Reflections on 2013

When I look back on 2013, I literally cannot believe it's been only a year.  I was looking through pictures from the year and I had to double check that these pictures were taken in January 2013 and not January 2012!  (I was barely pregnant in January 2012- it just blows my mind!)

He couldn't even sit up on his own!

Still taking a pacifier!

Taking baths in the kitchen sink!

Using the bumbo!

Just barely starting solid foods!

So I think I can safely say that a lot has happened this year.  And yet, when I sit down to write out the highlights, I can think of only a few.  Daniel switched jobs from DISH to Comcast, we bought a new house, and I guess that's about it.

Visiting his Dada at Comcast over Christmas

I think something that I am just getting used to is that when you are raising a child, the year seems so full of important events (Elijah eating solid foods, learning to crawl and then walk, starting to talk) and at the same time it can all be summed up in one phrase: "we raised our child."  I noticed the same thing when we would get together with friends after we hadn't seen them for a few months.  They ask "what's new?"  and all I could think was..... nothing.  We're just plugging along, raising our child.  And yet that means so much.  In the last month for example, Elijah's learned to say so many new words and signs.  He has demonstrated that he understands so much of what we say.  He uses utensils and dishes now instead of eating with his hands off of a high chair tray.  It's absolutely remarkable and yet completely predictable.

When I think about what 2014 has in store, I get pretty excited.  We have this beautiful new home to transform and make our own.  We just finished redoing the kitchen, which took much less time and turned out much more beautiful that I could have imagined.  We have big plans for the bathrooms and that's pretty high on our priority list.  And thanks to some very fortunate events, we actually have the money to do it soon!  And of course expanding our family is always in the back of my mind.  We are inching closer and closer to a plan.  And I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year I find myself pregnant.

The truth is that in 2013 many of our dreams came true.  I don't say that nonchalantly.  I have literally dreamed of becoming a mother for nearly 10 years and though Elijah was born in 2012, I think it's accurate to say that I really became a mother in 2013.  For a solid year I have been caring for this human being and in that time he has gone from an immobile blob to a toddler who runs to greet me when I pick him up from school, gives me hugs, brings me books to read and sits on my lap while I read them, gives me kisses when I ask (and when I don't!), laughs at silly things I do, and shows genuine love and affection for me as his mother.

Christmas Eve

At the Georgetown Railroad

Another huge dream of ours that was realized this year is our new home.  Daniel and I have been discussing the kind of home we want to live in ever since we graduated from college.  Our current home was a great starter house, but it definitely wasn't where we wanted to raise our family.  We really wanted something in a good school district, and in a nice quiet suburban neighborhood.  Just a few months ago, that dream seemed nearly impossible.  The fact that we had to save up such an enormous amount of money, on our current income, with one child's worth of expenses, was insurmountable.  Add to that the fact that we knew we wanted to have another child- which is always a considerable expense- and we felt that it would be a very long time before we could realize any of those dreams.  We had been saving our money aggressively, but then we found that we would have to choose- have another child, or move to our dream house.  We just couldn't afford both.  It was an incredibly difficult decision, and one that we never really came up with an answer for.  But through the incredible generosity of our family, and our own hard work and determination, we find ourselves here at the end of 2013 with our considerable savings in tact, and in our dream home.  Which means that another baby can't be far behind ;-)

To sum it up, 2013 was a year full of incredibly happy surprises.  There is nothing I would change about this year.  I have never been so full of happiness and joy than I am now.  And yet, I feel that 2014 can only get better!  I do have a few goals for this coming year:  I hope to gain clarity in my career path.  I don't necessarily need to move forward in my career- I just want a clearer picture and a clearer goal for that area of my life.  And I also want a plan for expanding our family.  Again, I don't need to necessarily get pregnant this year, but rather I would like a clearer plan for what we need to do to get there, and how much time that will take.  I don't think that's too much to get done in 365 days, right?

Santa pictures just because ;-)

I love Elijah's cheesy grin!

Moving

We are officially in our new house!  Everything this weekend went absolutely fantastic.  We took two trips in the moving truck, and with all our friends we got it done before 2pm.  We were so grateful to have everyone there to help us.

Uncle Aaron was a huge help!

There were some minor hiccups (we had to take the door off the hinge to get Elijah's crib out of his bedroom, and then take it apart to get it up the stairs in our new house) (oh, and the $450 sectional that we bought specifically to go in the basement didn't even fit through the doorway, let alone down the narrow stairwell to the basement) but overall it went much better than I could have imagined.  Elijah also did much better than I hoped.  We got his room set up just in time for his nap, and he went right to sleep and slept for nearly 3 hours.  Which gave us plenty of time to get things done!  While Daniel and a bunch of the guys went back to get another load, I started to unpack boxes.  My dad and brother got us all pizza.  We had time to eat and unpack the truck before Elijah even woke up.  Then one particularly awesome friend stayed 4 more hours to help Daniel install our new garage door opener.  My dad bought us all Maggiano's for dinner which was delicious.  My dad also spent Friday demoing what was left of the old kitchen.  So we have been without a kitchen at all (no sink, no dishwasher, no cabinets, no countertop) for 4 days.  Really the only thing I wish we had was a dishwasher or kitchen sink.  It's very difficult to clean Elijah's tray and bib without a kitchen sink.  But really it's a very short period of time that our lives will be slightly inconvenienced, so I can manage.

Our first night in the house was not very comfortable.  I didn't sleep at all.  I woke up very tired and grumpy at 5am Sunday morning.

First morning in the new house

We couldn't find one piece to the guest bed which it turns out is kind of important.  In the middle of the night my dad fell through the bed frame.  We heard a large crack in the middle of the night.  It scared me to death, but Daniel knew what it was right away so I calmed down and (sort of) went back to sleep.  Then, on Sunday night, we heard a large noise three separate times.  The first time it was the contents of an entire shelf falling off the wall and onto the floor.  The second and third times it was the bed collapsing under the weight of Jackson this time.  I hope he learned his lesson and won't jump onto any (human) beds anytime soon!

Jackson has had quite an adjustment.  I can tell he likes all the space we have in the new house, but we haven't been able to let him outside.  He got out accidentally on Friday night, and ran around for a while before coming back on his own.  Which is what we expected.  Since then we've let him off the leash twice and he's done the same thing.  So no big deal, he runs around for a while and then comes back. But we can't just let him run around the neighborhood loose like that.  We have taken him out for as many walks as we can manage, but it's been 5 degrees outside for a solid week!  So we aren't exactly excited to go outside.  He also won't poop, and rarely pees, while he's on the leash.  We ordered an invisible fence that will arrive tomorrow, so installing that is a big priority.  Once we get that set up we should be able to just let him out into the backyard without worrying.

Bundling up to go for a walk in 5 degree weather

Elijah is settling in very nicely!

Other than those minor issues, we are settling in very nicely!  We have only a few boxes left (besides all the kitchen supplies of course).  I am very surprised how far along we are in the unpacking and organizing.  We even had time to put up our Christmas tree and decorate the fireplace!  Every night I sleep better and better.  It is so unbelievably quiet and serene in our new neighborhood.  I just love it.

Elijah at 15 months

Elijah has finally started to say actual words!  I have literally been waiting for this time since I found out I was pregnant.  I think it is so adorable to hear tiny kids speaking.  They mispronounce things, and get things mixed up.... it's so cute!  For a few weeks, Daniel and I were concerned that Elijah wasn't really developing in his speech.  We've heard so many other one year olds that have lots and lots of words and as of a week ago he only had a few.  He could sign "more," "milk," and "all done."  he could shake his head "no," and had very few verbal words (yeah, dada, oh no).  Most of the time when he did speak, he was just mimicking us.  I talked with his pediatrician about it at his 15 month well check on Monday, and he said it's too early to be worried. He also said that we would likely see a huge explosion of language all of a sudden.  His teachers said that he was right on track for his age.  Well this week, I think we've witnessed that language explosion!  Just this week he has said "doggie" and "mo."  That's two new words in just a few days.  And he has this new thing where he goes "woooooow."  It's the cutest thing ever.  He is also signing much more reliably.  Our pediatrician told me that if I wanted to encourage his speech development, to encourage him to use the signs or words before I respond to his needs.  We started doing that Monday night and it has made a huge difference. We make him sign "more" before we give him more food, or "milk" before we give him his sippie cup.  I think being in the toddler class has helped too.  He is hearing all the other kids speak and it's helped his speech develop.

There are so many other new things he's learned.  He is pointing to things constantly.  Pictures in a book, things he sees out the window, to himself and to his dada.  It's a tiny window into what he's thinking about at any given moment and I just love it.  He is using utensils remarkably well.  Just in the past month he's gone from using them clumsily with our help, to almost not needing help at all.  Especially with something like yogurt or applesauce, he can dip his spoon in, scoop up the food, and put it in his mouth.  It's amazing to watch.  He also doesn't cry or protest anymore when I cut his nails!  Seems like a small thing, but it amazes me every time.  He is 25 lb 6 oz (at his 15 mos well check) which is the 84th percentile!  He's still our chubby little boy, and I love every one of his little fat rolls :-)

He is doing so much better in the toddler class.  Drop off gets easier every single day, and he hardly ever clings to me or cries when I leave.  When I pick him up he is happily playing as part of the group.  He does still have a few issues with drop off.  Right when we enter the room, he usually turns around and buries his head in my legs.  But it's fairly easy to distract him with toys and then he's happy to stay and play.

I'm concerned with how the adjustment will go after we move tomorrow.  I am assuming it will be difficult, and planning for the worst.  We are going to do our best to keep as much as possible the same.  His schedule, eating habits, napping place, we will try to keep consistent.  And I am also prepared to stop what I'm doing to give him a little extra attention and down time if necessary.  

Right now I feel like we are having a blast.  Elijah makes me smile and laugh multiple times every day.  He giggles incessantly.  Everything in the world is new and exciting.  The snow under his feet fascinated him.  When I showed up in his classroom to pick him up with a knit hat on my head, he thought it looked hilarious!  He laughed and tried to pull it off.  I put it on him and he thought that was even more funny!  Bathtime is a happy time again (partly due to Grandpa being here this week to visit and play).  Last night he discovered a bowl of M&Ms in the basement.  He started to play with them and we couldn't believe he didn't eat them.  We turned around for a minute and when we looked back, he was shoving them in his mouth and fast as he could!  He had chocolate smeared all over his face and on his sweater.  Daniel was saying "no! yuck!" and he just kept shoveling them in his mouth.  He has also started to bring books to us when he wants to be read to.  A particular favorite right now is "Snuggle Puppy."  I just love being his mom more than anything else in the whole world.  I don't know how I lived without him to give me so much joy every day.

Elijah's Second Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I'm hesitant to write that down, because I love a lot of other holidays, but every year when it comes around I'm pretty sure Thanksgiving is my favorite.  This year had some awful aspects (Elijah getting horribly sick), but overall it was pretty fantastic.  Like probably the best family visit we've had since Elijah was born.  So I can't decide how to characterize the trip.  I want to say that it was great and perfect and a blast, but there was the whole Elijah getting a fever and being horribly grumpy and sad for a good chunk of the trip.

On Wednesday, Daniel picked up Elijah from school.  He noticed that Elijah was very tired, which was weird because he took a great nap that day.  But I was happy to hear that because I wanted him to go to bed early since we all had to get up before 5am the next morning.  He went to bed a full hour early without a problem.  The next morning our plan was to get ourselves ready, get the car packed up, and then grab Elijah and put him right into the car where he would hopefully fall back asleep.  I wasn't optimistic that this would work, but hey guess what- it did.  Elijah went back to sleep within 10 minutes and slept for another 20 minutes until we got to the airport.

We got through security in record time. Somehow we were sorted into the TSA pre-check line which was about the awesomeset thing ever- shoes left on, liquids left in the bag, no line at all.  We got to the gate about 20 minutes before boarding started.

Once we were on the plane, we turned a movie on the iPad.  Elijah sat in my lap facing the iPad and before we even took off, he was asleep again.

I was pleasantly surprised, but still not concerned.  I figured it was because we woke him up so early, and maybe the white noise on the plane contributed a little bit.  30 minutes into the flight he woke up crying, but we were able to calm him down and he was fine.  He ate a good amount of fruit.  The flight went really quickly.  We went straight to Daniel's parents' house.  Elijah was okay, but pretty whiney and clingy.  Again, we chalked it up to the early morning, the chaos of getting on a plane and then ending up in a new environment with people he really doesn't know that well.  We went over to my parents' house and finally we put him down for a nap at 11:30am.  He slept.  And slept.  And slept.  3 hours later dinner was ready, so we decided to wake him up.  Again, not concerned.  We put him in the high chair with some sweet potatoes, turkey, and cranberry jello.  He didn't eat a crumb.  Nothing.  I figured he was groggy from the long nap, and brushed it off.  He played for a few hours, seeming to be totally fine.  He happily sat on his great grandma's lap and great grandpa's lap.  Around 5pm we headed back to Daniel's parents' house.  My grandma told me that she thought he felt warm.  I brushed it off.  When we arrived at my in-laws' house, he wasn't very happy.  He wanted to be held, refused to smile, and just seemed off.  But still, I chalked it up to the early day and new environment/people.  We put him in the high chair (again) with some thanksgiving food.  He didn't touch it.  He sat in the chair with his head slumped over to the side and a vacant stare.  I remember looking at him, and saying over and over "this is not right, this is not normal."  I felt him and he was hot.  It was scary.  Once we realized what was going on, everyone jumped into action.  Daniel started the bath.  I drove to Walgreens to get childrens' tylenol.  Evan and Kristy started to clean him up and undress him.  By the time I got back he was out of the bath and in his PJs.  Evan and Kristy read him some books and Kristy held him for the 3 minutes it took for him to fall asleep.  At 6:15pm.

He was up all night whining, whimpering, and crying.  Daniel ended up sleeping with him on the couch.

  When he woke up he was still very hot and didn't eat anything for the whole next day.  He was still whiney and clingy, and refused to smile all day.  His fever went away by late morning, but his appetite didn't come back at all.  He took another 3 hour nap.  It was so very sad.  We went to the park in the morning and he enjoyed that, but he nearly fell asleep in the stroller.

Finally on Saturday he seemed much more himself.  His grandparents finally got to see some smiles and spend some happy time together.

It is so amazing to see how happy our parents get when they are with Elijah.  He is such a loved little boy.  Everyone in the family can't get enough of him.  We are so lucky to have the amazing family we do.  Everyone was on their best behavior this weekend and we all had a fantastic time together.  Elijah was horribly sick, but for some reason that really didn't ruin the trip at all.  I was kind of glad that I was in Phoenix.  It kept me calm and distracted me.  This was only the second fever of Elijah's life, and this was by far the most sick he's ever been.  But I was able to respond appropriately without getting too freaked out and overreacting.  I was so glad to have lots of people willing to hold him because that's all he wanted for two solid days.  He didn't smile or laugh at all Thursday or Friday.  But on Saturday he made up for it.

Transition to Toddlers

This week was Elijah's first week in the toddler classroom.  It's been.... rough.  Harder than I thought it would be.  Elijah has always been the easiest child, taking any changes in stride.  And he's done remarkably well with this change.  But what I didn't realize is that this change would be hard on me.  I built such a close relationship with Elijah's infant teachers.  Especially Miss Erika.  She was there the very first day I dropped Elijah off.  She gave me a big hug because I couldn't stop crying and told me that she cried just a few weeks before when she dropped her daughter off at high school for the first time.  She has seen Elijah grow from a tiny 7 week old newborn, to a 14 month old toddler.  And I truly feel like we've been partners through the whole experience.  Every time I feel unsure about something, I ask his teachers.  They have great ideas, but also let me know that every child is different and ultimately it's up to us to decide what to do.  They have found such a great balance between loving Elijah like he's their own, and making me feel like I'm still the most important person in his life.

So when we left that classroom, I was very sad to be leaving those relationships.  In his new classroom everything is chaotic and loud and confusing and different.  I don't know any of his teachers, I don't know where everything is, I don't know the other kids in his class, I don't know their routine.  When I drop him off and pick him up there's so much going on that I don't have a chance to talk to his teachers about what they did that day.  There isn't time for me to discuss Elijah's sudden ravenous appetite, or a new habit of taking big gulps of milk and then spitting it out.  There's random children's clothing in Elijah's basket, and his orange jacket is missing.  I have to provide a sippy cup every day, but I don't know if I'm supposed to wash it every night, or bring a new one the next day, or what.  There are different teachers there every time I pick him up or drop him off and I don't know any of them.

I know his head teacher- we met with her for over an hour before Elijah moved into her class.  She seems really great and everyone at the center (including Elijah's old teachers) said that we're lucky to have her.  She is almost finished with her degree in early childhood education and is also taking a special course through Bright Horizons to get her management certification.  What that tells me is that she's in this for the long haul.  She's been there since the center opened in May 2011, and I can be pretty sure she will stay for a while longer.  That makes me very happy.  I really truly believe that I will get to know her, and Elijah's other teachers, and build relationships with them.  But for now it's really hard.

Elijah is doing really well though.  When I drop him off it's always rough.  He won't walk into the classroom voluntarily, and clings to me desperately the whole time I'm there.  I've been able to gently pry him off me and get him interested in something else enough for me to leave without him crying.  I'm so glad I haven't had to see him cry every morning.  The clinging is hard enough.  But his teacher is really great and she knows just what to do.  He has the biggest smile when he sees me in the afternoon.  There's great big windows so I can see him before I actually get into his classroom, and he's always playing and happy.  So I know he's doing well all day while I'm not there.

He is sleeping really well now too!  His naps are at least 2 hours every day, and he's sleeping a solid 11 hours every night.  I can tell he is so incredibly tired by the end of the day.  Which is great!  They do activities and go outside twice every single day.  They also do lunch "family style" which means Elijah sits at a table, with dishes, and silverware, and serves himself food from a common dish.  He also drinks milk from an open cup (!!).  They brush his teeth every day, and go for walks (not in a stroller!), and he naps on a cot!  Not in a crib!  This is one of the things I love about day care- they really push them towards independence.  If he was home with me all day, he would probably still be taking 3 naps a day, drinking milk from a bottle, and being rocked to sleep!

Yesterday we stopped in briefly to say hi to Elijah's infant teachers.  They were so happy to see him and gave him big hugs.  I could tell he felt so comfortable in his old classroom.  Every day he walks straight to his old classroom, and I have to remind him that we go to the big kids' room now.  They told me that it would get better.  That I would get to know his teachers, and become familiar with the routine.  It was very reassuring to hear that from them.

Besides all that craziness at Elijah's school, we are also in the middle of moving.  We have about 75% of the house packed up in boxes, and we have been showing our house to a few people every weekend who are interested in renting it.  We close on our new house this Friday, so we will start to move some boxes over and get some minor projects done.  The kitchen is our big project, and that will probably be done the second week of December.  I don't want to move in too far before that, because I can't handle living with an unusable kitchen for that long.  So our plan is to officially move on Dec 7.  Hopefully Elijah will be well settled into his new class by then, so it won't be too much change at once.  I am so incredibly excited.  I really feel like this house is fulfilling all of my dreams.  I'm going to have to come up with new ones once we're finally moved!

And next week we are flying to Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  I feel much more comfortable with it since we just flew there a month ago for Evan and Kristy's wedding.  The flight was stressful, but manageable.  I think we will take some things we learned last time, and hopefully it will go even better this time.  I know Elijah will be thrilled to see all his grandparents again.  It's so crazy that we're flying to Phoenix in the middle of all this moving, but it's just the way it worked out.  I'm trying to stay calm and take it one step at a time, and so far I'm succeeding!

Our new Home

Today, we bought a house.  It's a dream come true.  It's in the most incredible neighborhood.  And I just can't believe how fortunate we are.  Elijah will go to Kindergarten at the elementary school just up the street.  And we will spend this winter cozy in front of the fireplace.  And we will NOT spend this winter scraping snow and ice off our cars!!!  I am incredibly excited.  And so very overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to do in the next few weeks and months.  We close on November 22.  Less than 3 weeks away!  I guess I'll be packing tonight!

Halloween 2013

As promised, here are some Halloween pictures:

We decided to go trick-or-treating with our friend Terri and her daughter Carolyne in their neighborhood.  We are hoping to move near them, so we thought it would be a good way to check out the neighbors ;-)  When we got there, we put Elijah in his costume and I just about died.  It was waaaay cuter on him than on the hanger.  And he loved it too!  The hood didn't bother him at all.  He left it on all night and was nice and warm and cozy.  When Carolyne came downstairs in her costume, Elijah thought she looked hilaaaaarious.  (I don't think he realized what he looked like).  He also thought Daniel looked pretty funny in his costume.

Two toddlers in costume- I'm dying from the cuteness

We headed out at about 6pm.  We mostly stayed in their cul-de-sac, but went to a few houses of people Terri knows in her neighborhood as well.  It was a beautiful, perfect day.  Clear blue skies and cool, but not too cold.  I actually didn't even need a coat.  Elijah absolutely loved walking up the driveways and picking candy out of the bowl to put in his little bucket.  A few times he got a little confused and took candy out of his bucket to put back in the bowl of the friendly neighbor, but it's his first Halloween, right?  I'm so glad he started walking before Halloween because watching him march from house to house in his little costume and carrying his bucket of candy was just the cutest thing I've ever seen.  

I swear we didn't pose him like this.

Daniel was a safari guide

Once it got dark, it started to get cold so we wrapped things up.  Trick-or-treating was so much more fun than I even imagined.  I thought Elijah was still too young, but it was actually a fantastic activity for him.  He got to walk around the neighborhood freely, pick up items and put them in a container (always a hit) and play with his little friend Carolyne.  When we finished, we went back to Terri's house for some chicken noodle soup (which Elijah devoured) and then got home by about 8pm.  Just in time to realize we bought two giant (expensive) bags of candy and missed the majority of the trick-or-treaters.  Oops.  Maybe we can save it for next year? 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Dorothy and Woody!

(This is just his "costume" to wear to school- much better costume coming later tonight!)

We have a Walker!

We had an incredible weekend full of a very smiley, giggly, and well-rested boy.  But the big news is that my silly little boy is now walking!

He's been right on the cusp of walking for a few weeks now.  As long as he was holding onto an adult hand or his walker or anything really, he was walking perfectly.  He was even bearing all his own weight and balancing on his own two feet.  But as soon as he let go, he would immediately flop down onto his hands and crawl.  I was convinced that it was just a confidence issue.  Once in a while we would trick him and he would stand for a few seconds, but he never took steps.  Until last Monday.  After his surgery he took his first steps- three baby steps right into his Dada's arms.  But even after that he was afraid.  Every time we tried to work on walking with him, he would get mad and go boneless.  Then the whining would start and forget it.  Until yesterday.  Something just clicked.

We were in the living room playing with his toys.  One of his toys is a set of stacking cups that can be snapped together into balls.  I put a little bell inside and he absolutely loves the massive amount of noise it makes.  It was just enough motivation for him.  I rattled the ball and he took a few steps towards me and fell into my arms.  I stood him back up and faced him towards his Dada across the room.  And he did it again!  He walked a few steps across the room.  We did it over and over again and Elijah kept taking steps!  I was so surprised and so very proud.  It sounds ridiculous- proud of my baby for learning to walk just like every other human that has ever lived.  But it's true.  I was so very proud of him.  We didn't get his first steps on tape, but we were fortunate enough to get video of the moment he truly began walking.  It's not perfectly in focus, and I look absolutely ridiculous shaking his toy ball and screaming with excitement, but I don't care.

The feeling when he took his first steps across the living room is completely indescribable.  It was like when you're on a roller coaster going over a big drop.  That exhilarating, shocking, intensely happy feeling.  It's exactly why I love being a mom.

This weekend reminded me over and over again why being a mom has made me happier than anything else in the world.  Friday evening we went out to eat with a friend we haven't seen since high school!  Elijah got his first kids' meal (a pizza) and he ate the entire thing.  I went to bed really early on Friday night (like 8:30 early) so I woke up happy and well-rested before Elijah did!  It made such a difference.  I started my Saturday showered and energized and excited for the weekend.  Elijah took a really great 2 hour nap that morning, and he woke up very happy.  Daniel went out golfing in the afternoon, so it was just me and Elijah for a few hours.  We went to the library where Elijah pushed a little kiddie chair all over the place.  He was so content pushing that chair around, so I just relaxed and let him play.  He also loved sweeping all the magnetic letters off the magnet board.

Playing at the library

 Then we went to Costco and did some grocery shopping.  After that it was time for his nap.  Since he took such a great nap that morning, I was afraid he wouldn't go down easily for his afternoon nap.  And I was right.  After rolling around his crib for 30 minutes, he started to whine, and then cry.  I knew that if I went in there and picked him up he would pass right out.  And since I had nothing better to do, and sitting in a dark cool room rocking my baby for a few minutes sounded like a delightful Saturday afternoon activity, that's what I did.  I held him and played on my phone, and closed my eyes, and just enjoyed that time.

Napping in Mama's arms

After about 30 minutes Daniel was home and we had to get ready to leave for dinner at a friend's house.  So I gently woke him up and he was a happy boy!  We had dinner with friends from church.  Elijah was more than happy to play with their daughter's toys.  She is only about 9 months older than Elijah, so they get along great.  Elijah was also happy to eat a whole piece and a half of lasagna at dinner!  By then it was his bedtime so we excused ourselves and drove home.  He was very tired, so after a short bath he fell asleep very quickly in his crib.

The next morning he slept until almost 7am!  That has happened exactly ONE time in the past 4 or 5 months!  It felt like a miracle!  Just last week he was waking up at 5:30 or 5:45 every morning!  And he woke up incredibly happy.  AND he went down for his morning nap quickly and easily at the normal time.  He got a good one hour nap, we went out and had some family fun at a local neighborhood fair, and then he took a fantastic two hour afternoon nap!  I don't know if it's the tubes in his ears, or that he's walking now, or something else, but he has been sleeping so well lately.  I think he is going through a major growth spurt and development spurt.  He has been eating a ton (and pooping A TON) too, so I'm thinking it's probably a growth spurt.  Regardless, I am enjoying it.  The extra sleep has left him very happy, smiley, and easy-going.  As he gets older, we have more and more fun.  This weekend he even gave me a hug for the first time ever!  He came up to me, put his arms around my neck, and laid his head on my shoulder.  Completely unsolicited.  I just loved it.

This weekend was just full of magical family moments.  I am so lucky to have my incredible family.

Elijah's surgery

Yesterday Elijah had tubes put in his ears.  He's had 6 or 7 ear infections in the second half of his first year.  This is well over the APA's recommendation for inserting tubes.  I've been anticipating this day for a very long time.

In the waiting room

We had to check in to the medical clinic at 7:15am.  Almost immediately, they brought us back to the pre-op room.  My mom was here visiting, so she stayed out in the waiting room.  The nurse took his blood pressure (which was impossible), weighed him (his weight came out much lower than at his 1 year well check last week), and got his pulse.  After she had done all of that, another nurse came in to ask if she had any questions.  This was our first indication that our nurse was relatively inexperienced.  She seemed annoyed that she was being checked in on and said that everything was fine, except she couldn't get a blood pressure.  The more experienced nurse told her that blood pressure is impossible to get on anyone under 3 years so she wouldn't worry about it.  Eventually they both left and the anesthesiologist came in.  She mentioned something about the medicine Elijah was supposed to receive, and that was another red flag.  We told her that Elijah hadn't taken any medicine.  So she flagged down the nurse.  Then I heard the nurse out in the hall discussing the concentration of the medicine and calculating how much to give Elijah based on his weight.  That was also concerning.  This nurse is calculating how much medicine to give him, in her head, and discussing it with another nurse?  That did not inspire confidence.  The anesthesiologist told us that this was an anti-anxiety medication that would make Elijah more relaxed.  She told us that we should wait 10 minutes for it to take effect and in the meantime she wasn't going to do anything to upset him.  That was really nice.  Through the whole pre-op process, Elijah was screaming hysterically.  He woke up very early that morning and we couldn't give him anything to eat or drink.  And he was in a strange environment with strange people touching him.  He just wanted to cuddle up to either me or Daniel and be left alone.  The medication started to work and the anesthesiologist and surgeon went over everything they were about to do.  Double, triple, quadruple checked Elijah's name, date of birth, allergies, and procedure they were going to do on him.  It was very reassuring for me.  Once we signed the consent form, a nurse came in with a warm blanket and took Elijah away.  I regretted not giving him one last kiss, but told myself that I would see him very soon.

In pre-op waiting for the anti-anxiety medication to take effect

And only 15 minutes later, they were calling us back to the post-op room.  A nurse was holding Elijah.  She handed him to me and I sat in a big cushy chair with a warm blanket over him and waited for him to wake up.  Daniel and my Mom sat next to me.  We chatted for about 45 minutes.  Once in a while Elijah would startle and wail loudly, and then settle back to sleep in my arms.

Waiting for him to wake up

When he did finally wake up, he didn't cry at all.  He guzzled his entire sippy cup of milk and happily ate cheerios by the handful.  All the nurses thought he was just adorable.  We dressed him and took him home at about 10:30am.  He ate an amazing amount of food when we got home.  A cup of applesauce, a cup of yogurt, more cheerios, a whole stick of string cheese, and he wanted more!  We eventually cut him off because we were worried he would vomit it all up.  He wanted to be held and got upset easily.  I thought a walk in the stroller would help.  So we took a walk to Chipotle.  It did help, but only as long as we were moving.  He ate a lot more food at Chipotle.  We could barely eat ourselves because we were shoveling food into his mouth.  He ate everything we put in his mouth, and cried in between bites for more. His eyes were also kind of drooping and crossing.  It was so sad.  By the time we got home, he could barely keep his eyes open.  My mom rocked him and he fell asleep within 2 minutes, still with a death grip on his sippy cup.  I pried it from his hands and my mom put him down in the crib.  He didn't move a muscle.

90 minutes later he woke up.  He was fine for a few minutes, and then he started crying hysterically.  I held him and he laid his head on my shoulder and screamed.  For 20 minutes we sat like that.  He would stop for a minute or two and then for no reason start screaming again.  I was so glad to have my mom there because I would have lost it without her.  She brought him some cheerios and that finally calmed him down.  We moved him to his high chair and he ate two whole pieces of bread with peanut butter.  Finally he seemed back to himself.  At about 3pm.  The doctors said that in a few hours he would be back to himself, but that was not the case.  He was uncoordinated and upset for most of the day.  It was difficult, but I'm glad it's over.  I hope that this will drastically reduce the pain and discomfort he experiences in the long term.

Mischief

Last night was one of those nights where I put Elijah in his crib and left the room feeling like the luckiest person in the whole world for being his Mom.  He was such a delightful little boy yesterday evening.  We've been cutting out his bottles, so he's down to just one before bed.  He actually doesn't seem that interested in it most of the time, but he's not getting enough milk during the day yet so I want to encourage him to drink as much as possible before bed.  Anyways, he sat on my lap while Daniel read us a story and drank his bottle.  Every once in a while, he would pull it out of his mouth, look up at me, and say "Da!" or "a-dah!"  And I would nod and act interested and then he would go on drinking his bottle.  His speech is sounding more and more like conversation (although it's still complete baby gibberish).  This morning, he said something and then started giggling.  Daniel started laughing too, so I asked him what was so funny.  He told me very matter-of-factly that Elijah just told a joke.  He said, "couldn't you tell?"  The two of them.  They make me so happy.

This morning Elijah was similarly adorable.  I had to run downstairs to get my rain coat since it was absolutely pouring outside (for the second day in a row).  I left Elijah in the kitchen.  When I came back upstairs, he was crouched in front of the dog's food bowl, picking up handfuls of dog food, and shoving them into the heating vent in the floor.  Oh my goodness, he is most definitely a toddler.  Somehow in that time he also got this really black dusty stuff in his hair.  I had to comb it out and it was really sticky!  The comb has all this black stuff in it now.  I have no idea where it came from or how he did that.

I drove him to school and when we got there it was still pouring rain.  I zipped up my rain coat, put my hood over my head, and got out.  When I opened the passenger's door, Elijah looked at me and laughed!  He laughed at me!  He thought the hood was so funny.  I unbuckled him and when I carried him out into the rain, he huddled up against me.  It was so sweet and kind of surprising.

Every single day brings surprises like these.  I would love to know what is going on inside his little head.  Because when I see glimpses of his thoughts through his actions, I am absolutely delighted.

Elijah the Toddler

Elijah has this new hobby of grabbing items from the house, sticking them out the doggie door, and letting go.  I guess we don't supervise him very well, because this often happens without us realizing.  And then hours later we'll find a bottle of taco seasoning sitting right outside the back door.  Or 3 wooden blocks.  Or the tin of bay leaves.

One time I was cleaning up all his toys and I couldn't find the 3 colored plastic balls that go with his helicopter toy.  I called Daniel (he had just left) to ask him if he knew where they were.  Of course, he asked if I looked under the couch.  Yes, yes I did.  Then he asked if I looked under the dining room table.  Yes, looked there too.  Then he asked if I looked out the doggie door.  I opened the back door, and there was nothing sitting just outside the door.  But I looked a little further, and out in the grass were 3 colored plastic balls.  Jackpot.  Elijah stuck each one of them out the doggie door, and they rolled all the way across the cement patio and into the grass.

He has another hobby that's very similar.  He likes to throw his toys out of the bathtub.  By the end of his bath he has literally no toys left in the water, and a pile of toys on the bathroom floor.  This isn't a big deal, except when he decides to throw overboard the cup we use to pour water over his head.  When he throws that out of the tub, we end up with a flooded bathroom floor.  This has happened more times than I would like to admit.

This kid is most definitely a toddler.

Elijah's First Birthday Party

Elijah's first birthday party could not have gone any better.  Seriously.  There is something about this child that knows to be good when it really counts.  I mean every time we've had a big event (the July 4th baseball game comes to mind, as well as his flights to and from Denver at Thanksgiving, and the church service for Easter...) he is on his best behavior.  His first birthday was no exception.

We started Friday evening with making one batch of carrot cupcakes.  Then Saturday morning we made another batch of chocolate cupcakes.  We intended to cut that batch in half, but we forgot so we ended up with 50-some cupcakes.  Elijah woke up Saturday morning very congested and a very runny nose, so we took him to Urgent care.  Last time we waited for the illness to pass and it was 2 weeks of misery.  This time, we wanted to get a jump on it and hopefully start antibiotics right away.  But the doctor said he had no ear infection, so no antibiotics either.  On Saturday afternoon, Daniel's mom flew in from Phoenix. We picked her up and she helped a ton with the planning and prepping for the party.

He skipped his afternoon nap on Saturday, so I was worried.  But it turned out to be a good thing, because he went to bed early, slept all the way until 6am like usual, and woke up on party day a very happy boy!  He hung out and played while we did all the prep for the party.  We set everything up, made little sandwiches, and tidied up.  He went down for his nap a little earlier, around 9:30, and slept for over an hour!  The longest nap he's taken in weeks.  He woke up exactly 15 minutes before the party started.  Just enough time to change him into his adorable "birthday boy" shirt.

During the party, he was all smiles.  He let anyone and everyone pick him up and gave each person big smiles too!  He also smiled for every picture.  When he wasn't being held, he crawled around the house and the yard.  He showed off his new skill of walking with his walker toy.  And he crawled after Aaron's adorable new puppy, Jenna.  The two of them together was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. He didn't eat much, which gave him plenty of room for cake ;-)

When it was time for the big cake smash, we moved Elijah's high chair out to the backyard.  We put a big "1" candle in a carrot cupcake, and then I realized how perilous it is to stick a flame in front of a one year old.  How did I not think of that ahead of time?  Well, I just kind of held it a little out of his reach and told everyone to sing quickly.  Then I blew it out just before Elijah reached his hand out to grab the flame.  Thank goodness the wick didn't burn him.  He started by sticking his pointer finger in the frosting and licking it off.  Then he went for it.  He ate the entire cupcake.  He just loved it.  And we loved watching!  He didn't make an enormous mess either, but did get green frosting all over his face.  It was great.  Everyone loved watching him devour the cupcake and there was minimal clean up since we did it in the backyard.  After the cupcake, we opened presents.  Elijah helped a little bit, but he was more interested in crawling around and playing with some of his new toys.  He got so many thoughtful gifts.  We really are so lucky to have all these friends who genuinely care about our son.  There were 15-20 people there.  Just enough for our little house not to feel too crowded.  His little friend from church, Carolyne, was the only other child.  He went down for his nap easily and slept over an hour again.  We cleaned up while he was sleeping, and then were completely exhausted right when he woke up refreshed and energized.  Lucky for us, he was happy to crawl around and play independently while we relaxed on the couch and recouped our energy.  He was just the perfect birthday boy all around.  I will have incredible memories from his party for the rest of my life.  What a special occasion.

Life These Days

This child has been an absolute delight lately.  He is in the middle of another developmental growth spurt and I just love it.  Literally, every day I wake up and think "what exciting new thing will I see Elijah do today?"  For example, last week in one day I witnessed him learn how to walk using his walker toy, repeat "up!" after I prompted him to say it (it sounded more like "ut!" but I knew what he meant), touch the iPad specifically to make a desired action happen, and pretend to drink out of a cup in the bath.  It was just one thing after another.  Daniel and I looked at each other with delighted grins every time he demonstrated a new skill.  Walking with the walker toy was particularly exciting.  In the morning before we left for school/work, I supported him under his armpits while he walked and held on.  That afternoon, I tried again only this time I let go and he just took off.  He's been going ever since.  I can tell that he doesn't really need the walker.  He is barely leaning on it.  If he did lean on it, it would just topple over because he's so heavy. He just uses it to balance, and for confidence. He really likes it because he gets to walk independently (well, without holding onto us).  He spends much more time upright these days.  I think it will be a matter of days or weeks before he takes his first steps.

We are working much more on verbal skills these days.  We ask him to say "up!" instead of screaming while lifting his arms up to be held.  I spend a lot of time repeating words and naming objects, even though he still hasn't spoken his true first word yet.  I know he's absorbing it all and very soon he will be repeating after us.  We downloaded a new game for the iPad that teaches farm animals.  When Elijah touches the barn door, it opens and there's an animal inside.  You hear the animal make a noise and then a voice says the animal's name.  Many times it sounds like Elijah is trying to imitate the animal noise.  It's pretty adorable.

We are also slowly introducing milk and trying to wean off the bottles.  This past weekend we started mixing 1 ounce of whole milk with 4 ounces of formula.  And we cut him down from 5 bottles a day to 4- when he wakes up, 1 before each nap, and 1 before bed.  I think it will be fairly easy to keep cutting down one at a time, but we'll see.  His naps have gotten shorter and it seems that he can go much longer without getting cranky, so I think the transition to one nap will come very soon as well.  He's only napping 1 hour in the morning and 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon.  And he's sleeping about 7 or 7:30pm-6 or 6:15am.  So 10.5-11 hours at night.  This is much less than he was sleeping just 6 or 8 weeks ago. But he is a very happy boy overall, so I feel that he is getting enough.

I get less and less of the cuddle time I crave.  But when I do, it is just precious.  Last night while he drank his bottle, I tickled his face accidentally with a lock of my hair.  He giggled softly and reached up to play with it.  I encouraged it and let him stroke my hair and giggle.  Daniel was there too and he just smiled and laughed along with Elijah.  It was such a beautiful moment.  I truly feel that times like that are the rewards for all the hard work of being a mom.  And it is worth it one hundred percent.

Elijah's Eleventh month

It's been a whole month since I've blogged.  Elijah is now 11 months old and seems much more a toddler than a baby.  The past month has been.... hard.  And busy.  Every weekend in July was packed full.  We spent the first weekend in Estes Park and then the second weekend my dad and brother stayed with us.  The third weekend my friend Sarah came to visit and the fourth weekend my brother was back with us waiting to move into his new place.  Daniel and I have discovered that if we get lazy, our marriage suffers.  We really have to make our relationship a priority or it gets neglected much too easily.  The good news is that it's easy to fix and the solution involves spending time with my best friend! On top of all of that, we've had some illness, some sleep disruptions, and some new behavior issues to work through with Elijah.  

He had a very high fever on this particular evening

First up: the illness.  We found out at the end of June that Elijah needs to get tubes in his ears.  He has had one ear infection after another, and his pediatrician finally decided that he needed something more intensive than antibiotics.  He has been on so many different antibiotics, and this last one seemed to really upset his stomach.  Thank goodness he does well taking medicine!  Maybe it's all the practice :-)  Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the head and facial surgery department until the end of August.  So he has continued to get ear infections.  Most of the time he doesn't have any obvious symptoms.  But he caught a cold about two weeks ago, and he has been just miserable.  He has this horrible cough and it has really disrupted his sleep.  We don't want to give him tylenol continuously until he can get tubes in his ears, so we're trying to manage Elijah's discomfort and wait it out.  But it seems to be exacerbating his problems with sleep.  So....

Always sleeps with his monkey and sleep sack

Next up: sleep disruptions.  Since he was 7 months old, Elijah has been on a very consistent and predictable sleep schedule.  Bed at 6:30, wake up at 6am, two naps each for 60-90 minutes.  He would fall asleep quickly and easily and stay asleep.  We have been talking about moving his bedtime back for a long time.  There are many reasons we wanted to do that (so we could actually go out and do things that start at 6pm, so he would sleep later than 6am).  So we tried to push it back to 7 or 7:30.  And it just messed up everything.  He would roll around in his crib playing until 7:45 or 8pm!  He was still waking up at 6am no matter what time we put him to bed.  So he was getting only 10 or 10.5 hours of sleep. This coincided with him getting sick so his naps got shorter and shorter and we ended up with an extremely overtired child who is just discovering his independence.  Which brings us to....

Behavior problems.  Elijah has started throwing tantrums.  Not full-blown toddler tantrums, but pretty close.  He screams as loud as he can and his face turns red.  When it first started, I just reacted like I always have- trying to meet whatever need.  Hand him a toy, pick him up, give him food, whatever.  But then I realized that I'm just reinforcing that behavior.  I've discussed it with his teachers at school and we're all on the same page.  Trying not to react when he screams.  Ignore.  It's so hard because for the first time it's not just about feeding, clothing, cuddling, and playing.  We actually have to parent now.  That is scary.  For a few weeks I didn't know if it was the illness, the lack of sleep, or just his emerging toddlerhood.  Well now that he's feeling better and getting more sleep, I believe it was a combination of all three.  It has drastically decreased.  When he's well-rested and feeling well, the tantrums are very rare.  I am so relieved.  I honestly was afraid we were discovering that our child was the "bad kid."  The one who is difficult, impulsive, stubborn, and a bully.  But I think I probably overreacted a bit.

 

After this weekend, I am happy to say that his cough is on its way out, we have moved his bedtime back to 6:30 or 7 (depending on how his naps go), and the tantrums have drastically decreased.  The sleep is still a work in progress.  I am realizing that I should stop being so perfectionistic about it.  I mean, he still sleeps all the way through the night and falls asleep on his own without so much as a whine.  So I should probably thank my lucky stars.  But, I would love it if we could go back to a predictable bedtime with him getting at least 11 hours at night.  Bonus points if he could sleep in past 6am!  We decided to wait until he's over this illness (and maybe even has his tubes in) and try to push back his bedtime again.  I'm also hoping that as winter comes around and it stays darker a little bit later, that might help it happen naturally.  

So now for the good things!  Elijah's speech development has really taken off in the past month.  Around the middle of July we started to recognize him parroting back some things we were saying.  It wasn't recognizable by any means, but he would use the same intonation.  When we said things like "Bye-bye!"  or "all done" or "gentle"  it sounded like he was mimicking us back with his babbling.  He says "Da-DEE" really well, though he still doesn't say it to mean anything.  I'm so excited for that to happen and I think it's just around the corner.  To get a good idea of his speech development, watch this video.  It's one of my favorites!  He is cruising fantastically, but still not walking.  He walks pretty well when we hold onto both hands.  He kind of leans forward the whole time instead of balancing on his own two feet.  He can walk for short distances while holding one hand and it's pretty freaking adorable.  We try to do that more often because it forces him to balance.  He can also crawl up stairs as of last Friday!  He has 4 teeth on top, and 2 on bottom.  He is still eating like a champ!  He LOVES pizza, and pretty much anything else we feed him.  He just tried peanut butter for the first time and of course he loved that too.  I am so happy that he's a good eater.  I know that's likely to change when he hits toddlerhood.  He's doing great on formula, though every time he gets sick I feel a little bit guilty.  I've started to think about how we're going to wean him off bottles.  He is doing so well with solid food that I really think it won't be too difficult.  In the last week I've finally noticed that he's really drinking out of a sippy cup.  He has water with all his meals, but he won't really drink formula out of it.

Duet!

Elijah has fallen asleep in my arms quite a few times in the last few weeks (thanks to his sleep disruptions) and I've been eating it up.  The time that he spends still and in physical contact with me is so fleeting, so I'm sure to take advantage when it does happen.  I soak it all in.  Some of his favorite things to do now are play ball (he actually catches it and throws it back!), read books (especially with lift-the-flap or touch-and-feel aspects), anything outside, go for walks in the stroller, play with kitchen utensils (especially his beloved ladle), chase the dog and eat his tail, and anything that involves putting items in containers.

Reading a "lift-the-flap pop-up" book

For the past 3 weeks I have gone to visit Elijah on my lunch hour about 3 days a week.  I absolutely love it.  It makes the day go by so much faster and makes me feel more connected to Elijah, his teachers, and what he's doing at school all day.  I was afraid to go and visit before because I thought it might be distressing to him for me to leave without him.  But we tried it once and he was just fine.  Yesterday and today there were some tears and reaching for me when I dropped him off.  It's heart-melting and heart-breaking at the same time.  I love that he wants me more than anyone else, but I hate having to leave while he's upset.  I think these were just random incidences, but only time will tell.

Elijah's first haircut!  8.12.13  (We tipped very well)

One of the nights he fell asleep in my arms.  Love it.

Just for fun :-)

We are planning his first birthday party for September first.  Daniel's mom is coming out for it, and a bunch of our friends should be coming as well.  I'm so excited for Elijah to have cake!  It's a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme.  I just cannot believe he is almost one year old.  I've wanted a baby for so long, and now just like that we're through the baby stage and onto toddlerhood!  It's absolutely amazing.  He brings me so much incredible joy every single day.  I love him more than anything or anyone else in the world.  And more and more I realize how lucky we are that he is so healthy.  So just a few weeks left in Elijah's first year.  It's been an incredible year!