Thursday, September 25, 2008

So today I held an 11 month old tight in my arms while he laughed, giggled, wiggled, cried, smiled, and whined while he got his very first haircut. I know, I tried to make it to his birthday and while only 3 weeks away I just couldn't wait. His hair was in his eyes, over his ears, and on his neck. He has the softest, blondest hair and I don't think I realized just how much of it there was until 20 minutes after they started cutting they were still cutting (or maybe that was just because he kept moving). By the end I no longer had a baby but a little boy who looked so much older that there was a sad part somewhere floating around in me. Landon was the official photographer during the whole experience and although there were quite a few pictures I deleted the moment was caught for sure. Landon and Ella were excited about the activity but mainly because they were lined up to get a balloon for Eli's haircut. Eli could care less about the balloon but was very happy to get out of my lap and on to mobility. With all of his wiggling it looked as if his sister had mistaken him for her "first book of cutting" where zig zag lines are the goal.

Other than the first haircut we have been trying to coax Eli into walking. He is so fast crawling that he can get from one end of the house to the other in 2.3 seconds. His favorites are to help loading the dishwasher, the dryer or setting up the Candyland game for Landon and Ella. When not helping out he prefers to hold on to the remote, the phone, the camera, or Dad's blackberry - I think he has a thing for electronics. As for dinnertime, Eli has decided that babyfood just isn't good and is refusing it all. The good thing is that he seems to tolerate most anything we are eating especially banana pudding or apple pie. So much fun.

How about the other two??? Ella and Landon are learning how much fun Eli can be to play with by crawling around with him or how much he can get into when they try to play a game on the floor. Preschool has gotten better for Ella with a string of days where she has come home happy and letting us know how much fun she had. However, afternoons are a whole new ballgame because she is not taking a nap now. She had one too many nights (actually Mike had one too many nights) of waking up several times for no apparent reason. It has been fine except I have been selfishly missing an hour and a half of time that I know will be generally quiet. So instead, we are getting more school done in the afternoons as Ella is asking for "homework" like her brother has and has become very excited about writing letters and counting.

Landon is having fun with school and seems to like his teacher ok ;-) I think his favorite right now is geography. He can place all of the states on an unlined map on level 6 of this website http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm I challenge you all to go to the site, the center section - level 6 and play it. He is a regular with 96% accuracy and I ahve a hard time remembering especially the way that they disappear if you get them correct. He is also psyched because football season is in full swing and weekends get filled with at least some time to watch racing and football. Lastly, he is now taking taekwondo and loves it. Luckily, he isn't practicing on his siblings! I hope to have some pictures of him in his uniform soon but haven't gotten any yet.

Happy fall to everyone - the cooler weather is a very nice and we are looking forward to fall happenings like the colors of the leaves and the fair!