Belly Laugh

Hi Aunt Holly!

This is Aunt Holly's favorite picture of Eli. :-) It was taken after his first spoonful of pears.

Clementine

Well, it's clementine season again. Eli, Paul and I have been eyeing the boxes of little orange orbs for about a week now but have not shelled out the $9.99 it would cost to sample them yet. Call me crazy, but I think of clementines as a post-Thanksgiving pleasure.

Not so with Eli's friend, Clementine. We have had a couple of recent occasions to hang out with her and her parents, Nikki and Jason. Eli hasn't had a lot of play dates yet and he seemed to enjoy getting reacquainted with his NICU buddy when we had them over for brunch. Clementine seemed particularly interested in eating Eli's socks. Eli played hard to get.
When Paul and I went up to Inwood to visit them at their great restaurant, the Indian Road Cafe, Jason was a consummate host. He took the babies around to greet the brunch crowd while Nikki and I enjoyed some mommy down-time (Paul was watching the Brown-Columbia football game at Baker Field across the street.) Afterwards, Nikki and I took the babies to the playground and Eli enjoyed his first time on a swing. I think he's hooked.

Four Spoons

Eli turned nine months old on Monday (which means he was six months corrected) so his pediatrician told us he was ready to start trying solid foods! We had a bit of a struggle finding the right spoon and Eli wasn't sure he liked all of this...


...but all was forgiven when we showed him his new "big boy" seat.

Piggy-back

Flutist in Training

Eli seems very intrigued by my flute. Truth be told, he seems more interested in eating it than in listening to it but, well, you have to start somewhere! :-)

Here's the budding artiste in action:

An Autumnal Outing

We finally made it out of the city to do some late-season apple picking. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time introducing Eli to his daddy's favorite fruit...and a new animal friend to boot!

Boo (hoo)!

Happy Halloween!

Happier Halloween!

Mom, you have GOT to be kidding me with this...

OK, I guess I look pretty cute.

A visit to the NICU

Eli had a follow-up appointment at Roosevelt so we decided to stop in and pay a visit to some of his old pals. It was really moving to see how excited the doctors and nurses were to see Eli. What an amazing group of people.

While we were there, someone wheeled an isolette by so we got a chance to show Eli where he started out. He looked very interested, but it did not seem to bring up the same memories for him as it did for me. We're so lucky to have our charming, smiling little boy with us!

We're back!

I know, I know! It's been AGES since we've posted. So much has happened: I've returned to work (that's tiring but it's great to be back); visits from Grandma Cam and Grandpa Bill; Eli's first trip to Shelter Island; Eli's first cold (that was scary but he was fine! He gave it to me next and Iwas completely knocked out by it!); Hanging out with his Nonna, Grandpa David, Aunt Melisa and Uncle Ed; and let's not forget Halloween!! Here is a gallery of photos to catch you up on Eli's life.



Eli got some new shoes. He wasn't too sure about them. Fortunately for him, he grew out of them before we even got a chance to put them on again. Since then, he's been sticking with socks that have shoe designs on them. :-)


Eli's therapy (OT and PT) has been going really well. Here he is working on the balance ball and admiring himself in the mirror.





Off to college?

Eli has a girlfriend!


Fun with the family.






Eli has lots of hats...





...but he's still a baldy.






Baby Calvin Klein model?

We can already tell that Eli has inherited his mom's love of animals. He could not get enough of this pup, Sammy. Hemingway, the horse, also wanted to get in on the action.







Eli enjoyed his first birthday party (for Micah, 1 year old) and he particularly loved this champagne bottle...maybe because of the name??

Big boy sitting up all by himself!