Elijah's first real puke! What a milestone! :(

On Sunday afternoon we headed to our friends Matt and Carrie's house for a Super Bowl party, and Elijah was having a lot of fun playing with their daughter Tara (okay, her toys mainly), when he wanted to climb up in Jon's lap for a rest. Then he suddenly threw up over Jon's shoulder (what a little party-puker, haha)! Jon's shoulder was hit pretty good, though most of it actually landed in a baby gift bag we had given our friends Jason and Katy who are expecting their first little one in a few weeks. So that was fortunate for Matt and Carrie's carpet, and not so fortunate for one of the books we had given Jason and Katy. Playtime Peek-a-boo is a goner!

Elijah started having some diarrhea as well and went through all his diapers, but he was much happier after throwing up, and seemed to be doing fine after that. Jon and I thought maybe it was something he ate earlier in the day, since he didn't seem to have other symptoms and seemed okay after throwing up. Eli went to bed at home just fine and with no more tummy issues, but then at 1:30 in the morning Eli woke up crying and covered in vomit (and with poo inside his jammies from top to bottom). Middle of the night cleanup is not fun, and he actually ended up in bed with us (with towels over everything just in case). He threw up one more time in our bed (thank goodness for those towels!) and then he fell asleep between Jon and I.

Today there were no more throwing up incidents, but lots of poo and crying (both baby and mommy). All day Elijah would vary between just wanting to cuddle on the couch and wanting to play. He was under his slide playing this morning while I was trying to figure out what to feed him for lunch, when he started crying like he had hurt himself. I headed over and asked what was wrong and he started screaming, "poo poo, poo poo!" and lifting his bottom off of the floor. All day he would just scream when he went and then scream as I changed him and re-diapered him. Eli's little bottom is just fiery red, even though I'm putting cream on every time I change him. I tried giving him a bath to clean him up a little, but he screamed the minute his butt hit the water (even though I made sure the temperature was only lukewarm) and he was almost inconsolable after that. The whole day was pretty awful for both of us.

At one point this afternoon Jon (who came home early to bring Pedialyte and support) and I counted changing Elijah three times in less than 10 minutes. We'd get his diaper changed, stand him up, he'd walk over to play with a toy and then we'd hear a huge explosion in his pants. Then new diaper, new pants, new socks, etc. I was thinking that I'd skip putting new sweatpants on him since they just got dirty so fast (I've done 3 loads of laundry today!), but it was too cold for that. And then I thought that I actually really liked having the exploding poo contained in the sweatpants instead of exploding all over the carpet!

Tonight Elijah seems a little better (no exploding poo for three hours, woohoo!), but Jon is feeling queasy. Uh oh! We'll see what happens!

One positive thing to come out of this is that we found out Elijah doesn't mind drinking Pedialyte. We have the bubblegum flavor and Elijah guzzled it down all day long - we called it his "bubble juice" and he seemed to like that (he can say both of those words, so that helps!). Hopefully that will help keep him from getting dehydrated and he can be on the road to recovery soon. Puking and pooing babies aren't such a fun thing for anyone!

Nice 'do, Eli. Headbands are very manly.

Eli saw me with a headband in my hair the other day and insisted that he get one too. Since we don't have a girl whose hair I get to put in pigtails and ponytails I guess I'll have to settle for this for now! My little boy in a headband . . . oh my!

I'm confident enough in my babyboyhood to wear this headband.

Elijah the Snowplow!

Since we’ve been getting a little bit of snow lately, and Elijah LOVES to be outside, we went to Home Depot and picked up an Eli sized shovel last week. Now Elijah can help us shovel the driveway! He seems to really like pushing the snow with his little shovel (though he doesn’t like having his mittens on while doing it!). It’s actually a help too, since he does quite a nice job, even if he doesn’t shovel in a straight line!

Good shoveling Eli!
Dad, can't you see I already did that part?
I better make sure to get the sidewalk clear,
that's where I do most of my running!

The snow goes outside, Eli! Not in to the garage silly!

Now if only we could stop him from running into the street the time outside would be more enjoyable for Mom and Dad! Eli actually runs to the end of the driveway, turns around to look back at you, waits for you to say, “We stay in the driveway, not the street,” and then takes two steps backwards into the street! Then when you step forward to go get him he turns around and takes off running as fast as he can! He had only been doing this with me (Missy), which left Jon feeling pretty smug (“He doesn’t do that with me at all, honey!”). But now he does it to Jon too (ha!). Thankfully we live on a cul-de-sac so we have zero traffic to worry about. Elijah’s definitely testing the boundaries and limits though. He really doesn’t like when he immediately gets taken inside when he goes in the street, so hopefully the consequences will start sinking in soon! He loves being outside so much, that I’d like to spend more time there without worrying about the street.

Eli's Words of the Day

"Boots" -- This means cookies! When Eli is hungry, he'll sometimes point at the tin where the remaining Christmas cookies are stored and say "boots, boots!", meaning: "I want cookies!" We don't really have any idea why Eli is using the word "boots" to mean "cookies", but it's cute!

When there were lots of cookies left, on occasion Eli got to play with some of them, and he would very take them out of the tin and neatly stack them on the counter (while standing on a chair to be able to reach the counter). We don't typically give Eli much at all in the way of sugary food, but in these cases, he would be able to have a treat in the form of the occasional nibble from a cookie.

I think "boots" is the only word that Eli uses where Missy and I don't understand why Eli is using it for what he is using it for. (If that makes any sense.) :-)

"Boose" -- This means train. It can either mean trains in general, or specifically, Eli's favorite book, "Tootle". As you might have guessed, "boose" is Eli's truncated version of the word "caboose"!

"Pease" -- Eli says this to mean "please!" Or more accurately, to mean "I want that bread I'm pointing at across the table over there, irrespective of the fact that I still have some vegetables on my place and that I already finished the bread you gave me earlier!" Eli has figured out that he tends to get better results from Mom and Dad when he uses the "magic word" for his requests.
:-)

Nighttime Nuts

As we previously posted, Eli has picked up the word "nuts". Many times he'll just say it randomly, but at times he uses it properly as an interjection (to express frustration/annoyance).

One of those times was the middle of the night last night! A cold has been going around our family, and it was Eli's turn to catch it last night. (This is something of a change from Eli's daycare days, when he would frequently catch colds at daycare and bring them home to Missy and I!) Eli was up most of the night with a cough and a sore throat.

Around 4:00am, all 3 of us were semi-awake. Eli was in bed with us, and having a heavy and uncomfortable-sounding cough every 30 seconds or so, but otherwise just quietly lying down and sucking his thumb. After this had gone on for a while, Eli had a particularly bad cough, then clearly said, in a weak little voice... "nuts."

Missy and I were really unhappy that Eli wasn't feeling well, but we couldn't help but think that he was also extremely adorable! Our little boy summed up the situation quite accurately with a single word.

Fortunately, Missy tells me that Eli is feeling much better so far today! Meanwhile, I'm getting through the work day fueled by coffee, and I imagine that Missy will be taking advantage of her occasional stay-at-home mommy privilege and taking a well-deserved nap with Eli this afternoon!