Eli labels everything...

One of my favorite things about Eli is that he feels the need to point to everything in our house and either label it as "mama" or "dada"

For example books = mama's (I told Marcus he needs to read more so Eli doesn't associate books as something belonging only to female's).

xbox controller = dada's

Dr. Pepper = mama's

Any shoes that are black and running shoes = dada's

His shoe identification is actually something I find really fascinating. He's obsessed with shoes, he loves them and he always has. He loves to get into our closet and pull out all of the shoes which include about 15 pairs that I never wear. So he can't necessarily associate them with me from wearing them. Instead he has some sort of system in his head and he shows me each shoe and decides if it belongs to mama or dada. He's surprisingly good at it, the only shoe that threw him for a loop was an old pair of running shoes that belong to me. They're gray and black so in Eli's mind these were dada's.

(When Eli pulls out all these shoes Marcus gets a visual reminder of all the shoes I own and never wear).

Hats = dada's

He's so cute. The other thing he does is introduce Marcus and to each other all the time. When we're in the car he'll say, "mama...(pause a bit) and then say "dada"  The way his voice inflects it sounds exactly like he's say, "Mama I would like you to meet dada"

Silly cute boy.