The funny things a one year old does.

1. I turned around yesterday a noticed Shia standing in the playroom with Potato Head glasses on his nose. Then, later, he added a tamborine as a necklace.

2. Today he was standing on a laundry basket while Dov was asleep on the couch. He was screaming at the top of his lungs so I said ssh ssh Dov is sleeping. He spent the next five minutes alternating screaming with ssh ssh.

3. This morning he had a little play cup and was standing by the sink pointing up. He wanted water in his cup. I gave him a splash and he spilt it on the floor. Then he looked down and pointed at the spot and asked for a paper towel.

He just gets funnier every day!

Dov

I figured I needed a post about Dov. Dov is not to be ignored. He spends alot of time trying to out babble/talk the rest of the family. I have heard that 2nd and 3rd children grow up much faster than the first one does. It is making me kind of sad. I feel like I have an almost 4 year old who wants to be an elementary school kid, a 1 year old who thinks he is three, and a 4 month old who thinks he is 5 or 6 months old. This past two weeks he has begun to roll around, grab pretty much anything on the floor and talk to his toys. Shia and Eliott were both 5 months old when they began to roll. Dov has even started to try sitting up and keeps trying to get out of his carseat... he also tried to eat a raisin on Thursday. Slow down!

Frustration with American Airlines

Ok, so the ongoing saga with AA continues. To get everyone up to date, we flew from Dallas to DC for the 4th of July. We had to check the double stroller at baggage because it doesn't fold down the right way to really be gate checked. No one mentioned that it was 1. oversized baggage or 2. that AA does not cover strollers or oversized for damage. (Apparently this is on their website, but like many of you, I don't walk around with a computer checking these things out).

The stroller made it to DC fine. When we flew back, not only was our stroller totally trashed, but our infant carrier was missing. To solve the problem with the infant carrier, AA gave us a piece of crap Evenflo convertible carseat for Dov. He was miserable the whole 3 hour ride home.

Alan called them about the stroller. They have denied our baggage claim. What pisses me off the most is that if they have NO policy to handle oversized baggage/strollers, what keeps the baggage handlers from just throwing luggage around. The answer is NOTHING. Nothing does. I can't believe that they are not going to work with Alan as a Gold Status AA flier. Not even a little bit of $ to help replace our property which was so blatantly mistreated.

Alan is going to try to call a different customer service line tomorrow. The saga will continue...

Imaginary Friend - not so imaginary

Today it happened again. Alan was saying good bye in the morning before leaving for work and Doggie (not Eliott), said have a great day at work. Doggie has become quite a personality in our house. I am wondering what imaginary friends mean and why Eliott seems so attached to his. Has it gotten "worse" since the little boys were born? Should we be worried? The latest escapades of Eliott and Doggie have prompted me to order a book on imaginary friends, but I am wondering if it is different when the imaginary friend is actually a personified doll. Doggie is not like other traditional loveys of other kids we know. Here is where I think Doggie and Eliott's relationship differs from traditional relationships between kids and their loveys...
1. Doggie has his own voice - meaning, Eliott actually changes his voice to a particular voice in order to talk as Doggie.
2. Doggie and Eliott do not always agree. They have "argued" in the grocery store about the type of fruit snacks to choose.
3. Doggie does things wrong and goes on time out. Sometimes we put him on timeout. Sometimes Eliott himself puts Doggie on timeout.
4. Doggie and Eliott lead a paralell life. Elie goes to school, Doggie goes to school. Elie goes to swim class, Doggie goes to swim class... etc.
5. Eliott does not need Doggie to fall asleep.
6. When we play board games, Elie wants Doggie to participate. He often gives him a board piece and will put it in Doggie's hands and move it for him.
7. Doggie has a family. They travel on trips. They have birthdays.

Any advice on imaginary friends? I think this is an issue that is going to follow us for a while.
Let's hope the other boys don't get as attached to Spidey and Burton.

Eliott - 3 and 3/4 going on 15!

Eliott is continuing to keep us on our toes. Here are some examples from the past week.

1. I asked Eliott to help me push Shia's stroller for a second. He turned to me and said "I am just too lazy to help you out Mom"

2. I took him to get his haircut the other day. The hair cutter asked Eliott how old he was. I said he is three and a half. He turned to me and said "Mom... no I am not, I am three and 3/4".

And if the comments are not enough...check out this picture of him from our trip to DC... this epitomizes his HUGE personality.

Shia's Words (new as of 8/14)

So Shia is cracking us up these days.





Today he ran around the house with his hands in the air saying Hooray! It is interesting what words he has picked up them and how they are all over the place. Eliott's first words were things like ball and dog and daddy. Shia has a completely different list of words at 15 months.

Words

1. Hooray
2. Milk
3. Mommy
4. ssss (sound a snake makes)
5. Eliott
6. Baby
7. shoes
8. fish
9. Nammie (name for my mom)
10. Batman
11. Breakfast
12. cheese
13. quack
14. mine
15. spiderman
16. binky
17. swimsuit
18. car
19. cookies
20. milk
21. daddy
22. eyes
23. hair

Signs

1. Oh-no (I made this one up)
2. More
3. All done
4. eat