First word?

I took a video of Eli last night during bathtime.  I bought him some wiffle balls from Target (another great $3 spend) last night and he took one into the bath with him.  Without any demonstration, he started putting it into his little basketball goal.  Then this happened...

I swear he said "basketball" or something like that.  Could that be his first word?  I'll call it a fluke for now, unless it happens again, but I wouldn't mind if his first word was "basketball" instead of "mama" or "dada".

10 Months

I haven't been great at giving monthly updates on our little boy, but here's a quick snapshot at what he's been up to lately:

• Wearing 18 - 24 month clothing (his growth has actually slowed down enough for us to get more than 2 wears out of each outfit).
• At his 9 month appointment last month, he weighed in at 25lbs and 30", holding steady at > 95% for weight and height.  I'm beginning to believe that he really will be a linebacker one day (hopefully for UT, hook 'em).
• He's so mobile right now!  I've had a few moments when I've glanced away for less than a second and looked back to see that he's crawled across an entire room.  He has the most precious bear crawl, where he doesn't let his knees hit the ground.  He's been doing it since day one, and rarely crawls on his knees.
• He's pulling up on everything!  The dogs, his walker, his excersaucer, doors, windows, my legs, the coffee table, ottomans, his crib.  He has also started "cruising" furniture, meaning he's moving along the edge of it while standing up.  He crawled up on me the other day and just let go completely, he's very brave.
• He's putting one foot in front of the other:  We walked with one of his toys across the entire house last week.  I helped him keep the walker toy from rolling out from under him, and he pushed it and walked, left foot, right foot, the length of the house.
• He's a great sleeper:  He's taking a long mid-day nap, usually at least 2 hours and a one hour afternoon nap, and sleeping from 8 to 7 most nights.  He will still enteratin himself for a good 15 minutes once he gets up.  He will also spend about 15 minutes putting himself to sleep at night.  Gone are the days that he likes to cuddle with mommy or daddy in the glider, now he just pushes away from us, stands on our laps and giggles or tries to get down, until we put him in his crib, where he rolls around talking to himself for at least 10 minutes before finally pooping out.
• He's a fabulous eater!  Eating has never been an issue for this kid (aside from the watermelon incident).   
• Breakfast:  a banana and two pieces of toast
• Morning snack:  4 ounces of formula from his sippy cup
• Lunch:  1/3 cup of chicken, veggies, and some string cheese
• Afternoon snack:  4 ounces of formula from his sippy cup
• Dinner:  Black bean burger patty (maybe two), an avocado, cheese
• Bedtime:  7 ounce bottle
• His favorite toy:  his little soccer ball.  He loves chasing it around the house and will play with it for more than five minutes (which is a lot these days).  When I sit down across from him, he'll get so excited and throw it to me, it is precious!
• He/We loves Melissa's house!  She gave us a picture of the kids all wearing bunny ears for Easter.  I've got it posted on the fridge and each time it's in his line of sight, Eli points at it and gets so excited.  Every morning, when we walk up to Melissa's door I say "Where's Missy?", then she opens the door and he just squeals at the sight of her and his friends. 
• He hates being changed on his changing table.  I will spend this weekend trying to find clever ways to keep him on his back on the changing table.  He constantly rolls over mid-diaper change and tries to crawl off the end of the changing pad.  I've tried almost every toy in his room to keep him on his back, even resorting to letting him play with a thing of "Budreax's Butt Cream", and nothing has worked. 
• He definitely has an attitude when he doesn't like what's going on!  Payton says he's just like his mama!  We haven't seen it recently, but for a while he was doing this head-butting action when he got upset.  He would literally gather all of this strength and throw his head forward if you told him "no" or took something away from him.  The pediatrician said it was totally normal, him expressing his feelings, and it has recently slowed down, so I'm not worried.

We have been so blessed to have this child in our lives and I thank God every day for allowing me to be his mom.  It's been quite a journey so far, and it isn't always as cookie cutter as what I've posted above, but we're in a great place and happy to be there.  Here are some recent pictures:

Left, first few hours, Right, 10 months

Eli and Papa D

Playing with the soccer ball, best $4 I've ever spent!

Finished with dinner!

Cousin Emily and Eli

This is what bath time looks like lately...

throw toys out of the tub and try to climb

out after them, lovely!

Oh what a day!

We started out Mother's Day weekend on a great foot.  I met some girlfriends for brunch and pedicures then joined Payton and Eli for a great lunch outside.  We were all in great moods, had some home projects to get done, and I got my mother's day treats from my boys early (another post coming tomorrow), then the day went like this...

I was watching Bug in his pool while Payton washed his car.  Lately, when we're in the blow up pool, all I see is this:

I'm not sure why, but it seems like the only thing he is interested in is the mud and grass around the pool when I put him in.  I pull him back into the pool to play with his toys, and he always ends up butt in the air, picking at the grass and mud.  I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden I looked up and saw this:

He had slipped out head first into the mud.  I'm hoping this will teach him to keep his little butt on the ground and stop trying to escape every time we set out the pool.  I had to laugh, and so did Payton, then we had to figure out how to clean him off without upsetting him.  He's so spoiled!

Then we learned, after Bug's afternoon nap, that it was time to take down his mobile and move his crib away from the curtains:

So much fun, pulling on the elephant.  So his crib is a little more bare tonight, and the safari animals are getting a much needed rest after being assaulted by Mr. Eli this afternoon.

And to top off this fabulous Saturday, we fed Eli watermelon for the first time:

And here is what we learned:

1. Having a pediatric nurse as a neighbor is comforting in more ways than one.
2. If you're child is choking, do NOT give him water.
3. You shouldn't feel dumb calling 911, ever!
4. We need to get a home phone.
5. We need to take child CPR/First Aid/Choking classes.
6. Payton is a lot better under stress than I am, for sure!
7. Eli's one tough boy!

Eli finished his dinner just fine but started coughing like he had something stuck in his throat.  I patted him on the back like I normally do and he seemed to be okay.  A minute later he started gagging so I tried to give him some water.  None of it would go down and he was starting to turn red, so I grabbed Payton and told him to try to see what was wrong with him.  Payton held him face down on his arm like we've been told to do if your child is choking and patted him on his back.  At this point we were fairly calm and thought whatever it was would work its way loose.  

Over the next ten minutes we went from being calm (when he was breathing and acting normal) to worried - when he would start gagging and his face would turn red, and he would get agitated.  I'll spare you the details of the story, but let's just say there were a few moments when my mind would race and I would lose it.  I called our neighbor who is a pediatric nurse and asked her to stop by and check out Eli.  I was worried he was having an allergic reaction (Payton's allergic to cantaloupe) and his throat was swelling shut, and I knew Kristen could help us diagnose it.

While we waited for her to come over, Eli seemed to be getting worse, so I called 911.  And here is why we're getting a home phone on Monday.  I called from my cell phone, which is an Austin number I got in college 10+ years ago.  We live less than 200 yards into Williamson County, while Austin is mostly Travis county.  After giving the dispatcher my information through tears and talking to Payton, she says, I'm sorry ma'am, you're in Williamson County, I'll have to transfer you.  Transfer me?  Seriously?  When I'm finally routed to the correct county (geez) I have to give someone new my information again.  I told her what was going on and less than 5 minutes later the firemen were walking in our front door.  

This entire time, Eli's was going in and out of good and bad, and when he's good, I'm thinking how silly I'll feel when the responders arrive and he's fine.  When he's bad, I think how glad I am I called, that I did the right thing.  

Eli eventually worked out the dang watermelon that was caught in his throat (and what is really scary is that the piece wasn't no bigger than what we usually give him), the firemen looked at him in awe as he stared all of them down, and giggled, and shook his head back and forth saying "no".  I think 4 of the 5 guys that showed up were younger than me, by a few years, but they did a great job of calming me down, talking to Payton, and handling our little boy.  

The EMT's showed up soon after, listened to his breathing, and by that time, Bug was over the fuss and ready to cruise.  He was bathed and in bed soon after they left, where he is now sleeping soundly.  Payton and I cracked open a beer after he went down, and talked non stop for an hour about everything that had happened - how our boy was a total trooper, how much we love him, how much we want to scoop him out of his crib and bring him to bed with us.  

I wasn't expecting to have a 911 call or any type of emergency for much further down the line, so hopefully we've gotten it out of the way for his lifetime.  I think we're going to take the guys that responded some cookies next weekend, and Buggers will wear his "Tough Guy" t-shirt.  He didn't cry once, but I did.  Next weekend we'll also work to replace the flowers that the EMT's ran over with the stretcher they brought into the house.

And as I read this over, we sound like terrible parents...in one day our son does a faceplant into the mud, he attacks the mobile animals and curtains (which we should have removed weeks ago) and we have to call 911 after his first taste of watermelon.  But I'll blame it on being a first-time parent, and what I'm sure will be a few of many lessons that we have ahead of us.  Thank God our child is resilient and patient!