Our Little Chatter Box.

In a move that surprises no one, Elliott is a talker. I distinctly remember my personal horror when realizing that my mother could tune me out. I'm beginning to both understand the reasoning and hone the fine art of tuning out Elliott's constant chatter.

Here are a few videos I've finally gotten around to posting.




We were trying to get Elliott to say something else, but by the time I got the video rolling, he wouldn't say it again. But I still think it's funny telling Dave to "get up." :) It's not the first time he's said this. And I hope I always remember his signing of "please" well into his second year.




The video above demonstrates my propensity to have random dance parties at all times in our house. We need music. And we need Mommy's phone to plug into the dock in the kitchen that usually spills out some random hip hop mix that we dance to. I refuse to apologize.



I think my favorite part of Elliott's second year so far has been his interaction with toys and the beginnings of his imaginative play. With very little prompting, he sits his favorite stuffed animals on chairs and uses any available utensil to cook for him and feed them. It just about melts my heart when he tells Diego or his favorite stuffed animal, Froggy, to "take a rest" or "lay headie down." And of course I laugh when one of them gets put in time out for being naughty or "not listening."

Parenting Elliott is most definitely an adventure, and one that I'm so happy to be on with David and our family.

A Rainy Photo Shoot.

I have some amazing connections in our adopted hometown of Lansing. From my college friend Becky making her high school friends our newest friends to the talented and innovative public relations and communications professionals that I've met through PRSA and Twitter, I'm just thrilled to be a member of this community.

Elliott gets to enjoy the fruits of those connections as well... Weekly playdates with Becky and her twins, a new swim class through Lansing Parks and Recreation, a weekly nature walk at Fenner Nature Center, outings at Jumpin Jax Bounce Arena and the Michigan 4-H Children's Garden through Lansing Moms Like Me, and this weekend, we got to put the talents of one of my fellow Lansing PR professionals to the test for our family pictures.

It wasn't the clear, cool, sunny fall day I had hoped for, but we had a good time with Andrea Kerbuski. She's more accustomed to photographing brides, who don't move nearly as fast as Elliott, but I think she did a great job. We'll get the full series of photos later this week, hopefully in time to have some developed for the big TWO birthday party on Sunday.

23 Months

Dear Elliott,

You are almost two years old. How the heck did that happen?

We've had a really fun summer. And our adventures aren't likely to end anytime soon.

I love taking you new places and exposing you to different sights, sounds and smells. You are, however, still my child, so you don't hesitate to tell me, "I don't like it."

I could write a novel about being your Mommy, but I don't have the time right now. Instead, just know that I miss you. I can't wait until Grandma and Grandpa bring you home tonight on their way south. I'm so excited about showing you more of the world. And I love you more than I ever thought possible.

Always,

Mommy

With Grandma and Grandpa at the Michigan 4-H Children's Garden and the MSU Horitculture Demonstration Gardens.

At the Airshow with Gram and Pap. You like "quiet airplanes" and scream inconsolably in response to "loud airplanes."

Water fun. It didn't matter how cold the water was... you wanted to play in it.

Driving big trucks and seeing a helicopter at Touch a Truck Day in Lansing. Each truck you sat in you asked me "Keys?" Yeah, right Buddy.

Riding the "big bus" with Auntie M in Chicago. It might have been the highlight of our weekend trip for you.

I can't wait to see where we go next.

Elliott's Kitty

I think our cat, Runa, would beg to differ, but here are a couple of videos of Elliott trying to convince Runa to let him pet her.

He's taken to asking me to "get her" and I have been known to wrangle her out from under the table to let him pet her. He does an excellent job of being gentle, she just refuses to trust the small creature that continues to turn her quiet kitty world on its head. The funny part is that he isn't sure how to get her loose fur off of his hands after he pets her, so I'll spend 10 minutes convincing Runa to let me hold her only to have Elliott get two small swipes of petting in before wandering off saying, "Hair."

I love these video because it shows a few of the things that amaze me about Elliott.

• He picks up EVERYTHING these days. From his calling her "goo" [what I do when I call her] to wiggling his fingers and clicking his tongue, that is exactly what I do when I beckon Runa. It is amazing to watch him pick up these nuances of communication.
• "Calling" her. This started during our bedtime routine when we would "call Daddy" when it was time to give goodnight hugs and kisses. Now Elliott is known to "call" anything he can't find. I'll say, "Where's your ball, Buddy?" and He'll call out "Baaaaaaaalllll." It never fails to crack David and I up.
• Overall, he's a talker. His vocabulary has absolutely exploded over the last couple of months. There isn't a word that he won't at least TRY to say, and he usually does pretty well.

A toddler named Elliott.

Yes, we're still alive. Yes, we're doing well. Yes, it's amazing that Elliott is almost 2.

A picture says a thousand words, so I'm hoping this video will help make up for the thousands of pictures we've missed posting these last few months. I promise Elliott was wearing pants earlier in the day, but close to bedtime when E gets his pants dirty, pantless is how we roll.

Translation: Sweetheart is what E calls my maternal grandma. Pap is my dad. Gram is my mom. Grandma is Dave's mom. Grandpa is Dave's stepdad. Oscar is their dog. Ming is their cat. Good luck translating the rest. We're still working on some of it.

17 months.

Dear Elliott,

I did it. Or rather, we did it. We are no longer a breastfeeding team. You are weaned. Lots of people thought we were crazy or odd to continue our morning and evening ritual of mommy milk and cuddling this long, but I cherished every moment (other than those few times you bit me, those moments sucked).

I nourished your little body from the time you were an hour old until Saturday, March 21. Seventeen months and two weeks. Feeding you is the most important thing I've done in my entire life. I'm incredibly proud of us.

Perhaps it was a cowardly way to end our nursing journey, but I left. First, I went and stayed with my best friend, Mary, and her new baby Owen. You see, Mary is feeling like I did when you were just a few weeks old. Unsure about her changing role as a mommy/wife/teacher/friend/sister/daughter/professional. Tremendously in love with a creature that does nothing but take, take, take from her physically. And completely, utterly exhausted. She needed me, and I needed her, so I left you with your very capable Daddy and went to Indianapolis for a few days. Owen will smile socially soon, and my bet is it will be at his mama. She's pretty amazing.

I cuddled Owen and changed his cloth diapers and laughed when he got squirted in the face with milk like you did. You see, Mary is at the beginning of her feeding journey, and we are at the end.

Daddy says you will be Owen's older, bad influence friend. But I like to think you will teach him like his Mama taught me. About friendship, fun and mischief without breaking the rules.

I raced home on Wednesday to find you climbing the furniture at Brenda's house. I kissed and hugged you until you squirmed and took you home. We immediately went outside and picked up rocks and sticks and chased kitties. Whenever we went inside you stood by the gate at the bottom of the stairs and made your "milk" sign and told me "night night" despite the fact it was 5:30 and you hadn't had dinner. You found your Boppy pillow downstairs behind the chair and brought it to me. In short, you made it clear what you wanted and I did not give it to you. This was incredibly hard, (as were my boobs), but I was able to distract you and you did just fine when your Daddy put you to sleep.

And then I left again the next morning. I went to Chicago to see my sister, Meredith, your "Auntie M," with Gram. We took the train and met my favorite blogger, Dooce, shopped, saw the Millennium Park "bean," ate amazing food, introduced Gram to Ikea, went to the spa and talked, talked, talked. I got home on Saturday night to find you cuddling Pap, who took amazing care of you while I was gone and Daddy was enjoying his annual pilgrimage to the MHSAA boys basketball state finals. You smiled at me, ran around the house for a few minutes and then went to sleep without a peep and without asking for Mommy Milk.

I feel like singing "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone." Not because my boobs are no longer shared property, but because being away from you, Daddy and work for a week made me see clearly the path before me. It's amazing what eight hours alone in the car can bring to the surface. And your Gram? Three full days with her is like tonic for my soul. My head is clear and sharp and I'm ready to tackle my astounding workload tomorrow with a new vim and vigor.

I hope someday you feel about me the way I do about my mommy, your Gram.

Tomorrow you will go back to Brenda's house , no worse for the wear. You will climb her furniture, read books, stack blocks, take a walk, drink cow's milk, eat canned carrots like it's going out of style and continue to amaze us with your exploding vocabulary. We've stopped counting your new words, and I take advantage of your willingness to say "mommy" and "love you" perhaps a little too often.

You are doing more complex tasks and problem solving (or shall I say, problem creating?) like a little person. You really love opening containers and putting items inside. Rocks, blocks, books, puzzle pieces, anything you can find you carry around like precious cargo and find a container to squish it all into. And you narrate. You string together sounds into a cacophony that makes your Daddy and I stare at each other and smile. I've said before that when all of your sounds become words, I will be karma's bitch. You see, Mommy was rarely quiet when she was a small child, and it looks like I will be learning the art of tuning out someone you love. Never say never.

Other than the great outdoors and anything you can climb, I think books continue to be your favorite toy. When it's quiet in the living room I'll often peek around the corner from the kitchen to find you flipping the pages of your favorite board books. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes upside down and backwards, but you love books.

And climbing.

Just when I didn't think I could love you more, you love books! Let me tell you, it touches a place deep inside me, Elliott. I love books, too. I can't wait to share hundreds of thousands of pages of wonder, knowledge and imagination with you through books.

I'm so proud of the toddler you've become. You're strong-willed, vocal, tough, friendly, engaged, busy and loving. You would never come inside if we didn't lure you with "hot" (that's food to other people). You throw lots of things, but definitely throw anything round after calling it "ball" repeatedly. You love people; being in stores and restaurants gives you a chance to show off your skill of saying "HI!" to someone and then coyly grinning and looking away. You size up any new place and immediately find something to climb in, on or up. You give kisses and hugs freely and have learned to pet kitties and Gram and Pap's dog, Bella, very nicely.

You are my favorite person in the world, and I love watching you grow.

Love,

Mommy

16 Months.

Elliott is 16 months old today.

We have so much to celebrate and be happy about as a family. We're so, so lucky.

I gave myself permission not to do Christmas cards this year and decided to try and start a new tradition of Valentine's Day cards instead. I still love receiving traditional mail, and sending it too, so I don't want to give up on the traditional altogether, but Christmas is just too busy of a time to justify turning something so pleasurable for me into a chore.

It's early February and I've had time to decompress from the holidays, set my goals for the year and I feel so much more prepared to send a brief message and photo to our loved ones.

As an added bonus, I GOT MY BRACES OFF!!!! So what better time to get our first official family photo taken? :)

Here's a sneak peek at what may be coming in your mail very soon.

And here's a link to more pictures on Facebook.

Things continue to be great with Elliott, although his new penchant appears to be climbing. Everything. Nothing is out of Elliott's reach now that he can climb onto our spare bed, onto the couch and from the couch to the side tables. When he can't reach something, he is figuring out how to move his seemingly harmless child-size rocking chair to give himself a boost.

Things are never boring around here, that is for sure.

Elliott's language and learning continues to explode. His jabber is started to turn into comprehensible words and he is happy to mimic anything we ask him to try saying. He just recently tried GRAM and PAP to the delight of my parents, and will meow and say "kitty" to just about anything that can be construed as a feline. His favorite word appears to be "hot" with a special emphasis on the "T." Lately, we've picked up ball, drink, cookie, please, mommy, daddy and play.

I continue to worry that we're not enriching Elliott's life with learning, but that's why Dave is a great partner for me and a great dad to Elliott, assuring me that we're doing just fine.

Our family dynamics have shifted a bit again as David went back to work at Pearson last week. He's serving as a scoring director on a science project until early May, so we're in the process of creating a new "normal" for us. So far, so good. Elliott is back at Brenda's home-based daycare and he is one of three in her care. The other two are Logan and Eric who are a little younger and a little older than Elliott. So far, they are having a great time playing together.

Elliott has been breaking Dave's heart daily by crying when he drops him off, but also making his heart melt by running to him after work every day. Things aren't that much different for my daily routine other than not being able to get a constant update and being shocked at coming home to the house basically the same as when I left in the morning.

Our lives have also been enriched lately with the addition of new friends. My college classmate Becky was born and raised here in Lansing and has two adorable twin girls, Mia and Kayla. What started as a weekly playdate for Elliott with Becky's girls has turned into invitations to lots of gatherings. Becky has a wonderful group of friends who have really welcomed us and that we really get along well with. Lots of the other couples also have children around Elliott's age, as well, so he's getting used to sleeping in a room with two other pack 'n play's while we socialize at Becky and Mike's house late in the evening.

I guess we didn't know how much we missed socializing with other folks until we kept gushing to each other about how much fun we've had at recent gatherings. We've shared some sighs wishing our college friends lived closer, but it's also been great to have a new circle of friends going through similar times in life.

Elliott is up from a monster nap and ready to "see stuff get stuff" as we say around here.

Happy February. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Life.