practice makes perfect

One early February day, I thought it would be fun to try ice skating.  I got Eli some skates last summer, so we dusted them off and headed to the Maple Grove Community Center.  Grandma Pat and Grandpa Dobie came along.  Eli was all smiles prior to the event.  He knows what hockey is, so I think he was imagining himself playing a game while we were there.

 He wasn’t real sure, but did get the hang of walking in his skates pretty quickly. 

 Saying ‘hi’ to his brother on a little skating break.  He is such a great big brother.  Another kid was talking to him here, and he wants to make sure everyone knows Si is his brother.

 Eli did well on the ice, but he was quite discouraged.  Grandpa Dobie and I held his hands, and he stayed up well.  He watched as the big kids whizzed by, and of course wanted to do the same.  Afterwards he said, “I just can’t do it.”  I told him, that he can do it, but it takes lots of practice.  I’m not sure he’ll be up for practicing more this year, but we’ll try again next year.  He did muster a smile at the end.

 Silas’ new hobby is playing piano.  He can just reach the keys, and LOVES to pound away on it.  Lucky for us, he usually heads for the upper octaves.  Maybe we’ll try lessons next year :0). 

 Concentrating hard.

 So proud.

Si’s other latest trick is drinking out of the sippy cup.  I hadn’t really given him one yet, and one morning I walked into the living room to find this.  Guess we can skip the starter sippys and just use Eli’s.  As you can see….Eli shares well most of the time.

 Eli got some practice painting recently.  He picked out a birdhouse to paint from Michael’s.  He worked hard on it, and even did some interior painting on it.  I think the birds will like it in the spring.

 The finished product.

 

 

let’s pretend

Lately Eli is into pretending to be different animals or characters.   He’ll say out of the blue, “Eli be a lion,” etc.  He will growl and crawl around pretending to be a lion, or beg to have Mike or I hold his hand and skip around the house singing, “We’re off to see the Wizard…”  He recently pretended to be a lion at a holiday gathering where he loudly growled in the face of a 14 month old.  That didn’t go over so well.  On this day, he decided he wanted to be a ‘dino.’  

 

Silas pretending to be a MN fisherman. 

A month or so ago, Eli dressed up as a pirate and then came running into the living room saying, “I’m scared!”  I said, “of what?”  He said, “that guy,” and took off running to the hallway wall to show me his shadow.  Of course my camera flash ruined the shadow, but this was him staring at his shadow.  He wasn’t sure what to think.

My cute little pirate.

Eli pretending to be doing a little “work” wearing my work badge.

 

This is a silly picture.  I think Mike took it…..I’m not sure what was going on, but you can make up your own interpretation.  He keeps us smiling.