Practicing His Swing

Well, we said we weren't going to do it. We said he was too young this year. We said we'll wait until next year when he's more mature and can focus. We said, we said, we said...Well, we're eating our words now because Eli is officially signed up for Wee Ball. I guess its not going to be the last time things go differently than we plan. It really was our intention this year to hold him out another year before we started doing the ball thing, but our good friend, Dara, called and asked for Eli to be on her team. Her daughter, Molly, is on the team and so is one of his friends from church, Hayden. Eli was very excited when we asked him if he wanted to play and that pretty much sealed the deal. So, not only is Eli playing, but Josh is coaching, and his bank sponsored their team! It really is funny how it all worked out the way it did...

Last week we took him shopping for some baseball cleats and afterwards I snapped this picture and posted it on Instagram. Eli was SO excited! He loved his new cleats so much he wore them out of the store...after running a couple of laps in the store to make sure they made him faster :) Josh explained to him about how he needed to not run on concrete when he had his cleats on or they would wear down faster. Eli was so careful when he got out of the truck and kept asking, "Are my cleats going down now, Mommy? Are they still there?" It really concerned him! 

Well a new pair of cleats warranted a t-ball practice session at home, so that's exactly what my boys did! Eli is getting better and better every time he practices.  

I love this face! HAHA!

Working on his fielding.

At one point, Eli was not putting his hands where they needed to be on the bat, so Josh came up with a good visual to help Eli line up his knuckles before he took a swing. He used a marker and drew a line across his knuckles on both hands. All Eli had to do was make a straight line with his hands and he had it!

Eli and Josh had a great practice. I'm interested to see how Eli's attention span is going to be when he starts playing with other kids, but for now he's doing great. Ball season is going to be lots of fun!

Boy Stuff

Eli and Josh are bonding BIG TIME now and it's so much fun to watch my little guy try so hard to be just like his Daddy. I absolutely love seeing them spend time together doing boy things and think it's cute when Eli tells me I can't join in because it's "boy stuff". (Of course, if I ever have a little girl I'll have someone to do "girl stuff" with, but if we have another boy one day then I guess I'm just out of luck.) This particular day Josh and Eli were putting together our barstools that took THREE MONTHS to come in. (Is it just me or is that a really long time for such a small piece of furniture to come in?) I wasn't allowed to help since I am a girl and "no girls were allowed", but I was cleared to take a couple of pictures of them working. 

The barstools got two thumbs up from my guys! Great job, boys!

Mail Call

One of Eli's most favorite things in the entire world is getting mail. Everyday he asks if anything came for him and most days nothing does, but on the days he does get mail he is one happy little boy! This particular day Grammy and Pop sent him some mail and he couldn't wait to open his card!

Pop promised Eli at the beginning of the year that he would get $1.00 for every 10 green dots he got on his daily report card from school. Eli has kept his end of the bargain and this particular day was a big payday for Eli. Pop and Grammy sent him $5 for his great behavior! They actually gave him a little bonus since they know that he's going to Disney World soon and will need some spending money. As you can tell, Eli was really excited! 

   

Yay, Eli! Keep getting those green dots! We're all so proud of you!

Counting Down the Days...

Well, it's official! We're finally going to Disney World! We are so excited and can't wait to see Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Buzz, Woody, and so many other Disney characters. Eli is cutting a link from our "Countdown to Disney World" chain every morning and with each link he cuts he is getting more and more excited. I can't wait to see his face when he gets to meet all his favorite friends! It's a family vacation we've been looking forward to for a long time now, and I can't wait to check it off my "Bucket List"!

Word Bingo

Eli is growing and learning so much this year! Since this is his second year of Pre-K 3 year olds, his teacher has really been working on getting Eli to read. He is showing all the signs of readiness, so she and I both want to capitalize on this moment and move forward since he is showing so much interest. We've been working on the Dolch Pre-Primer sight word list this year at home and he's also working on it at school. So far he knows all his color words, most of his number words, and is starting to sound out CVC words. I'm beyond thrilled! I'm an avid reader and really want Eli to fall in love with reading like I did as a child. 

One of the games I let my school kids play on the iPad at school to practice their reading is Word Bingo. It's a cute little game that's only 99 cents. It uses the Dolch lists and puts them on a Bingo board. You select which Dolch list you want to use, then when you hear the word they say, all you have to do is tap it on the screen. When you have four words in a row, you have BINGO! I started letting Eli play this game and he loved it (especially when we used Daddy's Apple TV and projected it onto our TV screen in the living room). 

I hope my little man continues to enjoy reading as much as he is right now. I can't wait to see how much he learns over the summer months when I can work with him more one-on-one! My goal (if he still shows interest) is to have him reading on his in PreK-4. I'll keep you up to date on his progress!

Dinnertime Blues

I think I've mentioned on the blog once or twice that one of our main struggles with Eli is eating at the dinner table. This child has hated to sit down to eat since he was born. He is a wonderful on-the-go eater. He'll eat as many healthy snacks as you can put before him, but asking him to sit down to eat a full meal is just torture. Torture for him and torture for us. We've been very persistent and it's starting to pay off, but sometimes it's just so frustrating. 

The same night we made the Oobleck, I made Pioneer Woman's chicken pot pie. YUM-O! I've said before just how much I love Ree Drummond, but she has certainly helped make me LOVE to cook. I actually enjoy it now and don't treat it as something I have to do just because we have to eat. I love looking up new recipes and trying them out on my family and friends. This chicken pot pie was not a new recipe, but I hadn't cooked it in a long time, so it was time for it to make a revival in our house. 

(Sidenote: Chicken pot pie is actually one of the meals my hubs doesn't like to eat that much. Crazy, right? Well, when we first got married and I thought cooking was awful, I made chicken pot pie, taco soup, chicken spaghetti, and shepherd's pie all the time because they were easy. Josh got tired of those meals because he had them the first 5 years of our marriage. Every now and then one of them has a great comeback, but for the most part they've been sidelined for years!)

This particular night I called Eli to the table and he immediately said "I don't like that." Well, that doesn't fly in our house. If Mommy cooks it, you're going to eat it. Eli wasn't too thrilled with that idea. He sat there and pouted for quite a while. Josh and I finished our food quickly (it was SOO GOOD!) and then it was just Eli. I told him he had to start eating and couldn't get up until he finished. He really didn't like that and started to cry. I just happened to have my camera sitting next to me, so I started taking pictures of him crying. I just wanted to distract him and get him in a better mood so he would finish his food and be done! At first, he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of Mommy taking pictures of him...

Then it was kind of funny...

Then it became a game....

My trick worked. He turned that frown upside down and was able to finish ALL of his meal. Maybe I should keep a camera near me at all times...

Oobleck

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday and since I'm a teacher, that's definitely something we're going to celebrate! Friday, March 1st, I did some fun activities with my kiddos at school to celebrate his birthday. All my kids love reading his books, especially "The Lorax", so we all had fun discussing which book was our favorite. We also wore "Cat in the Hat" hats to lunch that day! 

Saturday, March 2nd, Eli and I had lots of fun celebrating. We made Oobleck! I looked for Dr. Seuss' book, "Oobleck" on the Storia app, but couldn't find it. I didn't want that to ruin our fun, so we went ahead and made the Oobleck without reading the book. Eli LOVED it! At first, he was a little timid about putting his hands in there and getting messy, but then I dove in and started playing with it and that really sold him. I guess he figured since Mommy was getting really messy, it was okay if he did, too! 

I've never done this activity with my kids at school, but I've seen it "pinned" on Pinterest so many times by teachers who are using it to show states of matter. Eli and I had lots of fun exploring how this concoction would go from a solid to a liquid in the blink of an eye. As you can see from the pictures, we had lots of fun with this ooey, gooey mess!

My Lil' Monkey

Lately, Eli has formed quite an attachment to his little monkey, Mo. Mo has been at Eli's side since he was born but until recently Eli never really showed much interest in him. I never really pushed it on him because I kind of wanted it to happen on its own and it finally did. Around Christmas, we were in Eli's room and were straightening and cleaning out toys when Eli found Mo. I told him that I bought Mo for him when he was still in my belly and that Mo had been with him every since. He asked if he played with Mo when he was a baby and I said not really. Eli asked to hold him and Mo has been a vital part of Eli's day ever sincE. Mo rides in the car with us, sleeps with Eli, rides in the Jeep with Eli, and plays with Eli all the time. In fact, I was starting to get worried about something happening to Mo and not being able to repair him so I ordered a back-up Mo just in case :) 

This picture below was taken a couple days after Valentine's Day. One of my students gave me the Valentine sock monkey and I brought it home for Eli. He loved it! Then he found his monkey hat and that prompted him to ask me to take a picture of him with all his monkey friends. I love this picture of my little monkey with all his favorite monkeys :)