Sassy Eli

A few weeks ago I was pondering what Eli’s first curse word would be. I of course assumed that he would pick it up from me or Dad-oo and even went on to list some words that have been known to float through our house. But, as it turns out, I was wrong. Eli picked up his first curse word from his grandparents. Yes, you read that right. Dad-oo’s parents introduced Eli to his first naughty word. And of course, we all laughed after he said it.

Now, in their defense, they didn’t intentionally teach him this word. We were causally eating dinner at our house, homemade pizza (yum), drinking wine or beer. Eli was hobbling around on his cast, trying to grab food off our plates. Being the helpful Grandpa that he is, he introduced Eli to the word fork, as Eli grabbed for it off his plate. Then Grandma chimed in and repeated the word several times, to make sure that he understood it. And then Eli repeated it. Over and over and over. While my eyes continued to get bigger and bigger, because he wasn’t able to pronounce the full word. Oh no. He was leaving out the “r”. Yes, that’s right, Eli was saying the “f” word (this is a PG blog, you’re going to have to use your imagination to figure this one out). And they didn’t even realize that it had happened.

Finally Dad-oo stepped in. Eli kept repeating his new favorite word and the Grandparents were delighted that they were the ones to teach it to him, but they didn’t realize what it sounded like. Dad-oo kindly pointed it, there was a slight pause before Eli said it again, and then, of course, the Grandparents burst out laughing. Oh God. Can we please go back in time and stop this from even happening? No? OK, damage control then. Let’s teach Eli knife instead. Yes, much better. Sigh.

Thankfully he hasn’t repeated the word since then, even when it was mentioned the next day (I’ll give you two guesses who said it). I think for now, we’ve moved past it. Until I’m walking through the mall, and Eli decides to shout his new word at the top of his lungs. Much like he did with the word clock at Wal-Mart. I’ll give you one hint as to what that word sounds like. Eli doesn’t pronounce L’s very well.

The joys of having a toddler who picks up on every word he hears.

While Dad-oo and I were gallivanting around Seattle, having the time of our lives, Eli had a little vaca of his own. He had the pleasure of spending 5 whole days with Grandma and Grandpa. I was a little worried about how he would do, he’s been pretty momma-dependent the last couple of weeks. But Eli tends to just go with the flow, and he adapted right into his new surroundings, snuggled in with Grandma for the long haul and made himself right at home. The pugs joined him too and I think that helped. It just wouldn’t be home without two crazy pugger dogs running around.

So what did they do during those 5 days? It would probably be shorter to list the things that they didn’t do! I think there are still one or two things on the list for next time, but they managed to do just about everything. (By the way, the first thing Grandma said to me as I walked in the door was to ask us to stay away longer next time!) Among the things they were able to check off there list included: visiting with friends, s’mores with friends, the local park, Cabela’s to see the fish, bunnies, and deer, the library, dinner with Great-grandma., lunch in the “forest” complete with little chairs and of course, don’t forget the yummy snacks: homemade cookies, chocolate pudding, ice cream popsicles, chocolate chip teddy grahams It wouldn’t be a grandma’s house without treats would it? Although I did hear Grandpa grumble from time to time that he never gets these special treats. We did have to remind he that chocolate pudding at 9:00 at night is not a great idea for a toddler. But I have to admit that a few days later, after we returned from Seattle, we took Eli out for custard at Kopps. Shhh, don’t tell Grandma!