fruit-puffs

Eliot has been learning to eat some finger-food. We've been giving him little fruit-puffs. They are about the size of a Cheerio, but star-shaped. They are mostly air, and "dissolve easily in baby's mouth". At first he thought they were toys, and he sang to them while poking at them with his thumb. So I sat in front of him and picked one up and put it in my mouth with an over-dramatic, "MMMMMMM!!! THIS IS DEEEE-LICIOUS!" Then I picked one up and put it in his mouth, repeating my Oscar-worthy performance. It didn't take long before he was picking them up himself and putting them in his own mouth. He's still learning to be delicate with his fingers, and sometimes the puff gets caught up in the folds of his palm, but he's so proud when he finally gets one in his mouth.

grocery shopping fun

After school yesterday, Eliot and I went to the grocery store. Eliot LOVES the grocery store. He swings his feet, tries to eat my list, thoroughly inspects everything I put in the basket, and smiles at all the passers-by. Yesterday he added "Screaming With Delight" to the list. He discovered that if he screams really loud, his voice will reverberate off of the grocery store ceiling, and throughout the aisles. He'd scream and I would turn pink and say "SSHhhh!" and smile sheepishly at all of the nearby Bruno's patrons. When I got to the checkout line, the cashier asked, "is this the one I've been hearing through the store?" Eliot smiled at her and shook his head with a, "NANANA!" That's right, kid, deny it to the end!

As a side note, despite his screaming, I had three different ladies and a bag boy stop to tell me how cute he was. He must be REALLY cute to get three different compliments, even with the screaming.

learning to cook

We went to Deenie's house today and stayed all day! First, we went out to lunch. Eliot was so good. He sat up in his high chair and ate graham crackers while everyone else ate. Then we went back to Deenie's house and helped her make a cake. Eliot was a big helper with a bowl and a spatula. He stirred and stirred. All that practice with patty-cake has really paid off.

eight months old

Yesterday was Eliot's 8-month birthday. He weighs about 22 pounds, and he's about 27 1/2 inches long. He's got two shiny white teeth on the bottom. He can't crawl yet, but from a sitting position, he'll lean all the way forward and put himself on his stomach. Then he can roll around front to back and back to front. He also twists himself around in a circle. He loves graham crackers, peaches, oranges, wagon wheels... pretty much anything he can feed himself. We use a baby-safe feeder to give him fresh fruit.

Other things he loves - back rubs, smacking two toys together to make LOUD noise, bath time, other kids, and yelling "NANANANANANA".

let's change the subject

I know I just posted a few days ago about how Eliot can hold his bottle all by himself, but, well, here's the thing... He really prefers not to. As I dropped him off today at school, I noticed his friend Cole was drinking a bottle without any help. So I pointed it out to Eliot, who was sitting on the floor, very intently playing with some toys. "Look, Eliot," said I, "Cole is holding his bottle all by himself." He looked at me, then at Cole, then at Ms. Valerie. He shook his head vigorously and went back to his toys. "Hey, Eliot," I repeated, "you think you could do that, too?" Again, he looked at me, then at Cole, then at Ms. Valerie. "NANANANANA!" he yelled, and went back to his toys. Now, I'm almost positive that his cognitive skills are not advanced enough for him to have done that on purpose... All the same, I got the idea - he didn't want to talk about it. I think he was unimpressed with Cole. "Sure, he's advanced enough to hold his own bottle, but is he advanced enough to get YOU to do it?"

bouncin's what Eliots do best!

Eliot has really been enjoying the bouncer that Lauren let us borrow. At first he was a little confused, but it didn't take him long to figure out how to work the contraption. I'm sure it's going to be a pretty short-lived toy, but for now, he can always bee cheered up by a few minutes in the swing, as evidenced by this silly face that he's making.

weathering the storm

Well, we weathered Ivan pretty well down here. We lost power for a day or so - Brian tells me we were out for 26 hours. Eliot didn't care - as long as he had food (which he did), toys (plenty), Mommy and Daddy (check!), and bed (moved to a different part of the house, but there all the same). We did have a tree that fell over our deck stairs, but amazingly, it's still sort of hovering over the stairs - nothing was damaged. Right before it fell, Oliver ran and hid under the chair. Ok, he didn't do a very good job at it, but he tried. We think maybe he anticipated the collapse.

new pictures

I posted a few new pictures on the gallery. Go see!

no need for handles

On Sunday, Deenie, Eliot and I went to Babies R Us to shop. We bought lots of stuff - some new clothes, new books, and a high chair for Deenie's house. I also wanted to pick up a bottle with handles, although I didn't even know if they made something like that. Eliot has been practicing with a sippy cup, but just can't seem to get the idea of the hard plastic mouthpiece. Well, I couldn't find anything like that, but it seems that I won't need it. When we got back to Deenie's house, she handed him his bottle, and he took it from her and started drinking, as if he's been doing it his whole life.

no toys in here

Whenever I give Eliot a container with several toys to choose from, he gets this cute little curious look on his face, like, "huh, wonder what's in here." He'll peer over inside and kinda hover his hand over each of toys as if to say, "I.. think.. I'll... chooooosssseee... THIS ONE!" And then grab one!

This morning, he was playing with his toys in this manner when it was time for school. So when I picked him up, he stretched out the collar of my shirt, and peered inside, with his hand poised and hovering. Suddenly, he dove his hand in! I guess he was still looking for toys.

more cross-blogging

Here's a nice little post from Lauren's website. We love you, too, Lauren!

party time! excellent!

Eliot has been partying all weekend long! We went to a party on Friday night, where there were lots of other kids to play with. Eliot watched as they ran around the house and made noise. He smiled and waved his arms. On Saturday, we went to another party - this time a dinner party. There were not any other kids there, but Eliot stayed up until NINE o'clock! He didn't even fuss at all. He smiled at our hostess, Elizabeth, and all of the other guests remarked about what a well-behaved boy he was. Elizabeth has a dog, Nero, that Eliot couldn't get enough of. Nero, on the other hand, had plenty of Eliot, and spent a large portion of the evening hiding under the table. There was a brief change of heart during dinner, when Eliot kept dropping his bread on the floor. He got to try mashed potatoes and cherry cobbler. For the record - he loved both!

cross-blogging

Here's a little picture that Steph posted on Lauren's website. They came over a couple of weeks ago and we had a little living-room picnic. Eliot had his first taste of hummus, and he liked it pretty good! Although, I think he likes just about anything that he can shove into his mouth right now! Also, for those of you who notice, Steph has taken to calling him Elito instead of Eliot because she keeps mis-typing his name. Now it's stuck.

hangin with Javey

Friday night, Eliot spent the evening with Tracey and Sonya while we went to Holly and Mike's rehearsal dinner. He's having a little phase of separation anxiety, and was somewhat upset when I left him. He fussed and cried until, finally, Tracey got out her computer. Before she could even open it, Eliot had calmed down. This does not help my "I'm not raising a geek" case one bit!

After Eliot napped a while, he awoke to even more new people. Tracey had some friends over, one of whom was 4-year-old Javier. Eliot was enthralled with him. At dinner, he sat on Tracey's lap and stared at Javey, waiting for him to speak. Whenever he said anything, Eliot would grin and bounce up and down. Javey is going to be getting a baby sister soon, so he was very interested in how babies work. He helped Tracey at bathtime, and even helped change a diaper. Then they sat in the floor and watched a little bit of Finding Nemo. By the time Brian and I arrived to pick him up, he was sound asleep.