The Houston Zoo

This is almost a week late, but we finally took Eli to the Houston Zoo last week during Josh's spring break. We've been wanting to go but have been waiting until Eli seemed a little more interested in animals. He still wasn't very interested in many of them, and he fell asleep for part of it, but he was curious to see some of them, especially those that made noises and the orangutans. They were being silly and playing around, so they were most human-like for him, which is probably why he liked them so much. Truly, had there been people in a cage, he would have watched for hours. He's definitely a people watcher. Anyway, we have a zoo membership so we can go often (it's really close to where we live too), and I'm sure he'll enjoy the animals more the older he gets. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there:

Eli's World

Eli does so many funny, interesting, and/or cute things that it's hard to write them down fast enough. At least for a first time mom I find them adorable and amusing, so here's an update of some of the things Eli likes or has been doing lately.

1. Being chased--He loves to "crawl" away from Josh and me. He will get our attention and then sprint crawl in the opposite direction until we start chasing him. Then he tries to find a place to hide. I love it. He always has this look on his face like, "Uh oh, they're after me. I got to go." It's adorable!

2. Dancing--I'm not sure where he gets it from, but he likes "movin' to the music." As soon as he hears some music, he'll either rock back and forth on his hands and knees or get up onto something and start shaking his legs and bum. It's so cute! Last night for FHE Josh and I were singing the opening hymn and Eli climbed up to the couch and started dancing. It's the first time (and probably the last) I've seen anyone try dancing to the music "Be Thou Humble." When we finished, I think he wanted to keep going because he opened his mouth and started "singing" all by himself. It was definitely a recordable moment. Too bad we didn't have our camcorder.

Though it's hard to see from a still image, here he is "movin' and groovin'."

3. Exploring--Eli has always liked to explore, but now that he's getting more mobile, it can be a challenge to keep him out of things. He loves cupboards, drawers, closets, basically all the places he's not supposed to go. We've babyproofed some places, but the boy is definitely smart and strong. He's so tall that he reaches things he's not supposed to yet. If he can't reach it by himself, then he climbs on other things to reach a little higher. If he doesn't do that, then he does pull-ups. He's strong enough to pull himself up and peek into a drawer or pull himself up to see what's on the kitchen table. And of course, everything still goes in his mouth, so that's a continuous battle.

Here he is trying to get a glass pitcher from the kitchen cupboard.

4. Communicating--Though I still haven't a clue what he's saying, I'm sure he thinks he's talking like a grown up. He loves to babble, and I know he understands me a lot better now. It's always been so difficult to change his diaper because he's so squirmy, but if I talk to him and let him know that he can move as soon as I'm finished with his diaper, lately he has been letting me change him. He'll hold still, and when I tell him I'm done, he'll roll over and start moving. It doesn't work every time, but it's getting better. Yesterday Josh and I both swear that when Josh came home, Eli said, "Hi, daddy." It certainly sounded pretty good. He at least seems to be directing his "mamas" and "dadas" to the right person now. Plus, I've been noticing he doesn't whine and cry as much to get things he wants. Don't get me wrong, he still does it, but he will often try other methods. For example, this morning he was tired and wanted to take a nap. Usually he whines and cries until I hold him, but this morning he went into his bedroom, reached between the slots of his crib, and tried pulling out his sleep bear. His sleep bear is a little bear/blankie that I give him when he goes to sleep. Anyway, I saw him trying to get his sleep bear, which wouldn't fit through the slots, and I gave it to him and picked him up. He was asleep within minutes. It was so much nicer than having him whine. Wouldn't it be nice if that became a habit?

5. Bath time--Eli likes his baths, and he's so messy after eating that he gets them quite frequently. Lately he's been "doing his business" in the bathtub, which hasn't been pleasant, but at least it's closer to the toilet, right? :-)

6. Sippy cup--We discovered a couple of weeks ago in the middle of the night that Eli can use a sippy cup. He won't take a bottle, so I thought that he should probably learn how to use a sippy cup since he's getting to the point where he won't need breast milk anymore. We've tried introducing it to him for a couple of months now, but all he would do is bite on the spout. He's been sick (he's finally getting better with the help of antibiotics), so he was up crying because he couldn't breathe when he was trying to nurse. I decided to try the sippy cup, hoping that water would be helpful in thinning the mucous. Instead of biting the spout, he actually started drinking from it. Not the best way to discover that he knows how to use it, but I'll take it!

I had to laugh at this unique way of trying to sip from his cup.

7. Swinging--Eli enjoys the swings at the park. He's still too young to do much else, but he will sit in the swing and stare at the other children playing. In some ways I feel bad for him because his looks remind me of the kid that got left out on the playground. It's enough to make me want to have another baby right now just so that he can have a sibling to play with. Don't go jumping to any conclusions, but it will be nice when he can play on the slides and other park apparatus. If I put him down now, he tries to eat the sand, wood chips, leaves, grass, twigs, anything on the ground. That's why he swings.

8. Walking--His main form of getting around is still crawling, but he enjoys walking as he holds my fingers. His Auntie Bronwyn gave him a little walker for Christmas that he enjoys using. He has learned how to push it backward and forward and any which way. He has also had brief moments of standing on his own before falling on his bum. His first steps shouldn't be too far away.

9. Eating--Besides eating inedible things, Eli does like to eat "real" food, especially if Mommy and Daddy are eating it. He now has a total of three (probably four tomorrow) teeth that he can use to help him with that task. It's so nice when I can feed him the same things Josh and I are eating.

It Finally Happened!

I wouldn't say I've been expecting this to happen, but I'm not really surprised that it did. Since we moved to Houston, I've noticed that many parking stalls are remarkably small, including the two different apartment complexes we've lived in. At first I was scared about me hitting someone, but lately I've worried about someone hitting us. Why? Well, the person who parks next to us has been known to park over the yellow line to the extent that we can't park our car in our space. Before, our car hasn't been there when that's happened, but this time we weren't so lucky. We were already there when they came in a little too close as you can tell. Fortunately, we've already been in contact with their insurance and will be getting the damaged assessed next weekend.

Our apartment complex is not the only place with ridiculously small parking spaces, however. When I worked at Bellaire High School, I was always amazed that we teachers were able to get in and out of the parking lot without hitting each other. At least the stalls were diagonal. The Whole Foods parking lot doesn't have that advantage. We don't shop there often, but the few times I've been there, it's quite scary to back out. Don't people think before painting those yellow lines? We're not all driving compact cars.

Still, people do need to be careful, especially knowing that there isn't much space. If you park crooked, back out and re-park. That is a pet peeve of mine. Just yesterday I went to the store and came out to find that the car parked next to me was over the yellow line and dangerously close to my car. The worst, besides this that just happened, was last year when I came out of the store to find that the car was so close that I couldn't open my driver's side door. I was seven or eight months pregnant, and I had to get in on the passenger's side and straddle my way to the driver's seat. For those of you who have been pregnant, you can imagine it wasn't that comfortable. Where is the consideration? I couldn't have gotten in even if I hadn't been pregnant.

Conclusion: The chicken crossed the road because of parking problems!

Surprise, Surprise!

I wrote the last blog while Eli was napping, and when he woke up, this is what I found. He was so tired after taking his bath that I just put a diaper on him and put him right to bed. I guess he took advantage of that, huh? The little rascal!