Nativity

Since the boys are a little older I have placed a few nativity scenes around the house this year for Christmas. I have a neat kid friendly one that I put in the upstairs living room. This morning - I found that it had been a bit altered.
Eli had added a Christmas tree - since "obviously Jesus needs a Christmas tree" and a car, "how else is he going to get around." The worldly and the spiritual collide.

My allergies

It is hard to know how to teach Isaac about his allergies. For the most part if he has had a bad experience with the offending food he knows first hand that that particular food doesn't bode well with his system. So he often he'll say - I don't like fish, or I don't like peanuts. As a two year old - he even knows that his food allergies are the cause of him disliking food. So why am I surprised that Eli has adopted the "I have food allergies" response to any food he dislikes. Eli asked yesterday what we were having for dinner and I said - chicken casserole. "Hum," he said, "I am pretty sure I am allergic to that - can I have pizza instead?"

Unselfish Heart

I spend most of my blog goofing on my kids. They are 2 and 4 - let's face it, they do some crazy stuff. But since I have specifically talked about Eli's selfishness (see the sharing post) I thought I should write about his unselfishness on his birthday, of all days.
John and I really worked hard to make the day all about him. I think one day a year it is important to really make a big deal out of a loved one. We let him eat Lucky Charms for breakfast (his favorite - reserved only for a sweet snack), we took him to his favorite park, we surprised the boys with a trip to Gatti Town, we made Eli's favorite dinner, had a big "Peter Pan" cake, and got him a few presents. Even on a day reserved solely for him he managed to think of others.
Early in the day he asked me to get him party hats for his party that night. Not sure how he found out about "party hats" but I was going to make it happen. I had already planned to go to the "party store" to get him a few balloons. Anyway he wanted blue and he wanted his brother to have yellow. I am pretty sure all day they both thought it was both of their birthdays, but I still thought it was sweet that he thought his brother needed a special hat too. Anyway - when I brought three balloons for Eli, Eli gave one to Isaac, the green one since green is Isaac's favorite color. All day Eli made Isaac feel a part of his big day.
The sweetest example came later that night. Our immediate family came over for Eli's birthday. There are about fifteen of us (parents, siblings, and grandparents) and we had been telling Eli all day what special people he could expect at his party. We were sitting down to eat and Eli said, "Wait a minute, we are missing someone, where is uncle Joe?" You know, my son is sitting down to a dinner made especially for him, and he has a room full of presents, celebrating a day that has been all about him, and he is still thinking about someone else. Turns out uncle Joe had called and was running a bit late from work - he walked in the door about 5 minutes later and all was well.
The more a dwell on that day the sweeter it is - makes you feel like you are heading in the irght direction doing this whole parenting thing.

Eli's Birthday - Part 2

Eli's birthday get-together.

Eli's Birthday - Part 1

Eli turned 4 on Friday. He is growing up so fast. We surprised Eli and Isaac with a trip to Gatti Town, or Pizza Planet (Toy Story reference). The boys had a great time. Skee-ball definitely isn't their strength, but shooting hoops - not so bad.

Fall Family Pictures

Our friend Aimee (http://aimeenielsonphotography.com/) took pictures of the Collins household this fall. Here are some of our favorites.

Make-up

Saturdays are not very impressive at our house. I usually get a good run in during the morning and then we lounge around for the rest of the day. I usually take a shower after my run, but that is about as "cleaned up" as I get. We work in the house, run errands, play, etc. Yesterday John was studying for a test so the boys and I were playing downstairs while he studied. Eli brought a small black treasure box over to me. He said "Here mom this is for you." I said oh thanks for the present sweetie (because he often covers his toys in blankies and calls them presents). He said, "This isn't a present mom, this is your make-up, you need to put some on. You aren't looking very pretty today." OK - hint, hint. I pretend put the make-up on. Apparently I used only two of the options available in the treasure chest and closed it back up. Watching me intently Eli said, "Mom, you aren't done - you need to put it all on."
Ouch.