Elliot: 7 months

 Oh man how did a month go by? I feel like it went so quickly, yet so much happened!
Your personality is changing so much everyday, and I have to admit that you are getting a bit of an attitude...sorry buddy, but that one comes form momma's Irish/French Canadian side ;)

 You are all about the sitting now (though you may wobble a bit still and tend to launch yourself forward into full face-plant...then you get mad. You would also rather stand and jump than lay down.

I feel we have also moved up to big guy status with the stroller, you now love to sit in the seat instead of the baby car seat part! It's so stinkin cute I can hardly stand it!

If we prop you up on your knees you get all happy and rock back and forth...not sure if I'm ready for the crawling yet (in other words SLOW DOWN!).

 7 month stats

Weight:  no clue...if I had a working scale maybe we would know ;)

Length:  yep don't know either...maybe I'll get out a tape measure

Head: please see above...gee I'm lazy!

Diapers:  Disposable: size 2 { the tabs still overlap ya skinny little dude}

                Cloth: middle rise and two snaps between tabs.

Clothes: same as last month: 6-9 months, 6 months, and you still fit into some 3 months shirts

Although I think you may have gotten a bit taller, because some of your jammies are too snug {shoulder to foot} and I think it may soon be time to move up to the 9month size for jammies...but the onesies are still long enough to make it for hopefully months.

 

 

 You are still a snuggle monkey, and are turning into one little momma's boy. I officially think that you have hit the cling-to-momma-and-all-other-people-are-not-cool stage. Momma's not a fan of this stage...her arms get tired {she really would like a ring sling for Easter}

Tons happened this month!

Mommy and Daddy had their first night out without you {for Valentines Day}, you stayed home with Gramma and Grampa. We payed them in wine...true story ;)

We went on our first vacation!
Just a car trip up to The Dells to stay at Kalahari.
But first we had to leave a day early...to avoid the snow {by going north...?!?!} so we decided to stop and stay in Madison. Dinner and an evening with friends who live there {and their new baby!}
Then in the morning it was off for 3days with Daddy's family! It was so nice and fun to get away!
Plus you love water, so you were in high heaven!

You were baptized last weekend, and we had a big party to celebrate!
You were so good during church, you didn't fuss once and just watched pastor when he poured water over your head! It also helped to flirt with the little girl {also 7months} that was being baptized at the same time...you have turned into one heck of a flirt these days!
The house was full after to celebrate, mostly family but a few friends too! 

 But the biggest of all firsts this month is your new TOOTH!!!
Momma found it a week or so ago, popped right up on us! {bottom left} We believe it's neighbor is not far off.
You constantly have your tongue out now, and I think it's because you like the feel of your tooth when it rubs against the bottom of your tongue.

You also have picked up the baby babble! I love it!
You have the sweetest little jibber jabber, and it makes me smile...which then makes you smile.

Oh little man, I'm so happy you are mine! I can't imagine my life without you!
I can't wait for spring to finally get here so we can explore the world outside together!

love
Momma

on the occurrence of freckles

via

Now when Andy and I started dating we would joke that if we ever had kids they would most likely pop out short little freckly hobbit children.
Andy is 5'3" and I'm 5'2.5" on a good day.
On a summer day you could play connect the dots for hours on either our noses and our backs would take weeks...needless to say we have freckles.

I tried to find you photo proof...but sadly freckles are hard to photograph and I could only find one of me...with baaaaad 90's hair....so no, I don't have photo proof. You'll just have to take my word for it!

Last week when Elliot was at the doctor for his 6 month check up I noticed a little brown spot on his sleeve.
Me, thinking it's chocolate....because ya I eat candy bars in the car...don't judge, tries the mom lick your finger and wipe technique.
It doesn't budge...
OMG it's a freckle!

Que me getting super excited about his first freckle and the nurse looking at me like "who let this crazy woman have a kid".
Clearly she's not Irish!
I on the other hand am Irish...

I took a photo of his little first freckle, told my family and you better believe they were as excited as me. I can't wait till he is covered in them! Call me crazy, I don't care. It's the little things in life! Don't even get me started on the fact that his hair is getting lighter and in the sun it looks reddish...

so here I leave you with photo proof. I may be the only mother to get this excited about a first freckle, but who cares! Freckles for everyone!!!!

Oh Avocado

 I swear one of these days I'll take a photo of my kitchen clean so you guys believe me that I clean it!

We started Elliot on solids just after he turned 6months, he had been getting a nightly snack of rice cereal in prep for real food for about a month and had been going strong! He'd lean way in, mouth all open and just nom away...So we figured it was time. We got the green light from the Doc and thought what the hay...let's jump in feet first.
I did tons of research and decided that avocado would be the smartest and best way for us to go. The mild taste and creamy texture is easy for them to transition to solids from cereal, not to mention how good for you those yummy little green things are for you! Win win!
So I picked up one at the grocery store and mashed, measured, and froze when I got home. I figured we would start off little, so I measured them out in one tablespoon cubes.

Now I did prepair myself for the chance he wouldn't like it, that he would spit it back at me, and even the chance that he would in fact up chuck!....I didn't however prepare myself for the range of emotions that the child went through!

I bust up every time I look at this one!

Side note: when we gave El rice cereal for the first time I gave Andy my phone to video...I won't even share that one...it makes me sea sick. The man can't hold still! So this time I held my phone with one hand and fed with the other...this resulted in a less than good video, a bit blurry but great non the less!
Enjoy!




We have since tried mixing with rice cereal and it's a hit! I just think the flavors are a bit too strong for him.
We have added butternut squash (again mixed with cereal) to his diet. He gets avocado for brunch and squash for dinner.
We tried peas...peas=puke. (just like his momma) I didn't video that one...your welcome!

I'm are not sure where to go from squash, I'm thinking sweet potatoes or green beans.

Elliot: 6 months

Oh Elliot, my little man. How is it that half a year has passed already? I feel as if time is just going too fast, that I want to slow it down and sometimes rewind it and have my little newborn back. And then, as if all at once, you do something new and awesome and I can't imagine you at any other age!
If I'm being totally honest, I'm in love with the 6 month old you.

You are getting more wiggly and pictures in your rocker are getting much harder....but thanks to gramma we can keep you from falling out and getting all fussy (and the sock monkey behind the camera helps too).

 6 month stats

Weight:  15 pounds {5th-10th percentile}

Length:  26 inches {25th percentile}

Head: 17 inches {25th percentile}

Diapers:  Disposable: size 2 {although the tabs overlap and you could probably still fit into a size 1} Cloth: middle rise and two snaps between tabs.

Clothes: 6-9 months, 6 months, and you still fit into some 3 months shirts

You're a snuggler, and sleeping is no different! You must have one hand on your momma at all times! You love to sleep on your side with your arm up over your head. You still wake up once to eat, but usually after a 4-6hr stretch and then you fall right back to sleep for another 2-4hrs.

You also love to eat, nursing every 2ish hours {still} and momma is hoping that solids will hep us stretch out our nursings.
So far you like avocado, but only if it's mixed with rice cereal. It's currently your brunch and we are trying veggies for dinner. Peas, to our dismay, result in some spewage! oh what fun!  So far that is all we have tried, but plan to add green beans, butternut squash and carrots in the near future.

 {oh this smirk!}

Tummy time is a toughie! You refuse to stay there, flippin yourself over and momma flips you back...it's an endless battle.  You also show NO desire to roll from back to front, even though you totally can...you little booger!

Sitting is slow going...I figured you would have had it by now, but you still wobble over after only a second or two...and if momma tries to outsmart your wobble by propping you up you get lazy and wiggle your way down into an incline.

You absolutely love to be sung to and you almost always "sing back", which is the sweetest little hum. To date your favorite tunes are "You are My Sunshine", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Edelweiss", "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra", and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which I think is your absolute favorite...it can calm you down before I get out the first line.

Your teeth can't be too far off, the drool and chewing is non stop. Your amber necklace and Sophie the Giraffe are the two biggest helpers next to teething tabs. Your top lip is always chapped thanks to your little fingers taking up permanent residence in your mouth, but momma found out that Lansino nipple cream {of all things} is the best to treat that little problem! It stays on so much longer than any chapstick, because it's nice and thick!

Your favorite toys are Sophie and your blue sock monkey. Either one will make you instantly happy in different ways. Sophie will help you chew out the teeth pain and the monkey is your new cuddle buddy...his tail makes for good munching sometimes too ;)

So half a year has passed and you have changed so much. I can't wait to see how much you will change in the coming month and the rest of the year!

love
Momma

Elliot: month one

I can't believe my baby is a month old already.

It seems like that time just few by, and yet it seems like so long ago that the little man popped into my world.

I guess that's how it is with a baby, slowly speeding by.

My goal is to do a weekly update, but this first month had this new momma a little distracted...I haven't been on my computer much, and for good reason ;)

please prepare yourself for picture overload

 The first week was a bit of a blur, yet I seem to remember it quite well.

You can read Elliot's birth story here.

 great grandma and grandpa {my mom's parents} hold Elliot for the first time.

 These two pics of my grandpa and Elliot melt my heart. I'm a grandpa's girl and man is it amazing seeing how he is with Elliot.

 Elliot and his grandmas

 The hospital was great {aside from the whole traumatic delivery}. The nurses and everyone at the hospital were beyond nice. I felt so at home there...It may have been partially because I was afraid to be home on our own. 

 leaving the hospital

Really I had nothing to worry about. Being at home was just as comforting and both our parents came over with food and to see how we were doing, the rest of the family and our friends left us be...without having to be asked to. We sort of lived in our own little bubble of a world that consisted of the living room and kitchen for that first week.

 we just happened to get home in time for Elliot's first Bears game!

You may be wondering about the binkie...well we had the absolute worst time with nursing.

I have been exclusively pumping since he has been two days old thanks to a horrid latch and breast issues on my end too.

The second day we were in the hospital I spent an hr and half with the lactation consultant and in the end I had blisters and was bleeding...we left and went straight to pick up a hospital grade pump and I've been attached to it since. 

About 2 weeks ago I discovered Elliot was tongue tied, proving what the issue was. We had an appointment with a specialist this morning and they will clip it on the 23rd...lets hope he will still go for breast feeding.
I'm terrified he it will be too late and he won't latch.

All in all the first week home was great, Andy took the week off and really I was sad to see him go back to work.

I set up for my mom to be with me two days and also had some friends over one day, but the two days I was alone were lonely.

I missed having someone else in the house...someone who answers back when you talk.

Don't get me wrong I loved the baby cuddles, but adult interaction is nice.

The second week I got out a bit more, I was feeling so good that I felt the need to just walk!
I think I may have overdid myself because every time I did anything I got so warn down....I just couldn't help myself.

Seriously I can't even handle that picture above, it's too perfect.

and this one gets me too. My mom was whispering "grandma loves you" in his ear and he kept smiling...and let's not even talk about how my grandpa has his hand on Elliot's head. This will forever be one of my favorite photos.

 

Elliot's favorite person has got to be my brother. The minuet uncle Jake picks him up he melts...my brother melts a bit too ;)

This is what I like to call "frogging"

He's defiantly a chest/shoulder baby, he would gladly spend all his time curled up under your chin.
I love it and we spend most of our mornings like this.

Elliot is a swing lovin baby, sometimes I feel bad that he spends such big chunks of time in there....but if he didn't I wouldn't have clean bottles to feed him with!

He's not that big of a bouncy seat fan, it'll last about 5min and that's only if I'm talking to him.

but seriously how cute is that big ol monkey head behind him!

We started going out with him more during his 3rd week.

Not to many big places, just dinner here and there. 

 He also got to experience {sleep through} his first corn fest. Our town has a street fair of sorts every August. There are food carts, craft booths, live blues music and most of all corn on the cob.

Elliot and Daddy's first Illini game!

We also went swimming!

 

We have friends who live in a complex with a pool so we decided to dip the dude in.

First of all the baby speedo kills me, second can we please talk about how the kid has a better skin tone than I do! I'm so white! {ps he looks like he's red, it's just the lighting...it was also very overcast and he was only in for about 5min)

he loved it once he got past the initial shock of the water and I'm sure he would have stayed in there till he turned into a little prune, but we all got hungry and the sun was going down.

This week hasn't been too much fun.

Elliot is Mr. Fussy Pants, and we have spent the past two days in Dr's offices.

First his one month check up

he's up to 9lbs and 22inches, that's 1.5lbs and 1.5 inches gain. 

Dr said he's right on target with growth and other than his tongue issue he's doing great.

Second was the specialist about clipping his tongue was today.

we opted to have it clipped in office...there is no way I want them to put my baby under anesthesia unless it's life threatening!

So there you have it, one month has flown by and it saddens my heart that my little baby is getting bigger, but at the same time I can't wait to see the type of little man he will become.