Things I love about Eli

The way he shuts himself in his room and sits behind the door giggling and waiting for me to come find him

His obsession with blueberries - he never throws or wastes any, and carefully eats them one by one.

The fact he LOVES broccoli, which is his Daddy's least favourite food ever.

His amazing smile. 

A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that Eli could probably walk.   I based this on the fact that he was spending most of his time on his feet, either cruising around the furniture or standing in the middle of the room playing with his toys.

So one Sunday afternoon, after we got home from his friend Milly's 1st birthday party, I watched him standing there with a ball in each hand giggling.  So I knelt down 4 feet away and asked him to walk to me.   He stood there giggling for awhile, and then he cheerfully picked up his foot and moved it towards me, and took four confident steps in my direction, before flinging his arms around my neck with a giggle.

A week after his first steps we're at Samantha's 1st birthday party.  Suddenly, he takes off towards her!  He walked a few times that day, apparently inspired by all of the exciting things and people to see.   Now he seems inclined some days to walk a lot, others not.  To him it's an exciting novelty rather than a mode of transportation.  He's always crawled so quickly he has no need of an alternate transport method.

It's one of those milestones that prior to having kids I thought would matter, but now kind of doesn't.   They learn these things so gradually over time that there is no definitive milestone, just constant learning every day. 

Never too old for a cuddle nap!

 

I don't believe in naming babies after people. If I did, my kid would be called "Shakespeare Leonardo John McLane Patrick Stewart Jean-Luc Picard Superman".  

Eli's First Christmas

Eli has always been a baby who likes to sleep in - he's a night owl like his Dad! But while in Brisbane the glaring bright sunshine at 5am turned him into an early bird. The only day he slept in was actually Christmas Day! So I got to lie in bed for over an hour reading Game of Thrones while he and Shane slept next to me. He stirred a few times, then suddenly at 7:50am he rolled over and flashed this enormous grin at me. He then crawled over to me and curled his head up on my tummy for a quick cuddle. We went downstairs. I wanted to get some photos so we did that. 

He found present opening on the whole quite overwhelming I think, but he did have a lovely day.  A huge nap on the floor! 

Ok I have to confess. When Eli goes down for a nap I have this terrible habit of spending the entire nap looking at his baby photos on the computer - of which there are thousands - and adoring him. (Shane has a tendency to say "You do know that's him just over there, right??"). So that's really why Shane Edwards has to cook dinner, not because Eli is a lil action man or I had too many work emails/calls/dramas to sort out. Just because I'm a photo addict who spends hours reliving happy memories! Now I've outed myself I'll stop and

Beauty

Ever since I was a child I've hated the insistence that "everybody is beautiful", because honestly it only seems to reinforce the concept that beauty is the only attribute of value and the label we should strive for.... How about instead we start to focus on our other good points? As an example, My mum tried to tell me I didn't have a pointy nose "because you're beautiful!!" and it really made me question my eyesight, and not trust the things I saw and *did* like. For example, my gorgeous blue eyes. Now I know my nose is big and I'm ok with that. It's part of who I am. It was silly and pointless to try so desperately to make me feel better by lying to me. I'm not suggesting we be brutally honest with impressionable teenage girls, just that we don't go out of our way to lie to them. Teach them how to identify, appreciate, and develop the positive things about themselves. Whether it's being great at maths, or a caring friend, or having the knack for applying nail polish perfectly. Some beauty does come from the inside. But that doesn't mean a person who is beautiful on the inside is necessarily beautiful on the outside. I just wish instead of saying "Yes she is beautiful but so are you!" we could say "Yes she is beautiful, but there are other things that matter just as much". And there are things that matter less. I am horribly inarticulate today, but the point is simply - the more we insist that everybody is beautiful, the more obsessed we will become with being beautiful.