E is Three!

I'm having a hard time believing Eli has been a part of our family for three years already! I have a three-year old?!?

Eli is really excited about his birthday. He went with me when I got party hats for Carson's birthday, so he is demanding party hats for his birthday celebrations. He is also really excited about his cake.

Here are some cute things about our almost birthday boy: First, when you ask him a question he's not quite sure about, he scratches his head like so:

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I love it when he does that. Makes me laugh every time.

For the last 3-4 weeks, he has thrown a big fit when it's time to go to nursery on Sundays. I'm talking screaming, leg clutching, arms flailing, tears streaming, rosy-faced crying. Jeff's been spending the sunday school hour in nursery helping Eli warm up to the idea of playing with hundreds of toys and all his friends.

After one particularly rough nursery experience, he came home and crashed. It's tough to be a toddler.

Here he is after an encounter with my blow-dryer.

We're loving the warm weather with lots of play time in the backyard.

Eli figured out night-time potty training seamlessly. He can now go to the bathroom all by himself. I don't know if I'll ever get used to hearing him flush the toilet after a successful independent potty moment.

Eli is such a daddy's boy. If Jeff is home, Eli will not even talk to me.

The other day it rained and Eli escaped out the front door. He went straight for this gutter. His favorite spot in the neighborhood.

Eli is still uninterested in the alphabet, colors and numbers. His version of the alphabet is "A-B-C-D-Elmo-G."

We went over to my sister's house this week. Eli found something that sparked his interest. Luckily he never was able to figure out how it works.

I love Carson's arm around Eli in this one.

I was surprised Eli couldn't figure out the car after this incident happened earlier in the week:

Eli kept escaping out our front door, so we put a high lock on the door. After about a week of watching in frustration as we slid the lock closed every time he was about to break free, he made his move. I was upstairs cooking breakfast and I saw Eli fidgeting with the deadbolt. I grabbed the eggs from the fridge with a smile, grateful to finally have a lock on the door that was out of his reach.

Eli successfully unlocked the deadbolt and the door knob before looking up to be reminded of the extra restraining device we installed. After a second of staring at it, I thought I heard him say, "Oh. My have an idea." But then he ran out into the garage (one of his favorite hang-outs these days), so I continued with my cooking.

A few seconds later, he emerged with my mop. What the heck is he doing?!? I asked myself. My questioning was quickly answered as Eli began swatting at the lock with the handle of the mop.

I laughed at his cleverness. Then muttered no repeatedly as his efforts began working. Then shrieked in horror when the top lock was slid open within one minute of his first attempt.

It's hard to raise a genius.

Eli is so independent, strong-willed, curious, clever, handsome, fun, hilarious, coordinated, energetic, loving and determined. I love seeing all the things he comes up with and he teaches me patience on a daily basis. Happy almost Birthday Eli. We're glad you're ours.