Inauguration Day and puzzles

Elias loves doing puzzles; and he's really good at them. This is a 54 piece pirate puzzle that we recently bought for him. I thought it might be a little too hard for him, but he can do it almost all by himself. Usually he requires a little encouragement the first few times while putting together a new puzzle and can do it on his own after that. The encouragement generally consists of sitting next to him and reminding him to look at how the colors of certain pieces match or don't match when he gets frustrated. His patience and attention-span is really amazing for a 3 year old. He must have gotten his love of puzzles from those Olson's. I know that my mom was not happy by our lack of interest in puzzles but I guess it skips a generation. Here's your chance, Mom! I'm sure Aunt Cheryl will be tickled to indulge this interest too.

This has been a pretty satisfying weekend. On Saturday, Elias and I went to his friend's third birthday and then he hung out with Harry at the park while I did homework. On Sunday we went to a bluegrass pancake breakfast and then had people over for the Steelers game. Yesterday was pretty low-key and Elias worked on his puzzles and we played some boardgames that Elias got over Christmas. We also tried to go to the park but it was really windy and cold. Our big event though was our breakfast party this morning in honor of Obama's inauguration. Elias got to stay home from preschool today on the condition that he would watch five minutes during which Obama was sworn in. I thought this was a very important event for Elias to see, even if he doesn't realize the significance of it yet. I'd just like to be able to tell him that he witnessed an important historical event in the making. Who knows? Maybe he'll actually remember it, too. He was true to his word and watched Obama take the oath of office and even stuck around for some of the stuff after that, but then the appeal of running around with his friends seduced him away from the tv. It was nice, though, to celebrate with Elias and some of our closest friends. A champagne toast to Obama! Or mimosas, in our case.

Friday outing

On Fridays I don't have school or student teaching, so Elias stays home with me. He's always excited about staying home. Today we decided to take the bus to Powells (the really enormous bookstore downtown). Powells is one of Elias' favorite places to go. Our mission today was to pick up a couple more books in the Oz series and buy a gift for a birthday party tomorrow morning. Since Christmas we have barreled through the two Oz books Elias got as presents -- three down, eleven to go.

We got on the bus and Elias happily played with his little figures for the the 1/2 hour ride. Ever since we have stopped using the car as our primary form of transportation, Elias has become a very frequent bus rider. He does well and really seems to like it. When we got to Powells we picked out two Oz books and I looked for a birthday gift while Elias looked at books. We ende up staying there much longer than I had anticipated and Elias still wasn't happy about leaving. It was lunch time when we left, so I asked E if he wanted to go to the brewery where he could get a sandwich and fries or get conveyor belt sushi. Elias chose sushi, even though we had to wait fifteen minutes to get a seat. Can I just say that my son is awesome and has great taste? After lunch we got back on the bus and E fell asleep. This evening we'll be going to Elias' first ballet class. A few of his other friends are also enrolled and I can't wait. One of my friends loaned me a black leotard for him and I think that I am more excited than he is. After ballet we're all going to have dinner together... lasagna, I think.

Sick boy

We've had quite a busy weekend. On Friday, Elias and I left the house at 11am and didn't return until 7pm. In that time we went swimming, met a friend for lunch, went to the library, and then went to another friend's house for dinner. There were a few other kids there, so Elias had a lot of fun. On Saturday, Elias spent the morning with Harry taking the bus and running errands while I stayed home and worked on homework. At 2pm though our house was filled with chaos and mayhem when we invited a bunch of kids and their parents over to hang out. The hanging out went on a little longer than expected and the last person didn't leave until 8pm. Elias was exhausted and asleep half an hour later. At three in in the morning he woke up with a fever and was obviously very uncomfortable. Looking back I'm sure the frenetic pace of the past two days really didn't help at all.

The poor kid was so tired but couldn't sleep soundly; he kept waking up and wimpering. None of us got out of bed until noon on Sunday. That is definitely a record for Elias. Those of you who know him know that he is a VERY early riser. In fact he would have kept sleeping but Harry and I decided to wake him up to try to get some food and water into his feverish little body. I left the house to run and get groceries and by the time I returned, he was asleep again, but this time on the couch. So the remainder of the day was spent on the couch. Elias read books and watched a movie and napped off and on all day. He refused to eat all day until I offered him ice cream around dinner time. That perked him up for a little, but then he asked me to "carry me back to my couch and put my blankets on me." I obliged and he stayed there until he finally got so tired from his busy and arduous day that he requested to go to bed... at 7. He's sleeping now but I'm sure he'll be up again soon enough. He's actually been incredibly good. He didn't whine much at all, he just wanted to be left on the couch to recover. It really was sad to see him so low energy and disinterested in almost everything, but I'm hoping his day of rest will put him on the road to recovery. Tomorrow he'll have to go stay with my friend for a couple hours in the morning while I go to my high school for a meeting but then I'll be able to stay home with him the rest of the day. If he's feeling better, he may even accompany to my afternoon class at PSU so I can take a quiz. Who knows? I do know there will be much more time spent on the couch though.

Cold Sunday

This morning was pretty chilly, but we wanted to get out of the house, so an expedition to the zoo was planned. It was actually really nice - we were there early, and the weather kept people away, so things were pretty quiet. Elias had a chance to see the otter being fed, and we saw a few animals, like the wolves and the bobcats, that haven't been out and about in a long time.

On the way home, we stopped at Fernhill Park to fly the radio-controlled dragonfly that Devyn gave me for Christmas. We'd tried it yesterday in our backyard, but that wasn't quite enough space to maneuver around. It was too windy at the park to really control it, but Elias enjoyed watching it just the same - actually, he probably thought the crashes were probably just as entertaining as the flight.

After lunch, Cara took a bath while Elias and I played Kids of Catan. We've picked up a few boardgames for him over the last couple weeks, and he's been able to follow the rules and play pretty enthusiastically, so I'm thrilled. Anyway, a very decent day so far.

A Little Performance

Okay, one more thing. Tonight, I was getting myself a second helping of dinner and Cara was cleaning up when Elias invited us into the front room to hear him sing. There's video of most of it below, but I'm afraid I missed the first half of the first song, which included this particularly sweet verse:

"The Super Friends!
The Super Friends!
Their powerful powers
will kill the villains!"

Anyway, enjoy:

New Year's Eve

We had a quiet night in on New Year's Eve this year. After I picked up Harry and Elias from Childroots we went home and ate a meal that included sauerkraut. Elias, however, is not a big fan. After dinner Elias was really excited because I had picked up a gingerbread house to put together. I had also promised that we could start reading one of his new "Oz" books that he got for Christmas--he's a big fan of that series of books.

Harry put the house together, and then Elias went to town decorating it. Surprisingly none of the candy actually went into his mouth... at least until he finished. Elias wanted to start eating it immediately but I made him let me take a picture of the finished product first. He told us we couldn't do anything else until he had eaten the whole thing. He made it through the gingerbread man, the gingerbread snowman, and the gingerbread tree but then he said he needed to "save it for later." After that we all sat down to begin reading "The Road to Oz." Harry and I alternated reading and made it through eight chapters before we decided it would be physically impossible to read anymore. By this time it was after 9pm so we still had a couple hours to get through. We watched a few cartoons and Harry and Elias played Elias' new boardgame "Go Away, Monster!" (I was napping on the couch). At 11:30 we finally truned on the tv and watched everyone freezing in Times Square. We were all pretty tired but made it to 2009. Seconds after the ball dropped Elias' eyelashes fluttered closed and he fell asleep.