Working at the Car Wash

Last Saturday was just too perfect of a day to spend it inside. After running some errands around town, Eli and I walked to my school's playground so he could play for a little bit. When we got back to the house, Eli still wanted to stay outside and play, so I suggested he wash his wagon. He loved that idea!

If it involves water and it's outside, Eli is all for it!

After he finished his wagon, he started rinsing off the carport for us.

The sad part is that in about 10 years when I need someone to wash my car, he probably won't be as excited....

Eli and Maggie

Eli and Maggie are quite pals these days. When we get home from school the first thing Eli wants to do is check on Maggie. Whenever we walk her, he loves to hold the leash, and what's so amazing to me is how she responds to him. She immediately slows down and lets him walk her wherever he wants to go. (Just in case the opposite were to happen though, I have instructed Eli to just let go of the leash if she ever does start to pull.) There's nothing like a boy and his dog :)

My Lil' Cutie

Eli's New Incentive to Potty

Eli has been doing SO WELL with his potty training! We are all so very proud of him. He uses the potty all day long when he's at Mrs. G's house. When he gets home, I usually put him in big boy underwear until bedtime and he's been doing great at staying dry.

When he first expressed some interest in potty training, we rewarded him with jelly beans. When I finally came to my Mommy senses and realized that those were horrible for his teeth, we switched to M&M's-still candy, but at least they don't stick in his teeth. He eventually got tired of M&M's, so we switched to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey Kisses. I really wanted to move away from candy, so I found these stickers in his coloring book stash and pulled them out. I made this sticker chart (don't be jealous of my creativity-HA!) and we've been doing stickers ever since.

He's loving the stickers! Every time he goes in the potty and I pull out the stickers, he always points to the ones that are missing and says, "Dat one's gone. Dat one's gone. Dat one's gone." We have to point to every sticker that's missing before he can pick a new one.

Since I took this picture, we've added a few more to the bottom portion of the chart, which is a HUGE step in the right direction for Eli. I think he's going to be potty trained before we know it!

The Wilson's Build Their Dream House Update

Things are moving right along on our new house. All the rain we received a couple weeks ago, put us about a week behind on pouring the foundation, but once the dirt dried they began digging the footers to prepare it for the foundation.

Here's a picture of our garage. It's behind our house on the left.

Here's another picture of the garage.

They're supposed to pour the foundation very soon. We can't wait! We've heard that once the foundation gets poured, things begin to move very very quickly! We can't wait!

A Family Walk

One of our favorite things to do in the afternoons when Josh gets home from work is go for a walk together as a family. We live less than a mile away from where they're building our new house, so we love walking down there to check on the progress.

Eli has gotten very good at riding his tricycle, so this particular day he wanted to try to ride it all the way to the new house. The pictures are deceiving though because he rode the tricycle about to the Stop sign you see in the picture, and after that I ended up carrying it for him. I guess we'll have to work up to making it the entire way :)

Eli's 1st Trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop

Saturday night my whole family loaded up in the "Burb" (one great reason to have such a big vehicle) so we could take Eli to Build-a-Bear Workshop. This was something that I had wanted him to be able to do for a while, but I was waiting until I knew he was old enough to really enjoy the experience. Grammy and Pop had been wanting to do this with him, too, so it worked out kind of perfect that we did it this weekend.


The Louisiana Boardwalk is one of my favorite places to go to when I visit my parents. I love the atmosphere down there, the cool breeze coming off the river, the cleanliness, the stores. It's a great place to take the family. We made it to Build-a-Bear Workshop, and Eli immediately started scoping out the place.



On our way to the store, we all talked with Eli and explained what he was going to do when we got there. We asked him what kind of animal he was going to make and he said a bear. Then he told us that he wanted it to be a blue bear. I knew that there would be tons of choices once we got there, so I wanted to have something in mind to make that decision process a little easier. We held Eli up to see all the different animals he could make-monkeys, bears, dogs, cats, and so many more-and well, you see what he chose. There was no changing his mind either. So for Eli's first Build-a-Bear experience he chose to make a blue bear.


Next up was choosing a sound to go in his bear's paw. I think the grown-ups had more fun pushing the buttons than Eli did. We had to remind Uncle Caleb several times that this bear was not for him ;)


We moved on to the stuffing station and Eli chose a heart to put in his bear.


Then it was time to stuff his bear full of fluff. Eli loved being able to help out with this part by stepping on the foot pedal to shoot stuffing into his bear.


Eli gave his bear a squeeze to make sure there was enough fluff in him.


Then he kissed the heart and put it in his bear's body. His bear was now complete!


Before we picked out any clothes for him, Eli knew he needed to give his bear a bath. That was the longest fake bath I've ever seen. That bear must have been very dirty.

Uncle Caleb earned some major cool points when he started to help dress the bear. I think this is him telling me to quit taking pictures of him ;)

Eli LOVED his bear. We asked him what the bear's name was and he immediately said, "Blue!" Thinking that he had gotten confused about the question we asked him, I asked him again what his bear's name was and he replied with the same answer. So without further ado, I present Eli and Blue Bear :)

I love this next picture of Eli with my parents. He loved being able to do this! Thanks Grammy and Pop for letting Eli get to build his special friend!

Once Blue Bear was dressed and ready to take home, Grammy and Eli sat down to make Blue Bear's birth certificate. Eli loved getting to help Grammy with this.

Blue Bear was packed safe and sound into his home and given to Eli.

Eli's words, as soon as he got Blue Bear, were "Otay, I gotta go now!" He then turned and started to walk out of the store dragging Blue Bear behind him the entire way :)