Happy Birthday Elliot (tomorrow)!

I cant believe it has been a year already. Time really does fly! Elliot’s first birthday leaves me with mixed emotions. I am so excited he is one and I have loved watching him get bigger, say new words, and start walking. BUT, I am so sad to see my baby look more like a little boy a less like my baby. I suppose there is nothing I can do about that, so I will just focus on the exciting new things he is doing. His personality is really starting to show. He is very social and loves people. He is quite the flirt. I love it because when he sees someone new, he hides his face in my shoulder and looks up with them slowly with one eye. Its really precious! He can say lots of words. He says: sock, book, ball, and block…. all of those words sound like “gock” but I can understand the difference because I am his mama! He likes to point at things and say “that”. He tells Lexie to “sit”. She doesn’t usually listen to him… or anyone else for that matter. He loves to clap for himself and others. He also likes to clap to interrupt dinner time. He shakes his head “no”. He usually does that right before he gets into something he isn’t supposed to be in. He is very playful and love for me to build a block tower for him to knock down. I normally can’t even get more than 3 or 4 blocks up before he knocks them down and starts laughing.
People (mostly our parents) tell us all the time what a good baby he is and how happy he is. The truth is, we don’t know anything different. He is really happy and really sweet. He doesn’t really cry without having a legitimate reason. If he does, he can easily be distracted to focus on something else. He eats well and sleeps great! We take him out to dinner with us all the time and he does great. As long as we have food for him and don’t keep him out past 8 or 9 he is happy.
Elliot still comes to work with me. That is going well. I love having him with me all day. some days are more productive than others and sometimes I end up taking work home with me. But, I am somehow able to get everything done. Starting next month, Elliot will spend Fridays with my mom. They will have a lot of fun and I will have a chance to work uninterrupted. I think we are all excited about it.
Brian and I feel so blessed to be Elliot’s parents! He is truly the love of our lives. I have loved watching Brian be a great dad to Elliot. I try to savor all the snuggles I have with my baby but I am so excited to see the little boy he will grow in to. Tomorrow will be a regular Wednesday for us. Brian will go to work and Elliot and I will go to my office. Next year I hope to start a fun birthday tradition, but this year we will settle for cupcakes and a bottle for breakfast and a regular day at the office. I will try to get around to posting all of his monthly pics and pics from his birthday party next week! Until then…



First pic of our new family!



1 year ago!
My BIG baby!

9 Months

WOW! Im not even believing I have a 9 month old. Elliot is the joy of my life. We pretty much spend every waking moment together so we have become best buds. He is crawling now and is VERY fast. He is pulling up on just about anything and everything he can. He is pretty fearless. I have seen him let go and try to stand on his own a few times but he falls within a few seconds. He is babbling and says “dada” and several other sounds, but not “mama” :( . Im pretty sure he is holding out on me because it makes me crazy. He is sleeping really well and eating most things i give him. He does not always eat a whole serving of baby food but at least he takes a few bites of what i give him. He is sleeping really well and only wakes up in the middle of the night occasionally for a bottle. The Pedi said he does that when he is going through a growth spurt. I agree because he usually drinks an entire 8 oz bottle and then goes right back to sleep. He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. He has been learning to wave hello and bye bye. Yesterday he even put a sound to his wave. It was really cute. I tried to get a video but he wouldn’t do it a second time. He has learned to clap in the last few weeks and that is so cute. He claps all the time now.

We started going to a KinderMusik class on Saturday mornings. Elliot really likes being there and he LOVES the teacher. She is such a fun lady and sings and talks in a really high pitch and Elliot just stares at her like she is the most interesting person in the world. During parts of the class, the babies are suppose to lay down and the parents are suppose to massage them. Elliot doesn’t so much like to lay down. He is more of a crawl across the room and love on the little girls kinda baby (and by “love” i mean grab their face and pull their hair).

We went to an event at my parents church last weekend and put E in the nursery for a few hours. It was the first time I had left him with anyone I didnt know or in a nursery type setting for that matter. He did really well for the hour that he was in there. It is still really hard for me to leave him. It is really more of a problem for me than it is for him.

In the past month Elliot has been sick twice. We went 8 months with no illness and now 2 right in a row.

Elliot is starting to test boundaries. He will look at me and then race to Lexie’s water bowl as fast as he can to see if he can get to it before I come get him (he has only gotten to it once). At work, I sometimes work on my laptop on the couch so I can watch Elliot while he plays. He is really interested in my computer and is constantly pulling at it. So I decided this was the perfect opportunity to teach “no”. Brian and I try not to use “no” often, instead we just redirect him to play with something else. However, its really important that he understand when he hears “no” there is no negotiating. SO, I sat down with my computer ready for him to come grab it. As soon as he did, I took his hand, said “no” very firmly, and redirected him to play with something else. After about 30 trials of this, he seemed to understand it. WINNER? MOMMY! So the next day when I sat down with my computer to work, I was sure he would remember “no”…. no such luck. He came to me with a new game plan. I took a video of our interaction the second day… WINNER? ELLIOT!

On a related note… I have vivid memories of my dad trying to punish me and not being able to do it without laughing.

ELLIOTS FAVORITE THINGS
Bath Time
Baby Einstein
Anything Dangerous (plastic, electricity, cords, sharp corners)
TRASH CANS (really i have never seen a kid who is so obsessed with TRASH! One of the girls i work with calls him Oscar. He can spot a trash can across the room and be into it before you even realize he has seen it.
Andy, my bosses son. Elliot loves him and wants to be big to play with him so badly.

Pumpkin Patch

So I had all these grand ideas for the amazing pictures we could take of our sweet little Elliot at the pumpkin patch. Well… the pictures did not turn out so great. The outfit I bought was for “fall” but it felt like 90 degrees so he couldn’t wear it. Anyway, here are the pictures.
Elliot loved riding in the cute little wagon!
  Elliot really liked to eat the grass

best picture of the day
awkward pose but at least we are all looking at the camera.

I expected this pose to be really great. This is what Elliot and Lexie did for most of the pictures. She looked around and he ate grass.
this is the best one we got.

Monday Elliot will be 9 months old. I cant even believe it! time just flies by. I will post a blog on Tuesday after our 9 month check up.

7 MONTH UPDATE

Watch out this is going to be a long one…
I will start off with Elliot Updates.
·         Elliot is crawling… well he scoots around with his elbows… but he certainly gets where he wants to go.
·         He has 2 teeth! They came in at the same time right at the 7 month mark. He was a little fussy the week or 2 before he got these teeth and continues to try to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.
·         He definitely has an opinion! If he doesn’t want to lay on his back to have his diaper changed, he turns over. If he wants to play on the floor, he will try to slide out of my arms. If he wants to pull my hair or grab the paper off my desk… he will! He is actually a lot stronger than you would think.
·         I cant talk about how he is sleeping right now because I don’t want to jinx it.
·         He LOVES taking a bath, Lexie, kids, and tickles.
·         He HATES the ocean and one segment of a Wiggles DVD where the Wiggles characters are made into puppets. He is actually terrified of it.
I wanted to give a little insight into how I have been feeling about becoming a mom and all that entails. I started thinking about this last weekend when I was talking to some of my girlfriends about pregnancy and childbirth. One of them said that it all sound so awful. Why would anyone want to go through all that? Its really interesting to me how this whole motherhood journey begins. I spent roughly 6 months with uncontrollable heartburn. The kind that feels like acid bubbling up your throat. It made be cough and vomit a lot. My feet were swollen and I would get these excruciating cramps in my legs. Then, when I felt like I could not be any bigger, I gave birth. Actually, my delivery was really pretty easy. I don’t really have any complaints about that. Sure, the epidural hurt, but I would not have wanted to do it without it. So after the birth, they send you home with this baby who seemingly cries for no apparent reason, eats constantly and poops roughly 8 times a day. Sure, they sleep a lot! But only in 2 hour increments. So just when you have a chance to get into bed and doze off…. its time to feed again. Brian and I were laughing the other day about this exact scenario. After I would feed Elliot and put him in bed, I would get in bed and Brian and I would snuggle together on the far side of our king sized bed. Cowering with fear that the next whimper or sound he would require us to get up again.  That’s all in the first few weeks. Then, around 2 months, they start spitting up. ALL THE TIME! I really have become use to the smell of spit-up. I am not sure I have gone a single day without having spit up on me somewhere. Sometimes it’s a direct shot to my shirt. Other days, I have no choice but to wipe it on my pants… I know… gross. But that is my life. All of this sounds really awful. Why would people want to put themselves through all that? As I type this, I think back at the last 7 months with only joyful and fulfilling memories. I don’t even remember what heartburn felt like. I cant remember what a contraction felt like. I can only vaguely remember the cloudy feeling of sleep deprivation. The memories that are strongest are the happy ones. The first moment I held Elliot in my arms and he looked up at me. The first time he smiled. His first laugh. I love that I am able to see his personality develop. I LOVE (despite the fact that I am so behind at work) that Elliot loves to snuggle with me all day. He really is happiest when I am holding him. I love when I give him his bottle before bed and he stares at me until he falls asleep. I love that he tries to avoid falling asleep by putting his little hand in my mouth so I will pretend to bite him. I guess my point is that for each of the difficult aspects to motherhood, there are a million amazing experiences. I have a bond with Elliot that no one else will ever have. I am his only mommy! I may have a lot of jobs and responsibilities in my life, but being Elliot’s mom is the one I am most proud of. 
I know lots of people who are pregnant right now or who have just had babies. I just know they will all love being moms as much as I do.
I have some other things I want to blog about but I am really tired.
Goodnight!

SR71 – Sled Driver

This is a great read. Here is an excerpt from Sled Driver https://galleryonepublishing.com/sleddriver/

There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.

It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat.

There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn’t match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him.

The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: “November Charlie 175, I’m showing you at ninety knots on the ground.”

Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the ” Houston Center voice.” I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country’s space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn’t matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna’s inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. “I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed.”

Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then, out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. “Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check”. Before Center could reply, I’m thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol’ Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He’s the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: “Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground.”

And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done – in mere seconds we’ll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: “Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?” There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. “Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground.”

I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: “Ah, Center, much thanks, we’re showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money.” For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, “Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one.”

It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day’s work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.

6 Months

I cant even believe our little guy is 6 months old! Time is flying by! Here are his month pics.

Elliot Stats:
Weight:18.5 LBS 50th percentile
Length: 26.5 inches 50th percentile
He rolls over both ways and is trying very hard to crawl. Currently, if he wants to go somewhere he just rolls until he gets there.
Elliot is probably the happiest baby I have ever met. He is always smiling and laughing. He is just starting to experiment with his sounds. Currently his favorite sound is what we call his “teradactyl scream”. I believe it signals he is finished with whatever he is doing and is ready for something else. His favorite things are:
E loves his Sophie Giraffe. My friend Lindsey got this for us for our baby shower and at the time I thought that it was just another toy. In fact, I thought I was kind of a lame toy since it didn’t play music or light up. But I had seen her daughter, Eleanor, play with it, so I assumed she knew something about this toy that I didn’t know. Well, now I know! It is E’s most favorite toy by far. He loves to squeak it and chew on every part of it. He likes when we make it dance around and talk to him. I would recommend this toy for any baby. I just wish they made it in more animals.
Elliot loves bath time. He was getting too big for the tub that fit in the sink so we tried a few blowup type tubs that fit in the bath tub. We found out that if we just fill the bat with about 3 inches of water and lay him on his back he is perfectly happy. He can splash around and see his bath toys as the float by. We let him sit up at the end of his bath, but we have to really hold on to him because he will fall back.
Elliot loves having mommy hold him while he naps. Elliot is still going to work with me every day and I am learning to be more productive while caring for him. When he takes his naps, I sometimes just hold him instead of putting him in the crib. He sleeps so much better and so much longer when I hold him. I also just love those snuggle times! I have gotten really good at typing with just my right hand.
E loves his Jumparoo! He will jump and jump all day long. Here is a video of him jumping. When he starts jumping and gets really excited it’s because he saw his daddy. Whenever he sees Brian he just gets sooooooooo excited.
Sometimes when Brian gets off work, he comes to my office to hang out with Elliot while i work. I love this pic of them!
E love to go swimming. This is a pic of him swimming at my parents house. He love his new race car floaty. He tries to eat the steering wheel.
Elliot loves loves loves Lexie! He stares at her and tries to get to her. He is so funny. She just loves him too. Here are some pics I took of them playing yesterday.



Lexie is such a photo bomber!



We are off to take Elliot and Lexie swimming! Happy Sunday!  

They grow up so fast!

You heard it from your parents. You heard it from your coworkers. You heard it from the lady in line behind you at the bank. Now you will hear it from me.

“They grow up so fast!”

It’s truer that I have ever imagined. I know Elliot is still a baby, but I am amazed at the speed he learns and accomplishes new things. It seems like yesterday we were leaving the hospital, and now he is on the verge of crawling around.

Take a ton of pictures, and videos. You only get one chance. I feel like I missed out on some great material. It might not be a big deal now, but I could have used it to embarrass him when I meet his first girlfriend… or every girlfriend.

As much as I can’t wait to see what Elliot learns and accomplishes at 6 and 7 months, I miss the 3 and 4 month Elliot. It’s such a strange feeling. You want him to grow up, but you don’t want to lose the Elliot you have now. He is so much fun!

My parents used to tell me that I wouldn’t know the feeling till I had a son. Well I think I am beginning to understand, and to imagine that there is a lifetime more of this to come.

Remember, enjoy the time you spend with them because they grow up so fast.

5 Month Update


WOW! What a difference a month makes. Elliot is like a different child than he was a month ago. First of all, he is getting so BIG! It is so exciting to see him reach each milestone (even the really small ones).

I will warn you, this is going to be a long one. I have not posted in a while and I want to make sure I include everything.

In the last month or two Elliot has learned to laugh! It is a really cute laugh. Every day he laughs about something new. You should see Brian and I try to make him laugh. We have been known to do some pretty silly things!

He loves Lexie. If she is around, he just stares at her. He lets her lick him and she LOVES to lick him. I try my best to keep her tongue out of his mouth, but I have to be honest, I don’t always catch her in time.

He can now roll over from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. We actually caught it on camera the first time he did it! i tired to upload it but it didn’t work, so i will work on it more later.

We got a babysitter for the first time (who was not one of our parents)! My friend from work, Jaci, babysat for us while we went to watch game 6 of the NBA Finals! Elliot sees Jaci everyday at work she holds him a lot! When I left, Elliot had eaten and was asleep in his crib. I didn’t expect him to wake up, so it should have been a very easy night for Jaci. Well, Elliot had other plans for the night. He woke up and when I was not there to rock him, he was very unhappy. He cried and cried L! Jaci rocked him, offered him a bottle and sang to him (everything I would have done). We normally have him swaddled, but she couldn’t get him wrapped back up because he kept kicking the blanket off. So when he fell asleep, she just put him back in the crib… with no swaddle! Guess what? He slept though the night that night without the swaddle!!! Yay! So now, Elliot sleeps though the night (most of the time) in his crib without being swaddled! I check in on him often with the video monitor and he gets himself in the funniest positions. He will scoot himself to the very top of the crib or lay sideways. It is just so cute!
He loves to watch TV. I know there will be people out there who are deeply offended that I let my 5 month old watch tv… but… I DON’T CARE! He loves it and it makes him happy. He watches tv and plays with his toys while I work. It’s the perfect set up!
We are not really on a schedule. I can pretty much guess when he is going to be hungry or tired but i don’t make him eat or sleep at any specific time. At one point a few weeks ago he had the same schedule for like 3 days in a row and I thought “oh that will be our schedule” and then the next day he completely changed his routine. Right now, it works well for us if he eats and sleeps when he wants to. We are both very happy with that “routine” so until that changes, that’s what we will do.

We changed pediatricians. I really liked our old pedi, but I felt like he was not giving me the time and attention I needed. I realize how ridiculous that might sound, but I am a first time mom and everything is new to me. I didn’t want to feel like I was being rushed out the door. So we are now seeing DR Kincaid at MD Pediatrics. She is great! At the 4 month apt, she spent a lot of time with us and really got to know Elliot. I felt much better after that appointment. I am no longer breast feeding. This was pretty hard on me, and not really my decision. Right around Easter, my milk dried up. Elliot had been getting one bottle in the morning and one at night. I was nursing the rest of the day and during the night if he woke up. He had a couple of VERY fussy days. If you know Elliot, then you know that he is probably the most laid back easy baby in the world. He doesn’t cry unless he has a reason. I would nurse him constantly and he just continued to cry. I finally broke down and gave him a bottle. He was SOOOOOO happy after that. So for the next couple of days I would nurse and then give him a bottle. I eventually accepted that I didn’t have any milk and that the nursing was getting us nowhere. I felt really bad about it, but I had to start giving him more formula. I couldn’t just let him starve, right? Since we stopped breastfeeding, i have actually had a lot more freedom. I don’t have to worry about being somewhere where I can be alone to nurse. It has actually worked out well for us, but deep down, I wish I was still nursing.


Elliot eats baby food now! So exciting! At our 4 month doctor appointment Dr K said we could try some baby food if we wanted. She said that if he was not developmentally ready for it, we would know based on his lack of interest or inability to open his mouth and swallow the food. Well that was certainly not the case. He LOVES food! We started off with rice cereal, he was really interested in it the first time but we got more on his face than in his mouth. I went in to every feeding with the mindset that if he ate nothing it was ok and if he ate everything it was ok. He is still getting his main nutrients from the formula. After about 3 days of trying food, E started to open his mouth for every bite. Now he eats a whole bowl of food and then has his bottle before bed. He is only eating food before bed right now. He now eats peas, carrots, rice cereal, and oatmeal! He loves them all! The peas make his poop green and the carrots make his poop orange! So funny! Also, I am making homemade baby food! It is actually really easy and saves a lot of money!

Elliot has started teething. I can feel at least one tooth coming in on the bottom. Some days he is a little more fussy than others, but a little baby orajel usually helps. He is constantly chewing on his fingers. Hopefully that tooth with pop in soon.

Elliot might be one of the most social babies I have ever met. He is actually really funny. He will play in his exersaucer at my office during the day and if people come into the office without acknowledging him, he will yell at them until they look at him. Then, he just smiles at them. Its really cute. He also likes to have “meetings”. A “meeting” is when E sits on my lap while I meet with my boss and some of the other girls I work with. He loves to hear everyone talk and will occasionally give his input as well. He loves with my boss, Tracy chats with him. He loves her so much and has a permanent smile on his face when she talks to him.I think that is about it!

I will try not to let 2 more month go by before I post again.

this is how Elliot feels when mommy doesn’t blog enough…