Here are some recent pictures of Elliot, with grandma bea, falling asleep eating dinner, posing for the camera before bed and pretending to pour himself a bowl of cereal. Too cute for words, so see for yourself!
And then Elliot had fun eating some peas and showcased his pea obsession on seesmic!
(From Elliot’s point of view) Wow! Just when I think my body is the way it’s going to be for a while, something changes. I’ve got more teeth coming in - again! Starting to wonder how many I’m going to get. I’m getting what Mommy calls molars and it must be a pretty big deal because my gums hurt! There are 2 molars poking out on the top and my bottom gums are swollen where it looks like 2 more teeth will be coming in soon. I’m chewing on my fingers all the time and Mommy and Daddy keep giving me my feeder with frozen melon in it - yummm!! But nothing beats grabbing Mommy’s arm and chomping down - don’t get why she keeps jumping and screaming “ouch!” Eating really bites right now - I can’t chew my veggies so I drop them on the floor when Mommy isn’t looking and Marley eats them so fast no one is the wiser. But apparently Mommy has superhero hearing and I don’t always get away with it. So lately, Mommy’s been making my own veggie gumbo by grinding up my veggies like carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes and mixing them with brown rice and squash. The squash is like the glue that holds it all together - pretty yummy and all I have to do is sit there and chew! And I’ve got this new thing on my crib called a gummy rail. Mommy called me a little beaver because I’ve been chewing on my crib rail but now I can chew on it all I want without eating varnish, whatever that is. Mommy’s friends told her to soak a rag in peppermint schnopps and let me suck on it but she said if she was going to soak a rag in peppermint schnopps, she was going to suck on it herself. Schnopps sound good. Well, I will let you know when the teeth are in - can’t wait to see what new foods I can eat with those chompers.
During the Monday morning trip to Meijer mentioned in the post below, I had an observation. In our society, men are often prematurely and sometimes accurately judged and “executed” for driving Hummers or really big trucks that you need a ladder to get into, acting intolerably important with their Blue-tooth earpieces and loudly announcing they are going back to their room for a glass of cognac, of course revealing their ignorance by mispronouncing “cognac.” (Okay, the last one is a stretch but it did happen to me in Vegas while walking out of a theater at the end of a show.) But, possibly because I am a woman, I don’t often notice with equal frequency the obnoxious habits on the other side of the gender coin. However, I did on this day.
If you ever want to know where all the moms with young children and babies are on weekday mornings, go to Meijer. They are everywhere, yet it is still a surprisingly peaceful time to shop. While I was finding the humor in being surrounded by mothers dressed in similar clothes with similar expressions on their faces and realizing I was one of them in my lime green jump suit, I noticed one woman with children who stood out like George Bush at a Mensa meeting. I say “woman” because I will give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she was a nanny or aunt or friend who was babysitting although it didn’t look like it.
So Monday morning was just a perfect spring day and it was also grocery day. We usually go shopping in the afternoon after First Nap and Lunch, but the morning was so beautiful we just had to go out. So after Breakfast we got ready to go and had a great trip to Meijer, although I did have to bribe Elliot with a few Cheerios in the checkout line since it was just before First Nap. Elliot immediately fell asleep as we pulled out of the parking space and when we got home I thought I would chance it and see if we could transfer from car seat to crib. Of course, Elliot did wake up but was still drowsy and snuggly so I carried him up and put him down in the crib to see if he would go back to sleep. He has been doing well at that at night but it’s harder during the day when he can see everything. After laying him down, he stayed there and was still awake but he didn’t fuss when I walked away and closed the door. So I proceeded to pat myself on the back for having such a wonderful, secure son and went down to unpack the groceries.
A few minutes later, it was still quiet so I just had to check the baby cam to see if Elliot had indeed fallen asleep! No. But he wasn’t crying so we are making progress. He was actually keeping himself quite occupied walking back and forth in his crib and pushing the buttons on his musical turtle. I kept putting groceries away and thought I would do a few other quick things as long as Elliot was happy. Well, I checked on him again a few minutes later and I thought the baby monitor was having a seizure or something because the picture was shaking. Then I caught a glimpse of Elliot in the screen, staring at me through the camera while yanking on the cord! He was having a blast, completely oblivious to the fact that he just discovered the little spy cam that has been watching over him for the past 14 months.
While visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ryan’s house last month, Elliot discovered he loved opening and closing the kitchen cupboard doors - especially the ones that squeaked. Not even the least bit interested in the contents, Elliot occupied himself for quite some time walking back and forth between his two favorite cupboards, just opening and closing the doors. This weekend, I continued Spring Cleaning and spent both days working on the kitchen. I was cleaning the large lower cupboard next to the refrigerator and realized that all I was keeping in there were some cutting boards and a few canned goods. A little light bulb went on over my head and I decided it was time to give Elliot his own cupboard. So I moved the cutting boards into the drawer under the oven and made space in the pantry for the canned goods. I also removed the child-proof lock, knowing at some point Elliot would come along on his daily rounds to rattle the doors. Sure enough, he discovered the door opened all the way and here’s the icing on the cake - the door squeaks! I didn’t even check to see if we had a squeaky door but Elliot figured it out! So today, Elliot and I took some of his birthday money and went on a trip to the dollar store up the road to stock up his cupboard. We found a treasure of goodies including a lime green colander, a muffin pan, a round metal cake pan, a large blue plastic tub, a plastic pitcher, a plastic canister, a large measuring cup, plastic containers with lids, plastic bowls and an assortment of colorful plastic spoons and spatulas. We also found a small plastic mug with Transformers on it! We were somewhat practical, trying to find things that we could use later on like the muffin pan for paints and the measuring cup to learn about measurements.
After we got home, Elliot took a long nap so I finished up cleaning the kitchen and then got to work washing all of the stuff we bought at the store. I had it all put away and when Elliot woke up from his nap it didn’t take too long before he went to go open the door to HIS cupboard. He was very content to just make the door squeak for a while but then recognized the things inside (he of course chose the colors when there were choices to be made). Within minutes I was tripping over plastic bowls and a lime green colander while trying to make dinner. Elliot was thrilled at having access to what probably seemed like forbidden territory and completely unloaded the cupboard before dinner and of course one more time before his bath. It will be nice having a cooking partner in the kitchen! Now he just needs a little apron!
Besides a few tiny edits, this will now be the home for Elliot’s Blog. Kimberly and Bryan will be posting many of Elliot’s new activities, habits, and stories here on line for all of our family and friends to see, and comment on! If any of you would like to use this blog to create your own stories about Elliot feel free to email Kim or Bryan and we will give you access to his blog and walk you through a very easy process to do so! We are looking forward to giving you pictures and stories and video all about Elliot’s adventures as he grows up, and then someday ( which will probably come too soon for any of us ) he will take over his own blog! But we are not even close to that day just yet! I’d say bookmark this site, but come on, how simple could it be, it is his name for crying out loud! http://elliotbuchan.com. For now…here is a picture of Elliot at his first birthday party, eating his cake!
