The latest updates

Our little bubbie is growing up so fast, some of his current hobbies include: throwing things on the floor, eating snacks, planking (on floors), disorganizing the recycling, playing harmonica, poking the cats, looking out the window, emptying the bookshelves of those pesky books, putting cat food into the cat water bowl, eating more snacks, taking baths, going to the park, and staring at other kids.

We've had 'look into the daycare thing' on our fridge to-do list for about a month but now that it's Thanksgiving and Christmas is right around the corner, we figure eh, lets wait until the new year. But after that, it's probably time for him to start spending more time with other kids, at least once or twice a week to start. He's absolutely fascinated and loves to play with them (and steal their toys), and it's interesting to see their social dynamics play out when the parents just stand back and observe. Overall he's been having a good time spending the days with papa, doing who knows what (I would be insane by now so kudos to Josh for having survived the daily grind for this long!).

Elliot's latest few developments are that he enjoys CLIMBING things, like the coffee table, chairs, stairs, basically anything he could grip and hoist himself up on. He's also saying 'uh-oh' lately, I'm not really sure where he picked that up, we didn't really say it all that much. He also likes kicking. I blame papa for all that futbol training, now he deliberately kicks at things like the couch, me, the cats, toys, etc.. and the whole 'sternly saying Elliot don't do that!' thing doesn't really work, he just laughs and kicks again, is a little tap on the tush really that bad? I dunno, but discipline sure ain't easy, I wonder if it gets harder or easier when he reaches an age when I'm more certain he does actually understand what I'm saying. Oh and he also loves singing, usually when rolling in the stroller or trying to fall asleep, and of course continuing to dance at ANY musical opportunity.

Pacifier-wise, we've gotten to a point where he basically only uses it for sleeping, which is pretty impressive for 15 months, or is it? I don't really know, but I know pacifier package labels cut off at 18months so that's our goal: to be 100% pacifier-free by then, 2.5 months to go! I think we can do it, imagine if we were those weirdo parents who's 4 year-old still needs one? 

As the weather cools down it's going to get a little tougher to entertain him indoors all day, going outside is usually the remedy for antsy behavior, so we'll need to get creative with our indoor entertainment so advice is welcome here!

Finally, as the day of giving thanks is upon us, I just want to share how grateful I am for all the good things in my life from family to friendships to career, I truly appreciate how lucky I am and I hope you are too, wherever you are in life. Happy Thanksgiving!

Cute pics

I've said it before and I'll say it again, THIS is the most fun age Elliot has ever been! He's babbling all the time (doobe-doobe-doo), copying our behavior, adding new moves like spinning to his expanding array of dance styles, interacting with other kids at the park, doing the downward dog yoga pose when he's upset, and generally doing more fun stuff.

Elliot sings

We knew it was only a matter of time before he discovered where the REAL glory is!




Apparently our apartment is the perfect musical laboratory for future minstrels :)

My kid is cooler than yours

Just another reason Elliot is awesome :)

The boys jammin in their underwear

Ahh, these are the moments I rarely capture, here's the boys jammin in their underwear. Elliot is a virtuoso in the making!

He catches me filming in the first one.



And part 2, Elliot falls at the end but don't worry, he's ok :)



And here's a slightly longer one I call 'will dance for snacks'.

Growing independence

Look at this little guy, he's starting look less and less like a baby and more like... a little boy! Can you tell he got a little bang trim? Yeah we didn't want to do it but those frontal locks were getting in his eyes all the time so i just gave him a little snip in the front, don't worry the golden side curls were left untouched!!

Lately Elliot wants to do all sorts of things on his own, like playing the piano. He uses a small instrument case as a step-ladder and man, does he get into it! He sways and bops his head to the rhythm and he really gets groovin'. In case you haven't seen this phenomenon yet, he also LOVES to dance, he'll easily dance to music that you put on, that's a given. But he also dances to his musical toys, rap music we hear from a passing car on the street, a musical cell phone ring,  background music in a movie, I mean any sort of music at all will get him shaking his little hips and moving to the beat. He's his father's son that one :)

Another thing he likes to do on his own is walking, he's not much of a hand-holder and sometimes when we try to hold his hand (to try to coax him into moving in one particular direction instead of standing in place and poking at ancient gum stains on the concrete), he'll whip his hand away all annoyed like he's NOT a baby anymore!
Actually, pointing at things has also become a favorite activity. He's not quite speaking yet although there have definitely been times where we could have sworn he said a real word but I suppose we're not counting those until he can either repeat it or say it clearly enough so that there is no doubt whatsoever. Aside from mama and papa, I'm pretty sure he has said Isis (the cat), tootsies, hello, yum, and some other random words.

We had fun in the park on Labor Day, and as Josh confirmed, going to the park with Elliot is basically an endless chase in circles and keeping up with the owners of the toys he attempts to steal. I'm happy to say, however, that most of the other children are very generous sharers and it boggles my mind how they understand that he's a baby and that this means that he is forgiven from abiding by the rules of their social behavior when it comes to playing and the ownership of toys. I mean, 3 or 4 year old's will say 'it's ok, he's a baby' and will give him their toys while they do not allow the same courtesy to other children their own age. This is truly fascinating! Elliot himself has no concept of sharing or ownership whatsoever at this point, he sees big shiny ball, he must have big shiny ball, and will walk right up to another kid and blatantly and shamelessly take it right from their pudgy little hands. Oh the cuteness!

First Birthday!

Elliot’s first birthday was the bestest day ever! We had great food (thanks Jody!), friends and family, and great weather. Elliot was cooperative and took a nice long nap right before it was time to leave, and while he did that we were busily purchasing helium balloons and texting friends to come to the party. We haven’t had internet since we moved into the new place so while the original invite was hastily put up on facebook we had no way of following up and checking who was actually coming. We just texted a whole bunch of people to come to McCarren park in an hour! Oh, we are the worst!

Anyway, we made it, friends made it, and while unfortunately baby Joseph ended up getting sick the day before, baby Hunter came with mom and dad and the boys had a great time jamming.

Elliot had fun mingling, poking his cake and then shoving it into his mouth and then opening presents. He also continued the tradition of passing on the beloved shopping cart to the next soon-to-be walker.

We were relived that the cake actually came out quite good. We made it the night before - gluten-free chocolate with vanilla frosting - and in addition to it initially appearing a little dried out and misshapen we seemed to make it even worse when we attempted to apply the frosting and poopy chocolate happy birthday writing. We had us some good convulsive laughter as we used a ziplock bag with a hole in it for the frosting writing and realized that we should probably start getting better at these things. All in all it was the best birthday ever!

Walkin' on sunshine

Major announcement, Elliot is on the move! As you know he’s been almost walking for quite a while now but just a few days ago he finally took off. Now he’s walking, running, wobbling, teetering, and falling all over the place. This major breakthrough was just a couple of days after we moved to our new apartment which is more spacious (where he has his own room!) and I wonder if the impetus came from the new sense of space and freedom.

With the big one year birthday coming up I can’t help but reflect on where I was one year ago, at this point I would have been several days overdo, supremely anxious, and desperately trying to avoid inquisitive questions and anticipatory remarks. Every time I see a pregnant woman on the street I think ‘oh, honey, you’ll make it’ and send her telepathic words of encouragement and support. I’d say it’s been a pretty incredible year. I had a baby, I changed careers and started school, and I moved to a new place.  I couldn’t be more grateful to the world for its’ bountiful generosity and I appreciate every crazy sleepless stressful exhausting minute of it!

Elliot is growing so fast, it’s true what they say about time’s fleeting nature, it is relentless and unforgiving in it’s tenacity to move forward and leave us all behind. We watched some videos of him at a few weeks old, a few months, and even felt nostalgic for the ones taken just a few weeks ago because I can already see that he has grown and changed since then. It is a sad and beautiful and remarkable thing to watch a child grow.

First time at the ocean

We had such a great vacation in Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island), the weather was perfect, we had lots of hands to hold Elliot, and the fresh seafood was delicious! As previously mentioned in relation to swimming lessons, Elliot doesn't seem to be a natural in the water so far - and I suppose it makes sense being that he's a Leo born in the year of the tiger and in some ways has been raised by cats! Josh and I are both water signs so of course the universe had to balance this by procuring a being that is opposed to that. Anyway, I'm not really into the whole astrology thing, what I'm getting at is that he didn't quite love the beach at first. He was frightened and uneasy. The first day I tried to approach the ocean just to put his feet in the water he fervently clung to me and began to whimper. After some playing in the sand we tried to walk in the tide pool that was shallow and warm and that went over pretty well.

After a few days of seeing the ocean from afar he did finally allow himself to be held by dad as they went in waist deep (dad's waist), and then was ok walking on the shore when the whole group us was with him. I'm not quite sure how he'll feel the next time we go to the beach but I like to hope that he conquered this fear permanently. I sometimes have an unexplained guilt of raising my child in such an urban environment with rare grass to run around in and always surrounded by exhaust and concrete, my own fear is that he'll have a fear and disconnection to the natural world. He's a kid though, so I'm sure he'll get used to it and will eventually run around screaming like a maniac like most kids and will refuse to come out of the water even when his lips become blue and trembling.

While there, he also started eating seafood! We had tried giving him some in the past and for a while it was the first and only food he refused to eat but I suppose he thought 'when on an island, do like the islanders do' and he was eating mussels, shrimp, lobster, and other fish. However, now something has changed yet again because he has become a very picky eater. If it's not sweet or savory, he spits it out. He no longer eats any veggie combos, or beans, or really anything that isn't cracker, cookie, fruit, or chicken. You can imagine how frustrating this is, he just spits it out and turns his head, or swipes the food off his tray. Then he cries if we dare try to give him another spoonful. I'm not quite sure how to get around this, he acts very terrible-two-y in these instances, plus it kind of hurts my feelings because I spend a good deal of time and energy making wholesome and tasty food just for him. My approach now is to stop feeding him and do something else until he gets hungrier, and then we'll try again. Any recommendations welcome!

Steps are being attempted here folks!

What this kid won't do for a snack!

The Shopping Cart

Thanks to Julia and Tom who's baby Joseph has outgrown his shopping cart (although he did look very sad when we took it away), Elliot is now finally free to roam, explore, and go shopping! This simple little thing is really just the greatest thing ever, from the first moment he got his tiny hands on it he just took off with a pep in his step and laughter in his trail.

Since then we've basically been following him around as he walks up and down our railroad apartment. Unfortunately though he does not know how to steer so we have to follow behind and adjust his trajectory so that he walks through the doorway instead of into it and curves around the couch. He loves this thing so much if you try to pick him up when he's holding on he'll actually grip it tighter and you end up lifting him with the cart dangling from his little body.

Yesterday Elliot even had a moment of independent balance! As you may know, he loves to (un)sort the recycling, so he was holding on to the cart with one hand while riffling in the recycling box. He picked up a plastic bottle with the recycling hand, and then moved his other hand to it so that he was standing completely on his own and holding this bottle with both hands! It didn't last long, but I saw it first! This brings me some sense of satisfaction since Josh is the primary baby caretaker and I'm sad to miss out on fun moments, and especially first moments, so even though Josh will likely see Elliot's first real steps - which will happen any day now - I can still say I saw the first pre-steps!

Pure happiness :)