Popcorn for dinner!

After Eli's nap yesterday it was pretty much dinner time for him. He hasn't been eating much lately so I really hadn't prepped him anything to eat. Eli decided he was hungry and grabbed my finger and took me into the kitchen where he went to the pantry door. I opened the door and Eli pointed to the popcorn maker and said, "Pop" and then made the sign for eat. I asked him if he wanted popcorn for dinner and he said yes (in his Eli way). So I got the popcorn maker out and set Eli on the counter where he proceeded to say, "banana" and signed eat. So while we waited for the popcorn to pop he enjoyed a banana. Eli even helped make the popcorn he poured the kernels in the popper for me. After the popcorn was done we came into the living room to enjoy "dinner" (I didn't think this was a high chair kind of meal). Eli wouldn't even let me eat the popcorn. Ever time I would take some he would take the popcorn out of my hand and put it back in the bowl. When his daddy came home he did the same thing to him to.


He's got his popcorn, his sippy and a good view of the TV, what else could you ask for?


ELi trying to decide which kernel he's going to eat.


Yummy popcorn!


Eli wasn't to happy with me that i was trying to take his picture while he was watching Fresh Beat Band.

Last night Thomas gave Eli his 1t bubble bath. I thought that since Eli loves bubbles so much he would get a kick out of a bubble bath, not so much. Eli was scared of the bubbles! I did manage to get him to over come his fear by showing him how he can play with the bubbles. I still don't think he enjoyed it as much as I had imagined he would, oh well!


A very unhappy Eli standing in a bubble bath. He got happier later.

Daddy's Home!

For the past week Thomas has been in Mexico on a business trip. This trip starts the beginning of Thomas' travel season. At least this trip was only a week long. This morning Eli and I got up and we made it to the gym and then afterward we went across the street to get a smoothie at Jamba Juice and waste some time before we need to head to the airport. By the way never get strawberry wild there neither Eli or I liked it. We should have stuck with what we normally get, it was way to sweet for either of our likings.

We were to pick up Thomas and the arrival area in terminal E and I think for the first time that I have picked Thomas up there it was not busy! So I let Eli run around while we waited for Thomas to get through customs. I even brought a couple of matchbox tractors for Eli to play with while we waited and he had a blast rolling them on the floor and in that big room they would go far. The other people there seemed to get a kick out of watching Eli and his tractors, I think because he was the only entertainment there! We didn't wait long and I saw Thomas coming through the doors and I said to Eli, "I see daddy". Eli looked up at me and said, "Daddy!" then started looking for him. When he spotted Thomas he ran up to him and got in his arms, it was so sweet!

After we got Thomas we stopped for lunch and then headed home to put Eli down for his nap. After nap we were going to go to the YMCA family fun day but since Eli got up so late we decided to stay home and watch a movie together after dinner. But before dinner we all just played as a family. Eli has a new thing that I can get him to repeat words to me (if I have his attention). But there is always one word he changes when I ask him to repeat it, Mommy. I will ask him to say mommy and he will say mama. He will say daddy but refuses to say mommy. We tried to catch the interaction on camera but of course decided to start filming way to late but we did capture some of it.



After our repeating game Eli decided to color. So we all went into the kitchen to color. At some time during coloring Thomas told Eli to go give mommy a kiss in which he promptly did a nice big sloppy wet kiss right on the lips! (but you know I love it!) Then of course I told Eli to go give Daddy a kiss which in turn he went and gave Thomas a nice big sloppy wet kiss right on the lips. After that he just kept walking back and forth between us giving us kisses. I just want to hold that moment in my mind forever. I did manage to get him giving Thomas a kiss on camera.



We have never attempted to watch a movie with Eli before. Since Eli has never been very interested in watching TV we never thought it was worth the effort to try and get him to watch a movie. Lately Eli has been watching almost whole TV shows so we thought we would give it a try. We had gotten Horton Hears a Who through netflix so we put that on. After watching the movie for about 45 minutes I went and made us popcorn and of course Eli had to come "Help". I'm not sure how he knew what popcorn was but when I said I'm going to go make us some popcorn Eli got up and said popcorn and followed me into the kitchen like he knew exactly what I was going to do. I have a popcorn maker where you can watch it the kernels pop so it's kind of fun to watch. After the popcorn was done we all went back to the living room to finish the movie and chow down on the yummy popcorn. Eli loved the popcorn, he would lay on Thomas' stomach and put his hand in the bowl and eat the popcorn. Eli did really well watching the movie he made it a whole hour before getting really restless and I think he only started getting restless is because it was his bed time. Once Thomas got him ready for bed we finished watching the movie and then Eli picked out his bed time story and went to bed. It was a lovely evening and we might have to do movie night again!

Toes, anyone?

Fab Friday

A couple of weeks ago we went over to some friends house and they had an easel for their girls. Eli just loved it. He was so excited to write on the chalk board and would come get us to show it to us. So of course we had to go out and get an easel for Eli. When you go out and buy a toy for your kid that they seemed to have loved at someone elses house, it never fails that they will never play with it at home. That is not the case with this easel, Eli loves it. He has to color on it everyday. Today he had to color on it before going to MOPS, then after lunch and again after nap. During Eli's nap today I got to go run an errand to Walmart and while I was there I found dry erase crayons. Up until this point Eli could only color on the chalk board side because I am just not ready to deal with markers yet for the dry erase side. But these crayons are awesome! Eli was so excited when he saw the colors and what they were for!


Eli is so talented he can color with more then one color at a time!


Eli also learned that if he stands on mommy's legs he can reach more of the board.


Eli took a small break from coloring to have a cookie and some milk. But that didn't last long because he figured out if he sits on the edge of his bench he can eat his cookie and color on the easel at the same time! He's such a smart cookie!


We decided that we would go out for pizza tonight for dinner and we decided on Gramaldi's pizza. We decided to go there because after dinner Eli could go play in the fountains. The host took are stroller so he could "park" it for us so it was out of the way and Eli was not happy that he took his stroller so I let him sit in my lap for a little bit. Eli decided it was a good time to go through mommy's purse.


Eli loves Gramaldi's pizza!


Eli is trying to catch the water in his watering can




Gotta love the tongue!


A nice big drink of water!


Eli spotted a duck


and decided to chase her


Still chasing her


luckily he stopped before chasing her off the wall!


found more ducks


What a sweet boy


My 2 sweet boys!

No mama No!

Last night I was meeting some ladies for a mom's night out at Out Back Steak house. I had to leave before Eli was in bed. We were upstairs playing when the time came for me to leave. So I said to Eli, "mama's going bye bye". He turned to me and came running going, "No mama, no mama no". But before he would actually get to me he would get distracted by a toy and veer off to the toy instead of coming to me to say bye. So I said it again, "Eli mama's going bye bye". And again Eli came running saying, "no mama no mama no" and again he got distracted by a toy and veered off before getting to me (I wasn't that far away either =-) We did this 4 times before I gave up and said I'm going down stairs! It was so cute I wish someone was taping it as it happened.

Blackberry Picking

Today Eli and I met up with our friends Beki and Reagan to go blackberry picking. I didn't even know there was a pick-your-own fruit farm so close to us. This farm is a whole 7 miles from our house.

After strawberry picking with Aunt Katy, Aunt Melissa and Caleb I just knew Eli would love it. I was a little worried since blackberry bushes have thorns and strawberries do not. I couldn't believe how well Eli did with picking the berries! He didn't hurt himself at all, I think I'm the only one that stabbed herself with a thorn. Eli did very well at picking just the black ones after we had a quick lesson on which colors not to pick.


Eli decided that one bucket was not enough to pick the fruit with so he had 3 buckets! Eli also had to carry his own bucket. At times he wanted to carry mine and his. Don't tell Eli he's too little because he will prove you wrong!


Eli and Reagan are becoming professional berry pickers! One row was in the shade, Beki and I tried to keep the boys in the shade but of course they would go to the side that wasn't shaded!


Eli could not wait to try the berries!


Eli tasting his 1st blackberry!


Look at those full buckets!


Reagan was an awesome picker


Those little checks are stuffed with berries


Carrying the bucket to go get weighed


Eli thought we needed to take home a watermelon


Reagan smeared with blackberry juice!

It was very hot even at 10am in the morning. But we had a good time and the boys had a blast. But even with only picking for 30 or so minutes we still came away with a lot of berries. I ended up snacking on them on our short ride home and boy were they yummy!

After Eli and I got home from the farm Eli had a great lunch and then we decided to make cobbler.


Mommy's little helper, He really enjoyed pouring the ingredients into the bowl.


Eli loved "stirring" the batter. He would hardly let mommy stir it.


Eli took a break (sort of) from licking the bowl to put the berries in the cobbler


Eli taking a break from all the morning activities.


After Eli's nap and dinner Eli got to taste the fruits of our labor! He seemed to like the cobbler. I think that it is so awesome that Eli and I got to pick blackberries, then make cobbler together and then we got to eat it! I'm so blessed to have Eli in my life, he is such a wonderful little guy and I love experiencing things for the first time again through Eli's eyes.

Gardening with Eli

Today after Eli had dinner I decided to take Eli out front to play while we waited for Thomas to get home from work. I have been wanting to work on my flower beds for a while now and Thomas and I bought some mulch and flowers this weekend so I needed to get on it.

Eli played with his cars at first but then decided that what mommy was doing was much more interesting. Eli helped me pull weeds, get ride of the old mulch, till the soil, spread the fresh mulch and then help clean up the weeds and old mulch. It was so cute to watch him try a mimic everything I would do. He would just have his own Eli twist to it. I sure do wish I had someone there to take a picture of Eli and I working side by side on the flower bed.

After the flowers were planted and everything cleaned up it was time to water the new plants. Eli just loved this. Of course I would spray Eli down with the hose and he would go running all over the drive way. Soon Eli got a hold of the hose and tried to pray mommy down. Eli is also getting the hang of drinking out of the hose. It's so cute to watch and see his little tong going in and out trying to lap up the water. I don't think a camera could capture the cuteness that was happening tonight.

I just love my little boy so much. Every day my love for him grows deeper and deeper. I can't believe that God allows Thomas and I to raise such an amazing child. What amazes me more is the amount of love I have for Eli and the fact that God loves me even more then that. I look forward to what else God has in store for the Mullinnix family