Chains of Love

All Eli can talk about these days is Gappa Jib, Cappy, and their upcoming visit. Maddux will be dedicated at our church in two weeks, and they, along with Treis (Eli's cousin) and GG (Eli's great-grandma) will be in town for the event. I decided to help Eli make a paper chain to countdown to the arrival this morning. He had a blast. We cut out 12 links and Eli colored all of them. Then I wrote the names of the four guests each on a link and Eli recited the names like crazy. Of course he had to help me with the glue stick, but his favorite part was counting to ten each time we glued a link and held it. He even clasped his little hands like we used to do when we counted to ten for self-control.

After our arts-n-crafts morning, we went outside to play (what else) baseball. We had to draw a new diamond because we got some rain over the weekend. Eli was quick to point out I drew home plate in a spot that was not the same as the original. (He's a stickler for details!) Of course Maddux woke up hungry about ten minutes into our game. Since Eli has been such a pill these days when his playtime gets interrupted, I decided to give him a choice. He could either come inside with me to get Maddux (a choice I knew he didn't like), or he could sit on the driveway and wait for me to come back. Lehr has done something similar with Eli sitting and waiting before, so I knew Eli was aware of what was expected of him. He chose to 'seet', so I ran in and grabbed the baby quickly. (Sidenote: Our driveway is long and we live in a cul-de-sac, so I was confident even if Eli did not obey, I would be back outside before he'd make it to the road.) When I came back out I was so proud to see Eli sitting and waiting so patiently. He was hitting his baseball bat on the ground and singing to himself: what a ham!