Dad made a startling admission about his past, which resulted in the following conversation:
Dad: You know, Eli, when I was your age, I was so obsessed with the planets that I dressed up as Saturn for Halloween.
Me: Oh...
Dad: I had Grandma Lisa make me the costume. I think she wished I would just dress as something normal.
Me: Yeah, like Uranus!

I then proceeded to map out what my Halloween costumes would be for the next nine years. Eleven if you count Planet X and the asteroids.

It's been a rough last few weeks for me, which partly explains my recent absence from this space. I've been flexing my tantrumic (tantric?) muscles with mom and dad, trying to show them that despite the impending new arrival, I'm still the real baby of the family. The best was when I drew a giant E (with about 23 horizontal lines) with red marker on the kitchen wall. Unfortunately, mom scrubbed off my masterwork before dad had a chance to photograph it and immortalize it for posterity.

My statements have not been without cost. In particular, my refusal to eat in a timely fashion has resulted in a fairly humiliating form of punishment in the form of a return to the high chair:

Well this kind of sucks.
Additionally, mom and dad have threatened to inform the Minister of Birthdays of my recent streak of badness. Apparently, he decides who gets to turn four and who has to go back to being two years old. They could mean business.

But it hasn't been all bad. In light of my foray into mural-drawing, dad took me to the local art museum, where I stroked my chin thoughtfully:

I really like this artist's magnificent use of chiarascurro. It's very similar to my use of Cheerios.

Soon after this picture was taken, I got bitched out by a cranky old museum guard for touching a rope cordoning off one of the exhibits. What a jagoff. No wonder my generation hasn't developed an appreciation for the fine arts with that attitude.

I also fed my new obsession with the planets by taking a field trip to the local observatory to look in a giant telescope. I was really hoping to see the planet Earth, but I had to settle for some stars in a constellation that was named after me-- Orion, fools. As in, Elijah Orion.

Dammit, where's Earth? Can we get some focus here???

In other good news, the threat of global warming just ended today with the first snow of the year. I quickly rushed out to join some of the neighborhood thugs as we chucked snowballs up to seven feet in the direction of peoples' houses:

It's how we roll...

The best was when dad took me sledding. After being scared crapless on the toboggan a mere 12 months ago, I couldn't get enough of the local slopes this time around:

Whoo hoo!!!! Not bad for a kid who may be about to turn two...

Happy new year! I think daddy's resolution is to keep me on a tighter leash this year: