Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Christmas Report

Sorry the post with all of the Christmas pictures is SOOO late! We've been a little busy enjoying the time off together!

Elliot seems to have had a wonderful Christmas ... I want to call it his "first" Christmas, as he wasn't really aware of things last year ... but I suppose it wasn't technically his first, so I won't confuse people.

Christmas Eve & Day 2009


The pictures start with our Christmas Eve festivities at Steven's parent's house and follow through to Christmas night when Elliot finally just passed out from exhaustion. It was a very exciting day for a little boy!

I'm warning you, there are a TON of pictures. And, yes, I did weed them out ... there were a TON and a HALF!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Happy Bites = Happy Momma!




Today we went to Charlotte in search of Happy Bites, toddler food by a company called Happy Baby Foods .

Now, we didn't go to Charlotte just for this food. Anyone who knows me knows of my obsession with all things IKEA. So a trip to IKEA is like a pilgrimage to my personal Mecca. Except it obviously happens more than once in a lifetime. ;)

Trips to Charlotte usually entail IKEA and then a stop at The Children's Place at Concord Mills. A trip to Charlotte will now include a stop to Super Target. Creating what I will now term the "Charlotte Trifecta!"

So ....

IKEA
The Children's Place
Super Target

Got it?

Okay.

Why Super Target, now, you ask? Because they stock Happy Bites!!! I've been searching for the Happy Bites for MONTHS now! It is essentially organic convenience food for toddlers. Or, organic convenience food for mothers to feed their toddlers. ;) They also stock a couple of other frozen organic foods which will undoubtedly make my life easier!

Here's Elliot enjoying the fruits, or chicken nuggets, of my labor!

Happy Bites Baby

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

We have WORDS!



Pea

Elliot can say "Pea" now. He was in the bedroom with Steven and he kept pointing to something and making a "P" sound. Steven was puzzled and just kinda watched him do it a couple more times. I guess he finally figured out Elliot was gesturing to him about something ... so Steven stretched over to the other side of the bed to find that Elliot's favorite book Little Pea was on the other side ... where Elliot was pointing. The kid was saying "Pea!" He wanted his book. How cool is that?

Butterfly

He's been saying "buh" for months now in response to the butterflies that adorn Grandma's walls. And the same day he started really walking ... he also started identifying objects! I was reading a short board book to Elliot when I decided to see if he could point to objects when asked. So I said "Where's the butterfly?" and he promptly sprung his little pointer finger out and touched one butterfly, and then went across the page to touch the other. I jokingly told my friend I was going to enroll him in Entomology classes for tots. Still, I was pretty impressed!

Ball

The same day as the butterfly incident, Elliot was given a ball by one of my coworkers and when she handed it to him, he made a noise like "bah" ... it didn't phase me at the time, but then yesterday he said the same thing when I toss over his soccer ball to him. Bah. Now my kid can say ball. It's just wild to me!

Pretty?

He also says something that sounds a lot like "pretty," but I'm not quite sold on it yet. You know, it's SOOO hard to know what babies are really saying when they are learning to talk. I don't want to attribute a sound he makes to the wrong word, so I try to be reserved with these things ... especially since the word pretty is a descriptor, an adverb or adjective. But, I will tell you ... when he says the sound that sounds like "pretty" he's saying it about people and about decorations. Often when he looks at the xmas decorations we have adorning the walls he makes the sound ... he always looks like he's amazed and awed ... so maybe he knows a couple of nouns and one "pretty" cool adjective. ;)

I don't want to sound skeptical about my child, but I don't want to sound like I think I have the next Charles Dickens (usually people say Einstein, but we're talking WORDS here.)

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a WALKER

Okay ... so Elliot has been "really" walking since last Friday.



For whatever reason, Friday was his day 12/18/09. Sounds good. He's been taking steps here and there since his first on 11/1/09 ... but he hasn't really just "gotten up and walked" until this past Friday. It has been exciting.

He's been cruising for MONTHS now, since 6/25/09 ... so he's been "into everything" since then. His walking hasn't added any additional trauma in that regard.

Walker


My next area of concern centers around door knobs. He's tall enough now to reach them, but not tall enough to try and turn it. Oy! I have a lot of knobs to cover with safety devices. You've seen my hallway of doors!

I try to avoid as many of those safety products as possible ... sometimes I think we make our children's lives "too" safe. But I did break down a couple of weeks ago and buy a thingy that holds the toilet bowl lid down ... and now I fear it's like the safety gadget seal has been broken! In my defense, it was not a frivolous, lazy-parent purchase. Elliot hangs out with me in the mornings, in the bathroom, while I'm getting ready for work. He has free reign of cabinets and drawers and all other sorts of goodies, but I had to draw the line at the toilet. For one, I am a germaphobe (which got 10x worse after childbirth) and for two, it really is dangerous to allow your child carte blanche access to a vessel filled with water if your eyes are not glued to them. Given that part of the "getting ready for work" process always involves me washing my hair, I needed a way to prevent a horrible accident.

I feel 100% justified in my toilet guard purchase, but will door knob safety thingys bring me into the realm of lazy-parent? I guess only I can answer that, as it is a personal issue and typically not something I label other parents with.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Snow in High Point

This past Friday it snowed in High Point!

While those of us in the office who have lived in areas that snow had a good laugh at all the drama ensuing, I was looking forward to putting Elliot in the snow.

Sadly sometime during the dark hours of Saturday morning the snow turned into freezing rain and so there was a hard layer over the actual snow by the time we got Elliot outside.

I honestly thought about not putting him out in the snow because I figured it wouldn't be too much fun with the layer of ice ... but then I realized that I would be pretty ticked off with myself if I let the snow melt without pictures of Elliot in it!

So ... I bundled him up in a sleeper, his lined overalls, and a pair of lined nylon pants ... and on the top his NC State hoodie sweatshirt and his lined nylon jacket over that. I'm sure he was over bundled, but I wasn't sure how long we'd have him out there. Funniest part to me was his Daddy out there with him, with just a short sleeved shirt!

There wasn't much opportunity for real "fun" but we got some cute shots!

Snow in High Point

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Scary Santa

Tonight we took Elliot to see the resident Levolor Kirsch Santa Claus.

We did this last year, and he was so chill about it ... but, of course, he was 6 weeks old last year.

This year, at 13.5 months, he was not so chill. He quite enjoyed flirting with every pretty girl he saw ... he didn't even seem too disturbed by the "big man in red" until he got closer, and closer, and closer ... Wow, by the time he was close enough to pull his beard, it was all over! Is it bad that I think my son is freaking adorable when he cries? Just so precious! And all that drama was in the hallway before the "formal" picture took place!



What a difference a year makes!

Given all of that ... I knew I was NOT going to get away with putting Elliot on Santa's lap without me there ... so I had to sit on Santa's lap, while Elliot sat on mine! Poor Ed ... I mean, Santa!

Dec 17, 2009


But, for his troubles Elliot was awarded this pretty cool toy!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Elliot as Santa

Tonight in an effort to come up with a Christmas card photo for 2009 we dressed Elliot up in his Santa suit (a compromise, as the child refuses to wear his Santa hat ... as you'll soon see).

I think you'll enjoy the results. It was a pretty fun and funny photo shoot!

Dec 14, 2009

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Christmas Threw Up in My Livingroom

I am not big on Christmas.

Until this year.

Something about having a baby really changes your attitude about the holiday.

I still really don't like the commercialization and all of the pressure to buy people things during a specific time of year, even though you can't find anything that really looks like "them" ... all because it's Christmas.

BUT, I digress ... I have really gotten into decorating for the baby! Last weekend we ran out and bought the "Joys of the Season" cartridge for my Cricut machine. And now it looks like Christmas threw up in my livingroom! But, we're really enjoying it. Mom has even decorated the "Man Cave." You'll notice the difference in the rooms ... that's the Man Cave.

Christmas Decorations


One of my friends laughed at me when I said I was doing it for the baby ... but I really am. Every time he comes into the room he notices something new we've put up. He has really enjoyed all the new sights and he's pointing at the different scenes and makes a sound that we're saying is the word "pretty."

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

"That! Over There!"


Elliot has begun pointing!

I guess it's too early to tell him it's not polite to point. I suppose pointing is pretty useful at this age.

I just think it's pretty darn cute! The pointing started this week while we were at the beach celebrating Thanksgiving.

EVEN MORE CUTE!?!?!?! He's started touching the tips of his index fingers together like he's taking a roadside sobriety test! Or, like he's Evie from "Out of This World" and can freeze time.

Also, along the index finger obsession route, Elliot had endless minutes of fun playing with the plastic tip to the door stop in our bedroom. He took the plastic tip off and put it on his index finger ... then he'd take it off and put it on the OTHER index finger ... then he'd put it back onto the door stop! ;)

He also threw his first real "fit" while at the beach. Thanksgiving day itself, in fact. He was over-tired and Grandma walked out of the room and he just could NOT take that. His fit lasted almost 30 minutes and the length became a little disturbing to me; thankfully he finally fell asleep! :) Did you know that the "terrible 2's" begin at 12 months and typically last through the 36th month? So ... I guess the label "terrible 2's" is more about the DURATION rather than the AGE. Huh! Who knew?

So ... there's the summary of this week's developmental leaps. No, he's not consistently walking yet. ;)