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.

Pool Joy.

You can see quite easily here how differently the children expressed their contentment with being in the pool...

Toy Bin Diving.

Elliot tries to stand against his toy bin and reach inside for the toys he wants. I was trying to film this, when he toppled in, head first. He didn't cry, but grunted, then struggled to get himself back out. I was so excited that I had the camera ready, until I realized I did NOT push the record button hard enough. :(

But when I did, I caught the tail end, which is what you get here. Still funny.

Baby Pool is a HIT!

We pulled out the $5 baby pool I found at Target, thinking it was hot enough for Elliot to try it out. We weren't sure how he'd react, as we had just returned from the lake where he was really whiney about the grass touching his feet. (He actually tried to sit with holding his feet up out of the grass...Needless to say, I made him stay there and sit and stand in the grass as long as we stayed, and let him whine.)

We gave a ring to Claire and Martin to see if Diane would want to give the pool a whirl. I had swimmy diapers and everything, but we all decided nude was the way to go for this age. We put the pool on the deck and rigged up a bedsheet for some shade.

Both kids were a little grumpy for the day (Elliot had one nap at 9:30am and both have a cough), but they did awesome. I pulled out some bath toys, too. Diane was very relaxed, enjoying the calmness, and Elliot did everything his power to ruin that calmness with splashing and crawling around. He was very excited and aggressive! Soon, Diane tired of being the brunt of his splashing and pool time was over for her.

I think we need to try him on drinking some water, as he kept bending forward to lap up the water, putting his nose and mouth under. We were laughing out loud. Of course, when we offered him some water in a sippy cup, it was rejected. But, indeed, he was super interested in Diane's sippy cup!

We may have to have pool time most weekends. It was a lot of fun!

Standing.

We had our decks sealed and Pat thought the lack of furniture gave Elliot a lovely outside play area!
My question of "Did he fall asleep?" was quickly answered after Pat took him on a walk one evening.

It's been too long since I updated on here...

News:

Elliot now stands pretty easily. It's fluid and he's lowering himself down well, versus flopping on his little diaper behind. The other day, he put his knee up and crawled on top of his toy bin. I almost stopped him, but wanted to see if he could do it. Yep.

He went through a hunger strike last week where he was eating and drinking very little. But since there was still output, we figured all is working ok somehow. He caught a cold I had (and then generously shared it with Renee!), and my dad pointed out that he probably had the same sore throat I had. Over the weekend his eating perked up, but as of today, it's back to being spotty. We're trying hard to increase his solids. Some days are successful, some aren't.

He also has started to wean himself-- he has very little patience for laying and nursing now, so it looks like that chapter is going to close real soon. Keeping up while at work was starting to wear pretty hard on me (I need more sleep and less "other complications" to keep my sanity), so just as I was coming to terms with tapering off in that department for my own good, he helped the decision along.

Afternoon naps are almost non-existent for Elliot lately. As I sit and type, his nap time is really playtime and I can hear him spurting his tongue over and over on the monitor. Still, I try.

Elliot was part of a mass rally for teachers and education funding yesterday. He was in great form as Renee and I marched around downtown, trying to get some changes made by joining in the sheer numbers.

(At the rally... one of those annoying times when I can't seem to get the photo to flip no matter what I do...)

Renee has taken to calling him "the funny little man" as he's becoming more expressive and quite the character some days. We went over to a friend's place for a birthday gathering on Sunday. Elliot was crawling around, exploring when a camera came out. He stopped, posed, and did a few looks like, "Ok, you got it? Was that one ok?" There were more than a few people who were entertained.

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On a sad note, my friend Candace's 13-year-old niece passed away Sunday from leukemia. It's crazy how surreal and heartbreaking it is, just for someone like me who is this removed, that I cannot fathom how they are coping. Our dear friends Claire and Martin will man the little guy tonight as we head down to the wake.