It is so funny to be looking at Elias's once toothless grin and to be faced with a veritable mouth full of teeth! They are pushing their way through his gums like gangbuster! Today, while feeding him, he looked up at me and made a silly, open-mouthed grin, exposing his latest prize: left, middle tooth. My guess is that he will have all four on top before going to Ohio.
Elias and I are really having a good time these days. Sure, his teeth are still an issue, but we have found ways around the agony of the teeth. Cheerios, for example, provide a fabulous distraction from the aching gums. He can chomp away at the "o" like nobody's business. Music and dancing also helps. He loves to rock out to Dan Zanes! He crawls up into my lap and convinces me to get up and boogie down! We have fun reading and playing peekaboo, going for walks, and resting together. Again, I am faced with another moment of being so pleasantly overwhelmed with the ever growing love that I feel for this silly little dear creature. I am so glad that I am able to stay home with him during these days and watch all of his beauty unfolding.
We went to Baby and Me group today. Elias was a social butterfly, as usual. I've been noticing how hard he works to grab the attention of others. As the facilator was talking to the group, Elias was staring at her, smiling, and waiting for her to catch his attention. He is also very much showing distinct signs of object permanence, being very, very curious and committed to searching when things are removed from his sight. It's pretty amazing that only a few months ago, everything he saw, no matter if he had seen it a million times before, had a sense of newness to it. Elias is also still so intrigued by the other children and people and TOYS! He is not shy, he'll crawl right into the laps of other mommies, or dig right into their purses. He'll crawl right up to another baby and pat them on the head or grab their toy. He'll also gladly plop someone else's toy right inside his mouth, too. I always try to wait and see if the other parents say they mind or don't mind. Sometimes I ask, especially when he is so persistant and unwavering in his commmitment to mark with drool someone else's toy. I just don't see any ways of stopping it. Kids eat the toys of others.
Elias was also very entertaining during the group to others by trying to climb onto the underside shelf of a cart next to where we were sitting. If it weren't for me holding on to his leg, he would have definitely face-planted onto it! We had fun. It was quite and active time.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Tooth # 4
Yesterday, it was confirmed that tooth number 4 has pushed it's way through Elias's gums. Hehas officially taken on the looks of Count Dracula, both in appearance and behavior.
Today, at play group, Elias bullied a little girl by pinching her neck. He doesn't really have smooth moves with the ladies yet, that's for sure. While doing the Grand Ole' Dutchess of York, Elias smiled at me and out popped his little left top fang. Too cute! A truly precious moment. He really loves that Dutchess!
Today, at play group, Elias bullied a little girl by pinching her neck. He doesn't really have smooth moves with the ladies yet, that's for sure. While doing the Grand Ole' Dutchess of York, Elias smiled at me and out popped his little left top fang. Too cute! A truly precious moment. He really loves that Dutchess!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Elias is seven months old
It's so funny that some nights, when I am so excrutiatingly exhausted and have pleaded with Brad to "wear" Elias down to sleep, I feel so lost and lonely in those 30 minutes where I would have been cradling my little one in my arms and gently caressing his cheek as he drifts off to sleep.
Elias and I were playing around this evening and he gave me a bloody nose by sticking his thumb pretty far up my nasal passage. Impressive. He is seven months old today.
Elias and I were playing around this evening and he gave me a bloody nose by sticking his thumb pretty far up my nasal passage. Impressive. He is seven months old today.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Elias leaves the room
Changing Elias has become quite a dance. Usually, if we are changing a pee-pee diaper, he will climb up next the crib and allow me an opportunity to change his diaper as he continues to play with his Whoozit and exercises his new skill of standing up one-handed. For these trivial matters, he prefers to not be interupted from his work:play. The days of lying on the floor during the routine change are long gone. He's got too much to do to slow down enough for that. Lately, he has begun taking note that actually any sort of changing, while standing up or lying down, is just too annoying for him to bear. So, from the position of standing next to the crib, he will sit in protest just as I am trying to put his new diaper on. SMART little hard-headed stinker. In effort not to make a big deal out of his new protest, I allow him to move about his room, unclothed, until he gets bored with it and then I swoop in with something interesting and seize the opportunity to cloth him. It works in theory.
Yesterday, as Elias was tooling around his room naked, in between changings, he crawled off the carpet (kind of a new thing) and toward the door. In the hallway, he spotted Olive sitting on the rug. He used to have a thing for thresholds and rooms, where he was quite reluctant to cross over. Without hestiation however, as if a testimony of his maturation, he headed down the hall after Olive, who baited him by scooting away from the approaching baby monster. Pretty soon, it was just me, sitting on my knees in Elias's room, looking down an empty hallway. I got up and he was in the dining room by the time I caught up with him. I'm glad summer is coming because I fear that all opportunities for changing him are soon to vanish completely. Then, Elias can fulfill his destiny of being little naked boy trucking around the house!
Elias's other top tooth, one off center to the left has started making it's way through the gums, and brings with it a host of unhappy feelings. Really, the pain must just be tremendous. And, as if that weren't enough, teething also brings a lovely snotty cold! I'm sorry to say that the teething has driven both myself and his dad to hit the Full-O-Fat Rocky Road Ice Cream. I must admit, I've been eating it sometimes twice a day just to make it through the day. We'll all be glad when the teething has passed, especially our waistlines!.
Poor guy. On a positive note, however, Elias is really demonstrating some brainiacal tendencies. Like, when he drops an object over the edge of the chair onto the floor, he knows it's fallen and can look over the edge for the toy. He is also awesome at following the direction of a sound. He's pretty amazing.
Yesterday, as Elias was tooling around his room naked, in between changings, he crawled off the carpet (kind of a new thing) and toward the door. In the hallway, he spotted Olive sitting on the rug. He used to have a thing for thresholds and rooms, where he was quite reluctant to cross over. Without hestiation however, as if a testimony of his maturation, he headed down the hall after Olive, who baited him by scooting away from the approaching baby monster. Pretty soon, it was just me, sitting on my knees in Elias's room, looking down an empty hallway. I got up and he was in the dining room by the time I caught up with him. I'm glad summer is coming because I fear that all opportunities for changing him are soon to vanish completely. Then, Elias can fulfill his destiny of being little naked boy trucking around the house!
Elias's other top tooth, one off center to the left has started making it's way through the gums, and brings with it a host of unhappy feelings. Really, the pain must just be tremendous. And, as if that weren't enough, teething also brings a lovely snotty cold! I'm sorry to say that the teething has driven both myself and his dad to hit the Full-O-Fat Rocky Road Ice Cream. I must admit, I've been eating it sometimes twice a day just to make it through the day. We'll all be glad when the teething has passed, especially our waistlines!.
Poor guy. On a positive note, however, Elias is really demonstrating some brainiacal tendencies. Like, when he drops an object over the edge of the chair onto the floor, he knows it's fallen and can look over the edge for the toy. He is also awesome at following the direction of a sound. He's pretty amazing.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
First Cheerio, First Kiss, First Fight
It's hard to imagine all of the firsts Elias must experience in a 24 hour period. Certainly more than the three listed above, although none as significant. Good God!
Yesterday morning, I decided to introduce the Cheerios, since the doctor had said it would be alright for him eat Cheerios and green beans. I thought Cheerios would be more fun than beans. so, I soaked two Cheerios in breast milk. The first one, I crushed into quarters and mashed with my fingers and let him eat the mashed mess off of my finger. He's seemed interested. The second, which was mushy from the milk, I gave to him mostly whole. He was alright at first, moving the Cheerio around in his mouth. Things went haywire during the swallow, with gagging and coughing. Just as I was about to give him the Heimlich, he pulled through. The result of that experiment is too young for Cheerios.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to a parenting group. Elias fell in love with two of the baby girls from his birth class. He crawled right up to one and tried to claw her face off (I intercepted just in time). And, when he went to greet Jenna, she grabbed hold of his head and gave him a big wet kiss right on the crown of his head. It was very sweet. After that, Elias griped and cried for the remainder of the group. I'm not sure, besides the kissing, how crazy he is for that group. I think he felt a little boxed in.
Today, we went to a play group in the morning. Elias really had a great time. He was crawling into the laps of the other mothers and standing up, playing with toys, and just basically, fitting right in like a little kid! He went up to another little boy who is 5-6 months older and proceded to greet him with a smack in the face. The little boy was startled and cried. Elias has a ways to go before mastering play yard etiquette, I guess. Actually, it wasn't a very hard smack, more like a pat, but it's not a very fun way to be greeted, I suspect.
The down side to the play group this morning is that Elias did not get a decent nap in today. He also had a pretty major spill on the wood floor while playing with Julia, which seemed to have knocked lose his goodmood-o-meter. He finally fell to sleep at around 3:30PM, only to wake up with the most depressing little cry about 30 minutes into his nap. :-( He's still sleeping now, and I am hopeful that he'll put the fall behind him.
Oh, yeah, two days ago, Elias started biting me! Yowza! Talk about shocking pain! He's not biting very often, but enough to provoke intervention, which he feels generally depressed about, too. When I "pop" him off my breast, he seems very hurt and sad. I hope he gets the picture that mommy is no chomping ground. I think it's been hard on both of us.
Yesterday morning, I decided to introduce the Cheerios, since the doctor had said it would be alright for him eat Cheerios and green beans. I thought Cheerios would be more fun than beans. so, I soaked two Cheerios in breast milk. The first one, I crushed into quarters and mashed with my fingers and let him eat the mashed mess off of my finger. He's seemed interested. The second, which was mushy from the milk, I gave to him mostly whole. He was alright at first, moving the Cheerio around in his mouth. Things went haywire during the swallow, with gagging and coughing. Just as I was about to give him the Heimlich, he pulled through. The result of that experiment is too young for Cheerios.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to a parenting group. Elias fell in love with two of the baby girls from his birth class. He crawled right up to one and tried to claw her face off (I intercepted just in time). And, when he went to greet Jenna, she grabbed hold of his head and gave him a big wet kiss right on the crown of his head. It was very sweet. After that, Elias griped and cried for the remainder of the group. I'm not sure, besides the kissing, how crazy he is for that group. I think he felt a little boxed in.
Today, we went to a play group in the morning. Elias really had a great time. He was crawling into the laps of the other mothers and standing up, playing with toys, and just basically, fitting right in like a little kid! He went up to another little boy who is 5-6 months older and proceded to greet him with a smack in the face. The little boy was startled and cried. Elias has a ways to go before mastering play yard etiquette, I guess. Actually, it wasn't a very hard smack, more like a pat, but it's not a very fun way to be greeted, I suspect.
The down side to the play group this morning is that Elias did not get a decent nap in today. He also had a pretty major spill on the wood floor while playing with Julia, which seemed to have knocked lose his goodmood-o-meter. He finally fell to sleep at around 3:30PM, only to wake up with the most depressing little cry about 30 minutes into his nap. :-( He's still sleeping now, and I am hopeful that he'll put the fall behind him.
Oh, yeah, two days ago, Elias started biting me! Yowza! Talk about shocking pain! He's not biting very often, but enough to provoke intervention, which he feels generally depressed about, too. When I "pop" him off my breast, he seems very hurt and sad. I hope he gets the picture that mommy is no chomping ground. I think it's been hard on both of us.
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