Walking! and a visit from Grandma

Eli's grandma Myra came to town this weekend, and Eli definitely put on a show for her. We got him a walker to practice holding on and taking small steps and he loved it. He was squealing he was so excited. It took him a little bit to get used to it but now he knows he has to move his feet forward. It is still tough for him to do it -- sometimes his foot ends up on the wheel of the walker, sometimes it ends up on top of his other foot and sometimes he ends up dragging his foot so that he is trying to stand on his tiptoes.

Grandma Myra and Eli played catch one night and Eli kept grabbing the ball when she rolled it to him. It was also a squealing moment! Every time he caught it, he would squeal and seem so proud of himself.

The night Myra left Eli was having a tough time. He woke from his nap super cranky and then fell asleep on my shoulder watching Sesame Street on our computer in the office. I quietly put him in his crib upstairs and he stayed asleep for another hour. But something is definitely bugging him. Today he took a good morning nap and was happy after that, but he only slept for 40 minutes for his afternoon nap and woke very upset. He couldn't stop crying and I had to rock him for awhile and get him to go back to bed. Even then he only slept for 45 minutes. Michael put him to bed for the night and Eli was just screaming and wouldn't take his bottle. I was able to get him to drink 4 ounces but even then he only stayed asleep for an hour. Then I went up again and rocked him and sang to him but he couldn't get comfortable. He would moan and move around and cry. I was trying to get him to fall asleep on me again but he wouldn't. (I loved it when he fell asleep on my shoulder -- that was a first since he's been in his crib.) Let's hope he sleeps through the night...

Other funny things Eli is doing:

* He loves to drag his fingers across the pages of books to hear the squeaking sound they make. He also does it on the slide at the playground when I let him go down on his stomach, feet-first.

* He has been trying to hug me lately. We will be playing on the floor and he will squeal and sort of throw his whole body into mine. He buries his head in me and seems so happy. It is way better than an typical hug :)

* He is trying to hold onto things and "walk" around. Today he was holding onto his walker and reaching for the ottoman. He actually grabbed the ottoman and stayed standing!

* He is much better about imitating people now. When Myra was saying "pa" to him, he said it right back. Today I was making the sounds for kisses and he was trying to mimic me.

* The other day he was on the changing table and I started saying, "ah-boo" over and over again and he was giggling and giggling.