Happy Birthday Eli!

This is Eli the day he was born! Little did we know what the next month and year would hold for us then!

What a tiny sweet boy!

This is Eli now, what a year it has been. He is still a tiny sweet boy, and we love him so much!

This year has held many many challenges for us as a family and for Eli as an individual. Starting on the day he was born, which was more than 6 weeks before we wanted him to be born. Then a week later needing to have open heart surgery, and a few weeks recovering in Children's Hospital, only to develop a blood clot in his neck, which required injections twice daily for the next 5 months. Then at six months we found out that Eli had a lazy eye which might require surgery. A few months later we discovered that it would require surgery as well as an eye patch. Which we have been doing daily for the last month, until his surgery is scheduled. He also developed RSV in November/December and an ear infection which he is still being treated for! Wow, there was so much stacked against that little boy from the get go!

But he is a true fighter! He came through it all, and is still working through some of it, and is such a sweet little social boy. We love him so much and even though the year was hard, we know it has made and will continue to make Eli a very special and unique little person in the years to come.

Eli is our little talker boy. Even as a tiny baby he would just vocalize and make all sorts of noises, constantly. People commented on it in the grocery store and all over, how much noise he made! He loves stuffed animals, especially his Angry Bird, and will hold lengthy conversations with them, while eating their faces. Along with Eli being a talker, comes the opinionated Eli. Eli loves to tell us when he is mad, angry, frustrated, happy or when he thinks things are just plain funny. He really holds nothing back. Which just cracks us up sometimes.

Eli also likes to be doing things. When we reads books, he wants to turn the pages or lift the flaps. And if you try to help him do it more gently... oh beware, the screams will follow. He also enjoys feeding himself things like cheerios, puffs, macaroni and cheese, peas and many other finger foods. Again if you try to help him or show him how to hold or lift something... the screams will follow! It is fun to watch him figuring things out though. And he loves to squish and play with his food and experience all of the different textures.

Eli also seems to not be a fan of sleep. He still likes to wake us up in the middle of the night, several times (which might have to do with the ear infection) and can skip a nap here and there, much to the frustration of his parents when we want to get stuff done. I have been transitioning him to one nap and that seems to be working better and he will more often than not take a good afternoon nap, when Caleb does, and then go to bed well at night. This way they are sleeping at the same time and I can actually do things during the day, instead of tag teaming boys all day long! We are still working on the sleep issues, and hopefully this next year will bring more rest in the Howell household.

We are still working out his eye issues, and he wears a patch daily. He hates when we put it on and take it off, but I actually think he likes it when it's on. Since we have started patching him, he has started showing so much more interest in the world around him and actually tries to move around in his environment. More than he ever has before. We have a eye doctor appointment next week so will learn more about surgery and his eyes then.

His moving around brings us to his gross motor skills. He is still not really mobile, however he can roll around now and scoot backwards using his arms. Which both developed in the last 3 weeks since patching him! But he just doesn't seem to get that he has legs to use too. However, he LOVES to hold on to our hands and walk around all over the place. We hiked down to a beach in our area this weekend and I was holding his hands letting him walk on the sand, and he saw the water and took off that way. He got so mad when I wouldn't actually let him walk into the water! But he was so motivated to walk around like the big kids. We just need to work on the steps leading up to walking so he can be more independent. We are currently in the process of getting him reevaluated for services with Little Red School House, for gross motor and possibly feeding/swallowing/oral aversion issues.

So I will keep everyone posted on how those two things go as they come up. He also has his one year cardiology appointment next week as well, and his first dentist appointment (which is really just piggybacked with Caleb's dentist appointment). So a lot is happening in the next few weeks!

Happy Birthday my little Eli, we love you so much and you have come so far this past year! We are so excited to see what this next year holds for you.