17 Months

I tried to hold off until 18 months to follow up on Eli's stats, but he has started doing some new things that I did not want to forget.  He is definitely growing into a little boy!

1) Still our little parrot - repeating everything we say and remembering the words and their meaning now
2) Loves all of his animals
3) He only watches one tv show on Netflix, Animal Party.  We have to fast forward to the Horses before we can start the show from the beginning.  He names all of the animals while watching and makes their sound - so cute  We try not to let him watch this too often, but this has definitely come in handy with daylight savings time and waking up an hour earlier :)
4) Going through a huge mama phase!  So much, that if I am holding him he will push away Derek or grab his beard if he comes close.  Poor Derek!  However, Eli loves playing hide and seek with him and always gets those big belly laughs with this game.
5) With that being said, we have started the tantrum phase.  This is no joke!   One day a switch just flipped - crazy!  However, he will start to hit his head or bang his head against the wall out of frustration.  This has been an interesting time for us, learning how to parent theses tantrums - a great lesson in patience as well.
6) Nighttime routine includes dad reading any books with dogs or babies in them.  Eli then crawls up in my lap to sing and rock.
7) Favorite songs that we must sing before bed time, "Wheels on the bus", "Patty Cake", "I love you Eli", "Jesus Loves Me", "I see the Moon/Twinkle Twinkle"
8) When we rock, he sits back in the chair like I do so we can recline with each other.  We have a caterpillar nightlight that shines stars and moon all over the ceiling, so we recline back and watch the stars change colors. Reminds me of an indoor camping scene. He proceeds to say "WHOA" every time the stars change colors.
9) Loves the moon ... at least in his room.  Maybe with the time change, he will get to see it outside some more :)
10) He is still my water boy.  Not sure what we are going to do in the winter... Every time he sees the hose outside he runs to turn it on and runs through it, splash, sticks his face in it, basically gets soaking wet no matter what.
11) Loves pointing out family members in pictures and saying their name.  He gets real excited when he sees cousin photos and can name each one.
12) Is obsessed with balls and throwing ... he actually has a fairly good arm for an 17 mo
13) Says GOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL when he sees any soccer game on the tv - whether Derek's Chelsea team or his video game.  It doesn't even matter if an actual goal has been scored, just if soccer is being played - ha!
14) Pats my belly and says baby, and sometimes we'll get a kiss
15) Obsessed with poking everybody's belly button; however, he calls it "butt", (we are working on the second syllable).  He will come up to you and raise your shirt.
16) Everytime he sees a cat he calls them MEOW - or rather MAOW

 Not sure what it is, but when it's laundry day, Eli loves to get inside the basket.  Derek will drag him around the house and make racecar noises - it is a hit in the family, and so cute!!

 This sweet face!

 Eli was spoiled riding in Aunt Ali's car.  Comfy car seats, DVDs on the weekend ... dont get used to it kiddo :)

 October was the month of black eyes.  This was he first one - he fell face first right on the concrete - ouch!  You can see his black eyes in most of his October pictures.  Once this cleared up, literally 2 days later, he ran into a get full speed and hit his other eye.  I guess boys will be boys, but goodness!

 My fav!

 Bike rides and slides with Dad!

 Hoarding and hiding his balls from his friends.  When it comes to balls, he does not want to share :)

 Pet Party!!! Well this show came in handy when I had to clean the house and make dinner for group, make dinner for Eli and get him ready for bed all in an hour.  That was a whirlwind, but he sat there and was so good watching all of his animals and loving every minute of it

 Where is Eli???  This is his one cabinet he can get into.  Just has a bunch of baby stuff, so he likes to make this his hiding spot - too funny!

 Such a little boy in this picture!  And, I love the morning Dad outfit :)

 Loves the hose and playing running through the water

 He knows this is wrong and this will hurt Eli when he falls, but he looked so cute ... I tried disciplining while trying to secretly take a picture off to the side.  I couldn't help it :)

 When you go into Selfie mode on your camera he runs up to it and says ... "CHEEESE".  Love it!

 He has loved pumpkins this season, even old rotted ones on the sidewalk that somebody broke.  But he went running right up to it screaming pumpkin!

Testing out his hat!