Dear Eli: Month Nineteen

Oops, what happened to Eighteen? Well, it's been a little crazy around here, so we skipped a month. Sorry, dude!

My dear E,

You are such a funny little person. You play hard, cry hard and laugh hard. You are a man who likes to entertain and we love to watch you do it. When I think about a day in the life of Eli I feel dizzy and exhausted. You want to play trucks/throw rocks/play on your scooter/sit on Gray's bike/dig in the garden/play with your "eck-uh-vay-ter" in the rocks/"read IT!" and do it all RIGHT NOW. When you decide you are hungry or thirsty- we know to watch out. You are a force to be reckoned with. You will claw at the fridge saying "MILKIE MAMA! MILKIE MAMA!" which we finally figured out came from us saying "You want some milk, E?" You continue to be a pretty good (if messy) eater and you particularly like eggs. We keep joking that you are a vegetarian since you don't seem to care for meat all that much, and you seem to have my (poor) attitude about fruit. You will eat a perfectly ripe banana but don't have much use for other fruits. You love to help me "cook" and the other day I pulled the oil out of the cabinet to use in a recipe and you said "Oil!" so maybe you are a budding chef? When I was putting you to bed last night you had me laughing so hard because as soon as you realized it was bedtime you tried to stall: "Cookie? COOKIE? Noodles? Mac-uh-cheese? MAC-UH-CHEESE? Pease MAMA?"

We are always laughing at your outrageous vocabulary. I brought you into the kitchen the other morning and you looked at the owl cookie jar and said "Owl says WHO WHO!" Your dada is always asking me "Is this normal? Is he ahead?" and I tell him "I don't know any other kid this age who can say "reach it, reach the Ba" when they are stretching to reach their pacifier." Kid, you have no business having a much language as you do, particularly since you have that darn Ba (and sometimes two Bas) in your mouth! We try to limit Ba use to naps/bedtime only but you somehow can sneak them out of bed with you. You continue to sound like English is your second language, though, and that is really funny to listen to. There are a lot of Borat comparisons used around you! You know your name is Eli "Luckner" and you are ONE! You can sing the ABCs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Rock-a-bye baby, Twinkle Twinkle, Ring around the Rosy among many other songs. You can count to ten fairly reliabily and can occasionally spell "Eli" for us. But one of my favorite things to hear you say is when you call your brother's name, second only to the (one) time you said "Love you Mama" unprompted.

And, boy, you are a lover. You are so pretty and you bat those baby blues at me while you spontaneously come over to hug my legs. You also love Charlie with all your little heart has. Today we were asking you if you wanted to do all sorts of things- eat this, go there, do that- and to everything you said NO! until we asked if you wanted to give Charles a kiss. You went over to him, kissed him and said "Good night Charles!"

Today, you peed in the potty. We have decided to (somewhat unfairly) use peer pressure to encourage Gray to use the potty. You will sit on the potty anytime I ask and today we hit the jackpot- you peed. We clapped and yelled and praised you heartily and then you got a prize (a car) from the prize jar. Gray cried. Your dad said "Well, at least we now know that he cares" since prior to that we just weren't sure. So thanks for that, E. Afterwards you were wandering around, diaperless and you found your boy bits. You said "There it is!" and we laughed and laughed.

You are such a clown. You are uncomplicated and sweet and I just can't believe that you are going to be a terrible two or three year old. Seriously, MY Eli? I just can't even imagine.

I love you, baby boy!
Mama