January 31 2010

A lot has occurred in the last month:


Elliott is now crawling like a crazy baby. He crawls everywhere and is getting fast. We'll try to sit with him and play with his toys, but he's at the point where he becomes bored with that quickly and instead will crawl around to the furniture and pull up. He's pulling himself up now, and doing it quite well. He hasn't had too many uh-oh's where he's fallen, and I think he's maybe bumped his head twice since pulling up. He's really good at it.

He has made a couple of attempts at holding on to one piece of furniture and moving to hold on to another piece of furniture or the railing. I think these are his first attempts at cruising. I’m sure we'll see a lot more of this over the next month.

It's really sweet when I walk into the room, he'll crawl really fast over to me then pull up on my legs and reach up to me. He's reaching out to his grandparents now too. He recognizes them and gets excited when they come to visit him.

Elliott is now drinking from his Sippy cup. He knows the word 'drink' because we've been offering him water out of our cups for some time. He is able to take a drink out of a cup, but we wanted him to use a Sippy cup so he could get used to holding the cup, not spilling the contents, etc. He loves his Sippy cup.

He's also eating really well. We give him pieces of table food, which he chews and eats up. We'll say 'mmmmmmmm' and he'll take a bite and say 'mmmmmmm.' Aaron taught him how to stick his tongue out too...Aaron will stick his tongue out at him, and then Elliott will stick his tongue out. It's so cute! I'm sure it will get him in trouble some day but it's really cool to see that he is mimicking us.


We bought a new toy at Target tonight - it's a push along walker that he can learn to walk with. It converts to a little car that he can straddle and push him self on. It only took Aaron one time showing Elliott how the walker worked and he was all over it. We couldn't get him to stay away from it! His steps are tentative and slow, but I could already see improvement as he walked with it this evening.

One thing we started doing with our nightly routine is reading to Elliott before his bath time. I figured that with 5 other babies at day care, Elliott probably doesn’t get the one on one time that he used to get when it was just him and two others. So every evening for about 20 - 30 minutes, we take him into our room with his basket full of books and we read. Elliott is getting to the point where he will rest against us and pick out book after book, holding it up to us to read it. Of course after reading a couple of pages he holds up another book, so he is either already bored with what we are reading or he just likes to hold up books. Either way, he's holding up the same few books time after time - his Dr. Seuss ABC book, Goodnight Moon, and his Baby Jayhawks First Words (okay maybe we like reading that one to him). By far the ABC book is his favorite, but the other evening he was crawling around on the other side of the bedroom and when Aaron started reading Goodnight Moon Elliott looked up, and crawled over to him really fast. That was pretty neat.

Elliott had a cold this last month, another cough he couldn’t seem to get rid of. I finally took him to the doctor since everything I read said take him in after 10 days, etc. He didn't have anything serious, his ears looked good, no RSV. But he weighed in at 23 pounds 10 oz. He's slowly getting a little bigger, but I think his growth has tapered off a bit. Which may be a good thing because his car seat is backward facing and his poor little legs are all smashed against the back seat. We can't turn the car seat around until his first birthday, which is 3 months away.


On the new baby news, I had the genetic testing done to test for any birth defects. Part of this was a sonogram, which we got to take home a couple of pictures of the 13 week old fetus. It was pretty cool to see that little guy at 13 weeks. We'll know results of the tests in a week or so, but from the sonogram photo the nurse said it looked normal.

I've spilled the news to my employer about having another baby. They were excited and surprised, as we all were! I will plan on taking another 12 weeks off. If all goes according to plan, that means I'll return to work the first week of November. I'm starting to think about what I will do with Elliott while on maternity leave. Part of me wants him at home, but part of me isn't sure if that's the best plan with the newborn needing attention and mommy needing sleep, but lots of women do it so why couldn't I? We have to reserve spots at the day care, so that will be the biggest factor in our decision.

On a finally note, we had a long weekend this weekend with another snow storm on Friday - practically the entire city shut down, including Elliott’s day care. So I got to stay home with him on Friday. It was a wonderful weekend of playing, laughing, reading, snuggling and catching up on naps. Elliott takes great naps while home now - almost 3-4 hours worth of naps per day. This really helps him sleep well at night too. Aaron and I constantly remind ourselves how lucky we are to have a baby with such a fantastic disposition. Elliott is so happy, constantly smiling, laughing, exploring. We couldn't imagine our life without him!!

December 30

Elliott started crawling the week of Christmas. All of a sudden, he just lunged forward and took off. He moved slowly at first, but now that he's moving he always wants to be on the floor, mobile. He's really screaching now too. The screaching has replaced the ooh ooh ooh sounds. He's found his voice I guess! Something else that is new is that Elliott is reaching he arm up in the air and moving his fingers. He'll raise his arm up at the lights, at the tree, at someone who walks in the room. Maybe it's a form of waving bye bye? Maybe it's the first step to pointing? Not sure, but it's new, cute and he does it a lot these days.

Elliott had a very nice first Christmas. I was able to take off work the week of Christmas and was so lucky to spend the time with Elliott. We had such a great time finishing up our shopping, taking naps, playing together, and reading books and cooking! It snowed on Elliotts first Christmas too, his first snow. He went to Christmas mass on Christmas eve with his mommy, daddy, grammy, and great-great uncle John. He was really good in church but was very interested in the little girls sitting next to us. I would say he was actually flerting with those girls! He was tilting his head and smiling at them, reaching out to them. It didnt help that they were smiling and waving at him too. He is such a cute baby that it's hard for people to not smile at him. I was in Barnes and Noble before Christmas with him and one woman walked by and stopped to look at him and said to me 'what a beautiful baby.' And he is. After mass Elliott spent Christmas eve dinner with his Grammy, Grandpa, Great-Great Uncle John and his mommy and daddy. On Christmas morning his grandparents came over for beakfast and he gave his Christmas gifts to his grandparents: a picture frame with one of his 6 month photos and a package of diapers! His grandmothers were opening the diapers and they were surprised to see that the diapers were for a newborn, but when mommy confirmed the diapers were for a new baby everyone screamed in excitement! Yes, Elliott is going to be a big brother in August 2010.

Elliott received so many wonderful gifts from his grandparents, santa, his aunts and uncles and cousins. He is so blessed to have so many people who love him and made his first Christmas so special. Thanks to all his loved ones who made his first Christmas so memorable.

December 14

Elliott is really mobile now. As soon as he is put down on his back he rolls over and is up on his knees. He still hasn't figured out how to move forward more than one lunge. One day last week it he was all of a sudden able to move from his back, roll over to his tummy, then move to a sitting position. He is now flipping himself over in his crib at night and is sleeping on his tummy more often.

Elliott has had some restless nights lately. Up until now, we've been really lucky to have such a good sleeper: usually, Elliott is asleep by 7 and sleeps all night long until 6ish. Lately though, he's been waking up at midnight and will not go back to sleep. Maybe it's a growth spurt, but even though he had plenty of food during the day he was crying in hunger and after a bottle he was ready for sleep. Sometimes even after the bottle he cries. We finally decided to let him cry it out. As the books all said, it was tougher on us than on him. We turned off the monitor and let him fall asleep on his own, finally. I think all together it usually takes about an hour/hour and half before he's back to sleep. It makes for an exhausting day. Thankfully last night he slept all night with no interruptions.

Elliott is also starting to pull up on furniture. He will grab hold of his toy box and pull himself up to his knees. He can now pull himself up in his crib so the crib rail is in his mouth. Tonight he tried to pull up to the tub, so I stood him on his feet while he held on looking in at the tub while I turned on the faucets. He was really intrigued, watching the water fill the tub.

In the mornings we have a little ritual where we get him up and bring him in our room for his bottle. Aaron will feed him his bottle, then they sit in the arm chair and get out a couple of books. Elliott will handle the books, and now he can open the board book pages. He actually 'talks' to the books: de da de th de the da ba ba." Aaron will read him the book and Elliott loves it! Then, we put him on the floor with his softbound books and he 'reads' and plays with them. So, morning is book time for Elliott.

Elliott has a big appetite too. His favorite baby foods are carrots, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and he loves bananas. I've started to mash up a banana and let him taste 'real' banana. The texture is new and strange to him, so hopefully after a few more times he'll be used to it and like it. I've also tried to give him cheerios. He doesn't quite know what to do with them. He holds the o in his hand and eventually they end up on his lap and then in Max's belly. I'm just not sure if Eliott either isn't ready for pieces of real food or if he just doesn't like the food he's been offered. I am going to cook up a sweet potato tomorrow and let him give that a try.

This week we are going to put up our Christmas tree. Elliott really liked seeing his Grammy's tree this weekend - it was covered in blue and white lights and all Elliott could do was say 'oh oh' when looking at it. I hope he likes our tree! We've bought a few Christmas gifts for Elliott, but we figure that the real fun will be this weekend when we take him to see Santa on Sunday.

Elliott has the best temperament. Everyone at daycare says how happy he is, how he loves to squeal and play and laugh. It's also nice to see how he really enjoys seeing his friends when he gets there in the morning. That makes it easier on us, knowing that he likes where he is when he's not with us.

December 1

Elliott had a nice first Thanksgiving. The weekend was full of spending time with family and trying new foods. Elliott tasted mashed potatoes and real sweet potatoes for the first time. He also tried a little bit of stuffing. He seemed to enjoy it.
His two bottom teeth are poking their way through, slowly but surely. It is obvious that he is experiencing some pain, so we've tried to alleviate the pain with some tylenol. He also has a cough that won't go away and a runny nose, so I took him to the doctor again yesterday. They said he sounded good and his ears looked great, so we just have to continue with the humidifier and the vicks vaporub.
Elliott is really moving fast now. When on his back, he flips over quickly onto his tummy. He flips over a lot in his crib and on several occasions in the last week I've gone into his room at night or in the morning and he's on his tummy.
Elliott also discovered a new sound 'oh.' It is so funny - he'll notice something and say 'oh' then look in another direction and say 'oh' and on and on. In the morning, when he wakes up, all we hear on the monitor is 'oh, oh, oh, oh' it's so funny!!
Elliott is also searching for toys when they fall on the floor. When I hold him on my lap and we are looking at a book, he will now drop it on the floor then lean over to look at it on the floor. I will say 'uh oh' and pick it up. TOnight, he was dropping his bath toys over the edge of his bath tub, then leaning over and reaching down to pick it up. He was straining and reaching and when he finally was able to grasp the toy, he brought it up to his mouth and gave it a big bite! Everything is going into his mouth these days due to his teething, though!
This evening Elliott was in his Exersaucer, which was butting up to the antique commode. I turned around and Elliott had pulled out the top drawer of the commode and was peering into the drawer. Another reminder that we need to secure all the drawers in the house, and soon!

November 25

Elliott's two bottom front teeth decided to poke through today. Ironically, Elliott was in a really good mood today. We picked him up at lunchtime and he was really babbling and having fun. After an afternoon nap and bottle, when we were playing I noticed that I could see those little teeth peeking through his gums. We got out an icecube for him to suck on and could hear the sharp teeth scraping on the ice. Finally!! Months of drooling and biting and hands in his mouth and we finally have a tooth! It will be interesting to see how the next couple of days turn out for Elliott.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! We are both looking forward to spending time with our families and our little guy.

Sunday November 22

I had to take down Elliott's mobile this week. It was quite a sad moment since this is such a cute decoration and he loves looking at it! However, when he is sitting in the crib I will catch him grabbing the mobile and pulling it down toward his mouth. We also lowered his mattress this week. When he's sitting in the crib he is now pulling himself over to mouth the railing. While this is really cute to see, it's apparent he is getting much stronger and I can only imagine one day soon that he will be pulling himself up completely.


So, we did some baby proofing this week.

Elliott is rolling over a lot now. If he's on his back, within a few minutes he's flipped onto his tummy and he's commando crawling backwards. He's pretty slow at it, but he's definitely mobile now. I think the last thing we have to do to completely baby proof the living space is to put up the drawer/cabinet locks.

Elliott is definitely teething. You can see the swollen little spots on his lower gums. When the teeth will finally cut through is a more uncertain. It seems like he's been teething for months, with the nonstop drooling at least! But this week he's had his hand in his mouth more and today he was downright cranky and nonconsolable, which is not like him at all. We wrapped up an icecube and let him suck on it, which he really liked. He went through two ice cubes before he was distracted enough to play.

He is also eating really well these days. This week, he Elliott ate bananas for the first time. I love seeing him when he tries a food that he likes - he smacks his lips together and then lets out a big approving screech! He also ate beef quite well in the last week, especially if it was followed by a spoonful of peaches or applesauce. Tonight we gave him turkey and pears. He was in hog heaven!

This week is Thanksgiving and we are so thankful for so many things, I can't even begin to list them all, but foremost, we are thankful for our health. We are so fortunate for our good health and for the excellent health insurance that we have through Koch. Next we are thankful for our families. We love seeing our family frequently and wish we could see our Washington family more often. Finally, we are so thankful for each other. Aaron, Elliott, Max and I love spending time with each other every day. There is nothing more important!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

November 15

For the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to keep the pacifier out of Elliott's mouth when he's not going to sleep, as he doesn't seem to be 'talking' enough. Interestingly, he's not drooling nearly as much now. But even better, he's starting to babble more. Between the creeping on the floor and the constant 'bah bah bah bah' he's becoming a very entertaining baby!! Grammy was over last night and she thinks Elliott was trying to say 'da da da.' He does seem to be trying out the d, th, and ba sounds.

Elliott ate applesauce for the first time yesterday. As expected, he loved it! His eyes got realy wide and after he ate his first bite he screached and smiled and moved his head in toward the spoon for another bite. Aaron couldn't feed him fast enough, as between each bite Elliott was screaching for more. Aaron picked up some peaches and pears to feed him over the next week. That should be fun!

Last night Elliott started to get really fussy. We think he is about to have a couple of teeth poke through. You could practically see them in his mouth, but he doesnt hold still long enough for us to have a good look. He keeps rubbing his tongue on his bottom gums though, and his hand is in his mouth a lot more now. We gave him some tylenol before bedtime and I think this really helped as he slept through the night until almost 630 this morning.

I went in to Elliott this morning and he was laying on his tummy looking around. This is the first time he's flipped over in his crib (that I know of anyway). I don't want to be too comfortable in saying this, but from what I've read if the baby is able to flip over while in the crib then the risk for SIDS is significantly lowered. One less thing to worry about now I guess.

Elliott is now wearing 18 month size pants and sleepers. He was wearing 12 month Gerber sleepers - the ones with the zippers are so easy for diaper changes - but they must shrink because he's already too big for them. Last night he wore an 18 month sleeper. The sleeper was a bit long but it was snug in the torso. All of his pants are 18 month, and he's still able to wear some 9-12 month onesies but they're getting small on him. I can't believe how big he's getting!!

Elliott is sleeping in our bed this morning. We love the weekend mornings where we can snuggle with him and he falls back to sleep between us. When he wakes up we'll give him some more applesauce and it will be playtime!