5 months old today!

Our favorite little buddy turns 5 months old today and guess how he is celebrating? By putting his snot on anyone who gets close enough. I think he succeeded in getting both Rebecca and I a little sick as well. We can't complain though, since he's been such a healthy little guy so far. He is continuing to make progress on sitting up but he still eventually topples over like a Jenga game.

He is tall for his age (so far) and most of his pants make him look like Rafael Nadal. If we got him longer pants they would be too big for him in the waist. Luckily the weather is getting warmer so it shouldn't be much of an issue. He has almost graduated from his size 2 diapers as well. Our little guy is growing up! Pretty soon he'll be conjugating verbs and signing up for a 401K. It all happens so fast, according to other parents. Happy 5-monthiversary, Eli!

Eli takes a field trip/The only reason to go to Duke

Saturday was one of the few days that we didn't really have anything planned for, beyond installing a heating/cooling unit in the garage (that was lovingly donated to us by one of Rebecca's coworkers) only to discover after unfurling the cord that it was a 220 plug. Idiotic, but I digress. Rebecca wanted to take advantage of the good weather and take Eli to Duke Gardens. It was actually the perfect day for it because the colors are most pronounced on overcast days. We loaded up the car and off we went.

Eli had a really good time...he smiled a lot and besides all the trees and plants that were fascinating for him there were tons of people there for him to watch. The Wisteria plants were out in full force but I have to be honest, they don't smell that great close up. Unfortunately, Eli seemed to catch the sniffles after we got home and I'm really hoping it's not allergy related. We did cruise by hundreds of different kinds of plants, after all. I thought airborne allergies showed up after a couple years. Anyway, there has been a sick kid at his daycare this week so that could be the source. He's just really snotty and we had to use the Noser quite a bit to clean him out. The Noser is actually an aspirator, a little suction device to get the snot out of their nose or mouth. I refuse to call it an aspirator; Noser seems more baby-like.

The evolution of bath night

Our whippersnapper has graduated from using the little hammock in his baby tub. Now we just sit him in the water leaned against the incline. He can't quite sit up on his own yet but he is becoming more stable by the day. Before last week we would try to sit him up and he would immediately start to keel over; it made his head appear to weigh 100 pounds. Now, though, he can hold his position for a few seconds before starting to keel over. Progress! I guess he needs to get used to his lower body actually being in the water because the hammock held him suspended so that only his bum and lower back were getting wet. It was hilarious watching him hold his feet up in the air out of the water.

WHOA!

Rebecca and I were watching The Matrix yesterday. Eli was in his exersaucer, bouncing around and making gurgling noises. We made it to the scene where Morpheus has Neo jacked into the construct program and he is trying to teach Neo to free his mind by showing him that he can jump from building to building. Morpheus gets a running start and shoots up into the air, landing safely on the next rooftop. Neo, eyes wide, mutters "whoa." Just at that moment, Eli turned around to face the TV and said, plain as day, "whoa." It was amazing! Eli has matched Keanu's grasp of the english language at only 4 months! Just kidding. It is the first of April after all.

The Final Four!

Eli partied a lot this weekend. On Friday night, we went over to a friend's house to watch the basketball games. Traveling anywhere with a four month old means you are carrying 5 times as much stuff around as you used to. He usually goes to bed early so we had the pack and play with us to give us the option of putting him down. Eli, however, was not having it. There were too many cool things going on for him to sleep through it. After all, Davidson was putting a beatdown on Wisconsin! It ended up being a late bedtime and he, like his dad, slept in on Saturday.

He was very excited about the UNC/Louisville game and even though he forgot to wear his lucky UNC bib, the Heels squeaked by to make it to the Final Four. He got to watch the game with his mom and two aunts in Chapel Hill while dad was at a bar in town. What a deadbeat dad.

We have recruited the grandparents to babysit so that Rebecca and I can go out to watch the next game. You can bet Eli won't forget his lucky bib again; it does have a profound impact on the game.

97?!

On Friday we had our 4-month doctor appointment. It was just a routine visit for a check-up and some vaccinations. Other than some dry skin, everything looks great with him and he did amazingly well with the shots. He wailed hardcore for about 20 seconds and not a peep out of him after that. We probably won't start introducing solid food for another couple months to cut down on the allergy risk part of it (since he already had traces of eczema, for lack of a better word). I have allergies so if he gets them it will be from me. (Sorry little guy!)

The last time we had a check-up Eli was in the 25th percentile for head, 75th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. This time his head was the same, his weight is now in the 50th percentile and he is in the 97th percentile for height. 97! If he ends up being a tall kid he will definitely have gotten that from his mom's side of the family.

The Orifice Triple Crown

This week we had a bath night for the ages.  We always wait to give Eli a bath until after he poos, you know, to avoid a mess.  Well, on this particular bath night, everything started off normally.  We undressed Eli and put him in the little tub.  We wash his face and start on his hair and then, BOOM!  Poo all over the place.  I pick up Eli while Rebecca empties and cleans out the tub.  Once it was filled with water again we put him back in to start over and POW!  Poo again!  It didn't seem like he should have anything left in his little system.  We joked about how we shouldn't move him because he might not be done yet and BLAM!  Poo number 3!  Unreal!  Of course, we had to go through the whole process of cleaning out the tub again and while I was holding Eli he sneezed and spit up on me.  There's little Eli, wide-eyed and smiling, seemingly purging himself right before our very eyes.  So pitiful yet cute.  All we could do was laugh about it.  When we were finally able to resume his bath, he celebrated by starting to pee.  We love you Eli.