The World According to Eli

Okay. So don't judge me because my title came from Paris Hilton's new TV show. And also don't judge me because I have somehow managed to see every episode so far. Dang. Just when I thought watching Desperate Housewives was the low in my TV viewing.

Anyway. Eli's been doing funny things lately so I thought I should take a minute to document.

Eli has learned to sign "all done" and "more." Great, right? Nope. Bath time was my no-fail-calm-Eli-down-for-a-half-hour-before-bed strategy. Now he sits in the tub for two minutes and signs all done. Ugh. Mealtime is the same way. I used to keep him locked in a high chair for hours lobbing bits of food at him when needed. Now I see those tiny hands waving "all done" and I'm forced to acknowledge his wishes of escaping the high chair or bath.

He started testing the stairs again by throwing objects down them. I fear his tests are signs of an upcoming attempt to walk down the stairs.  And we just took the baby gate down.

When Eli so happily signs "all done" from his high chair and I go to take the tray of food away from him, he, without fail, will grab one last handful of food just before it's out of reach. He's been doing that for about 4 months now and I still laugh every time it happens.

Last month when Eli would get into mischief, he would say to himself, "No, no." At first I thought it was cute he knew he was doing something he shouldn't be doing. Then I thought maybe we were saying "no" too much so I tried to cut back on my "no" usage. Today when he was running for the trash can and would usually be repeating, "No, no, no, no," he growled instead. This happened several times after that which has given me a new worry -- that I've somehow replaced my "no"s with growls. And now I can't decide which is worse.

He has started jabbering nonstop. I love that he thinks he's saying things we can understand. And I love the way his pudgy little head bobbles up and down as he's constructing his nonsense sentences.

He loves to watch people. When we go to the grocery store he lays his head on the side of the cart so he can see around me.

He's a little cutie and we love all his quirks.