Did He Just Say...?

One day while the boys and I were eating lunch:
Me:Who's handsome?
Eli: ME!
Carson: ME!
Me: Who's funny?
Eli: ME!
Carson: ME!
Me: Who's smart?
Eli: ME!
Carson: ELI!

***

Eli has been very introspective since starting Sunbeams. His teacher is really getting through to him in a way that we never have. It's been awesome to see! Today after church we had this conversation:
Me: Okay, Eli have a good nap.
Eli: Mom?
Me: What?
Eli: Are there bad people in this world?

The "in this world" is the part that was hilarious to me. I could tell it was a phrase he picked up today at church.

***

For the rest of the day he kept saying "in this world." Examples:
"Mom, did Jesus put monsters in this world?"
"Why are there so many signs in this world?"

***

One afternoon as we were trying to get out of the house to run errands:
Me: Eli, you have to clean your room before we can go.
Eli: O-KAY.
Me: Eli, have you cleaned your room yet?
Eli: I told Carson.

In the car one afternoon:

Silence.

Eli: MOM! We have to talk!

Me: Oh! Okay. What do you want to talk about?

Eli: Hmmm. We haven't talked about meerkats yet.

(Jeff had just read him a book that had a meerkat in it, and he latched onto meerkats. He could not stop talking about them for a whole week.)

***

We were painting hearts for Jeff for Valentine's day. I always love that Eli is such a boy's boy, so this quote really captured that:
Me: Eli! You're a great painter aren't you?!?
Eli: Mom. I'm a tough painter.

***

We just started a joy school with Eli. One evening at dinner:
Jeff: Eli! What did you do at joy school today?!?
Eli: Ummm. (nonchalantly) I did some crafting.

***

I went with Eli to the first day of joy school. The teacher was singing Old McDonald Had A Farm with the kids...
Teacher: And on that farm he had a ... (points to Eli for him to tell her an animal)
After he wasn't responding, Me: Eli! What animal do you like?
Eli: I just like Barkley. (Jeff's parents' dog)

***

I bought a plastic dresser thing from Wal-Mart one day while Eli was at Preschool. It came with wheels, but I wasn't going to use the wheels, so I put the wheels down on the kitchen counter, and I put the dresser up in Eli's room to store his clothes in.

Eli found the wheels on the counter as soon as he got home, and he made me open them up for him so he could play with them. Then he ran upstairs for his nap while I cleaned up lunch.

Five minutes later, as I was walking upstairs to put Eli down for his nap, Eli came wheeling his new dresser out of his room. He figured out that the wheels went on his new dresser, and he assembled the wheels correctly onto the dresser -- all in under 5 minutes! I was completely amazed!

Jeff and I always say he's got the brain of an engineer. He has a burning desire to figure out how things work. He will stare at things until he figures them out. And when he doesn't understand something, he will ask endless, detailed questions about whatever he doesn't understand until he can come to grips with it.

And he's so awesome at figuring things out. And his attention to detail blows my mind. If one thing is mildly out of place in the house, he will recognize it. Or if I get something new, he picks up on it right away. Or as soon as we took down our Christmas lights, he was so concerned whenever other people had their Christmas lights up because that didn't make sense to him for people to still have their lights up after Christmas. We love seeing his little mind work.

(I walked into my bathroom one morning to find this mess. When Eli wants something, he finds a way to get it!)

We are having so much fun with Eli! He has taken a turn over the last 6 months. I feel like he has figured out a way to harness his energy into constructive things, and he's learning to control himself. Everyone has been telling me three-year olds are harder than two-year olds, but Eli has been a dream the last several months! He has had such good manners, and he is starting to get a good grasp on consequences, and on deciphering between good and bad. Anyway. I just can't say enough good things about my little Eli.

Carson on the other hand is STILL not sleeping through the night after approximately 546 failed attempts to sleep train him. So I will save my words about him for another day.

One last Eli story. Tonight we were at my grandparents' house for our monthly birthday dinner. Eli was playing with the lighter when this happened: 

 Then he proudly announced, "I did it!" As everyone stared in unbelief and laughter ensued. He's too smart, I tell ya!