It's almost Monkey Time!!

I am so so so excited about Halloween! Can't wait to see Eli in his adorable Monkey outfit! I've resisted the temptation to put him in it to see what he looks like. I can't wait to see!

I feel like every day this week has been filled with big changes. On Friday, he started holding his bottle all my himself! We just have to help him out with the very end. He's getting much better at sitting and balancing himself when he starts to teeter. He's reaching for EVERYTHING right now.... he just wants to touch (and put in his mouth, of course) everything he comes near. He loves looking at the cats and was actually petting Riley (without grabbing her hair like he did the first time) and laughing. Whenever the cats walk past him, he stops whatever he is doing to watch them. They are starting to come over to him (not up to him, but closer) now, too.

Tito Tommy came over this week so that Mike and I could go out to see a movie (Whip it!). It was so fun and we love knowing that Eli is in good hands. :)

He's still a great sleeper.... averaging about 11.5 hours a night. Tonight he was WIPED out and fell asleep before he could even finish his bottle. Completely limp while I was putting him in his jammies. So cute.

Our friend Julie is having her 2nd baby boy tomorrow - can't wait to hear what his name is! Another friend for Eli!

Eli's favorite activities this week: trying to fit Mrs. Seahorse in his mouth, playing with his keys, screaming and squealing while putting his keys in his mouth, fitting Mr. Cow's entire head into his mouth, grabbing books so he can bite them, gumming plastic ring toys as hard as he can, covering his face with blankets (yes, he needs to be watched), and trying to pull the skin off of mommy's neck. :) I love this kid!!!

5 months and lots of changes!

It's really amazing to me how many new things Eli can do every day. About a week ago, he started being able to hold his feet (it was just his knees before) and tonight, he put his toes in his mouth for the first time. Yay flexibility and abdominal strength! He's also become much better at unsupported sitting this week. Earlier in the week, he was able to sit by himself (albeit quite poorly) for about five minutes. He still likes to push himself backwards, so there's no leaving him alone quite yet.

His favorite toy is still his beachball and tonight he was very good about holding it by himself and transferring it back and forth between his feet and hands.

His other favorite activity this week is squealing and screaming. He loooooves hearing himself talk and squeal. So cute. He could do it (and does) for hours. When we were at church, we were wondering how that would go over during the quiet parts..... but happily he was quiet and only squealed while everyone else was singing.

Thanks to all the mom suggestions, we bought a Bundle Me for his car seat...now I can zip him up in his own little lined bag when we go for walks and rides in the car. Woohoo!

We also discovered something fun this week.... Eli tends to wake up at 6am or so, talking to himself. Well if I just let him talk for a little bit, he falls back asleep and doesn't wake up til 8. YAY 12 hours of sleep!!!

Other Random Thoughts

I thought of a few more new things that I wanted to make sure I was keeping track of. :) Eli has almost completely outgrown his bath tub. He likes to splash and kick and try to get his legs as far out of the tub as possible. I put a bath toy (a little duckie) in there last week and he loved it. It's a small tub so the duck doesn't have far to go, but it was still fun.

We stopped swaddling Eli at night (woohoooooo) and have been putting him in super cute little sleeper outfits. When he was waking up in the night, his legs were FREEZING cold, despite the warm sleeper. So we started putting him in a fleece sleep sack (why don't they make these for adults????) and he's gone back to sleeping through the night. He looks so cute in his crib.

It's so funny how he has such preferences for his toys. There are some toys he has that I think look SUPER FUN but he couldn't care less about them. I want to go to Target today to see if I can get a few more toys....a ring stacking thing and some toys that talk. He also needs more pants.... SO fun buying baby clothes!

He sat up by himself this morning for about 5 seconds. Maybe he will be able to sit after all... I thought he'd totally rebel against sitting since he loves to stand so much.

He's lost a lot of hair on the back of his head except for his little pony tail. It's hilarious. We should just cut it off but I think it's cute :)

Ok.... over and out for now. He's napping and it's time to get some of the clothes folded and put away. Fun, fun. :)

Almost 5 months!

Amazing that Eli's almost FIVE months old. He's changed so much since my last post. He's now VERY good about tummy time.... one morning he even stayed on his belly for an hour (though that is indeed rare) cause he was loving all of his toys. The $2 I spent on his little plastic keys was money WELL spent. He loves putting those things in his mouth every way possible. He also LOVES chewing on his giraffe, mommy's fingers, and Mr. Monkey. (I realized last week that I was Mr.-ing everying, so Rachna and I decided that the giraffe is a Mrs.). Another one of his new favorite things to do is play with his beach ball.... he LOVES kicking it, spinning it, licking it and looking at all of the bright colors. He has a thing for tables.... he LOVES feeling them, trying to lick them, bang them, etc. Tables of all kinds fascinate him. It's great when he discovers them because it will buy mommy at least 45 seconds of being able to eat her meal....something that was once easy to do but is now difficult since he REFUSES TO SIT. Yes, Eli prefers standing and if I try to put him in a sitting position, he violently pushes back with his back so that he is straight. Hopefully he'll outgrow that little phase soon.

Although on the whole he's still a great sleeper, he's now taken to getting up once in the middle of the night. He usually starts out talking to himself which then progresses to spitting (his new favorite activity...blowing bubbles/spitting), kicking full force and then punching his crib. When this fails to get mommy's attention, he cries. Following the doctor's advice not to feed him if he gets up in the middle of the night, I've just been changing his diaper, hugging/rocking him for a minute or two and then laying him back down. For the most part, he goes right back to sleep. Last night he woke up every hour, but I'm thinking that has to do more with the fact that he currently has the WORST diaper rash I've ever seen. (Have gotten tons of advice on what the "Best" diaper cream is.... right now we're trying the butt paste).

After working 5 days in a row (I was filling in for someone who was out), I'm VERY excited about getting to spend the next two days at home with my little buddy. Thanks tons to Lolo and Lola (Grandpa and Grandma) for watching Eli for the past three days!