Mr. Copycat

Wow... so much has changed in the last week (as it always does). It's absolutely fascinating watching this little guy grow up and astonishing how quickly he learns things.

He can now say "ouch" and "sock." He likes to try to copy words... he'll stare at your mouth and watch with full interest if you are trying to get him to say a word. He always repeats what you say, though most of the time it still comes out as "dada." He surprised me the other day.... I banged my foot and said OUCH and then I heard a little "ouch." Super cute. I have him say it all the time now (confusing him, contextually, I'm sure) because it's just so cute. He also was trying really hard to say Sock the other day...and finally got it. It comes out more like "sa" but what surprised me the most is when he came up to me when I was putting MY socks on and said "sa." That's the first time he's ever really associated a word with an object and it was pretty fun to see. He was trying hard to get book... he's close but not there yet. He also completely surprised me by trying "little" this morning. He got his tongue to do the right L thing, but then it came out like "lada." I tried to transition from there to Lolo/Lola, but he wasn't going for it. :)

We booked our tickets to LA! We're going June 9th-16th and are super excited to see Carol, Vicki and the rest of the family. We are SUPER excited about meeting baby stella! I'm nervous about how Eli will do on the flight, but am hoping he'll surprise us all and be super well behaved. :)

He is completely unmanageable when trying to change his diaper. I had to hold him down with my leg on top of his chest today and he still managed to get away. If I distract him by kissing his belly (which leads to fits of laughter), I can usually get in and get out. I used to be able to give him electronics/shiny things to distract him, but he doesn't fall for that anymore. usually all I see when I'm trying to change a diaper is a little butt turbo crawling away from me.

The transition to the sippy cup is going well! For the last two days, I've given him only his morning and evening bottles and am giving him his sippy cup (the kind with the straw) during the day. The first few times were rough, but he's starting to get the hang of it. It's going to take some getting used to for mommy to have him carry his drink all around with him and not drink it in one sitting. Not too sure about when we'll try to get rid of the am/pm bottle. I'd like for him to be weaned off the bottle by the time he's one.

(On a happy, unrelated to Eli thought.... I have been eating SUPER SUPER healthy and have cut down my insane portions a ton....and have now lost almost 15 pounds! I'm even less than I was pre-pregnancy. My goal was to get back to my pre-preggo weight by the time Eli turned one... yay!).

Eli had a super fun play date with Sawyer yesterday in the park by our house. They fed the ducks, chased each other around in a big field, threw the ball to each other (well....not TO each other...), took the little pink stroller around for a spin, knocked each other over, read to each other, had "dada" conversations, went on the swings (which Sawyer LOVES and eli HATES), the slide, etc etc. Eli did better than I thought he would walking on the bumpy grass and was even able to stand up from sitting a few times on his own! His favorite activity of the day was eating grass, leaves, sticks and whatever else he could find. Most of the time I stopped him, but a few leaves made their way into his digestive system. Roughage. :)

Today, we drove to work (baaaaad traffic) to join mommy and daddy's co-workers for a goodbye lunch for Tita Astra. We hung out with Daddy and friends for a little while and then drove (it took us THREE HOURS) to go visit Dexter. Our visit was cut short since we arrived so late, but the boys had fun feeling each other's hair, tripping each other, playing with the fridge magnets, taking books away from each other, and playing the piano. The hot item of the night was the fire extinguisher... they both kept going back to it. Eli loved opening and closing Tita Rachna's kitchen drawers and pulling out her lunch bags, ziplocs and brita filters. Trying to knock the shades down was another favorite for Eli.

Eli's taken to eating anything he can find on the ground (rogue cheerios are a big hit).... because clearly mommy and daddy don't feed him enough. He likes eating loose parts of the carpet, dried food from his pants and I caught him scraping cat hair off of the chair to pop in his mouth. Mmm. Tasty. I accidentally taught him three bad things today.... that the bathroom sink has a cabinet underneath, that the toilet seat goes up and that there is a trash can in the bathroom. Uh oh.

Let the adventures continue!