Our Life with Eli

Eli now has a vocabulary of about 30 words . . . a few sound exactly the same, but there is a minor difference in pitch that distinguishes them.  Some barely sound different, i.e. fruit snack (nu-na) and banana (na-na) or cheese (cheese) and please (geez), and some he has mastered, i.e. bye, hi, down, up, mama, dada, ball, momo (Monkey), wawa (water), and juice.  He is a lot more mobile and has taken a liking to climbing.  The temper tantrums are here, but manageable (we have started time-outs).  Here are a few pics from Halloween:

Thanksgiving pics:





Laundry day fun:

Sorry I have been MIA.  I will try my best to post an update soon.  Until then here are some pics to enjoy!

Eli doesn't have the privilege of having siblings to teach him the ways of sharing and socializing (we are working on it :).  I have been worried for months about whether or not he was getting enough interaction with other children.  Tonight we had a BBQ with families with children.  Children that were older, younger, and approximately the same age.  He started cutting his molars today so I expected a very irritable  baby.  I was very worried because of previous experiments with sharing . . . not so good.  Tonight . . . tonight I couldn't have gotten a better baby!  I was soooo worried that my stomach was upset, but Eli was soooo good that it took me by surprise.  He shared, he interacted, he danced, he smiled, he signed, he impressed, he hugged, he kissed, he melted my heart!  He was the baby that I know; and I am glad that he shared that side with others.  I cannot imagine loving anything more than I love my baby!!

Chris is wondering how Eli is spending his time away from him.  Here are a few things he has been up to:

Hamming it up with Larkyn!

Catching up on some reading.


Giving away smooches!


Beating the heat in the pool - Splashing!



Hanging out!


and . . . PLANE SPOTTING!!

7/7/10

Chris is up in Alaska working and I know he misses his little man.  So Larkyn (my niece) and I made him a video of one of Eli's favorite things to do:

6/20/10

Gerber is having a contest to get some new faces for their ads.  There are several prizes, including a $25,000 college fund and your baby's pic in the new gerber ads.  The public can vote on the pictures and there is one winner from each group (infant, toddler, etc.) each month and then a panel of gerber people pick the baby for the ads.  Of course I had to enter a picture of Eli.  I have to submit one picture a month for the next 6 months to increase our chances of winning.  It only took a couple evenings with the camera stuck to my face before I got the money shot.  Voting starts July 3rd and I would appreciate all the votes you can get in.  Here is the picture we decided to send in for this month . . . ladies and gents the new Gerber baby:

This picture was a close second and definitely had Chris' vote, but I decided against it:

6/4/10

Eli now has 5 teeth.  He cut 3 of those 5 in the last week.  He had his two front bottom teeth.  He cut his top left front at my parents house on Sunday, he cut his top right front at home on Thursday, and he cut his right canine tooth today (Friday).  Whew . . . glad to be off that roller coster!  Hopefully for a couple days . . . please?  We are all caught up on his shots and we got the thumbs up to turn his car seat around to face the front.  He is on whole milk and solid foods for the most part.  We are waiting for the top fronts to come in a little more before we give him stuff that might be harder to chew (i.e. raw apple).  He is addicted to yogurt melts and I do not look forward to the day we decide to have an intervention.  He can identify his cheek, ear, belly, foot, and booty.  If you ask him to bring you a book he will go get you one of his board books for you to read to him (he also sits and reads to himself).  He has a stuffed pig that he will run and jump on if you tell him to get the pig.  He will hold up one finger if you ask him how old he is, unfortunately it is the middle finger most of the time . . . yes, I laugh at him.  He loves to push his cars around on the floor while he makes the vrrooooomm sound :)  Eli is now walking!  He has been for a little over a month.  Sometimes he runs, and sometimes he rides!

He sits down for the extreme riding . . . over the bump!


Nice shirt dude!  It says Beach Patrol . . . shows off his muscles.


Wind in the hair face:


Dude, check out my ride:

6/4/10

I had a great mother's day.  Chris got up with the kiddo and let me sleep in.  He also dressed him in matching clothes . . . bonus.

I got a coffee cup, a card, a bike seat and a helmet for Eli from Chris and Eli.



I also got a nice plant basket from my parents.  I replanted each plant in a separate pot in an effort to replenish my house plants since I had to leave them all in Alaska.  (One prayer plant not shown)


Here are a couple of my favorite goofy Eli pics . . . a second too late or too soon.

5/7/10

We were in St. Louis for Eli's first Easter so we needed to dye some eggs for him to hunt:

Eli had something else in mind for the eggs:



Since we weren't sure when we were leaving St. Louis, we decided to have Easter dinner and Eli's 1st birthday party on the same day.  Eli was in desperate need of his first hair cut, so my mother trimmed his hair before the party (I can't cut hair . . . just ask Chris).


After his first nap of the day, he woke up to find his Easter basket full of good stuff: bubbles, a new bouncy ball, a giant easter bunny (see previous pic of Monkey with bunny), and his favorite T-shirt (modeled at a later date):


The egg hunt went well, but after he ran out of hands for eggs he lost interest:


After we all ate and Eli woke up from his second nap, we sang happy birthday and let the little guy try some of the wonderful cake that my niece Larkyn made for him:


About 2 minutes later, Eli attempted to take a bite that was a bit too big for him and then he threw up all over his Daddy :)  Funny stuff!



While in STL, we visited Suson Park and got a cute pic of Eli, my niece Larkyn, and nephew Lukys:


What it boils down to is Eli loved his time in St. Louis because he was always surrounded by people who love him: