A Letter

Elias got a very exciting piece of mail this week. A Letter from the President of the United States and First Lady! They congratulated us on his birth and wished us the best.

I had sent the White House a birth announcement in the hopes that I would get a return and we did! Thanks to Whitney for the idea! You can click on the photo below to read the letter.

Reading Time!

Eli can't read yet, but he loves to be read to. This video is just to cute. Fair warning.


Reading from Kenton Kodner on Vimeo.

My Big Boy

The monkey is 4 months old today and has gotten huge! He's practically a boy. We're guessing that today he weighs 13 pounds even, making him twice his birth weight.

While he's still a huge fan of the ceiling vents, he's broadened his horizons and formed a strong friendship with the cord attached to the monitor. That cord is within reach of his changing table (which continues to be his favorite place in the world) and he likes to pretend it's a lasso. He spends a lot of his time naked and the vast majority of his sleeping time swaddled. His head almost always leaves a sweat spot behind. He's taken an interest in toys and has become ridiculously grabby. I've got little claw marks all over me from where a baby thought it'd be an awesome idea to go for a handful of my skin. If my hair comes near his hand, he pulls it with all of his might. When not grabbing things he likes to keep those hands in his mouth--both at the same time if possible. Oh, and they definitely go in there immediately after either puppy succeeds in licking them--because of course. At about 5 or 6 every morning he likes to scream/sing. It's a joyous noise that sounds a lot like a scream. He's got a smile that melts hearts. Is ridiculously charming and can't even talk yet.

1/3 a Year Old

My boy. My very big boy. Has two emotions, very happy or very sad. Still loves to walk his puppies. Wakes up everyday at 5:30am. Weighs in at a even 13 pounds. Only 25 percent of kids his age have bigger heads. Loves to put his hands in his month. Just found his ears. Thinks bath time is rad. Loves his Daddy a whole lot. Has a wonderful mother that has provided 110% of everything his little body needs. Learns new things everyday. Is my best friend.

a person that makes cheese

This weekend we made a big list of thing that we needed for some meals that we wanted to make. The plan was for me to go to a few store to get everything. I don't know if you know this about me, but I love to go grocery shopping, go about six out of seven days and shop at around six stores. I got a meat store, I have an Asian market, we go to Aldi's,  Dominic's,  Jewel and finally a neighborhood market.

I went to the neighborhood market and Aldi's my two main ones. Neather had one of the things I was looking for, ricotta cheese. To hell with this I said, I can make some. 

If you Google "a person that makes cheese" you will find out that person is a cheesemaker. Isn't that interesting? I was thinking of a cooler title like Sommelier for a wine expert, but I don't think one exists. So I am just going to have to refer to myself as a cheesemaker now.

It all worked out well and the ricotta was yummy.

The Kodner Family

Something wonderful came in the post this week! Our good friends Sutton and John had this illustration commissioned as a birth present. The artist Nan Lawson sells her work on Etsy.
Emily and I love it! We can't wait to frame and hang it on the wall.

Cause and Effect

Eli is starting to play and learn. Enjoy the video!


Cause and Effect from Kenton Kodner on Vimeo.

Handle with Care

This is a picture of Amy, me, and Megan taking a shot of Mama Juana, a liquor from the Dominican Republic rumored to boost fertility. A year after this was taken, Amy and Megan were pregnant and I had just given birth. Just sayin...

Another Year Older

So I had a birthday. It was unlike any I have every had before. Birthdays celebrate births. I don't remember mine, so the day is more just a time marker. I am one year older. I can say the same thing on the 4th of July. Maybe my birthday used to be my favorite holiday, but now it can't come close to the day that Eli was born. None the less I still had a fantastic day.

Patrick came over and watched Eli so we could go out an act like adults. I made him dinner. He did an excellent job and will be a very fine daddy come November.

Aunt Robin came a few days before my birthday. I think she fell in love.

We went to the zoo! Eli thought it was amazing!

Over-Sharing

What were you doing at 3:30 this morning? I know what I was doing. I was sitting up in bed clapping and offering words of encouragement as my baby boy made his first real poop in 5 days.

And then I poked his father and told him he needed to be changed. His father argued with me making the same argument he always makes at night and apologizes for the next day, "you're already up." I slept for some precious minutes and then I am not really sure I slept again as the little monkey was up screaming about every 30 minutes after that.

Maybe the curry I ate last night was a poor choice after all.

Eli the Human Claw Vending Machine

This weekend I went back to the master bedroom to check on Eli and Emo. Or is it Emo and Eli or  Elmo? (For the record I know that is not wight eglish.)  Elmo if you will will hole up in the morning and feed and sleep for hours. I have been told that I have to go back to see if anything is needed. Often Emo will get stuck with a sleeping baby and will need to pee. Maybe she will be hungry. Often both are just sleeping away.

When I went to go see what they were doing Eli looked up at me and yanked my glass's off my face. This was a first. Eli has held a few things and likes to hold on to my collar when in the Bjorn, but he has never just reached out and grab an object before. This time it made me happy. The next I will not think its so cute.

Today I walked Eli over to the counter and let his hand fall close to his binky. He picked it up all by himself! Life is funny. My boy can pick things up and I think its one of the coolest thing I have ever seen. In the long run this has to be a small milestone, but maybe that what life is really about.

Having A Field Day

I have been wanting to get to some of the Chicago museums, but I hate to pay to for them. In St. Louis everything is free. In DC everything is free. I just don't see the reason to go and pay lots of money to look at things. I would rather donate something, but being forced to pay seems wrong.  

Apparently 52 days a year you can go to the Field Museum for free. Some of the days are free because Target donated lots of money. The others, I think are just free. In fact all of the Chicago museums have free days. Today was one of them, so off we went!

Eli, Sue, and me! Things went very well. Eli was a bit overwhelmed with all of the new things that he got to look at. 

Eli and his mummy. Get it! Mummy! We did ancient Egypt first.

The Bushman. This was just after we got a fresh diaper. I was so looking forward to changing it. Truly. I knew they would have a family bathroom with a changing table. For those of you that don't have kids, one day you will know the joy of the public bathroom changing table.

Eli got very tiered from all of the walking around. This is him lounging in a nice chair he found.

A Native American Bjorn. I met a nice volunteer that was telling me all about it. The red bar is to protect the baby from suffocation if the board would flip over when the women were working in the field.

Nap time! (Edit: We also saw Aunt Amy and Eli was very sad that he slept through it.)

After we woke up we learned about DNA.

Then it was on to evolution and simple plants. I loved this diagram. In fact, we used this time to talk about Aunt Robin.

Robin is coming to visit next week. (We think? Robin, email me. love you) Eli wanted to have something to talk to her about. She is a scientist and has done a lot of research on algae, so we learned all about it.

Here is some more algae in a completely different place.

Fossilized Algae. Robin's expertise. Did you know that algae is Latin for seaweeds?

This was the hand drier of death. This sucker scared Eli more than evolution. He did not like evolution, but this was like THE WORST THING EVER! Kinda like a jet going off.

After about 2.5 hours we were done. Could not look at anything else. Also we were very hungry. We went to Potbelly's and  Eli hung out on the table. In the middle of eating, a woman walked in wearing a t-shirt that said, " I only kiss Cardinal fans". Eli was waring his Cardinal hat so I yelled out, "Excuse me. He would like a kiss." We both had a good laugh.

All in all we had a very fun day. Maybe next week we will hit up Science and Industry. It is free after all.

Developments

My baby has taken to occasionally sleeping in his crib all by himself. Previously all naps occurred on one of us, in the Bjorn, or sometimes swaddled on the couch. We had a friend over for dinner Saturday night. I swaddled him and nursed him down. He stayed asleep in his room for five hours. Kenny and I both had hands for 5 hours, and it was bizarre. We were serving corn on the cob and I was sure one of us was going to have to cut it off the cob for the other. I only checked on him about 10 times. Yes, we have a monitor. No, I do not trust it. Yes, I stand there and watch him until I can detect his chest rising and falling and I am sure he is still breathing.

Further calling into question Eli’s maternity, he is totally a morning person. He wakes up around 6:00 and begins his calisthenics. He kinds of looks like he’s marching or cheerleading—but laying down. He spends a good 10 minutes smiling and flirting with the air vents in the ceiling as they are hilarious. Eventually he will decide it is time to go walk his puppies and will pitch a fit until Kenny shows up with the Bjorn and leashes.

I’m in no way biased, but I am pretty sure my baby is way advanced. He’s got the neck strength of a wrestler. He has been successfully flipping over for a few weeks now. He can do front to back and back to front. When he does back to front he can’t quite drag one of his arms out of the way so he gets pretty upset about that. He can also stand with a little bit of support. I credit the months of preparatory kicking he did in the womb. Those legs came out strong and he hasn’t stopped kicking or flailing since.