PPIIISH!!!!

Let me start out by apologizing for the lack of pictures recently. Eli and I have been pretty busy getting things ready for the baby, so the camera is often way out of reach when photo ops pop up.

I took Eli to the aquarium today. I have an annual pass and usually go once/month, but I think it was late March the last time we went. Between that and not knowing when I'll be able to take him again, I decided today would be a good day to visit. Eli was very excited all morning as we talked about the 'pish'. Once we got there I decided to not bring the stroller inside since they ask you to park them outside the exhibits anyway. This meant that I had to carry Eli or hold his hand for the entire walk to and from the parking garage, which is a bit of a hike for a mommy who is about to pop! Unlike any other visits, Eli was very interested in standing close to the glass and looking at all the fish this time. His attention span was still short, but he showed a lot of interest. His favorite exhibit by far was the African Penguins. They look much ducks when they are 'floating' on top of the water, and the tank they were in allowed Eli to see them swimming below the surface too. There was quite a flock of them at the viewing area Eli and I observed from, so we hung out for about ten minutes (a loooong time in Eli's world). I hung back a bit to let other kids have front row access, but Eli went right up to the glass. Of course he thought he was controlling their motions because every time he went up and touched the glass and they moved (they were in constant motion), he would laugh and run back to me, all smiles.

And the big news for me was that I got about 75% obedience when it came to holding Mommy's hand. Usually we sit at about 10%, so this was HUGE. He only started to throw a fit once and (another first) all it took was one quick, hard sitting down on a bench with a stern face-to-face from Mommy to get him back in line. Afterwards we sat outside and ate some Kix before the drive home. The new World of Coke is open now, so there is a nice grassy knoll in between the two buildings. The ride home proved to be entertaining as well; it took a little longer to get on the highway today due to traffic, which meant lots of horn-honking by other drivers. Eli met almost every one of them with an "Oh Dear". Of course this cracked me up...

As far as other words Eli threw out this week, we have 'pire' (fire), 'hel-copt' (helicopter), 'kihh' (kick, as in swimming), 'pit' (pitch), 'DBD' (DVD...though I'm not sure how he picked that up since we haven't had DVD's displayed in our house since we moved), and 'E-I' (Eli). The last one is hard to elicit, but he can say his own name (sorta) sometimes.