Two more firsts!

Eli has had another couple of firsts recently. We took him to his first Durham Bulls game a couple weeks ago. I think he had a good time but you would never get that from the picture above. The sun was right in our face to start the game and I think that had a lot to do with it. As the sun went down and the Bulls pitching held up, he was in good form. Next time we will try and get tickets earlier so we can be under the cover. The Bulls posted a 3-0 shutout for us in our first outing. Go Bulls!

The other first is not quite as cool. Eli has his first ear infection. Rebecca stayed home with him last Thursday, I was with him on Friday and little of Monday (he had his 6 month doctor visit). Believe me when I say Rebecca picked the right day to stay with him. He had a fever on Friday and cried for the better part of 5 hours. It was excruciating to listen to, especially since he rarely gets that upset. He's also stuffy and coughing a lot but his spirits seemed to improve some over the weekend. I'm hoping we are on the other side of it because he's so pitiful at times.

His sixth month doctor visit went well; we had to fill out a developmental questionnaire for him and he seems to be doing fine so far. Right now he weighs 15lbs 15 oz. and is 27.5 inches long.

Big weekend for a little guy

Eli had a monster weekend. On Friday there was a rally at the Carrboro Town Commons for Barack Obama. He wasn't scheduled to attend this particular rally but we got tickets to see the bands that were performing, Superchunk and Arcade Fire. The tickets were free, you just had to wait in line for them a week earlier. Eli couldn't have been better at the rally. There were a couple big awnings (the concert was outside) where we were able to hang out with him in the shade. The music was loud but not too loud and he even went to sleep near the end. It was his first concert and he got to see two quality bands.

Immediately after the concert, our plan was to head down to the Pamlico River where Rebecca's family has a cottage. Our first family vacation! It's a three hour drive and we were concerned with how Eli was going to handle it, especially after the over-stimulation of the show. He got a little fussy once or twice but only for a couple minutes before settling back into sleep. He's a real trooper because his parents were doing their best job trying to ruin his schedule all weekend. It's nice to know we can travel that kind of distance with him because it's a trip we will be making a few more times this year.

Eli, sit! Good boy!

Eli is really making some headway in his quest to sit on his own. As you can see from the photos we have started sitting him on the floor with the boppy to cushion the inevitable keel-over. He's getting stronger and better at it. The other thing really holding him back is his own interest in everything around him. If he catches sight of the pets or hears a voice sometimes he will make a spastic movement to see something and Whump! Keel-over. Keep it up, little guy...you're doing great!

In the Too Much Information category, the recent introduction of formula and rice cereal has certainly changed the poo landscape. His bowel movements are a lot more infrequent but they are doozies when they arrive. The smell of his poo and gas is downright toxic these days. It's "clear-a-room" bad. Breastmilk-only poos rocked. These...not so much.

Eating Milestones!

There are a couple new eating milestones to report. First, we started Eli on rice cereal over the weekend. My parents were in town for my mom's birthday and they got to witness his first meal. He took to it like a champ, as if he was an old pro at it. He likes to gnaw on the rubber spoon cover and it makes it look like he's chewing. What a little trooper!

The other exciting thing is that Eli has started holding his bottle while he eats. A few days ago he had his hands on the bottle and when I took mine away he kept right on truckin'. He even grabbed the bottle out of my hands once and after shoving it into his right cheek he found his mouth. Very cute and "grown-ey" as my mom would say.

Da-da! (half of it, at least)

Some of Eli's most talkative moments are right before he goes to bed or right after he wakes up. Yesterday, right as Rebecca was putting him in the crib for the night, he started cooing and talking. He said, "Daaaaaaaa." Congrats on your first D sound Eli! It's always so hard to walk away from him when he is in that hangout talking mode, staring and smiling at you from the crib. We just can't get over how alert and interested he is in everything around him. He really loves to watch the pets roam around the house and he's even petted them once or twice.

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.