Baby monitor... check!

I ordered a new baby monitor today. We needed another one for the new baby's room anyway and I wanted a video monitor this time. I ended up buying one with an extra camera (one for her room and one for his). I read reviews and reviews and this one seemed to have a pretty good rating. It says it will alternate camera views every 8 seconds. When we move,  Eli's room is upstairs and Baby girl's room is across the house so I thought it would be helpful to be able to see  as well as hear what they are up to.  I am sure she will stay in our bedroom in the cradle for a few months anyway. Eli is still in his crib and I am not in any hurry to transition him to a toddler bed. His crib converts to toddler bed and then to a regular bed; however, I like the fact that I can put him in his crib and he will still be there when he wakes up! We still haven't taken the passy away either!! Isaac was probably 2 1/2 when I took his and I had planned on taking E's away over Christmas break but I just couldn't do it. He was weaned to only nap time and bed time but recently he has had it more as he has been cutting the second back molars. I would like for it to be gone before baby sister arrives though!

I think we have hit the terrible two's early. We've got two more months before he turns 2! He is getting very opinionated and can voice his thoughts and opinions quite well.  Me, " Eli, stop messing with Mommy's new phone".  Eli, "Mommy stop fussing". (He must hear that frequently). He is still a ball of energy and wants to climb, jump, run and get into everything. I do think he is going to be a smart cookie like his brother b/c I have seriously not worked with him on his letters but he knows most all of them! He was playing with his Leap Frog letters and he started throwing them saying "that's a G", "that's a J" and sure enough he got every one correct! I pulled out the video to try to catch it on camera but then he wanted to sit on my lap and and operate the camera and wouldn't do it again. I am going to try to video him one day while he is unaware. He can also rote count to 12 as well as count objects to 4.  He knows when he has more than one object b/c he will say " I have two crackers" or "Two blankies!" He also knows shapes even though I don't feel like I have worked with these either. He knows circle, triangle, square. If he sees a shape he is familiar with he will say "that's a kite (diamond) or "that's a pizza" where he is associating it with his shape puzzle that has pictures of objects under the shape. He is picking up colors: blue, green, red, black, white, yellow. The other ones are not very consistent. Well i guess I will add more when I do his two year old post in March but I thought I better write this down before I forget.