outtake

Brother, if you steal my food I'm going to get seriously grumpy on you.

7 months

Eli is seven months old.
He's crawling from room to room,
getting his first teeth,
telling all sorts of expressive stories, 
and eating all sorts of food from the garden.

He's also eating all sorts of thing that should NOT be eaten. More on that later.


Love you Little Mister. We're the "lucky" ones.

more from the 4th

These are pictures we took the weekend of the 4th of July. We celebrated Independence Day with the Starr family in Richfield. The weather was hot and humid, consequently Eli was a little less smiley and a little more drowsy.

Necia gave Eli this hat that says "mom's lucky charm"

Where did we get such smiley guys?

Classic Eli. Huge grin, bare feet, and a onesie.

It's hard to be patriotic when all you want is a nap.

Grandma Starr at the parade

Uncle Jeff, one of our awesome veterans

Eli's opinion of family pictures :)

Oh there we go, there's our happy boy.

happy boy, happy life, happy independence day

This is from a Starr family 4th of July photo shoot. It was not much fun for us, but this picture was worth all the craziness. Eli had just started sitting up really well and I couldn't resist putting him in there and asking the photographer for a couple more shots.

He's perfect.
Breathtaking.
One of the greatest pictures of all time.



But what I love the most is my little secret.
He's so beautiful and so happy.
His expression... his posture... the composition is perfectly delightful and leads one to wonder what it is he's looking at.
Well you see, he's that happy because he's making eyes at his mom.
Me.
Me, his mom.
What an honor.
My children are everything to me.
For now I can be everything to them.


I hope I can always make you smile, Eli.

6 months

My heartbeat. My sidekick. My favorite accessory.

He loves being outside.

Eli has been given so many monkey things.

He likes to hold his foot when he eats.

He was sitting up right before I took this picture. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get a million other shots. I love this onesie. I love his legs!

name game

We call him Lucky.

Or Mr E. 

Or just Mister. 

He's our "little professor".

When he randomly wakes up in the night I sooth him and call him 'lijah.

His universal nickname is "smiley", 

everyone somehow knows this and calls him by it. 

When Mason says his name it sounds like Eeyiy. 

So how did Eli get his name? I'll tell you. 

We had a few names we liked but none of them were really standing out as The One. One night I was in the living room with Mason. I was up on the couch reading and he was playing on the floor. I started asking Mason what his little brother's name was. Jokingly I asked "Is it baby George?" and Mason laughed and said "No Mom!"

Is it baby Bill? No Mom!

Is it baby Fred? No Mom!

Then I started asking him the names that we were seriously considering. I named off a few. The response was always "No Mom!"

Then I asked "Is it baby Eli?"

Mason stopped playing, 

looked up from his toys, 

and said "Yeah Mom! Baby Eeyiy!"

It was like he remembered that name, 

that he KNEW it was his little brother's name.

From the point on he wouldn't allow any other name to be considered. We wouldn't mention that name at all and yet every time we talked about the baby Mason would say "Baby Eeyiy!".

The name grew and grew on us. We waited to meet Eli to be certain that it was the name for him. Sure enough, Mason was right. Eli it was.

(Good thing too because I couldn't imagine trying to tell stubborn little two year old Mason it was going to be any other name.)

five months

These pictures were taken on Mason's third birthday. Eli is almost five months old! Mason has started calling Eli "Eee Iye Eee Iye Oh!" and sometimes he throws "head" on the end too. A few days after these pictures were taken Jason trimmed some of Eli's hair. I could hardly stand it since I don't believe in haircuts or chocolate until the age of one. Jason didn't mess with too much of it though, just the long part from the top that was long enough to get in poor Eli's eyes. Eli has become the droolmyster. I worry about dehydration due to the amount of fluid he loses. We keep suspecting teeth...then nothing happens. He's started to hold onto his feet a lot, especially when eating. He also tries to hold his bottle on his own.

More from April

His default expression... GLEE!

I have this same pose picture of Mason somewhere.

Aunt Mamie... remember that once when you watched Eli over night and he did NOT sleep through the night like I bragged he would and you were up every two hours?

Eli likes to be all wrapped up and cozy to sleep but not swaddled tight.

This is one of the many times I step out of the room and when I come back things are NOT as I left them. In this case Eli was NOT on the floor when I left. He doesn't fuss when Mason man-handles him. I couldn't bring myself to fix Mason's redeyes. It's just too fitting.

4 months

I live for this kid.
You would think I would post about him more often.
He keeps my hands full, my life full, my heart full.
One of the things that makes me most happy is checking on the boys at night. I love having two. I love they share a room. I love how they slumber quietly next to each other and sleep through each others' disturbances.

Here Eli is at 4 months.

what the heck?

Eli rolled over yesterday. I missed it but the look on his face said it all. It was a "what the heck just happened?" expression.

In other news he's still sleeping 10-12 hours a night. Straight. Around 9 I put him in his bed and say good night. He wiggles around for a while and then falls asleep. He sleeps through all of Mason's noise (and trust me, Mason makes a lot of noise). In the morning he gets up around 8, and sometimes sleeps in until around 9:30 when his diaper can hold no more and his PJs get wet. Every morning I laugh and say "What the heck? What baby does this?"

Eli is also a mouth baby. He chews the heck out of everything, especially his arm, shirt, and blanket. I never understood why people put bibs on babies who were too little to eat. Now I know why. He chews and slobbers until he's soaked.

And speaking of mouths, I'm pretty sure he has the cutest smile. Part of the cuteness is the frequency in which he displays it. He is a smiley kid and it covers most of his face it's so big. He laughs more than ever, especially when he hears some one else laughing. It sets him off. We love the heck out of him.

bear boy

This is Mason's old airplane hat. He'd wear it every time he flew. He still tries to wear it even though it doesn't fit anymore. I will get Mason a new airplane hat if he'll pass this one down to Eli.
 

kudos to the camera phone

I am grateful for the camera feature on my phone to capture sweet little unexpected moments.

Eli being adored by Grandpa Heaton

Our happy changing- table boy

It's all in the eyebrows

Buddy Ethan

3 months

Eli is three months old. Our favorite part of the day is the time he spends on the changing table. After he's fed and changed, he is so happy. We spend a lot of time bent over the changing table making silly noises and enjoying all his new expressions. I think it's mean to tickle little babies, so this is the first week we've tickled him much. His legs and toes are super ticklish. He gets freaked out if you tickle his stomach (which is why I think it's mean).  He has developed a cute throaty laugh and starts giggling at the sight of his Uncle Brady.

It's miraculous to watch his body grow and become so strong. Often he'll have moved across the crib when we check on him. It is a strange feeling for a parent to realize your baby is doing things, like moving around the crib, without your help. Independence is a wonderful thing but these little changes have me worrying he'll be moving out on his own soon. Eli goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps until about 8am. It's a miracle. When he gets tired he puts his arms up in front of his face to block out the world. When he's really tired he hollers until he suddenly shuts off and falls asleep.

He is very aware of people and does not like to be left alone. Lately I'll make a little nest on the counter for him while I'm in the kitchen. I can get chores done, he is well supervised, and we certainly enjoy each others' company. He also has some toys hanging on his car seat that he's become aware of. He'll swing his uncoordinated arms around until he gets a hold on one of them.

Eli is finally gaining some weight as well. He's around 14 lbs and 24 inches. He likes to be on his stomach or held against us with his legs bent against his chest so that he's facing the same direction we are. He's holding his head up so well, which led to these great pictures:

Eli's first flight

Look who's flying?! Eli got on an airplane with me and flew from SLC to CDC. He was 12 weeks old at the time. I took pics the first time Mason flew (at 3 weeks!) so I thought I'd better snap a few of Eli. It was a lot harder to take pictures because I was by myself. Luckily I had my handy-dandy sling which I never fly without if I have a baby in tow. I really love Elijah's expressions here. He looks pretty concerned. Funny though, he looks like that even when we aren't on a tiny little prop engine aircraft. It must be the eyebrows that make his wide array of expressions have a worried look. Or maybe it's my parenting... :)

so blessed

Eli was given and name and blessing by his father on Sunday, March 6th. We've certainly learned that Eli does things his own way, and it's usually not what is expected. He hollered during most of the prayer and then was quiet at the end. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time, thinking: Oh Eli. You'll always keep us on our toes.

It was a very special day surrounded by more loving family than any little baby could wish for. Jason bore his testimony and had everyone in tears with his powerful words and tender spirit. It is always fun to get the family together, and this was a wonderful occasion to have both sides of the family all under one roof...even if the house was bursting at the seams with about 45 people coming to honor our little guy.

Mom's handsome boys

Generations

All eyes on the baby

Eli wondering what the commotion is all about.