Eli ingredients: Approx. 10% blueberry

Elijah just loves blueberries. It's amazing how many he can eat in one sitting! Missy took Eli to the mall the other day with his old formula container -- about the size of a medium juice glass -- full of blueberries, and Eli managed to polish off the entire contents of the container while they were there, on top of a good amount of food shared from the lunch that Missy and I ate at Olga's!

We've taken to saving the fruit that we give Eli at meals for last; otherwise Eli will tend to ignore his other food and just eat the fruit! Blueberries are tops on this list; strawberries and oranges are also favorites of Eli's, and he likes Bananas too, although to a somewhat lesser extent. Eli will also hold and feed himself an entire peeled nectarine or pluot (plum/apricot hybrid) at the end of a meal. (He gets excited when we present him with an entire big piece of fruit, making an "oooh" shape with his mouth.)

Eli's interest in fruit has been good for Missy and I, as we're both eating a lot more fruit than we used to! I didn't even really like strawberries or blueberries before and we'd never keep them in the house, but now I'm regularly taking several of one or the other to work for snacks (whereas I used to snack on pretzels or m&m's).

See ya Mom.

Elijah and I have occasionally been going to our local mall to shop (Mom) and play in the play area (Eli). The times we've been there before Eli hasn't been very adventerous and pretty much stayed within 5-10 feet of me at all times. Today though I put him down and he crawled towards the big plastic toys, gradually getting farther and farther away. He'd look back to check where I was and see how I was reacting, and when I would just wave at him and smile, he'd clap his hands and squeal at me, and then scoot a little farther away. After about two minutes of this Elijah decided he was good on his own, and proceeded to crawl all around this huge play area, even when he wasn't near Mom.

At one point he was at least 50 feet away from me, on the other side of the play area completely. He didn't freak out or anything the whole time. He would occasionally check and see what I was doing and crawl back to me and get a quick hug, but then it was back to roaming. It was interesting to see Elijah get more adventerous and confident of being away from me the longer we were there. He was really enjoying himself. And he tuckered himself out and took a two hour nap at the mall afterwards - which I got to enjoy in a big comfy chair at the mall, with an iced coffee and my book while he snoozed. Ahh the joys of motherhood. :)

Where's the horsey?

I was reading Elijah his favorite book, "Tootle," for about the ba-zillionith time the other day, and got to the page where a big black horse challenges Tootle, the baby locomotive, to a race to the river. This causes Tootle to question his "trainhood" as it were, and then puff that he can't let a horse beat him if he wants to be a big fast locomotive someday. Tootle then jumps off the tracks - a big no-no, as he learned in train school - first for the race, then to play in a meadow of buttercups repeatedly. Tootle's willful defiance culminates in Engineer Bill needing to teach Tootle a lesson. Tootle learns his lesson, apparently, as he becomes a "big" locomotive in the end. Highly riveting literature people, I can assure you.

Anyway, back to the partner-in-Tootle's-crime, the big black horse. When I got to the page where the horse throws down the gauntlet to our Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-in-Training, I said, "the big black horse," and Elijah put his cute little index finger on the horse on the page! And then looked at me with his impish little grin.

Well, I figured that was a fluke, so the next time I read the book to Eli, oh, about one minute later (he seriously requires me to read this book to him 20 times in a row. I've resorted to actually hiding this book from him under the couch cushions so I didn't have to read it. And you can ask my Mom - that's a sad, but true, fact), when I got to the horse page I asked Eli, "where's the horsey?" And he promptly pointed to it and giggled! When Jon got home I made him read Tootle to Eli, and when Jon asked him where the horsey was Elijah pointed to it again. He's a genius! Okay, that may be a little over the top, but he's my little genius at the very least. It's really cool that his little spongy brain is actually learning things!

Climbing and Walking! Oh My!

Its official - our little bean has taken his first solo steps! Here's the scoop - my Mom came to visit today and Elijah was so excited when she arrived that he crawled over to me (sitting on the couch folding laundry) and promptly climbed on to the couch, right up to the top. We were surprised at this - another first for him - and were excited to show Jon when he got him. When Jon showed up we told him we had something to show him, and Grandma put Eli by the couch and then backed up a few steps. Well, Eli had something to show Dad, but not his climbing!

Elijah promptly turned around from the couch and walked back to Grandma, about 4 steps. ALL BY HIMSELF!! We all were so surprised it almost didn't register for a minute. But after that we made Eli repeat his trick for us. I think the most steps he took in a row was 8, but they were all by himself! He would get so excited at what he was doing he would lose focus and try to go really fast - which ensured a fall - but then we would just put him back up again and let him loose. He doesn't understand yet that he can walk to things other than other people (he's just been walking back and forth to Grandma, and Daddy, and Mommy, and Uncle Jeremy), but I'm sure he'll get that down pretty quickly. Our little boy can walk! We are so excited!!

Look at me! I'm walking!

Here I come! You better watch out!

Sailing!

For the 4^th of July weekend, Elijah went for his first sailboat ride, on Grandma Amanda's boat! We headed up on Saturday morning, hitting horrendous traffic on the way to Canada (the boat is in Sarnia, just on the other side of the BlueWater Bridge at Port Huron). We finally made it though, and Grandma met us with Elijah's "boat coat" - his life jacket. We weren't sure how he was going to react to being in the marina or on the boat, so we were a little protective at first.

Well, it turns out that 1.) Sailboats are basically childproof for kids Eli's age and 2.) Eli's Viking heritage on Jon's side and Dutch heritage on the other basically ensured that Elijah loves being on boats! He took right to it, and found his sea legs quickly.

Elijah was the perfect age for a stay on the boat, which was a nice surprise. The benches in the cockpit are too high for Eli to climb on to yet, so when the drop boards preventing him from accessing the ladder to the cabin were in Elijah could have free reign to crawl and walk around the cockpit and explore. Which he loved! And everything below deck in a sailboat is constructed so it does not easily open, for times when the boat is heeled over or in rough weather - which meant that the sailboat was baby-proofed already and Eli couldn't get in to anything he shouldn't! Eli just loved exploring and checking everything out.

When we actually went sailing Eli had to have on his lifejacket, which he wasn't that pleased about - mostly because it was quite hot. Still, he handled it all in stride and didn't really complain. All in all we spent three days and two nights on the boat, and loved every minute of it! As a bonus, Jon's Aunt Cheryl and cousin Leah were up for two days, and we got to spend some nice family time with them as well. Based on this weekend, I predict more fun times sailing in Eli's future!