!  He is doing very well with his spoon!

We had a visit first thing this morning from a Health Nurse checking our immunization records.  Elliott was waving "bye" to her when she was leaving.  Very cute.  He'd been enthusiastically waving bye to Lauralea too.

He was using a plastic knife to "cut" the velcro food in half this morning.  Every time he was successful he'd say, "Did it, did it!"  Then he was handing me some food and said, "ere Gee, ere Gee." My name is now Gee!  :)

I've posted some outside pictures from this morning.  Elliott loves being silly on the little climbers and slides.  He was basically diving off the slide in the first picture.  This wasn't the softest of landings and he was being more careful after this one!!

I happened to be taking pictures when Sophie moved too close at the bottom of the slide.  This will not end well!

 Yup!  That's exactly what I thought!!  Elliott has slid up pretty tight against Cooper's head too!  Ha!

Elliott - 7/13/2015

Elliott had several bites of breakfast:  Bran cereal and dried cranberries.  For lunch he ate cheese pizza, half of his corn, and ate tropical fruit.

Cooper and Elliott were having fun outside and Cooper was happy Elliott joined him on the climber.  (Even though the picture might indicate some frustration on Cooper's face!)  He was mainly frustrated that Elliott was slow making his way to the slide so Cooper could "help" him down the slide!!  When I took this picture Cooper was saying, "He HAS to go down the slide!!"  Ha!  Right!

Cooper finally has Elliott in position for a quick trip down the slide!!  Ha!  But he listened to my words and allowed Elliott to go on his own accord!  Elliott, on the other hand, knew exactly what Cooper was wanting to do!!  And he was just standing there waiting for Cooper to give him a push! The boys played for a long time on this slide.  After we went inside from playing outdoors I turned around and Cooper had taken Elliott's shoes off for him.  He had both shoes off and Elliott was still standing upright!  How did that happen!?!  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Elliott immediately read lots and lots of the books.  I totally love how he does that!!  Then he was playing with the phones and holding one up to his ear saying, "ullo, ullo, ullo!"  Then Elliott was playing with the food toys and this set has the fruit and vegetables that velcro together.  (So the kids can "cut" them apart with the plastic knives.)  Cooper was trying to show Elliott which two pieces of vegetables or fruit went together.  "This goes together with that!"  Elliott, of course, didn't care and for example he was hooking the grapes to the corn.  :)

Elliott - 7/10/2015

Elliott ate malt-o-meal cereal and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of ground beef, ate elbow noodles, most of apple slices, and ate mixed fruit.

I'm posting lots of pictures today, but like I've said before I love how pictures can tell the story of what they've been doing at Day Care.  He loves reading his books and I like how he frequently arranges them and then stands and reads.

Cooper brought a bag full of tractors today so I gave him the choice - you can share your tractors with Elliott or you can put them on your cubby.  So he was eager to share them and he did a good job.
And I even have a couple of pictures to prove the sharing!  I like this first picture because it looks like Cooper is willingly giving it away, but actually Elliott was handing one of the tractors back to Cooper.  :)  Cooper said, "He handed this one back to me!!"  Ha ha!!

In this picture Cooper is guarding his assortment of tractors under the table and Elliott is driving a tractor on the bench seat and also peeking at what Cooper is doing.  Elliott was saying, "Mommy Mommy Mommy" during this time and Cooper said, "I'm not your mom...I'm not your mom!" ----- Which didn't deter Elliott one bit!  "Mommy Mommy Mommy"   :)

These two were having a riot on the big climber and slide this morning!  Elliott is unbelievably tough and he loves being rowdy.  Elliott was going down this slide every imaginable way - a couple times he just took off walking down the slide and head over heels!  Cooper was cracking up!

Elliott - 7/9/2015

Elliott ate a couple bites of raisin english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate most of chicken, ate crackers, sweet potatoes, and canned cherries.

I could write almost the exact same thing about Elliott every morning before breakfast.  He plays with the same toys; just in different sequences and in different ways.  He's usually in the legos table and he was again this morning.  He had some books in there and reading them aloud - especially loud!  And he had other food toys in the drawer as well.  He played independently for a long time.

I took this picture after he'd emptied the blocks from the shelf.  Cooper had already used lots of them to build the "sidewalk" and Elliott finished clearing the shelves.  He was looking quite satisfied with his accomplishment!

Cooper was having trouble getting some poop out this morning and I took this picture before he pooped the first time and he was trying to get away from Elliott.  He told Elliott, "You're bugging me!"  And was physically rolling him across the mattress and Elliott was LOVING it!  It was all a big game.  Elliott was roaring with laughter and kept coming back for more.

We were outside when Cooper finally got out the 2nd poop and he was soooo relieved!  Then he and Elliott were having a riot on the climber.  I was monitoring it closely so it didn't get out of hand, but they both were doing huge belly laughs and just roaring.  So much fun!!  Cooper kept going down the slide head-first on his back and Elliott was going down sideways, backwards, head-first, whatever.  (With some assistance from Cooper!)  It was so cute to watch.

Elliott - 7/8/2015

Elliott had bites of biscuit and ate peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate most of baked beans, most of dinner roll, ate peas, and pineapple.

The first thing Sophie did when Elliott walked up to her this morning was start reaching for him and leaning into him for a love.  It was so cute.  She did the exact same thing after she awoke from her nap.

All morning Elliott was saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..."  Cooper finally said, "Hey! You don't call me Mommy!"  LOL!  Then later when Elliott was fussing about something Cooper said, "You're fine Elliott."  Hmmm..I wonder who Cooper heard that from?  :)

This picture of Elliott standing on the blocks doesn't really do justice to the unsteadiness of the situation!  :)  It was actually quite wobbly and he was thinking he was a big shot.  He got down once, but immediately got back up there and was grinning all over.  And clapping for himself.  I'm pretty sure he was saying, "Cheeeeesee" while I was taking the picture.

Hmmm...I'm seeing a theme here!  Watch how brave I am!!  It looked like he was trying to talk himself into doing something goofy off the slide, but after I took the picture he sat down and went down the slide on his bottom!  Good decision Elliott!  :)

Elliott - 7/7/2015

Elliott ate half of his breakfast: waffle and hash browns.  For lunch he ate bites of chicken & cheese quesadilla, ate carrots, and bites of mandarin oranges.

The first thing Elliott did this morning was get totally engaged in building with the legos.  Lauralea and I were sitting here talking about what everyone was doing and Elliott was in his own zone - totally focused on the legos.  I LOVE that!!

This picture is not meant to be posted in a taunting manner!!  Ha!  But see, he really does wave bye and say "bye" almost every morning to Lauralea!!  He was doing it for so long this morning I had time to get the camera and he kept right on waving and saying "bye."

Cooper was going through a major case of "squeal on Elliott" this morning!  :)  "Elliott has camera on wrong side (of room)!"  Repeat, repeat, repeat...  "Elliott is on top of the block shelf!"  Repeat, repeat, repeat....  "Elliott's moving the yellow bench!"  Repeat, repeat, repeat... You get the idea!  Thank you Cooper for your help!  :)

Right before I took the picture below Cooper was saying, "I'm gonna hide from Elliott!!"  It was a great hiding spot, but maybe you shouldn't announce your intentions first!  :)

And this is "hiding from Elliott" Scene 2!  And this spot is working better Cooper!!  Elliott doesn't know (or care) that you are hiding behind the yellow bench!  Ha!

The boys had lots of fun playing outside.  They played on the climbers, slides, wagons, teeter-totters and then chased the big red balls around the yard.  I was knocking the balls across the lawn and they were laughing and fetching them.

Elliott - 7/6/2015

Elliott had several bites of cheerios and ate banana for breakfast.  For lunch he ate cheese sandwich, lettuce salad, and had a sip of tomato soup.

Cooper will frequently let me know when Elliott is poopy.  Today I asked him if Elliott was poopy.  He said, "Yup" without the sniff test.  :)  So I asked him, "Did you check?"  Cooper said, "He's always a poopy machine."  Ha!

Elliott plopped down beside Layla and she was grabbing his toes which he thought was pretty funny. And of course he started making sure his foot was in her hand.  And he was chuckling all the time.

Reid is gone this week as they are still in Kansas City.  I took this picture of Cooper playing with the legos and Elliott was doing some building as well.  Sophie was sitting on the yellow bench behind Cooper and started reaching out for him.  She grabbed him and Cooper said, "Hey, you can't do that Sophie."  :)  But he was very sweet with her.

Elliott was pushing the dump truck as soon as we got outside.  And he had a scratched knee from the sidewalk within 30 seconds of being outside.  That may be a new LTCC record!!  Then he was running his dump truck off the cement pad in front of the garage side door.  He'd stop, tip his head back, and roar like it was the funniest thing he's ever seen.

Micala came outside and was playing a song for him on her phone and Elliott started cutting some nice dance moves so she got that on video.

Elliott - 7/2/2015

Elliott had a couple bites of english raisin muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate turkey, most of whole wheat bun, ate green beans, and strawberries.  He was doing a great job stabbing his green beans and strawberries with a little fork.

Here's a picture of the only ones at Little Treasures today.  This is pretty typical - Cooper talking to Layla and kissing her with Elliott watching!  We did lots of activities and both boys was very involved in everything; Sign language, Singing, Story Time, Shapes, and we'll do some Art after nap time.  Elliott sat for lots of it - watching and giggling.  Elliott especially laughed at our "Hickity Pickity" song and the bumble bee stinging him!  He loves anything that's a little rowdy!

Elliott had the dinosaur toys and was running around with them and Cooper said, "I'm watching Elliott do something; he's kind of crazy with that."  :)  Then Elliott was being loud and he can be VERY loud!  Cooper said, "Don't yell!" - YELL YELL YELL - Cooper said, "Don't yell!" - YELL YELL YELL -Cooper said, "Don't yell!"  You get the idea how that went!  Ha!  Then Cooper was trying to move Elliott across the floor with his head (see picture below) and after no progress Cooper said, "He's too big."  :)  Earlier, Elliott was stuck in the legos drawer so Cooper pulled the drawer way out and rescued him.  He asked Elliott, "Are you better now?"  :)  Very cute and sweet.  Thank you Cooper.  We played outside too and Elliott pushed the dump trucks around, petted a neighbor's dog when they stopped at the gate to say hello, and played on the slides.

Elliott - 7/1/2015

Elliott had a couple bites of jelly toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.  He ate all of his lunch: Beef & bean burrito, sweet potatoes, and tropical fruit.

This is a picture of Elliott and Cooper playing in the igloo.  Shortly after this picture Cooper had Elliott by the arm and was dragging him out of the igloo.  I was monitoring it closely, but as you know, Elliott likes goofy play like that.  He was roaring with laughter.  Cooper drug him a few feet from the igloo and comes over to me and said, "Whew!! That hard!!"  Ha ha!

Elliott had an awesome morning.  He played with the legos (Got stuck in the legos drawer, but never got frustrated and worked it out by himself!  Nice job Elliott!), sat for part of Story Time, and was playing with these dress-up hats for a long time.  He would stick one on his head and look in the mirror and roar!  It was so funny.  I was feeding Sophie a bottle so I couldn't get a picture, but I took the picture below when Cooper sat the hat on Elliott's head and as you can see Elliott is quite amused.  (And looking in the mirror again!)

This picture is good example of Cooper enjoying the role of "big dog" on campus!  He was giving Elliott quite the ride on the teeter-totter, lots of bouncing and wildness, and Elliott was loving it - laughing like a crazy guy.  Cooper asked him, "You like this!?!"  LOL  Shortly after this Elliott wandered off and started pushing a dump truck around and Cooper was after him; "Hey, play with me Elliott!"  So I suggested he grab a dump truck too and follow him around and he did.