10 months old!!!

I truly can't believe my little baby is 10 months old. We celebrated last week by heading down to Maryland to visit friends and family. There are many people I haven't gotten to see in a long time (a few who hadn't met eli yet!) so it was our mission to see as many of them as possible. On our way down, we broke up the trip a bit by stopping to see Julie, Isaac and Gabe.... then on to Kerry's house...then to my mom's. Thursday we were hoping to get to go to the zoo, but the weather was supposed to be bad (turned out great!) so we made other plans. We headed over to visit my Grandma and then on to see Eleni and the girls. Friday, we visited with Emily before heading up to visit Jessica and her house full o'boys. It was an exhausting trip, but a very fun one!!!

The whole time we were at my mom's house, Eli was VERY interested in Bob. It was super cute. Now that he can crawl, he tried to get near Bob or go investigate what Bob was doing whenever he could. Bob used to like Eli when he couldn't get around so much, but now that he's mobile, Bob kept a watchful eye on him.... needless to say, all old Bob wanted to do was sleep, and was quite annoyed to have this noisy little screamer constantly begging for his attention. Last time, whenever Eli cried, Bob would bark...this time it was the other way around.

We also discovered a few VERY fun toys while we were at mom's house. Who knew that Eli and his Gerber food lid would become inseparable? And playing with the washcloth (putting it on top of his head) produced SQUEALS of delight. We'd say "Wheeeeere's Eli?" and he'd happily try to cover his face with the washcloth. He was quite proud of himself. Mom got him a bunch of new books and he loved them all! It's really fascinating to me that he's really starting to understand things.... he'll now feel the rough, squishy, soft parts of his book without prompting and can anticipate pages (he'll start smiling before I turn the page to his favorite pictures). He'll sit in my lap for a good 15 minutes or so reading his books. It's very fun.

Another big milestone last week was the independent standing. He had done it a few times in the weeks prior, but only for a few seconds. As soon as he realized he wasn't holding on, he'd freak out and reach for something or fall. At mom's house, I stood him up right next to Bob and let go and he stood there for 45 seconds!!! (yes, I counted out of pure disbelief). He's starting to realize he's not holding on and he's ok with it... he even smiles and tries to get back up again when he falls. Super fun!

The WORST thing in his life is having to get his diaper and/or clothes changed. He is nearly impossible to change with one person at times. He can flip over in less than a second and he loves to try to crawl away as fast as he can. When I manage to keep him still, he screams bloody murder the whole time. Fun.

On Sunday, he changed from normal crawling to TURBO crawling. If you're not already standing and ready to get him, he will absolutely make it to the other room before you. He still loves to hightail it to the litter box, the cat food (when there's even the tiniest of openings in the barricade, he knows and makes it through), the remote controls, the outlets, important papers (he doesn't care for the non-important ones), the tub (he likes to try to pull the shower curtain down), the cats (they hide), and mommy's phone.

I'm SO SO happy the weather is starting to get warmer.... warmer weather means more time outside! Yaaay!