A baby fading away

When I put Eli down for a nap today, he was still pretty awake. He started doing his intense smiles (kind of the same way he grabs his blankie and shoves it in his face) and I would laugh and do it back to him. We were totally cracking each other up and trying to do funnier and funnier faces each time. I had never had an interaction like that with him before. It was so fun!

Before nap time, Stef and Alex came over and Eli and Alex really played together -- they are interested in a lot of the same things: opening and closing doors, opening and closing lids, turning water on from the faucet (and only occasionally turning it off) and going up stairs. Alex taught Eli to jump on the bed and they spent a lot of time rolling around on the bed, playing in the shower stall and going up the stairs. They had a blast :)

The other photo is Daddy and Eli feeding the ducks on Saturday afternoon in the beautiful sunshine. Eli had trouble throwing the bread to the ducks. Instead he would let a piece roll down the bank and a brave duck would have to come very close to snatch it up.

Anyway, all of these things remind me how fast he is growing up. He is joking around with me, which seems so kid-like -- not baby-like, he is playing with another boy his age and he is learning to throw. His babyhood is fading away....

The birds

Eli and I picked up Stef and Alex this morning and went to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge, just south of Salem (a lot closer than I thought!)

We saw tons of geese and heard them honking and honking. We saw tons of ducks and heard them quacking and quacking. We saw a HUGE nutria in the grass. And Eli and Alex saw lots of the parking lot, which was -- by far -- their favorite part. There were rocks and puddles. What more could boys ask for?

This afternoon, after Mama went for a run with Eli in the jogging stroller and both dogs tied around her waist (holy cow that was the hardest workout EVER!), we met Alicia, Rowan, Sarah and Elliot at Minto Brown to see more birds -- mainly very friendly ducks and two bully geese. I brought some bread for Eli to feed the ducks but every piece except for one he promptly put in his mouth instead of on the ground for the ducks. Either he was hungry or he didn't believe the ducks were hungry enough...

Eli meets ducks

Today Eli saw real ducks for the first time. We went to a pond in Minto-Brown Island Park with Sarah and Elliot. We threw some stale bread and a few puffins (it's a kind of cereal). Eli was so excited when we first arrived, and he wanted to just walk right into the water and greet the ducks. Then two big huge bully geese came out and started hogging all of the bread but they were noisy, which was fun for Eli to hear.