Day to Day...

We're busy here, normal day to day stuff.

We finally hosted a poker game Saturday, and we had 3 infants here-- Elliot, Avery, and a newcomer, Diane who is 5 months old. And Nancy and Micah brought Leroi, their dog, so we all had obligations! Elliot and Leroi are quite the buds-- they love each other and play so well together. Last Tuesday, I went up to their place and both of them napped at the same time, after wearing each other out playing (Elliot laughs out loud at Leroi catching his ball). I need to get some good photos of them together.

We met Claire and Martin (parents of Diane), who are here from France at the university, during our research for day cares and hit it off quite well. They only live 2 blocks away, so I anticipate many playtimes together as the kids grow. And, we actually did get some good cards going. It felt good to socialize with friends like that.

Well, I guess our day to day will be changing-- I talked with my principal at school recently and I'll be returning to work in about 2 months. He was very supportive and the anxiety of leaving Elliot is turning into excitement about getting back into the classroom! There were many factors that led to this decision, none of which are very thrilling to read about or are able to sufficiently be detailed here. As much as I am loving being at home with Elliot, my draw to the classroom has not disappeared, and after working for about 2 1/2 months, I will be back home with him for the summer months.

Thus, the day to day here has included tons of research and interviews for day care for Elliot during those few months! Even though my motherly instinct is in overdrive knowing this is on the horizon, I feel extremely fortunate and privileged to know that I will have been home with him daily for the first 8+ months; not many moms get this option. We also figured out that he will only be in someone else's care about 9a-3p, with how we can tweak our schedules, making it much more palatable. We are lucky to have a few people left on our final list, knowing that we have more than one option that would satisfy our needs.

I guess that is a lot of news to post. It's been discussed here in this household for some time now, in so much depth, that it seems normal news to me by now.

Elliot got "big boy pjs" with monster trucks on them at Christmastime... and man, is he cute in them! Kinda sad, though, how grown up they make him look!

Just a random funny photo-- where we found our cat hanging out this morning. She started batting at the faucet, and we were dying to see if she'd turn the water on herself... but, alas, the show ended before it really began.

My reward.

A new post, coming soon... as long as I get my housecleaning done...

Sitting Up. Kinda.

Well, seeing that this video is 30+ seconds long, we know he can do it for that amount of time (while holding onto a toy...). It is amazing how much stronger he has gotten in this realm just in the last 3 days or so. (I wish the lighting had been better.)

He played so well with a toy like this at my neighbor's, that when we saw a similar one at Ikea, we brought it home. However, Pat taught the cat to flip the beads around better than Elliot, but hey, the cat has 6 years on him at least.

Precrawling.

As you can see, he becomes more interested in the texture of the playmat than anything else...

A Thumbsucker...

(One of those darn times where anything I do to flip the photo does not seem to stick when I import it... bleh.)

We officially have a thumbsucker. Now, he's always chewed on his hands, fingers, whatever, but this is definitely a magnetic force that automatically draws that left thumb in for deliberate sucking. All has developed in the last 2 weeks or so. At first, it was random, like, "Oh, this is new and fun," not necessarily for comfort (even jumping in the Jumperoo, this thumb finds its way to his mouth!). But today, he was crying when I put him down for a morning nap, and when I checked on him a few minutes later: eyes closed, thumb in mouth.

We're trying to casually discourage it by pulling it out when we see it happen, so I hope that helps somehow. Not a big deal, but I don't want to deal with breaking the habit later.

And today seems like a better day already than yesterday. (Yeah, that nap that finally came in the evening? All of 10 minutes. And, of course, it was a night where Pat didn't get home until after 8pm...) Alas, onward and upward!

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that I had a great lunch at a coworker's house on Monday (they had no school). Her two teenage daughters manned the kids while a few of us enjoyed our meal. Elliot got so much loving, it was great. He loved it.

Long Day.

It's 6:20pm, and I finally got Elliot to fall asleep for an afternoon nap... he had been awake since noon, and whiny since 2pm (precisely because he needed a nap, I'm sure!). Even crying when I tried the Jumperoo, which has never happened. I am under the weather with a relatively mild migraine, along with good ol' uncomfortableness with nursing, so I'm not really in the mood to be extra animated for his entertainment today. He's not really that bad, but for Mr. Personality, it's a bad day.

This is one of those days where a countdown has started until Daddy gets home.

Some of the goofiness.

I wanted to read some writing one of my friends had sent me from a book she's writing, but Elliot needed entertaining tonight (after his going to bed super early, but not really session). No problem, I thought, I'll just read it aloud to him as I take it in for myself. Pat was working on his bike, and enjoyed hearing the reading as well. Elliot, however, decided this was the perfect situation for him to practice spurting his tongue. Over and over again. And it seemed only when I read. We were cracking up. Of course, the camera's battery went dead on us, but we charged it enough to grab the tail end of the night's performances.

Here's a taste of the goofiness he's developed when trying to avoid going to bed. Enjoy.