Eli's Big Day Out

On Thursday, Eli had his first fun trip out of the house. No Kaiser appointments this time. We headed down to Stockton to show him off (wait, I mean ... no, I guess I do mean show him off) to the extended Families and spend a day having good stuff. We got to see all of his Great-Grandparents, all of his Grandparents, his Uncle, and a few Friends too. It was a really nice day. We had an incident on the way down which I won't go into here, but when we finally reached town, it was smooth sailing with bright skies, good wind, and lots of poopies.

Here's Taryn first thing that morning feeding the Lil Man. You'll see a lot of these feeding pictures. All this kid does is eat and sleep. What a life. I'd say that I'd wish to come back as a baby in my next life, but then you'd have to grow up all over again. So I'll settle for one of our cats - probably Momo.

Here's Anti-Gamma helping us to get ourselves ready by taking Lil Man off our hands.

I don't think she minded too much ...

Here's Great-Tita (is that right?) getting herself some Lil Man, and helping with a feeding.

Here's Great-Tita getting some burpies.

She got some pretty good ones too ...

Here's Great-Grandaddy teaching the Lil Man some of his old boxing moves. We thought he had strong legs - you know, soccer legs or swimmer legs - but if Bill has any say he'll be practicing his jabs just as much, if not more.

Here's a family shot of the Greats from the Cooper side. They weren't happy or anything. You could tell by how little they paid attention to the Lil Man. We're very appreciative to have Family so loving and attentive.

Here's Great-Grandaddy getting himself some Lil Man.

Same haircut, right?

Here's Uncle Kendall laughing at a joke that I can only assume was made at the Lil Man's expense. Get used to it Eli. You are now nothing but fodder for one-liners and mimickery - good thing Uncle Kendall is funny, and great with kids.

Here's Great-Grandma Rosie getting herself some Lil Man. Just as we had gotten Eli into his car seat, all strapped in and ready to go, he let loose with a poopy. It took another ten minutes to get him back into the seat ...

Here's Eli's Grambot (thanks Denise & Jay, I think that one's gonna stick) getting herself some Lil Man. She got herself a lot of Lil Man, and he couldn't have been happier. Grambot also helped out with a feeding.

Here's Grandpa Dave getting himself some Lil Man, and helping out with a feeding.

Here's Grandpa Jim getting himself some Lil Man.

After we got home that night, we settled down for our first really relaxing night since everything went down. Taryn was feeling great, I was good, Cathy was good. It was nice to see what it would feel like with everything done, with all of the crazy health things taken care of, and all the time in the world to dedicate to just staring at this little guy.

Here's the Lil Man getting some "Tummy Time" on his surf board. This is great for muscle development as well as visual and sensory stimulation. We were pretty impressed (and proud) in his ability to raise and move his head, push his legs, and track the movements and sounds of the toys attached to the board. I know we're biased, but this little guy's freakin' incredible!

Here's our Lil Man in his Aries get-up. Aries is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac and symbolized by the Ram. Aries is considered a masculine, positive and extrovert sign. It is also considered the Fire sign, as it is one of the four cardinal signs of the Zodiac, representing fixed signs as well as the four cardinal elements (just like his Daddy is an Aquarius, another cardinal sign, and the one that represents Air). In Chinese astrology, Aires is associated with the Dragon. Cool.

Here's one last one of Eli, with the quickness, jukin' Daddy and messin' up his picture.