I think Eli just constructed the longest sentence of his life thus far:  "Mama get up! Mama get up and sing five little monkeys!"

Spoiler alert:  I didn't.

In my defence, his dad was already up.

Shane offered to cut Eli's potatoes and he yelled "no no no!" so I said "Eli you really need to learn to be more polite".  He replies "please?"  Me: "yes please and thank you, but also when you say no say it nicely, say no not NO!"   So then he sits there eating his dinner and softly and politely saying to himself "No.  No daddy?  Cut it.  No daddy cut it. Yes."  Practice makes perfect but I bet we are back to no no no tomorrow! 

Another lovely Christmas!  That's two in a row now, pretty happy with that.

Eli was so excited on Christmas Eve, this is the first year he's really understood that something special is happening.   He pleaded with me to open presents, with his best puppy-dog eyes, but I stood firm.   So he went to bed instead!   Shane and I stayed up late chatting.

After midnight Eli started to sleep really restlessly, we're not sure whether it was nightmares or teething.  Shane got up for him several times but everytime Eli seemed to go straight back to sleep.  I eventually got up at 2:30 and as inevitably happens Eli decided to come into our bed.   He then ended up lying across the foot of our bed and fell asleep, rolled onto the floor with a crash.  Oops.  :-(  His screams then awoke Ziva for a feed so it was all very dramatic.   Got back to sleep at 3:30am.

So on Christmas morning we all awoke in our bed, but all Eli wanted to do was say hello to his baby sister and give her a cuddle, I couldn't convince him for ages to go open presents.  Finally he went to his bedroom and found the duplo train to open, he was so excited!   In fact he really loves all of his presents.    We had a wonderful day with friends, it was relaxed and stress-free.   Here's to many more like it!

Napping napping

Eli has gone down for his nap and Ziva has still not woken up from hers (a couple of hours now) so I have some mama time!  Yay!  I never get Mama time as if Eli does happen to nap, Ziva has her feed / party time.

I'm so proud of Eli's sleeping now, we suggest it is time to sleep and he trots off to his room, lies in his bed with his dummy and bottle, says na-night and we shut the door and go.   Works for naptime or bedtime!   So amazing after a year and a half of rocking and night-time sleep battles.  Of course, now starting to work on number two so our evenings are not reclaimed - her sleep habits so far as the same as his were.   Can't get her into bed before 10pm, and then sleeps in our bed late in the mornings.   It gives Eli and I time to play together in the mornings though which is nice!  

I look forward to the day they are in the same routine.

You know how some kids at school have to put up with living in their older siblings shadow?  Whenever I go to Reggio Emilia with Ziva the staff come up and say things like "Hello little Eli-lookalike!"  or "Ooh it's like baby Eli again!"  It's terrible!  Oh well, later next year she can make her own mark with her fabulous personality.  :-).  He's their little brainiac and the class clown so very memorable.

"Are you eating your corn Eli?"  "Daddy's corn!"  Well at least he's honest about whose plate he's stolen his third corn cob of the night from!

Such a lovely morning.  It's what I call an "Oliver" morning - one where I find myself singing "Who Will Buy" (This Beautiful Morning) over and over as I go about my day.  

Shane and I woke up before either child did, alone in our bed.  I can't remember the last time that happened!  So had a nice lie-in, before Eli got up and played in his bedroom for awhile.  Ziva woke up and I pulled her into bed for a feed.  Eli came in after awhile asking to watch "Bob Train" so Shane got up and put that on for him and came back to bed for some extra sleep.  Ziva went back to sleep too, so I left her and Shane there together and went outside to put some washing on, soon joined by Eli who played in his fort in his pyjamas.  After a nice play we came inside, and I was making toast for breakfast,  Eli opened up the pantry and pulled out a packet of unopened pasta, and started excitedly asking for "Pasta! Pasta!" so I thought why the hell not.  So I got a pot and put water in it, then I let him put pasta into the water.   He seemed to understand that it would take 10 minutes to cook, and happily went to eat his toast while he waited.   In the meantime Ziva woke up again so I went and fed her and then Shane served Eli his pasta.   So he has officially cooked his first meal!  Go boy.

It's a gloriously sunny, way too hot day.  The house is immaculate because we had an open home yesterday.  The kids are being good and we are all well and happy.   So not a thing to do except relax!