Two things

1. Eli has quite wisely started calling Leroy "dog" and Jack "cat."

2. He has also started stashing his food around the place -- careful to put it where the dogs can't reach.  He keeps goldfish in the desk drawer.  Yesterday he hid a bun on top of a window pane and came back for it hours later.  Kenny retrieved part of his bagel from a cabinet in our bedroom this morning.

Our equal

Now that the weather is bad we always take our shoes off in the hall before we come in to our condo. We don't take Eli's off because most of the time he does not get to run around in the muck.

Well last night mister mister refused to come in last night until he took off his shoes. Its funny the things they pick up.

The naked book worm

There are two things my boy likes these days: 1) being naked (probably gets that from his father) and 2) reading books.

While my mom was in town last week Eli became an avid book listener.  He picks one out, drags it over to you, grunts to be picked up or crawls into your lap.  Sometimes he changes his mind mid-way through the book and gets down to go find a different one.  Sometimes he gets angry that the book ends and makes it you read it again.  And again.  Boy cannot get enough of his Dr. Seus and Sandra Boynton.

About 50 or so stories into Sunday, I commented to Kenny that the boy had become obsessed.  He said, "Don't look at me.  I let him watch way too much TV."  The last time somebody made me read this many pages in a given day I was in grad school.
 

Seven

1. I turned 29 on Saturday.  I feel much younger and older than that.  We celebrated by going on a real-live date (our first since November..oops!)  We went to the best restaurant ever courtesy of a gift certificate from Kate and Kyle.  I would like to go back there right now and then go again tomorrow.
2. I’m dropping one pumping session a month.  I was pumping 4 times at work and then 1-2 times at home.  I’m now down to just 3 times at work and will be at 2 next week.  This is probably slower than I need to step down, but each time I drop a session the extra time feels so luxurious, I figure I’ll savor that feeling.  
3. We took Eli swimming for the first time on Sunday.  He clung to me and mostly cried for about the first 20 minutes.  We worried a bit that we were perhaps traumatizing him permanently.  As soon as Kenny got out to go get dried so that he could take Eli and change him while I got out, Eli decided that the pool was in fact awesome.  He spent the next 15 or so minutes smiling at everybody.
4. The great bathroom remodel continues this weekend.  I’m looking forward most to the end of Kenny’s non-stop internet research on how to tile a floor.  That and my pretty, new bathroom.
5. Being a mother of a 1-year old is sort of strange.  Eli is significantly less physically dependent on me but has become increasingly aware of the cues that signal I’m about to go to work.  Basically, he sees me put on my coat and then wraps his tiny fingers around my heart and rips it out as I leave. 
6. Eli’s birthday and my birthday have reminded me there are some things I haven’t done in roughly a year.  I haven’t, for instance, painted my nails because I haven’t wanted to have wet nails and not be able to pick him up.  Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t left both him and Kenny at home to go anywhere other than work.  We haven’t been to a movie.  I am working on catching up on all of these areas and more as the situation outlined in #5 permits.
7. I have quite a bit to be grateful for. 

Almost smarter than the dogs

But not quite.  As I type this 12-month update, he is standing and whining/crying with his hand in the dog food container.  He has figured out how to open it up but can't quite reach the actual food and that is quite sad for him.  I just don't know how to comfort him.  I understand his frustration but really don't want to see him reach his goal.

In the past couple of weeks his problem solving skills seem to be improving and he is starting to play with his toys as they were intended to be played with.  He sat down yesterday and opened up a book and turned all of the pages (instead of just gnawing on it).

Of course, the big item happened this month--the first steps.  He still mostly prefers to crawl but will walk if properly motivated and the distance seems short enough.  His lady friend, Stella, was over again last night and he walked to her twice.  Will he walk to his mama?  No.  But Stella?  Hey there, Stella. Let me show you what I can do.

I think he's moved onto babbling in English.  He frequently says mamamamammama and dadadadaada and bababababa.  Sometimes he says mamammamama when I'm near.  I try to reinforce this behavior by picking him up when he does so and covering him in kisses.

My favorite development is the clapping.  Who knew this was a milestone thing that happened on its own?  Also, raspberries.  We often sit looking at each other blowing raspberries and clapping.  It's like we're finally having a real conversation.

Last Sunday we had his birthday party.  Pictures here. The menu included macaroni, applesauce, hotdogs and of course cake and ice cream.  The hotdogs were by far his favorite item.  The theme was monkeys and, somehow, he had a greater turn out than either Kenny or I would have had.

For his actual birthday, I took the day off.  He got to have his own bagel with cream cheese for breakfast and his own grilled cheese for lunch.  He also got shots on his birthday because I am a mean mommy and wanted to be able to go to the appointment with him.  He weighed 20 pounds, was 28.5 inches tall and has a 90th something percentile head (clearly required because he's so brilliant).

This has been the best year of my life.  Mamahood is awesome.

`

A Big First and True Love

My mama is in town.  This evening she, Eli and I were playing in his room when he stood up unassisted and clapped for a bit.  Standing unassisted has happened previously, but it usually only lasts until Eli realizes he's not holding onto anything.  I was pretty excited.

It was my* turn to host book club** tonight.  Our friends Patrick, Amy and baby Stella arrived first.  Amy had set Stella on the chair and Eli was standing holding onto the coffee table.  Overcome by the arrival of his betrothed, he went to her--taking his first steps!  

And I saw it!  Actually, Kenny, Amy, my mom, and I all saw it.  I had semi-resigned myself that he would likely take his first steps while I was at work and I would miss it.  Instead, Eli was kind enough to do it while we were all staring straight at him!

And it means that if Eli likes girls and Stella likes boys they totally have to get married now!  

*My turn to host, but of course Kenny did all of the cooking.  Everybody should have a Kenny.

**Book club used to be 3 to 4 of us girls getting together to actually talk about books.  Of course wine was always a big part of the club too.  Then some of us got pregnant and had babies and it became difficult to read books and also to drink wine.  

No place I'd rather be

1. We've got 18ish inches of snow and it's still coming down.  Naturally, I am working from home today. I hope to use my lunch break to build a snow structure of some sort.

2.  I'm currently sitting in my PJs, drinking coffee and Kenny is making oatmeal.  Am cozy and happy.

3.  Eli is eating roughly 50% of his cheerios and giving 25% to Leroy and 25% to Jack.  That's only fair because...

4.  I took 4 pieces of dog food out of Eli's mouth this morning.  He somehow got Leroy to abandon his food and then kept putting another piece in after I got one out.  May not have been on my A game this morning.

5.  Eli is now standing and taking the cheerios out of his high chair seat to give to the puppies and eat himself.  

6.  How do people have babies without puppies?

7.  Life is very good. 

My Jewish son's first Christmas

Okay, maybe I'm a few weeks late in posting this but better late than never.  We went to Kansas City to spend Christmas with my family and stopped in St. Louis going and coming.  Road trips are always soooo much fun, what with the two adults, two puppies, and angry baby in the little Corolla.  There is always much singing of Old MacDonald and listening to a CD of baby dance tunes.  The baby dance tunes is basically techno/polka instrumental versions of kid songs.  It's horrible, and Eli loves it.  Even the baby techno was not working on the way to St. Louis so we broke out the laptop and Baby Einstein DVD.  Eli watched it for a few minutes and then finally passed out.

Meanwhile this is going on in the front passenger seat.

And this on backseat passenger's lap.

We spent a night in St. Louis, visited Kenny's grandparents and had lunch with his parents.  Then we headed to Columbia for a quick visit with some friends.  I discovered they had a stock pot bigger than ours so I of course had to put Eli in it and take about 40 pictures.

I just love babies in stock pots.  For dinner, we went to the 'Berg.  It's a bar that's been in Columbia for a million years.  It burnt down while we were seniors and they rebuilt it to look exactly the same, only cleaner.  Love to take the baby to bars.

 That night we drove the rest of the way to Kansas City.  Apparently Eli wanted to stay in Columbia because he screamed non-stop for about 75% of that drive.  We stopped at Stuckey's for a diaper check and to see if nursing him would help.  We'd stopped at the Stuckey's a bajillion times while we were in school and driving back and forth.  It was funny to think of what a different place we are in our lives now.

When we got to my mom's house, she immediately began unleashing the stash of garage sale goodies she'd been amassing for him.

The spoiling continued the next night at my Dad's house.

Grandma is smiling so big in this picture because Eli is actually letting her hold him.  He's just working on coming out of a big stranger/separation anxiety phase.

He wasn't too happy while his Uncle Zack tried to hold him.  We even tried placating him with Kenny's glasses (his all-time favorite object).

On Christmas Day Eli agreed to be happy in my dad's lap too.   

No trip to KC is complete without some barbecue.  Since he loves meat so much, we didn't feel right eating it in front of him and not letting him partake.  Questionable parental judgement?  Maybe.

We also went to Winstead's and had lunch with his cousin Harrison and Harrison's mom, Erin.  Eli went on to eat half of Harrison's lunch.  Apparently we need to start ordering him kids' meals when we go out.

When we got back to Chicago, we unloaded all our bags and such into the living room.  Eli spotted his box of Cheerios and decided to help himself.

While in Kansas City, Eli picked up a cold which he was kind enough to share with me.  We ended up canceling our NYE plans with our friends who have an itty bitty baby.  Eli did not stay awake to see the ball drop.

Better luck next year.

9 months in, 9 months out

It's official.  Eli has been alive long enough to gestate a whole other person.  We know this for sure as he's been alive for pretty much exactly our friend Amy's entire pregnancy and now we have little Stella on the outside.  

I'm a week late in posting this update, but he had his 9-month check-up this morning so it still counts.  He was 17 lb, 11 oz and 27inches.  This makes him itty bitty if you look at the CDC's growth chart which has a majority of formula-fed babies or fairly awesome if you look at the WHO's breastfed baby only chart.  His head remains in the 75th percentile, which I take to mean he's really smart.

He first pulled himself up around Halloween.  I feel like he's figured out how to do a ton of things in the last week.  His room has a mattress on the floor where he takes most of his naps.  Yesterday, while we were playing, he figured out how to climb off the mattress (feet first) then got himself over to his play table/toy thingy and pulled himself up to play on it.  He played for a while before cruising (walking while holding onto the mattress) over to his daddy.  When properly motivated (by say, his daddy's glasses) he can even climb back up onto the mattress.  A few minutes ago he stood unassisted.  He can definitely go from laying to sitting to standing to sitting to laying.  His crawl isn't exactly textbook or beautiful.  It's mostly a series of thrashes that accomplish the goal of getting from A to B.  I hear there are no medals for crawling really well though, so we should be good.  Ooh and he can problem solve.  As you would expect, he's not a fan of the gloves we make him wear.  Yesterday, he figured out how to do something about it.  He bit off one glove and used the free hand to remove the other glove.  

Now that he's figured out how to move, it is all he wants to do.  Must stand! Must get to dangerous and/or expensive thing over there!  Must have total disregard for the safety of my head!  I know it's only going to get more exciting from here on.  And more challenging to change his diaper.  

We've also made the transition from pureed food to finger food.  This works well for him since he has SIX teeth.  What baby needs six teeth?  Mostly, he really wants to eat whatever we are eating and we accomodate when we can.  While we were in St. Louis with Kenny's parents last week, I'm pretty sure he consumed his weight in turkey.  The boy loves meat.  One night we ate steak and made the mistake of giving him his first taste.  I'm pretty sure Kenny basically split his with Eli.  After each bite he would grunt and reach for more.  

Baby boy is turning into a little person.  Maybe next month he'll be potty trained :-).

This last picture is best if you imagine him talking with a New York accent.

Crazy 8

This last month has been a busy one, as evidenced by my lack of posting.  My mom visited, we went to DC for Molly's wedding, we had our big annual conference at work, and this weekend we are in St. Louis to celebrate Eli's great grandfather's 90th birthday.  I was generally swamped with work and spent many nights in weird positions attempting to get Eli back to sleep and work on work at the same time.  

My 8-month-old baby is a big mama's boy.  He's been weary of anybody who is not mom or dad.  It makes us feel loved but makes it very difficult to share him.

He expresses joy with his entire body.  He opens his mouth for big, big smiles, flaps his arms and legs, and squeals.  When he sees me, he often starts panting.  It's possible he hangs out with puppies too much.  We kiss him lots and he's started returning the favor.  At least I think he's trying to return the favor.  He puts his open wet mouth on our faces and holds it there for a moment or two.

Speaking of his mouth, he is up to 4 teeth--his bottom middle two and the two next to the top middles ones.  We're pretty sure he's working on about 4 more.

We've more fully committed to this whole solid food eating business.  We kept forgetting for a while.  Does that make us bad parents?  His favorite is plums.  On the train ride back from St. Louis on Sunday we  let him try a wee piece of his first cheese--Tillamook cheddar.  He approached it with much wonder, as one would expect.  He also had his first meat this weekend, chicken with apple compote.  We make most of his food but opted to purchase the liquid meat.  

He has become increasingly mobile.  He crawls backwards, can rotate himself 360 degrees, roll, and generally lunge and slither in the direction he wants to go.  If he could figure out that he needs to put his knees down, he'd be crawling.  Instead he sort of puts his feet and head on the ground, butt in the air and tries to will himself forward.  He's finally over standing and become a much bigger fan of sitting than he used to be.  Mostly he likes to sit and lean forward and lunge his head forward for face plants.  

It's so exciting seeing the person that he is becoming.

Boobs

My boobs took over my life about 7 months ago and have not relented.  I often wish life were more compatible with my need to feed a baby.  Every 2 to 3 hours (sometimes every 20 minutes) I stop what I am doing to work on that baby feeding thing.  That means I don't do anything (except maybe feed a baby) for longer than 3 hours anymore.  It’s all rather odd, really—though completely natural as well.  This is the part of motherhood I did not fully expect/understand/appreciate beforehand.  I also feel like it’s my most important job though and one of my biggest accomplishments.  It’s not a burden.  It’s not easy.  It is pretty magical.

Let's all move to Oregon

We spent most of last weekend in Portland, Oregon for our friend Lindsey's wedding and wedding-related activities. I was last there 10 years ago and it's even more beautiful and wonderful than I remembered it. Our friend Wayne's parents were kind enough to allow us to invade their home. They even got some of Wayne's things down from the attic for Eli to play with. This is his first ride in a highchair, and perhaps the longest length of time he's put up with sitting (generally prefers to stand).

On the second day we were there, Lindsey and TJ planned a wine tour complete with bus for a group of about 40 of us. Oregon pinot noirs are among my favorite wines. Splitting and skipping many of the tastings was a bit rough, but the outing was awesome nonetheless. Views like this were around every corner:

We learned that Eli has an embarrassingly accurate knowledge of what to do with glasses of alcohol. Regretfully, I do not have the picture wherein he attempted to fit his whole head in the glass.

Later that week, we visited a few microbreweries (breweries and wineries are just like museums, only tastier). I guess Eli is just in that grab everything and put it in your mouth stage.

After partying all week, some of us found it hard to stay awake for the wedding. There was a live band playing a few feet from him, but he remained fairly dead to the world throughout. He even allowed himself to be passed from lap to lap so mama and daddy could get a few dances in. This is Eli in one of his brief moments of wakefulness during the reception. I believe he awoke to express surprise or disgust with the band's song choice.

As we were leaving, the bride even let him chew on her French-manicured finger tip. That's love.

While waiting for our flight in the Portland airport, Kenny finally did it. He ate a Baconator.

So, let's do it. Let's all move to Portland. Part of the reason we moved to Chicago was to be closer to family so we can't just pick up and move to Portland--but we can if you all come with us!

A new cry

My industrious little baby has found a new reason to cry this week. He's taken to crying because he can't crawl. Patience is not currently his strong suit.

He's been happily playing in his crib. Three times now I've left him in there wiggling on his back and playing with his feet and come back two minutes later to find him on the other side of the crib, sort of up on all fours and pissed because he can't go forward. He looks up at me and then drops his head and cries some more. I really don't know what to do in this situation. I know he knows how to flip himself back onto his back, and he's not going to learn how to crawl if I pick him up with these cries. He just gets so sad and frustrated. I've taken to cheering him on, but I don't think he understands the encouragement.

Ah, traveling with an infant

I wrote half this post two weeks ago, thought I'd go ahead and finish it.

I was not at all concerned about traveling with an infant when I made my reservation. I always under-pack. Whereas most people are afraid they are going to forget something they need, I am usually afraid of carrying something I might not need. I’m usually also afraid of getting to the airport too early. If I can walk up to the gate as they are boarding my section, I consider the venture a success. Things were a bit different this time.

I did manage to pack pretty lightly. I had a baby, a bjorn, a diaper bag, and a rolling carry-on bag. The de-bjorning and re-bjorning to get through security was a bit tricky. Everybody’s advice before the trip was to nurse through take-off and landing and to bring a change of clothes for myself. Many people told me to bring a change of shirt for myself because apparently blow-outs are very common . My baby doesn’t poop though, so that was not a problem.

The journey to DC was fairly uneventful. Security was predictably difficult but people were uber understanding and several let me cut and lifted and pushed my bags without even asking. We had a 30 minute delay once we got on the plane, but Eli thought that would just be an awesome time to take a nap. He thought most of the flight was an awesome time to take a nap in fact. My cheapness led me to choose a flight into one of the less convenient airports. We took a bus to a train to get into the city and went straight to happy hour to meet up with friends. Though Eli has been to bars before, this was his first happy hour experience and he didn't totally catch on to the "happy" part.

I volunteered Megan and I to get the wine for Molly's party. A task that I thought would take about 2 hours. Between stopping to feed us, feed the babies, and a series of other seemingly minor tasks the outing lasted more like 4 or 5 hours. Oops! Oh, and Eli was pretty much just pissed off throughout because I was just not managing to get him his naps and eatings at the right times. I was used to the delays that a baby causes. Much like we were surprised to find out that having two dogs is actually twice the work of having one dog, I was surprised to find that two babies meant twice the delays of one baby. Who knew? The image of Megan and I trekking around DC with babies strapped to our chests, umbrellas, and heavy shopping bags will stay with me for quite some time though.

The shower and bachelorette party were a huge success. We hosted the shower in our hotel room. Everybody fit, the babies obliged, games were played, many bottles of wine were consumed, and it was hard to get people out of the room and onto the bar for the next segment of the night. Two friends were kind enough to babysit because nothing makes a bachelorette party more lame than when two of the hostesses bring their babies to the bars.

Some really awesome friends managed to borrow a car seat so that they could drive Eli and I to the airport on Sunday. Eli slept most of the way there. Things were looking good. And then. I got to the airport check-in counter. The nice man there was unable to find my ticket with my ID. He asked for my itinerary thingy, and it was then that he pointed out my ticket back to Chicago was for the day before. Straight out of an anxiety dream. I just stood there in disbelief. What? No. What? There, written clear as day on my itinerary it said Saturday. Massive fail. He said there were only two more flights to Chicago that night and they both said they were oversold. He got me on standby and told me that if I did not get on one of those tonight he would see me in the morning as he would be the one working then too. I told him I sincerely hoped I would not see him tomorrow. He took pity on me and waived the fee because Southwest is nice. In a state of shock I sort of ran through security too frazzled to figure out if I had a lot or little time to get to the gate. Eli started screaming as if on cue and the airport lady let us go ahead to the front of the line. I called Kenny on the verge of tears and told him we might not make it home that night. I got to the gate and realized we had almost two hours until our first chance at a flight. Eli stepped up and decided to be in an excellent mood while we waited. He ate, he slept, he made adorable sounds. Predictably, we did not make it onto the first flight. I called Molly and started figuring out how I'd get to her house and get to the airport the next morning. When they began boarding for the second flight I got cautiously optimistic when he described the flight as "full" and not "completely full" as he had the previous flight. I changed Eli's diaper and packed us up for the 3rd or 4th time that evening. We headed to the ticket counter and Eli growled and grunted (but in a happy way) as we waited for the guy to figure out if we could get on. He handed me a boarding pass, and I nearly jumped over the counter to kiss him. I couldn't stop smiling as I boarded, and was not at all unhappy to get one of the few remaining seats which was of course a middle seat. Eli rested his feet on the nice man to our left for the majority of the flight. He only screamed during the descent--probably because his little ears hurt.

After we landed a lady in the row behind asked if she could help by holding the baby while I gathered our things. I gladly handed Eli over to the stranger because I am an awesome mom like that. She did assure me she didn't have a cold or anything. It's just really hard to safely pack up a diaper bag and put on a Bjorn while holding a baby.

Kenny picked us up at the airport. He made me drive home because he missed his little man and wanted to sit in the back seat with him.

5 months and he refuses to stop growing

My baby boy turned 5 months on Friday. He is a very dramatic baby. He's over-joyed one moment and the world is ending seconds later. Over the past few weeks his coos have become these hilarious grunty noises and squeals. I'm pretty sure the grunts are his attempts to communicate with the puppies. There's a 50/50 chance he thinks he's one of them rather than one of us. Yesterday he picked up a new noise--it's like a coo but he does it with his lips pursed and closed. Video of that to come.

He's totally over laying down and sitting. He rolls and twists when you lay him down and arches his back and demands to stand if you try to get him to sit. He will occasionally get up on all fours and then get really frustrated and cry when he fails to move forward.

I wouldn't update you on his pooping habits except that it only happens once every 8 days. We were quite worried about it at first, but WebMD assures us it's okay. It does make diaper laundry easier.

He and Kenny still greet me when I get off the train each day. Once he figures out I am there he cries for me--probably for my boobs really, but they are attached to me. Counts.

He is very busy taking in his world. He will cry if he's not facing outward in the Bjorn. He has no use for the nursing cover and has taken to moving it out of his way lately. He can be entertained for quite some time watching the puppies. He has become very skilled at playing in his Baby Einstein exercauser thingy. He always hits the cow button 3 times to get to Old MacDonald (you have to skip past it saying cow and vaca).

He's grown increasingly squeezable. I can't believe another month has already gone by.

Milo, meet Eli

Megan and her Milo and Eli and I headed to DC last weekend for Molly's bachelorette party.

Technically this wasn't Milo and Eli's first meeting. They met way back when they were only 6 and 10ish weeks. Now that they are mature 3 and 4 month olds, they had a lot more to chat about.

Obsession

I spend the majority of my days working on feeding Eli. If I'm home, he spends about 50% of the time attached to my boob. I pump once before work, 4 times at work, and one time after work. I'm told some women are able to just pump twice a day. Lies I say. Lies.

Getting milk into this baby has become the central preoccupation of my life. He's gone on eating rampages a few times and annihilated the back up freezer stockpile I made before going back to work. We're now living on the edge with basically only the previous day's milk to rely on.

This is my Playtex pump. I've grown skeptical of its effectiveness. I came home early from work last week when I suspected it had totally crapped out and didn't think I was going to be able to pump enough for the next day.

This is what I affectionately refer to as my lactation room. There is one functioning outlet in this room, and it is on the opposite side of the room from the chair. The Playtex pump worked with an extension cord I brought in so that I could sit in that chair. The hospital-grade relic from the 80s I rented does not so I'm back to sitting on the floor with my back to the door.

The rental pump came in this awesome gym bag.

I've also taken to buying any herbal supplement people tell me will help my supply. When I was in the store renting the pump the sales lady sold me magic beans. Apparently Malunggay is all the rage and is totally helping all women. It also costs one million dollars, but of course it does because it works and is totally worth one million dollars. In front of the bottles, behold a sampling of the pills I take in one day. This is not including the Fenugreek pictured on the right. It made me and Eli reek of maple syrup and also messed up our tummies so I'm not taking that one anymore.

I'm not a competitive person, but I can be a very determined person. I don't train for races like a lot of my friends do--but I am going to do everything I can to make sure this baby's bottle continues to have the good stuff in it.

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.