All in all, swim lessons were a success. Eli has advanced onto ‘Toddler B’ swim lessons, just need to get him signed up. The only downside to week two was the pool water was much colder, therefore by the end of the 25 minutes we had a very blue toddler on our hands (who loved to get wrapped up and snuggle for a few minutes after each lesson).  I had to explain to the swim instructor that Eli’s blueness was normal due to his heart condition, she was a bit concerned at first.

Big Boy Bed: On Monday, Eli and I decided to surprise Dave. My friend/coworker, Katie, came over to help take down Eli’s crib, rearrange his room and to together the twin bed. Eli was in the room with us the whole time and helped as much as he was able to do so. Once we got his room rearranged and the bed set up, Eli spent the next few minutes playing on his bed and getting acquainted with everything. He was quite pleased with how it looked.

The first night was interesting. Eli went to bed just fine but woke up around 2am and wouldn’t got back to bed for a very long time. He wanted to snuggle so I laid down in bed with him. He would snuggle and doze, then wake up and want to play for a minute or two, then he would snuggle again. Finally after 2.5 hours I just left him in bed alone, he cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep for the next 4.5 hours.  Needless to say, I took a nap later that day.

The next few days were uneventful, the only interesting things he did in bed were move around a lot. Up until yesterday, he hadn’t fallen out of bed or gotten out of bed on his own.  Yesterday he woke up from nap time and heard me moving around, he got out of bed, pounded on the door and yelled, “MOM” until I opened the door. Last night he fell out of bed but it didn’t wake him up. We heard him fall and ran into his room, Dave said he was still asleep until he picked him up. Wonder what would’ve happened if we left him alone. Today after nap time he found his wagon full of blocks and brought them over to the door, laid down in front of the door, stuck his hand under the door and yelled “MOM” until I came and got him.

All in all the transition was much easier than we expected which we were quite pleased with. Tomorrow night will be the first time he sleeps in a different bed, in a different house. Eli and I are going to Gramma and Grampa’s house.

Monday – Eli screamed and cried most of the time. I did get him to stop crying for a few minutes while we did some playing. I was getting a lot of pity looks from people. Dave did not come with to the class.

Tuesday – Dave came with us (lessons are in the morning before Dave has to work) and it went much better. Eli cried as soon as we entered the building, fussed as I got him ready to swim, whined as he got in the water with Dave and I, but was laughing within 5 minutes. Dave did a wonderful job of getting him comfortable and laughing. Eli had a much better day in the water.

Wednesday – Eli was happy the entire time. We played ball with the swim instructor and the other student. He had tons of fun hanging out with Dave and making faces at me. He kept signing ‘more please’ throughout the entire class. We all had a great time!

Thursday – Eli waltzed right into the building and headed toward the locker room. He claimed a locker for us, took off his shoes and hat, he needed help with his shirt. He scurried toward the pool door, as soon as we got into the pool area he babbled about the water and balls (there are toys to play with in the pool). I jumped in the pool and Eli insisted on taking the ladder into the pool. He kicked and swam, watched me blow bubbles, threw a ball around in the water for us to chase, put a floaty device on and swam only holding onto one of my fingers and giggled a lot. Eli was having fun until we went over to the landing. He was able to stand up on his down and the water was up to his chest. However, he was not happy. It was something new and different, he wasn’t comfortable with it. There was a lot of cry, screaming and clinging to me for the last few minutes of class. Dave wasn’t able to come with us today due to his work schedule.

Each day, Eli has fallen asleep on the way home from swim lessons. Apparently swimming tires him out! We have four more days of swim lessons next week. Hopefully we can have a great week and end the lessons on a good note.

We decided to try and catch the Cottage Grove fireworks show on our way home. Once home I ran inside to see where they hold their display and to grab a snack. We made it over to the park about 10 minutes after the supposed start time of 10pm. Unfortunately, though, all the cars in the area were driving the other way. They must have started quite a bit early because we missed the big show completely. Fortunately, there were plenty of people who lived around the park shooting off their own sweet stuff.

We were interested to see how Eli would react. He did very well and was very into it. He didn’t seem scared at any point, despite having a couple really loud ones go off right behind us. The best part came when there was a slight lull in the neighborhood display; Eli made a noise, causing us to look at him. He was signing “more.” He did this a couple more times when a break would happen.

About a half-hour after arriving the massive traffic jam cleared and we headed home. We now know better for next year’s show. The only wild-card might be the new baby’s reaction to all the noise.

We are also going to get some bed rails to put on Eli’s crib until we can get a twin size mattress for his ‘new’ twin bed. With me being home this summer we decided now would be a good time to get him transitioned out of the crib (so the baby can have it when he/she is born). We want him to be well transitioned to the new bed before we transition him to the downstairs bedroom (hopefully at the end of the summer). Lots of changes happening in Eli’s life right now.

As for now, let the new adventures of parenting begin!!

Eli knows the following words/phrases in sign language: more, please, more please, eat, help, help please and milk. We have been working on ‘all done’ but he hasn’t picked up on that one yet. Key words are ‘mom’ and ‘no’.

When Eli is ready to eat he will run over to his high chair and sign ‘eat’, he often does this at night when it is bedtime as a stalling trick. He is getting better at feeding himself but still tends to make a big mess but that’s ok. His favorites right now are beef ravioli and mac n’ cheese. He LOVES apples and will devour them whenever he can. Veggies are still out of the question.

If we tell Eli it’s time to take a bath, he runs to the bathroom door and knocks on the door until we open it. He will dump his toys in the tub while we are busy filling up the tub and adding bubbles to the water, he’s most helpful. While in the bathtub if I give Eli the wash rag and tell him to wash his face, he puts the rag up to his face and scrubs. He is very proud of himself afterward. He can even pick up his toys when bath time is all done.

Eli knows where to go for a diaper change. If we say, ‘let’s go change your diaper’, he takes off running to his bedroom and reaches for the changing table. He also knows where his jammies are and will attempt to pull open the drawer to pull a pair out for us to change him for bedtime.

Lately I’ve been asking for lots of hugs, if I ask Eli for a hug he leans his head on my shoulder. If I ask him for a kiss, he leans his head forward for me to kiss. I’ve been telling him to give his toys a hug, he’ll put them up by his cheek and pretend to give them hugs.

When we get home, he likes to walk up the walkway and steps, then he will knock on the door until I open it. He then gets inside, shuts the door and sits down on the steps to take his shoes off. However, for a few days he was being lazy about taking his shoes off and would start crawling up the stairs instead. I would stop him and ask him to take his shoes off, well he stayed in his crawling position and stuck his foot out behind him expecting me to take his shoe off for him. That didn’t work out in his favor, I made him sit down and take his own shoes off. I think we are back in the routine.

Lately he’s been leading us to his high chair when he’s hungry. He brings us books and puts his arms up when he wants to read. Today he went to fridge (his signal that he’s thirsty) and pulled on the handle a little. After giving him his juice, he started drinking it and slowly walked back to his room, stopping in front of his rocker (his signal that he’s ready for a nap). I followed him back and sat down. Eli sat with me until he was done drinking and then gave the cup to me. We sat for a minute and then I put him in bed without a fuss.

I quickly turned off the light and left the room, trying not to laugh too loudly. Eli didn’t think it was very funny; he started crying just a little. We gave him a bit to drink and he went to sleep.

In creating this video I learned something interesting about YouTube; they apparently have audio detection software that compares the audio of an uploaded video to known items. I had several songs playing sequentially in the background of the video (the first three tracks from the same album). I received an email from YouTube saying the audio portion of my video had been disabled because it “may have content that is owned or licensed by WMG.” I swapped out the old audio for a different song.

I find it very interesting that YouTube would censor videos that way, especially considering their use of the word “may.” I wonder if they are required to do so, or if that is a service they sell to companies, such as WMG, to help them protect their copyrights.