Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thankful...

I am thankful for these guys...
for our families, our friends. This has been such an amazing year. I hope yours has been as well. Happy Thanksgiving. Now I've got to go check on my turkey(s) before one burns or the other breaks something.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Swingin'

David got home from a looonng trip last Friday night, and he was a little exhausted. So naturally I stuck Elliott in a bulky backpack and handed that and Jack's leash to him and dragged our family to the park. :)
I wanted to try to get some pictures of Elliott playing outside (before the snow comes and we stop leaving the house for six months), so I put him in some play clothes and told myself that if he eats dirt and leaves that it wouldn't hurt him. Once I gave into this inevitability...

he didn't eat anything! Not even this leaf, even though the look on his face says "this looks tasty..." to me. We played on the swings, and played around with our camera, and celebrated the fact that David was back.
Elliott is okay with the swings, but he doesn't seem to get super excited about them like some kids do. If I lift him high in the air once or twice, he's okay, but if I do it more than that he pinches up his face and will eventually look terrified. He likes the ground just fine, thankyouverymuch, so please put him safely back on it.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Stocking!

I've been meaning to post pictures of the ridiculous amount of projects I've started, but I've been to busy starting more projects. I went to a swanky baby store last summer, and noticed some really adorable knit pants that had a monster on the seat of them. I almost bought them, until I noticed the price tag of $90. For one pair. of BABY PANTS. So instead, I went to the yarn store and set out to make a pretty good substitute. I didn't try my hand at the monster face, because I am not that patient, but maybe I'll give it another shot later.


Aaand, as you can see, they are huge. He crawled right out of them a few times yesterday. But, the bonus is that they will last for more than twenty minutes. Which is more than I can say for some of the other knitting projects I've made. He wore the blue sweater I made him once and it was practically a crop top. Yikes.
This is also huge, luckily I was going for that. Two years ago I knit stockings for David and myself, and we went with stocking hats instead of large socks. It may have come out a little bigger than ours did (I haven't dragged out our decorations yet), but as I'd imagine we will be stuffing a lot more in his stocking so that's okay.
Now I just need to finish the baby sweater, hat, blanket, doll, and presents I have planned.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Thanks Grandma!



Elliott got a package from Grandma last week so I thought I'd post pictures of him in his new duds. Enjoy! Also- I just had the best birthday ever. After dinner I went on the back porch to find out what David had been secretly slaving over for most of the day- s'mores with homemade marshmallows and homemade graham crackers. Seriously, Mrs. Ingram, you should write a book on how to raise little boys.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Bottle Battle

David went out of town for the week for work. He left on Sunday, and this week my mission will be to get Elliott to drink from a bottle. When Elliott was small he had a few bottles here and there. David fed him when I went to yoga, sitters fed him when David and I went out, and so I considered the bottle thing "learned". And so, for the last three or four months, I have become a little lazy. He stays home with me during the day, and if I leave he comes with me too, so rather than pump and bring bottles, I just bring a blanket with us to cover up with and feed him. This, my friends, was a very stupid thing to do.

I am planning to go with some friends to Chicago the weekend after David gets back. I am terrified to leave. Not because David isn't perfectly capable of caring for his son, or because I am afraid something terrible will happen, but because I have no idea how easy or monstrous Elliott will be once I leave in someone else's car and drive five hours away for two days. Poor David could have the easiest baby on earth, or a little t-rex just waiting to happen.

I thought that we would start a routine a few nights ago, so I gave David a bottle and had him deal with Elliott at the 10 pm feeding. Elliott did fine for a few minutes, but then he started clamping down on the nipple and chewing on the bottle and his fingers. He forgot all about being hungry and instead decided to figure out the chemical composition of the silicone nipple using only his jaws. David came back up with a nearly full bottle and Elliott went back to sleep, and I have been practicing ever since.

On two occasions he drank the entire bottle in one shot. Every other time he does what he did to David that first time, gnawing on the end of the bottle. I'm sure he'd figure it out if he was hungry enough, except that sometimes he loses his mind when he's too hungry and screams until you give him what he wants. I have tried different bottle/nipple combinations and can't get consistent results. He knows how to drink from a bottle- I figured this out by giving him watered down juice, which he gobbled down in five seconds- but he just doesn't usually want to.

Any of you have any tips or advice on this?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Seven Months

Dear Elliott,

This Halloween marked your seven month birthday. October was a pretty packed month, mostly because I was trying to cram in as much activity as possible before Michigan magically transforms into the North Pole. We started out by taking you to your first Texas A&M alumni gathering. Unfortunately, this also happened to be a renewed rivalry game between the Aggies (where mommy and daddy both went to college) and University of Arkansas, our home state. The Aggies lost, which gave all of our friends a reason to call or text us and laugh at the outcome of the game. A low blow, really, when you consider the people you are taunting now live in Michigan.
We are also coming up on your first holiday season (which, by the way, is complete CHAOS in our family due to the number of relatives we have, how far away we are from them, and the amount of things I feel compelled to cram into the week that we go home), so I decided to try to start new family traditions. Ann Arbor is all about apple orchards and pumpkin patches, so we ventured out to the closest one.
Unfortunately for Daddy, it was also the most crowded and crazy one, with a country fair and petting zoo and karaoke (really, really bad karaoke). You seemed pretty uninterested and were a little doped up on Infant Motrin since you were cutting teeth, so in reality the trip was mostly for me. But next year, I'll show you how to feed the creepy llamas and cute little baby goats. Or I'll have Daddy show you, since he informed me that I was doing it wrong.
As far as milestones, you had your first cold, started teething, and learned to sit up. And your crawling abilities are pretty amazing too, which means I have to constantly watch you to make sure you aren't splashing in Jack's water bowl or cramming Dad's laptop charger in your mouth or trying to crawl down the stairs. You try to eat shoes and steal your friends' pacifiers and if I don't watch you with Jack you WILL lick his back. Which, by the way, is so GROSS- and even though Jack runs away when he sees you I think he likes when you do this because you always manage to lick the spot he can't reach.
Once we got home with some pumpkins, I decided to let you in on the experience by bringing you outside when we carved them. I dressed you in play clothes and put you on a blanket while we sat up, and you promptly crawled off of it and proceeded to try to eat all the leaves around you.
I let you touch the pumpkin guts, which were freezing, and you were interested for half a second and then started trying to eat leaves again. I finally put you in a chair beside the pumpkin guts and let you put your hand in the bowl, and proceeded to watch you shove raw pumpkin in your mouth, cringe, and then repeat. You obviously did not like how it tasted, but kept putting it in your mouth until I finally pulled the bowl away so that you would stop eating the stuff.
I made your halloween costume the week before Halloween. It was not my best effort, but I was glad that I didn't spend money on a costume that two people would have seen you wear. Next year, when you are walking around we will beg for candy from our neighbors in a much better costume. And I will not buy 5 bags of candy either, because I have had Snickers and KitKats for lunch everyday so far this week.
You have started to show preferences for things in the last month, too. You have a favorite food- Blueberry fruit puffs, a favorite person- Daddy, and a favorite toy-Nesting cups. You want to drink from a cup by yourself. When I go get you in the morning you are always peeking over your crib bumpers, waiting for me to pick you up and smiling and kicking in delight when you see me. You think that sticking your tongue out is the way to greet Daddy, because he has done it for the last few months to get you to laugh. You hate when I take away things you aren't supposed to have, when I feed you peas, and when I throw you into the air (most kids love this! I think you suspect my lack of coordination). I love watching you unfold into a little boy.

Love,

Momma

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Our Monkey

Hope you had a great Halloween. We bought five bags of candy and had two (count them- one, two) trick or treaters, and Elliott crawled around our living room in his costume until an hour after his bedtime. We'll probably actually trick-or-treat next year, and I'll still eat most of his candy, but for his first Halloween I'm glad we kept it low key. Especially since our car broke mid-day.