Open Doors & New Nephew

Eli was crying tonight after we put him in bed, claiming that he was scared of monsters. Jav did a great job explaining that monsters were not real and we said a family prayer together. He was still fussing for quite some time, so I went back into his room and asked him what was wrong. He looked squarely into my eyes and with the sweetest voice ever asked, “Why do mommies and daddies close the doors of boys and girls rooms?” I got what he wanted. He wanted the door left open. Amazingly, I cracked the door open and within minutes he was fast asleep. I just love him.

In other news, my brother and his wife Ashlee had their first baby Monday! We made a quick trip to see our nephew, Ellis Patrick, born a month early at 5 lbs. 8 oz. on December 5. He is just as sweet as can be and I can’t wait to get my hands on him again! I remember so vividly the day Patrick was born, and it it so sweet to see him so much in love with his own son. They will be the best parents!

How Michael Buble Saved the Christmas Concert

Every year Eli’s daycare/preschool puts on a Christmas concert. Last year we had high expectations, but we made the mistake of sitting up front, and as soon as Eli spotted us it was all over. He cried through all three songs, although one of his teachers (also Puerto Rican) was sweet enough to hold him and comfort him while the rest of the kids sang on.

This year, we were nervous. When I took him to the choir room where all of the kids were to lining up, I felt his heart start beating faster and his eyes welled up with tears. I handed him to his teacher, Ms. Merideth and went into the sanctuary with Jav, my mom and Ron, hoping for the best, but expecting a repeat of last year.

Let me rewind a bit. Over the last few months, Eli has grown fond of Michael Buble, and his song “Home,” in particular. He asks to listen to that, and Mumford and Son’s “The Cave” over and over and over, whenever we are in the car. I had mentioned this to his teachers at one point, who found it as amusing as I do.

Anyways, back to the concert. Much to our surprise, Eli came marching out, at first with a timid look on his face, but quietly singing “Silent Night” with the other kids as they filtered onto the stage. His timidness wore off quickly, as he pointed to one of his classmates and shouted, “There’s my dad!!” We were those complete dork parents standing up along the side of the room so that we could see better, giving him thumbs up, the whole nine yards. He shouted the lyrics to the rest of the songs, clapped for himself and raised his arms victoriously upon the completion of each song. He even did the correct hand motions and inserted his own little dance routines into the performance. Whew! What a relief.

Afterwards I asked his teacher how she got him calmed down enough to go onstage. Her answer? “I just told him to be like Michael Buble. I told him he needed to sing loud like Michael Buble and that Michael Buble wouldn’t cry onstage.”

Thank you, Michael Buble (and Ms. Merideth) for saving the Christmas concert.

Growin’ Up

- We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my mom’s, as usual this year. As I was putting Eli down for his nap, he stretched his arms out and said, “I’m growing up, Mom. I’m getting so big, I can’t believe it.” So funny, but kinda sad!!

- While still at Mom’s, I was waiting for Eli to finish up on the toilet. He had just eaten chocolate and he said, “hey look, the chocolate’s coming out my butt!” The floor in the bathroom was kind of slippery so to pass the time waiting to wipe him I did a few pirouettes. Eli said, “Hey, are you trying to be a princess?!” I just don’t know where he gets this stuff.

 

 

I don’t ever want to forget …

… the other night when I woke up to Eli wimpering in his room. I went in and crawled into bed with him and after he wiped his tears, he wrapped his arms around my neck and said, “That feels better.”

… how Eli is consantly pretending to be something else. Lately it’s been Bubba the dinosaur, Weddy the baby or Geddy the chick.

… how Eli was snuggling with me right after I drank coffee and he clasped his hand over my mouth and said, “Mom, keep that coffee in your mouth!”

… How we were following a car tonight that was obviously having engine trouble and was emitting a horrible smelling smoke. Eli said “That smoke smells perfect.”

… How Eli asks for me to play his Veggie Tales CD from the “ge-binning.”

So Sweet

Our son is just so sweet. On Wednesdays my mom and Ron watch Eli while Javier and I go to our small group Bible Study. I picked him up and on the drive home our conversation went:

Eli: “Mom, did you have a good time at your Bible study?”
Me: “Yes, I had a good time. I got to learn about Jesus.”
Eli: “Did you have fun at the Bible study?”
Me: “Yes, I had fun, but I missed you a lot.”
Eli: “I think I would have fun at the Bible study. I come wif you next time?”

Aw, so sweet.

Yesterday morning I dressed Eli in camo pants and a Kent State t-shirt. It’s the first time he’s worn pants this season and he was not happy about it so I was trying to distract him by drawing attention to his shirt.

Me: “Eli, do you like your shirt? It’s a Kent State t-shirt.”
Eli: “It’s not Kent State, it’s my Giant Eagle shirt.”

True, it does have an eagle on it.

Oh I just love this kid.

 

 

Lego Beauty

As we were walking through the Lego section at the Hartville Flea Market, Eli gazed at the colorful rows of Legos and softly whispered, “Sure is beautiful in here.”

Figueroa Funnies

I was telling Eli to be careful as he ran down the driveway and he responded with, “I’m big now, mom. Can I drink coffee??”

I told Jav last night that my stomach hurt. He told me it was probably because it was close to “that time of the month.” I said, “Or because I hate a whole canteloupe and two muffins.”

Eli and I were playing outside and I walked around the back of the house for a splilt second – long enough for Eli to come running around yelling, “Mom, you need to stay where I can see you!!”

He lost his swing

This past Sunday we had plans to go to church, then head to the community wading pool to let Eli and our friends’ daughter splash around together. As we were leaving for church Eli, with a pathetic frown on his face said, “I’m sick.” Jav and I both thought it was a ploy to stay home, so we took his temperature, and as we suspected, no fever. Eli was acting tired on the way to church, so we decided to watch the service from the simulcast in the lobby area (our church is cool like that). Eli sat on my lap and immediately fell asleep. We canceled our plans and spent the next two days taking care of a sick, sick boy. He was puking, complaining of a headache and maintained a low-grade fever. At one point we were both covered in puke so we got in the bathtub together and he actually fell asleep with his head on my leg, poor thing. Monday we decided to take him to the doctor, where we discovered that he had an inner ear infection, which was most likely what was causing his nausea. I went in to work for a few hours while Jav took him home to get his first dose of medicine and a good nap. His nap ended up lasting from 3 p.m. until 7 a.m. (16 hours!). He woke up this morning acting like his good ‘ol self, however, when we ventured outside, there was one problem.

You see, Eli has become a good little golfer. Nearly every day for the past month or two he asks to go outside and hit balls. We watch in amazement as he strikes the ball with force and it soars into the air, usually landing in the neighbor’s yard across the street. Jav and I run after the balls and hit them back to him like we were his personal caddys or something. I usually use a kid-sized club, and you can imagine my surprise when I returned the ball, using only my right hand, and Eli shouts out, “Both hands on the club, Mom!” I digress. This morning, I knew Eli was feeling better when he asked if we could go outside to golf. I of course said yes and outside we went. Eli swung and swung and swung at the balls and, while he hit most of them, the majority were just plopping down a few feet in front of him or he was shanking them to the left or the right.  He kept trying, and trying and trying, but then, in one moment of frustration he crumbled to the ground and exclaimed, “I lost it! I lost it!” Confused, I resonded with, “what did you lose, Eli” and he said, “I lost my SWING!” Yes, two days out of practice and Eli lost his golf swing. Oh the tragedy.

One Liners

As I was laying in Eli’s bed with him tonight, these were some of the one-liners that came out of his mouth:

“I played with my friend Jonathan today. He’s nice!”

“You’re my friend, mom.”

“I can break your car. All I have to do is bam bam it.”

“The car is in the driveway. It doesn’t fit in the house. If it came in the house it would all fall down and be a big surprise.”

“My birthday’s a surprise. I want a blue birthday.”

“It’s not working!!!” (As I was trying to show him how to hold his thumb and pinky down to make “3″ with his fingers).

These are the little things that I always want to remember!

Happy Campers

This year my mom and Ron invited us to go camping with them for Memorial Day weekend. Javier and I agree that we are so blessed and thankful that we can go away for 3 days with them and have such a peaceful, tension-free, relaxing and fun weekend. Not every family can do that, and we don’t take it for granted!

Anyways, Mom and Ron went down Friday morning to set up camp (that is the best and only way to camp in my opinion – have someone else set up for you!). The camp ground was KOA Butler – about 10 minutes from Mohican. They had a really nice playground, pool and … goats! On the way there we were going through a thick part of the woods and Eli quietly said … “We’re in the forest … nothing to be afraid of.” Ha!

Javier slept in his own tent and Mom, Ron, Eli and I slept in the camper. The first night we just kind of hung out at the campsite, made a fire and ate hamburgers. I just have to say that Ron is amazing – he’s always working, always helping and … cooking!

Saturday was Javier’s 40th birthday! I had already bought and given him his gifts (Logos Bible software and some other random things – he made me promise him I wouldn’t throw him a party), but we went into town and visited an art show – Eli was a little sleepy, so Jav ended up carrying him the whole time. I don’t think he minded … it’s a rare treat to be able to hold this boy while he’s sleeping.

After that, we went for a drive in the park and stopped at the covered bridge. My mom has a picture of my little brother Kevin fishing on this bridge when he was about 2.

It was still kind of chilly Saturday night, so we skipped the pool and rode on the fire truck instead! The owner bought a 1967 Ford fire truck just for the camp ground. The campers load up their water guns and balloons and as the fire truck goes by they soak the passengers who sit on top. We opted to stay inside the cab where it was nice and dry.

And of course, Saturday night we had cake for Jav’s birthday. Eli and I are seriously so blessed to have such a wonderful man in our lives!

Sunday was hot! Because the lakes and rivers were “flooded” we couldn’t go canoeing or boating, so we hung out at the pool! Luckily the water temperature was very comfortable, so everyone got in at one point or another. It’s been such a rainy and cool spring that it was the first bit of color I got on my skin! I bought water wings for Eli, so he was thrilled when he realized he could “schwim by himshelf.”

Sunday night we hung out at the campsite … watched a DVD while enjoying a lollypop … and other such activities common to camping. Ha! I just had to include this picture – nothing like hanging out in the great outdoors, sitting on a CARS lawnchair with feet propped up on a sandbox watching …. CARS! Our kid is not affected by the media. Oh no, not at all. After Eli went to bed we made s’mores and talked about our best vacation memories. I had several – going six years in a row to Catawba Island near Sandusky where we camped and visited Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay. Javier spoke about his memories of “Fresh Air Fun” – a program that took him out of inner city Brooklyn into the suburbs or upstate New York (what a cool program!). Ron recalled taking his three kids out West and Mom talked about various travels to Tennessee.

Monday mornin we packed up, swimmed a little more, then headed to Lehman’s Hardware. That is SUCH a cool place! On our way home we stopped to eat at an Amish restaurant where Eli posed for a picture in a buggy.

Even thought it was a simple, short trip, I am so excited that Eli got to experience the time with his “Papa” and “Tita.” I think we’ll all have great memories of the trip for years to come!