FIA

The four of us served at Faith In Action for the first time today! Last time around, Eli helped Lehr a little, but Maddux was still too young. Turns out, Maddie is really still too young, but Lehr kept her with him for a little while anyway. The kids and Lehr started in the gym where they chipped gum and other things off of the bleachers before cleaning all surfaces. Then they moved on to painting, but by that point, Mad Dog was too much to handle, so Lehr checked her into a more kid-appropriate area. Eli, however, stuck with Lehr all day, even after Maddie and I left so nap time could still happen. He did great. He ran around a little with another boy from the church, but he did a lot of painting and managed to stay pretty clean!

Tinkering Around...

While I was running this morning, Lehr decided to take advantage of free labor and change the oil in his car. The kids 'helped' him under the hood and (for the most part) stayed out of harm's way. Astonishingly, he got the oil changed in a decent amount of time, meaning the kids may have actually helped. Good thing he pays well in special treats and quality time :)

Woodpecker

For months, Eli has been plagued with pecking noises outside of his room. Every day, especially during room/nap time, a woodpecker (or two?) camp on the exterior wall right around Eli's window and go to town. This is a problem as we now have several holes in the front of our house. It also disturbs Eli. Or at least, peaks his curiosity. He has been very happy to 'help' Daddy fill the holes outside with crazy expanding foam though....such a lovely sight....

When I'm in Eli's room and I hear the pecking, I gently knock on the wall and say, "Go away, woodpeckers! Leave Eli alone." So now Eli does the same thing. Many days I'll hear yelling from his room. Startled, I'll jump up and run towards the stairs only to hear his voice more clearly, "GO 'WAY!! I SAID, 'GO 'WAY'!!" Last week, Lehr got the great idea for Eli to make a sign. It says, "No Birds", and Eli drew a picture of a woodpecker on it (in case they can't read). He has it hung in his window as a warning to woodpeckers in our yard.

Baby Of Mine

Rock Out!!

Lehr had to sneak out to a meeting tonight, so the kids and I were on our own for the last hour before bed. That meant only one thing: our version of "Rock Band". Eli and Maddux alternated picking songs for me to load up in iTunes and they sang, played guitar and banged on the imaginary/make-shift drum set. Good stuff.

Eli started with some "Counting on God"...he's in a bit of a holding pattern with that song right now. And it's so cool to watch him play the drums to it because he has all of the little off-beat licks down and everything! Maddux chose some Lady Ga Ga, as she usually does these days. (Maybe "Paparazzi"?) Then Eli moved on to Foo Fighters' "Everlong". He changed from drums to guitar at this point and REALLY rocked out.

Before we started tonight, Eli was quite concerned about a microphone. Lehr put one together for him over the weekend, but it was hard for it to stay on the stand....the weight was too much for the tape to hold. So I told Eli that often times drummers and guitar players wore head set microphones. So we stuck a pencil (which is usually a drumstick) into the side of his baseball cap and he was set.

Sandwich Head

The four of us call each other names all of the time, but it's always in an endearing way. No really...it is!! Lehr often calls Eli a 'knuckle-head', and a day doesn't pass without me calling each of the kids 'goofy' or 'goofball' or 'coo-coo for cocoa puffs'. They love it and they get that we are just joking around. Eli tells me I'm a goofball too, to which I agree. Then we talk about how fun it is to be a goofball and the credits for our after-school special run....

Today Maddux called me a new name: Sandwich Head. Eli was at school and we were folding laundry for her room. Out of nowhere she smiled at me and said, "Mommy, you a san-wich head!!"I laughed, but asked her "What?" She repeated herself and then it clicked. She has heard (and been called a) 'knuckle-head' before, and from time to time Lehr will respond with "A knuckle sandwich" when one of the kids ask what is for lunch or dinner. She got both of them blended together in her head and came up with a new nickname for Mommy. Good times.

In the midst of the laundry (and Neil Diamond background music - check her rocking out around the one-minute mark), Maddux was dancing around and started to move her eyebrows at me. I grabbed the camera as quickly as I could. She also spent about 40 seconds trying to get BOTH hands to sign 'I love you'. Cute stuff.

2010 02 Maddie Eyebrows/dance from Nicole Eliason on Vimeo.

Night and Day

That has been our weather, our schedules and the temperament in our house. Last weekend was snowy and cold. Winter jackets, gloves and boots cold. And this weekend is warm and sunny. Shorts and flip-flops warm. Go figure! The great news about that is we have been able to be outside almost every day for the last five or so. Eli's been back on his bike, Maddux and I have been pushing her 'car' down the street, and baseball season has begun again. That has meant our schedule has been crazy again though. Eli LOVES playing on a baseball team, which means we love baseball too, but it does mean we spend a lot of time running around, back and forth between the house and the fields.

Finally the temperament. Eli is the determining factor for harmony between the kids. It is rare (if not impossible) that Maddux refuses a play request of Eli's. But Eli often does N.O.T. want to play with, by or around Maddie. When he does though, the two play SO well together. Lately it's been one extreme or the other. The good news is, I can tell right away what kind of day it's going to be!

Maddux was under the weather for about twelve hours this weekend. She ran a short fever and acted very "not-Maddie-like". At the end of it, I was talking to her about food for the week. I said, "Maddux, we have lots of bread, so maybe we'll make french toast one day for lunch." She furrowed her brow, shook her head and said, "No.....I not like fwench toast." I said, "Maddux, it's just like pancakes...you DO like it." She then pushed her eyebrows way up and nodded, saying, "Juss like pancakes...yes?" It was all one fluid motion and hilarious.

Out Of The Mouths of Babes

I recently noticed that I had less of these posts because I've been using twitter to share the quick one-liners instead of compiling them in a blogger draft. The problem with that is no 'proof' of these cute verbals for the blog book. So here are some from the last month or so, all compiled, so that they still make it into the book at the end of the year:

• Maddie woke up to 'go potty'. When Lehr put her back in bed, he said, "Daddy has to go to work now." She said, "But I want to keep you!"
• Both kids tell me, daily, "Mommy, I LIKE being a 'goofball'!"
  
• While playing (somewhat nicely), Eli yelled out, "Maddux, I'm MAD at you!!!!" when she took his car.
  
• During room time, Eli asked,"Mommy, can I take a sleep for a little bit cuz i'm tired and when you come to play with me, I'll wake up."
• Maddux was in blanket time, reading a book to herself: "See ladybugs spell, "M-A-D-D-U-X"
• We had a conversation over breakfast about 'work' (aka job) and when Maddux asked where I worked, I replied, "Here." She laughed and said, 'Dis not work...you silly!"

"I Not 'Kiddo'"

This is Maddux's newest phrase. When I say to her, "Hey, kiddo" or "Time to eat, kiddo", she promptly (and sweetly) tells me, "I not 'kiddo', Mommy." I love it. Every second of it. I love it even more when I say, "Oh, you're not? What are you then?" She gives me a variety of answers, but the most common is, "I 'sweetheart'." Complete with a flirty smile. That girl knows she's cute!!!!

Earlier today she asked me, "What 'knucklehead'?" I said, "YOU!" She giggled and said, "I not 'knucklehead'; I 'goofball'!"

Let It Snow

As predicted, we got snow yesterday afternoon. All week long there had been rumblings about a big, several-hour span of white fluffy stuff falling from the sky, but we know how that usually goes. For this reason I didn't even tell the kids that they should be expecting anything other than the usual cold weather on Friday. Lucky for us, the predictions were right and just before I put Maddux down for her nap, the sky filled with cotton and started to drop. Of course they got all excited and asked if we could go outside. Since the map showed blue all of the way from Atlanta back to New Orleans, I promised them that more was to come and it would be MUCH more fun if we waited until after nap time so that we could make a snowman. Eli happily watched the snowfall during his room time; he alternated lying on his bed to watch it and pressing his nose up against his window.

By the time we got all bundled up, it was 5 o'clock. Many mittens, hats, and layers later, we were ready. Neighbors joined us outside to make snowballs and, eventually, a snowman. Daddy got off of work early, so he was able to enjoy in the fun with us. The snow was amazingly perfect; Eli and Maddux even ate it after some encouragement by their friends. Maddux told me it tasted like ice cream!

Since the snowfall started so late in the day when the temperatures were on the way down, and it lasted until at least midnight, this morning was a beautiful winter wonderland again. The sun was out and the neighborhood looked like we were living anywhere north of Atlanta. More snowballs, more slipping on ice, more fun with friends.

Hey Ya!

The kids LOVE to dance. Every day, usually before and/or after nap time, we turn on iTunes and get down. For the last month or so, their song of choice has been "Hey Ya" by Outkast. They like watching the video, but even more, they like dancing to it and imitating Andre 3000's dance moves. Eli is pretty good at imitating the wild choreography (or lack thereof), and he knows how to hold his fingers when it's time to 'shake it like a Polaroid picture'. Good times!

Chef Maddie

Maddux loves Wednesdays. And Fridays. But mostly Wednesdays. When we don't have MOPS (which is at least 50% of the time), it is full-on Mommy-n-Maddie time. No other plans. No other friends. Chick-fest for us. Today we did run two errands, but they were to grocery shop, which she loves. In between those two places, we came back to the house to prepare turkey chili for our Community Group. Maddux pulled over a chair and got ready to help Mommy cook. We both donned aprons, and then Maddux found this crazy feather clip thing that she wanted to wear. The kicker was, it totally matched her shirt! For Maddie, helping meant mostly shaking the spices (most of the time they were closed) and stacking cans and spices, but she was helping and involved. When it came time for her to dump something or mix something, she was in heaven. We ended our day with a quick stop at the bagel store for lunch (on the way to pick up Eli after our second errand). She said, "We havin' 'pecial date wiff Mommy and Maddie?" Good times. I love my special time with that crazy girl!

Little Boy Blue

Ah, blue. What a beautiful color. Especially when it arrives home in Eli's school bag on his behavior form for the day. Last week we dabbled in yellow, which is TWO notches down from blue. This week's blue status could not have been more anticipated! Eli lost the privilege of drums AND legos on Friday due to his yellow status, which meant a looong three days for the lad. Obviously it had an impact because when I picked him up from school on Monday, the teacher brought him to my car (blue-behavior chart in hand) and told me that Eli was "perfect" all day long. Angels sing. Sun shines through the clouds. Life is good. We've been down that road before though, only to follow it up with a green or yellow. That is why I was ecstatic when I picked him up today to find more blue in the bag. YAY!!

Perfection

Today we had a rare case of that at the house. The day had some ups and downs, but once naptime/room time finished, a picture perfect afternoon followed.

Eli and I read some books on the couch before we woke up his sister. As soon as she got up (in a good mood), the two kids played together in the big room. Then in Eli's room. This always leads to Maddie touching Eli's toys and him freaking out. Then that leads to Maddux taunting him by taking more toys and running away. From there, Eli read Maddux a book. Totally unprompted. Totally kind. Totally awesome.

Eventually I had to start dinner, so the three of us went downstairs. This is another area where we usually run into trouble. The kids are ok for a few minutes, but then they get frustrated that I'm otherwise occupied, and fights and bad moods rear their ugly heads. Instead, I was pulled away from my dinner prep by sounds of laughter, conversation and happiness. Maddie and Eli were pretending to be dogs. Then snakes. Then they were dancing to music. Then they were putting on socks and slipping in the front hall. This was the best part because it included Eli helping Maddux put her socks on. And her letting him. Then they pretended to cook food. TOGETHER. (Have I mentioned that they were playing together?!?)

From 3:45-7:30PM, there were no squabbles, bickers, or disagreements in our house. Serious good times.

Pockets

Quick Eli funny. The other night we went out to dinner and Eli was very hungry. He was ready to order some adult entree (as usual), and we asked him if he was really that hungry. He said, "There's lots of room in my belly! It has pockets in there!" This is just one of many examples of Eli's wit lately. He seems to have the perfect response used at the best times. Good stuff.