First Christmas!

Elijah’s first Christmas! Per the annual rotation schedule already in place (hehe), we celebrated Christmas in Grand Rapids this year, with my (Missy’s) brothers and their families, and my parents. It was so fun to all be together for a long weekend. The only downside was that Grandma was getting over bronchitis, Lexi, our niece, was sick, Andrew, our nephew, got sick, and Lori, our sister-in-law, got strep throat. And Elijah decided he didn’t like sleeping and wanted to continue being sick (he’s had a cold since early November). Still, it was a wonderful time together, and it was fun to see the kids playing together. Our twin nieces just love “Lijah” and “babeee”, as they call him, and kept offering Eli toys. Of course, he didn’t know what to make of this!

Before presents, we had a picture session for the kids – and Eli wanted no part of that at all, thank you very much. He wasn’t used to the loudness of other children (and older children). By the end of the weekend he was fine with it, but he wasn’t quite adjusted yet when the kids opened presents on Christmas Eve afternoon. Eli ended up sitting on Jon’s lap on the edge of the family room and watching everyone from a safe distance.

On Christmas Day itself we got together with my extended family, and Elijah got a chance to see my cousin’s babies who were born 3 weeks before him (Joshua), and then a month and a half after him (Allison). Eli was a total ham, as always. Even though it was close to his bedtime he kept on smiling and charming the crowd. We changed him into a red Polo sleeper before heading home, and it turns out that Joshua and Allison both had the same sleeper with them, just in a different color. So all the babies got in their Polo sleepers and posed together on the couch. Big Elijah on one side, big Joshua on the other (both able to sit up), and then petite little Allison in the middle. It was priceless.
The day after Christmas though, we had to head home and say good-bye. We were throwing a party for our friends from out-of-town on Tuesday night, and I knew that coming home on Tuesday would not leave me with enough time to get things done. So home we went! Baby’s first Christmas was a lot of fun though!

3 days of bliss

Elijah’s tooth finally broke through completely on December 20th, and his drool cleared up, he slept the night, and was in a much better mood. Which was great – just in time for his first Christmas! Three days of happy, sweet, sleeping great baby, and then on Christmas Eve he started frantically chewing everything again! Argh! I was hoping to get a little longer rest than that. Nobody told me that teething sucks this much.

Uh oh! Off to the ER for Elijah.

Elijah had his first accident requiring a trip to the emergency room last Friday. I (Missy) was home with him and we were having a great day together – Eli took a great nap, was in a good mood, had just eaten pears and cereal, and it was time for a bath and then his second nap. I tripped going up the stairs though and, against everything you would expect a mommy to do, dropped Elijah. He fell headfirst straight onto his nose and lip, and immediately started screaming. I couldn’t even process what was going on at first it all happened so fast. Elijah was crying and bleeding from his nose so I called Jon and grabbed the diaper bag and headed to the hospital.

I left an unintelligible message on my parent’s machine, and then called Jon’s mom, who calmed me down, prayed with me, and then called the hospital to let them know we were coming. Jon was there waiting when we arrived and we were seen by the nurses right away. We were there for over an hour before we saw the doctor, and during that time Elijah was pretty happy for the most part, so we had the feeling that pretty much everything was fine. When we saw the doctor he confirmed that everything would be okay, and Eli would be no worse for wear, we just had to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t start acting different from normal.

Jon ended up taking the rest of the afternoon off to take care of Elijah and me, which was good because we were exhausted! I can’t even describe how horrified I felt during the whole thing. I just kept replaying the image of Eli falling over and over again, and feeling it was all my fault, even though I knew it was just an accident. And I know he’s going to fall and hurt himself in the future (all kids do!) and I’m really not looking forward to it! This was enough for me, thank you very much!

The good news is that he seems to be doing well and his nose is almost back to 100 percent cuteness. Kids are pretty resilient!

We be cuttin'!

News flash: Missy and I just felt Eli's first tooth! We can't see it yet, but it's definitely there! It's in the center of his mouth, on the bottom.

Could this be the beginning of the end of teething? (I know he has lots more teeth yet to go...)

6 months and doing so much!

Eli is a couple of weeks past his 6-month birthday and is doing great! He can sit up on his own now (although he has a tendency to tip over after a little while if not supported!), and he impressed the doctor at his 6-month checkup with his ability to stand up on his own (with some support for balance, of course)! Rolling over is easy now, too (although he definitely prefers to roll from back to tummy and not vice-versa).

Eli still loves to be held up in our arms near the ceiling, or to be lifted up and down. I think he's going to be a roller coaster fan like Mommy when he gets older!

Missy's latest game is to try to pick him up a bit while he's lying on his tummy on the floor so he's on his hands and knees instead -- crawling position! He hasn't gone for this for more than a couple of seconds at a time so far, though. I'm sure our little guy will be mobile before we know it!

This big bed is so comfy . . .

Elijah has been having trouble this last week sleeping -- he's teething and also has a cold (still!). That translates into waking up screaming several times during the night. On Sunday night I rocked him back to sleep in the chair in his room 3 times, and finally just held him while he slept. Last night (Tuesday night) he slept well, until 5:30 in the morning. Jon got up and comforted Elijah, but Eli was back up at 6 again. We were both so tired that I went and got Eli and brought him into bed with us. He slept until 6:30 on his tummy, and then I flipped him over onto his back, at which point he chewed my finger for about 2 minutes and then fell fast asleep until 7:45!

He was so cute sleeping, I can see why people who let their kids sleep in their bed get addicted to having that warm little snuggly person with them! I woke up a few minutes before Elijah did and he was sleeping on his back with his arms flung out to the side. One hand was on my face and the other hand was on Jon's back. He was so adorable. We won't be making a habit of letting him sleep with us, but every once in a while it sure is fun!

Mommy, feed me!

I was making butternut squash for Elijah yesterday, and he was happily playing in his highchair in the kitchen. I started scooping out the squash flesh and putting it in the blender to puree when I heard, “uh uh uh.” I looked over and Eli was leaning forward in his highchair making chewing motions and staring at the blender! He wanted the squash! It was adorable. I tried to catch it on video but by then he just wanted to play again. When I fed him sweet potatoes after I was finished pureeing the squash he practically inhaled them though. Guess he was hungry!