Big Boy

Our Eli is getting to be such a big boy!

He has his first tooth, which, I might add, is not very easy to get a picture of.  You can see it now when he smiles though, so cute.

He can swing in the toddler swing at the park.  He likes it, but holds on tight.

He can even stand up by himself, if he has a table or something to lean on.  He thinks he is so big standing up in his size 2 shoes.

And, his latest accomplishment is picking up cheerios and putting them in his mouth.  He hasn't mastered this skill yet, but most of the time he can get it in there.  He didn't want to eat this particular cheerio, so he just put it in  his mouth for practice and then spit it out.  It landed and stuck on his chin.  You can see his tooth in this photo too.

Zoo trip

Kaylee, Jesse, Emmy, Mazee, & Eli

We couldn't get very close to many of the real animals, but I couldn't resist the photo in the mouth of the lion.

The boys liked the flamingos.

This was right before we left the zoo and Eli was pretty tired, so he was just chillin' picking the grass.

Eli's Commando Skills

He has improved a lot in just a week. The first two videos are from last week & the last one is from yesterday. He was using the one arm in and one arm out method, but now he mostly does both arms out and a lot more leg action. He still keeps the body on the floor though. He's getting pretty fast and is into everything he's not supposed to be of course. Sometimes he gets up on knees and hands (standard crawling position), but he doesn't go anywhere that way yet.

10 year reunion

Well, I know I am old now because I have a hard time finding songs I like on the radio and a few weekends ago we attended my 10-yr high school reunion.  It was a lot of fun to see people that I hadn't seen for a long time, but I'm pretty sure the best part was when Derek & I went alone to the formal event and I left the house with only a small clutch that had my cell phone and some lip stick in it.  It was amazing!   Usually I have like a million bags that are overflowing with stuff for Eli.  Babies require a lot of stuff, so it was nice to be stuffless for a night.  Plus Derek & I had a lot of fun and won third place playing black jack with fake money.  Woo hoo!  Thanks to Mom for babysitting!

 

Firsts

Eli watched his first OU football game yesterday.  He wore his vintage Sooner shirt that my brothers and I wore when we were babies.  Of course our Sooners won 57-2.  Boomer Sooner.

  

Today was also the first time for Derek and Eli to experience the Henryetta Labor Day extravaganza.  At the parade, Eli's favorite thing was the bands.  Derek's favorite thing was the little pageant winners doing their princess waves.  I just loved being there with my little family and I'm not going to lie, the Now & Later candy I ate was pretty good.  Eli really liked the fireworks too.  His mouth was wide open in awe the whole time.

Update on Dad

I just realized that I asked for everyone's prayers for my Dad and then never followed up on how he is doing.  His surgery went well and he is recovering quickly.  He has been home for almost two weeks now.  Besides stay-at-home mom, my other temporary job is trying to make sure Dad doesn't do things he's not supposed to, like mow the lawn.  It's a hard job.  Thanks to everyone who has been praying for Dad!

 

Dad, the day after his surgery, being an overachiever.

Weekend @ Club Christiansen

Eli is one day older than Sam and they are both cute as can be. (In my super objective opinion of course.)

The boys (Brian, Sam, Steve, Derek, & Eli)

 

The girls (Amy, Ellie, Lauren, Heather, Emmy, & Mazee)

Eli loved the silly mirror at the kiddie park.  He did not love the kiddie roller coaster, but the big girls did.