11 months old!

I cannot believe my little baby boy is 11 months old. 11 months! We're in the home stretch of this first year.... I'm both excited and sad that he'll be turning one. I'm SO looking forward to all the things that are to come, but I just feel like it's going by WAY. TOO. FAST.

Yesterday, he really started walking a LOT more. He'd stand up at the couch and with me sitting about five feet away, he'd just walk back and forth and back and forth. Every time he walks toward me, he has a HUGE smile on his face and he laughs and laughs... he's just so proud of himself!

He's even faster crawling, now, if that's even possible. He can make the loop at Lolo and Lola's house (probably 50 feet or so) in about 10 seconds. It's amazing.

He still doesn't mind in the least when Mike and I leave him to go to work... but he has the funniest reaction when he sees us come home. He gets excited and screams... and then starts crying and fussing. Lol... I think it's because we always want to wash our hands first...or put down our things...or take off our shoes...etc.... and he wants to be picked up NOW.

We decided we're for sure going to LA in June to visit family.... so now we have to decide if we want to try to hold Eli for 6 hours or fork over the extra $$ to get him a seat. We'll see...

Things I forgot to say

Usually, an hour or so after I post the latest blog, I remember many more things that I wanted to say. So I'm going to take advantage of this nap time to jot some of them down.

Knees. My son absolutely loves knees. I have no idea why they are so fascinating, but exposed knees crack him up. He'll giggle and laugh and bolt over to them.... and then kisses them/bites them. It's really funny to see. Hoping to get this on video some day soon.

I got him a bag of stackable blocks (kind of like really big legos) which are his favorite thing right now. He loves carrying them around, throwing them and trying to reach under things (tables, sofas) to fish them out. Yesterday, we spent a good 30 minutes delighted in "unstacking" them. Putting them together seems to be a bit beyond our reach, but pulling them apart is great fun.

If you hold a stuffed animal up to him and say "kiss kiss," he will give it a kiss and smile. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

This kid loves to read. Every day, at least 50% of his playtime is spent "Reading." He loves turbo crawling over to his bookshelf to pull as many books as he can off. He'll then sit down and "read" for a while. His favorite books are still "Hop on Pop," "The Cheerios Book" (he loves the monkeys, bee and owls), " Truck Duck," and anything with animals. He's starting to show more interest in truck books, but animals win out.

He's really starting to understand when he's not supposed to be doing something. He'll go to do the bad thing (trying to pull the fan cord out of the wall, trying to eat the coffee table, trying to eat important papers, getting into the drawers with the computer stuff) and just look over at me, like he's wanting me to say no. I'll say no and he'll be a very good boy and stop doing the bad thing...but then goes back to it, watching me for a reaction. I got this on film a few times... it's quite amusing. At least he listens... he goes right back to doing it, but he stops when I tell him to stop.

We're meeting up with the Monte babies (Joanna and Bryce) today for a playdate - it should be fun now that they're all mobile! Eli was really getting brave with his walking this morning... he's starting to take more and more steps. He's also figured out how to get up from the ground without holding onto anything.... and is able to do really deep squats on his own now.

For some reason, if he holds onto a cup or bottle, he is able to walk much further. It's like his little security blanket. So cute.

Ok.....I'm sure there are more things I forgot... to be continued!

Uh oh... he's walking!!!

I've been meaning to post for a while, but I wanted pictures to go along with it. Right now, the camera is in the room with the sleeping Eli, so the pictures will just have to wait.

The biggest news is that on March 27th (Aunt Rosie's Birthday!), Eli took his first steps!!! I was hanging out with him by the couch and all of a sudden he just let go and took one step to the other cushion. Then he did it again. I called Mike who came over to see him take 1...2...3 steps! So excited we were both there to see it. I tried to get some steps on film, but every shot I'd take was just him crashing to the floor. I thought he'd be all OVER the place the next day, but he took it easy, only taking one or two steps at a time. It wasn't until Easter Sunday (April 4th) that he really started getting more daring. Now he's able to walk about 10 steps before he goes boom. Yes, we have to taunt him with electronics (especially mommy's phone or the remote control), but it's a fine line cause if he REALLY wants the object, he'll just plop down and turbo crawl over to it. :)

We're getting more and more adventurous with food.... he's now eating turkey burgers, taco meat, noodles, chicken, asparagus.... we're trying to give him more and more "real" food. He's gotten a lot better at chewing! I guess the 7 (and maybe 2-3 more coming?) teeth help in that department. :)

Last Friday, we went over to Riverside Park to hang out with Eli's girlfriend, Sonali, on her birthday!! They had fun "sharing" books and blocks and we were there to see Sonali eat her first piece of cake! Eli was so intrigued by the flowers on the cake that he decided he'd like to grab a few. He's so funny... when he gets some kind of food on his hands/fingers, he always stops whatever he's doing and looks down at it super inquisitively. "what the HECK is going on here?" :)

Easter was a blast. My mom (Grandma) came up to stay for the weekend and had a grand ole time playing with eli, reading books, playing peek-a-boo and watching him splash splash splash in the tub. We made it to mass on Easter morning and got Eli all dressed up in his little suit (thanks Emily!).... he looked ADORABLE (pictures to follow at some point). He was ok in church and had many admirers thanks to the suit :) When we got home, my brother came over as well as Mike's family and we all had a yummy lunch and watched the boys play. Eli was having too much fun playing with his big cousin to take a nap :)

He had a fun past couple of days with Lolo and Lola...they went to the mall (where he likes to yell and try to get everyone's attention with his charming smile) and the boardwalk (where he loved screaming).

Today is going to be BEAUTIFUL, so when mr. party guy wakes up, we're heading outside to the park. Yay!!!

Favorite words

Eli has really been talking up a storm these last few days. It's really fun to hear him try to express himself... most of the time, that is. He's taken to yelling when we're not fast enough with the food.....not so fun. He knows that he can get us to shovel food in faster if he starts screaming, so he's really running with that one right now. His favorite word is still "Dada" seconded by "dadeeee" (it's so funny - he says the Dee part so heavy)... and now third and gaining strength is "MAMA." Woohoo! He's always said Mama, but very sporadically... until these last few days, where he's really stepped it up a notch. Mike said that last night, before Eli went up to sleep, he practiced the Mamas with Eli while pointing to my picture. :) Now we can pretty much get him to copy us any time we say Mama or Dada. His other favorite word, one that he says all the time, is "Abjou." If I say Abjou back to him, this brings laughs and smiles and more abjouing.

He is SO SO close to taking a step. He's now standing pretty confidently on his own and you can SEE in his eyes that he wants to step. You can SEE him standing there contemplating it. Ultimately, he reaches out for something to hold onto (he walks along the furniture with just one hand now) or just plops down.

Another cute thing he started doing this week is TURBO TURBO crawling to the bathroom. If he's across the room and hears me open the bathroom door, he comes SPPPPPEEEED turboing to see me/get to the bathtub/try to look at himself in the mirror/try to get to the toilet brush. It's adorable to see him crank up the speed and I'm going to try to get it on video soon.

He also FED HIMSELF today. INSANE. I realize it was pure luck, but he fed himself about 10 spoonfuls of cottage cheese today. Yes, it was very messy cause he was flinging the spoon around everywhere, and yes, half of the spoonfuls went "in" upside-down...but he was doing it! (No, I don't expect this to continue as it's not really an age appropriate skill).

Tonight, he did the sweetest thing EVER. Mike and I were able to sit down and have a full, uninterrupted meal because... Eli sat in front of his bookshelf for 30 minutes (!!!!), reading to himself. It was the cutest thing EVER. He alternated between three books.... he'd just sit there, turning the pages over and over and over.... then move on to the next one, etc etc. We couldn't believe he was sitting that still for so long. Cuteness.

Mike's going to try to take a day off of work next week so we can take this kid to get his hair cut! It's getting SOOO long. Soooo many times a day, I have to move his hair out of his eyes. Poor little guy. I even tried putting a bobby pin in his hair while he was eating (no, mom, I would never leave it in when I wasn't watching him because he could pull it out and choke)....but it didn't stay in his fine, feathery little hair. Lol.

Looking forward to Easter, when Eli can wear his little suit that Emily got for him!

Daaaadeeeee!!!

So yesterday was a fun day because Eli went from ALWAYS saying "Dada" to now sometimes saying "Daaadeeeee!" It was so, so, so adorable. This morning, when we tried to get him to say it again, he would tease us with an extended "daaaaa" but always ends with "da."

(I just posed this whole thing and it got deleted....ugh... take 2).

It's SO fascinating to see the wheels turning in his head these days. He's processing so many things and you can SEE it taking place. Tonight for dinner, we gave him turkey meatballs and he was studying them before he put them in his mouth. He's also starting to copy a lot more things and TOTALLY understands (but chooses not to listen) when I tell him to sit down in the tub.

On our playdate with Rachna and Dexter the other day, we took the boys to a big field because it was a GORGEOUS day. Well, city boy here didn't want any part of the grass. He'd just sit there.... whenever he made a move to crawl, he'd withdraw his hand immediately and look down at his palm. I will not let him be a grass wussy. lol. We'll work on fixing that real soon, even if it means I have to line up a whole row of electronics to get him to crawl towards. :)

He's been spending more time "reading" on his own these days, which is super cute to see... especially when he has the book upside down. :)

He now loves to turbo crawl over to Riley.... he tries SO hard to get to her. She realizes now that he's much quicker than he used to be and hightails it out of there immediately.

Let the fun continue!

Hello Tooth #7

Dear Tooth #7,

Please be kind to my son. Thank you.

:) Eli was REALLY fussy last night and again when he woke up this morning. He was drooling a lot so I figured it must be another tooth... but ha - YOU try getting him to show you his gums. Well, I finally was able to look in there and saw another tooth poking through. Now he has four on the top, two on the bottom, and the bottom right one poking through. He could have others...that's just all I can see!

I am SO SO SO thankful the weather is so nice!!! Yesterday, I walked OUTSIDE in SHORT SLEEVES. It was unreal and I loved every second of it. I'm going to start taking Eli for two long walks a day instead of the one short one we've been doing. I can't WAIT. Last night, we met Mike at the train and went for a nice long walk through a park nearby our house. We usually don't get up into the paths in the woods, but last night we did and it was great. The path ended at a playground, so we took Eli on the swings. He was holding on for dear life (even when he wasn't moving) and didn't really look like he enjoyed it. Mike was like - well he probably doesn't understand what the heck was going on. We also took him on the slide, which he kind of enjoyed but didn't really understand that either. It was fun to see all of the kids out there running around.

Our new favorite game involves me putting one of his toys on my head and watching while eli sqeals with delight and turbo crawls over to me, pulls up to standing and then grabs it off. He'll then stand there for a good 10 seconds (without holding on!) holding on to his toy. It's super cute and he loves it.

He's into hitting people now (in the FACE), which is soooo not cool. He's not doing it to be mean or because he's angry... he's doing it because he's just so excited! He loooves flailing his arms all over and loves trying to grab people's noses. Still, we don't want him hitting. We tell him NO HITTING and grab his hand, but this ultimately becomes a fun game for him and he just keeps doing it. It seems to work when I ignore him and look away...so we'll try that for a bit.

He's also learned how to take off his hats, which is super cute but very frustrating when we need to go out and it's cold.

We took some fun family pictures for St. Patrick's Day last night. I'll try to post them soon!

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!