Dear Eli: Month Thirteen

Thirteen things about my thirteen month old:

1. You are quite obsessed with The Wiggles (ugh, Eli), Sesame Street (yay!) and The Pajanimals. Today you heard the start of The Pajanimals "Lullaby" song and staggered into the kitchen, waving your arms around and singing "Llllaaa, laaa!" So cute.
2. I suppose I could say that your eating habits have improved, but not by much. You will eat but your messiness is quite stressful to me (and Gray). At your one year wellness check you weighed 25 lbs, so I know you are getting enough to eat. So our strategy now is: if you throw it on the floor you are out of luck, pal. Tough love and all of that.
3. We have dropped the nap bottle but not the nightly bottle. Working on that one.
4. You are VERY MUCH attached to your pacifiers. You have two, and you hold one in your hand and have the other in your mouth (and then for some inexplicable reason you will switch them. And then switch back.). We still have a (mostly) crib-only policy, although those stupid pacifiers have saved my rear several times when you were sick or inconsolable for whatever reason.
5. You are walking! For real! You started to walk four days after your first birthday- a few steps here and a few steps there. Yesterday we noticed that you were having a lot more "vertical" time and in the past 48 hours you have become a walker. It's pretty funny to watch.
6. Oh my, you are a mama's boy. If I leave the room you FREAK OUT. Even if your dada is holding you, you start to holler and cry. You have always been like this but you have taken it to new heights in the past couple of days. I don't know if you are teething or what, but today you spent about 45 minutes crawling all over me on the couch. You wanted to be kissing me or cuddling me or touching me in some way at all times. It's cute but also a little exhausting. I do have to go to the bathroom and make dinner and both tasks require putting you down. I know, it's unreasonable.
7. You are a big fan of crawling on the train table, sitting there and throwing all of the stuff off of it. Gray will sometimes join you and say "Mama, are we stinkerpots?" since he knows you two shouldn't be sitting up there. After a little while you will lay face down and blow raspberries on the table and laugh and laugh.
8. You know exactly what will push my buttons. Dismantling the fridge? Playing with the fireplace? Playing in the toilet? Check, check and check.
9. You love the dogs so much. It's so cute. Gray was never much of a fan of them. You love them both and pet them so nicely.
10. You learned to say "Dada" on Christmas (nice work!). I don't think the doctor believed me at your one year appointment when I said you had at least 10-15 words. You have added a bunch more: light, back (as in "be right back"), bye bye, wow, Papa, more, milk, cracker, no no and good boy. You have also said (but not replicated) a perfect "owl," and "Eli." What a smart boy.
11. Sadly, you were the first of my children to puke. A stomach bug went through the house the week before Christmas and you had it for a couple of days. I felt so bad- I didn't hear you get sick and instead found you in your crib in the morning playing with half chewed grapes like it was confetti. Poor baby.
12. You love, love, love your Nicki. When she opens the door in the morning you say "HIIIII!" which always makes her smile.
13. Eli, there is not a measurement big enough in this world to calculate how much I love you. "To the moon and back" doesn't even begin to cover it.