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.