Every day, something new

Wow. It's really fascinating to see how many new things this baby picks up every day. He's now 8 and a half months and he's just a bundle of energy. He's officially getting his top two teeth...the top left one started appearing on January 17th...and a few days later, the top right showed up. They're still trying to make their way out, but we can definitely see them. He also got his first "big" cold on the 30th. Poor little guy is having a hard time with his runny nose. For the most part, he's still been sleeping through the night, though.

So now that he's able to pull himself up in his crib (and everywhere else!!!), he's been harder to put down to sleep and has been waking up earlier. Now all he wants to do is stand, stand, stand! Instead of waking up in the morning to a baby laying down saying "dadadadada" (his morning talking).... now I wake up to a standing up, dancing baby. Over the past few days, he's been pulling himself to stand on anything and everything he can find.... the coffee table, the bookshelves, his toys, and most of all...ME. When he gets frustrated because he can't figure out how to stand up on something, he'll crawl over to me because he knows how to get up on ME. Too funny.

He's still got the ole army crawl down. He uses his right side properly, but crawls on his left forearm...and continues to hold his left leg up in the air. The PT in me wants to "fix" it, but do I really want to make a fast baby even faster? I think not. Last week, he was able to stand and cruise along in his crib... but over the past few days, he's really figured out how to move along the furniture. It's amazing to see how brave he is.

On Wednesday, we reached a big milestone - he got his helmet off! Wooohooo! He only had to wear it for 10 weeks. The before and after pictures were striking... He really used to look like ET! We're so happy with the way his head shaped up. It's strange to go about the day without the helmet now...we're so used to it! His hair is getting really long... we're going to have to take him for a hair cut soon!

His favorite things things this week: holding his hand up in a permanent high-5 position (and we now do this after every bite when we're eating), crawling while holding onto something (usually one of his blocks, books, or his wooden spoon.... he MUST be holding something), throwing cheerios on the ground, dancing (to the music we hear and the music in his head), opening and closing cabinets, standing at his music table (only on the JAZZ setting...he instantly switches it back if I flip it over to the other setting), and screaming DADA whenever he can.

I'm a lot more tired these days (especially because he's trying to give up his second nap!!!), but we're having a great time! Let the adventures continue.

Unstoppable

Wow - this kid is UNSTOPPABLE. I knew it would be tough when he started crawling, but maaaan. I'm going to have to start taking naps again. He started crawling on Saturday, January 9th, three days before he turned 8 months old. He was so proud of himself when he figured it out. And what did he go straight for? The dirty stroller wheels. For some reason, those are just fascinating to him. Now, no matter how far I put them away from him or how much I distract him, he still goes right for them...at lightening speed. Looks like we're going to have to find a new place to put the stroller.

His "crawl" is adorable. He still can't figure out how to get around in quadraped, so he lowers himself to his belly and drags himself. He refuses to use his left leg... he just holds it up in the air and it goes along for the ride. The PT in me so wants to fix it, but pffft - he's doing fine. Maybe he's a future soccer star and is just protecting his kicking leg. :)

This Saturday, the 23rd, he went from being manageable to Mr. Squirm/High Energy crazy boy. I can't even hold him... he just squirms his way out. If I were to let him, he'd fling himself mid-air.... and would probably land and keep going without batting an eye.

He's also pulling up on everything. Yesterday when Daddy put him down to sleep at night, he went in there after 15 minutes of screaming to find out that he was standing up in his crib. Uh oh. Just don't try to climb out yet, little buddy! He loves crawling over to me and pulling up on me, too. He loves standing at the coffee table or at the couch... but hasn't yet figured out how to cruise while standing.

Last week was the first time we left Eli to go on vacation! Mike and I went to Vegas for three days and Eli had fun staying with Grandma in Maryland. He was a perfect angel (according to Grandma) and they had great fun looking at Bob, sitting in the high chair and looking in the backyard at the birdies, reading stories, taking out all of Grandma's CDs from her drawer and opening and closing the cabinets.

Two nights ago, when I was putting Eli to bed, I noticed that he's getting his top left tooth! I can definitely see it! He was fine until yesterday afternoon...he became Mr. Upset crankypants and has pretty much been that way since. Poor little guy. It's hard to tell...he might be getting both at the same time.

Yesterday, we had great fun hanging out with Tita Rachna and Dexter! The boys enjoy hitting each other in the face, trying to poke each other's eyes out, pulling each other's heads, rolling on top of each other and holding hands. It's so fun to see them together. Rachna is now back at work full time, so I'm hoping we'll still be able to get the boys together regularly.

Food-wise, he's doing great. He likes everything so far...except for Avocado. We'll keep trying, though! We just started trying more finger foods. Today he had a few teeny bits of honeydew and for a snack, I gave him some peas. When snack time was over, I was amazed that so many peas were missing from his tray.... when I lifted him out, I found out why. There were a bunch mashed all over the seatbelt and he was sitting on about 5. Nice.

Ok... over and out for now!

Eli's First Christmas and New Year's!

I keep forgetting to update... mostly because I use Facebook a lot to add pictures and tell Eli stories. But I remembered tonight so here I am!

Eli's first Christmas was great! He loved opening presents.... especially tearing the wrapping paper, transferring it back and forth from hand to hand, and trying to put it in his mouth. Eating the boxes was also a big hit. We gave him three books about the real meaning of Christmas (which will mean more to him over the next few years, but I wanted him to have them for his first Christmas), a wooden spoon from Ikea, and a few 1st Christmas ornaments. He got lots of great toys, clothes, and ornaments from friends and relatives.... and I need to remember to write thank you notes SOON! It was so much fun being able to have baby Eli with us this Christmas!

On the 30th, we got a GREAT GREAT surprise... Jenn flew out from Korea so she could see Eli! So happy they finally got to meet. They bonded instantly and it was so, so great to see them together. The visit was about 36 hours but the best Christmas present I ever could have asked for.

For New Year's, we went over to Mike's sister's house like we always do. I love getting to spend that day with them all...so much fun! We put Eli to bed late (around 9) and then got a fun surprise.... he woke up at 11:45! So we got to put a hat on him, give him a noisemaker, and have him join in the fun. I wonder if he thinks that's what happens every night when he's sleeping. It was really wonderful to be able to ring in the new year with both of my boys. :)

He's been really happy these last few days. He's on the briiiiiiink of crawling... he now is able to get up on all 4s and rock back and forth. And he drags himself from his play mat over to the wall so he can try to chew on the corner of my closet. Rolling is still his preferred method of getting around, but he's getting close!!! He loooves standing and holding onto things and I put the legs on his little activity table yesterday so he can stand and play. He loves to "dance" while he's standing, which is super cute. His current #1 fascination is the zipper on my fleece jacket... he loves to play with it. Coming in a close second are the buttons on my shirt, followed by light switches. He still loves looking at the cats and it is soooo cute to see him smile and laugh at them. I love that he still gives us "kisses" and he cracks himself up when he does it.

Eli is a great eater! Right now he has an 8oz bottle when he wakes up, then breakfast (a fruit mixed with cereal) an hour later... then two more bottles... then dinner (a veggie) and a bottle before bed. I'm wondering if we're ready to move to three meals a day. I'm really having a great time making food for him... baby cookbooks are fun and inspiring and are filled with combos I would have never come up with... like what I made tonight (Parsnips and apples, Cauliflower and Sweet Potatoes...). I love letting him try new things! So far he loves everything except avocado (third try tonight), green beans, and pumpkin.

Yaaay 2010!!!

7 months old!

I can hardly believe my little baby is 7 months old today! I feel like 6 months is still little...but 7...7 is big! He's getting closer and closer to a year! I was standing in front of my tree tonight, thinking back to last year when Mike and I took our "family" picture with me, him, Riley and Cliffy. Amazing how much can change in a year.

Eli is becoming quite the squirmy little guy! It's getting harder to hold him cause he just wants to squirm everywhere! Explore, explore, explore. It's so fun to see how the little things we don't even THINK about....like how the numbers in the elevator light up.... just thrill this kid.

So this week, I discovered that when I laugh at Eli, he laughs back. Super cute...especially when he's trying to be mr. sad cranky eli. I love tricking him into laughing. :) There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am to have this kid.

Eli's favorite things at this age are: chewing the covers off of his books, squealing as loud as he can, pretending to cough, getting as much slobber on mommy's face as possible (I love Eli kisses!), pretending to wake up at 5am, singing loudly during the quiet moments in church, running his fingers through Mommy's hair, rolling all over the living room, eating the remote control, pulling his hat over his face and just being CUTE. :)

Yay Food!

So far, Eli loves food! It's so much fun to feed him. I hate that we have to wait 2-3 days before introducing new foods.. I wish I could just sit down and feed him tons of different things to see what he likes. We started with rice cereal (likes), then carrots (likes), then sweet potatoes (starting to like them more), then oatmeal (likes more than rice cereal), then pumpkin (haaaaated it), then squash (LOVES!), then green beans (dislikes). I'm making my own food because I tried it and it's REALLY easy. I thought it would be much harder or annoying, but it's SO easy! For sweet potatoes, I baked one potato, then blended it up, added some water and wala! Done! One sweet potato was EIGHT servings of food for him. I'm doing the whole...freeze the food in the ice cube tray and serve it later thing. It's great! Four carrots made 3 servings. I think this is definitely the cheapest way to go. I love my magic bullet...it's blending everything up perfectly! Tonight, we move on to peas. I have a feeling he's not going to go for them, but we'll see. :) I have carrots on standby.

6 months old!

It's been a fun past two weeks!!! First of all, the one tooth is really noticeable now (hard to get a picture cause he hides it). Two days ago, when I was feeling to see how sharp the tooth was, I felt another one next door! Woohoo! He didn't complain about that one coming in at all... such a brave little guy. So now he has his two bottom teeth! Can't wait til they show up in pictures. :)

Last week, Eli finally rolled from his back to his belly (he'd previously only been doing belly to back) on his own! Woohoo! Before he NEVER liked to be on his side...now he's spending a lot more time there, especially when Mommy is trying to change his diaper. :) He's yet to become a steamrolling maniac... he'll pretty much just roll over once and be content with his new position. FINE by me. Buys me a little more time before he's unstoppable.

His new favorite thing to do is floor swim. When we put him on his belly now, he loves lifting both arms and both legs, flailing as quick as he possibly can. He lasts about 5 seconds, puts them down to rest, and then goes again. It's super cute. I can totally see the energy this kid is going to have when he starts crawling and it's really scary. :)

Last week, on his 6 month birthday, we fed Eli for the first time! (Nowadays, all of the literature and pediatric societies strongly encourage waiting until 6 months to eat so their digestive systems are better developed). One teaspoon of rice cereal to four teaspoons of formula pretty much felt like I was feeding him his formula with a spoon... but it was still super fun! The first face he gave us was priceless... but then he proceeded to gobble the rest of it up. Mmmm. I'm waiting til today's doc appointment to give him the next food, because there are a million different opinions about the proper "order" to feed the baby....and I just want to get her take on it. Most likely, we will be giving him carrots, since that's the veggie mommy ate most when she was pregnant and he might already like it. :) I'm super excited about making his food and did a trial run with the carrots today. Yay!

He's really doing great! Mike and I are so, so, so thankful that we have such a great kid. As one of my patients told me yeterday, God gives you the good one first so that you're encouraged to have more.

The tooth is coming

It's been a busy week! First of all, I noticed on Sunday (Nov 1st) that Eli's first tooth is coming in! At first, it was just a big red bump... last night, I could see the actual top of the tooth. Eli's been with his Grandparents during the day for the last two days and they said he wasn't fussing at all. Could it be that I have a kid who doesn't cry when his first tooth comes in? We'll see. I think the worst is yet to come.

Our trip to Maryland was super fun!!! We got to hang out with Grandma, Aunt Rosie, Emily, Uncle Tom, Great Grandma, Aunt Kathy, Stacey and the twins! It was a busy three days but super fun ones. Eli had a lot of firsts.... first time in the leaves, first time carving pumpkins (er...he was asleep...), first time getting dressed up in his little monkey outfit! He was an ADORABLE monkey. Eli also got to meet his friends, Jonah and Gabe, who were born on the same day as Dexter! Now he has two more buddies to add to his posse. It was close to the day when he met them, so he had a big meltdown. Nothing like three screaming children to make you lose your noodle.

On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with Eli's friend, Sonali. She was dressed as a ladybug and Eli the monkey.... super cute. We went out to a street that was all decorated and spooky... with the TONS of people there, the kids were just staring with wide eyes the whole time. They were so entranced by everything that was going on that neither of them tried to take off their hats! Yay! We went back to Sonali's building and went trick-or-treating to about 5 apartments. For Eli's first door, Mike let him lean over to the candy bowl and pick whatever he wanted. Hahaa... wouldn't you know it, my son picked the giant plastic spider that was on top of the bowl. Hahaha. Good choice, Eli. Go for the big ticket item. :)

I'm filling in for someone at work and decided to go in on Monday and Tuesday. Eli got to be with his Grandparents and I got to spend the whole day working with Mike. Monday night, I had my workout class in the city, so I came home solo and Mike went to spend the night with the baby. I was 50% happy cause I got to have a whole night of ME time and 50% sad cause I really missed my boys. It was definitely a strange combo of emotions. Tuesday was a really hard day because I missed Eli sooooo much.

I'm amazed every single day at the new things Eli can do. He's picking up skills so quickly these days... it's just remarkable to see that all unfold before my eyes. He's doing better with his sitting...especially when distracted by a fun toy! I'm so looking forward to these next three days with him before I have to go back to work!