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Elliott’s budding language skills are too cute – well, at least to Jordan and me.  Here are a couple of the most recent ones I want to remember…

Last Saturday, the absolute first thing he said in the morning:
Elliott: Chase is on the Case!!! (insert dog panting here – My mom had just given him a little Chase figurine from Paw Patrol the night before and he slept with it)

Before bed, after meeting Belle at Disney World….
Elliott: I really miss she.
Me: Oh, Belle?  Why do you miss her?
Elliott: She really nice.  I wish she didn’t need to go eat lunch with the Beast (which is what I told him at the end of the “ride” to his earlier question of ‘Where she going?’)

<REPEAT ‘I MISS HER’ CONVO 2 NIGHTS LATER, AFTER MEETING ELSA AND ANNA.>

I really miss she

When painting….
Elliott: I really good at painting….. ALL ABOARD.  ALL ABOARD.  ALL ABOARD!!!

This Morning….
Me: Elliott, can I have a really big hug?
Elliott: No, my tummy is really tired of hugging.

When Natalie was trying to just play with me at the beach, saying she wanted mommy time:
Elliott: But I a kid too! (x5)

After hosing the sand off Elliott after a beach trip….
Me: Elliott, how did you get so much sand in your ear?
Elliott (while gesturing appropriately): With my finger!
(There you go, I suppose!)

In the middle of the night when sharing a room with Natalie and an “emergency” arises (aka his pillow slides off his toddler bed/cot)…
Elliott: nat…. Nat…. NAT…. NAT-LEE…. NATLEE!!!!!

When anything doesn’t go his way….
Elliott: I not happy the whole day…. Mama, make me happy.

(This was my earlier response to that comment, which I don’t find cute in the least – it hasn’t seemed to work  yet.)
Me: Elliott, happiness comes from within.
Elliott: Huh? What that mean?
Me: That I cannot make you happy.  You need to make yourself happy.  Like play with Paw Patrol.  Or play trains.
Elliott: Mommy, make me happy

I not happy

Other than the last “I not happy,” I can totally see why parents go for a third…. he is so cute and I cannot believe he’s not really a baby any more.  I’m doing my best to “love every age” (which I think I wrote many times early on in this blog), but its getting harder not to miss the earlier ones too, the older that they get.

God bless 2 weeks breaks around the holidays! 🙂

UPDATED ON 1/2/16 (DATE NIGHT AT STARBUCKS)…

The kids love Paw Patrol, which is a show where 6 pups (Rubble, Rocky, Chase, Skye, Marshall and Zuma) go on rescues.  When they get to pick a TV show, they usually pick that one.  We also have a few books – one book finished with saying “puptacular”.  The kids thought this was uproariously clever. Elliott paid me the biggest compliment a few weeks ago – he said I was a “puptacular” mom. 🙂  Oh yeah!

When Jordan and the kids were playing “Elsa” downstairs and I came down to relieve him…
Elliott: “(Just to) let you know…. princesses don’t toot….. they just have fun.”

Natalie turned 5 on Dec 19th!  Grandma and Grandpa came into town for her birthday (that marks six y ears in a row now!)

Call in the reinforcements – Grandma, can you finish Elliott’s train? Blue please. I’m pretty busy with this coral cupcake.

We celebrated with some friends from preschool at a pottery place – with cupcake decorating of course!  I’m uploading these pics from my phone so they are totally out of order.

Below is Natalie’s bestie Nuala – I anticipate a lot of FaceTime calls in the coming months.  They share a mutual love for Elsa, being creative, little dolls, being silly and arguing over their common interests.

Besties!!!

Before the party, Natalie and I had a relaxing time getting pedicures.  Well, pedicures and hot chocolate.  Well, actually, pedicures, hot chocolate and manicures.

A foot soak with my Mom – so relaxing! We gotta get ready for our trip to FL!

Below are Natalie and her friend Vivi from preschool, along with her adorable older sister Izzy.  

Above is Alison helping Elliott frosting a cupcake – with Natalie and Vivi faring very well on their own.

Um, do we really need to interrupt this cupcake eating for a pic?!?

Take 5. AH! SUGAR HIGH!

We are so blessed to have so many great friends in Chicago – we’ll miss you all!

Friends for nearly 5 years – we’ll miss you Taylor!

Cousins!!!!

While in GB for the weekend, we went to Kids Town. Nat loved it and drew a pic so we would remember it. The things across the top are the princess dresses that were hanging from fancy hooks. The purple thing in the lower middle was a princess makeup stand. The stuff on the side is where we all did foot soaks, got our hair cut (so ticklish!), and did our nails. So relaxing!

From May 2014 ( just never published).

Okay, maybe not, but boy, 14.5 months old is super smart!  He is just learning and picking up things everyday.  It’s amazing how much he can communicate, even with a vocab of 3-4 words (Mama, Dada, Naht and glasses – the last one, my mom swears he said twice while wearing Natalie’s heart-shaped sunglasses).

For instance, he loves his helmet, so he often goes over and points to wear it hangs.  On Saturday morning, it wasn’t hanging there – we had left it downstairs under our stroller port with his red car.  I explained where it was and then he went back over to his play area.  He grabbed his ND baseball cap and brought it over to me.  I was excited that he was willing to accept that as a substitute – but, no, I was wrong.  He insisted on going downstairs to get the helmet – which often then means he gets a ride in his red car (which is what I think he really wanted).  Just he and I went out – 30 minutes, to the park too.  Smart little dude.

Elliott wakes up hungry every morning – and just milk won’t do it.  While I’m getting Natalie’s milk ready or making breakfast, I often give him a few O’s in a bowl.  He has been loving them.  Until this morning.  He went back over to the closet, pointed up until I noticed the Mini Wheats (which his sis and Dad eat often).  Guess who got a few mini wheats in  his bowl this morning too!?!

From May 2015. After watching Cinderella, Natalie has been really worried about parents dying.  The other night, she told me, “If you die before me, I will walk you all the way to heaven and stay with you there, even if I have kids.”

The next night, she was crying for more than 15 minutes about a lost lovey (the 3rd mousey lovey – which we’ve since replaced with other pink loveys) and we talked about how the mousey might be in heaven.  She asked, “How would it have gotten there?  Mousey doesn’t have legs!!!  That’s silly”

A few weeks back, Natalie came up with the idea of turning a project from school into a fan to mail to Grandma.  She was very diligent about the precise folding of the fan, as well as the stapling with our near-antique stapler from the 1970’s (obviously a hand me down from someone).  She then proceeded to spend nearly a half hour carefully and precisely writing Grandma’s address and her address.  Since her handwriting gets bigger over time, I suggested she use a different color for the return address (as to not confuse the postman).  She gave me a hard time about not putting the top and bottom on the I (instead it looked like an l from the post-it she was copying from) in Chicago, but with all the explanation, you will cutely see that she just totally forgot the whole thing herself.  I’m so proud of my little writer!

(inspired by the Bunny Cakes book)

Elliott is such an imitator.  He obviously has a great model in Natalie.  When I read him his favorite book (The little engine that could), by the end, he’s echoing every word I say…. I think I can, I think I can… up, up, up…. chug, chug…. puff puff.

Yesterday morning, he asked for his “O cup”.  I grabbed the blue one – his favorite color.  And the green top that goes with it.

Elliott: “No Mama.  Blue top.”
Mama: “Okay but the green one usually goes with it.”  (I go get the blue one and start to put it on.)
Elliott: “There you go now”

Um, okay?!?  Thanks mini-Mom!

Hanging up at school…..