Being generous and a first sentence.

At dinner tonight, Eli was eating mac-n-cheese before Michael had any food on his plate. Michael said to Eli, "Eli gets to eat dinner but what will Daddy eat?" Eli pulled Michael's plate closer and put two fingerfuls of mac-n-cheese on his plate. Very very generous (but not TOO generous!)

In the bathtub, Eli found his reflection in the thing on the side of the tub that allows you to empty the drain. He kept looking in it and smiling and saying, "hi." Then I stuck my head close to his so he could see my reflection and Eli said, "Hi, Mama." I believe that is Eli's first sentence. That's pretty good given that he only says a handful of words: juice, hot, up, mama, dada, doow (dog), yes, and no.

A lovely Mother's Day

Today was the most perfect Mother's Day. Eli and Daddy let me sleep in until 8:45 a.m., when I got breakfast in bed. Then we spent most of the day working in the backyard. Once Michael had fixed the garden faucet, Eli spent some time making sure it worked properly and leaving big puddles of mud everywhere. Then, just to make sure that the puddles weren't spreading out and becoming too shallow, Eli stepped in them. When I realized how muddy he was, I took off my shoes to get the hose and hose off his feet -- but I turned my back for a millisecond too long because Eli was trying on my shoes BEFORE I had gotten the hose :)

We also took a walk to the Crooked House playground in Bush Park, where Eli shunned the "baby" slide and started climbing the 9-rung ladder to the big-kid slide. Even when two little girls were impatiently waiting behind him (and telling me that he should really be on the baby slide), Eli was not deterred. At the top, he slide down head first. And he kept going back for more. It seems he likes the rush of being utterly terrified. He does the same thing in the tub: asks us to pour water over his head, looks terrified while we do it and for a moment afterward and then asks for more. Oh dear...

Oh, and check out the mac-n-cheese video. Eli was in heaven eating it today for lunch. You would have thought we put crack in it.