Our kid is funny

Just want to add a jot down a few things while they're on my mind.

Elliott is so cute with his dolls. In addition to his heavy baby that he sleeps with, he has the Waldorf doll that looks like him ("EJ"), a goofy plastic baby doll, a Habitat for Humanity teddy bear and that purple My First Doll we got him over two years ago. They all sleep in the cradle together these days. This morning Elliott said they were all getting up and so had to sit in the little toddler rocking chair he has in his room. I suggested tonight that we put them to bed, and he got very serious about who would go where. "EJ has to go here, and this (the teddy bear) is his friend. They need to cuddle up. And this is their blanket." As he started to cover the purple doll's head, he said, "I won't cover their mouth" and moved her up to be in line with the others. Then he tucked them in, leaned over and kissed each one and said, "Sleep well."

Elliott decided to make his own snack today. He knew he was going to Spanish class with his dad at 11:00, so as we were making breakfast, he started to pack things up for himself. "I need some hummus," he said at about 8:30 a.m. I didn't understand at first that he was intending this for later. But, in fact, he was. He'd already put a pancake in a tupperware container. Then he got out another to put baby carrots in, and I helped him spoon some hummus into the container. He then went over to where his lunchbox was hanging, got it down and put his food in and zipped it up. Then he found a water bottle and asked for help filling it. I was not present for the eating of this snack, but I sure thought it was cute that he put it together, so focused, not asking for any help or recognition. Just takin' care of business.

For a few weeks, he has been wanting to open the fridge and get his own stuff (though he's not trustworthy enough not to just get out butter and start licking it, so we're not exactly encouraging this independence yet. He also will just stand there for minutes on end if not checked.) And after meals, if he doesn't want to finish everything, he takes his plate/bowl and says "we'll save this in the fridge for later." Then he goes looking for it later! I tend to be on the computer or otherwise occupied when fridge inspection happens. Sometimes it's cute and okay and sometimes he wants to pull out everything in front of the bottle of ketchup while I'm trying to make dinner, so I have to tell him to stand on the wood floor (outside the kitchen) or I will close the gate. He does not like to be shut out of the kitchen, but sometimes it's a necessity. We haven't figured out how to encourage the independence that is actually working pretty well while not allowing behavior that is just annoying, energy-inefficient and ill-advised from a health persepctive.

Elliott has a new interest in jewelry. I don't have much nice stuff (notice the inauguration ball earrings from 1990), so I don't mind terribly, and if his dress-up lets me take a shower, get dressed or put things other things away, I don't mind too much. Heck, I'll even help him put on the necklace I haven't worn in years. He looks mighty fine, don't you think?

44 presidents already? Inauguration recap

Time has been flying, what with my busy starting a moms group and the inauguration and all.

Elliott got to go to the Sunday "We Are One" concert on the Mall. One Tuesday, his dad biked down to to the Jefferson Memorial and watched the swearing in on the Mall while Elliott stayed home with Grandma B and Roland (need to get those cute pictures of E looking at Obama on the TV). That morning, Elliott's mom had gotten up early to join a friend who had great tickets to a section right in front of the Capitol. They got stuck on a very full Metro that then broke down and put considerable effort into getting through the crowds to leave the station. They were luck that a cab came by and took them over the bridge in mere minutes. Then the walks to the ticket gate and from the ticket gate to the orange section seats were long and meandering (lots of street blockages and such).

After the swearing-in, E's mom found herself (with her friend) in a frightening mosh pit of humanity that was moving only further away from Virginia. After 4 hours of wandering the city (including 45 minutes at her friend's friend's office in the Russell Senate Office Building), she finally caught a bus and then another bus and was picked up by Elliott and his dad. Two hours and half a chicken later, Elliott was asleep and his Grandma B and Roland and, later in a separate cab, his mom and dad were all headed off to a ball where water cost $3 and leaving the throng watching Sheryl Crow to chase after a lost wrap/jacket catapulted E's mom out of her decent spot and had her texting E's dad that she was sitting by the escalators and wanting to go home. (When one has something approaching PTSD from crowd crunch that morning, it doesn't sound appealing to push one's way into any kind of dense group of humanity). But eventually, mama and daddy were reunited and they did get to see the President and First Lady before rushing home to their tired babysitter (after a freezing walk to the metro for an 11-minute wait, a not-too-crowded train and a waiting cab). The boy woke right after his parents got home, so the 'rents stripped off their finery in record speed and climbed into bed.

Sorry the photos are out of order -- Blogger does it that way and I always forget to load backwards. Moving isn't so easy.

January fun on the National Mall

Today we went on our annual family fun day/ Christmas/New Years trek to the National Mall. It started in 2005 with preggo photos outside the National Gallery by the I.M. Pei mini-pyramids and mirrors. We went again the next year when Elliott was but a wee (well, actually a rather chubby and very bald) baby, but in 2007 it was so cold and windy that we only took photos inside the museum. Today our main goal was the train exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. It was chilly but clear and still, so then we walked in front of the reflecting pool (scaffolding for the inauguration has begun!) over to the National Gallery, used up the rest of the camera battery, and then had lunch at the Museum of the American Indian where we ate a tremendous amount of food and practically blew our whole January dining out budget. John and Elliott both slept for two hours this afternoon (but not together). I sure have fun with those mirrors!

A few glimpses of Christmas

We had a smooth drive to Michigan on the way up (1.5 hr nap was all, though, in 9 hrs of driving) and a decent broken-up drive back (though in six hours, our son did not sleep at all, kept demanding different toys to play with, and cried when I tried to close my eyes for five minutes. Annoying!)

The visit with his age-mate cousins was fun, if intense. There were some problems sharing on our boy's part -- toys, chairs, what have you. But mostly it was a riot to see the two 2006 babies together and to hear how much Lucy sounds like Elliott when she gets upset! And it was super fun to see Georgia go from taking only a few steps to clearing entire rooms! And it is always crazy to see how fast the newly-teen cousins are growing into adults.

It was madness as usual up at my folks' house. Elliott loved his time with Thomas the train and his cousin's Thomas toys (some old, some new). It's fun to know he's generally just fine without us around. But John and I did have a hilariously fun time playing ping-pong with Elliott in the room, sometimes trying to hit with his own paddle, sometimes crawling on the table and just digging it that the balls were zooming by his fluffy hair. It was probably the hardest I've laughed in our family of three.

The weather was all over the map. We had a day of sledding in new snow, rain that froze over to create a slick icy hill, more cold, then fog and more rain along with record high temps of almost 60 that melted all of the snow at my folks' house followed by windy cold.