Monthly update

I realized that it has been over a month since my last post. Eli has been up to so much, I can hardly remember what has happened, which serves me right since that is pretty much the purpose of this blog. I think that I will have to rely on some pictures to jog my memory:

Eli was thrilled that the Cardinals won the World Series (OK, so that happened in October, but I just HAD to throw it in there).

Ah,yes, more pictures of Eli playing with his yogurt. What is the difference between these pictures and the other 47 that we have taken? Eli has discovered that yogurt makes a GREAT hair gel. In fact, just about anything will go in his hair: hand lotion, deoderant, applesauce, etc. If Eli can get it on his fingers, chances are I will find it is his hair later.



Thanksgving at Grandma and Grandpa Kirtley's. Eli was not too excited about the food (though it was REALLY good), and only slightly interested in the bucket of toys. He rather preferred to relocate the contents of the entertainment center to the middle of the living room. This picture does not begin to do justice to Eli's remodeling abilities.




Eli did have a good time petting and feeding Grandma and Grandpa's horses, and is still convinced that the brown one is a moose!

Thanksgiving weekend also marked the first night that I spent away from Eli since he was born. I thought that I would be anxious about being so far away from him, but I was just happy to have 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep!



I am not sure when Eli learned this trick. I am so proud.



This past weekend Eli saw his first "real" snow. We were stuck in the house for several days in a row and it was quite a challenge to find ways to keep Eli entertained. We did lots of singing, silly play (Do you like the headband that Eli put on my head?), and jumping around the house. Friday we made sugar cookies and Eli had a great time decorating them... and eating the icing!



Eli sat on Santa's lap. Chris spent several weeks telling Eli about Santa Claus and pointing out pictures of him so that Eli would be prepared when it came time for him to meet the "real" Santa. We even got a smile out of him!

Some other things that Eli is doing but of which we do not have pictures:

* counting -- he can get all the way to 20 (on a good day) and is really starting to understand one-to-one correspondence. In some cases he can look at a set of objects and tell me how many are there without counting out loud.
* language -- he is combining 2,3, and sometimes 4 words or phrases at a time. This often has some funny results, especially since he likes to put the word "it" after a verb, in addition to the noun the verb is modifying. For example, "find it apple". But he is much less frustrated because we can better understand him and can get whatever it is that he wants more quickly, and I am less frustrated because I don't have to ask an endless string of questions trying to get at the root of what he is saying.
* climbing and jumping -- no explanation necessary on this one.
* his own big boy bed -- exciting for Eli, frustrating and saddening for me. Merits its own post when I get the chance.

Wow, I think that covers it. I think I will try to post more regularly in the future. And I think that I have made that promise before.