Eli is Cat Angling!

Watch the video and you too will become a believer! Shiva was gracious enough to participate in this production.

Eli's Crawling!

...and smiling, and laughing, and swinging, and sticking his tongue out too! Well a couple of weeks ago, Eli began a new chapter in his life, one of mobility. Mom and Dad can't just leave the room anymore and expect Eli to be in the same place as when we left. Eli has now got wheels, or should I say "knees"? The whole ballgame has changed, and we may not have much time to adjust before he is vertical. He's is starting to pull himself up on tables and chairs. Wish us luck!

Alright, we are terrible parents

It's been so long since we've updated Eli's blog, and he's reminded us of it, in his own little way, daily.

So where to begin? Eli's crawling now (kind of)... he's still not racing across the floor (whew says dad). He's trying to pull himself up on things. He likes to go in the 'tripod' position (up on his tippie toes with one hand in the air and one anchored on the floor). He likes to smack his lips and make growling noises (seriously, it's hilarious). He is eating so much food (pretty much whatever you put in front of him). He's still breastfeeding. As a result of both of these actions, has almost adult like poo (and dad is designated poo scraper). He enjoys frozen teething biscuits a lot and tends to make a big mess. He has become a political activist (as evidenced by the pictures below). He LOVES his new bike trailer. He had a lot of fun picking out his Halloween pumpkin, but didn't enjoy Halloween quite as much as we thought he would, since there weren't many trick or treaters. He loves visiting the animals at the zoo. He really loves Amanda, his nanny. He was exhausted after early voting and has the sticker to prove it. He loves doing whipped cream hits. He loves to have his own leash when we walk the dogs. He is quite the ladies man and flirts shamelessly. He likes feeding himself puffs. He loves his baby blue, velour Nike warm up suit. He is REALLY hoping Obama wins tonight (he went to see him Monday morning).

Here are some pictures since we last updated his blog:

And for those who braved through all the pictures, he's a video of Eli enjoying the 'big boy' swing:

Eli's Growing So Much!

For those of you out there that read about Eli as much as you can, we're sorry! Mom and dad's lives have been a bit hectic lately and they've neglected to keep Eli's site updated.

Believe it or not, Eli's got four upper teeth! The two newest started pushing through last Friday. We can't see any new bottom teeth yet, but have a feeling more are on the way. His dad's a little worried he might keep the space between his top teeth. His grandpa joked and called him Bucky Beaver when he spent quality time with him during last weekend's Jaguar's game.

Eli's becoming MUCH more aware of his surroundings. He takes time to watch and study everything. He still likes to orally examine everything (i.e. likes to put it in his mouth) and is still getting on his hand and knees and rocking a bit, so we think it's only a matter of time before he takes off! Mom got him some 'baby legs' (http://www.babylegs.net/) to protect his legs from the hardwood floots. Let's just hope they'll fit over his chubby legs in the upcoming months! He's also eating a lot more 'food', though most of it doesn't require a lot of chewing.

Eli and mom have had what I guess you could call challenge matches recently. With his new teeth, he's taken to biting (and drawing blood in a few cases) when nursing (yes, he's still nursing), likes to pinch and pull out hand fulls of hair. Mom's polled a few other nursing moms to find out what they did to combat the biting, so hopefully a few tried and true methods will help curb Eli's need to chomp down.

Here are a few picture of Eli over the past few weeks...


Eli and Holden at Kid's Campus. We won't go into the cloth diaper scandal, but suffice it to say, the City of Jacksonville isn't environmentally concerned and thinks everyone should wear plastic.



Eli, dad and granma on St Augustine Beach. We stayed part of Labor Day weekend in what was supposed to be a four star hotel. I'm not sure what rating scale they were using, so we'll just say that Eli really enjoyed the beach and we'll leave it at that.

Eli's first Artwalk in downtown Jacksonville! He got to check out quite a bit, but I think the highlight was this Packard...

Eli's first visit (with mom and dad in tow at least) to the bar at Burrito Gallery. He LOVES the ginger teryaki tofu and guacamole there and just had to check out the bar with dad.

Eli Rides Out Tropical Storm Fay

Eli weathered (no pun intended) his first tropical disturbance - Tropical Storm Fay. The news certainly sensationalized it a bit more than necessary, but there was a lot to clean up this past weekend.... the Lakewood house has a small hole in the roof over the garage and the carport was damaged. The Riverside house has a yucky mess of muck in the backyard (and even yuckier under the house) and we had to replace a water swelled shed door, but all in all, down limbs from all the wind and standing water from all the rain, not too bad.

Eli enjoyed the first part of the storm.... who wouldn't! Lots of wind in your face as you swing on the front porch. That suddenly turned nasty as the wind kicked up and the rain literally pelted the front porch. We just moved the party inside! Eli got to watch the Olympics. He and dad are kind of partial to women's beach volleyball and they can't understand why the US track teams couldn't pass the battons.

Eli has three teeth now! Two on top (so he kind of looks like Bugs Bunny since they are spaced out a bit) and a sharp one on the bottom right. He's been very fussy lately and doesn't want to take naps. Afterall, he could miss something! He's also rocking if you put him on his hands and knees before he goes flat onto the ground.

Here's some video of Eli eating some mediterranean tofu scramble (yes, he likes tofu) during the storm. Sorry for the angle. Mom always forgets we don't have video editing software.



Here are a few pictures we've collected over the last few weeks:


Eli sampling this year's Georgia peach crop. I'm not sure peaches were a huge hit.


Carrots were the next week's food and as you can tell, Eli was a little concerned by the color they might turn his poop.


Enjoying outside before the big storm hit.


Yes, they make me lift this huge ball as part of my workout.... I've got the pipes to prove it!


Eli modeling one of Anomaly's t shirts.

Family Picture Time!

Here are a few images from our family picture shoot with Molly:

Wow, look who's sitting up on his own!

We know it's been a while, but we wanted Eli to be able to perfect sitting up on his own before we posted any new pictures or video. And what a job he's done!

He's had a busy couple of weeks. He went to his first political event, an Obama organizational event. He spent some quality time with his Granpa and Great Grandma Crain arguing about President Bush (Eli maintains he has hurt our country; his great grandma believes differently). He's been busy mowing the lawn at the Lakewood house on the weekends. He's been trying new foods... avocado most recently, next on the list, peaches (but only if they are from Georgia per dad). He likes to gnaw on apples and celery an awful lot. He's been hanging out with Holden and learning new things. He's been swimming at Epping with Amanda. He got to sit in a high chair out for breakfast for the first time. He's been working on two top teeth (yes, believe it or not, they look like they're close to coming in!) He and granma got to read a book together. He's starting to clap! And he's got a new routine. We still haven't figured out what it's supposed to be.... an imitation of a motorcycle or Eli just showing off his pipes (i.e. biceps). And, most importantly, sitting up on his own (with a pillow behind in case he gets tired and falls back).