Mr. Independent

Despite being quite the ape still (he still has only about 10 words, and we rarely hear them), Eli is amazing me with how grown up he is! He loves to do things for himself.

- He will head down to the kitchen in the morning, grab a bowl, and fill it up with an assortment of pretzels and animal crackers. He pushes a dining room chair around the room to reach whatever he wants.

- After he fills his snack bowl, he comes back upstairs and joins me in bed, but not before he first grabs the portable DVD player. After he's settled on the bed beside me, he turns a movie on for himself. You see what's happening here? Mr. Independent is ready to settle in for a snuggle with all his worldly wants, and I get to keep sleeping!

- The downside to this is it keeps me on my toes. Yesterday while I was getting dressed, the kids were downstairs. Ella yelled out "Mommy!" so I knew Eli was up to no good (she's a tattler). Eli used a dining room chair to get a small knife from the knife drawer, then dragged the chair and knife over to another section of the counter where he attempted to cut open a cantaloupe. At least he likes fruit?

Good thing he's so cute. I can't believe this monkey will be 2 in 3 weeks!