Second Fiddle no more

My lovely (and pain-free) dentist, Kevin Timm, asked me today why I never posted anything about Eli. He wondered if we had actually gone through with the adoption as I never mentioned him in my posts on the blog or on Facebook. I won’t lie, the posts I put on Facebook are similar to that of the six o’clock news: if it bleeds, it leads. But in my case, if it flips off another student, calls 911, or pisses on the front porch, it’s going to get air time. I should probably defer to Tod at this point, as he regularly brings up the point of Eli being the second child (as is he) and having to grow up in the shadow of an older sibling (blah, blah, blah, whine, whine whine). Yes, we have a ton more pics of Anna in the house, but to be fair, she’s been with us longer. Yes, Anna has gone more places with us, but again, she’s been with us longer. And, for the record, Eli is a pretty mellow kid. He’s still not very verbal, and relies on his inner-Viking to get his points across to us: grunt, ummmmmm, point, point, yell, ummmmmm, grunt. He is getting better, but his two favorite words remain “NO” and most recently “WHY?” Yes, he’s two.

He has a wicked sense of humor; one that I am certain will get us called to school when he is older. When he sees that Anna is in trouble or is mad or crying about something, he will offer a “ HA HA!” to her misery. This inflames her to no end and will often end in him getting clocked by his sister. We have warned her that if he continues on his current growth path, she will soon be under him getting the snot beat out of her when he gets angry. This is one of those lessons that we have told her about, but until it actually happens, I doubt she’ll believe us. I will do my best to refrain from saying the dreaded “ I told you so…” when it actually happens and she has a bloody nose.

Yes, Eli is the easy one. He’s compliant and will usually do what you ask of him. He is good at self-disciplining. If he doesn’t want to do something, he will go and give himself a timeout on the steps instead of doing what you require of him. Go figure. He also loves to dance and shake his little ass. The other afternoon, Anna was at Daisy Scouts, Tod was at a massage, and Eli and I were at home watching the Grammy’s on the DVR. He got up on the coffee table and danced to every performer. I rewound and played Lady Gaga’s performance of “Born this way” twice, as the song is great and It’s perfect for dancing like a fool. After the second time through he pointed at the remote and said “GAGA!”

I almost cried.

So yeah, I have two kids, but one is always stealing the limelight. Eli is the Jan to our own Marcia Anna, but he’s becoming his own person more and more each day. I look forward to each day and what it will bring and what my little man will surprise me with next.