Parmesan Tilapia

Last night I made fish for dinner. I’m not a huge fish fan, but I’ve found this one recipe for parmesan tilapia that I can enjoy…as long as I have some mashed potatoes with each bite. When I put Elliot in his chair for dinner, he pointed at the tilapia filets and said “cheese.” Yes, the topping on the tilapia resembles a thin layer of cheese – which is partially what it is. I said, yes there’s cheese on it, and it is FISH. His immediate response was “goldfish.” I said, “No, its not goldfish, it’s real fish.” We fed him a bite and he wanted more. We knew because he kept asking for “goldfish.” And he was referring to the fish on my plate. I was honestly amazed at how well he ate it.

thoughts I’m chasing

how do I prepare for an offeratory that brings honor to the lord and that doesn’t feel like a performance? if i prepare a slideshow will that be over the top? and how do i choose an offeratory if i don’t know the topic of the worship service? do i believe that god is bigger than all these thoughts i’m chasing?

“just Elliot” – tonight after his bath Elliot came to me in his bear towel. he doesn’t growl at me. he doesn’t even try to be scary. he actually just smiles at me waiting for a reaction. so i act like i’m scared (a bit delayed becuase my mind was wrapped up in dealing with the wrong kind of tapioca that i had bought). and then he say’s “just Elliot.” oh to get times like that on video. mental picture – “click.” – more like mental video “white noise”…that tells you my home video era…

will the library have the Angela Thomas book i want to read? anybody read her book “Do You Know Who I Am?” Anybody have it? I’ll have to check the library…doubtful…

another thing to check at the library…”the alphabet factory” by LeapFrog. I bet they would have that. But I DID find copies of the cards online to print out. My newest thing when I want to find something that may already be done is to add the word “printable” to my google search. Yay for “printables.”

Okay, and since I know that some of you really would love see a pic of this cute little guy even more than have the pleasure of chasing thoughts with me, here you go.  (: just kidding I know you love me.) Jeremy is always going in to see Elliot after he’s asleep, but I opt out becuase I figure that I’m the one who will probably have to deal with him if he is awakened.  (first I wrote “awoke” and in the process of adding the “ed” I was reminded that Elliot said yesterday ”Mommy wake upped” and today said “Mommy sleep upped”) But yesterday during nap time I couldn’t resist going in. And taking a picture with a camera that makes a shutter noise no less!

thomas and cousins

elliot’s cousins in ky made him a video before we went to visit them this week and he wanted to watch it again and again. in the video his cousin malin mentioned that they had lots and lots of thomas trains and tracks. when he heard that, he made an open-mouthed surprised/excited expression and looked at me. for the 3 days we were there he enjoyed playing with thomas – specifically the engine “lady” who is battery operated. and his sweet cousins played with him which makes everything more fun. (*note* – in this post, pic descriptions are above pics).

on sunday we got to play in the creek (a small tributary, not the big creek). he loved throwing the rocks in. and malin kept getting the rocks back out of the creek for him to throw in again.

Cousins enjoying chocolate desserts….and the face that results from yummy “oopie pie”….okay, not all of that is whoopie pie, some of it is mud splatters from playing in the sandbox (with water)

 

 

when i got home, this pic was set as the desktop background on our computer. i was very surprised that elliot’s 22 month run as our background was broken.  but it made me smile! we had a fun time at our pastor’s riding horses with the youth. horses are amazing animals! and it was fun to see the kids having fun (whether their horse decided to take them for a ride or take a break!)

Yes Sir!

Elliot impresses us with his memory by singing along.

like a child

Elliot got a good night’s rest last night so he woke up happy. I heard him via the monitor saying “daddy. daddy.” then “mommy. mommy.” Then “Joyful. Wow! Joyful. Wow!” over and over. I went to go get him while he was still repeating “Joyful. Wow!” and I asked him, “Are you “joyful wow” this morning? Then he pointed at me and said “Kind.”

We have a book from Cheryl and Connie and Nana that has pictures of babies (under flaps) expressing emotions, A-Z. It goes like this, “A is for Angry when I’m having a bad day, B is for Bashful when I’m too shy to play…..J is for Joyful when I jump up and shout “Wow!” K is for Kind when I’m nice to my friends…”

Before I began praying for breakfast he had his hands folded and his head bowed and he said, “God. ” pause. “Mercy.”

I like that prayer. So we prayed, “God have mercy on Grandpa this morning and make the surgery to go well and help him to get better.”

My son has been an encouragement to me this morning!

can you follow?

I’ve heard other moms talk about this, but what FUN it is to be the one who understands. There’s a whole set of vocabulary that Elliot uses constantly that may or may not be intelligible to those who don’t hear it develop. He’s actually really good at saying many words intelligibly and it’s cool to hear him practice words over and over to hear how they sound and trying to make it sound more like what he heard. So here’s his flow of words earlier today…

sink!!  he loves to play in the sink.

hep you   I’m often asking him “do you want me to help you?”  In this situation he was asking me to help him by pulling a chair up to the sink.

cup CUP CUP!    he had scrunched his plastic cup that he plays with in the water and he wanted it bent back into shape (it pops right back out)

uh-oh! UH-OH! getting louder until I pay attention

soaps soaps soaps  the hand soap bottle and the dish soap bottle had fallen into the sink (we’re pretty sure he knows to add “s” to make things plural)

fell as I’m picking them up he’s continuing to let me know what happened

down       boom        crash

 

This morning he woke up crying an hour and a half before normal so I went in to change his diaper and cuddle with him for a bit in hopes he would go back to sleep (or at least continue resting peacefully) so I could get my workout finished. As I was rocking him he was relaxed but jabbering. Pretty soon I hear “Mawy. Joseph. Mawy. Joseph. Sink. Joe. Sink. Joe.”  I was about to bust out laughing so I put him back in his crib and he rested for a bit longer.

The Mary and Joseph story was not read before bed last night so I’m not sure why they were in his dreams. The “Sink. Joe.” comes from one of our junior hi boys named Joe. My mom taught Elliot to say “sink it” while Joe was playing basketball at church. So now, whenever Elliot sees Joe at church he says “Sink. Joe. Sink it. Joe.”  And this morning in his half asleep mode Joseph and Joe must have run together.

Some “recent” fun

ooooh - the coochina (Christmas tree) is pretty in the dark!

I hold this book responsible for his newfound desire to drive

wace! help! (please come race cars with me. the exclamation marks denote demand)

playing upstairs at 1413 with Daddy

my two cute boys

saying "cheese"

Vocab explosion

We made it safely home from a fabulous time with Jeremy’s family in Nebraska. It seems like Elliot’s vocabulary exploded this week. On the way home I started music for him on the ipod. Then I set it down where he could still see it and he pointed to it and said “pod.” Yesterday at church with his cousins once removed he ran around the gym as they were playing line tag. When he would accidentally bump into someone he would say “shahwee” (sorry). He remembered and repeated many names of his own accord (and many more with promptings). He was holding a small bottle that was mostly empty and suddenly said “empy.” He got a race car ramp for Christmas and when he was playing with it he said “wace! wace!”

Tonight in the tub he was playing with his squirter toys. He picked up the walrus, said “wawus,” then set it down on the edge of the tub right next to the penguin. They barely bumped and he said, “shahwee. kiss. mwa.” Apparently the penguin forgave the walrus becuase they kissed and made up.

Jesadah

Elliot, can you say “Jesus?”

“Jesadah” with a nod and then he says it again, again with a nod. Like he has to convince me.

Before nap we sat down to read the Jesadah nativity story and before I even got the book open, Elliot was nodding and saying “cahmul, cahmul.”

This is a new one to me! Guess your daddy must have taught you that! But before I could say anything, his “cahmul” was followed by “p-tuh, p-tuh, p-tuh, p-tuh.”

Are you serious? He’s spitting like a camel? Who taught him this? Texted Jeremy and sure enough, he taught our son to spit. In the Jesadah story.

Dancing Machine