Eli's latest

Having enough hair to have a bad hair day!

Playing with Dada's bike helmet.



Playing with my little cars and trucks...and holding three at one time!

Being a couch potato, and eating a snack on the couch.

17 months

As of Monday, Eli is now 17 months old. Our baby boy is becoming a big boy! He's into everything and likes to run everywhere and climb on everything. I think he's realizing his independence more, too. He's able to let us know what he wants by talking or signing or pointing...most of the time. He's a good little communicator! Two words that I hear often are "neh, nuh" (no) or "doouh" (look). He's got "no" down for sure. Eli's version of "no" sounds very polite, his pitch goes up like he's asking a question, and it also sounds like he's stuttering a little. You have to hear it. Like most 17 month olds, Eli doesn't like to be told no. Therefore, his fits have evolved in the last month into more of a fit, but that's expected, I guess. It's still pretty easy to distract him though. Also, now when I tell him no or catch him doing something he knows he's not supposed to do, he'll look right at me with a cheesy grin and wave. It's really hard to keep my stern mommy face on after that!

He's also entering the phase where he wants to do things himself. This is a learning process for all of us because either he'll get frustrated if he can't quite do something, or I'll be surprised when he does do something successfully without my help. One example is that he now likes to eat a whole apple by himself and feel like a big boy. He can eat about half of the apple, then I have to finish it off. I'm surprised and amazed at his new-found capabilities every day.

I feel like this month has been full of travels, as you've seen on the blog. It's been tiring, but nice because Eli's has had many new things to see and learn and several "firsts" for him as well. It's been nice to feel like we can get out and do more things as he gets older. One thing that's been nice for our car trips is that Eli can keep himself pretty well entertained with books. He likes to "read" them himself as you see in the picture. I love hearing him jabber about the books and tell us what he's looking at.
I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping the blog updated with Eli activity lately, so I'll try to keep up this month! Whew!

South Padre vacation

We had a blast at the beach! Eli's favorite thing to do was play in the sand. I think the water was a little scary for him, but at least he tried it out with me holding him. There was also a dump truck dumping sand at our hotel one day and a front end loader tractor another day, so it was like Eli heaven with trucks and playing in the sand. He also ate a few mouth-fulls of sand, of coarse! Mammy was also his favorite this trip. He wanted to be with Mammy all the time, which was fine with me! The weather was great and we didn't really get sunburned. Eli even kept his hat and sunglasses on the whole time at the beach. I was very surprised at that! We also got to go to a sea turtle rescue place where we saw several different types of sea turtles. This was cousin Grayson and Garrett's favorite, I think...well, maybe boogie boarding, which they are very good at, by the way!
We also got to take a day trip to Reynosa, Mexico on Sunday. Mammy has some friends there, who happen to be nuns. Mammy had donated some money for a playground at the Catholic center they have, and we went there to celebrate the opening of the playground. It was a very special time. Eli was a trooper once again b/c it was so miserably hot and there was no a/c! We forgave him ahead of time for any fussiness. Before we left Mexico, we went for a short trip to the market, which was a fun experience, too. Eli's highlight of Mexico was seeing their trash truck. It was a cart pulled by two donkeys!
All in all it was a great time. Thanks, Mammy, for a wonderful vacation, and Happy Birthday! I think we'll be staying home for awhile now because we are worn out from all our traveling lately!
Here are some pictures:

Beach vacation!

Can you tell Eli's excited to go to the beach? Eli and I head off to South Padre today to celebrate my mom's birthday with her and Aunt Brynn and the cousins. I'm sure there will be things to post when we get back next week. We can't wait!

Great photo

This is Eli's new friend Bailey that we met at a playgroup. Her dad captured this moment of surprise on camera. They made these faces when a man turned on his monogram machine at the coffee shop. This is one of Eli's favorite faces to make lately, too!

Welcome to the world!

Eli's friend, Ellaiden, has a little sister! Soren Litten Margrave was born at 12:02 this morning, September 4, weighing in at 6 lbs. 10 oz. Congratulations, Chris, Jenny, and Ellaiden!

Sick

Well, Eli has had his first stomach bug. We went up to Holly Lake in East Texas over Labor Day weekend with my family for my dad's belated birthday present, and Eli got sick the first night there. He couldn't keep anything down, but he acted like he felt okay and never had a fever as far as I know. It only lasted 2 days, thank goodness. It's a very scary and helpless feeling to see your baby be sick and not be able to make it all better. Eli was a trooper...I think he held up better than the rest of us! Sorry cousin Garrett for getting you sick!