Summer Hose Fun, Toddler Style!

These about sum up this summer so far. This kid wants to be OUTSIDE all the time. He loves every minute of it! And if we don't get out there fast enough, he brings me my shoes, sometimes one high heel :) Thanks Eli!

Fun things happening lately:

• Eli's talking sooo much. I think he learns a new word every day. Any water is a Sippy. Not just cups, but pitchers and even water fountains. And he'll argue with you if you try to tell him differently!
• If I lay him down on the changing table and ask him if he pooped, he says "I check." I guess that's what I say to him, lol.
• The other day I said " You tooted" (when he had). And he looked right at me and said "Mama toot!" Blaming others starts already, apparently!

Dear Eli

Dear Eli,
I'm sorry to say that your mom gave up on blogging 10 months ago, and now that I've decided to start again, I thought I should give you a reason for this gap. You see, your mommy got frustrated with all the "shoulds" with blogs (I should blog more often. I should make it fancier. I should be getting better at this), and I finally just stopped. But now you're doing so many new things every day, and I want to remember them. And I want to print a book for you someday, even if it does have a 10 month gap in it. So, I've decided to write an imperfect blog and be OK with it. It won't be fancy and will consist of pictures and things I want to remember, whenever I feel like posting them.

So here are my memories for today...

• Last week in the car you were practicing your animal sounds. It went like this: "Mmmmm...A cow!", "Baaaaa!....A Baa!"  You don't say sheep yet, so they're Baa. You are also doing sounds for a dog (arf ), a cat (Neow), a duck (Kack, Kack), and a horse (He he he he). Daddy says the horse is the second worse horse sound he's ever heard. I don't know who he could be talking about :)
• You climb on anything and everything now. We can't keep you off the kitchen chairs & table. You really love to stand on it and touch the chandelier. And you climb up on mommy & daddy's bed now too, which isn't easy since it's so high. When you get up there, you wait for me to come find you and you smile so big when I do.

Sitting on Grandma Kathy's lawnmower, which you love as long as no one tries to turn it on.

On the Move!

It seems like there are so many more 'events' in our lives now that we have Eli. Well, they're events to us anyway. It's funny how this one little guy can entertain us all day long. Today, 2 more teeth came through, which brings us to 7, and the new toothbrush I bought for Eli to play around with ended up in the toilet. He had a different color in mind, I guess.

He is now crawling all over the house now and is so fast. He pulls himself up to standing and has just started to cruise along furniture toward things he wants. We've childproofed everything, but still can't take our eyes off him. He's crafty! Like a heat-seeking missile to anything he's not supposed to have!

We're also in the big boy bathtub now. Fun!

Back in the Saddle

Well, I've been very bad for a couple of months. I've let this go, which makes me sad. Not that I have a "readership" or anything, but I do want to keep this up to show to Eli someday, so I'm back at it and determined to keep it up.

Our little guy is getting so so big. He's crawling all over the house now, which he started earlier than I thought he would, at 6 1/2 months. Before that he started sitting, and can now not only sit up without tipping over, but he can back into a sit from a crawling position very easily. Hey, I'm impressed!

He also is loving the world of baby food & table food. He especially loved strawberries, but I don't really think there's been a food he doesn't like. Even if he makes a face at something (peas, peaches), he opens his mouth for the next bite. If he likes something he opens his mouth determinedly before the food is even on the spoon!

A little naked time on the floor

My new swing! I love it.

Strawberries! Mmmmmm. So good, but so slippery.

Friends

Eli got to spend a little time with with his Cousin Chase & his friend Ashton recently. We saw Chase at my Grandma's birthday party, and Eli couldn't take his eyes off of him. I guess it's because we haven't really been around any other kids yet, so he was fascinated by this little person closer to his size.

I asked Chase if he & Eli would be friends when Eli got bigger, and Chase said "I love friends!"

Chase showing Eli his scary face

We hung out with Lauren & Ashton around St. Patrick's day (obviously). Eli is wearing Ashton's outfit from last year, but it's just a tad (very) tight, lol. The boys look very handsome in their party attire!

Eli Learns to Read!

Or maybe Eli holds a book....one of those anyway.

So much going on! Our little guy is getting so expressive & interactive. He talks all the time, laughs, and smiles at everyone. After rolling over the first time, he went on strike for a while, but he's doing quite a bit of rolling now. Tonight he rolled over almost immediately every time I put him on his tummy (like 5 times)! He also has 2 teeth poking out now on bottom, which is very exciting, even though it can make him a bit of a cranky camper at times. And at the doctor today, he weighed 16 lbs 10 oz and was 25 3/4" long (in the 80th % for both weight and height). Dr. Shaw said she was thrilled with his development and that he was doing more than she would expect a baby his age to be doing. We're just coming right along!

Could you keep it down? I'm trying to read.

This is the scary part!

No, don't take it yet, Mom. It's just getting good!

Grandpa Norm's Farm

We took Eli out to see the sheep at Grandpa's farm in Chester when the weather was nice a couple of weeks ago. He didn't show too much interest yet, but I have a feeling he will be begging to go visit there very soon! There were so many adorable new lambs that were just born in the last few weeks, and with all the mama sheep in the barn, it made for a lot of noise! As soon as we walked inside, Eli did say "Ba!"... but I think that may have been a coincidence :)