Showing posts with label Preschooler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Preschooler. Show all posts
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Dance Party
E loves music and dancing. He often picks out the Pandora station for the night. Lately he's been picking Deadmau5 Radio, which does make for some good dancing ;)
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Turning 4
So a little late to the game, but I didn't want to let another of Elliott's birthdays pass without some recognition here on the blog. We had a party at one of the playground/community rooms in our complex. We had a great mix of friends and family and (I think its safe to say) we all had a great time :) Here are some pictures that highlight the day.
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| lunch time |
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| pizza, salad and snacks |
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| enjoying a beautiful day |
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| the family alcove ;) |
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| ready for cake! |
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| opening presents |
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| the loot |
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| everyone wanted a turn |
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| swinging |
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| helpful Uncle Robert |
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| taking turns |
Monday, February 4, 2013
2012 Photo Album
Since I was painfully behind in sharing here last year, I thought I would simply add a link to our 2012 Shutterfly album. It was a very busy year and with Brad being full-time at UCSD, it has led to little sharing here. My time is stretched pretty thin, but the ultimate goal of every day is to be present, so things like the blog have had to slip a but. But we had a lot of great moments, a couple family trips, great holiday celebrations and general all around fun. Most of the photos below a pretty self explanatory but let me know if you are curious about anything!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
On Two
Its been a while since I pontificated about motherhood or Elliott's development...and not just because I'm painfully behind in blogging in general. But the eve of Elliott's 3rd birthday is a perfect time to talk about 'where we are'.
First of all, we made it through the 'twos'! And we are all still standing, limbs intact ;) I kid, I kid! All in all the 'twos' weren't so terrible, as they say. I have been told the 'threes' are worse, but I'm still hoping the worst is behind us. There was definitely a period say around the 26-28 month range that was harsh. He was prone to the most random fits of anger. So without even knowing it, my parenting style shifted to one of managing. I began to see patterns in the freakouts and started to figure out how to minimize them from happening or reduce their devastation (on everyone). These freakouts usually stemmed from plans being interrupted. It was not always easy to see when a plan was in formulation, but sometimes you could see the wheels turning. This also meant picking battles. Sometimes you could avoid a freak out by letting something that doesn't really matter go, in exchange for keeping your foot down on other things (usually those that impacted safety or were otherwise fundamental rules of the house).
And then one day, I realized how pleasant Elliott was to be around. We would have evenings and days of the best fun. Lots of talking, lots of games, lots of learning together. That's when I knew the worst of it was over. We still get a random freak out, but it usually is derived from being too tired, too hungry or a misunderstanding. So as long as we keep up on those fronts, we have a very cool little boy to be around.
This brings me to Elliott. His communication has developed in leaps and bounds over the last year. He loves to tell you how things work and about all the cool things he sees. He still isn't one for telling you much about his day, but we are seeing more and more hints of his school days through the songs he sings and other little stories. It is also helpful that he can tell you what's wrong if he has a bad dream (another new thing this last year). He is very polite and almost always tells you 'thank you' and sometimes even 'thank you, bud' :) He speaks shockingly clear sometimes, but has still kept some of his cute mispronunciations (hoptopter = helicopter, nindow = window, annunner = another). I love being able to 'talk' to Elliott and I can't wait to learn more and more about him and how he thinks in the coming months.
He is also the best helper! He loves to help make coffee and dinner. He helps vacuum and sweep. And special projects? Oh my, you have never seen a more enthusiastic assistant. He will hand you tools and make sure you don't miss a thing. When he is especially excited about a project (Brad putting together our new tool box cart comes to mind), he will repeat and mimic the things the helpee is doing.
Another new thing this year is the transition from pretend play to imaginative play. I LOVE the things he comes up with. His green lego bin? Tip it on its side, its a computer! I didn't know that! I also didn't know that the green divider in the bottom of his toy bin is a guitar or my whisk is a remote control for the (invisible) TV on the kitchen wall. He is always surprising us with what he 'sees'.
As for the things he likes to play with, trains, cars and trucks are still huge. And he likes to play 'working man' - being a construction worker :) He also loves to read books, but generally at quiet times of the day. We've been making frequent trips to the library, so we keep plenty of books in rotation. He also likes to joke around. He likes things that are silly and when he finds something funny or thinks you will find something funny, he says 'that funny?' and laughs. Hee. Unfortunately, we've also come to recognize Elliott's 'giggle of doom'. If you hear that giggle, nothing good is going down and you better get in there quick!
I may add to this post as I think of things I've missed because I know there's a ton, but otherwise, I am so excited about where we've come from and where we are going. So here's to three!
First of all, we made it through the 'twos'! And we are all still standing, limbs intact ;) I kid, I kid! All in all the 'twos' weren't so terrible, as they say. I have been told the 'threes' are worse, but I'm still hoping the worst is behind us. There was definitely a period say around the 26-28 month range that was harsh. He was prone to the most random fits of anger. So without even knowing it, my parenting style shifted to one of managing. I began to see patterns in the freakouts and started to figure out how to minimize them from happening or reduce their devastation (on everyone). These freakouts usually stemmed from plans being interrupted. It was not always easy to see when a plan was in formulation, but sometimes you could see the wheels turning. This also meant picking battles. Sometimes you could avoid a freak out by letting something that doesn't really matter go, in exchange for keeping your foot down on other things (usually those that impacted safety or were otherwise fundamental rules of the house).
And then one day, I realized how pleasant Elliott was to be around. We would have evenings and days of the best fun. Lots of talking, lots of games, lots of learning together. That's when I knew the worst of it was over. We still get a random freak out, but it usually is derived from being too tired, too hungry or a misunderstanding. So as long as we keep up on those fronts, we have a very cool little boy to be around.
This brings me to Elliott. His communication has developed in leaps and bounds over the last year. He loves to tell you how things work and about all the cool things he sees. He still isn't one for telling you much about his day, but we are seeing more and more hints of his school days through the songs he sings and other little stories. It is also helpful that he can tell you what's wrong if he has a bad dream (another new thing this last year). He is very polite and almost always tells you 'thank you' and sometimes even 'thank you, bud' :) He speaks shockingly clear sometimes, but has still kept some of his cute mispronunciations (hoptopter = helicopter, nindow = window, annunner = another). I love being able to 'talk' to Elliott and I can't wait to learn more and more about him and how he thinks in the coming months.
He is also the best helper! He loves to help make coffee and dinner. He helps vacuum and sweep. And special projects? Oh my, you have never seen a more enthusiastic assistant. He will hand you tools and make sure you don't miss a thing. When he is especially excited about a project (Brad putting together our new tool box cart comes to mind), he will repeat and mimic the things the helpee is doing.
Another new thing this year is the transition from pretend play to imaginative play. I LOVE the things he comes up with. His green lego bin? Tip it on its side, its a computer! I didn't know that! I also didn't know that the green divider in the bottom of his toy bin is a guitar or my whisk is a remote control for the (invisible) TV on the kitchen wall. He is always surprising us with what he 'sees'.
As for the things he likes to play with, trains, cars and trucks are still huge. And he likes to play 'working man' - being a construction worker :) He also loves to read books, but generally at quiet times of the day. We've been making frequent trips to the library, so we keep plenty of books in rotation. He also likes to joke around. He likes things that are silly and when he finds something funny or thinks you will find something funny, he says 'that funny?' and laughs. Hee. Unfortunately, we've also come to recognize Elliott's 'giggle of doom'. If you hear that giggle, nothing good is going down and you better get in there quick!
I may add to this post as I think of things I've missed because I know there's a ton, but otherwise, I am so excited about where we've come from and where we are going. So here's to three!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Family Midway Day
Our day at the Midway...(Sorry my computer just ate my post, and I have no energy to re-write it. So here are some photos of our day ;)
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| In front of the working engine model. I'm pretty sure he could have watched that thing all day! |
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| Fun things to touch and try out... |
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| Looking out to the water |
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| So many airplanes, so little time! |
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| Elliott loved being able to climb inside some of the planes and helicopters. In fact, he didn't understand why we couldn't get in all of them! |
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| Hovercraft demonstration. Wow - those things are crazy! |
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| Audio tour - Notice his ticket in his pocket? He wanted that in there the rest of the day! |
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| Desert Storm tactical room. |
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| About to make a very serious call! |
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| Room o'knobs |
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| Fighter pilot |
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