Mama mama mama..

Eli is finally saying "Mama"! Actually, he has completely replaced "Dada" with "Mama". I guess the sickness has brought out the desperation. He always says it in a whining, come pick me up, kind of voice. I'll take it however he decides to say it :-) It has been a rough couple of days. He has an extremely runny nose, a little bit of a cough, and congestion. It's really only affected his sleeping. He's only taking 2 naps a day and I basically have to wait until he is about to die from exhaustion before he'll go down peacefully. I feel pretty good for not having slept in 4 nights :-) Most of the time he's happy as usual...just has some issues nursing because he's so stuffed up. I feel like a giant snot rag. For the past couple of days I have just been covered in snot. A shower never felt so good! Luckily, I already have a sore throat so I got it quickly and hopefully we'll be sick and miserable together and over it by Thanksgiving. I made this chocolate cream cheese pie for our church's big Thanksgiving meal last Sunday (that we didn't get to go to because Eli was sick). It definitely did not go to waste. It's gone. I've eaten the entire pie. It's very sad I do realize, but when you need comfort food you need comfort food! One good thing about him being sick is he is a lot more affectionate. He actually sat still and rested his head on my shoulder several times today...miracle of miracles! Last night Brandon encouraged me to go meet my brother and cousins at the Friends basketball game to watch my cousin's boyfriend play. I really needed to get out of this sick house. I was only gone for a little over an hour, but it sure made me feel better. Brandon and I were just laughing about how when Eli toots he always smiles and looks up to see if you heard. Then we'll always say something like, "did you toot?" and he just thinks it's so funny! Cracks me up! I'm trying to find more and more foods I can offer for him to feed himself for practice. So far it consists of banana pieces, avocado, puffs, and baby biscuits. Everything else is too hard for him to get. I found these rice sticks that dissolve quickly, so he's been enjoying those lately too. He really is careful about making sure he's chewed everything really well. Hopefully, he'll be better soon and things will get back to normal around here! Sometimes when Eli gets bored in the high chair he throws his head clear back as far as he can. It usually makes his hair lay flat from static, but it looks kind of painful to me. He usually laughs and laughs. One of his many games!