Funny Little One.

Elliot is getting wormier and wormier every day. It's so cool to watch him make strides like going from mini, hesitant moves when crawling to full-blown go-go-go, over a pillow, move-over-whatever-is-in-my-way moves. All in one afternoon it seems.

Pat told me yesterday morning, he didn't finish his bottle. Left an ounce or so. Elliot was playing on the floor, and Pat picked up the bottle to move it. Elliot caught sight of it, decided he was thirsty at that moment, crawled over and begged for the bottle on all fours like a little calf. Pat gave him a couple gulps like this, and then it was back to playing. What a character.

Let the Testing Begin.

This is what I find upon returning from a quick trip across the street to the store for dinner stuff... I love my guys. Two peas in a pod already.

We have a character on our hands, but I think we already knew that. Elliot has started rocking pretty heavily in his high chair, depending on what he's eating and his mood. Originally, I was very firm with "No," or "Don't rock," or whatever, and a good ol' stern look. I thought this was working ok, as he had started catching himself midway once I would give him the look, and he'd stop himself. But sometimes, I'd move on to a firm grasp of his arm to physically stop him and this would usually lead to crying, and not really work afterall. Last night, after trying all my tactics, he decided there really was no reason to stop, 'cause nothing else happens. I don't really want to stop feeding him, as he's the type of kid that would do just fine with a hold-out until the next nursing, and the behavior originated as avoidance, so I don't want to reinforce it on that end. But what I'm doing is no longer working. The worst part-- a few times the firm NO! has been met with a giant grin and an outright laugh. Yep, at 9 months.

It really is his mischievous little grin and raised eyebrows that get me. Renee confirms this, and tells me that it's hard for her (and me!) sometimes to remain stern and not laugh with him.

We've got a few tactics to try, so we'll see if things improve. Of course, after much discussion over this issue with Pat and her (and others), Renee informs me today that spurting the food all over was the popular distraction today... sigh. Let the testing begin.

Elliot's becoming wormier and wormier, squirming to twist forward and backward, which ever way he's not. Thank goodness his crawling hasn't caught on like wildfire and we are still in the migration phase. He can stay there for a good long while, as far as I'm concerned. There's also been an interest in starting to pull up on furniture.

Renee has a great schedule with him for the mornings. We're so lucky to have her-- what a blessing to be able to go back to my job and have this aspect go so smoothly. Her communication is so reassuring and Elliot hardly seems to have noticed the transition. I truly don't think we could ask for a better situation there.

Ah, the weekend...

Our little man.
Out for a walk with dad so I could grade, ended up napping.
My raffle winning from the benefit!
My silent auction purchase.

Our scheduling and timing seems to be working well, but by the time Friday rolled around this week, I was beat. Elliot seems to be getting into a schedule with Renee with napping and eating (funny, 9 mo and he decides to do things regularly!).

Yes, Elliot turned 9 months already this week. He is surely looking more like a little boy rather than a baby. Right on the verge of "officially" crawling-- but he definitely gets around faster than we realize some days. We call it migrating.

Saturday night I attended a benefit for Chance, my coworker's boy who has cancer. Their bills are crazy high, so some parents at school organized the event. Pat stayed home with Elliot. It was quite an event-- 150+ people, felt like a wedding reception except with tons of raffle prizes! I came home with a rocking chair and a table and chair set for Elliot. Some of my students painted them with the art teacher, so they are extra special, and I had just said to Pat that we needed to start shopping for something like this.

As I am typing this, Elliot just crawled for real. Excited, but my heart skipped, too.

Enjoying the Kitty.

Developments.

Elliot now can go from sitting, to his stomach, back to sitting. Kinda fun to watch, and it's almost in slow motion with how deliberate he has to be. When he's tired, he often over compensates and boom, it's the head on the floor before I can catch him.

The latest is that last night, we put him to bed and he screamed/cried... "That's a burp cry, he won't go down," and I was right. However, when Pat went in to get him, he was sitting up in the corner of the crib. First time that's happened (that we know of!).

Again, this morning when I went in to get him-- sitting right up in the center of the crib.

Good thing Pat lowered the crib mattress just 2 days ago!!

Everybody's Working.

Elliot has become a pretty unpredictable and sometimes flat out bad napper. There are some days when he sleeps one hour the whole day, which certainly is not enough for an 8 1/2 mo. old. But it's not that we aren't trying-- there will be days where he shows all signs of going down, but then spends 30-45 minutes investigating his crib, moving all around, up on all fours, staring right into the lens of the video monitor. Actually, we are quite entertained by it all, but I'd prefer he naps. He goes from talking/cooing to himself, to crying, to just laying there sucking his thumb and kicking his legs. He just seems to be unable to let go, as if there's just too much to do.

He's working so hard at getting up on all fours, rocking back and forth, scooting backwards, that by the time bedtime rolls around, he's thoroughly exhausted and goes down quite easily at night lately.

The transition to work has been relatively smooth (am I safe to write that at this point? Three "real" days under my belt with Renee coming here...). It takes some planning and organization, which I do ok at as long as it's required. Pat takes the morning shift before Renee arrives, loving that time with Elliot. Renee takes in stride his grumpiness and stubbornness when they appear. She's doing great at reading his needs and adjusting when something is off schedule (like this morning when he was up at 5:30am instead of 7:30am!). It is very reassuring to see him snuggle with her, and even more wonderful to see him excited when I come in the door and he gives the snuggles to me! :) Truly, it relieves so much of my fretting at work to know that he is comfortable with her and is enjoying his day at home, doing what we've always done.

My day is so busy, I am surprised at how "ok" I've been during work... it's the drive home that's torture! So far, so good. I am sure at some point our organization and timing will run into bumps, but it's working well for now. I guess I might have more stress to report once those essays start piling up...

Happy Easter!

Easter brunch now has to take into account nap times, eating times, and room to play-- we had 3 babies, the normal bunch of Avery, Diane, and Elliot. They are starting to interact more. Elliot was grumpy after 45 minutes in his crib of no-napping (he knew he was missing out on the fun!), while the ladies knew how to take it easy, each one napping well in a pack-n-play. Elliot shed a few tears because he knows not how to share yet (and was crying over a sneeze!). The foam letters were, of course, the hit and it was extra cute when Avery picked up the A.

Avery, 8 1/2 mo.

Diane, 7 mo.

Brunch morphed into a great poker game, and it seemed everyone had a wonderful Easter.

We even got up that morning for a 7am church service. I'm becoming old fashioned, I think. I just couldn't shake the feeling that with a family, Easter doesn't feel like Easter without some wretchedly early church-going (growing up, my parents trucked all 5 of us, in our Easter best, to a 6am sunrise service, had breakfast, came home to crawl into bed for 45 minutes or so, and then trucked us back to regular church at 9:30... every single year). I hesitated to wake Elliot for the service, thinking I'd regret it, thought Pat could sleep in and be home with him. I was all ready to walk out the door by myself, when I gently stirred Pat, "Honey, it's still not Easter if I go to church by myself... I'm waking Elliot, let's go." Surprisingly, Elliot did great, not a fuss, Pat did great, not a fuss, and it definitely felt like Easter.

More Monkeying Around.

Sharing my McDonald's ice cream cone.
I don't think his legs stopped moving the whole walk. His mouth either.
Trying on the sun hat, getting ready for summer!


Broke out the hammock chair for the deck once the nice weather hit. It's perfect for swinging with Elliot!
Lunch with Claire and Jen (and Diane and Avery... all the kids took turns napping) before the grind of work starts.
Elliot the destroyer. It took him about 5 minutes to completely disassemble the whole mat-- every letter was removed.
Found him under the dining room table, having a blast with, of course, a piece of his mat... so I left him there for another 20 minutes until he realized he couldn't roll over and got mad.