Lots of Smiles, Little Sleep

As you can see from these pictures, Elliott is a pretty happy baby during the day.  But this week, he's been unhappy at night.  I'm guessing it is teething.  He goes to sleep well but cries uncomfortably during the night, despite my best efforts to soothe him.  We're starting to figure out a system of ibuprofen, rocking, nursing, etc. but it's pretty tiring.  It's a good thing he's so cute, which you can see in these pictures.

Enjoying the Johnny Jump Up on Monday.  He gets the jumping part now as opposed to when we first put him in this and he just sat there.


Striking a pose in his PJs this morning. 

All dressed for school in his big boy shirt.  Mmmmm, fingers.

Ohhhhh, they taste yummy. 

Playing with his favorite toy of the moment (okay, maybe my favorite because he won't hurt himself if he tips over on it).

I will hide behind this ring and you will not be able to see me . . .

 

Swings and Sweet Potatoes

I had a wonderful day with Elliott today.  I'm working four days a week and I treasure Fridays when I get to spend all day with him!  He had his sixth month check up today.  He's 17 lbs, 11 oz and 28 1/4".  That puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and the 95th for height.  We had a lunch date with Poppy and then went to the park with my friend Tegan.  Elliott really enjoyed the swing.

What is this contraption?


Oh, I like this!

Pure elation 

Sweet boy.  I have a feeling we'll be at the park often this summer.  And looking for a good tree to hang a swing at home!

Elliott tried sweet potatoes for the time tonight.  No funny faces at all!  He likes them!

Elliott and Ned had a really cute interaction during his dinner time.  

Smiles all around

My mom tried to get a picture of Holly, me, and our boys.  Getting all four people to look at the camera is hard.  Then again, capturing all four people looking away is hard to but she managed to catch that.

Sisters and our boys :)

 

Playing Outside

We took advantage of another shockingly warm day by playing outside this evening.  We live back in the woods but fortunately have one grassy area for lounging.  It's wonderful to have Elliott outside at 7 pm in shorts and short sleeves, in March!!  I just hope it doesn't snow in July.

This might be my new favorite picture of Elliott


Loving his toys

Mama!!  Look at this blanket!!!! 

Oops, I tipped over!

What is this green stuff?  It's spiky.  I'm tired.  Let's go to bed . . . 

 

Elliott is a big boy.

Whenever we're out and about and people ask how old Elliott is, they always remark on how big he is for six months.  We don't have much to compare him to so we don't think much of it.  Sure, he's wearing 9-12 month clothing at 6 months but lots of babies do that.  Well, he wore a few things over the past couple of days that made me realize how much he takes after me.  I was a big baby.  Full of fat rolls and other pudge.  As long as we're on that topic, isn't it unfortunate that the traits we find to be so cute in infants are frowned upon in adults?  No one says to adults, "look at your cute chubby thighs and that wonderful fat roll on your wrist."  Or "you're so cute when you push your oatmeal out of your mouth and it falls down your chin onto your shirt."

Anyway, moving on.  It's been a crazy week so I quickly took my parents up on their offer of dinner last night and stayed there for a while instead of heading straight home with Elliott.  It was nearing his bedtime and I didn't have PJs.  Never fear, Coco is ALWAYS prepared.  She had a set of PJs from the late 70s or early 80s (not sure whose they were originally) all clean and ready for her grandchildren.  Ned has worn these once too.  I firmly told her that they would be way too big.  After all, they are size 3T.  But, they fit well enough for the night.  Here is Elliott this morning.  My favorite (?) part of these is that they are a two piece, with the pants snapping to the shirt.  There are multiple sets of snaps so you can adjust the length as your child grows.  By using the uppermost set of snaps, the waistline is somewhere close to Elliott's armpits.



The body fit okay but the feet were comically huge on Elliott.  

Another example of Elliott's large size.  It's wonderfully warm here.  The previous record of 69 degrees for today was shattered by 13 degrees when the thermometer reached 82 here.  I'm ill prepared to dress Elliott for warm weather (a trip to the outlets is planned for this weekend).  Over this past weekend, I dug around in Ned's old clothes to pull out a few items that might fit Elliott this summer.  So, this outfit he wore today is on loan from Ned.  Here is Elliott in it at 6 months . . . 

And here is Ned in the same outfit at 14 months during our trip to France in 2010.

Who me?? Yep, Mama, I'm a big boy!!

 

Scooting

As promised, here is a video of Elliott scooting.  He consistently army crawls pulling only with his right arm.  He's getting very good at moving around.  I suppose we should consider baby-proofing a little bit!

Lazy Sunday

We had our first relaxing day in a while today.  We took advantage of the warm weather and went for a walk around East Aurora and to lunch with Danielle.  Elliott didn't tolerate his sunglasses today but that's okay because he promptly fell asleep.



My parents came over for dinner this evening.  Poppy fed Elliott his oatmeal dinner.  I'm looking forward to introducing him to some new foods soon.  His pediatrician recommended oatmeal or cereal for a few weeks since he gets so unhappy when I eat dairy.

Laughing with Poppy after dinner.

Is there anything better than the sight of a sleeping baby?  I think not!

 

Sitting Up

Elliott is getting very good at sitting up.  He still topples over but does so with enough control that he's okay on a soft surface by himself.  We had a very, very busy week this week.  Last night was our first down time in a week so we sat on the floor playing with these stacking toys.  Like any little boy, he loves knocking the stack over.  He's also scooting/army crawling now.  If I put the stack a few feet away, he scoots over to it.  I'll try to get a video of that in the next couple of days.


Tipped over but happy on the floor

Look at how fast I move these cups!!!

 

Warm weather laughs

Elliott was full of laughs today while my mom, Coco to him, dangled her scarf above him.  It was so warm here today (over 70, in March!!) that I stripped him down to a diaper to play.  Here is a video of his laughs.

Big cheeks!

It's a fact.  Elliott has big cheeks.  And they keep on getting bigger!  We routinely comment on them (and give them lots of kisses).  Here are a few shots from earlier in the week.

He spends lots of time on the floor these days.  He can scoot around and get to targets.  It's not crawling yet but we probably aren't far off.  As you can see from the frame in the background, we have a lot of baby-proofing to do!


Elliott used to sit in this seat for long periods of time.  He now tries to escape . . . 

The rear shot of the escape

He loves his oatmeal now!  We upped the quantity and he still powers through it.

Gotta maintain those big cheeks!

 

FOOD!!!

Yesterday was a big day in our house.  Elliott had his first food!  I've been really proud of the fact that he's been nourished by nothing other than my body for 14.5 months (9 in my belly and 5.5 with milk).  We chose oatmeal for his first food.  Elliott wasn't quite sure what to think of it all.  Here are some pictures . . .

What's are you doing to me, Daddy?


Love the eyebrows

Food all over the face and bib.  He ate it quite well but spit everything and more up a couple minutes later.

Meal #2.  Here we are tonight trying Elliott's second dinner.

He was more interested in chewing on his new bib.


Open wide!

We got lots of laughs when Elliott stuck his tongue out mid-meal.

I took a turn at feeding him too.  He's definitely interested in food!