Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Month 17

Is it to early to want to sell this one to the circus?

So is this how its going to work for the next 18 years? You push us to the brink of crazy, we keep loving you more that you could ever know. (At least until you have a child of your own.)

This tantrum toddler. My mighty monkey. This crazy child of mine is 17 months old.  

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Harvest Time

I try not to post Daily Eli photos to the blog too, but in this case I am making and exception. I was so excited last year when our first tomato ripened on the vine that I used it in the Daily Eli the next day. I thought it would make a good perspective shot again this year. Maybe I will do this every year. Maybe Eli will grow to hate me.

"First Harvest"
Daily Eli 06/29/2010

"Second Harvest"
Daily Eli 07/19/2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Life right now

And by "life," I mostly mean Eli.  The world clearly revolves around him.


  1. He is a crazy hugging boy.  He has been hugging dogs (when they let him) and hug-tackling other children (Stella, Milo, kids at daddy play group) since Memorial Day-ish.  Last weekend he started hugging us.  OMG it is the best thing ever.  He wraps his little arms around your neck and brings you cheek to cheek with him.  
  2. He kisses too.  He blows kisses when he senses a good bye or when asked (sometimes).  If you ask him for a kiss, he put his wet, open mouth on your face.
  3. You have to be careful though because he has also become quite the little biter.  He bites shoulders, legs, and most of all--toes.  I really need to ask the internet what to do about this issue.  I am not interested in the hot sauce method or biting him back.  So far we have come up with such brilliant solutions as 1) yelping in pain (usually because we are in pain), 2) saying "No" and 3) saying "No.  Biting hurts."  He usually laughs maniacally. 
  4. But back to the adorable.  He finally fairly consistently says, "Mama."  Rarely he says it when he sees me but often he says it over and over again while we're hanging out.  Or when he wants to nurse.  Mama still=boob lady.  
  5. He's said Dada for quite some time now.  I'm not bitter about that or the fact that he learned to say "bump" before "Mama."  Believe it or not, "bump" shows up in a few Dr. Seuss books.  He knows each page that it appears on.  He also knows E! which he says on the E page of Seuss's ABCs and the Z page--because hey, it's pretty close to E.  We are clearly still reading LOTS of Seuss.  Lots.  
  6. He climbs everything.  We had baby-proofed the house.  We are now working on Eli-proofing it.  The guy will climb window sills, toilets--will bring makeshift stepping stools over to things to climb otherwise unclimbable things.  He and I got locked out on the back porch Friday night.  Some kindly neighbors took us in while we waited for Kenny to get home.  I had to take him off of their glass coffee table at least 4 times.  
  7. He squeals with delight at puppy brawls, passing trains, and fire truck sirens.
  8. Just as when he was a tiny baby--he LOVES the outdoors and demands to go out regularly.  He's very close to figuring out how to open door knobs and when he does we may never see him indoors again.  A few times a day we find him at the back door grasping the door knob and crying.   
  9. I have not yet procured the child leash but definitely need to.
  10. We all play really hard and sleep really hard :-).