Alive and Kicking, 9 Months

Neli has found a new passion - swimming! He is like a fish in the water. We took him to a pool in Santa Cruz and visiting Papa Mike in the desert. He loves it - kicks, screams, blows bubbles and doesn't mind dunking his face in the water.
Besides the pool he is really into feeding himself finger food. Tessie, the lady who cares for him twice a week, calls him the "starving baby" cause he just doesn't quit shoveling it in. Well actually he does and he shows us by carefully dropping the finger full of food on the floor. He also has been starting to "chipmunk" his food, just keeps shoving it in but doesn't swallow until he has his cheeks full.
His elephant seal crawl (see it here) gets him where he wants and it is quite cute to see him kick it up a notch when mom comes home. Of course with him worming across the house he has become a dog hair magnet and babyproof loophole finder. The first two things he did when exploring the kitchen were to open the oven broiler and try to stick his head in and reach under the dishwasher to pull on wires and insulation. Nothing a little duct tape can't prevent. Neli had his first real cold and fever and us novice parents learned how to deal - he lived. He's starting to mimic and and likes to wave back, sometimes, and replies to "bahp, bahp, bahp" with his own "bahp, bahp, bahp."

Oh yah, we finally came up with a way to spell his name, Neli.