So Big, Claps, & Phone Calls

We have been teaching Eli the "so big" trick for so long now that we thought he was never going to pick it up. (For those of you who don't know it, someone says, "How big is Eli?" Then you say, "So big" with raised arms.) Elina was doing it around 11 months, so we were hoping it would happen any day now. FINALLY, Eli started doing it.

He also FINALLY started "clapping" his hands. I use quotation marks because he claps his hands together, but they make no sound at all. We're just glad that he started clapping after all this time.

In this first video, he does these 2 tricks. But turn the volume down because we just got a new camera and I wasn't aware where the microphone was, so my voice is way loud and way high-pitched in the video. Sorry about that. But you know how baby talk has to be.



This video shows Eli's latest trick--putting the phone to his ear like he's talking on the phone. Whenever you say "hello" he puts whatever is in his hand to his ear. If there's nothing in his hand, he'll just put his hand to his ear. It's really funny. (That's why in the previous video you hear us saying "hello" a lot. We were trying to get him to do the phone trick, but to no avail.)

In the Blink of an Eye

Little babies are so cute because once they understand the concept of "communication," they love to take turns copying everything to "communicate" with you. In previous posts, I've mentioned how Eli "communicates" by taking turns screaming or sticking out his tongue. For the past few weeks, Eli has also "communicated" by taking turns blinking with us. If you catch him at the right moment and you blink slowly and deliberately, he'll follow suit. It's really cute, but hard to catch on camera. I've been trying for awhile now, but to no avail.

So last night I FINALLY caught it on video! Once you see it, you'll know why we were so excited to get it on camera. It's too cute. I just love that his mouth stays open in awe of his eye-blinking. And you can tell he gets a real kick out of blinking his eyes.

Figuring It Out

Although Eli is a real troublemaker, I have to give him credit for a few things he's figured out on his own. These are things that took Elina a little longer to get.

One day I was in the kitchen and Elina was climbing up the stairs, calling out to Eli. Eli was quiet, so naturally, I had to check things out. When I peeked over, I saw that Eli had already made it up to the 3rd step all on his own. So now he can climb the stairs and it might be time to put a gate at the bottom of the stairs. We didn't have to install a gate at the bottom with Elina because she would never head up the stairs unless we told her to. Eli is another story. He thinks he can come and go as he pleases.



The other thing Eli has figured out is drinking from a sippy cup. He quickly grasped the concept that you have to lift your cup up in order to get a sip. It took Elina SO long to figure this out. We had to give her straw cups for the longest time. I guess when food and drink are involved, Eli will pick up on it real quick.

It's the Boy In Him

Now that Eli is more mobile, he is ALWAYS CAUSING TROUBLE. That's my new nickname for him--Troublemaker. You would think that since we already had one kid, we would be used to all the trouble, but Elina was really abnormal (in a good way). My friends all told me that Elina wasn't a normal baby, that she was an angel, and I never really believed them. Until now.

I know you're not supposed to compare your kids, but we all do it. I'm just making this list to illustrate how new all this is to me. Here are some ways Eli is different from Elina (so far):

1. Eli eats every little crumb on the ground. And he'll eat things that aren't crumbs. Elina was a little strange in that whenever she picked something up, she'd just hand it to an adult. Weird, huh? I know. I was really thankful we never had to deal with that, but now I'm ill prepared. I have to sweep the floors almost every day now. I also have to check on Eli if he's a little too quiet. Usually, he's playing by himself and then suddenly it'll be eerily silent. I'll go up to him and he'll immediately close his mouth or put his hand to his mouth. That's when I know I have to go digging in his mouth to look for something special. I've already dug out rocks, mulch, dirt, old pasta, 2 peanuts, 2 stickers, and a multitude of other unknown objects. I'm just waiting for the day when I dig an insect out of his mouth. Let me just say that I have NEVER dug anything out of Elina's mouth. I never had to. Seriously, Eli will eat anything and everything. But I've heard that this is normal baby behavior.

2. Eli loves the bathroom. If he sees anyone washing their hands or going potty, he is right there. He will head straight for the toilet so that he can touch it in some unsanitary manner. One day I found his hands just inside the toilet! Argh! So now I have to leave the bathroom door closed. Again, I've heard that this is normal baby behavior, but Elina never loved touching bathroom stuff.

3. Eli loves touching things that he isn't supposed to touch. For example, our laptop. We keep it open and out most of the time. It is a beacon to Eli. Whenever it's not high up on the dining room table, he hones in on its location and heads straight for it. He goes up to it and just starts banging on the keys with both hands. I've tried hiding it behind things and he'll still find it. I've tried taking him into the next room and he'll just turn right around and head straight for it without skipping a beat. It's amazing. He is definitely B's kid. We're putting everything up high now because of him--remotes, keyboards, the laptop, phones. Again, typical baby stuff that we're not used to.

So as you can see, Elina really was an angel. Whenever I complain about this kind of stuff to my friends they just look at me like, "And then...?" Everyone keeps saying that it must be because he's a boy. All in all, it's been an adjustment, but nothing we can't handle.

I must say, even though Eli is a troublemaker, he's way cuddlier than Elina ever was. Elina didn't really like to snuggle with us or lay her head on our shoulders. Eli is a total snugglebunny. It's different, but we LOVE it. Now that Elina is older, she's also becoming more snuggly, which we love as well. She's learning to just hop onto our laps, to give us random hugs and kisses, and to say "I love you" without prodding. It's great to have 2 snugglers!

Shake, Shake, Shake

Eli loves LOVES to dance with his hands. He just smiles and shakes his hands up and down and all around to "dance." It's really sweet. He will do his "dance" to almost anything that sounds remotely like music. Well, now this "dance" has evolved, incorporating his new head-shaking skill. So it looks like he's a little loony when he "dances" because he's shaking both his hands and his head now. Yikes. It's hard to catch on video because we never know when he's going to do it. In the videos you can see the head-shaking briefly.

Scoot, Scoot, Scootin' Along

Recently, Elina received a scooter from Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma. In reality, she asked us for one and we told her to ask her grandparents for one during their next visit. In true grandparent fashion, they immediately obliged. Aren't grandparents wonderful?

Elina's been wanting a scooter because it seems that all her friends in the neighborhood have one. She always sees them zooming by. We were going to wait until Christmas to ask for one, but she asked Ah-Gong and he took her out to get one right away.

Here is some video footage of Elina scooting along for the first time. She's not the quickest (at all), but I think it suits her fine for now since she scares easily. She claims she can only kick off with her left foot. One day she told me her leg was getting tired, so I told her to switch legs. She just looked at me with this confused face and said, "Mommy, I can't do it that way." She still needs a little more practice, but here is our little speed demon--

Giving a Bottle

After 11 months of nursing, we've decided to start weaning Eli. We're doing it gradually by replacing one of his four nursings with a bottle every week. Ideally, by the time he turns 1, he will be completely weaned.

Luckily, since Eli is such an easy-going baby, he has totally accepted the bottle and formula. He even takes the bottle from anyone, including me. So far it's been an easy transition. The only downside is that his poops are now stinkier. (Darn formula poop!)

Here is Elina being a helpful big sister--

Smacking and Syllables

Eli's new thing is smacking his lips like he's eating. We have no idea where he got this from, but he'll usually keep doing it if you do it with him. It's one of his ways of communicating with people--meaning you can take turns doing it with him. His other way of communicating is by screaming. Elina loves communicating with him in that way. It's loud, but actually quite funny.

So here is Eli doing his smacking thing. You can also tell that he's become more "vocal" since he's a little older. It's pretty cool. Besides the smacking thing, you can also hear some of Eli's syllables--"baba" and "dada." There's also a raspberry in there as well. Enjoy!

More

We were finally able to capture Eli's sign for "more" on video. It's really nothing special because he just puts his 2 hands together and leaves them there...kinda like when a martial arts student is greeting his master. (Was that desciption Asian enough for you?) Sometimes he just leaves his hands there together for awhile. Elina's "more" was more active. She would take her pointer finger and point to the palm of her hand and keep pointing. Eli's way is definitely more laid back (which totally suits his personality). But if you don't see his sign, then he just resorts to screaming at the top of his lungs. Then you're sure to see his hands.

Pitter Patter

This year Elina had a Kindermusik class on Halloween so the kids dressed up for class. It was cute because Elina actually had the same butterfly wings as the teacher. This semester of Kindermusik is about different types of weather. For this class, the teacher was working on verbal cues with different types of action. "Pitter patter" meant it was raining and the kids had to tap their rhythm sticks together. "Woo-hoo" meant it was windy and the kids had to twirl a scarf around (as if it were blowing in the wind). If the teacher said, "Wild storm," then the kids had to run to the middle to bang on this huge drum to make sounds like thunder. It was funny to see Elina's face each time she heard a verbal cue because you could tell she was thinking real hard about which action to perform.

Our Little Photographer

Like most kids, Elina has always been obsessed with cameras. Now with digital cameras, kids love them even more. Who doesn't love instant gratification?

When she was 2, she tried to use our camera, but it didn't really work out. She'd point the camera at herself instead and the flash would go off in her face. Nice. Now that Elina's a little older, we let her try our camera again (since she's been begging us to let her do it) and she actually does a pretty good job. She understands which way the camera needs to point. She also understands that the object needs to be in the screen on the back. It's kinda cool because if she gets good enough maybe we can start getting more pics of B and I together instead of just the kids! Wow, what a thought!

Here are some of Elina's first pics using our camera. I was pretty impressed, but then again, I am her mother.

Static Cling

We recently had a double baby shower for 2 moms in our neighborhood playgroup. It was just an excuse to have yummy food and to let the kids play. Elina spent a lot of time on the huge trampoline with her friends, L and M. It was so cute. They would all chase each other around the trampoline. Because the weather hasn't been as humid, running around in there caused a lot of static. Everyone's hair started to just stand up. Elina asked L, "Why is your hair spiky?" Here are some pics to show you how crazy their hair looked (and to show you what great friends they all are)--



What great friends...static and all!

So Asian

I had previously posted a video clip of Elina and her friend M jumping on my bed. Elina said something that totally revealed her Asian-ness. As they were jumping next to each other, she looked in the mirror and said, "Look, Mommy. We look like chopsticks!"

Well, if you can believe it, today Elina said something that was even more Asian. She was drawing and we had the following conversation:

Me: What are you doing?
Elina: Drawing.
Me: What are you drawing?
Elina: Bamboo!

Can you believe our little girl wasn't drawing trees or flowers? She was drawing bamboo. That's our Asian girl!

A Busy Halloween

Happy Halloween to everyone!

This past week was a whirlwind for us. We had a bunch of Halloween-themed events to attend. It was very busy, but totally worth it since Elina got to use her butterfly costume many many times. Let's see how many times:

1. At the pumpkin patch, (We went to pumpkin patches 4 times this year. Let me tell ya, I am totally pumpkin'd out, folks. She wore her costume at one of our pumpkin patch visits.)


2. At Trunk or Treat,


3. At dance class,


4. At our neighborhood playgroup Boo Bash,


5. At Kindermusik class, and


6. On Halloween night.

We definitely got a lot of use out of her costume this year!

Here is a video of our little caterpillar crawling around before we headed out. Eli kinda looks like a caterpillar, right?

On Halloween, Elina and her friend M went trick-or-treating together. They had so much fun racing up to doors, knocking, and then getting candy. While they waited for people to answer the door, they would peek into people's windows. It was really cute. Every time they finished getting candy, they would check out their bags and then Elina would show us the candy in her bag. M and Elina were perfect trick-or-treating partners because M would run and show Elina the way to the door and then Elina would remind M that she had to say "thank you" after she got her candy. (Elina would actually say, "M, you have to say 'thank you.'") And then M would immediately say it. Kids are so funny that way. They listen better to their friends than to their own parents. (Aren't we all like that a little bit??)

Here are some cute videos of the trick-or-treating.

In this first one, Elina is going to M's door to trick-or-treat (notice the peeking after she knocks)-

This second one is Elina and M going up to another house (notice how M immediately runs past Elina)-

This next video shows M and Elina after they have gotten candy. Look at how happy they are as they look in their bags.

In this last video, M and Elina are so cute because they are crossing the street together.


This year, there were less people at home doling out candy. This was a bummer for the girls because they would knock and wait, but no one would come. After a while, M would just look at a house and say, "There's nobody home," before she even tried knocking. We definitely got less candy this year, but it was still a fun time. Eli wasn't really into it because he was feeling under the weather and because he can't really get candy or eat it, but Elina had a blast. The next morning she asked if we were going to go trick-or-treating again. The girl loves her candy!

B and I were going to get dressed up again with the kids but we just couldn't do it. It was just WAY too hot that night for us to have pillows and polyfill so close to our bodies. I know, we're lame for not doing it, but it was a pretty warm night. Even the mosquitoes were out and they got B pretty good. Oh well. We did it once for Trunk or Treat. I think we can call it good.

Dumplings

Another fun thing Elina got to do with Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma was making dumplings. Last time my parents came they made dumplings and Elina had so much fun getting her hands dirty. So this time my dad decided to do it again. These homemade dumplings are super delicious. Both Elina and Eli love to eat them.

Here is a video of Elina making the dough part of the dumplings. Notice the expert technique in her kneading style. What a pro!