Eli took his first crawl “step” today! He was able to move his hands forward and pull his legs in without collapsing forward. He’ll take two “steps” or so, and then go back to sitting, and he did this a number of times today.

Eli generally enjoys his food, and often likes to say num, num, num when eating….

Eli is 8 months today! Still not crawling, still only two teeth.

Working on the crawling

Today was dress like a gumboot fairy day

We’ve been told that we “always” say no to riding the horses, so today we surprised Grace with another turn.

We went to feed the ducks at one of the parks, met a little girl, Cara, and took her pedal bike for a spin. It was the best peddling I have seen Grace do so far.

The cars have been in desperate need of a wash, and today was warm so Grace could jump into her costume to help, and she really was helpful.

Something looks yum in that bowl

Eli was grabbing Donné’s sponge during sister hugs in the bath, so Grace says, “It’s a no Eli,” and gently pulls his hand away from the sponge. I loved how she was assertive, but gentle. He grabs it again, and she says to him while pulling his hand away, “It’s a no Eli. We don’t share sponges.” She’s going to be a great big sister.

Grace went for a play date with Catelin today and at one point says to Catelin, “You have two choices. One, watch TV. Two, go and play.”

Catelin says, “Watch TV,” to which Grace replies, “I choose to play. If you’re looking for me I’ll be playing in your room,” and off she goes.

I was really proud of her when Donné told me the story. I think it was great because,

1. Grace was able to assert what she wanted
2. She was fine with Catelin doing what she wanted to do
3. She didn’t judge Catelin’s choice in anyway, and didn’t try to manipulate her into doing what Grace wanted.

It just seemed like a really healthy way to deal with the situation.

Eli is enjoying his food. At dinner time we give him a plate of food as close to ours as possible and he sits and eats some and plays with it. He is eating things like sweet potato, lentils, butternut, rice, chicken and steak.

He would be able to chew on the steak a bit better if he popped some top teeth. Right now, he still only has the bottom two teeth, but he is rubbing his face a lot at the moment, especially when sleeping at night.

Eli is enjoying babbling, making “mum, mum” and “ba ba” sounds.

Today he learned to bash things and was enjoying playing the xylophone and hitting the bottom of a plastic bowl with a spoon. His arms have been flapping around for a little while now, but today he really managed to get some intentional drumming working well.

Sleeping is still a bit all over the show. His daytime sleeps are mostly 45 minutes or so, and at night we’ve been working on getting back to only one or two wake ups (still a long way to go). Our current goal is to get him to only feed for the first time after 24h00. Last night was the first time in ages that he has gone until after 24h00, and he slept all the way until 02h00.

He is still working hard are figuring out crawling, and it feels like he is on the cusp now. He will probably have crawled his first few steps by the end of the weekend.

Grace was giving Eli some lunch today, but after a few mouthfuls he wasn’t really interested. She says to him, “Eli, are you done-sies?” (done-sies being pronounced done-zee’s….who knows exactly how to spell that). He, unsurprisingly, does not reply, so she continues, “I don’t think he heard me…..ELI ARE YOU DONE-SIES??” Unfortunately louder is not going to cut it this time.

Grace was loving some time with Gramps today, and enjoying him reading stories to her

First came sister hugs in the bath, and now sister slides…

Eli joined in eating the same thing that we did for supper – lentils, butternut, and for him a small piece of steak. He focussed and slowly (and happily) worked his way through it.

Eli’s goal at the moment is to learn to crawl. If you put him down, he turns to the side, and gets himself onto all fours. He then normally reaches for something and flops down flat. When he’s ready, he pushes up into all fours, walks his hands backwards to push his body up, and then pulls his legs through to get back to sitting. Today, he did this over and over again.

Granny gave Eli a truck which can be dismantled into a whole bunch of pieces. Eli is not quite ready for the dismantling part, but big sis just loves it. It is one of her favourite toys to take out, take apart, and then put back together again. She is also careful to always use the right tool (it has an Allen key, Phillips and flat screwdriver and a socket driver).

Eli was sitting in the middle of the kitchen and decided to take a back flip and bump his head on the floor. Grace comes and stands behind him, “I saved him.” Really Grace, really??

Grace had a “surprise” that they made at school for Mother’s Day – a foot scrub which Grace massaged onto Donné’s feet. Unfortunately her endurance didn’t last long enough for a photo.

We celebrated Mother’s Day last week Sunday with a real surprise crumpet breakfast, a home made “we love mom” card and sushi for lunch. In honour of everything that Donné does for us we choose to make it her special day by having Mother’s Day on a different day, a day which is hers alone, and a day which is a surprise.

Our home made Mother’s Day card

And on the inside