Pulling himself up

Elliott gets stronger and faster every day.  I used to be able to leave him playing on the floor of the bedroom while I took a shower in the morning.  Today involved figuring out how to take down the pack and play in the living room and set it back up in the bedroom at 6:30 in the morning (I thought about trying to shove it through the door set up but wisely reconsidered).  I'm not one to read directions or it would have gone much more quickly.  I had to keep him contained in "baby jail" so he wouldn't get in to trouble and hurt himself.

Last night, Elliott was playing while we were getting ready for bed.  He scooted over to a big basket and pulled himself up onto his feet!  Of course my camera decided to have an error at that exact moment but here are some shots around that time.

Scoping out his hand holds and starting to pull up.

Part way up and getting distracted by the neighboring toy bin.
 

He almost always looks when I call his name now, unless he's playing with something really exciting.


Working on his crawl . . . and starting to take after his dad and grandma by closing his eyes for pictures.

Hello my blog readers!!

 

Carrots!

Another week, another illness.  Elliott's eyes got very goopy late last week - the telltale sign of pinkeye.  He had all the other symptoms and our doctor's office helped us diagnose it.  The best part - I had it too.  Fortunately mine just looked like I'd had a few too many late nights and wasn't too uncomfortable.  We're both doing much better now and hoping we are healthy this week!

We had a nice Sunday of relaxing and crafting (I know. Emily? Crafting? I'll get to that later.).  I've been very sleep deprived lately due to a hectic 22 hour day for work travel on Thursday and Elliott's very fussy night on Friday.  My dad came over on Saturday to watch Elliott so I could rest and catch up around the house.  My wonderful parents insisted I sleep at their house last night so my mom could watch Elliott.  Aside from feeding him a couple of times, I slept from 11 until 9:15!!  It was amazing.  I went downstairs after I woke up and asked my mom where Elliott was.  The response: "he's napping.  Would you like eggs and bacon?"  I might never leave.

I've never been one for crafts.  My mom and sister can knit, sew, smock, cook five star meals, etc.  You name it, they can do it.  And do it really well.  My mom doesn't just knit.  She does everything but shear the sheep.  She can take a raw fleece, clean it, card it, dye it, spin it, and knit it into a beautiful sweater.  That's talent.  Me, on the other hand, not so much.  But then I found Pinterest.  Two weeks on Pinterest and I found myself in the rows at JoAnn Fabric plotting a year's worth of projects.  I'm trying to do one thing at a time and not start too many without being able to finish them.  I've decided I want to learn to sew.  Holly made me a lovely infinity scarf a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect first project.  Since we never go half way on anything (in theory, anyway), we set out to make a ton of them today!  And, we almost finished one.  That gets us to pictures . . .

Danielle came over to visit us during crafty time.  She propped Elliott up on the exercise ball for some bouncing.



He thought it was great!  

Elliott tried a new food tonight.  Carrots!  He loved them.  No funny faces for carrots!

Trying to figure it out.

More, Mama.  More!

My happy boy.  I love him so!

 

Bedtime Wrangling of the Greased Piglet

First, I would like to thank everyone for your thoughtful calls, texts, and emails about Elliott's scary trip to the hospital last week.  He is back to his happy self and we're relieved to have all of that behind us.  We really appreciate all the love and support from near and far (some all the way from Lebanon!) for our sweet boy.

Elliott is more mobile every day.  We are rapidly adapting by moving things out of his reach and putting baby gates across the stairs.  Gone are the days of getting Elliott ready for bed on the changing table.  When we're changing him, he quickly does what my father refers to as "the alligator death roll."  It's safer for all of us to move to the floor.  Here are lots of pictures of the hilarious process of getting ready for bed.

It looks innocent enough -- taking dirty (covered in sweet potatoes) clothes off.


The alligator death roll begins.

Laughing with Daddy 

He still loved chewing his toes.

Elliott is not a small boy.  Look at those chins!

Rolling away from diaper removal

Naked baby on the move!

Trying to eject

Daddy keeping things under control

Lots of laughs and big smiles

And the lotioning begins . . . the wrangling becomes more of a challenge when he gets slippery.

We lotion whatever we can reach as he squirms around.  

Still on the move as Jesse puts the PJs on.

Success!  Happy boy all ready for bed!

Elliott still wanted to play.  He's been getting up on his hands and knees often and rocking back and forth.  

Who me?

He still scoots in his army crawl position when he really wants to move.

Hi Mama!  I came to see you!  Let's go to bed now.  

Good night, all! 

Developmental Milestones

This was the perfect weekend.  I love getting to spend multiple days on end with my boys, without a care in the world.  We finished off the weekend with a full family dinner at my parents' house for Easter.

I told Elliott that he wasn't allowed to have any major developmental milestones while Jesse was away this last time.  He cooperated fully and has made big progress this week.  On Saturday, he sat up by himself.  He was playing on the floor and, the next time we looked over, he was sitting up.  He has been scooting around for a few weeks but is now spending time on his hands and knees.  He rocks back and forth and even makes some forward motion.  It's difficult to say if he crawled or not but he's certainly on the brink!

On Saturday, we went up to Canada to drop off a new couch for the house.  It was bright and sunny but a bit cool.  We took a few shutters off the front of the house to let some light in.  I can't wait for summer to officially arrive so we can be up there all the time.  Elliott loved scooting all around the big floor while we worked.  He tested out the couch before we left.


Mighty comfy!

But I'd rather be on the floor!

Playing on the floor this morning at home.  Elliott was full of energy nice and early.  He clearly did not get the memo that we'd stayed up late after going out for dinner with our friends Brendan and Danielle.

Who? Me?  I just want to play!

We went for a walk this morning but forgot to bring Elliott's hat.  It was a bit chilly so Jesse fashioned a hat out of Elliott's little giraffe blanket.  We got a good laugh of out this look!

 

Sick Baby and a 4 am Ride

Hello, loyal followers!  Sorry for the long gap in posts.  It's been a rough week in Elliott's World.  As I mentioned in my last post, Elliott has been fussy recently.  On Friday night, he was up crying every hour.  Thinking we had another ear infection on our hands, we went to the doctor on Saturday morning.  His ears were clear but, in talking to the doctor, I realized that he had been running a fever on and off for almost a week.  The doctor said to keep an eye on him, call if the fever came back over the weekend, and come in on Monday if he still had a fever.  His fever came back on Sunday so I talked to the on-call physician several times that day.  We decided that he would need to go in on Monday for more tests (viral fevers typically last 5-7 days, fevers lasting longer than that typically indicate something else).  

Well, things took a turn that night.  Elliott woke up at 4 am and felt really warm.  I took his temperature and nearly had a heart attack.  He had a fever of 104.8.  I took it again in case there was an error and it said 105.5.  I called the doctor and he said Elliott needed to be seen right away and that we should go to the hospital for that. As I quickly gathered up our things, I called my parents to let them know what was going on.  They immediately said they would meet us there.  I ended up picking my mother up on my way by their house and my dad followed a short while later.  

By the time we got to the hospital, Elliott's temperature was down to 100.8.  Because of his fever over the past week, they did urine and blood testing.  I was comforted knowing he would not remember that process but I certainly will.  He also got antibiotics by IV to cover him in case the fever was due to a bacterial infection (a UTI was high on the list of possibilities).  We stayed there for a few hours but left without any answers.  That afternoon, his fever spiked again to 104.7.  I was calm for the 4 am fever spike but freaked out this time.  Ted and my dad were steady rocks and cooled Elliott down with cold compresses and a cool bath while I called the doctor.  The doctor said it wasn't entirely unexpected and had us give regular doses of tylenol and motrin to keep the fever from coming back.

The BIG highlight of the day was when Jesse called literally as we were leaving the hospital.  He had been gone for three weeks and called to say he was coming home on Tuesday.  Big hooray!! 

Elliott has been on the mend since our scary Monday.  The doctors don't know what caused it and there are still some pending lab results.  He seemed to be back to near 100% happy boy today.  We are thrilled to have Jesse home.  I knew it would be hard when Jesse was gone but it's certainly a challenge.  Elliott has been sick.  Work has been crazy.  We're just getting by but we made it!!  Jesse takes such wonderful care of Elliott and me.  Life has been wonderfully easy, breezy since Jesse came home.  And I've slept!! 

Okay . . . almost done with my monologue.  My family has been absolutely amazing for the past three weeks and particularly great on Monday.  My parents have watched Elliott many, many times and always with a big smile when I ask.  Ted babysat while Holly and I hosted a bridal shower for Jen.  Holly keeps me sane and even held a fussy Elliott at 3 am when we spent the night at her house last weekend.  When Elliott and I headed for the hospital at 4 am, my whole family met us at the hospital.  I can't thank them enough for their love and support!

On to the pictures!

Sick little boy.  They left an IV in his arm in case they needed more blood or had to administer any medication.  It was so sad.



At the end of our stay when he was in good spirits.  The nice hospital cleaning staff brought more chairs in for our big family support system.

Happy boy getting fed dinner by Daddy last night.

Mmmm.  Fingers.  Yum.