Little Hands Little Bites

Since we've arrived back to Ghana, Eli is changing and growing right before our eyes! He hits 9 months today and seems more and more like a little boy and not a baby anymore. One sign of the changing times is Eli's ability (or let's say developing ability) to feed himself. And it's not just this ability that has struck us but his determination, drive, and downright stubbornness to do it himself! It began with these small puffs we found in the US when we were home for the holidays and man, did he love eating these. At first he tried to pick them up himself but quickly found it difficult and so he cried for us to feed them to him. When we got back here, we worked on having him learn to pick them up himself despite his cries of frustration. The video shows him working very hard to master the skill. It was so hard to sit and watch what to me seems like such a simple task and of course I had to sit on my hands to avoid picking it up for him and feeding it to him. But what joy both of us have when he gets one in his mouth! A big smile spreads across his face and he squeals with excitement.




He's even learning to respond to "How big is Eli?'...."So Big!"



And now that he thinks he's a big boy, he hangs out with his lady friends, Maite and Malaika (6 and 3).