The Eli-brary

Today was an exciting first. We took Eli to the library! Madison just opened a brand-new and expanded library branch about a mile from our house. This particular location is known for their children's books. Eli behaved himself in the library. In fact, he was as quiet as a mouse.

Initially I was underwhelmed by the book selection, but then I discovered their small collection of Mo Willems books. Back in 2001 when Shelby and I moved into our house, we installed Dish Network. As we surfed through the many channels now available to us, we discovered that we had the Cartoon Network for the first time. Remember that at the time, this was a pre-Adult Swim, very much children's network that showed cartoons. Somehow we flipped to this channel one Saturday afternoon and caught the end of the cartoon "Sheep in the Big City", a touching cartoon about a little sheep and his misadventures in the big city (and his attempts to elude capture by General Lee Outrageous, who is trying to make a sheep-powered ray gun). Though definitely geared towards children, the dialog was laced with puns (some very groan-inducing) and layered humor. We loved that show, which is unfortunately not available on DVD. I don't understand why it isn't - it seems like every other TV show ever aired has a DVD box set, no matter how awful. At any rate, that series was created by Mo Willems, who went on to write acclaimed books for children. In the back of my mind, I knew this because I looked on his website when we found out that Shelby was pregnant and I was looking for Sheep DVDs to buy. But I forgot about his books until I saw them in the library this morning. They are charming, funny, and infinitely more enjoyable than most of the other books that we've read Eli (though we are very fond of 'A Frog in the Bog'.) So it was definitely a good day at the library.

In terms of Eli's development, he is tracking objects very well. Today he was able to track a brightly colored toy from left to right, back to center, up, down, and back to center for nearly five minutes! He is also beginning to fix his gaze on the pictures in his books. Interactivity, here we come!

After several nights with little sleep, we put Eli down for a nap at 7 PM last night, only to have it morph into an all-night, sleeping extravaganza! Shelby fed him at 10PM and again at 2AM, but otherwise he gave us an incredibly long block of uninterrupted sleep. I'd like to say we took the opportunity to do something remotely exciting, but in actuality we watched 'How I Met Your Mother' and went to sleep. 

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching. Yesterday we had Thanksgiving breakfast in the lab. Shelby and Eli made muffins and brought oranges. Today Shelby and Eli made cookies for dessert, and she will be cooking more tomorrow and Thursday. We both really enjoy Thanksgiving and are eagerly anticipating a few days off of work. Then it is back to work for a week before gathering up the family and going to San Juan for a scientific conference. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mike will definitely get their fill of Eli. They are coming to Madison for Thanksgiving this week and San Juan to help care for Eli in two weeks.