Five Months & Dang Cute

Our sweet little boy is a chunky, smiley, drooly 5-month-old now. Can you believe it?

I knew I would love being a Mom, or rather, I earnestly hoped I would, but I couldn't come close to imaging how much I would adore our little man.

Here's just a few things of the reasons we love him so very much:

1. He gets so excited when he eats rice cereal that his little legs pump up and down and he grabs my hands and helps me feed him. I can almost hear him saying, "Faster mama!"


2. He scoots himself backward across the floor, usually ending up with his legs tucked underneath the sofa and a perplexed smile on his face.

3. He pulls his little body up into a plank position, simultaneously grunting with the effort and cooing with the success of it all. He's just starting to tuck his knees up under his bum and rock forward.

4. He sleeps. Usually, he sleeps from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. or so, the again until 10, with a nap at noon and around 5 p.m. He falls asleep also almost anytime he's in the stroller, which makes for nice shopping time for me!

5. He is an enthusiastic jumper. He loves, loves, loves his jumperoo. I have to watch him though, because sometimes he gets so over-stimulated by all the bouncing and toys that I have to take him out before he starts gnawing on his hands in wide-eyed anxiety.


6. He learned how to suck his thumb a few months ago, and he is great about soothing himself whenever he is sleepy. I'm grateful I don't have to bumble around in the middle of the night looking for a binkie! He also loves sucking on his tres en vogue giraffe from France named Sophie.



7. He gets a kick out of looking at himself in the mirror. All I have to say is, "Who's that baby?" and he leans toward the mirror with a sloppy grin and a scrunched up nose. It's adorable.

8. He doesn't mind being changed, riding in cars and sitting on our laps being calm (we even made it through a whole Messiah concert with barely a peep). He gets mildly annoyed by being put in his car seat. He is concurently afraid and enthusiastic in the shower.
 


We adore our little man: his defined jaw, his laughs, his leg chub, his squeals, his eyelashes, his flirting with strangers...

Pretty much everything that Eli does is so adorable that I wish I could capture it all in vivid detail. Fortunately, I have photos. Lots of them. (Have you noticed?)

Eli doing his almost-crawl:

A very jumpy, laughing nearly naked baby:

Thanksgiving Greatness



Our little elf.

 Mike and I spent a blissfully relaxing week visited his family in California. We stayed with Mike's Mom and Dad in their beautiful home up near Lake Tahoe and enjoyed looking at the beautiful mountains, pine trees, and even a little bit of snow. We laughed with family. We read. We watched HGTV. We ate.

Pretty much, it was great. Here's a bit of the fun:

Some of Mike's family at his parent's house.

Eli thought Uncle Steve was hilarious.

Riding 4 Wheelers

Eli and Grammy

Mike and his sisters, Katrina and Merrily.

 We even had a few firsts for Eli while there, including:

• Teething
• Eating his first real food, a piece of avocado at IHOP
• Getting his first present
• Perfecting his roll and his sitting, and getting much better at scooting his little body forward

I made our vacation a little more stressful when I read our itinerary wrong and made us miss our flight on the way back, but overall, we had a very relaxing, laid back time. It was so fun to be able to be with family!

Here's little man laughing:

And him making the cutest noise ever while making a new friend:

Friendly Faces

When Mike and I were first married, we lived in the same apartment complex as my old roomie, Tracy, and her husband, Doug. We had so much fun hanging out with them and did all sorts of exciting things like camping, watching Smallville and taking trips to far off places like Bear Lake and Mount Rushmore. We got to know them so well that they were our first friends that we bickered in front of (four days in the car to listening to The Da Vinci Code will do that to you). They live in Dallas now and decided to come down a few weeks ago to meet Mr. Eli.

 Because, seriously, who wouldn't want to kiss these little cheeks?

Here are the guys hanging out and watching TV, just like old times... except for the fact that our menfolk have more than doubled since the Smallville days!

 We went to the sunken gardens and enjoyed the coy fish and pretty flowers. It was horribly humid, but we survived.

We even got to ride an awesome little train that took us all around the park. The best part? Mike and Doug got to go see a manly movie while Tracy and I stayed home and watched a chick flick and talked about our personality colors. She even gave me an amazing shoulder massage (lugging around an 18 pound baby can make for some serious muscle knots). Thanks for coming to visit us, Myers!