The Burlingames

Swim Lessons: Swim lessons went MUCH better this week! Eli was much more comfortable in the water and enjoyed being in the water. Eli enjoyed throwing various toys around the pool and ‘chasing’ them, kicking his legs, making splashes, attempting to blow bubbles and jump into the pool. One day we decided to be daring and dunked him. He came up out of the water with very wide eyes and a shocked look on his face, then he signed ‘more’. The swim instructor said to only do things three times before moving onto another activity, then you can come back to the former activities.

All in all, swim lessons were a success. Eli has advanced onto ‘Toddler B’ swim lessons, just need to get him signed up. The only downside to week two was the pool water was much colder, therefore by the end of the 25 minutes we had a very blue toddler on our hands (who loved to get wrapped up and snuggle for a few minutes after each lesson).  I had to explain to the swim instructor that Eli’s blueness was normal due to his heart condition, she was a bit concerned at first.

Big Boy Bed: On Monday, Eli and I decided to surprise Dave. My friend/coworker, Katie, came over to help take down Eli’s crib, rearrange his room and to together the twin bed. Eli was in the room with us the whole time and helped as much as he was able to do so. Once we got his room rearranged and the bed set up, Eli spent the next few minutes playing on his bed and getting acquainted with everything. He was quite pleased with how it looked.

The first night was interesting. Eli went to bed just fine but woke up around 2am and wouldn’t got back to bed for a very long time. He wanted to snuggle so I laid down in bed with him. He would snuggle and doze, then wake up and want to play for a minute or two, then he would snuggle again. Finally after 2.5 hours I just left him in bed alone, he cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep for the next 4.5 hours.  Needless to say, I took a nap later that day.

The next few days were uneventful, the only interesting things he did in bed were move around a lot. Up until yesterday, he hadn’t fallen out of bed or gotten out of bed on his own.  Yesterday he woke up from nap time and heard me moving around, he got out of bed, pounded on the door and yelled, “MOM” until I opened the door. Last night he fell out of bed but it didn’t wake him up. We heard him fall and ran into his room, Dave said he was still asleep until he picked him up. Wonder what would’ve happened if we left him alone. Today after nap time he found his wagon full of blocks and brought them over to the door, laid down in front of the door, stuck his hand under the door and yelled “MOM” until I came and got him.

All in all the transition was much easier than we expected which we were quite pleased with. Tomorrow night will be the first time he sleeps in a different bed, in a different house. Eli and I are going to Gramma and Grampa’s house.

Dave and I have been wondering if Eli is ready to start potty training or at least ready to explore the idea of potty training. For the past month, Eli has taken to grabbing at his diaper either while he is peeing/pooping or once he has finished (no one knows unless we are inside his diaper). For the past week, he now grabs at himself and says something to the effect of ‘pee pee’. I think we’ll head to Target tomorrow and get a little potty for him and see what he does.

We are also going to get some bed rails to put on Eli’s crib until we can get a twin size mattress for his ‘new’ twin bed. With me being home this summer we decided now would be a good time to get him transitioned out of the crib (so the baby can have it when he/she is born). We want him to be well transitioned to the new bed before we transition him to the downstairs bedroom (hopefully at the end of the summer). Lots of changes happening in Eli’s life right now.

As for now, let the new adventures of parenting begin!!

Eli has been super cute lately (well, he’s always super cute), but I’ve been wanting to get some of his cuteness on the blog.

Eli knows the following words/phrases in sign language: more, please, more please, eat, help, help please and milk. We have been working on ‘all done’ but he hasn’t picked up on that one yet. Key words are ‘mom’ and ‘no’.

When Eli is ready to eat he will run over to his high chair and sign ‘eat’, he often does this at night when it is bedtime as a stalling trick. He is getting better at feeding himself but still tends to make a big mess but that’s ok. His favorites right now are beef ravioli and mac n’ cheese. He LOVES apples and will devour them whenever he can. Veggies are still out of the question.

If we tell Eli it’s time to take a bath, he runs to the bathroom door and knocks on the door until we open it. He will dump his toys in the tub while we are busy filling up the tub and adding bubbles to the water, he’s most helpful. While in the bathtub if I give Eli the wash rag and tell him to wash his face, he puts the rag up to his face and scrubs. He is very proud of himself afterward. He can even pick up his toys when bath time is all done.

Eli knows where to go for a diaper change. If we say, ‘let’s go change your diaper’, he takes off running to his bedroom and reaches for the changing table. He also knows where his jammies are and will attempt to pull open the drawer to pull a pair out for us to change him for bedtime.

Lately I’ve been asking for lots of hugs, if I ask Eli for a hug he leans his head on my shoulder. If I ask him for a kiss, he leans his head forward for me to kiss. I’ve been telling him to give his toys a hug, he’ll put them up by his cheek and pretend to give them hugs.

When we get home, he likes to walk up the walkway and steps, then he will knock on the door until I open it. He then gets inside, shuts the door and sits down on the steps to take his shoes off. However, for a few days he was being lazy about taking his shoes off and would start crawling up the stairs instead. I would stop him and ask him to take his shoes off, well he stayed in his crawling position and stuck his foot out behind him expecting me to take his shoe off for him. That didn’t work out in his favor, I made him sit down and take his own shoes off. I think we are back in the routine.