Blog about Eliot
Ok, these are just the first few pictures, I'm going to try to get some more, so stay tuned. But here we go. Presenting.... THE CUTEST PIRATE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! Now tell me you wouldn't surrender your booty to this little swashbuckler!
Eliot had his nine-month checkup yesterday, and everything seems to be in nice working order. His official 9-month weigh-in was 21lbs, 7.5oz. He's 28 1/2 inches tall, with a head circumference of 18 1/2 inches (that's one big cranium!). He got his 9-month immunizations, as well as half of his flu shot. We were lucky to get that, too, because the doctor had run out, and just got a new shipment in the day before. He has to go back in a month to get the rest of his flu shot (apparently the split it up with babies this young) so we'll just have to hope they have some then.
Eliot got a new "big-boy" car seat yesterday, and boy, did he think he was HOT STUFF this morning. He got in it and wanted to play with everything. He played with the belt clasp, the pillow, the armrests... He checked out the kick-ability of the back seat from where he sat... and about halfway to school, he couldn't control his excitement any more. He just started laughing out loud! The rest of the way to school he had a huge grin on his face.
We carved our Halloween pumpkin yesterday. We let Eliot help dig out the insides. He was not real excited about getting all goopy. He gave it a shot, but then decided that maybe it wasn't for him. He also tasted the pumpkin goop. He didn't like that, either! I don't blame him - it's much better after it's been made into pie. You can see the pictures here on the gallery page.
Yesterday when I picked up Eliot from school, his shoes were not on his feet, but in his cubby, sopping wet. My first thought was that he had gotten them messy at diaper changing time, and they had to be rinsed off. They were THAT wet. When I asked the teacher about it, she said that he had simply refused to wear them. She'd put them on and as soon as she turned her back, he'd taken them off again. When I asked why she had rinsed them out, she said that she hadn't - that he had chewed on them so much that they were soaked! He had chewed on his shoes so much that I thought they had been put under running water. Folks, that's a lot of chewing!
Most mornings we are awoken by the sweet little coos of a darling baby voice coming through the monitor. We've grown accustomed to this. We'll hear the coos and look in the video monitor and muse at how fortunate we are to have such a sweet child. So imagine our surprise when, on Saturday morning, we were awoken to "tink, tink.... KkkKkkKKk... Tonk, TONK!!" I looked in the video monitor just in time to see a tiny hand and then nothing but the diagonal line of the floor meeting the wall. We didn't even know Eliot could turn around on his own, much less remove the video camera from the crib-mount and toss it to the floor!
On Friday, Eliot went to Baby Lab at UAB. Our friend Sonya is a physical therapy student, and they were studying the physical development of children. So Eliot went in and played with them for an hour or so. He showed them how he could pick up cheerios, and how he could push himself backward when he's on his tummy. He showed them that he could bear weight on his legs, and go from sitting to lying on his tummy, and hold his own bottle. Then he had some ice cream. At one point, one of the other kids in his group got upset for some reason. Eliot looked at him quizzically for a moment, then he poked his bottom lip out and started to cry as well. I didn't realize he was so sympathetic, but I guess he does not like to see other kids get upset.
Our morning ritual usually consists of getting a clean diaper, having a bottle, then playing in the floor while Mommy gets ready for work. Well, this morning, I was running late, so I combined play-in-floor time with drink-bottle time. I gave Eliot his bottle and he sat in the floor and drank it himself, while I finished getting ready for work. You heard it right, folks! HE FED HIMSELF BREAKFAST! When I looked in on him from the bathroom, he looked so big! I had to go over there a couple of times to remind him to stay on-task, but all-in-all he did a great job! We even had some time for a few Cheerios before school.
As most of you probably know, last week I had oral surgery to correct an open bite. Recovery has been a little rough. Eliot, on the other hand, has been wonderful! The first time he saw me after surgery, I was a little worried. I didn't really look like myself, and I was afraid he'd be frightened. He didn't even miss a beat. He looked right at me and smiled ear to ear, then started telling me about his day (in that beautiful little baby-language that sometimes only mom and dad can understand). Since I've been home, Brian has been taking on almost all of the parenting and general household duties. But sometimes Eliot will sit in my lap and eat Cheerios and drink juice, or read a book, or sometimes just sit there and let me rub his back. It makes me feel so much better to be able to spend some time with him. I am thankful every single day to have such a wonderful husband and son! I don't know what I did to get this lucky!
