Lions & Tigers & Bears....oh my!!!

I chose the title for this post because Eli has done very well at learning a variety of animal sounds & names: "mee-key"= monkey, "efant"=elephant, "ion"=lion, "iger"=tiger, duck, frog, and bee. Eli knows the sound an owl makes and can identify one in books. Eli's current favorite books have animals and he pulls one off the shelf, brings it to an adult, and points out all the animals he knows and their sounds. Did you know most children's books have bugs in them? I didn't until Eli pointed bugs out in almost every book! Who knew! Another word this week is hug.

While on the topic of words, Eli currently has 4 favorite letters that he can identify everywhere we go: v, u, p, & o. For example, this morning at Target we came in the front door and they had their portrait studio display up advertising Valentine's Day. We stopped next to it to wait for daddy and he started to say "V!! V!!". I looked around and didn't see what he was talking about until I looked at the sign and saw several "V's"! Eli also does this with numbers (all numbers are "2" right now), animals, and objects he knows. I bought shapes, colors, numbers and alphabet flash cards as I knew Eli would enjoy pointing and identifying the ones he knows and learning new ones. He also just likes to throw them around the living room :) MANY times throughout the day you will hear us say "What's this?"!

Now for a few pictures. Eli loves "peek-a-boo" or as we like to call it "Where's Eli?". Here he is enjoying a game of "Where's Eli" with A LOT of static electricity:

As I said last week, Eli must do almost everything we are doing. I cleaned the windows and afterwards Eli found a napkin on the floor, picked it up, and immediately went to work cleaning the windows. What a great helper!

Saturday was GORGEOUS (got up to 70 degrees!!) so we had to go outside. This was actually the first time he has played in our back yard since he started to walk so it was fun to see him explore. I brought a ball outside to play with but he was more interested in the leaves, fence, and barking dogs:

Today Eli decided he needed to make a few repairs around the house today with the help of Pat, Rusty, Squeeze, Dusty, Stretch, Philipe, and Turner (anyone impressed I know all the Handy Manny tool names???):

On of the objects Eli can identify anywhere is a clock. I let him play with daddy's alarm clock today so this is what he did:

Another irresistible video of daddy making Eli laugh:

Last but not least, a video of Eli hugging our very patient cat:

Other notes worthy of mentioning:

1) Eli is down to visiting his cranial sacral therpaist/chiropractor every 2 weeks. Doc is very impressed with how quickly his bones are taking and keeping the adjustments. I am able to do some work at home, too, and will attend a free seminar she is giving at the end of the month. This will allow me to continue work at home with Eli & future siblings.

2)Eli continues to tell us when he is poo-pooing. This is very helpful although it's pretty obvious when he is as he gets really quiet and tends to focus on t.v. or stand still somewhere while doing some grunting. Oh, and the smell also gives it away :)

3) Eli experimented with walking backwards this week.

4)Eli officially has 3 molars on their way in....poor guy!

5)Eli is experimenting with screaming as a technique to use when excited, angry or frustrated. I try hard to ignore it and pray it's just a phase :)

This week is FULL of activities that will be lots of fun! Monday we go to Toddler Town with friends Callie & Jack for the first time. Wednesday we attend Toddler Story Time at the library also with Callie & Jack. Thursday we get a visit from Eli's parent educator and Friday we hope to attend breastfeeding group to say to everyone since we haven't attended for a couple of months. Should be fun! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!