Mama's back!

So I arrived home very late on Saturday night from my 9-day institute about journalism. I wasn't away from Eli that entire time -- I was able to stop and see him on Thursday night when the institute came through Salem.

But he can already do so many things that he wasn't doing before I left! I read him a book and he was pointing at the pages and characters on the pages; he keeps sticking his tongue out; he crinkles his nose at things (I cannot figure out why); and he can rotate 360 degrees while sitting up.

Of course, the most impressive thing he can do now is army crawl. When we went to the park today he army crawled across the grass to get to Wally's ball flinger.

He seems so much older than when I left 9 days ago and it hits me again how fast he is growing up.

Don't read this if you don't want to hear about poop

I never thought I would blog about poop, but here it is. Poop is a big part of my day. Mostly it goes like this: I wonder if Eli pooped and I need to change his diaper; Eli pooped and I need to change his diaper; or Eli farted but I better check his diaper to make sure it wasn't poop.

Until yesterday, Eli's poop was the same as it was when he was 1 week old. (I won't go into graphic detail about what that was like!) But now he's been eating solids. And he has little turds in his diaper. They are the exact same color of whatever he ate several hours earlier. It is the weirdest thing. So far, he has only eaten seven foods: sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, rice cereal, apples, bananas and watermelon. So you can guess what I found in his diaper. Anyway, it does make him seem less like a baby. Aww, my little boy is growing up :)

OK, so enough about poop.

Today I tried to nurse Eli down for a nap but he clearly wasn't ready for a nap. So we just rocked in my nursing chair and looked at each and I talked quietly to him and he just stared and stared at me. Then I started sticking out my tongue and making funny noises with my lips and he just smiled and did his half-giggles like I was so entertaining. Really, he was the one entertaining me because his smiles are so cute. It was a sweet moment.

We played on a blanket in his nursery and he was having a blast staring at himself in the mirror on the playmat. He was also rolling over and over -- from back to front and front to back. Ever since his two front teeth cut through, he is much much happier.