NC, part 1

We've been in NC for a little over a week now, visiting with folks and showing Eli off.

Here are some things Eli's been doing lately:

--Eating almost everything, including pizza crust, Indian food, veggie dogs, olives, pieces of chips, lots of fruit, and lots and lots of puffs.
--Standing with ease, and "cruising"--walking around things while holding on. He's tried standing without holding on to stuff recently, with mixed results.
--Eli now has a vocabulary of about 3 words, plus one in sign language. He can say "cat," "da-da," "up," and sign "fan." We think this is a good sign that he will someday win a Pulitzer.

Here are some photos from our trip so far. Blogger gets weird when you upload lots of photos at once, so these aren't necessarily in exact chronological order.

Crashed at SATCO in Nashville after our flight. Sunny was an obliging bed.


Hanging with Emily at SATCO.

This one was taken under an umbrella at a family gathering. It POURED rain for a good 45 minutes. Before the rain.
Eli with the Dendy clan.

Eli's gram has a cool fountain in the back yard, and he loves to play in it. We have a good video of this that we'll post later.
The mulch is also fascinating.

Notice the mulch around his mouth....
And on his feet.
He is a VERY cute child. We are not going to deny that.
Mulch is funny.
Eli is exploring everything now.
Having lunch at the iconic My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain with McCool and his mom, who was a Divinity School classmate/running buddy of Eric. McCool ate more than anyone else at the table.

Eli and McCool playing in the sand.
McCool has magnificent curls.
Boy = dirt.
At the Vassy family gathering in Gastonia, Eli spread his supply of puffs over the whole living room.
It looks like Eli's great-grandpa might have been having difficulty, but he was really just trying to entertain the baby. Or maybe he wanted some puffs.
Eli meets his cousin Hunter (we're still not sure what kind of cousin...second? third?). Cousin Andrew is holding Hunter.
Eli got an ear infection on Friday, so he's on Motrin and amoxicillin. He LOVES the dropper. Here, he chews on it, which is his #1 sign of affection.
We went to have lunch with Great-Grandfather, and Eli drew a crowd from old church friends.
His hair doesn't do this as much anymore, since there's more of it, but when it does...it's awesome.

This was at mom's birthday party. He got hot and had to strip down, but that didn't seem to bother him.
Wish we hadn't cut his head off in this one. Happy Birthday Mama!

Hanging out with Austin and Natalie at the party. Eli got so dirty crawling around at the party that he left a huge dirt ring in the tub after this bath.

We'll be in NC another 5 or 6 days, so we'll try to do another entry while we're here. Gram needs upgraded internet access!