Silent Blog

Well. It's been almost a month since my last blog entry, and what a busy month it's been! The thing is, we've been up to so much in the last month that a post about it all seems overwhelming. We went to Chicago, and then to Glen Lake, and celebrated Eli's first birthday. Brian's triathlon, which he's been training for over the course of many months, is tomorrow evening. I haven't attended any births in the last month, but I have a busy fall coming up of a birth every few weeks (assuming the little ones arrive in their full-term five-week windows).

Of all of that, all of which has been wonderful and challenging and invigorating, I think Eli's birthday deserves a pause and some time for reflection. He's about one year and one week old right now (as I type this, he's upstairs taking his afternoon nap, as is Maia! Coordinated nap! Woot!). I think the way I'd most like to pass this time is to try to capture his personality at this point in his life; capture it in words as best I can, to keep it and be able to reflect on how his one-year-old personality grew into a toddler, then a preschooler, and so on.

1. Eli loves to talk. One of the most defining things about him at this age is his very conversational and grown-up style of babbling. He talks about things while pointing at them. He talks about things while shaking his head "no" or "yes," whether he approves or disapproves of whatever he's discussing. He'll talk about something and then look directly at you, asking for a response, and then he'll go on with his discussion until it's time for another bit of input form you. Sometimes his talking is rhythmic and repetitive, and sometimes it follows the up and down variation of English sentences and tones. I love listening to Eli talk. He has several verbal words right now but also seems to be putting vocabulary on hold while he focuses his energy on physical milestones. (I just looked back at our blog to the entries at around this point in Maia's life, and I found almost exactly this same sentiment: verbal development on hold while physical leaps forward.)

2. Eli's one-year words: Mama, Dada, Hi, Bye-bye, Uh-oh, Mama Milk, Night-night, More, No, All Done. (Hard for me to believe, but this is actually a longer list than Maia's was at this age.)

3. Eli's pretty close to independent walking, but not just yet. He wants to be up and vertical, holding onto anything he can and moving around his space. He can walk at your side, holding just one of your hands as he takes his jerky steps forward, but he still seems to prefer a two-handed grip. It'll be a while before he's really walking on his own, and I'm so glad for that. This might just be my favorite baby milestone to take its sweet time, if I had to pick one.

4. I don't know how big Eli is right now. His appointment with our family doctor is a week from today. I'd imagine he weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 29 pounds, and some of Maia's old 3T shirts fit him ... he's wearing one today, in fact. His curly hair is getting really long, but I'm really reluctant to cut it--the curls are just so ridiculously cute. So very "Beezy," as it were.

5. Nursing is going strong into our second year. :) It is awesome and wonderful, and Eli calls it his "Mama Mo" or "Mama Mee." Love.

6. Eli thinks that getting his butt wiped during a diaper change is one of the funniest things ever. That, and whatever his big sister is doing to entertain him in the car. :)

The chatting that he's been doing upstairs for the last couple of minutes has turned to complaining, so I probably need to wrap up this post and go get him. Naptime is over! Happy Birthday to our charming Mr. Beez, Beezy, Eeez, Bezelius, Tweeez ... Eli!

From Up North 2011