pics

Here are just some recent pics we had.  With Dave gone, I haven't taken many pics lately.  But, enjoy these!  I'm sure we will have many more to add in a couple of weeks after our trip.

Fun with rattles

Eli's become a big fan of rattles.  He can shake them.  He can eat them.  Sometimes, he even likes to shake two at a time!  He is still working on using them more elegantly, but boy does he like the rattles!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

valentine's day pics

Eli was looking cute for valentine's day before we headed out to the gym.  He especially likes his kangaroo.  I need to get some pictures of him chewing on the rings.  Maybe next time.    

Dave also suggested that we put Eli down to bed earlier last night.  It worked!He slept from 8:30 until 3:30, and then again from 4 to 7.  Can't complain about that.  We'll have to try it again tonight!

Wednesday Morning, 3 AM

The last few days with Eli have been nice. For the first time since December, temperatures crept above freezing. Yesterday's high temperatures were in the 50s! Shelby and I took advantage of the nice weather to walk Triscuit and get Eli fresh air. Last night we even walked down to Monroe Street to pick up dinner. Colder temperatures return today, but it was nice while it lasted.

I'm writing this as Shelby feeds Eli. Sleeping at night continues to be a challenge. Around 7 each night, Eli gets fussy. Feeding him offers temporary relief, but he returns to form very quickly. Putting him down to sleep for the night hasn't worked well, nor has bathing him or trying to placate him in other ways. We are now trying to iron out a new wrinkle in his evening routine, in which Eli wakes every hour or so after he is put down for the night. Last night we gave him the opportunity to fuss himself back to sleep and it worked - he eventually did - but he is still up now insisting on another feeding.

Tomorrow (er., later today) will be exciting. Triscuit goes to the vet for his annual paw fixing. We take him there early, bring Eli to day care, work, pick up Eli, pick up Triscuit, and come home. Not exciting to the same level as bringing Eli halfway around the world, but exciting enough nonetheless.

Sometimes the cereal misses the mouth

As you can see here, the cereal does not always get in Eli's mouth.  He is getting a bit better at swallowing it, but it doesn't always work too well.  Nevertheless, Eli is generally happy when he is done eating.  Who wouldn't be happy if they were well rested and had a full belly??

Eli's growing up

I had this picture of Eli sitting in a corner of the base of the couch from awhile ago and I thought I would take another picture today of an older, more 'mature' Eli.  Hopefully you can tell which picture was taken today....

No rest for the weary

As Eli's cold lingers into its second week, it is taking its toll on us all. He isn't sleeping more than two or three hours at a time, often waking when he coughs. Fortunately, he is pretty good natured most of the day, but he is getting very tired and fussy in the evenings.

Tomorrow I will be home alone with Eli because Shelby is giving a presentation at a Global Health symposium. I hope it goes as well as my time alone on Sunday night, when Eli took a nap with me, played for a while, and eventually took another nap himself.

We also learned today that our trip to Chicago last week was successful. All three of us received five year, multivisit travel visas to go to Brazil. It will be embarrassing when Eli is speaking better Portuguese than us in two years.

It is already time for us to sign up for day care for next year. If all goes according to plan, Eli will 'graduate' with the rest of his 0-1 year old class and his existing teachers to the 1-2 year old room in August. So, like his dad, he is already shaping up to be one of the youngest kids in his class.

Lastly, our solid food adventure is slowly improving. Eli now opens his mouth - more or less - when we feed him. In a only slightly disgusting turn of events, Triscuit is also quite fond of Eli's food. We usually give him the last spoonful from the bottle. I don't understand the appeal. Shelby and I both tasted the cereal ourselves and weren't impressed.

Eli Dancing

Last night we had a hard time settling Eli. Our friends Sue and Joe were over for dinner, so we ended up dancing Eli until he finally went to sleep.

cute pics

Ok, here are more cute pictures -- including the one of Eli sitting in the rocking chair.  I think he is practicing how to look old and crotchety already.  I hope that doesn't set in too soon.

Triscuit deserves a post

I thought Triscuit deserved a post too.  As you can see, he 'occasionally' gets a bath, but he DOES NOT like it.  In fact, he jumped out before Dave was done rinsing him!  And, you can also see the dog superhighway in the backyard....complete with interchanges...

Eli's First Solid Food

The first third of Round 4 was decisive for the fuss. He had us on the ropes, swinging wildly and making us really tired. But the tide turned after we enlisted the help of "Mr. Swaddle", who kept Eli bottled up and ultimately resulted in a 7 hour 'knock out'. He only woke up once, after five hours, while swaddled, even though he was in his crib. So hopefully that is our ticket to sleep for the next few weeks.

Yesterday also ushered in the age of Eli eating solid food. Well, rice cereal in milk anyway. Video of lots of effort and mess for a few rice grains in his mouth follows.

Adventures in Babysleeping

I'm writing this. Which means that I'm awake at 9PM. Which is somewhat surprising. Thanks to Eli.

When we went to the doctor on Tuesday, she suggested we begin weaning him from his routine of sleeping, swaddled tightly, in our room. Moving him from our room would only get more difficult as he becomes more entrenched, so now was the time to make the switch. In the last few weeks, Shelby made great strides in putting Eli to sleep in his crib, giving us confidence that the transition wouldn't be too difficult. That hasn't quite been our experience.

Tuesday night Eli got a one night reprieve since he received his vaccines earlier that day. We started on Wednesday night and were pleasantly surprised when he only woke three times. Thursday night it increased to six times. Last night was at least six times, not counting the times that he woke us and we gave him a while to cry himself back to sleep. His needs are met - we are sure of that. But he is having a tough time with the separation of being down the hall and in a different environment. We've read that it can take up to two weeks before acclimating to a new setting...so we'll get him accustomed to his crib just in time to leave for Brazil in early March. Lovely.

In cheerier news, I did use his waking up as an excuse to buy Eli a really cool bird mobile. When you touch it, the birds look like they are flying above his bed. I'll take a picture of it and put it here, but it is nice.

Eli has also started, we think, trying to suck at our faces in a primitive, but highly entertaining, pantomime of kissing.

OK, enough procrastinating. Time for Round 4.

Too cute

We were playing around with a happy Eli the other night and captured these super-cute photos. I just had to share them.  

Eli has been pretty good lately.  He had his 4-month "well-baby" checkup, and he is still well.  We are now trying to get Eli to sleep in his room unswaddled at night.  He woke me twice last night.  But, since we arranged it so I can feed him in his room, it wasn't too bad.  I'm sure Eli will sleep through the night one day.   We all do, don't we??

Morning in America

Eli continues to vex us with his sleeping habits. Now he generally sleeping about 5 hours from 10-3 AM, and then another few hours after that. Shelby and I have boomeranged with our schedules...we were only sleeping 5 or 6 hours a night when Eli was sleeping less, but we've routinely gotten 8+ hours of sleep the last few, albeit not in a row. This inconsistency is starting to mess up our sleep habits. Though I was knocked out for several hours yesterday while my dental implant was removed and during the immediate aftermath, I absolutely couldn't sleep last night...and Shelby wasn't much better. So now we will face a day where we will both hit a wall around 3PM and want to take a siesta. Maybe we will? But if nothing else, 3-5 AM is a nice quiet time to get some work done...

happy eli in his jumperoo

I thought I would share a few pictures of Eli enjoying things besides gansta-rap.  As you can see, he likes his Jumperoo.  I caught one of his good smiles while we were jumping one day.  But, you should all be happy that I spared you from the "tunes" that the Jumperoo plays when he bounces.  You can also see that Eli was having a stare-down with his kangaroo.  I think the kangaroo eventually won.  Oh, and of course, a picture of a happy Dad hugging little E...before he had to have his tooth implant extracted.  Dave and Eli are now fighting over who gets their tooth first.

What to do when baby likes rap?

I like to think that Shelby and I are reasonable parents. We spend a lot of time with Eli. We study parenting books and skim new parent websites. These books and websites all insist that you expose your baby to all types of music and activity to identify their likes and dislikes. True to this advice, I've often put my music library on shuffle and let Eli listen. About two weeks ago, our friend Sue noticed that Eli seemed to respond most positively to...how should I put this...gangsta rap. 

I thought this was coincidental and laughed it off at the time. Now I'm not so sure, and I'm a bit worried that 'ho' may be Eli's first word. Tonight when Shelby left us home alone while she played soccer, I read Eli two books. He fussed anxiously near the end of the second one. I played a little Rolling Stones. The fuss descended into a near-tantrum. I then changed the music to the latest album by mash up artist Girl Talk. The album is essentially rap and R&B vocals overlaid on pop melodies. Almost immediately, Eli smiled. And cooed. And settled into an alert, yet playful mood. At first, I thought this couldn't possibly last. But it did...he stayed in my arms listening to the CD for more than an hour (by the way, my arms are killing me).

Now, happy Eli = good. Eli quoting NWA = bad. While I know that there is no cognition of what lyrics mean to Eli yet, do we really want to have our toddler swearing at day care? Or is that just the price we pay to keep him happy, and we'll deal with the sheepish explanations to his teachers and other parents when the time comes?

Eli in STL

I realized that we never put up any pictures (except the Christmas rollover) from our travels to STL!!  Woe is me!  Well, here are a few cute ones from our travels.  You can see that Eli seemed pretty content at my parents' house.  He is smiling more and more each day.

And, I have one note to make on napping and sleeping.  Although Eli is still waking me twice per night (gosh darn it!), his naps have been a bit easier this week.  In fact, I've been able to get him to sleep in his sleeping bag in his crib during the day. This is a big step up from having to swaddle him in the vibrating chair.  And, yesterday, I heard him fussing and when I went to check in on him, he had found his thumb and was sucking on it contentedly.  Go thumbs!!!!

Eli's World Tour

After arriving in Madison on Tuesday, Shelby and I realized that we are leaving for Brazil in less than 10 weeks - and we don't have a passport for Eli yet! Yesterday we learned that Kinkos doesn't take passport photos of babies, so we had to schedule a portrait sitting at a photo studio. Fortunately, Eli was wearing reasonable nice clothes and was in a smiling mood. 

The notion of having baby pictures in a passport seems silly. By the time Eli is even 1 year old, he won't resemble his passport picture. Yet, rules are rules. So we picked up the portraits this morning and submitted them, along with a mountain of other paperwork, to the State Department for passport processing.

We also stopped by the pediatrician yesterday. Eli is now tipping the scales at 11 Lb, 14 Oz. He is still very small for his age, approximately the 5th percentile.

Eli Posturing

The warm weather in St. Louis continued today. Yesterday we took full advantage. Shelby and I walked Triscuit around her parents' neighborhood in the morning. In spite of Triscuit's ongoing foot issues, he was excited to sniff the trees and explore a new area. 

Eli also had a series of new adventures. First we met with our friends Lauren and Jeff (along with their 1 year-old Elizabeth). It was our first time meeting Elizabeth and a pleasant reminder of what we can expect in about a year. We then visited Grandma and Grandpa's store where Eli was the center of attention for more than an hour. 

After we returned home, Shelby, Grandma, and I walked Triscuit and Eli down to the nearest playground. At first we had to help another family retrieve a remote controlled airplane from a tree, but then we were able to spend time on the swing, the slide, and the tall tornado slide. Gail and Shelby were a little concerned when I brought Eli all the way up the tornado slide, but that just heightened their relief when we made it down safely. Perhaps most importantly, Eli seemed to enjoy himself, provided I didn't swing too high.

Today was spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Shelby's friend Julie visited with Eli over lunch. Later, her friends Gena (along with husband John and 1 year old Leah) and Mandy (along with her husband Mike and their 3 year old Max and 1 year old Evie) turned the house into toddler central. Four babies and toddlers in the house at once was a little chaotic - particularly since all the toddlers were very wary of Triscuit. For his part, Triscuit was mild mannered and inquisitive. It was a good day to spend inside, as the warm weather gave way to torrential rain and gale force winds. 

Tomorrow we expect to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa. We might go shopping, or we might simply hang around the house.