Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Today, Elliot is ONE. What a year. It's so amazing how much they learn and how they develop in this first year. And I now know what birthdays really mean to parents. What a special day. We woke him by singing to him and then we proceeded to retell the details of his arrival, how alert and bright-eyed he was from the first moment we saw him. And how we didn't know if we were having an Elliot or a Leah!

His Uncle Bill and family sent something and Grandpa P. sent a card, and when I read them both aloud to him yesterday, he sat there, with the sweetest grin on his face, that I swore he felt special. And Grandpa U. called this morning and as I held the phone up to Elliot's ear, that same little grin grew. I love it.

Of course, the box ended up being just as popular as the toy!!

We're not planning a big party. Just our usual crew to play cards on Saturday and we're adding a birthday cake to the mix before Elliot goes to bed. So there will be some cake photos to come. I did buy party hats and that's about it! I also had to relearn my cake decorating skills this week...

Had to throw in some favorite photos from a year ago, just to remember the moment more. You forget how little and feeble they were, especially when this rolling-tumbling monkey is all over the place now!! We now have beat-up knees, dirty fingernails...

(Wish these little rolls of pudge would reappear...)

And a year later...

Just like any toddler, his favorite thing is to empty the drawers... I found my face cleaner under the computer, sunscreen under the bed...

Not walking yet, but I give him a few more weeks.

My baby boy, who loves to be outside. Happy Birthday.

Enjoying the Ocean.

This is how most of our mornings went.

Vacation Photos...

These are backwards chronologically...

Enjoying the local pool in Farmersville, OH.

Hanging with Grandma at the pool.

The cousins (well, some of them)-- Thomas + Anna (the ones in Lebanon), E, Grant + Logan (John's, my brother's, who are in Farmersville near my parents).

Playing in blue sand at my cousin, Jill's-- not that much more messy than regular sand, but it sure looks worse!!

Trying to get a shot of the 3rd generation at the famous fireworks display at my Aunt Amy's (she goes all out)... these are all kids of my cousins and siblings. And many were missing!! We never did get a good shot, surprise, surprise.

There was a better shot of us all smiling, but this one captured Elliot's personality better.

Hilton Head Island-- The Miners, Jen, Brian, Nicholas, and Will. They live in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Before the bambinos, we met in Italy for a vacation as well. They had been to this beach with their kids before, so they knew how smoothly it was with the condo and such. The boys were just fabulous with Elliot.

Our good friend, Granddaddy, living pretty much right outside our backdoor...

Playing army with the boys while Jen and Brian went to dinner. We had a ball. (They watched Elliot then while we went to dinner with some family friends living in Hilton Head that we hadn't seen for years.) Notice how the "surgeon" has on his goggles and training manual nearby, the toilet paper served well for a bandage, and the beanbag was a convenient icepack for the injured soldier. Elliot served as "Bambino Bombsquad" and wherever he crawled, he sniffed out the bombs and the soldiers moved in.

One of many trips to the beach. At one point, Elliot was inside the hole. This must have been an early morning trip, where we just left right out of bed, as there's no swimwear...

We spent a day in Savannah and ate at this pirates' tavern. It was fun and really great that they gave us our own private room to make a mess of. Almost every other meal was cooked in.

Brian made breakfast, and his trademark is initial pancakes... so Elliot got an E. He wasn't so interested in eating it, though, but wanted to see what happened when he dropped it on the floor.

Jimmy Buffet, anyone?

One of many treks to seek out aligators...

Jenna and Elliot planning their escape in Atlanta...

Here comes trouble! But we're missing Rachel, who was sick inside, poor thing. (Both twins were sick while we were there, but Kathy did a great job of keeping them isolated and we were fortunate to not get it.) I failed to get a good shot of these kids with Elliot. They played so well with him.

Ah, Vacation.

We lost our camera battery charger on vacation, so I am unable to upload photos for the time being. I'll get them up here soon.

We took a road trip to Atlanta (to see Kathy, my sister, + family, and Ann + Jenna), Hilton Head Island (to meet up with Brian and Jen, friends from college,+kids), and ended up on the farm (to see Karen, my other sister, + kids, who are in from Lebanon). We had a great time. Clocked about 2300 miles on the car. Elliot did awesome for the first 12 hour leg, so we were pleased and thinking we're in good shape. But, he did pretty horrible for the next 6 hour drive, and not great for the next 14 hour stint. And the final trip back to Chicago was not fabulous either. All-in-all, tolerable for sure, and we'd do it again, but he's not the "travel in the car anywhere" baby anymore! I think he moves so much when he sleeps and usually ends up on his tummy, that the car seat just ain't cutting it now. And he tends to miss his "window" to go down easily, and then it's a grumpy battle from there until he's truly so exhausted that there's no choice.

We spent a full week on Hilton Head Island. Elliot absolutely loved the beach. He would laugh and crawl and splash through the shallow water. We shared a condo with our friends, Brian and Jen, who have Nicholas (7) and Will (almost 4). It went so well, as the homebase for naps and eating in was key. We had the pool right across the street. Most days, the morning was spent at the beach and the afternoon was spent at the pool. Definitely felt like vacation.

We had a little bit of adjustment to make to get the sleeping in order, and Elliot was up the first two mornings at the crack of dawn. Pat solved the whining and complaining with whisking him off to the beach at 6am. The 2nd night Pat says to me, "I hope Elliot gets up early again so I can take him to the beach. I like that." This coming from my non-morning-person husband?!?! And I got to sleep in!

We're back home now with too little air conditioning and bad habits to break (we coddled him, rocking him down too often, afraid he'd wake whomever we were staying with at the time...). Yesterday, Elliot fell (a pretty normal fall for a soon-to-be-toddler, but Pat thinks he got too used to crawling on carpet versus our hardwood...) and busted his upper lip open pretty good-- his new front teeth are nice and sharp. Plenty of blood, a real fat lip, and worried parents. He's fine, of course, and the swelling is down a bit, but he's really got a nice split in it. I'm sure this is only one of many to come...

Goodbye, Avery. We'll miss you!

Dave, Jen, and Avery (the day younger baby) are moving back to Ohio. We are so sad to see them go. The kids started playing together on our last visit. It's been so great to watch them grow.

A few shots from the first day they met and our first shopping trip, at 1 month old. Makes me tear up. You forget how small they were, little peanuts.

Some random shots from recently... Elliot is now 11 months old. Crazy how time is flying.

He belongs on the farm in this shot, eh?

Ok, kiddo, we know it's hot.

Playing with Candace.
He loves crawling into the shower and playing.

Ah, yes, the classic tissue shot. I left him to roam for a few minutes and quickly regretted it. Look at that face.

Stairs and Teeth and Finicking Eating.

A few things to note about Elliot lately:

Today, I was in the hall chatting with Renee before she left, not paying much attention to Elliot, but keeping my hand at his back to make sure he was safe exploring the first few stairs. Before I realized it, on his first attempt at stairs, he went clear to the top. He stopped, looked back, and grinned, all proud.

He's making efforts to learn to stand solo all the time. It's more of a squat-like stance, he'll hold it for 5-10 seconds, then flop on his behind and clap for himself. Sometimes there's a good laugh with this sequence. For some reason, he does it much more often at the lake than at home.

He has his two front teeth right at the surface, ready to pop through any moment now.

He's become a very picky eater and this mom is trying hard to not stress about it (there's good output, so something's working, right?!). He's onto cow's milk now (well, half mine, half cow's), and he'll eat tons of yogurt. Humph, that's basically all the same thing, but I'm walking the fine line daily between getting some veggies and a taste of meat in him and having meltdowns every meal... well, I should say, he likes his fruit too. He's quite particular with textures-- loving the yogurt, but the minute a bit of fruit is in a bite, he makes a face, puts his whole hand in his mouth to fish it out, and promptly drops it on the floor.

Sadly, Renee's full-time session here is done. We both predict many more interactions together as I think everyone is liking the way things are going (she's already back Sat night to babysit!), so as sad as it will be to not see her everyday, we are happy to know that we will continue our relationship on many levels. She's such a wonderful addition to our lives.

Finally Some Photos!

Sometimes he really likes to lounge when he's eating!

Can't believe it's been 2 weeks+ since I've been on here... been wanting to update so many nights, but I just couldn't prioritize it over work stuff... finally.

We've already had so many nice evenings/afternoons at the lake-- Elliot LOVES hanging out at the point. His dislike of grass is convenient, as then he does not venture off the blanket!

This "complete face smile" is when he so much looks like his dad (above)... not so much below.

The water was amazing that day. Check out those mischievous eyes.

Always investigating. He touched his elbow to the geranium's leaf, jerked like it bit him, slowly reached for it again, felt it, pondered it, seemed to file this new information in his brain.

He loves standing on the deck, holding the railing, and making random declarations at whomever might be listening.