Whole Lotta New

This past week Eli spent a lot of time in new surroundings. He went to church for a pot-luck where he met a lot of new people, he went to lunch with me and a few friends, and he went to a few new playgrounds. I'm noticing more and more how observant Eli is, especially in these new surroundings. When he sees a new person or place (or at least one he hasn't seen in the last week), he becomes rather quiet and his eyes get really big, as if he's taking it all in. After about an hour he usually returns to his normal loud, talkative self.

Also, Eli has started to stay awake for much longer chunks of time. For a long time now, you could set your watch by him: exactly 90-minutes after he woke up he would rub his eyes and 'ask' to go down for a nap. Now it is closer to 2-3 hours. Also, his naps used to last for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours, and now they are 1 1/2 at best. The odd thing is, both of these changes happened simultaneously... I would have thought longer naps would have come with longer wake-periods...

My new favorite thing that Eli does is sudden napping. A few times in the last week he has fallen asleep mid-song. Usually when we're driving, Eli entertains himself in the back seat by singing or talking non-stop. Today was no different: he was very vocal (doing his scales) and then he stopped abruptly, so I looked back to see what had caught his attention and his eyes were shut.