Tooth update

As of this morning, all of Elias's first year molars have broken through. Three of them have all four points out. I'm surprised how smoothly these teeth have come through. And so thankful for Elias, obviously, poor guy.

If you're happy and you know it...

Elias is really amazing me. Today, I started singing this song to him. He clapped his hands, he stomped his feet, and he said "Rah!" for Hooray. Brad also noticed that he can name every picture in one of his baby sign books with his words! (baby, bird, cat, dog, fish, flower, book) He can say "cool," too.

Another thing Elias did today is that he went poo and pee on his potty!! This is the second time, but today, he actually told me when he was pooing and when he was peeing. Brad and I both agree our son is a genuis!

Trouble in the mouth and other tales...

Two weeks ago this Wednesday will mark the anniversary of Elias's first ER visit. While playing with his buddy Piper, Elias lost his balance and fell on his wooden kazoo. He puncture the back of his upper palate quite severely, it bled alot and I am certain it hurt quite a bit. He was a real trooper through the whole expereince, however. He was basically back to his old self at the emergency room, and only seemed kinda fussy that night. I think his mouth was sore, understandably, and he had a hard time having milk. By Saturday, the hole was almost completely healed and Elias was devouring a variety of hard, crunchy foods with no hesitation. Yeah! Brad and I are both a bit leery of the kazoo these days. It stays on a shelf and can only be played while Elias is being held by someone. It's probably going to take us longer to get over this one than Elias.

Elias has really been chatty these days, and extremely flirty with people. Still not interested in kissing or hugging anyone other than Brad and myself, but definitely interested in trying out his charm with strangers and others. He's saying "Hi" and "Morning". He's kinda a little parrot. He'll pretty much try to say anything I can say. He also tries to have conversations by pointing out the things he knows. For example, if he sees leaves, he says "leave" and gestures in the direction of the leaf he is interested in. He says "pho" for phone, "har" for heart, plane, and so many things. He can moo, bark, baulk, and meow. He says "Whoa" and "Ouch" just before he pinches my arm (not so endearing). He's really becoming a big boy.

Today, we went to the indoor park to play. He can now walk all the way from the car to the gym. IMPRESSIVE. We are still working on staying with mommy and not wandering off into the grass. While walking in today, Elias knelt down to pick up what I thought was a leaf. I was mortified to see he was trying to grab a hunk of dog poo, yikes, nice intervention there. By the time we got inside, Elias had procured a nice pine cone. In the gym, we saw Story and Liam. Elias's pine cone was sorely desired by Story, so he went for it. I was impressed with how well Elias fended him off, not with any malice did they interact with each other, Story just tried to grab his pine cone and Elias kept pulling his hand away. Eventually, Story's mom intervened and that was that. I would have thought the two boys would have worked it out just fine, with Story eventually getting the picture that Elias didn't want to give up his pine cone. I don't know why adults have to interfere so much. I guess some parents may have been very offended. I also assume Story's mom was wanting to teach Story something about respecting other people's property. Lessons to be learned in whatever route is taken, I guess.

At dinner today, Elias engaged me in a game of pat-a-cake. He started by clapping his hands and saying "pa-eee." Then he started rolling his one arm, as he likes to to. But today, he also chimed in with "E" when I said sign it with an E. Impressive. He's really growing up. Very verbal little guy.

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.

walking...

Yesterday, Elias was standing all over the place, in the water fountain, in the kitchen and all around the house. Just before bedtime, he stood up again and took two big steps! He's still quite wobbly. He didn't perform much today, but I suspect it won't be long!!

standing!

Yesterday, again while Elias was playing with his truck, he stood up in the middle of the floor twice! He was so proud of himself, gosh it was cute!

Oh, the things he can do...

On the word front, Elias is currently saying bee, balloon, berry (bear), dog, tree (bree), and baby. The other day, I swear he said kitty and star. He can, of course, say mama and dad and sometimes says nana. He can also say car and whoa. He likes to drive his ride cars around the house at alarming speeds! And, he can play the kazzoo, the harmonica and the flute!! Oh, he has also started pointing and saying "dat" at just about everything he sees. He can do the sign for tree, he can do a sign for airplane, and he has started asking me for milk. Yeah!

On Monday, Elias was rolling his car along the floor when, from out of nowhere, he just stood up, holding the car. I looked at him and said "What are you doing?" and he promptly sat down. Hmmmm, I think something fishy is going on around here. That was the first time I'd seen him stand up unattended without a couch or person's leg to pull himself up on.

Yesterday, Elias was waving hello and smiling to everyone. At one point, I looked at him eyeballing the people behind us and his finger was half-way up his nose as he smiled and flirted with the strangers. Funny.

Yesterday, he also took a step! He was standing arms length away from me and I said "Come here!" With a big grin on his face, he bounded one huge step toward me! He's just so great and fun, changing so much everyday!

Elias turns one!

I feel like I have been stuck inside a whirlwind for the past two weeks in preparation for my family coming and for Elias's big day. Now, things are starting to settle and I can take the time to reflect over the event. It was a glorious day, filled with friends and family. Kind and understanding friends and family who I was dissappointed not to visit with longer. As for Elias, he handled all the hoopla as though he had always been destined to turn one. He stuck close by his pops, but was friendly and sweet with all who wanted to wish him a happy day. Despite all of the practicing, Elias didn't blow out his candle and he was nonplussed regarding his cake. He actually hardly ate anything the whole weekend. I think he was just too amped from all the excitement. He was sweet, boy, was he.

On his birthday proper, we had his pictures taken at Sears. He is certainly starting to look like a big boy! WOW! And acting like one, too. He's just so darn curious about the world these days, pointing at everything, working so hard to eeck out new words, and more and more, being assertive and vocal about likes and dislikes. He seems so solid, I can't help but feel and believe that Brad and I are right on in our parenting. :-) Yeah!

Elias is handling the sudden influx of a gazzillion toys well also! It's just crazy how many goodies he received and how generous everyone was!

Both Brad and I wish that we could have spent more time with Shaun. It was just so hard with all of the party prep. I think we regret that this was our summer visit with him when we ALWAYS look so forward to playing with him and making sure he has a super time. :-(

Getting the clap

Well, he's got it, he can clap and for three days now. He is so delighted everytime he is moved to do it. His arms straight up in front of his little face, his finger tensely straight, as well, focused entirely on smacking the other hand of fingers. Clap clap clap, high five with mommy's hand, and clap with a big ear to ear grin that beams esteem for his new accomplishment.

Friday evening, Brad went to a wedding and I put Elias to bed. I usually don't relish this task as it is long and tedious and at times seems impossible. I've had a lot more patience these days and understanding for the workings of this little guy. Being around good mommas, like Piper's mom and Oscar's mom, really helps me stay on track! Anyway, we'd been at the sleep thing for 40 minutes and he was really fighting it. We were bouncing around, he, struggling to keep his head off of my shoulder, leans away from me to get a good look into my eyes and starts clapping. "Yes, I know you can clap now, good job! But, now it is time to go to sleep." I really had a big grin after that one. What a sweet sweet boy.

I've been working with Elias to prepare him for his birthday celebration. I sing the last line of "Happy Birthday" to him and then say, "Okay, now you blow out the candles." And, I blow in a very exagerrated way in his direction. He thinks it's pretty silly. He can blow but not sure if he'll do it on command. He's pretty much like a sponge now, though. Like when I do the four and 20 horses rhyme, he will stick out his tongue on cue, out popped the red bull... He's good.

Yesterday, when we were going to PAO, Elias look across the street and said "bal" at a bunch of balloons. I'm fit to burst with enthusiasm for all of this remarkable growth! Hooray!

Clapping for the lovie!

Elias walked around all day yesterday with a ping pong ball firmly grasped in his little hand. I think this is his new and first ever lovie. Cuddle up!

He is so close to clapping his little hands. He was clapping his hand to a block and then clapping two blocks together. His final hoorah was clapping his hand to his fist! It was very exciting, very very.