Daddy and Son Day....

Last night we took Eli over to our neighbor's house for a party, and of course everyone admired him and loved how calm and alert he was the whole time! The River Festival started here yesterday, so while Eli slept we sat outside and listened to the opening concert, which was Colbie Caillat (sings Bubbly). We live right by downtown, so we can always hear when there is a really big concert during River Fest. We went and cheered for our friends/family who ran the 10 k race today (that's my cousin Ellen Mitchell in the picture). Later, Brandon watched Eli for a couple hours while I went to my best friend's graduation from Friends. It seems like just yesterday that I graduated! Brandon took Eli to the Indian Center by our house for some River Fest fun. They enjoyed some Plains Indian dancing. I came home to a happy baby and some beautiful flowers, which Brandon claims was Eli's idea. Tomorrow after church we're going to spend some time at the festival and go to the art/book/craft fair, listen to some music, and Brandon's determined to eat a turkey leg :-) Eli has just been "talking" like crazy. Every day it's something new. We swear today he said "da da" and "Mom"....I know it's highly suspect. He really does copy the sounds we make though.

My cousin Ellen and her boyfriend Paul came to dinner last night. We had a great time, and took a lovely walk to the park. It was a beautiful evening! Lately, we've been talking about now that Eli can hold his head up fine he never lays it on our shoulders anymore. It's kind of sad. I love his new sense of exploration, and he's so much more fun. Now, it makes it really precious and special when he's tired or in a snuggly mood and lays or cuddles his head into our necks or shoulders. His smiles make my day. He has different smiles for different feelings. He smiles when he wakes up from his naps and sometimes in the middle of the night when he wakes up he'll give me this smile like "I dare you to smile back." Open mouth smiles, side smiles, full smiles I love them all!

We went to Target last night. I hadn't been there since Eli was born, and I've been missing it terribly :-) I know it's sad. Eli loved looking around at everything and is always so good! I forgot to mention the other day....when we were coming home from church...guess who was driving out of our neighborhood???? Tracy Byrd. I know it's the weirdest thing. It was his huge bus and trailer with his picture on it. The only thing we could think of is that he stayed at the Castle Inn. It's this old Scottish castle built in 1888 they turned into a fancy bed and breakfast. I can't think of any other reason he would be on our street. I opened an e-mail account for Eli so we can send him letters that he can read when he is older. I'll open it every so often to keep it active. His e-mail is elijah.james.judson@hotmail.com Today during tummy time (which lasted 20 minutes might I add) Eli got his leg swinging so much I thought he was going to roll over. I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon, but it was the first time I even saw something close. Another thing Eli started is gumming his pacifier. Instead of sucking on it he chews on it with his gums. Sometimes he thinks it's funny, which makes us laugh.

Yummy hands!

Eli has started really sucking on his fist now. Last weekend when my parents were here he just started sucking on it a lot. It's so cute. We were laughing because we were out on this gorgeous walk and we look back to see if he's enjoying the scenery and there he is staring at his hand and then sucking on it. He brings his toys to his mouth now too. He's learned that his mouth can be used for exploration. He loves his play mat and bouncy seat. The second I put him under his play mat he starts smiling at this star that lights up and plays music and kicks and bats at the toys. I rotate the toys hanging on his bouncy seat, and he likes to hit them as well. He's doing great on tummy time. Most days he'll stay happy playing on his stomach for 15 minute stretches as long as he discovers his hand, looks in his mirror, or watches this toy we have where balls pop up and down. He's done great on bed time. We do his bath at the same time every night and I think that has helped. He's asleep between 9:20-10:00 every night. We're loving that! I can hardly believe I'm putting away most 0-3 and 3 month clothes. The only onesies that fit him are the 3-6 month, and I noticed that his 3 month rompers are getting small too. Crazy how fast he grows!

Thank God for family and paletas!

We had a fun weekend with my family! We took several walks and enjoyed eating coconut paletas (Mexican popsicles) at the park. We flew Brandon's glider, and had several great flights. Last night I had a girls night out with my mom and sister. We saw the broadway show Moving Out. It's all Billy Joel music with amazing dancing and choreography. We loved it! My dad and Brandon babysat and had a good time. Grumpa introduced Elijah to James Brown and Mississippi Blues. They didn't have any problems and he was great for them. Today Brandon and I led worship at church, and it was so nice having my family there to take care of him while we were singing. It made things a lot easier on me. Brandon's cousin Justin Simpson was just stationed here at McConnell Airforce base, so he joined us for church and lunch. We had a great time visiting and look forward to having someone from Brandon's family living here in Wichita! While Brandon and I took naps, my parents stripped Eli down and let him go naked on a blanket, which of course he loved. He eventually peed on the blanket though! Everyone got to see his great cooing skills this weekend. He's gotten SO vocal. It's so cute. He loves "talking" to you when you get right up close to him. Brandon was walking around with Eli and they saw the president fly over in a black hawk. He was speaking at Greensburg today.

Good-bye buddy!

We are sad today because our English Budgie Shiloh died last night. He was almost 4 years old, so he had a good life! He loved flying around the house and landing on our heads, taking baths in the sink, eating scraps off our plates when we were done eating, playing outside on our screened in porch, singing, and talking a lot! My favorite memory of him is when we had left our dishes on the table and he was out flying around, and I came back into the dining room and there he was digging into a leftover bowl of tapioca pudding. He was almost upside down in the bowl and his head was covered in it. What a character. He also would play a game with Rica where he would throw a ball off the top of his cage down to her and then she would play with it until I gave it back to Shiloh and it would start all over again. I thought I'd list all the words and phrases he could say. Most of them he learned just from listening to us talk:

Shiloh, Pretty boy, What's up?, Love you, Good boy, Gracias, Come Here, Come on, Quien Sabe?, I want to go outside, I wanna treat, Adios amigo, hey buddy, Emily, Brandon, Eli, That's Eli's, Good job, hey shiloh, whatcha doing?, being a good boy?, How ya doing?, That's okay, Rica, No Rica, Kisses, Goodbye, goodnight, your mom goes to college, hey, good girl, get a drink, time for bed, you're a good bird, brother, amen brother, praise the Lord, Rock and Roll, Come here Rica, What a neat bird, Wanna bath?, Hush little baby, and more! He also would make the beeping noise of our security system and copy Rica's bark. These are just the ones I can remember! He always made hilarious combinations of the words such as: Praise Brandon, Emily I love you, Brandon your mom goes to college etc.

Yesterday was a busy day. I took Eli to Cessna so Brandon could show him off to all of his coworkers. It was a lot of fun, and they all loved Eli and thought he was precious. Later I somehow managed to get both dog and baby to Petsmart so Rica could get a haircut. I sat for a while thinking about how I was going to hold the leash and get the car seat out of the car, but I eventually figured something out and had to carry Rica in one arm (because she wouldn't budge knowing where we were) and the car seat in the other! It was a work out, and I saw one lady laughing at me! Then, last night we went to bible study. It was packed with people and tons of kids! All the kids were dancing during worship, and it was just amazing. We were joking because one of our friend's babies army crawled over to Eli and grabbed his forehead before we could stop it and he cried a little because it scared him so we told him he got beat up by a girl :-) I tried cutting all dairy from my diet for a couple days to see if it would help Eli not have as much gas. It didn't help at all. I was kind of relieved because I don't know what I would do without my yogurt and string cheese ha ha.