Look, No Hands!

I was reasonably healthy for almost a whole week. My cold cleared up last weekend, but I came down with a relatively mild stomach yuck Friday. Justin had it too, and we're both still not feeling 100%. LUCKILY Eli hasn't gotten it (knock on wood), which is rare that we got something that he didn't give us. It was probably something we ate on our date night when Grandma and Grandpa Ed were in town and Eli-sat.

Eli's two favorite things to do now are throwing and climbing. He's always had a good arm with his ball, but now he's taken to throwing all toys and a lot of food. He's loved climbing stairs for quite some time, but he's gotten very fast. He also has learned to climb down the stairs, but he needs one of us to spot him because he slips occasionally (especially on the tricky pie-shaped stairs). He's also figured out how do get off of our bed feet first. It's quite a relief he's figured this out, because he used to try to dive down head-first (and occasionally succeeded before we could grab his ankles). But, he tries to lift his leg to climb onto everything. I'm getting worried he'll be an early crib-jumper. Hopefully his height will prevent that.

His other favorite activity is taking things out and putting them in, and then taking them out again to leave a mess. Our usually untidy house now looks like a disaster zone. He loves taking out all of his dishes and cups out of his drawer in the kitchen and playing with them on the floor. He loves scattering the newspaper all over the living room. He dumps all of his toys out of the basket. Today he dumped all of the laundry out of the basket. These are the activities that keep him busiest longest, so it seems worth the mess if it means I can make dinner or just sit for a few minutes.

He's grown noticably in the past few weeks. He's getting a second chin (in that cute cherubic way). His thighs have also plumped up some and he has more of a baby Buddha belly. He's also gotten a bit taller because he can now reach his feet to the floor on his rolling horsie. He's figured out how to "pedal" his feet to move, but only backwards. Although sometimes he gets on his horsie backward and then tries to move backward which is funny to watch (as in this picture from Grandma's night of Eli-sitting).

Current Eli food favorites this week: Canned green beans, Colby-Jack cheese slices, cheddar bunnies (Annie's version of Goldfish crackers), and TJ's Cat Cookies (cinnamon animal crackers).