More of the same- more himself everyday. More understanding of his sense of humor, of his love, of his reserve and independence.

It's been milestone city here this past month! We got Three- count'em! THREE!- teeth! Ellis has both of his two top teeth and one bottom one that is barely above the gum. He looks like the world's most adorable bunny when he smiles. He has also graduated to crawling....er, sort of. He still likes to get up on his hands and knees and sway, but still hasn't figured out forward motion for that yet. He can army-crawl through, if needed. It is pretty cute, but rolling is still his main mode of transportation.  His other big gross motor skill breakthrough this month has been clapping. 

The big motivator that got this little man to start any sort of crawling was to dangle some keys in front of him. Ellis becomes very highly motivated if keys are in the offing. He likes toys a lot now too- he's gotten very proficient at the type of stacking blocks where the boxes can go inside one another. He loves to pull one box out of another. He also enjoys playing with a toy abacus and clock at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He's basically into anything and everything. 

The best part of any day though, hands down, has to be when he can get into his walker. He loves the independence and investigating all over Grandma and Grandpa's house. He likes to follow the dogs around and to play chase with any adult. He's also opened cabinet drawers and will stand in his walker in front of their pantry trying to figure out how to open the door and see what's in there. 

As I try to sit back and think of what are the moments I hope to remember from years on, there are several things that he has loved for many months now and that he still loves today. He now loves baths; he loves playing patty-cake, and he gets a big kick out of Daddy playing peek-a-boo (others are okay at it, but not as good as Daddy). 

EATING

One growth spurt later and solids have become infinitely more important nowadays. He still eats a lot of baby food (mostly fruit-based. He doesn't like the meat or veggie ones much), but also love to gum on bread and eat Arrowroot cookies. He still wants regular bottles too, but the big change there is that he is feeding himself. He's technically been able to hold the bottle for several months, but now he wants to do it himself all the time. He'll also throw his head backwards in the most dramatic fashion possible as he drinks his bottle, so that gravity helps him eat that much faster! Its messy, but I hear independence often is.