Great feats (and feet!)

The other day, I came home late from court and in the middle of apologizing to the babysitter, she says:

"I didn't know Eli could go down the slide by himself."  Um, what?

"Yeah, I put him at the top of the slide and he slid down by himself."  Wait.. How?

"He put his hands on the sides and slid down."  Did he fall off the end or hit his head leaning back or have any other slide-related injuries that I've only imagined because I have never seen him go down a slide by himself?

"Nope, he was great and he went down the thing at least 8 times!"  No, seriously, what?!

How is it that the kid learned to slide down a slide by himself?  We've done it maybe twice, with me sitting behind him.  And why did his first time solo have to be with the babysitter?

I told Jeff about it later that night.

Yesterday, he took Eli to the park.  Last night, he tells me that yes indeed, while our son needs help to climb the play structure and to be told to sit at the top of the slide (to avoid any head-first craziness), he can go down the slide by himself and he will do it over and over and over until it's time to go home.  Awesome!  I'm so proud of all he's accomplished at 13 months.  When we go places, it's always nice to hear that he's so advanced at this or that.  I just hope that if he has a sibling, we don't do any comparison stuff because #2 will have big shoes to fill.

And speaking of shoes, a good friend gave Eli a pair of shoes last week.  Her kid is 6 months older that E, but apparently, they are wearing the same size.  This other kid isn't small by any means; he's actually a really big kid  I just never realized that my kid was ginormous.  My friend says, "Have you ever really looked at his hands and feet?  Like, really looked at them?  They are humongous!"  Well there you go.  I have the next Bigfoot on my hands!  Shoe shopping will probably be difficult come the teenage years.