Looking Back: Eleventh Month

The eleventh month was jam-packed with lots of fun. Eli got to meet some new friends, Grace and Collin. He and Grace really got along great and Eli was enamored with her. He loved doing everything that she did.


Eli also got to meet Eli and Asa. Look at how cute they are!


The eleventh month was the month for bruises and falls and lots of bumps to the head. Eli fell off the couch, hit his head on the tub, hit his head on a chair rung, busted his lip twice, and fell and pushed two of his teeth backwards a little bit. I think my whole head of hair must have turned gray after all those falls! Praise God that he was okay even after all that!


Eli started eating a lot more table food. I tried my best to keep him on baby food, but he wasn't having any of it, so I had to start getting more creative. I found out that he LOVES my spaghetti, so we'll definitely be having that again.


Eli had lots of fun playing in his cabinet and started getting creative with his hats. :)


He also showed us that he has absolutely NO FEAR! He started climbing onto anything and everything. If he was an animal, he'd DEFINITELY be a monkey!


During the Balloon Race weekend, Grammy and Pop came down to visit again and brought Eli a special Halloween goody bag.


He also got to go see the sights down by the riverwalk with Grammy, Pop, and Mommy.



We met Zue-Zue at the mall and watched some hot air balloons fly over us (they were the only ones that we saw all weekend!).


Eli also got to try out Tommy's Harley motorcycle. I'm going to do my best to keep his interest away from these things as much as possible though!


We kept venturing outside and Eli's favorite thing to do was play in the grass and touch his tree. He loved finding his tree and pulling at the leaves or pointing to birds in the sky. His little eyes didn't miss a thing!



Eli's last "First Holiday" was Halloween. I can't believe that it happened that quickly. My baby boy seems to have grown up overnight. We went to Trunk-or-Treat at our church and had such a fun time with everyone. Eli went as a monkey. I went as the Mama monkey, and Josh went as Jack Hanna. What a fun fun night!

Looking Back: Tenth Month

Eli started his tenth month off the right way...celebrating his favorite football team of all time...LSU! He had to go to bed right when the game started, but one day very soon, he'll be able to make it!


He also got to meet all of my mom's side of the family at the family reunion mom had at her house. It was so nice to see everyone again!


Eli and Hayden continued to have lots of fun together and with Ms. Ashley. Hayden's even smiling now! :)


But no matter how hard he played during the day, when he got home all he really wanted was to be with his Mommy. He started giving the BEST hugs ever and even some kisses!


He got a special gift in the mail from his Aunt Lisa in California and enjoyed getting to wear his Hawaiian shirt.


He also got his own cabinet in the kitchen full of cups, bowl, spoons, and books. He knew that whenever I was in the kitchen cooking, he could be in his cabinet. He loved picking up the cups, blowing into them, and using them like a megaphone. He would do that and just laugh hysterically!


His buddy, Hayden, turned one, so our family went to their house to celebrate He saw Ms. Ashley there and was a little confused as to why she was there on a Satuday.


With the change in weather, Eli and I started venturing outside much more and he turned into the best baby ever because of it. I have never seen a child love looking at things outside like Eli. He absolutely adores being outside! He's probably going to be one of those kids that I have to force to eat during the day because he would rather be outside playing ball. I'm so glad he loves outside though. He loves nothing more than to hear you say, "Eli, do you want to go outside?" He'll rush right to the door and start crying if you don't get outside fast enough :)

Looking Back: Ninth Month

The months kept getting better. Eli spent his ninth month really testing his feet and his balance. He got really brave and started letting go of the furniture he had been holding onto for a couple of months and started taking little steps. In true Eli fashion, he didn't just walk slowly either. No, he took off at a full run! The ninth month was the month that I really started having those heart stopping moments because Eli started walking AND falling much more!


We found him a Radio Flyer wagon for only $5.00 and started using it on our walks around our neighborhood. He LOVED it!


Grammy and Pop came back for a visit and Eli got to try lots of new things while they were here.


They let him try ice cream...


and they bought him a Leap Frog train, which he fell in love with on day one and still loves it now. Eli had Pop wrapped around his little finger and would get him to push him around all over the house.


We went back to the doctor again and were happy to discover that there wouldn't be any shots given! WOO HOO! They did have to prick his finger for some blood, but that was over in about 5 minutes.


Mommy started teaching again, so Eli went to stay at a new friend's house. He and Hayden had lots of fun every day with Ms. Ashley, their babysitter.


Eli also got some spelling lessons from Daddy. I'm so glad Daddy imparted this bit of wisdom onto his son. What would he ever have done without it? :)

Looking Back: Eighth Month

Eli's eighth month started off with a bang...LITERALLY! He celebrated his first 4th of July by getting together with the family at Mamaw's house. There was lots of good food, but he wasn't able to have any just yet. I did manage to sneak a little bite of ice cream sandwich to him though :)


We continued to enjoy the pool outside. It was so hot on some days though that we had to wait until after 5 o'clock before we could even go outside. Eli still rocked the curly mohawk, too!


Eli rode his first carousel with Mommy and enjoyed every minute of it.


He also had a fun time playing in the sprinklers at his Zue-Zue's house.


Eli and I took a trip to visit Grammy and Pop for a few days and did so much while we were there!


He got his hair cut for the first time! He sat in my lap the entire time and did great! I was such a proud Mama!


We went to the boardwalk and he rode on the carousel not once, not twice, but THREE times with Grammy, Pop, and me. He loved it!




Eli also started cruising while holding onto furniture. I encouraged him by placing puffs around our coffee table. Eli really enjoyed walking around picking them up and eating them.


We also took our first vacation as a family when we went to Destin, FL, for a few days. Zue-Zue went with us to help with Eli and Mammy and Uncle Clare even came for a couple of days. It was so much fun! I can't wait for us to go back to the beach again!


While we were at the beach, Eli used a mesh feeder for the first time and we discovered his love of fruit. He gobbled 1/2 a watermelon by himself (slight exaggeration, but he LOVED it!).


We went to Fudpucker's with the whole group and Eli got to try a lemon for the first time. He reacted just like we thought he would :)

Looking Back: Seventh Month

Ahhh, SUMMER! Eli's seventh month was all about relaxing and being home together again. The Verdel's kindly let us take over their pool again this year, so Eli and I spent many afternoons there playing in the water. We weren't able to stay very long because it was SO HOT, but we really enjoyed the time we did get to have there.


Eli also got to attend his first Vacation Bible School with Mommy. We boarded the Boomerang Express for a full week and had lots of fun. Eli went to the nursery and made lots of new friends.


An exciting accomplishment for Eli this month was he learned to pull up on his own. He first did it in his crib, but was soon doing it all over the house. We knew cruising would not be far behind!


We traveled to Grammy and Pop's house to celebrate Pop's 50th birthday and Daddy's 30th birthday. We had lots of fun!


I was so excited that Eli was finally getting to where he could try new textures with his food, instead of just pureed food. I bought him some Gerber puffs and this was his reaction...


He didn't know quite what to do with them, but he later learned! I can't tell you how many cans of puffs we have gone through this year!

Grammy and Pop bought Eli an inflatable pool for the backyard and he so much fun getting to splish splash in it. Maggie enjoyed it, too, but that was because she thought it was a gigantic water bowl!


My favorite memory from this month is that it is the month that Josh and I dedicated Eli to God. That was such a special day for our whole family. Eli is such a blessing to our lives and we wanted to tell God how thankful we are for him, but also that we want Him to help us as we raise him. We know that God has great plans in store for Eli and we can't wait to see what he does in his life!


Eli's hair was getting really long, so long in fact that when I tried to give him a mohawk, it curled instead! It still was the cutest mohawk I had ever seen!


Eli also cut his top four teeth AT ONCE! We tried our best to get a picture of it, but to no avail. I can tell he's going to have lots of fun at the dentist later on in his life :) After these four teeth, it brought his total number of teeth to 6! WOW!

Looking Back: Sixth Month

Eli's sixth month was the last month that he stayed at Mammy's. We all thought he would be crawling before he left her house for the summer, but he decided to spare her and continue to roll and try to crawl. We all knew it wouldn't be long though before he started getting really mobile!


Eli went to his first Relay for Life and posed with my school's team, who were pretending to be the cast from Gilligan's Island. That was a great night! It was so much fun to see our community come together to raise money for cancer awareness and research.


We cheered Mr. Cliff on as he walked his Survivor's Lap that night, too. We love you, Mr. Cliff!! Keep staying strong and fighting!


Eli kept practicing pushing up to get ready for crawling. He was delaying crawling until his arm muscles were in shape.


One of my most special memories from this month is that I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. It was WONDERFUL! I had prayed for so long to be a Mommy and God answered my prayer!. It was such a great day for all of us!


Eli also had to go back to the doctor to get more shots. NOT FUN! We loved seeing Dr. R, but I think Eli probably wished she'd just keep her shots to herself.


Eli also got a special visit from his Grandpa E. Grandpa E lives in Texas and travels a lot so he hadn't gotten to see Eli in person since he was born. It was so much fun to watch these two play with each other and spend time with each other. Eli has all the grandparents wrapped around his little fingers :)


We visited our good friends, the Hargon's, again. Eli and Hannah had lots of fun playing together that night. Her Mommy even stuck a bow in Eli's hair, but I didn't think he'd appreciate me posting that picture again :)


Later that month, Josh and I traveled to Canton, MS, to see my cousin, C.J. get married. All my family from North Carolina drove in for the wedding and they were so excited about finally getting to meet him.


The months kept flying by and Josh and I somehow managed to keep up. We couldn't believe that our little baby boy was growing up so quickly right in front of our very eyes! It was so much fun to see and watch all the new things he learned to do each month!