It's July!

I can't believe it's July 1st. I'm loving spending the summer with Eli and am afraid it's going to go by way to quickly! Noooooo.

Today was a super fun day. Because of the generosity of my dear friend Wendy, season ticket holder for the Yankees, I got to take Eli to a game today! It was my first time in the new stadium (LOVE IT) and my first time taking Eli to a game! We went with my friend Bridget and her 2 year old daughter, Tara. We got there a little late (I find it nearly impossible to get to places on time these days) and I was truthfully only expecting Eli to last 2 innings or so. I'm happy to report we sat in our seats until the 7th inning!!! He had great fun playing with Tara (who wanted to hold him and endlessly touch his cheeks and give him kisses...super cute!), standing up on his chair to scream at the top of his lungs at the people behind us, eating his first soft (er...slightly hard) pretzel, clapping (randomly...rarely at the right time) and pointing at the jumbo-tron.

In the 7th inning, we went to walk around, which lasted for a while until we found the stairs.... All he wants to do these days is go up and down stairs (he could be there for an hour if I'd let him). So we hightailed it out of there and headed for the Yankee Museum. To get there, we had to take a super long ramp, which is usually super boring... but it was definitely Eli's favorite part of the day. He LOVES running up and down ramps these days, so for him, this was like.... the ultimate ramp heaven. lol. I'd try to hold his hand cause he was running really fast and I didn't want him to hit the concrete, but every time I did, he would stop, pry my fingers off, then turn around and take off again. It wasn't super crowded, so I let him go. He did great! No falls! When we got to the museum, he had GREAT fun running around and trying to look behind the displays and climb underneath the ball display. We posed for some pictures in front of the trophies and then headed back into the stadium. We were having a mini-meltdown and were about to leave when we heard da-na-na-na-na... Mariano's music!!! The whole stadium jumped to it's feet... and we turned around and came right back. We watched the inning...and the Yankees won! WOOHOO!

I carried him the whole way there and back...so my biceps were BURNING. Good workout!

Other favorite things of note these days....

-pulling all of the dishtowels down from where they are supposed to be hanging and twirling them around

-reaching for things on the table that were previously unreachable... he's taller and can reach the edges of the dining room table and anything that's up on the shelf in the living room. This is how he got the remote control one day and tried to order movies on demand.

-trying to squeeze his head into small spaces

-trying to help mommy cook by standing behind her and holding onto both legs so she can't walk anywhere

-opening any drawer that has clothes in it and removing all of the clothes. Silly drawers! Why are the clothes INside...he wonders.

One day last week after a nap, he all of a sudden got quiet. I assumed (HA) he had fallen back asleep. A few minutes later, I heard talking and went in... to find that he had reached his box of diapers, had pulled them all into the crib with him and was opening them and flinging them around. Yup - changed the furniture around after THAT one.

He's starting to copy us more and more and it's really cute when you can see the wheels turning as he's trying to say what we say. His vocabulary now consists of "mama" "Dada" "baba" (for which he is referring to his bottle), "up down" (He says them together), moo, water, ball, shoe, sock and truck.

He still LOVES LOVES LOVES his fire truck (carries it everywhere) and his tractor with his farm animals (both presents from his aunts!). He carries his little farm animals around all day and even fell asleep holding his little plastic cow tonight. He also LOVES playing with his basketball and playground ball. He has a pretty forceful little throw, too - it shocks me sometimes.

Mom is driving up from Maryland tomorrow to babysit for the day - we're super excited to see her!