The big news on the Dukes/Witcher home front is that we're moving in less than 2 weeks time. I know I've said we were moving before, but this time is for real. The new apartment is literally four blocks from the old one (which makes renting a truck seem like a giant, though unfortunately necessary, waste of money) has two bedrooms, a small fenced in yard, and a covered deck. Eli is really excited about finally having that nursery his parents have been promising him, and his Aunt Jenny is excited that we're going to put her shower gift to good use. Me too, Bubba's monkey business bedding is just about the cutest thing ever. It will also be nice to not have Adelaide wake him up every night when Jason comes home from work with the growling and the barking. So, that's exciting and the afore-mentioned Aunt Jenny and I are planning a grown-up scavenger hunt. Which is looking like it's going to be a lot of fun and will have fabulous prizes for the winners i.e. candy, liquor, and trophies. Also it will be kind of a housewarming party for the new place.

This is Eli at 9:30 on Sunday night, showing no inclination what-so-ever to go to bed. Lately he has had the kind of energy that I find unfathomable.

Here he is chewing daddy's wallet, which is probably unsanitary but...

Pizza crust! He was looking at the pizza so longingly that I caved and gave him a piece of crust, he gnawed it til it was pretty soggy and gross and then held it over the side of the high chair for Adelaide to munch on. They've got a good thing going on.

Eli being Eli-exuberant, charming, and adorable.
We breed our football fans. Then we in doctrine them from birth. If we do a good job Eli will be loyal to the black and gold his whole life.

I'm particularly fond of this picture and of the monster shirt that his grandma bought for him. We're sliding into Eli's first Halloween, he will be a monkey (of course). And we'll be taking him here http://www.triplebfarms.com/pumpkin.html to get his pumpkin, it's where my mom always took us. The rule was that we could have any pumpkin we could carry out and back to the car. Holidays with Eli are something I'm really looking forward to.

So many firsts

I took a few days off work to spend some time with the kiddo, he had so many first times during the few days I was off.

The first day that was chilly enough for him to premiere his fall wardrobe on Saturday morning while eating breakfast with mommy and Aunt Suzanne

His first piece of zwieback toast! which he seemed pretty fond of, and then Adelaide got to finish it which made her pretty happy. She's started to just hang out under the high chair. Smart girl.

His first green beans, another big hit, he ate 2 oz. of beans mixed with rice cereal.

His first time riding in the cart! It made shopping a lot more fun for mommy and for Eli, and he helped pick out a green hooded shirt that is mommy's new favorite. He really has excellent taste.

This is actually his second time in a high chair, but I didn't have the camera the first time (bad mommy), he's staring with adoration at his Aunt Adrienne who was being very entertaining

And he's finally sitting up on his own really well. We have to put him into position, and he screams when we do it, why I don't know, but then he sits there like a little man and plays with his toys. Eli's 8 month birthday is right around the corner and I can't believe how fast it's gone, it was just yesterday that he was my little blob. My little blob who slept 17 hours a day. Now we're lucky if we get 8 hours. I guess he's too busy learning new things to sleep.

Complaints

1. Jason woke me up at 1 am TO ASK ME WHERE THE REMOTE WAS. Seriously, that man needs to get his head screwed on or Emily's going to be Pittsburgh's hottest new single mom.

2. My cubemate is driving me insane. Thank God I'm taking 3 extra days off, otherwise I might murder her.

3. I'm still broke, which might be part of the reason I'm so damned irritable today. Here's a list of things I'd love to have a little extra money for :

a. new ballet flats since one of mine mysteriously disappeared
b. a haircut, it's been a year since I had one. A year.
c. eyebrow waxing. no one likes looking like Peter Gallagher (except the man himself)
d. pants in the next size down, my old ones are falling down. (mini YEA!)


There are my complaints, feel free to help me out with suggestions or cash donations.

Catching Up

Eli went to his second Pirates game this weekend with my friend Melissa, her little boy Ryan, and myself. They lost this time, but Eli didn't care.

I've been a terrible blogger lately, but anyone who knows me understands that I go through spurts where getting anything but the bare minimum done is next to impossible. I had my birthday, of course, there's no stopping time. There was sushi, and cake, and cupcakes, and cheesecake (not all at the same time). Eli is getting bigger and doing new things every day. He has learned how to wave and waves at everyone he sees, delighting in all the positive attention he gets from this action. He's also sitting up by himself a lot better, though still no crawling. My mom assures me that this doesn't mean he's developmentally slow. I think I have a competitive streak that motherhood is really bringing out. Not only do I want Eli to do everything right away, I want him to do it before everyone elses babies. My mother also assures me I will not feel this way with the second one. Contemplating a second one makes my head hurt. All people with more than one child are now officially my heroes.

Eli is growing out of his infant seat, which is pretty much ok with me since he's getting to heavy to carry around in it anyway.
Eli still makes fabulous faces, this has not changed since my last post. At seven months he is utterly charming. This is something I'll most likely need to remember when he's 17 and I'm ready to throw him out of the house.

Eli thinks that daddy is his own personal jungle gym. He likes to pull on his chest hair. Better him than me.