Winter Art Projects

I pulled out some art supplies the other day and Silas and I did a few winter-themed art projects.  First he colored a winter scene (his was a snowman) with crayons on dark-colored construction paper.  Then I mixed some salt and hot water, which he used to paint over the snowman.  

While we were waiting for it to dry, we made some snowflakes and painted them onto some paper.

This is his winter scene snowman.  Once the salt water dried, it left the snowman looking like he was in the middle of a blizzard.  

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

This morning I was putting on my make-up and noticed Silas watching.  When I had finished I asked him if I looked pretty.  He looked at me and said, "Uhhhh....well, if you had those earrings on you would be."  So I went into my room and put on some little stud earrings.  I came back and asked him again if I looked pretty.  "Well, yeah...but what about those long earrings?" 

Ever the diplomat, he doesn't want to hurt your feelings. 

Christian told me a story about how they were in the truck together and a Bryan Adams song came on the radio.  Christian sang out loud to "Everything I do, I do it for you."  And if you know Christian, I'm sure he put everything he had into making it as cheesy as possible.  Afterwards he asked Silas if he liked the song.  "Yeah, I did."  Then Christian asked if he liked Daddy singing it.  "Well...I liked the song."

Playing In The Snow

This is the kind of snow I like to play in.  It's about 50F outside, the sun is shining, but it snowed so much this past week that we've still got plenty of snow and it's firm enough to stick together. 

Silas and I snuck out while Eli was napping and went sledding.  Neither of us had ever been sledding before.  It took us a while to find a good hill, but once we did we enjoyed it.  We only did it a handful of times though.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a huge bruise on my backside from slipping on my way into the sled.

After that I made Silas build a snowman.  Yes, I had to make him do it.  And in the end, I built the snowman while he hunted down the stuff to put on the snowman.   

Not bad though, right? 

Geography Lessons

Silas has a big map of the world on his wall and we often point countries out to him and tell him about it, like Brazil.  Tonight he wanted to know the names of all the purple countries.  Because of the 8000 feet of snow we got today, Christian was home and able to put him to bed.  Daddy + Silas = silliness.  Christian told Silas there was a country named Turkey, and Silas thought that fact was hilarious.  Then he told him that it was near Hungary, and a case of the giggles really ensued.  Christian told him about a man from Hungary who was hungry, so he went to Turkey and ate a turkey.  Then he wanted to see some green grass, so he went to Greenland.  He got hot, so he went to Iceland.  He was too chilly there, though, so he went to Chile.  Silas thought this was great, and we continued to think up names of places for him.  Wales was a good one.  So was Cornwall.  He liked Rhode Island and Jamestown, as well.  It's fun to see the world through a 4-year-old's eyes.

Winter Weather

I'm tired of the snow and cold weather.  February is usually the last of the really rough cold weather, but is also the coldest and hardest month to get through.

Eli At 8 Months

Eli turned 8 months old with an ear infection!  I'll write another post about braving a trip to Fayetteville in the snow to get to the doctor's office, but wanted to write down a few things about how Eli is doing as an 8-month-old.

The problem with trying to say how he's progressing with things, what kind of demeanor he has, etc., is that he's been ill for so long that I don't know what is his demeanor and what is just not feeling well.  I think that the ear infection he has now is the same one he had in the middle of December and the antibiotic didn't resolve it completely.  He's been pulling at his hair around his ear for awhile, but since he didn't have a fever I thought it was just him exploring the feel of his hair.  He's been cranky, but Eli has never NOT been cranky.  My sister brought her twins over last weekend and I was shocked at how happy they were.  Eli is not, in general, a happy baby.  He has moments of happiness, but he cries a lot more than smiles.  Again though, he's been sick for so long I don't know if that's really his demeanor. 

I am hoping and praying that this next round of antibiotics truly knocks the infection out and his immune system can finally recover from all of this.  While at the doctor Eli got weighed.  He was at 14 lb. 14 oz., which is only 2 ounces more than at 6 months.  This has to be because of the illnesses, between the vomiting and not feeling well enough to eat.  He's such a tiny baby, and such a snuggler!  It's so nice to hold him tight and soothe his cries.  He likes to be held with his head on my shoulder and will snuggle into my neck, clinging to me as tightly as possible. 

He does seem to be sleeping better now.  He takes 2 one-hour naps during the day and sleeps about 12 to 14 hours at night, waking up once or twice to eat.  I think once he's feeling better it will be easy to get him sleeping through the night.  Two ladies at church told me he was going to be a 'hip baby,' meaning that he'll be on my hip until he's 4 years old.  I don't know about that, but he definitely doesn't like to be left alone or put down.  Again, once he's feeling better I'm going to have to try teaching him to contentedly play by himself.  

Christian's sister told me a story about how she was sitting in her daughter's room with Eli on her lap contentedly.  She put him on the floor to play next to her and he started crying.  Then she put him on her lap and he stopped.  She experimented and opened her lap up so that his bottom was actually on the floor, but still surrounded by her.  He immediately started crying again.

He's also learning to use his extremities with a little more control.  Good for him to learn, but its context is usually while we're trying to feed him.  If he's not in the mood for food, he bats our hand away.  On the upside, he has started eating a few vegetables now.  Mainly squash, but it's an improvement.  He still loves cereal, but doesn't mind it mixed with other things now.  He loves finger foods and already knows the difference between baby finger foods and our finger foods.  He loves getting to eat bits of our food.  And don't try to drink a cup of tea around him.  He'll have it pulled towards him in no time and will gulp it down, leaving you with nothing left in your cup but bits of baby food.

Silas still makes him laugh, even when it's mixed with crying.  I had him sitting in the chair today and before I knew it, he had pushed himself up on his feet, standing against the back of the chair looking at what Silas was doing.  No crawling yet, but he does often push up on all fours. 

He is such a momma's boy right now, and I would take Eli and all the crying and lack of sleep in the world over most problems other people have in their lives.  I would rather want to pull my hair out in the middle of the night because he's crying again than pull my hair out because of any number of other issues that I could be having.  It's a blessing and a joy to be the one that solves all his problems and make everything right for him.  One day he'll be grown and I won't be able to solve all his problems for him.  I'll have to sit back and watch him struggle and know that I can't make it all go away.  That, I think, will be much harder than the sleepless nights and constant cries that I'm going through right now.  So I'm going to choose to be thankful for the hard task of raising my little baby boy.  I'm going to choose to have a cheerful heart about my baby bear and all his growlings.

So excuse me while I go feed my crying baby.

Learning to Read