"Ciao!" says Eli

Eli the master mind...

The snuggler...

Eli on the go...

I've noticed that our pics have been a little light on our favorite subject, Eli, so I thought I'd post a few now. Eli's doing really well. He's loving his babysitting situation with his host mom, Patrizia. Patrizia has a fifteen month old daughter, Sarah, and two older children that are school age. Eli and Sarah are great playmates. I think they've got a bit of a crush on one another. Apparently, Sarah only says two words to date, "Mama" and "Ee-i". Unfortunately, they're both sick this week. I think they may have caught a bug from one of Sarah's older siblings. Then Eli and I are off to South Carolina this Friday for Sonata and Drew's wedding, so they won't get to see each other for awhile. I already can't wait to see the smiles and hugs when they're reunited. I'll try to get a picture of them together.

In other Eli news, I think we can officially say that "Ciao" is Eli's first word. It's certainly understandable. Since ciao's used for hello and goodbye, he hears it about 5o times a day. People love saying ciao to babies! He said it to a couple of shopkeepers on Saturday, and then to Patrizia and Sarah on Monday. We haven't been out and about much since then due to his cold. Very exciting news though.

It's been hard to get pictures of Eli lately. Now that he's walking, he won't stay still. Some of the blurry shots illustrate my point. When he's not on the go, he's spending a lot of time trying to figure out what things are and how they work. Not too many smiles this week, due to the cold, but still as cute as ever. Watching him grow gets better and better...