Kisses, kisses, and more kisses

I can't believe it is already July! Where is the summer going??? Oh, I remember oh so clearly when I just wanted time to fly and I knew there would come a day when I would want time to slooooooooow down. It's hard to believe that Eli has been home for almost 2 months already! And, the last week has been full of so many surprises as well as some new challenges!

First of all, we are THRILLED to report that Eli has been sleeping through the night in his crib for almost 2 weeks now. He goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and we don't hear much of a peep from him until morning. If he wakes up, he puts himself right back to sleep. Amazing!! The flip side of that? Well, now he will not nap for longer than 30 minutes. Sigh....it is so strange! He wakes up crying and is sooooooo tired, but he will not go back to sleep. Lucky for us, Eli is such a sweet boy, even when he is dog tired. He is like a little energizer bunny.

One thing that may be contributing to his lack of napping is he has been learning so much new stuff lately! It is incredible and so much fun to teach and watch him learn new skills. The highlight of our week is Eli started giving us kisses!! Oh WOW!!! WE LOVE IT!!! It is the sweetest thing and just makes our hearts melt. He is very generous with his kisses, too! Overall, it seems like he has really opened up this past week in a whole new way. He is so loving and affectionate and seems so much more comfortable not only at home, but also with friends and family. For probably the first 5-6 weeks home (in addition to our time in Guatemala), Eli was very clingy with me and would scream whenever I left the room. That has pretty much disappeared. Now, he freely explores and plays while coming back to "check-in" with us and give lots of hugs. Then he is off again! Busy, busy, busy. He is so much fun and the joy of our lives. We are madly in love with this sweet, crazy, loveydovey boy!! Here are some pics from this week:

Pool party! I think Eli was more interested in drinking the water than playing in it!

Getting splashed by daddy. He LOVES the water, especially on his face!

Helping to plant flowers (yes, we are a little late in the game!). You can't really see it in the pic, but he had dirt ALL through his hair. He carried that clump of dirt around for quite awhile.

Checking out the flowers.

Yes! DIRT!!!!

KISSES!!!!!!!! Awwwwwwwwww!!!!!!