Catching Up

Just a walk through the last few months... :)

He is talking all. the. time. And tries to say things that we say; just today he was saying 'shoe' and 'brush' pretty clearly for me. He tries to say lots of things but doesn't quite make it, like, sock, pacey, drink and others. But he also has things he can pretty clearly say, like, bath, more, bye, bubble, and of course, mama and dada. And then we could get into all the things he knows when we say it, but he doesn't necessarily say... but I'll skip that for now. 

We've been working on knowing body parts; eyes, nose, mouth, belly button, etc. He knows where his belly is and usually his belly button, but everything else is hit-or-miss.

He loves to help when we do things; dishes, cooking, anything with tools. He also like to listen to music. During the day I will have Pandora radio on the 'Adele' channel and every time she comes on, he will stop and wave his arms around (dancing) and try to sing along with her. He likes almost any music, but he seems to especially like Adele. He likes 'driving' his cars around the house and making car noises. He still likes reading books, but mostly independently; he doesn't usually want anyone to read it to him. He isn't usually a sunggler (to my disappointment), but he has had a few bumps lately and he will cry and come to me and let me kiss it and hug him... for about 30 seconds. :) I take what I can get!

Just this last week... guess what he did?!? I was shocked! But happy... :) He kissed me! I asked for a kiss (which I've done before, but he never does), and he open-mouth kissed my cheek, then he turned my face and closed his mouth and gave me a kiss on my lips! He made kissy noises and everything, it was so cute. Sadly, he has only kissed me once since then, but I keep asking!

This first video was... well, a few months ago, but he continues to get out my brush and hair dryer anytime he can (so, daily) and will 'fix' his hair.

On Sundays, we usually get to church early for various reasons, but Eli enjoys the time to 'greet' people. He walks (or runs, whatever the case may be) around, stopping momentarily for someone he knows or talks to him. He doesn't ever get upset around people he doesn't know (or in large groups of people), he just gets this blank, stoic look on his face and stares people down when they try to talk to him. I try to tell them he's really a happy kid! 

Here he is waiting to greet people at church!
Happy face!

These next few pictures are from his 15 month 'birthday'. We went outside to play, and even though it was fairly windy and cool it was also very sunny!

This is probably the best picture of the day, although
very bright. What a cute face!

This was all him! I let him look at the camera and he
took a picture! ... at least the tree is in focus... :)

He 'found' a stick, and proceeded to carry it
around the rest of the time we were outside.

Josh says the expression in these two pictures
remind him of pictures of him at this age.

"I'm not looking at you..."

"Still not looking."

 Eli loves to watch this video! The night we took it, he must have watched to 10 times... he kept saying 'more, more' and he would just watch and giggle and clap along!


A week or two before our big snow we had a few warmer days, so one evening we all went for a walk. When we arrived back at home, we let him walk around and see the dogs next door (he likes them, but he's not really sure he wants to touch them). He was just wandering around the backyard, making his way towards the shed, then he went past the shed... to the ally. Jabbering the whole time. We followed him, calling to him, "where are you going?", "come back Eli!". He just ignored us, kept walking down the ally... then we figured out he was going to see the neighbors! They go to our church and watch him sometimes, so he knows the way!

 They weren't home at the time, so we didn't let him crawl all the way up the stairs, but he would have!

This is a game I put together for him; a magnet on a stick (for canning, you use it to grab the can lids out of the hot water), some bottle caps and an egg carton. He loves it! the bottle caps fit just right in the egg carton and he likes to pick them up with the magnet and see how may he can get at one time. 

The rest of the pictures are just from today! This morning we went to a children's book fair in town; they had different booths set up (mostly for older kids), like face painting, 'ice' skating with wax paper, the Tooth Fairy was there giving out toothbrushes (I think one of Eli's favorite things!) and we were given a couple of free books. They also had this little tub set up with 'snow' and toys to scoop and dump and play in the 'snow'. Eli didn't want to leave it once he figured out how to play with it (i.e. not eat it)!

These last pictures are really for Aunt Rachel! I'm making some hair bows and flowers for cousin Rhuey (coming anytime!!!). We're more than a little excited about a new baby in general, but loving the fact that it will be the first girl! I have no worries about her holding her own with two boys running around when the families get together. :) Anyway, I made some hair accessories for her today and wanted to take a picture for Aunt Rachel... Eli wasn't really upset about it, but didn't understand why I would put this thing on his head! This is only one of the hair bows, but hopefully it is the right 'mustard' yellow to match one of Rhuey's dresses; it looks a little orangey to me, so cross your fingers!

"Yeah, take it off now"