The other day we were at the dinner table finishing eating and I told Eli I loved him. He responded by blowing me a kiss. Best thing ever!
One of Eli’s bookshelves is on top of his dresser. I was holding him up to it to pick out a book. In an effort to help him talk, I pointed to the spine of a book and said “book”. I did this three more times to three other books. There were about 25 books. When I was done Eli pointed to the EXACT SAME four books. He didn’t try to say anything, but he paused in between each point the same way I did. I wasn’t pointing to special books, I’m really impressed he remembered all four!
Andy was putting Eli to bed and Eli indicated that he wanted some milk. Andy said ok and the two of them started walking down the hall. Andy headed to the kitchen and Eli entered the living room, which we use as his play room. There were toys all over the floor. Andy started telling Eli that it wasn’t playtime and there were just out here to get milk. Eli ignored Andy and seemed to be looking for a toy. Before Andy could do anything, Eli reached down and picked up his sippy cup of milk from dinner. Then he took his cup and headed back to this bedroom, ignoring all the toys.
When Eli wants something he grabs my (or Andy’s) finger and tugs me towards what he wants. If I resist he makes a noise of frustration, lets go of that finger and grabs one on my other hand. When we do go with him (which is almost all the time), he will place our hand directly on whatever he wants, in the fashion that he thinks it should fit. He’s nearly broken my fingers a few times shoving them into the handle on the fridge door.
Eli is fascinated by brushing teeth. He’ll patiently watch me brush my teeth. Then he’ll hold his mouth open while I brush his teeth (for the amount of time it takes to sing the alphabet song, we’re suppose to sing it twice through but that’s too long right now). When we’re done he wants to hold the toothbrush and pretend to brush his teeth. At the end of the day I usually have to search the living room for the toothbrush he spent much of the morning playing with.
Eli is learning how to flush the toilet and is getting an idea about how grown-ups use the toilet and toilet paper and all that. One day I heard Andy and Eli in the bathroom and Andy was saying “push! push! harder!”. I was quite confused until I heard the toilet flush and Andy cheer for Eli. You do have to push the handle pretty hard when you’re a little kid!
Eli loves getting kissed and thinks it very funny. If I come at him with an exaggerated kissy face he will smile real big and slowly lean towards me. Once I kiss him he pulls away and giggles in delight. This is pretty awesome 
You and Andy are doing all the right things – you are good parents! Keep it up.