Favorite Place to Be

This is Eli's favorite place to be these days.

On the stairs, playing with Maggie.

Maggie is the epitome of patience as Eli tries to climb over her, use her to pull up, grabs at her feet, her collar, etc.

Lucy, on the other hand, not so much.....

the invitation

Almost forgot to post Eli's birthday invitation! I made it from scratch, and am quite proud of it. I am starting to get the hang of digital scrapbooking, and I really like it. It takes a lot of time just like regular scrapbooking does, but it's fun (so far, anyway). I am having fun using it for making things like this invitation, have made a few collages for friends, that kind of thing. Even though we're just having a family birthday party, I still made invitations. My friend L has me almost convinced to also have a kiddie party on another day, but I'm not quite decided. Anyway, here it is:

Originally I wanted to make one with 12 pictures, one from every month since September. I started kind of stressing trying to plow through all the pictures, so I ditched that idea, and am just as happy with this one. Only thing I would have done differently is perhaps used a different font. I keep meaning to download more fonts, but then forget until I actually need to use one. This one is fine, but there are soooo many cute fonts out there...there will be more opportunity for fonts!

Some family shots

We ate lunch with Aunt Laura and family up in the Woodlands last week, for Phil and Collin's birthdays. Do I have this kiddo trained or what, he can look right at the camera and smile!

Stair Conquistador

This past week, Mr. E learned a new motor skill - climbing stairs.

A little cautious at first, keeping one foot on the floor.

Confidence is growing...

Confidence is really growing....

Fast forward to later in the afternoon, that same day. I'm sitting at the computer in the kitchen; I can hear E crawling on the hardwoods, near the front door and stairs (he likes to crawl with something in his hand, hitting it on the ground as he goes). I thought, let me just finish up (whatever I was doing, couldn't remember), then I'll go get him; it was literally less than 30 seconds. When I rounded the corner, this is what I saw:

Do you see him, AT THE TOP?

I'm not sure my husband (or the grandma's) would be too happy realizing I actually went and grabbed the camera first before getting him down! He was so confident and happy up there. To be honest, I think it's a great motor skill he's developing. Although, he still needs supervision of course! (Especially now that I've learned how speedy he is!)

I feel Cheated and Used

Dear Caterpillars - I planted this Milkweed Plant (aka, "butterfly plant") just for YOU. I knew you would enjoy its tasty leaves, and once your bellies were full, you would transform yourselves into perfect chrysalis', hanging contently from the branches. Oh, the pictures I could take of your loveliness! I planned on watching and documenting your transformation, hoping I could catch the moment when you emerge as a gorgeous winged creature, ready to explore the world.

Here you are, munching away....

Here is a tiny, baby caterpillar! See him in the middle?

Can you spot all the caterpillars in this picture? There's three. Answer below.

A week has passed. All the leaves are gone. And SO. ARE. YOU. Dear Caterpillars! What did I do to cause you to leave my plant? Too many pictures, invading your privacy? Where are the beautiful chrysalis', that I know are out there SOMEWHERE? Why did you choose to NOT hang anywhere near my plant? Are you hiding? Did you just use me for FOOD? Don't suppose I'll ever get the answers. Unless I try to google them, which I haven't. I'm still in mourning. Maybe when new leaves grow, I'll get a new batch of more appreciative caterpillars, that will stick around until they are butterflies!

11 months

My baby is 11 months old today. Sooooo close to the big milestone of "one year!" Wanted to record a few things while they are fresh on my mind.
-just yesterday, he imitated my exclamation of "oh no!" as the bubble bottle rolled down the driveway. He didn't say the words "oh no," but totally made his own exclamation and threw his hands up. I was delighted.

-at dinner tonight, he initiated his own way of signing "all done." I show him the sign for "all done!" a few times a day, and every once in a while he apears to be trying to imitate it, sometimes with just one hand. At dinner, Doug casually mentioned, "I think he's done," and lo and behold there he was in his feeding seat, waving one arm sideways in his "all done" signing attempt! So very cool.

-he stacked blocks today! I stack up blocks for him all the time, but today was the first time I have seen him deliberately balance a block on top of another block.

-he waved "bye" to the Walmart cashier, and to his grandma today, using a whole arm movement! I've been waiting for him to wave "bye" for what feels like forever!

-still pulling up on everything, and at times sits up on one knee, but doesn't stand by himself yet.

-loves pulling all his books off of his shelf and flipping through them, on his own.

-discovered that he really likes watching the Nascar cars race.

Here are some pics I took Sun morning - I have used them on his birthday invitation, can't wait for my family members to receive their invites in the mail! I made his invitation in photoshop and am very proud of it. Even though we're just having a family affair, we're still having invitations, balloons, a fun cake - shoot, we may even have a pinata! Well, we'll see. Anyway, on to the pictures....

Ok, this one isn't on his invitation. But it sure is sweet. He sacked out on his daddy.

Once I think everyone has received their invitation in the mail, I'll post his invite here. Don't want to ruin the surprise!

New skills

I love watching Eli grow and learn new skills. Loved watching him this evening playing with his car on the windowsill.....