September 28

Happy 8-month birthday to Eli! He celebrated the day by taking crummy naps and being generally irritable. I'm really hoping he's working on a tooth, but the reality is that his first tooth is probably still a few months away.

Still, I tried my best to take his birthday pictures. We tried outside, where he wanted to Eat All The Leaves.

I suppose that's really a hallmark of an 8-month-old, though, so I decided to roll with it.

Eli has finally mastered sitting, and is - for the most part - stable and trustworthy. He tips over occasionally, but he can now sit and pivot and reach with 95% stability.

I know, Amber. You and Miss Edie-who-walked-the-moment-she-was-born are laughing at this, but we don't mind. Your family clearly dominates; mine will sit on the sidelines and watch, hopefully without tipping over.

Eli also showed me today that he can do a pretty impressive army crawl! It's still new enough to be a novelty, rather than his go-to mode of transportation, but I was excited nonetheless.

Mmm.... leaves...

Ack... stems...

Nom nom nom!

Yuck!

Let's try this again...

Eli is also working on his eating skills. His favorite foods right now are avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, string cheese, and frozen broccoli florets. He's still nursing approximately 6 times a day, but the number jumps to about 37 times a day when you factor in his nighttime nursing. 

Luckily (?) he's still in bed with me, so it's not that big of a deal.

Who am I kidding? It's a huge deal, I'm exhausted, and I can't wait for this child to figure things out and sleep through the night in his own crib.

But that seems to be a long time off, so I'm lying to myself trying to make peace with it.

Eventually the leaf-eating got to the point of utter ridiculousness, so we came inside. 

Hi there, handsome!

Then Eli found this plastic bag, and it became his new favorite toy.

(Yes, Mom. I know that plastic bags are a suffocation hazard, and that they should never be used as toys. I promise I was an arm's length from Eli the whole time, and I never looked away from him.)

If video of babies playing with plastic bags doesn't stress you out, this is a funny (but long and boring) video of not quite 3 minutes of Eli playing with a bag.

To be honest, it's probably only funny and cute to me and to Chris. 

My mom will either enjoy it or have a panic attack from it.

Auntie Grace will like it.

The rest of you can probably skip it. But I think it's sweet.

Just like I think this goofy little face is sweet!

Seriously. He's always this sweet.

Don't you just want to kiss him? I do. I'm pretty sure he's asleep in the Ergo on Chris' chest right now, but I may go wake him up and kiss him.

Just kidding. We'll get plenty of snuggle time all night long, so I don't need to do anything rash. (Can you tell I am sleep-deprived and bitter?

Also, this is my big boy reading his FIRST CHAPTER BOOK EVER! 

I was kind of excited for him. Also, it's at the reading level they expect him to reach by the end of the school year, but he can read it now! Yay, Caleb! This former English teacher is so proud of her little reader!