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!

Almost One!!!

Wow....I was just reading the last post and so much has happened since then! I'm telling you....baby days are equivalent to 2-3 weeks in real people days, based on how many new things they accomplish.

There have been a ton of things I've been trying to remember to post....so this will be a hodgepodge of sorts.

Eating: Several new things on the eating front. His new favorite thing to do is scream at the top of his lungs, little girl style, when his tray is empty or if mommy/daddy isn't shoveling it in fast enough. Because apparently, the thought of waiting more than 3 seconds for new food is just too terrible to bear. We're moving past the puree stuff... and are starting to really just cut up little pieces of what we're eating to give to him. I gave him turkey sausage yesterday and he LOOOVED it. He also can't get enough chicken....and today we gave him turkey for the first time. Mmmm. Now we just put all of his little foods on his tray and he finger feeds himself. He's pretty good at picking everything up... and even picks up his veggies! After he devoured his peas and carrots tonight, I joked with Mike about how we should take a picture as proof to him in a few years that yes, he did used to like veggies. :) Last weekend, he learned how to spit out (raspberry style) his food. Lovely. We've tried a few things to get him to stop... I think that completely ignoring him (looking away, even) seems to work the best. Tonight when he did it, Mike cleared off his whole tray. THAT got his attention. So hopefully this will stop soon! (ha, I know it won't). Also - yesterday he surprised me by feeding himself with his own spoon!!! He kept putting it up to his mouth, and since we were eating mushy lentils, I was able to get it to stay on his spoon. I'd fill up the spoon and he'd put it up to his mouth. It was so cute!

Still trying to move toward the sippy cup, but he still loves flinging it through the air, smashing it all over his tray/food and dropping/throwing it on the ground. I got him to drink 1 oz of his formula with it yesterday...not much, but an improvement.

READING: This kid is SO funny with his books. He still has his certain favorites (Hop on Pop, Truck Duck, Animal Books, That's Not My Car, etc) and if you attempt reading something to him that is not on his favorite list, he takes it out of your hands and throws it (literally) to the side. It's hysterical and amazing to me that he could have favorites. And WHY doesn't he like Gossie and Gertie? Mommy LOVES them!

WALKING: He's a full fledged walker now! It's so amazing how quickly he has progressed. I love seeing his little balance checks and wobbly-wobbles. He still must be carrying something around with him...usually his remote (we got him his own), a bottle or his blocks. He can walk and make turns and follow mommy anywhere. I'm still not used to it. I walked into the bedroom the other day and was momentarily shocked to see a little person wander in. Or now I'll be reading him a book, and he'll walk up to me and stand there to read it with me. I took him to Central Park yesterday for a playdate with his buddy Sawyer, and I was surprised he was able to walk all over the bumpy field. (lol...and he quickly kidnapped Sawyer's pink stroller so he could push it around. Too funny.). And when I took him to the playground, he could actually walk around! So much more fun! (He's still scared of the swings... I think we're going to have a non-ride kid on our hands here).

He's really starting to copy us much more. All we have to do is show him something once and he does it right away.

He had great fun following around his 2 year old cousin, Bethel, when she was in town for a visit. He LOVED her and kept chasing her around.

Still a great sleeper! We have a cute bedtime routine now. After his bottle, we both take him in the bedroom and lay him on our bed...we take turns giving him hugs and squeezes and kisses. He just lays there laughing and smiling and grabbing mommy's nose and daddy's ears. He also seems to have a great fascination with hitting mike on top of his head.

I know I'm leaving a million things out. To be continued. :)

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!