When Life Gives You Lemons

Eat them! That is Eli's mantra. We went to Grimaldis's last weekend and while we were waiting for our delicious pizza and salad Eli found something else to eat--the lemon from his water. He liked it so much he held on to it all during dinner. Bite of pizza, two bites of lemon. Bite of salad, more lemon. Mmmm! He actually ate the entire thing, rind and all. I'm pretty sure we win the Questionable Parenting Skills award for that one, but hey, fruit is fruit. Right?

 Getting started

Eli also got his second haircut on this day, almost 3 months after his first haircut. We bought some clippers now because we'll probably be doing this more often. He just got the back trimmed up. Now he has a real hairdo! You can see the haircut best in this next pic.

Chowing down

Lem...mmm...mmm...mon

Almost gone...

Done!

For those of you wondering, I am happy to report there were no, err, lemony surprises later. His body seemed quite happy with its wedge of lemon.

Eli-isms

Elijah had his 15 month check-up on Monday of this week. He is now 32 1/4 (90th percentile) inches tall and weighs a slight 20lbs 12 oz (5th percentile). I swear he doesn't look as skinny as the charts say--we just think he looks adorable. And maybe more proportioned like an adult than most kids, but that's what makes him adorable. His head size is starting to average out now, it's right at 50th percentile. Of course, a half-inch here or a few ounces there and the percentiles change, so I don't put much stock in them. But it's pretty funny to see where he does land on the charts. The doctor tracks his progress on the charts and it shows his weight getting lower and lower and his height getting higher and higher. I promise the kid eats! Sometimes I think he eats more than I do, and he loves milk, too. But he also spends all day running around, which I think is why he's such a good little napper and sleeper. Overall he is a healthy, happy, hunky little boy.

Because it's been a while, I just wanted to post some of the fun things Eli's been doing or saying lately.

Singing: he loves music and loves to sing; whether it's to RockBand, to the radio, or at church, he is happy to sing along.

Communicating: he is starting to say more words, and is especially good at repeating what we say, when he's in the mood for it. But Eli has also mastered the art of body language (does anyone else channel Ursala the Sea Witch?). He can point at a lot of things, goes to his chair when he's hungry, and opens the fridge and talks to it when he wants his milk. His favorites, though, are the big box of baking chocolate and the cookie jar. He knows where they are, goes up to the counter, points to them, says a few (incoherent) words, and makes the cutest little begging face I've ever seen. I really don't know how this boy is not a sumo-baby!

Eating: Eli is just working on getting his molars in, but the kid can eat pretty much anything. He loves hard crunchy things, like nuts, Triscuits, and apples. I have no idea how he eats these things, but he finds a way.

Talking on the phone: he'll pick up a phone, or something that looks like a phone, put it up to his hear, and say "Hi!". Whenever I'm using my phone he says Dada because he thinks I'm talking to Mike, which I usually am.

Doggie: is officially his favorite word. He uses it for pretty much anything. Eli LOVES animals, and whenever he sees on he shouts Doggie! It can be on TV, outside, in a book, it doesnt' matter, he'll spot any animal any time. It's adorable.

Walking: Eli loves to put on our flip flops and try to walk in them. He usually does it with mine becuase they are smaller and he can walk in them better. Again, adorable!

Pooh Bear: he now has a "lovey." It's a little blue pooh bear blanket toy and Eli is absolutely attached to it. This just started a couple months ago, but he loves the thing. He usually calls it "doggie" (just like everything else) and he'll snuggle it next to his face and put his thumb in his mouth. He will grow out of these things later...right...? Oh well, it's cute for now.

Food storage: he found the food storage in our spare bedroom a few months ago. The things at his level are water bottles and jars of marinara and salsa. One day he brought me 7 water bottle in a row, hoping I'd open one for him. In this picture we were getting ready to go to the mall (and the splash pad, hence his funny outfit) and this is what Eli did in the 2 seconds it took us to gather some things. Thank goodness he didn't drop one!

Other things Eli does:
He can point to most of his main body parts, and especially likes smelling his stinky toes. Strange...I know.
He knows what "Prayer time" means and folds his arms. He's even gotten used to saying prayers before meals so he folds his arms off and on during the meal. Of course, he also talks during the prayer, or pokes our faces because our eyes our closed, but it's a start.
He loves to help me take out the trash. As soon as I pull the bag out of the can he'll run to the door to help me take it outside. Really it's just another excuse for him to be outside, but one day it'll be his job! Then he'll be sorry he had such enthusiasm for it now. Mwahahahah! :)
He loves, loves, loves to get chased. If he has something we need, or something he's not supposed to get into, he'll look at us and stomp his feet until we start to chase him, and we always chase him. You can't say no to his adorable face. Trust me, I've tried.
He always brings me flowers when we are outside. These are flowers he's lovingly picked off our plants in the yard, but he is sure to bring them to me so I can smell them. Occasionally he brings them to me in his mouth with a "Mommy I'm eating something disgusting!" look on his face. Silly boy!

I'm sure there are a million more adorable things that he does, I just can't list them all.

Easter Celebrations

I know this post is coming a few weeks late, but oh well. It's here now, and that's what counts.

Eli got to celebrate Easter with two Easter egg hunts this year. The first egg hunt was on Good Friday. A lady in our ward throws a big Easter party and egg hunt for all the little kiddos. Aunt Melanie was kind enough to keep us informed about it and supply the eggs so Eli would have something to find. We took him over to find the eggs for his age group and he really wasn't sure what to do at first.

There were tons of eggs all over so I started to sing the "Clean Up" song. This is the song we sing when he cleans up his toys and it actually works. He'll help pick up his blocks and put them in the bucket when I sing this song. It worked this time as well. We kind of showed him with one egg, and then he got the hang of it, that is, until he realized there was stuff inside of the eggs.

Once Eli popped one of those babies open and saw the colorful jellybeans inside he was completely distracted. He kept hunting eggs, of course, but only to open them up and see what was inside. After the hunt he spent some time playing at the park.

We are learning that, while Eli loves the park and to be outside, he does not like crowds. Mike and Eli wandered around away from the other kids and the craziness and that seemed to make Eli very happy.

On Saturday Eli had his second egg hunt. Mel and I are kind of starting a tradition of doing Easter together. So far Steve and Jen have been able to come up as well, and this year Grandma Cox was even able to be there. We had an awesome ham dinner (I might be biased becuase Mike cooked the ham) and a wonderful time together. Mel went and hid a bunch of eggs in her backyard for the little cousins all to find. This time Eli knew exactly what to do. He was a pro at gathering eggs and putting them in the basket. We all had a wonderful time seeing all of the family and enjoying a beautiful day.

And then it was Easter. This year General Conference was over Easter weekend. I love conference weekend and the ability to stay at home and relax and enjoy listening to all the wonderful talks. This Easter and conference weekend was especially easy. The Easter Bunny actually put our basket together in the kitchen while Eli was eating breakfast.

I'm pretty sure this is the last time it will be that easy. Eli loved the all the fun things to find in the Easter basket. He even found a Cadbury creme egg and started to unwrap and eat it. I helped out by completely unwrapping it, and then grabbing the camera to catch his astonished expression at the goodness he was experiencing.

He also had fun finding the Diamondback tickets we got for Easter.

I'm a Mommy

Occasionally I have a moment where it hits me, "Wow. I'm a mom." It's the kind of realization that is both overwhelming and exhilarating. Sometimes I get so used to the routine of life that I feel more like I am playing house and forget how real this all is. Plus I think there is a small part of me that wants to believe I'm still 14. So when I have these moments I am flooded by the awe and wonder that is motherhood. I had such a moment this morning.
 While he is only 13 months old, Eli is surprisingly independent. He's been walking and playing on his own for a few months now, so our house is pretty childproof. I was watching conference while Eli was roaming around the house. He was back playing in the dogs room when he toddled out, walked up to me, and tapped me on the shoulder with a worried look on his face. Then he opened his mouth to show me that he'd eaten something gross. I think it was drywall. I have no idea where he got it, but he definitely did not want it to be in his mouth. He had this sweet childlike look on his face that said, "Mommy, something is wrong. I need you to fix it." I cleaned out what I could with my fingers and then took him to the bathroom to wash the rest out. Thankfully he hadn't chewed yet and it was just a few big chunks.
For some reason, probably from watching conference, this simple indecent touched my heart. Eli wasn't hurt, he wasn't screaming or crying, he just needed his mom to fix something for him. How lucky I am to be the mommy for this amazing little boy.

Climb Every Mountain

When you are 13 months old everything looks like a mountain. Eli has taken the Sound of Music lyrics very seriously, and he tries to climb everything! This includes our bookshelves, his jumper, our tall kitchen chairs, into the dishwasher, off our bed (it is at least 6 inches taller than him, but he mastered climbing off the bed all on his own a few months ago!), over Mommy and Daddy, on the vacuum, I mean everywhere!
As mentioned before, we love going outside, and with such an active boy I've learned that outside is the safest place for him (well,  safe for our house at least). Eli has discovered the joy of the toys at the park. He is still enamored by the plants, but is willing to play with the toys now too. What he loves is trying to climb up the slide and cruising all around the play gyms. The slide was a bit of a problem becuase he could climb onto it but didn't know how to get down. At first he tried just stepping off, and of course he stumbled off a few times in his climbing, but he's finally figured out how to climb off as well. The nice part is that this kid rarely cries. Even when he falls backwards off the slide, he'll usually just jump up and start climbing again. It helps that he figured out how to hold his head up when he falls many, many months ago. I swear, this kid has had six-pack abs forever! Today, however, he finally met his match. He was just finishing lunch and Mike opened up our sliding glass door to the backyard. This set Eli off and he immediately started trying to climb out of his chair so he could go outside. I came over to get him down and clean him up--he did have some messy oranges with lunch. As soon as I took the tray off he started to wiggle. Of course, I held him down and started to wipe off his face. I certainly did not expect what happened next. Eli jumped over the SIDE of his seat and onto the tile--face first. I screamed and grabbed in time to catch his foot, just as his noggin was meeting the tile. I think my scream upset him more than the fall did, even though he did get a nice goose egg on his forehead. He needed me to snuggle with him for a minute and reassure him that everything was fine and he was ready to play. He didn't forget Daddy had opened the door and was determined to go outside. Now Eli has a huge black and blue bump on his head and I feel like an awful mom. The good news is that we are taking family pictures next week, so this mark will be immortalized for posterity. At least we are going with a blue color scheme, the bruise is sure to match!
(pictures of the bump to come soon, these are all I have downloaded for now)
Admittedly, he was a little stuck when I took this picture, but he put himself there. SuperEli!

Why yes Mommy. I would love to help you vacuum!

Backyardigans

We have grass!

Mike has been working incredibly hard in the backyard, and Eli loves to be outside supervising while Daddy works. This is all the grass we have so far, but much, much more is coming. Eli absolutely loves it.

Along with the grass we have an incredibly fruitful backyard. And yes, that is a pun. I'm not sure how many trees and plants and bushes there are in totaly, but it's got to be upwards of 30. Included are ...

Apple trees

Peppers (ahem, super HOT peppers!)

Peach trees

Blueberry bushes

Orange and grapefruit trees

Avocado trees

Rose bushes

Basil 

And so much more. Let's see...what isn't listed is the plumb tree, apricot tree, pear trees, cherry trees, blackberry bushes, raspberry bushes, strawberry patch, tomato plants, grape vines, gardenias, a pine tree, and some random kind of bush I don't know but it's pretty. I'm surely forgetting something, or things, but this is what we have going so far. It is all young, but we are hopeful that everything will grow and be happy little trees and plants, and, of course, be absolutely delicious! 

We don't only love all of this and hope to be somewhat self-sufficient, but it is amazing how motivating it can be to have a kid. Eli, we're doing this all for you!

A Walk in the Park

This is from the week after Eli's birthday. He absolutely LOVES being outside and he absolutely LOVES riding his trike. I try to take him on a walk or to the park every day. It's been raining a ton down here, which has put a damper on things (pun intended, heehee) but he still loves to go out. He does so well holding onto the trike that I can just go on a really long walk and not worry about him falling off or anything. The only thing he does is grab for flowers when they are close enough to him. He loves to smell flowers--something his Daddy taught him. Oh, and we get tons of comments, and even a few car honks, becuase of his cuteness. I mean, how adorable is it to see a little 12 month old riding a trike?


Pretty Darn!!


Climbing the rope tower with Daddy


Eli is much more interested in the plants at the park than he is in the toys.


Looking at some leaves with Daddy.




While he loves touching the plants and rocks, he hates touching the sand. If he isn't close enough to cement he'll fuss until I come help him get up. Here he is being so careful not to touch the sand.


He even had a problem touching the grass at first, but we got him used to that pretty quickly.




The puppies got to come, too!