Monday, June 7, 2010

Big brother



One of the questions I get most is "How's Eli doing with the new baby sister?" I'll admit that I expected him to struggle with it. He's been the only for almost 4 years, and he certainly hasn't wanted for grown-up attention. But he's done great. He loves Sydney, loves being a brother.

I don't know if it's new, or if I've just started to notice it, but Eli talks a lot. Constantly. Seriously, the kid is talking at least 95% of the time that he's awake (and sometimes even while he's sleeping). He's got questions and stories and memories and thoughts and ideas and on and on and on. I'll admit that some of the time I just nod my head and say "uh huh" because he is ALWAYS talking. I love that he's got so much to say, so I try to see the sweetness and keep my irritation in check. One of the things that helps is that when he's not talking, he's singing. Just to himself. In fact he prefers if you don't acknowledge that he's been singing. He used to sing "Hey Diddle Diddle" and you could tell how amped he was by how fast he sang it. Lately he's been singing rodeo songs (including "Rock and Roll Girls" by John Fogerty). He also has two songs that he sings just for Sydney, one that he made up and one that he learned from Abba. The rodeo songs are sung loud and are the soundtrack for whatever he's doing at the time but the Sydney songs are sung quietly and he stops whatever he's doing to sing to her. She just watches him with big eyes. So sweet.

The kid's doing awesome. He plays in his "spaceship" everyday. He's obsessed with all things Toy Story and rodeo. He can count to 30 but still skips over 16 every time. He logics his way out of more arguments than I want to admit to. He tells people that they're "deep in his heart." He's still totally crazy, but also totally awesome.

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