eli

eli....i am completely enamored by this little boy. the stories he regales us with and the games he wants us to play keep us in hysterics constantly. His favorite games are:

-playing zoo and pretending he is a gorilla, cheetah, or pinchanzee as he calls it. he will set up a cage on the stairs putting our gate against the stairs. he makes us look at the other 'animals' first, then we can look at him. we pet him through the gate and he kisses us. he makes animal noises and everything.

-he has a fascination with paying for things, specifically using credit cards. he sets up his cash register, his credit card swiping machine and his little yellow chair. he sits on the chair and says "oh hi! what can i do for you today?" and i ask "what are you?" and he says one of the following: mommy's coffee place, make up donalds, chick fil a, bounce u, and basically anywhere we were in the last week.

-we put all of the cushions and all of our pillows from our beds on the ground in the family room and jump around to music. while this sounds fun, it is more fun for eli if he is just wearing his underwear. the little streaker jumps around in his little diego adorned underwear and has a ball!

-whatever sport we are watching, he automatically goes into his toy closet and gets the corresponding ball that matches the sport on television and he plays it. he plays it just as they are on tv, or attempts to anyway. he is notorious for putting in his football helmet and throwing his football up in the air and catching it again while running and screaming 'touchdown desean jackson!!!!' he will continue screaming this until we acknowledge the said touchdown. he is also michael vick sometimes too. then he will start to name teams, real and made up, and ask who we want to win: eagles vs cowboys, pickles vs. cucumbers, and the list goes on.

-he will pretend he is other people all of the time: dora, tinkerbell, ariel, lilo, tessa (my sister's dog), nathan (his cousin), marina, mariana, elaina (his friend), george (my other sister's dog). if i say his name and ask him to do something, he says 'mommy, you mean tinkerbell'.

-my favorite thing we do together is when i lay down with him bedtime. after our book reading, i turn off the light and turn on his light up aquarium. i lay down and get under the covers and he does the same. he curls up next to me and we pray together. then, we kiss goodnight and he snuggles closer to me. he looks into my eyes, takes my face into his hands and he kisses my nose over and over. he tells me he loves me over and over. he kisses my forehead too. he puts his arms around my neck and squeezes. then he plays with my nose for a few minutes and he is asleep. i am not even exaggerating. this is what he does with me every time i put him to sleep. this kid oozes love and affection and while i think some if it in innate, i also think some of it is the way we parent him. he is a very loving child and my heart bursts with love for him!

this is my life with my 3 year old boy. there are not enough bottles in the world to bottle up the amount of love i have for this kid. hopefully he can look back at this post and see how much i love him and of course embarrass him a little too. :)