Eli’s 3rd Month

Sept 16 (12 w 5 d) – While Grandma and Grandpa were still here, Eli loved nighttime when Mom would hop in the shower and he would play with them in their bedroom until I came out. Here, we discovered his love of Brahms’s Lullaby, and he also laughed for the first time while Grandma was kissing his belly!

Sept 18 (13 wks) – Eli keeps wiggling when you carry him until he finds a comfortable position to fall asleep. Eli loves this position that Grandma found!

Sept 18 (13 wks) – Still kicking away with Grandma!

Sept 19 (3 m) – Doesn’t Eli look so composed and stately for his 3 month pose?

Sept 19 (3 m) – Composed and stately, Mom?! Are you kidding? I do what I want!

Sept 19 (3 m) – I love my fingers!

Sept 20 (3 m 1 d) – Grandma and Grandpa are leaving. 😦 Eli gets up early to see them off at the airport and makes sure to squeeze in all the smiles he can before they leave. (He even cried on the way back from the airport. And then slept from noon to 4 pm!)

Sept 25 (14 wks) – Looking composed again for his 14 weeks shot!

Sept 25 (14 wks)

Sept 25 (14 wks) – So many cute 14 weeks pictures, I couldn’t choose just one!

Sept 25 (14 wks) – A new toy for his 14th week anniversary. He liked it until Sophie the Giraffe came.

Sept 26 (14 w 1 d) – This is Eli’s “Draw me like one of your French girls” pose.

Sept 26 (14 w 1 d) – and the silly version of that.

Sept 26 (14 w 1 d) – Doesn’t Eli look totes adorbs in this beanie that Erin and Justin got for him? It’s still big, but might be perfect by the time winter comes ’round!

Sept 27 (14 w 2 d) – Daddy found this Bumbo seat for $5 at a yard sale! He doesn’t mind sitting in it as long as it’s not for too long! This is the perfect chair for Mommy to trim Eli’s fingernails!

Sept 27 (14 w 2 d) – YAY!! 100 days old — a celebration I came to appreciate from my elementary school teaching days! 🙂

Oct 2 (15 wks) – Definitely loving his fingers … or fist? Dressed in Wahoowa (UVA) colors!!

Oct 2 (15 wks) – Thanks, Katie, for enabling him to wear the Cavalier colors!

Oct 3 (15 w 1 d) – I wonder how long he’ll be able to smile so brightly in the morning. Neither Mom nor Dad is an early bird!

Oct 3 (15 w 1 d) – Seriously, Eli is in a good mood as soon as he gets up! (Lucky me!) He had JUST woken up from his nap, and I snapped this shot (with flash) to show how he is outgrowing his bassinet. Very sad!

Oct 4 (15 w 2 d) – This Saturday was Yom Kippur, so Ben wanted to spend the day hiking. Since it was going to be cold, I dressed Eli up in this adorable outfit, but he promptly spat up on it. So we changed …

Oct 4 (15 w 2 d) … into this outfit, complete with a preppy cardigan! Even that was barely warm enough for the 41ºF weather (plus LOTS of wind)!

Oct 4 (15 w 2 d) – But Eli was happy hiking. He smiled the entire time. I love that he loves the outdoors.

Oct 5 (15 w 3 d) – Another happy morning on the changing table. What a complete change from when Eli first came back from the hospital, and screaming at every diaper change! I like this much better! 🙂

Oct 5 (15 w 3 d) – I think Eli approves this outfit. He looks like a Vietnamese student (their uniforms are this color)!

Oct 5 (15 w 3 d) – C’est mon ami, Sophie la girafe! Je suis enchanté de faire ta connaissance!

Oct 6 (15 w 4 d) – Eli still loves the swing, but he doesn’t sleep in it. He just smiles in it! 🙂

Oct 7 (15 w 5 d) – After many attempts to put him to sleep (yes, he sleeps on his tummy even though I know I’m not supposed to. It’s the only way I can get him to sleep), he pushed himself up, whipped his head around, and flashed a toothless grin as if to say, “Hee hee, Mom, nice try. You thought you’d get me to sleep that easily?” The frown was because of the very bright camera flash!

Oct 8 (15 w 6 d) – Eli doesn’t always smile, but his cheeks are always bulging! Love them!! 🙂 Still showing the UVA spirit — and sitting up (with support from the couch of course)!

Oct 9 (16 wks) – Starting to show interest in his bouncer/walker. His feet still don’t touch the ground though, so it’s so cute to watch him dangle for a little bit!

Oct 9 (16 wks) – Eli seems to be trying to roll over, but he hasn’t done it yet!

Oct 9 (16 wks) – He still loves to stare at himself in the mirror overhead!

Oct 9 (16 wks) – He laughs at farting/squishing noises, the /v/ sound, as well as the /th/ sound being sucked in. He also loves the whale sneezing song (Thai) I learned as a kid.

Oct 10 (16 w 1 d) – Mom is too cheap to buy this hat from Old Navy because it wasn’t on sale; however, she did snap a picture of suave Eli as a memento of the occasion.

Oct 10 (16 w 1 d) – Eli likes to live on the edge. Or maybe his dad wants Eli to. At least he’s smiling!

Oct 10 (16 w 1 d)

Oct 10 (16 w 1 d) – In his second month, he loved to kick this mirror, especially the bee. Now, he pulls the mirror down and sucks on Mr. Bee instead. He looks like he got caught red-handed!

Oct 12 (16 w 3 d) – To commemorate Eli’s most adult-like outfit, he is sitting in his pensive pose.

Oct 14 (16 w 5 d) – It’s okay to wear this shirt if Mom, not Auntie, bought it, right? 🙂

Oct 14 (16 w 5 d) – The word “ลาย,” which sounds like the “li” in “Eli,” means striped. Isn’t this outfit befitting his name? Ben chose this daring stripe-on-stripe outfit. Not bad, Dad!

Oct 15 (16 w 6 d) –

Oct 16 (17 wks) – I have pictures with the “17 week” sticker on his shirt, but this series was just too cute to pass up. He was in a GREAT mood!

Oct 16 (17 wks) –

Oct 16 (17 wks) – Grandpa pointed out that Eli is doing the “vòng tay” gesture, which is the Vietnamese way of showing respect to elders when greeting them. So polite, Eli, and I haven’t even taught you that yet!!

Oct 16 (17 wks) – Whoa … dude … are these, like, my hands?

Oct 16 (17 wks) – Like, really MINE?

Oct 16 (17 wks) – YES! I DO BELIEVE THEY ARE!

Oct 16 (17 wks) – OMG! I can’t believe I’ve got hands!!

Oct 17 (17 w 1 d) – I really love the way my hand tastes.

Oct 17 (17 w 1 d) – No, seriously, like my fist tastes AMAZING! This picture was taken through Skype on Grandma’s iPad in Bangkok while Mom was dressing me after my bath. Talk about convoluted!! 🙂

Oct 17 (17 w 1 d) – We (Grandma and I) noticed that Eli was trying out a new smile. In Thai, it’s called “ยิ้มแหยๆ” but there’s no approximation for it in English. Dry smile? Regardless, it’s hilarious, and Grandma captured it on Skype!

Oct 17 (17 w 1 d) – Still, Eli can’t hide his sweet smile in his adorable raincoat! (Another Skype picture)

Oct 17 (17 w 1 d) – See, you can see the corner of Grandma’s head in this Skype screenshot! Meanwhile, Eli stuns in yet another preppy cardigan! 😉 Look, Mom’s going to enjoy dressing up her baby for as long as she can before he starts protesting, okay? 🙂

Oct 18 (17 w 2 d) – Another hike in cold weather (45ºF, blustery winds) at Big Meadows. You can’t see, but Eli is wearing his skeleton hoodie, just in time for Halloween!