Here is what is going on with Eli this week according to
babycenter.com;
Your baby probably enjoys looking at books and leafing through the
pages, though she won't always turn them one by one. Indulge in great
picture books, like Anno's Journey, by the great Japanese artist Mitsumasa Anno, Tamara Hoban's Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue?, which introduces primary colors through photos of everyday objects, and The Snowman,
by Raymond Briggs, a full-color cartoon book about a snowman who comes
to life. Or stick with sturdy and inexpensive board books that can stand
up to small fingers.
To add variety to your baby's reading time
and to find out what appeals to her the most, try your local library or
the kids' section at a family-friendly bookstore.
Your baby has probably been wrestling with bouts of separation anxiety during the last several months. This is natural: She loves and depends on you, so she's distressed when you leave.
To
ease departures, make them short and sweet. Be matter-of-fact when you
leave your child at daycare or with a babysitter at home, and don't
prolong the agony with extended goodbyes. Your baby's tears will subside
soon after you're out of sight.
You can help your baby feel more
independent by not hovering over her all the time. Of course, she still
needs to know that you're around and dependable. So if she toddles to
another room, wait a couple of minutes before following. If you go to
another area of the house, call to her when you're in the next room —
but don't come running every time she squawks.
Poor 2nd child! I blogged every week the whole first year of Noah's life and this is my first Eli blog in 2 months.
Eli is doing great though!
I think I've pretty much switched to solely calling him Eli and almost never calling him Elisha.
He has been walking for about 2 weeks (since he was 10 months old) and can walk around the whole house on his own. Now we're working on getting used to walking in shoes and not just barefoot.
He loves to clap his hands and does it all the time. Within the last couple of weeks he's just been learning how to wave hi and bye to people.
I just finally transitioned him out of sleeping in a sleep sack this week and am now giving him a blanket. We also lowered his crib to the lowest notch, because I think it was somewhere around this age when Noah figured out how to hurl himself out of the crib. We also child proofed all of our cabinets, which is something that I had never done with Noah, but it has made my days dramatically easier since I'm not spending 98% of my day policing cabinets now.
He now has his 2 bottom center teeth and 2 top center teeth, plus has an additional one on the top just starting to break through the skin.
Eli has hardly ever been left with anyone other than me, Jeremy, or his mom, but we are slowly getting him used to it. A few months ago, he wasn't making it through a whole church service and they would call me to pick him up from the nursery after about 15-20 minutes because he was still sobbing. Now he makes it the entire service, but still gets pretty sad when I drop him off, and pick him up.
Despite the drawbacks of having less blogs and alone time with me from being the 2nd child I think he is getting a lot of benefits (for him anyway). I didn't let Noah eat any food with added butter, oil, salt, sugar, or fried food until well after his 1st birthday (I think). I pretty much already feed Eli just about anything that I'm eating which has included desserts, chips, french fries, meat, nd lots of other delicacies that Noah wasn't experiencing at this age. I also never let Noah watch tv before he was 2 (I think), but since Noah currently watches a few shows a day, as soon as Eli is old enough to notice and care then I will let him watch with his brother.
In reading Noah's 46 week blog I'm reminded of how much he loved to read at this age... Eli, not so much. I can't get him to sit still for a whole book, and usually he just tries to grab books out of my hand. In fact, when I'm reading a book to Noah, Eli will come from across the room just to try to take the book from us. On his own though, he is frequently known to pull all of the books off the bookshelf and sit amidst a pile of books flipping through them, he just doesn't want us reading them to him.
But while Eli doesn't have the same love for books that Noah did at this age he does have a love for balls that Noah didn't. He loves to catch, throw, and roll balls. We'll see if this carries over into athleticism in later years.
He has developed a bit of an attitude and will throw mini fits/ tantrums when we take away something that he wants. Fortunately he is easily distracted.
He says mama and dadda, dadda way more than mama. He also says Noah, but hasn't showed any interest in some of the other common words yet.
One of his favorite things to do is to lay on any couch, bed, or set of pillows and just flop and roll around. He grins and growls the whole time. He also loves being held upside down, going for walks, playing peek-a-boo, watching bubbles, and going to grandma's.
This little boy is so happy and full of personality. He is independent... when I see other kids his age hover by their moms in social settings he is always on the move, curious and exploring. He is
stubborn tenacious, and will continue to go back to the same forbidden action time and time again without giving up. These traits of curiosity and tenacity are also strongly exhibited in his brother, and while they can be frustrating in small children I think they are great qualities for adults, so we are doing our best not to stifle them out of him but to attempt to direct them in a constructive manner.
Here was
Noah at 46 weeks.
