The Dougherty Family

I swear, the moment Eli turned two, he transformed from a sweet, innocent, cherubic baby into a whining, crying, tantrum-throwing monster child.  Ok, it wasn't the moment he turned two, but it was about a week afterwards.  I'm telling you, this kid has it in for me!  Let me illustrate for you.

Eli wants to do EVERYTHING that Jake does.  And he doesn't just want to do what Jake is doing, he wants to do it BEFORE Jake can do it.  i.e. saying the prayer at dinner time, reading a story on my lap, having a snack, etc.  The other day, Jake and Eli were playing and Jake chucked a ball really hard at Eli's head.  Eli started screaming (don't even get me started on the screaming...) and I told Jake he needed to go sit in time out.  However, as soon as Eli heard that Jake was going to be in time out, he immediately decided that HE wanted to sit in time out, not Jake.  So he started running for the time out chair to get on it before Jake could.  Then he sat his little derriere on that chair and folded his arms indignantly and gave a little "hmmph" sound.  You know the one.  The sound that makes it very obvious to everyone around that you will NOT be moved, so just try.

When I calmly went up to him and explained that he didn't need to sit in time out, that Jake was the one who had made a wrong choice, Eli immediately threw himself into the biggest temper tantrum I've ever seen.  Head back, arms flailing, tears streaming, all out tantrum.  He started yelling, "'MOUT!! 'MOUT!!!" ("timeout, timeout" for those of you that don't speak two-year-old toddler tantrumese.)  I just sat there baffled for about two seconds before, sure enough, he got his wish.  Yikes.

Eli doesn't talk a whole lot, but he sure knows how to get his point across abundantly clear.  Don't let this sweet face fool you.  

Ok, you can go ahead and let it fool you.  I mean, who wouldn't, right?

P.S. Have you noticed Eli's squinty-eyed picture taking pose yet?  As soon as I say "Smile" this is what I get from him.  Cracks me up every time.

 When the kids were done outside, they came in for some hot chocolate made by yours truly (and Swiss Miss).


It was a whirlwind and we loved every minute of it!  Apparently, in the heat of having all our guests, we forgot that Eli needed to go down for a nap, so he went ahead and put himself down:


Yep, he fell asleep while getting on the computer chair.  I try to remember to keep the computer mouse and keyboard out of his reach because Eli is known to get on the computer without my knowledge and look up Mickey Mouse videos on YouTube or play on his favorite starfall.com website (both of which he can navigate to himself).  I must have forgotten to put them up and he seized his opportunity.  He must have been so exhausted that when he was trying to get on the computer chair he just zonked right out.  And that right there pretty much tells you exactly what a great weekend we had.