Happy 2012

This is Eli outside with one of his favorite possessions, our Kindle Fire.  He watches Thomas movies on it and plays games and sometimes pages through books.  Our guilty confession:  we sometimes let him take it to bed with him and watch in his crib before he falls asleep.  When I go in to cover him up he is sleeping with the Kindle still in his hands, cuddling it.



If you happen to be using it when he comes in the room, he usually tries to acquire it immediately.  He sometimes says, "Eli's turn!" when he wants something.  It's more of a statement than a request.  He also will sometimes take something (usually the Kindle or my phone) right out of my hands.  When he does this he always says without fail (and it's the only time I have ever heard him say this), "thanks for helping!"  He says it pitch-perfect, with that lilting, fake-bright tone that teachers sometimes use.  I wonder who in his life takes things from him while using this ironic phrase.  It is a funny example to me of kids giving back what they get.  I do not find Eli taking things from me by force funny, however.  We're working on it.

This is Eli after I told him that we couldn't take the Kindle to the playground with us.  When he throws a fit (which happens unfortunately more frequently lately), he makes this really sad face, more than a mad face.  He puts and frowns and protests.

It's really quite pathetic.

He also sometimes hurts himself, or pretends to hurt himself.  He used to bang his head on the floor when he was mad, which makes everybody uncomfortable and is hard to watch.  Not repeatedly over and over (thank goodness).  Usually he would pout, walk purposefully to a spot, kneel down and bump his head on the floor.  Sometimes harder than others, but there was obviously some control to how hard he let his noggin contact the floor.  Now, he sometimes will just touch his head and tell you it hurts when he is mad.  Or, he'll purposefully bump his knee on the wall, and then present it to you with a frown.  Most common recently, he wipes his finger along his pants or the wall or something and then holds it up to you, as if he just got a splinter.  I don't quite understand the point of this.  It goes something like...Me:  No, Eli.  Don't touch that!.  Eli:  Bumps finger and then holds it out frowning.  "Ow!  Hurt!  Hand hurt!"  Is he trying to deflect the situation from my hollering at him to his "injury"?  Is he trying to communicate his pain and upset over being yelled at and over not being able to do what he wants?  Maybe a way to ask for comforting?  It eludes me.

Here is Eli on a happier occasion.  Kid loves his junk food.  He takes it really seriously, too.