6 months old!

It's been a fun past two weeks!!! First of all, the one tooth is really noticeable now (hard to get a picture cause he hides it). Two days ago, when I was feeling to see how sharp the tooth was, I felt another one next door! Woohoo! He didn't complain about that one coming in at all... such a brave little guy. So now he has his two bottom teeth! Can't wait til they show up in pictures. :)

Last week, Eli finally rolled from his back to his belly (he'd previously only been doing belly to back) on his own! Woohoo! Before he NEVER liked to be on his side...now he's spending a lot more time there, especially when Mommy is trying to change his diaper. :) He's yet to become a steamrolling maniac... he'll pretty much just roll over once and be content with his new position. FINE by me. Buys me a little more time before he's unstoppable.

His new favorite thing to do is floor swim. When we put him on his belly now, he loves lifting both arms and both legs, flailing as quick as he possibly can. He lasts about 5 seconds, puts them down to rest, and then goes again. It's super cute. I can totally see the energy this kid is going to have when he starts crawling and it's really scary. :)

Last week, on his 6 month birthday, we fed Eli for the first time! (Nowadays, all of the literature and pediatric societies strongly encourage waiting until 6 months to eat so their digestive systems are better developed). One teaspoon of rice cereal to four teaspoons of formula pretty much felt like I was feeding him his formula with a spoon... but it was still super fun! The first face he gave us was priceless... but then he proceeded to gobble the rest of it up. Mmmm. I'm waiting til today's doc appointment to give him the next food, because there are a million different opinions about the proper "order" to feed the baby....and I just want to get her take on it. Most likely, we will be giving him carrots, since that's the veggie mommy ate most when she was pregnant and he might already like it. :) I'm super excited about making his food and did a trial run with the carrots today. Yay!

He's really doing great! Mike and I are so, so, so thankful that we have such a great kid. As one of my patients told me yeterday, God gives you the good one first so that you're encouraged to have more.

The tooth is coming

It's been a busy week! First of all, I noticed on Sunday (Nov 1st) that Eli's first tooth is coming in! At first, it was just a big red bump... last night, I could see the actual top of the tooth. Eli's been with his Grandparents during the day for the last two days and they said he wasn't fussing at all. Could it be that I have a kid who doesn't cry when his first tooth comes in? We'll see. I think the worst is yet to come.

Our trip to Maryland was super fun!!! We got to hang out with Grandma, Aunt Rosie, Emily, Uncle Tom, Great Grandma, Aunt Kathy, Stacey and the twins! It was a busy three days but super fun ones. Eli had a lot of firsts.... first time in the leaves, first time carving pumpkins (er...he was asleep...), first time getting dressed up in his little monkey outfit! He was an ADORABLE monkey. Eli also got to meet his friends, Jonah and Gabe, who were born on the same day as Dexter! Now he has two more buddies to add to his posse. It was close to the day when he met them, so he had a big meltdown. Nothing like three screaming children to make you lose your noodle.

On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with Eli's friend, Sonali. She was dressed as a ladybug and Eli the monkey.... super cute. We went out to a street that was all decorated and spooky... with the TONS of people there, the kids were just staring with wide eyes the whole time. They were so entranced by everything that was going on that neither of them tried to take off their hats! Yay! We went back to Sonali's building and went trick-or-treating to about 5 apartments. For Eli's first door, Mike let him lean over to the candy bowl and pick whatever he wanted. Hahaa... wouldn't you know it, my son picked the giant plastic spider that was on top of the bowl. Hahaha. Good choice, Eli. Go for the big ticket item. :)

I'm filling in for someone at work and decided to go in on Monday and Tuesday. Eli got to be with his Grandparents and I got to spend the whole day working with Mike. Monday night, I had my workout class in the city, so I came home solo and Mike went to spend the night with the baby. I was 50% happy cause I got to have a whole night of ME time and 50% sad cause I really missed my boys. It was definitely a strange combo of emotions. Tuesday was a really hard day because I missed Eli sooooo much.

I'm amazed every single day at the new things Eli can do. He's picking up skills so quickly these days... it's just remarkable to see that all unfold before my eyes. He's doing better with his sitting...especially when distracted by a fun toy! I'm so looking forward to these next three days with him before I have to go back to work!