Eli

This cute kid has been making me laugh lately.  And he's growing up.

Instead of asking "why" to something I say, he comes up with his own questions, which he hasn't really done much until now.  His questions aren't very clear, but I know exactly what he means.  A 12 year old student of Brian's was leaving our house to walk 3 blocks home when Eli said "How can she do that?"  I knew this meant, how can she walk home without her mom?

And some of my rants are sinking in.  Every meal the kids are picky about which fork, color of plate or cup they get. The other day Esme made her request and Eli told her "Esme, don't be picky, be grateful for what you have."  I was so proud I almost cried.

Oh, and we discovered his first permanent tooth. He's delighted about it and happy to pose for pictures or show people or look in the mirror.

Hopefully the next wiggly tooth will be exciting instead of traumatizing.

And yesterday I looked up on the living room book case for the first time in a while to find he built quite a nice house for Mousie and Harry.  The scene melted me.

We made the furniture out of egg cartons for Mousie's Christmas present and he moved everything from a box to the bookshelf.  A cabbage getting washed in the sink. A pet frog in a cage on a rug. Food storage in the brown box and pine cones. In the very back is toy "violin" (guitar) and laptop on top of the dresser(matchbox advent calendar).  My favorite is the flowers on the table in a thimble. He loves when I cut flowers outside to bring in and moves them from the coffee table to the dining table.

And my other discovery on the shelf...

Mousie is also a hoarder.

He just hopped on my lap to say what hard work it was for Mousie to move. But that he had to because their old house was full of spider webs and the wood was broken. But they found a new house for "15 bucks."  And it's messy because Harry's always buying "junk."  Sometimes I tell him about hoarders when he wants to buy something he already has or I find to be lame.