Every time I've started to write a post lately, it's been all over the place. I have lots of things to talk about: my looming birthday, a life-changing wardrobe organizing trick I just learned, the most epic of Pinterest fails, the internal debate that's still raging on about running a half marathon in less than a month, FEELINGS GALORE.

I try really hard not to let this turn into a mama blog, but the only thing I seem to be able to talk about right now is my wee boy. So, even though it's not a birthday milestone for him, here's a little glimpse into the life of Eli Alexander as of late.

[+] Pete and I had our first night away from Eli on the weekend. I didn't post about it beforehand because hi, come rob our house! But we were gone for a couple days, and spent a night at a hotel while Eli stayed with my parents. 24 hours away from the wee guy was rough. Most of the time, I was thinking about what Eli was doing/praying he was sleeping and not going ballistic/texting for Eli updates. It was also awesome: we had massages, went out for dinner, enjoyed breakfast in our room, went to the gym, went swimming, had drinks, and slept in. By "slept in" I mean "woke up at 6:30 and tried to go back to sleep until 9:00 and then just got up because we were too excited to see Eli." One day I will sleep in again. Just not anytime soon.

[+] Eli and I went to play soccer after work yesterday. I had big visions of us merrily kicking a soccer ball back and forth. What I didn't realize was how fast he is - it's easy to underestimate those little legs. He kept running towards the jungle gym, which was full of "big kids" doing God knows what - I presume smoking weed or eating bath salts or whatever kids are doing these days - so we didn't stay long.

[+] I'm discovering some tricks to get Mr. Fussy to eat. One, he loves ketchup. Kid will eat anything dipped in ketchup. Two, applesauce. If he's not eating his veggies I stir them into some applesauce: boom, down the hatch.

[+] Eli has finally started giving kisses. I swoon every single time.

[+] He's sprouting eight teeth at the same time: four eye teeth and four molars.

[+] Today he was looking at his Star Wars ABC book, turned to the Darth Vader page, pointed at the big D, and said, "D!" I freaked out, and went all "MY BOY'S WICKED SMAAAHT". Then he proceeded to call all the letters D. Relax, crazy mother.

There you have it: a peek at the life of a 17-month-old. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming of feelings, Pinterest mashups, and lists of gifts I would like to receive soon enough.