Easter Eve

'Twas the night before Easter,

and in a small crib,

a baby lie sleeping,

drooling onto his bib........

Shhhhh, he's finally asleep. We had a good day; stayed in our jammies and played all morning, and made a trip to the grocery in the afternoon. Eli has this crazy baby playing thingy (I have no idea what it is called), that a friend let us borrow. He lays on this colorful mat, and these cute toys hang down all around him. When we first got it, just about three weeks ago, he would just look up and smile, and kind of bat at the toys with his hands. Now, he grabs them, tries to put them in his mouth, and sometimes even yanks so hard that they come right off the little loops that hold them up. He kicks his feet and laughs and talks, it is so cute, and I have to say, rather advanced the way he has progressed in such a short time.

His favorite is the pink and blue monkey that you see in the picture here. Unfortunately for monkey, he is the chosen one. I have to throw him in the washing machine every other day or so, because of the massive amount of spit that accumulates on his poor feet. I must believe, though, that it brings monkey great fulfillment to see the look of joy on Eli's face each and every time they play together. Everyday is the same. Eli has yet to get tired of seeing monkey, and I will never tire of seeing the smile on that cute little face.

Eli's other favorite activity this morning was watching TV with his dad. And we are not talking Saturday morning cartoons. They watched a UFC fight. Is this wrong/strange? Perhaps. Our baby, not unlike his father (and mother), loves the television. His attention span is quite long when it comes to the TV. It's a little alarming, however, like everything else, is extremely cute. And you can imagine how fun it is for Jeffrey to have a son who will sit with him and watch boxing and hockey, and numerous other things,( i.e. Deal or No Deal:) at such a young age.

Our trip to the grocery store was uneventful, with the exception of strange women who like to get in Eli's face and make goo goo noises at him. He doesn't seem to mind and I don't really either, it's just sometimes they get a little too close. So close, in fact, that I feel I should somehow know them. Is this my long lost aunt? Even a distant cousin would do, but a complete stranger with her lips on my son's cheek is somehow unsettling, and I am unsure of what to say or do. Babies have a strange power over people. A grown person, who was minding their own business, focused on their shopping, will suddenly begin to talk in a high-pitched voice and say things like ba-ba, and goochie goo, at the sight of Eli's car seat in my grocery cart. It seems almost involuntary, like they just cannot help themselves, so I just roll with it.

Well, that's all for now. I must join Eli and turn in for the night. Last night, sleep was, well, much interrupted. Tonight, I pray for three to four hours of good, solid sleep. Tomorrow promises to be great fun. Eli and I will go to church and then to my friends' the Duncan's house for Easter lunch.
My Dad put a pair of infant sunglasses in Eli's Easter basket. They might be the most hilarious thing you've ever seen. Too bad it is freezing cold and the sun has been refusing to shine for the past few days, and tomorrow is not supposed to be any better. However, in protest we will wear our sunglasses, and take pictures for you to see.
Happy Easter! We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

baby's blogging debut

"What's that?" you say, "a baby who blogs?!?"

Well, kind of. A baby-inspired blog, rather. You see this baby, named Elias, has grandmas and grandpas and aunties and uncles all over North America who want to see him and hold him and know what he is up to, and they cannot.

a. because they live far away.

b. because their son and daughter and/or nephew and neice are wretched at keeping in touch.

and c. because life is not fair, and we cannot all be neighbors and live on the same street, which would be so cool. And if we could, some say it should be on a Canadian street, because Canadian streets are clearly superior. But then it would be called a Rue, and that is my mom's name, which would be confusing.

Thus, we have started a blog. Here we can tell you what we do everyday, and post pictures of our adventures.

Just to get us started I will reveal to you one of Eli's latest developments. I like to call it "tired, grumpy, Eli". This baby, who apparently is not the first, hates to fall asleep. He is the Mike Tyson of sleep fighting. He battles clear to the end, but unfortunately for Eli, sleep always wins. It is difficult to watch, and getting more and more difficult to hold him and rock him during the fight. You would think it would be easier to just relax and fall asleep, but this is clearly coming from a tired mommy who has been around for a while. Baby has only seen the world for three short months, and he thinks that something terribly interesting might happen while he takes his nap. This possibility, to Eli, is so so sad.

These pictures show the progression that takes place at nearly every nap. "Angry baby" turns to "thinking about letting this pacifier calm me down baby", and then, the inevitable...."asleep baby".