Coloring, new toy, running, glasses, laundry, Starbucks, tower, bear crawl, laughing, words, kisses, & longest post title EVER!!!!

Hello all! Hope you are as excited about the upcoming holiday as I am! Not only am I excited for Eli to enjoy Christmas even more than last year, but also because I pretty much have the next 2 weeks off from work (only working a total of 8 hours in 2 weeks!!). That means more time home with my little Eli! Our plan is to celebrate Christmas Eve & morning with just the 3 of us & then celebrate with the Clarkson gang Christmas afternoon. Friday we will drive up to Des Moines to be with the Bidney brood. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with our plans!

As I said in the last post, before the what is now known as the "snowsuit drama", Eli experienced coloring for the first time. We used those cool Tadoodles that are made for toddler hands & he really figured it out pretty quickly on his own. He isn't exactly coloring yet, more like "poking" the paper, but he liked it! I think Eli will be a well rounded young man as he really enjoys music already & I can see him also enjoying art & sports:

Eli's first piece of art (mommy did the little scribble, but the rest is his own creation):

Eli then decided he was done coloring & wanted to run (walk fast, really) across the mat:

At my work Christmas party, we ate lunch at Manny's (Y-U-M-M-Y!!!) and did a "white elephant" gift exchange. I drew a pretty high number so I pretty much could have chosen from a variety of items: Target gift card, Starbucks gift card, candles, lotion, wine, etc. But, because I am an EXCELLANT mommy (hehe), I chose the below Christmas toy that I knew Eli would enjoy. Oh the selflessness of mommyhood :):

Eli continues to master walking more & more & I think he soon will be running. This picture LOOKS like he is running, but really I just caught a frame that looked like he was:

Eli thought it was funny to try on daddy's glasses. It was cute because he would laugh like it tickled when the glasses went over his ears:

Eli helped daddy with laundry today. Here he is playing "Where's Eli??":

"There he is, peek-a-boo!!":

As I've said before, Eli sees his daddy & mommy drinking coffee on a daily basis. On special occasions (by special I mean anytime one is in the vacinity :) we get Starbucks. Eli's favorite by far has to be the Peppermint Mocha Twist....JUST KIDDING!! But he is already loving the feeling of holding a Starbucks in his hand:

Mmmm.....caffeine:

Eli really enjoys throwing around his blocks but is yet to really stack them together. He also likes to play "Eli the Destroyer" when we build towers and knocks them all down. This week, I built a tall tower & it was funny because he was actually in awe of it & didn't want to touch it. Whenever he is excited about something or trying to figure it out, he says "Ehhh?? Di dou!!! Ehh??" or some other babble very enthusiastically while pointing. He walked around it, pointed at it, eventually touched it, & after about 5 minutes, knocked it down:


Eli decided that although he has moved on to walking, he would do a rendition of the "bear crawl" for old times sake:



Eli has a variety of laughs. He has a really deep down belly laugh, a silly laugh, & a laugh that sounds like he is a grown up. It's too cute how he has come up with all of these variations. Here's daddy making Eli do the deep down belly laugh:

Eli continues to say more words. Some words he is saying more often with more "meaning" & connection, and some are new words that he just surprises us with. The other day we were at Target and Eli started to say "cat! cat!". I wasn't really paying too close attention & then turned and saw a picture with a cat on it that Eli was pointing to. Then in the next isle, he started to say "up! up!" & he was pointing to cups (still no "c" yet). Then later he said "ball" while pointing to a ball. This week he started to say the following words pretty regularly: hi, apple, and "ca ku"=cracker. In addition, he is starting to TRY to say his name. A few times he has said "Lee-i" when we call his name. AND, he now actually says "uh-oh" instead of "uh-uh" when he drops things or falls.

Lastly, Eli is starting to actually give kisses! He has always turned away or given us open mouth kisses (sloppy, but still cute) when we attempted to kiss him. Now, after you ask him for a kiss (granted you have to ask several times), he closes his mouth & leans forward to your lips. Too cute!! He also has been so into hugging & cuddling lately (including grandmas :) & will just hug & hug while saying "mmmmm". Melts your heart!!

Everyone have a safe & happy holiday full of family & friends!!