Eli's First Christmas

It's winter…that means it is time for CHRISTMAS

All these new traditions started early. As in December 1st. 

Eli got this from Nana…

 I let him open it.

 An Advent calendar! 

 I won't lie, I thought it was silly. He won't care about an advent calendar…but I'll humor her

 I forgot one thing. Advent calendars have DOORS. 

and Eli loves doors.

 We eventually decorated the house. Complete with giant Rodney.

 and a tree

 a very sparkly one

 and the living room 

This all sounds so simple, but seriously, it almost didn't happen. We were still moving in and I told Rico that I was throwing in the towel on this Christmas. Eli wouldn't remember it anyway, so maybe it was ok if I didn't put up a tree.

He basically said "I will stay up as late as you need and do whatever you need me to do to make this happen"

So, we had a watered down version of Christmas decorating this year, and I'm SO happy to have it.

Even the library got in the holiday spirit.

Yes, that is a Christmas tree made of books.

Rico's work had a holiday event too. They rented out the movie theater, catered in breakfast, and managed to get Santa there!

 with no line might I add. He was a little unsure.

 This was at the end of the hallway, so obviously we had to try to get a picture with it.

 With 10 days left until Christmas, his grandma brought these- to start another tradition:

 He opens 1 book each night until Christmas.

 He gets to choose the book and open it every night. It not only got us in the holiday spirit, it helped Eli to practice opening presents.

Next up: we broke out the Santa suit that Eli got from my mother-in-law waaay back at my baby shower.

We visited Rico at work.

 A lovely lady offered to take our family photo at the second tree.

 On the way home I stopped by my sister's work to spread more holiday cheer. He didn't look so cheery here, but I promise he was a hit.

First up: Christmas at my parent's house…

and ANOTHER tradition

Christmas pajamas!

We used to get to open 1 present every Christmas eve…and it was always PJ's to wear that night.

I think she did a great job.

 Lizzie got PJ's too. They opened presents (duh)

 Eli did more climbing on his presents then he did anything else.

 Yes, he is standing on one package to get to the next. 

Lizzie helped Eli open presents (thank goodness, or we would have been there forever)

 She loved her present from us- a baby doll to take care of when mommy's hands are busy taking care of her soon to be new baby sister. 

Sounds cute, right?

Um, well, we didn't read the box until we got home and were wrapping it. 

The baby sucks its bottle- and then CRIES when you take the bottle away. 

oops.

To wrap up the night, my sister read Lizzie a story, I think it was called "Santa Comes to Kansas"

It has all these Wichita and Kansas City locations throughout the book- it was super cute.

Lizzie got all excited when Santa flew over Daddy's office

 She was super into it

 Oh my gosh- this was when Santa was eating the cookies and milk 

my sister: "Look Lizzie, he's at OUR HOUSE, eating the COOKIES WE LEFT!"

 Eli snuck in at the end. 

Don't be fooled, he doesn't have any idea what was going on.

 He LOVED his presents..as did I (which makes sense since I pretty much picked them all out)

Some Melissa and Doug Puzzles and a puzzle rack 

Which he likes to climb on

 And a music set

Which he ALSO likes to climb on

 and Mega Blocks

Which he LOVES, despite the fact that he has yet to get 2 blocks to come together.

 He also got this rubber jumper cow. 

He was interested.

 So I put him on

 Then this happened. Yes, the box said 18 months +, I knew I was pushing it

On Christmas Eve we did Christmas with Rico's family.

We had breakfast, opened presents, has a marshmallow fight with our marshmallow shooters, and played Apples to Apples for PRIZES

 He was SUPER spoiled, as we all were. He got lots of bath toys/ towels, 

 TONS of adorable clothes (seriously, you have to see this stuff),

 and, as you would expect, lots of toys!

 Rico became a human play toy. He had a niece pulling off an eyelid and a son ripping off his lips- and he loved every second of it.

Next up, church and Rico's extended family 

(I don't believe in pictures in the sanctuary, so I don't have a picture of it, but he hung out on my dad's lap almost half the service and then slept through the second half. It was near perfection)

Eli was dressed to the 9's.

I was worried about mixing patterns (a polka dot bow tie on a plaid shirt), but I had been noticing that all the pro athletes and announcers were doing it, and I KNOW they have stylists, so I went with it.

He got that shirt from my mom for Christmas, so he got to wear it basically immediately.

We went back to the Great Grandparent's house to open presents.

Great grandpa helped Eli open his present from him and great grandma, and once he tired out great grandpa, great grandma took over.

 I love that at family events, Eli gets whisked away and loved by so many people that I often have no idea where he is. At one point, I looked over and he was just hanging out with a couple of uncles. 

There's something adorable about men and babies.

Then, last, but not least, Christmas with Rico's dad's extended family

He got to wear one of his adorable outfits that he got for Christmas from Rico's mom

He got to double team Megan (with his cousin Grace)

We opened even MORE presents 

(I'm telling you people, I am spoiled.)

Again, he enjoyed ripping/eating paper and standing on almost everything

 And he got the final tradition- his first piggy bank!

 His great grandparents filled it up nicely, so it was nice and stable for him to do his favorite thing…use it as something to help him stand

Ok, ok, we get it, you want to stand and walk around. I had to get this shot as they left the room, because his little outfit was just so cute from the outside too!

All these photos and events and you might notice something missing. 

What about our family?

As in, our new little family of 3?

There are lots of different ways I could answer that, but basically, 

that wasn't a priority this year.

We got him a gift (because I felt like he had to have at least ONE present from us), but that's it.

He didn't even open it on Christmas morning (he got into it a few days early and we let him)

Christmas morning didn't involve any stockings or presents by anyone.

Even Rico and I didn't have presents to give each other (he is building me something and he got tickets to a concert that aren't in yet)

I could say that we did it on purpose, but honestly, we were just so busy making sure we were able to get to everything else that I forgot that we also need to do something for us.

So, I dropped the ball on Christmas, but we had SO many other wonderful memories that I'm giving myself a break. 

I just forget sometimes that I'm an adult and that we are a real family all on our very own.

BUT, you better believe that next year we WILL have stockings 

and we WILL leave cookies for Santa 

and we WILL have at least SOMETHING to open on Christmas morning.

…or if we don't it will be on purpose, not just because I forgot.

8 months

I feel like I haven't really documented all Eli's tricks. I keep seeing other moms doing such a good job and I think,

"Well, crap, Eli can do that but I never wrote it down.

I meant to write it down.

I meant to write it down for a few weeks now.

 But how many weeks?

Geesh, when DID he start doing that?"

SO, 8 months:


Large Motor Skills:

So, here's what he is up to these days. He rolls everywhere. Not rolling over… rolling over, and over, and over.

My dad says, "I've never seen a kid use rolling as a means of transportation quite like that"

It's true, it is pretty impressive.

He locks eyes with his target

(usually something hard or dangerous, usually it is both)

then he rolls over and over, pretty quickly. He'll stop if he needs to wriggle around so he can get his angles right.

It's great and all, except that it has caused him to lose ALL interest in crawling.

Why crawl when he's gotten rolling down to such a science?

He's been doing this a few months now.

He'll do a little rocking back and forth on all fours (so we thought for SURE he would be crawling by Thanksgiving…ha!) from time to time just to tease us, but then he'll go back to the trusty crawl when he ACTUALLY wants to get somewhere.
Here he was on Thanksgiving night as we all cheered him on,

Then almost a month later it started looking more like this:

Rico's mom said he was also a little rolly polly.

Update: Ok, just kidding, today he crawled! I thought it might be coming, since he has been sleeping a lot more (it takes a lot of energy to hit those milestones). Here's the video of one of his first crawls, by a few hours later he was already substantially better.

He cruises…like everywhere. He LOVES to pull up on things and then use them to "walk". 

It is far less exciting when he does it in the tub. Yikes.

He also waves "bye bye" with his whole arm. It's pretty adorable.
Here was the first day he did it:

We're working on high fives and clapping- but he still hasn't quite figured out the whole "my hand doesn't always have to be in a fist" thing. Right now it is more of a hand touch.

 Fine Motor Skills

He uses the pincer grasp! I got overly excited the first time I saw him grabbing food this way (I think it was salmon). 

I think that using baby led weaning has been a BIG part of him doing this. 

He's doing some pointing and exploration using just certain fingers.
He loves to rip paper.
Into tiny bits.
And then put it in his mouth.

Social Skills

He plays "Where's ___" and can recognize "Eli" "Daddy" "Max" and "Papa"

(he'll look around the room until he finds them when you ask where they are and then he'll light up with a HUGE smile)

He reaches his arms up if he wants picked up.

He reaches his arms out when you are holding him and he wants to go to someone else. 

He recognizes familiar songs (Days of the Week, If You're Happy and You Know It, Five Little Monkeys, and All About That Base…don't blame me for that one, grandma gets all the credit for that)

He still loves peek-a-boo, but now he will crane himself around to try and find you before you jump out and yell peek-a-boo
He LOVES people. He can go from person to person without issue.
We think he might be an extrovert. He seems happiest when he is with lots and lots of people
He smiles with his WHOLE body.
He'll smile and then nuzzle his head in your shoulder. People always think he is being shy and hiding, but he's just smiling away.

Language:
Still babbling away.
Lots of yelling singing
He's got his d's. b's, and p's

Self Help Skills:
He feeds himself, but it's mostly playing with the food.

Bananas- with Flax seed to help him be able to grip the slippery pieces. Flax seed was a mistake. The banana turned into a paste and the flax seed into a harsh abrasive exfoliate when I tried to clean him up. He got his first kitchen sink bath. Lesson learned.

That's one of the main ideas of Baby Led Weaning (skipping purees), they are in control. I offer healthy choices from whatever we are already eating and he explores them.
I'm a fan of that- food right now is more of a learning experience.
He gets every nutrient he needs from my milk, so food is just something to be explored right now.
Like they say, "Food before one is all just for fun"
He eats whatever we are eating that is baby safe (Ie: he won't choke and it is healthy)
He KNOWS that when we eat he should be getting something to explore, and he'll let you know if he feels left out.
They say it should make him a less picky eater later: we'll see.

Intellectual

He's developed object permanence
Sensory play is kind of his jam right now.

He is OBSESSED with his reflection. He used to always like it, but it's gotten a little out of control lately
That's about it. Not too much to report here.
He does make THIS face when he is concentrating.

Physical Growth

6 teeth. You heard me right.

6

freaking

teeth

4 uppers and 2 lowers. 

I know what you are all thinking, "I wonder if she is still breast feeding with all those teeth"

My "teacher answer" 8 months ago would have been, "it's no big deal, he won't bite because the mouth has to form a certain way to latch on and the teeth are not involved"

My reality answer is the same, but add the words "on purpose" to "he won't bite"

Every once and a while if he is falling asleep and loses his latch (or if he is distracted/ticked off and not focused on nursing) he will bite me- we're at 8 times now. 

Does it hurt?

Hell yes it hurts.

Sorry, there is no classy way to say that.

But I give a quick little "Ow!" and the little guy makes up for his evil biting by the saddest little face you ever saw. 

He cries when he bites me. 

Scrunched up face turning beet red kind of crying.

At least he knows he's been an ass.

I know, I know, you can't call your baby an ass.

Well, I did. 

I feel like he would agree.

Will I keep going. 

YES!

As long as I can keep my supply up, I hope to keep on exclusively breastfeeding until 1 year. I'll see where I am at at a year and decide then what I think will work best for us. 

Maybe it is weaning off a few night feedings*.

*Yes, he still nurses multiple times each night. 

Like 4-6.

Mostly for comfort.

If you'll remember, the boy won't take a pacifier.

I'm tired.*

Maybe at 1 year he'll be going to sippy cups of pumped milk during the day and still nursing at night. 

I don't know yet, and I'm not going to stress myself out trying to guess how I'll feel. 

Height and weight…eh, you've got me. 

We don't own a scale, and his pediatric appointment skips 7 and 8 months.

He's "dense", how about that?

Not huge, just dense.

He's in 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers, that's about all I've got.

Speaking of diapers…he's back in cloth!

Thank goodness.

We were off while we lived with the in-laws (I may not be grossed out by the idea of washing dirty diapers in the washing machine, but I am not going to push that comfort level on someone else- PLUS I would have basically had to take over their washer/dryer and that is rude.

I'll admit it, I had gotten so used to the disposables that I was worried cloth was going to feel overwhelming.

It's not.

We have enough diapers that I only have to wash every other day (every three days if I can stand it), so it doesn't feel overwhelming.

We DID decide to use disposables at night.

Those suckers hold a LOT OF PEE

We also had to get used to changing him more often during the day when he is in cloth.

Turns out, we'd been letting him sit in a soiled diaper for longer than we knew in disposables…which is grosser to me than washing cloth diapers.

He's also been doing a lot more "naked time" to let everything air out.

Speaking of "junk", he is still fascinated with his. 

There is a lot of pulling involved.

He hates diaper changes, but that might be because I won't let him turn the lights on and off to make a baby dance party

There. Now I can feel like I have documented his life.
Except the baby book.
Oh crap.

Poop is Powerful

I have underestimated the power of poop. 

My child is a different human when he hasn't pooped. 

Yes, another post about poop.
My world revolves around his bowls. 

Evidence: I even gave up and spoon fed my child in order to get that poop OUT.  

(Eli does Baby Led Weaning, where he skips pureed baby food and goes straight to real food. It's amazing, you should totally look into it)

Point being, I turned to prunes. 

Obviously, I have a lot to learn about how to spoon feed a baby.

Oh, yes, the hair. Remember when I said he "turns into a different human"

WELL, that human doesn't sleep. 

 Ok, he technically sleeps, but he wakes up every hour, almost on the dot 

(it would be impressive if it didn't mean that I NEVER GET A REM CYCLE)

So, yes, he has some extreme bed head from all the tossing and turning.

He works it though.

You should know, the next day we did much better with the prune situation and it (the poop situation) all worked itself out. 

And yes, I did bathe him immediately after this.

Where he tried to crawl in the tub.

Sounds cute huh?

Until you remember that he CAN'T CRAWL YET.

I kept getting flashes of him falling face first into water and it became the most stressful bath time of all of my life. 

Which isn't saying much, because bath time is normally pretty entertaining really.

Those rolls…so cute.

Holy Crap

Pretty normal day. 

Woke up,

showered

played with the baby

had a family lunch date (Picasso's in Delano)

Eli went down for his afternoon nap

Eli woke up 15 minutes into said nap and POOPED THE SIZE OF HIS FOREARM

(in length, not girth)

I almost took a picture to send to my husband. 

I didn't.

But I wish I had.

Holy crap.

Literally.

That is all.

Matching Undies

Few things make me smile for less work than matching my underwear to my bra to my outift

 (all ladies understand this)

Well, add to that, the tiny bit of joy I get each time I get to match Eli's diaper to his outfit.

Welcome back cloth diapers, 

I missed you old friend.