Sleeping

When not making my latte for me, he can be found falling asleep on long walks in the stroller.

Christmas morning!

(merry christmas from our little elf)

Merry, happy Christmas!

From our home to yours...

Cart ride

a new chair

Still

Sunday

The tie didn't last long (little big). Now we are just resting up for a Christmas party this evening! Tis the season for dress up and smiles.. Eli's favorite.

dinner and a bath

it's kind of obvious how this went down...
Eli enjoyed every second of it!

baby make mama some espresso?

Ok. The most adorable wooden baby coffee maker at a favorite nearby coffee shop. Please Santa?

Fresh air

round 2

we went back to story time at the central library! 

we even had it together (barely) in time to catch the streetcar. so that was our ride. 

and it's sunny out. recipe for a perfect outing. 

but this mama has had to come to terms with the fact that getting out the door in the morning (and not even the early morning... just say, prior to 11 or so) means letting go of a few things. 

there will be crumbs left on the counter. things will be scattered. and as i run around getting ready a little person will bulldoze behind me plowing through anything in his way. and i won't have time to put it back. but that's ok. sometimes we just need to get out of the house. 

eli enjoyed story time again today. bubbles might be his favorite part. 

there are some good songs as well. 

and he was particularly cuddly this morning. he really liked my lap. 

but when the toys bin came out he was right up there with the rest of them. 

i may have witnessed an elbow or two fighting to get some blocks. 

and there was a little girl intent on cleaning up the toys before it was time. she wanted to take each toy from eli's hands and put it back in the bin. 

don't worry, i fought for my kid. 

she may have gotten one or two of my elbows.

(ok, just kidding!!). 

he actually did the lip quiver, quiet, face drop, and then eyes close and full on cry the second time she took something away from him. 

but i made it alright (and no, not by elbowing anyone :).

and then we walked home. a good 30 minutes of city sidewalks and waterfront paths brought us back here in time for lunch. and to a messy house :)

a climber

Let's just say the stool got put away after these pictures were taken. It's a bit too wobbly, thus dangerous, and naturally he loves it. This mama can't always be the spotter.

reading while driving

brunch

And this also documents the mastery of the sippy cup! That one happened about 13 months (3-4 weeks ago). And by mastery I mean he really can do it all by himself.

Saturday morning in bed

He woke up at 8, like clockwork. Eyes shut in slumber one minute, opened and chattering about the next. He is very talkative in the mornings and we find his dialect of baby gibberish adorable.

Wall climbing

I knew the day would come when his little mind would wonder, "can I climb these walls?"

Double duty

I gave Eli the mop while I used the swiffer, thinking this would keep him happy. It did. Until I was finished and he juggled both all over these floors. It looked quite difficult for him.

Caution: baby ahead

our son loves caution signs. 

something about the yellow?

the foldability?

the nearness in height to himself?

the challenge of dragging it around, then making it stand up again?

probably a little of all the above. 

the problem is that when we see a caution sign we just can't get it off our mind. 

and by we i mean him. 

he starts the kicking to get down, pleading with you as he jerks his head in the direction of the sign, longing to be freed to go and touch it. 

then he starts his happy baby giggles.

anyways... yesterday we were at a hospital visiting a friend and while eli did quite well (and gave our friend lots of laughs and smiles), we needed a little "hall time" during the visit. so baby and i went into the hall. we had dachshund with us so we pulled him around for a while. and then he spotted the sign. he played with it, dragged it about, collapsed it, propped it up, studied it, the usual. this was by no means the first time we've encountered one of these signs. he was in trader joes pushing his little cart when he spotted one and immediately dropped the cart and made a beeline for the thing. then after i finally managed to get him back to pushing his cart we got halfway down an aisle and he just let go and started running to the sign. thankfully when it's really, truly time to go he does pretty well. a bit of fussing but no screaming.

so then fast forward to later in the evening and we are getting some dinner as a little weekend treat to all the amazing family time we'd been getting (2 days with daddy at home!). eli runs about, coming and going from the table, finding dogs he can play with, charming others or interrupting their dinner, and so on. then he sees a caution sign. he's gone. so we actually dragged the sign with us to where we were eating, just hoping that no one would slip on the floor and sue us because the sign was missing. 

eli was happy.

now we need santa to do a little research and see if he can find us a caution sign for christmas.