Happy Thanksgiving

We spent a very nice Thanksgiving at the Summervilles. Eli is warming up so much faster to people, and by the end of the night was a little chatterbox. He got to spend a lot of the time with Grammie, Dendi, BaPa and BaBo. His two favorite unusual things to do were being lifted up to touch the top of the Christmas tree or the ceiling and hiding Duplo Bob in the Christmas tree. Go figure. :)

Chocolate Cupcake (sort of) and a 16 week Belly Shot

Eli's favorite thing in the world is chocolate. The other night I made cupcakes, and we ate a few plain, without the icing. He liked them. Then, a few nights later I finally got around to making the icing. Eli got to eat a little of the icing as I made it -- he loved it. Then, after dinner, we cut him a quarter of a cupcake and put it on his plate. He took one look at it and said, "Daddy, take the bread off." Apparently, the cupcake part was no longer acceptable, now that he had tried the icing. Scott obliged, and Eli ate a dessert of chocolate frosting while we laughed.






Here are our first attempts at belly shots. We decided that the best bare wall in the house is next to Eli's bed. But, of course me standing on Eli's bed was very exciting, since he can only be on his knees or bottom on his bed with it's new height. So, of course, since Mommy was standing on the bed, he had to join in the fun. And, you'll have to excuse my tired eyes. We've had a challenging few days. Eli's been sick since Tuesday, and we both have had some horrible night's sleep. I think he's finally on the mend, but of course, now Scott's sick.

Dendi Love and Nudie Basket Boy

Scott, Eli and I are very fortunate to live so close to family. They provide support in countless ways. One weekly way is Dendi on Monday mornings. She comes over every Monday morning, which helps me tremendously. That way I have one day that I can count on to make all my appointments, and when I don't have an appointment I can go to the morning Yoga class. I've been really enjoying Yoga, and even though my belly has started getting in the way (no more Cobra pose, or flat on my back at the end of the class) I've been trying to attend about four classes a week. It's been great, and I'm very lucky to have such a supportive husband and Mother in Law to watch Eli while I go, Grammie and Ba-Bo have watched him a few times too. Here are some pictures of Eli and Dendi from Monday morning.




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Eli loves to be naked, or at least run around with just a diaper on. Whenever I get him out of his clothes, he wriggles away and runs through the house giggling. The other morning he decided to go sit in a basket nudie. The first picture shows the face he makes when I ask him to smile for the camera. Not exactly a smile, but pretty funny nonetheless.

Careful Scrabble, Atlanta Sunday and Tea with Grammie

Last night, we played Scrabble, and Eli helped pick and place our letters for about half of the game. Eventually, he got bored, and wanted to just play with the letters. I told him that he needed to wait until we were finished with our game. Reluctantly, he did. When it was his turn, he carefully took one tile out of the bag at a time and placed them in perfect rows. This is the travel version of Scrabble, so the tiles snap into place, some snap more successfully than others. But, he was amazingly patient. He's been like that with tiny fine motor tasks since about 6-8 mos. He used to love putting Cheerios into tiny containers, one by one. Of course, I didn't think to get the camera out until he had started dismantling all his hard work, but originally, they were all in neat, full rows.




Then today, we spent a beautiful, albeit cold, day in Atlanta. We try to go into Atlanta once every few weeks to make a Trader Joe's run. And, we try to do other things in Atlanta while we're there. Unfortunately, Uncle Brian was still in Houston on business. But, we did end up going to Ikea, Trader Joe's and most importantly Eli's favorite playground at Piedmont Park. We did get a little picture crazy, but his face just lit up from the second we set foot in the playground. We couldn't resist.




















Then tonight, we went to Grammie and Ba-Bo's house for pizza. As the night wore on Eli got in his pajamas and had his first tea party with Grammie. It's getting so fun now that he's starting to do pretend play.

Eli's Song

Scottie wrote a song for Eli, it makes me cry, then again I'm pregnant -- everything makes me cry :) Here it is:

Eli is a Boy

GCD (Indigo Girl Style)

Eli is a boy and he lives in a house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house
It’s yellow and it’s small and it’s Eli’s house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house

Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
She makes him lots of pancakes and she gives him nummies
They go to Jumping-bridge Park to allergy shots
Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
Eli is a boy and he loves her a lot

Eli is a boy and he likes to play puzzles
He likes to read his books and he likes a good snuggle
He likes to play with trains and with Duplo blocks
Eli is a boy and he plays a lot

Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
His daddy fixes toys and makes him lots of stuff
His daddy sings him songs and builds him cool track combos
Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
Eli is a boy and he loves him a lot

Eli is a boy who really likes to jump
On beds and on the floor he just can’t get enough
He loves to dance in daddy’s arms and when there’s a tune
Just say, “It’s time to dance,” and then you’ll wanna dance too

Eli is a boy and he loves his Kitty
His kitty is named Koody and she sleeps a lot
Tolerates him while she’s making grumpy faces
Eli is a boy and he loves his cat
Eli is a boy and she loves him back

Eli is a boy and he has an Elmo
The furry little monster that he likes to squeeze
He watches C for Cookie and his ABCs
Loves all the other things he sees on Sesame Street

Eli is a boy and he likes to run
He likes to count the sprinklers and he likes to have fun
He likes to fly around and play some hide and go seek
His favorite color’s yellow, he thinks chocolates’ a treat


Eli is a boy and he loves his mommy
Eli is a boy and he loves his daddy
Eli is a boy and he loves his Koody
Eli is a boy and we love him too
Eli is a boy and we love him too

Eli is a boy and he lives in a house
Eli is a boy and he loves his house

Bulldozer and Backyard Time

When Eli got up this morning he'd soaked through through his diaper, and his pajamas were a little wet. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because it meant that I got him in a clean diaper and REAL CLOTHES a few minutes after getting out of bed. Dendi came over this morning to watch Eli so I could go to my midwife appointment. Nothing new to report, everything looks good.

When I got home, after we ate lunch, we played outside for a couple of hours, mostly in the backyard. It's a beautiful, crisp fall day and we got to play with the accompaniment of a bulldozer. When we bought our house, the lot behind us was empty and wooded. We knew there was always a possibility that they could build on the lot, and finally last year someone bought it. They knocked down all the trees and moved dirt around for about six months of last year. Of course for a toddler boy it was like heaven. One of his first words was dump truck (duh-tra), and we spent many hours in the backyard watching the progress. Then, after about six months, everything stopped. They had built an orthodontic's office on the far side of the lot. But, nothing right behind our house. It was a mixed blessing. When they cleared out the trees, it reduced the bugs in our yard, but now there's just a big pile of dirt instead. Yesterday, they resumed construction. These first few pictures show the bulldozer, it's pretty small and behind the trees in the second shot.





Of course the noisy bulldozer only added to the excitement, and Eli had a ball (no pun intended) throwing a ball, retrieving it from the bushes with his shovel, playing with his loader and bulldozer and taking rocks and pinecones in and out of his house.












It's amazing what fun you can have outside when you decide to get dressed!