Eli’s in his camouflage and now we can’t find him!

Eli has a set of Marine Corps camouflage jammies that he got from Grandpa Terry (a former Marine) for Christmas. He’s finally big enough to wear them now, and looks like 100% tough little boy in them (but oh so cute!). We better not let him play outside in them though – if he decides to do his army crawl we might lose him in the grass. :)

Ahh, Camper! I'm a tough Marine now. No more doggie kisses!

Marines can still suck their thumbs, right Grandpa?

He must have inherited this from his mommy . . .

Elijah has developed a strange obsession with Grandma Amanda’s purse. He loves playing with it, and will content himself for quite a while just picking it up, pushing it around, turning it over, etc. He gets upset when Grandma gets ready to leave on the days she takes care of him, but we can’t tell if he’s more upset that she’s leaving or that the purse is leaving! He’ll crawl towards the front door after Grandma, whining the whole way – until he reaches the magical purse, which he promptly pulls down and starts to play with happily. We’ve tried giving him other purses, but he only wants one – Grandma’s. It’s become so funny, that when Grandma leaves on Wednesday nights we say “Bye-bye, Grandma. Bye-bye, purse. See you next week!”

I love my Grandma (and her little purse too!)

Elijah the Nature Boy

Elijah absolutely loves being outside. He just lights up when you get him out there for walks and to play in the grass or go to the park. I’m really looking forward to being home with him this summer and spending lots of time outside together!

I'm so happy to be outside!

Stories from Ohio Part 2: Playing in the Park

On Saturday we all (except Jon who was sick) headed to the park with the kids for a picnic lunch and some quality play time. What a hoot! Eli went in the baby swing at the park and loved it! He would giggle every time he lost his tummy on the swing, and would also sit in the swing contentedly and watch his cousins run around. Another favorite was this whale that kids could sit in (Eli just stood on the seat) and make wobble all around. I took pictures of all the kids playing together, but since this is our blog, I’m just posting pictures of Elijah. :)

Lunch Outside Tastes Better

Wobbly Whale, Oh What Fun!

All tuckered out . . .
After the park we went to the arboretum, saw beautiful flowers and walked on a nature trail. Eli was a little tired and not quite as happy there, but it was a long day for him, and a lot of time in the stroller. It was so nice to be outside though, and to have fun with the family. I think we definitely need to get a swing for Eli, though - he had such a ball on the one at the park!

Whee! I love swinging!

Stories from Ohio Part 1: Walking with Toys

We had a wonderful family weekend at Scott and Jill’s house in Ohio, and one of the highlights for us was seeing Elijah figure out how to walk around behind a walking toy that Scott and Jill had. Eli was a little shaky at first and had to get used to the toy moving forward pretty quickly. By the second day there, though, Eli was cruising all around, as happy as a clam. Scott and Jill said we could take the toy home for Eli to enjoy, and now he’s been cruising around our house too. Our living room isn’t as large as Scott and Jill’s though, so he has to turn quite a bit. I think his favorite place to walk is on the sidewalk – he gets to be outside, and he can just keep going and going without bumping into things!

Crawling (the socially acceptable “real” way) Finally!

Eli is officially crawling now – on hands and knees, not just commando style. Last week Thursday (April 20th), Jon and I were sitting in the tv room and Eli was on the floor playing, when he got up on his hands and knees and crawled across the floor to me and stood up! Jon and I clapped and congratulated our little man, and he looked so proud!

The day before Grandma Amanda had been taking care of Elijah and had let him play with his diaper off for a bit. He didn’t care for the commando (literally!) crawling style then (rug burn in sensitive spots, ouch) and took to being on his knees and elbows until his diaper was back on. Maybe that inspired him to keep crawling in an elevated position – who knows! Either way, since that Thursday night Eli has been getting more and more confident on his hands and knees and been doing less and less of the army crawl. So far he’s pretty close in development as Jon was when he was little – Jon started crawling properly around 11 months, and Eli too! If he stays with Jon’s schedule that means he should be walking in about 3 more months. Watch out world, here comes Elijah!

Splish-splash! But wait, it's not bathtime...

This past Friday, before we headed out to Ohio to visit Missy's family, Missy was in the bedroom, packing clothes and watching Eli. I was sitting in the office at the computer, not feeling well (I ended up being sick all weekend -- hopefully a decent excuse for not helping pack!) :-)

I became aware that I was hearing kind of a splashing sound. I must have tuned it out at first because I assumed that Missy was giving Eli a bath -- but then it occurred to me that I had never heard the water running to fill Eli's tub...

I hurried into the guest bathroom (located between the bedroom and the office) to find Eli happily standing up and splashing away with the water in the toilet! He grinned up at me, really proud of his fun new discovery.

Oops -- it turned out that Missy thought *I* was watching Eli! Well, no real harm done. (Fortunately, we have our stairway gates up and installed now so there was no danger of Eli trying to venture down the stairs while he was unattended.) I washed Eli off and changed his clothes (as his shirt sleeves were all wet), and told him that Daddy's sorry, but no, that thing that looks like a fun toy is actually not for babies.

So we need to keep the toilet lids closed! Of course, next, Eli will be figuring out how to open them. So we really just need to keep a closer eye on our little guy... and maybe order some toilet lid locks!

Eli's First Easter

Eli had a great first Easter and was able to spend time Easter weekend with two sets of grandparents, lucky boy! My Mom and Dad came in to visit and help us with some projects around the house, and after church we went over to Jon’s Mom’s house for Easter dinner. Great-Grandma, Great-Grandpa, Uncle Jeremy, and cousin Camper the Dog were there too.

Eli sat at the table with everyone during dinner, and ate like a pig all day long. He discovered that he likes Grandpa Terry’s mashed potatoes (he makes weird faces with all other mashed potatoes but couldn’t get enough of Grandpa Terry’s), and tried to drink Grandma Amanda’s wine (bad boy!). Grandma offered a sip from an extra water glass instead, and Eli decided to splish splash in it, getting Grandma and himself all wet! Funny duck – its dinner time, not bath time!
After dessert and a nice visit it was time to head home though. The day went by so quickly. What a wonderful first Easter for little Eli!

Stooping!

For the last week or so Elijah's been looking at the toys he drops on the floor while he's standing, and even tried to bend over and pick them up once or twice, but has never been able to accomplish it. The attempts usually have resulted in a quick fall onto his face, or him getting halfway down to the toy and then deciding to abort the mission (Danger! Danger!).

Today, while he was standing up and holding on to the refrigerator, Elijah dropped the magnetic remote control for our kitchen cd player and tried to bend his knees and pick it up. He was unsuccessful, but oh so close! After the failed first attempt, Eli stood back up and got a better grip on the fridge, then bent his knees, reached out and picked up the remote, and stood back up straight - with a huge smile on his face! Then, to show off his new skill, he kept taking the remote off the fridge, dropping it on the floor, bending down and picking it up, and sticking it back on the fridge again. Jon and I were both there cheering our little man on - he looked so proud of himself. Elijah can officially "stoop" to get toys now!

Feeding the (toy) giraffe!

Despite being sick on and off, Eli just keeps on growing and learning new things! This week, he learned to operate one of his toys the "right" way for the first time! A "peek-a-block" gets placed into the top of the giraffe toy, and then it goes down and comes out the bottom, and triggers a tune to be played. Eli figured out how to pick up blocks, move them up to the opening at the top of the giraffe, let go of the block, and then do it all over again!

Once Eli got the hang of it the first time, he was able to do it over and over again immediately. He seems to be a little bit more coordinated with his right hand than his left; I wonder if he'll turn out to be right-handed. I'm not sure how early you can tell. (He also prefers to suck his right thumb exclusively these days.)

It's amazing (normal, but still amazing really) how much Eli has developed and learned in just 10 months. It really wasn't all that long ago when all Eli could do at play time was lie on his back and bat at some hanging toys.

Can we read it just one more time, Mom? Please?

I went to the library with Elijah on Monday night quickly, to drop off some books that were due, and while we were in the children’s section Elijah was standing up by the bins and found a book we had taken out previously. It’s called “Pickle and the Blocks,” and when Eli saw it he pulled it out of the bin and started laughing. We took it home with us, and on Tuesday afternoon he wanted me to read it to him – over and over and over and over and over. Literally, 6 times in a row.

He would make me read the first few pages quickly (I barely get all the words out and he’s already flipping to the next one), until we got to the page where Pickle plays with his blocks and it reads “Bang them. Bash them. Clank them. Clash them.” Eli just cracks up the minute he sees that page, and sits there laughing. Then it’s more quick page flipping, until we reach the page where Pickle knocks down his block tower and “Clitter clatter. Watch them scatter.” More laughs, and then Eli flips the book back to the beginning and wants you to start over – but get to the “bang” page quick, Mom! That’s the one I really want to hear!

Elijah Update.

I thought I’d post an update on how Elijah is doing. Jon took him to the doctor on Tuesday, and they confirmed that Elijah’s ear infection was gone and they thought he had just picked up another virus that’s going around. They also confirmed that his head circumference is fine (we were supposed to go have that measured next week, but they just did it at the same time since we were there anyway).

As of this morning, Thursday, Elijah still was running a fever between 101 and 102 when not on Motrin or Tylenol, and just generally not feeling very well. He’s very congested, has a runny nose, the whole bit. Jon took off on Wednesday to be with him, Grandma Amanda is with him today, and I don’t have to work tomorrow (Good Friday), but I’m hoping that he’ll feel better in time for Easter, and be fine by next week. You still have to pay for daycare even when he doesn’t go, so the last two weeks he’s gone 1.5 days yet we’ve paid the usual rates and still had to take off work. All of this keeps confirming our decision to have me stay at home with him starting in June. I can’t wait!

All the moms at work reassure me that with a little on in daycare that this is normal for him to be sick this often, and that they've all gone through it and it does get better. And the nurses I work with tried to cheer me up by putting a positive spin on it - Elijah's immune system gets stronger every time he gets sick at this age. I guess so, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with for mommy or daddy or baby!

Not again! I think I'm going to have a breakdown soon.

Jon just called and told me that the daycare called him at work and told him Eli has a 101.2 fever. I can't belive this! It's right on time though -Eli's been healthy for about a week. This is getting ridiculous though. We have a doctor's appointment to have Eli's head re-measured next Tuesday and I think we're going to talk about this too. I'm reaching the end of my rope - I really can't take much more of this! And I'm sure he can't either, poor little bean.

Our Little Mountain Climber

Eli loves pulling up on everything he can get his hands on now to stand up and cruise around the place. Of course he has not sense what is safe to pull on and what is dangerous. You have to watch the little guy pretty closely!
Elijah also LOVES the stairs. We’re still trying to figure out how to get these gates mounted without drilling into our nice wood banisters, so we also have to watch the stairs closely (we’re using a big foam cushion to block them off right now, but it’s kind of hard to get in and out of place when you’re holding laundry or, say, a squirming 10 month old). Eli can make it all the way to the stop of the stairs on his own though, and loves to climb up. We’re always close behind, just in case, but we’re still going to get those gates up ASAP!

Fun with Our Tongue

Eli discovered his tongue last week. He’s constantly babbling and buzzing his lips to blow bubbles, and now has added to his repertoire sticking his tongue out and curling it over his top lip. He’ll just scoot around with his tongue sticking out. It’s so cute, and so goofy. That’s Eli in a nutshell!

You give me fever . . .

We haven’t posted anything for a while since the last two weeks have been full, once again, of sickness for our house. First Mom was sick with some kind of flu/achy/headache thing for a few days. I started feeling better on Friday morning (March 31) and was taking care of Eli at home, as usual for Fridays. He woke up from his nap at about 10:30 and was just screaming and screaming. He seemed hot and when I took his temp it was 101. It had been that way two weeks ago for a few days, so I figured it was just a repeat of that virus, or something similar.

After stripping him down into his onsie he fell asleep on my shoulder for about 45 minutes more, but when he woke up that time he started screaming again and seemed even hotter. I took his temperature again and it was 103.8. I called the doctor right away and they said to give him Tylenol and monitor his temp. If it didn’t come down by one degree in the next hour then we should call again. After an hour the temp had come down to 103.2, and when we spoke to the nurse again she said to try Motrin and again, if it wasn’t down in an hour to call back. The Motrin worked, and Eli’s temp came down to 102.4. He seemed to perk up with the Motrin in him and was willing to play a little bit (and stop screaming).

We had a really rough night though, as Eli’s temp kept shooting back up when the Motrin began to wear off, and then the screaming started. No matter what position Eli could not get comfortable it seemed, and just cried. He finally (exhausted I’m sure) fell asleep at 4 in the morning and slept until about 7. His temp was around 101 with the Motrin and he seemed pretty happy in the morning. The nurse from the doctor’s called us Saturday afternoon to se how he was doing, and told us that if his temp still was going back up to near 104 when the meds wore off that we should take him to urgent care and have him seen. Saturday afternoon his temp went back up to 103.8 and he was miserable – and this time the Motrin wasn’t taking the temp down at all – so we headed to urgent care at 7 pm on Saturday. By 9:30 we had our diagnosis - turns out Elijah had ear infections in both ears. So back on antibiotics for the little bean. One day on the medicine and Eli was feeling much better, and now he’s back to his normal, happy self.

On Friday night when Eli was so sick, around 2:30 in the morning, I (Missy) was holding him, and my left ear started really hurting. About half and hour later I couldn’t hear barely anything in that ear. My ear kept getting worse throughout Saturday and Sunday, so on Monday I was off to my doctor as well – to find out that I had an ear infection. So, Mom got a dose of antibiotics too! Now, 10 days after not being able to hear and being pretty miserable, I can finally hear again. Yay!