Sunday, March 16, 2014

Lightning - Boom!!


On what had been a fairly nice Sunday, with plenty of outdoor playtime, I decided late in the day to duck out to the supermarket and leave Elijah with Shane.    Driving home afterwards I was treated to the most amazing thunder and lightning storm that had begun while I was shopping.

I pulled into the driveway and found Shane and Eli were sitting in our bedroom window on the edge of the bed, looking out.

Shane had invented a game called "Lightning - Boom!"  which Eli adored.   They would watch out to see a burst of lightning, and then count until the thunder came when they would yell "Boom!" or in fact Shane would yell "Boom!" and then Eli would mimic "Boom! Boom! Boom!"    And yes, it was as adorable as it sounds!  

They had fun watching me running through the rain to get the groceries in.  I am so proud of Shane's innovation as a parent, he knows enough to realise it's important to take the "scary" away from these new experiences and help Eli understand them in his own way.  Plus he incorporated counting which is awesome! 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Yesterday (Tues) were playing at Putney Park with Jodie & Hannah and the kids. 

Eli took off climbing the stairs, and met a lady with her son of approx. 1-2 coming down the other way.  They eyed each other for awhile and then I hear a distinct "Hello!" and didn't think much of it.

Until the lady said "Did he just say hello??!!" to which I replied "Oh I guess so, I just assumed it was yours as he's a bit older!"   (Although I was facing her son and didn't see his lips move so I guess I just hadn't thought it through...)  

He also waved and said "Bye" to Amelia when I was putting him in the car at the end of the play.  

Won't do hello or bye on command but will when he really wants to!
Boy little Eli is so fast now!  Hard to imagine that around 6 weeks ago he wasn't really that interested in walking.   Now he runs.  All the time.    I thought I'd have a relaxing picnic with him on Sunday but spent 90min chasing him around Hyde Park!

Sunday night was amusing.  After weeks of teething and painful nights of crying he was feeling better.   At 10:30 I asked Shane if he was going to turn off the fan in Eli's room but he said no he'd leave it until he got up as Eli would want a bottle at 11:30.

Next thing I know my eyes shoot awake around 3:30am with a sudden thought of "Eli's here!" which I immediately thought was crazy.  I could hear a dummy rattling near the door and thought Shane must be up sorting out Eli's dummies to resettle him.   Then I reached my leg out and kicked Shane.  Ok, that's Eli!  Sure enough he's wandered into our room, carefully shut the door behind himself, and sat down on the floor.   He was wide awake and a bit confused.   I took him back to bed and carefully resettled him with a little bit of milk.  

Funnily enough he did the same thing two hours later!  Up, in our room, disorientated and back to bed.  I said to Shane that I think Eli was so surprised to wake up feeling well that he wasn't sure if it was day or night or what to do.   So instead of crying he was just looking for us.  This time he was so awake I brought him into our bed for an early morning snuggle, which worked so well he slept until 8:30am.   When I was ready for work I ended up lying on the bed next to him and gentle chatting and telling him he could get up if he wanted to.  He smiled in his sleep, and then suddenly opened his eyes and was up and off!   

Such a cracker kid.    Unfortunately the past two nights we have had to adjust.  We are so used to having to rush him to bed exhausted and without stories, now he is feeling better and well rested we have to push bedtime later and put the routine back in place.    But hey, we adapt fast!   Tonight when he didn't go down I let him back up immediately to play.   It was only 10min before he suddenly got a bit cranky, I asked if he wanted to go to bed and he trotted off to the bedroom and climbed into his bed, ready for stories and bottle.  Adorable!   Love love love love love.