Baulk Baulk?

On Thursday, Elias and I had lunch with Brad at an Indian Restaurant. I handed Elias a piece of tandoori chicken and asked, "Do you want some chicken?" Elias took the chicken and with a puzzled look, relied, "Baulk Baulk?" That's his word for chicken. It seems he was a bit taken aback by the form of this baulk baulk.

In other news, Elias is really such a happy baby, falling on his face doesn't seem to break his stride!

Accomplishments of the day...

1. Kissed his baby glow worm.
2. Said "cue me (excuse me)."
3. Very excitedly noticed and continued talking about a helicopter spotted during a walk.
4. Practiced standing on his head.
5. Showed significant, pointy evidence of a new tooth! Molar, top, right.
6. Said "geen (green)" each time we passed through a green street light.
7. Demonstrated that he knows what sounds a cat, cow, dog and chicken make.

Whew, busy day!

Overload of pumpkin fun!

This weekend, Elias, Brad and I embarked upon a voyage of pumpkins. On Saturday, off to the pumpkin patch to hang out with Oscar, Piper, and Charolette. Elias had loads of fun, enjoying the animals, riding the pumpkins, and, of course, getting very dirty! (as Superman, no less).

Today, we met with August, Sylvie and Eli for another adventure at a different pumpkin patch in Corbett, where Elias enjoyed seeing a variety of animals, geese, pig, rabbits, horses, cows, goats and chickens! He also had as many stones at his disposal as the eye could see! Fun was, again, had by all. Whew... what a busy weekend. I am hoping the pace slows down quite a bit for next weekend!

We saw our friends Trey and Khris today. Trey is 7 months and just so sweet. he has such a cool mom, so calm and confident! She's good energy to be around. Elias seemed to be really comfortable with Trey, even trying to get a game of peekaboo going with him from around the corner in their kitchen!

Elias, the cheeseball!

Elias is a cheeseball! When he sees a camera, look out for big cheeseballs flying right at ya! These three pictures are from our weekend trip to the coast. Elias had a great time, loved the beach and the sand. The beach literally made him giddy! And, of course, he ended up covered in sand by the end. He wasn't so much a fan of the hike part of our trip, but he did cheese it up really well for the camera, you'd never know it!

Brad and I have decided that Elias is just painfully cute. Today, his little faux low top black converse arrived and oh my god does he look beyond adorable clomping around in them. Tonight, he sat naked with the exception of a bib and a diaper at the dinner table and he was a sight for sore eyes, just cute, cute, cute.

Elias is getting so smart with the signing, as well. He is really trying to make different signs. This morning, I showed him the sign for toast and he tried it. I showed him the sign for grape today too, and he also made an effort. He has been making the milk sign more when he wants to nurse and is very good about asking for more when he wants more of something. At first, I had just thought that he wasn't going to be into the signing, but over the past few days, I am wondering if I shouldn't keep on with it, mostly because he really does have a short fuse and is very impatient. If he had the words through his hands to communicate, good god, please do, anything but the screaming!

Elias has been doing this weird thing lately, gagging himself for no apparent reason. Usually it seems to happen when he is bored in his seat at the table, but what a weird behavior, don't ya think? He hasn't actually caused himself to throw up, and I am hoping that he doesn't and that this behavior isn't an indication of a future eating disorder!!

Elias as Superman!

This Halloween, Elias is SUPERMAN! I made this costume for him...boy was it fun! He looks pretty happy as SUPERMAN, don't you think?

Oh, yeah, and by the way, Elias totally started walking today. Serious business, no more stops and starts. He's pretty fast (and quite a bit unstable) but he can really go fast for awhile without crashing into the ground. He also doesn't seemed to be at all phased by falling. He just pops right back off and goes for it! It is so awesome! Brad and I are both in awe of this amazing talking, walking little boy!

Elias with his buddies at the Pumpkin Patch

Duane and Jim are so loving and caring toward Elias! I love to see him interacting with them because he is always so happy with them.

Word verification

Okay, so it seems that almost every post, I receive some sort of weird, unsolicited comment from bizzarro land. In effort to not have this happen, I have turned on the word verification thing, and hopefully this will put a stop to comments that include links to porn sites. For christsake, this is a blog dedicated to my 13 month old son! Have advertisers/mass solicitors no shame?

Oh, the things he can do...

It has occurred to me that gee wiz, Elias has been doing alot of new things. He can grab my nose ears and mouth when asked. He also knows where my eyes are and likes to poke at them. He mimmicks me like a parrot, and of course, only a loving mother could translate.

Today, we started a baby art class. Elias was surprisingly well-organized and into the paint. Sure, he was a little sloppy, but he didn't try to eat it, like alot of the other kids and he didn't try to smear it all over himself. He appeared very directed and goal-driven. He really seemed to just enjoy creating paint-lines on the page. This, of course, as many of you know, is a wonderful discovery for me!! Even more incentive to finish the basement and create a little art area for the boy, our future Bach AND Michealangelo.

Oh, that's right, the whole point of mentioning the art class was that when it was time to go, I asked Elias to hand the crayon back to the teacher and he did! Of course, once he realized what he had done, he did have some words for me as we left the building, but overall, what a cooperative, supreme listener! Am I going a little overboard? Probably. He also tried to share cheerios and to give a flower to Piper yesterday, which were both very sweet gestures.

Elias playing with August at August's birthday party. 

Torture in the mouth, revisited

Poor Elias. Teething pain is back and came on with avengence. One day, he was his cheery little self, the next day, snot streaming out of his nose, drool covering his shirt and a grump in his bump as big as Mount Everrest. Poor guy, it's affected his sleep and demeanor in a major way. After weeks of working on night weaning, I've decided today that that little one just can't take it anymore and really needs some nighttime comfort. I feel better after making that decision. It's really been rough on all of us trying to stop night feeding.

On a positive note, little man took tons of steps this weekend. He walked from the depths of our bedroom to the end of the hallway, probably 15 steps. Today, he took more steps and I think Brad got it on film. He is just so close. I will be so relieved once he is a full time walker. I think he will be, too.

I hope his teeth pop through quickly, my sweet little bug.