What will 2009 Bring?

Just so you know we're still around, here is a link to Christmas photos on Facebook. I'm there much more often than I'm here (obviously).

Elliott is more and more amazing every single day. He is trying out new words and sounds, climbing EVERYTHING, gaining more personality by the minute and learning/playing/growing so fast it makes mine and Dave's head spin.

Happy Everything, everyone. It's been one hell of a year.

For my Pap

I've been giving myself a guilt trip about not updating the blog, but I'm just going to get over it and try to do smaller posts more often rather than waiting until I have too much to say. 

My Dad, Elliott's Pap, is in China and aching for punkin pictures, so here is our little pumpkin as a pumpkin.

Halloween is tomorrow! We've been so lucky to discover that one of my friends from college, Becky, has twin girls just a month or so older than Elliott. Becky is a great organizer, and thoughtful enough to invite us over often. She has friends over every Wednesday for "BabyFest." As you will see from the pictures, it is indeed a baby fest! 

It's a lot of fun to watch Elliott interacting with other kids and continuing to become a little person, not a baby. 

He is growing so, so fast.

That's all I have time for, so it will have to do.

The big ONE.

Did you guys know that my birthday party is tomorrow?

I'm going to be ONE on Wednesday.

My Mommy has been very busy at work, but I think I've been busier.

Walking. I do that a lot. It's my primary mode of transportation.

Getting teeth. I have three now.

Climbing on stuff.

Getting into things.... Literally and figuratively.

Trying to get the kitty. I even learned to say "meow," but that does not make Runa want to hang out with me. I don't get it.
Being adorable, whatever that means.

Playing with my Daddy. He's my best buddy.

Drinking cold, cold water. I like ice in my sippy cup, please.

Talking. I say "hi. mommy. daddy. meow. yeah. and ooooh (for uh-oh)" My excited sound is 'da da da da da da.'

Sometimes, I am not so adorable. I like to get my way.

Last weekend, Mommy and Daddy were moving furniture in the spare room. They kept vacuuming and cleaning things and they wouldn't let me have the big yellow spray bottle. I was mad. After they fed me lunch, they left me in my high chair with some crunchies while they moved the bed back into place. This is how I looked when they came back.

Hey! I was tired!

I also pushed down the gate last weekend and climbed up the stairs all by myself. Luckily, I found my Mommy at the top of the stairs. She was taking a nap, so I just crawled into bed with her. I could tell Mommy and Daddy wanted to get mad at me, but they were just glad I was safe.

There are almost 30 people coming over to play tomorrow. Can you believe it? All three of my great grandmas will be there. My Mommy cried yesterday because my Great Grandma Ebig should be there, too. But she'll just be there in spirit. Aunt Meredith and Uncle Jerry are coming all the way from Chicago. Aunt Melanie and Uncle Rob can't come from Connecticut, but the mailman delivered a big box from them yesterday. Mommy told me I have to wait to open the red dinosaur paper until tomorrow.

My Uncle Nate got engaged to my Aunt Larry. That's pretty exciting. Mommy thinks I will be ready to dance next September, so there had better be some kickin' music.

Anyway, Mommy finished her BIG annual report project and is done delivering them to the legislators. That's cool. It means she's going to take some time off from work to party down with all of us tomorrow.

I just hope they'll be some mozzarella cheese. That's my favorite food.

Mommy's Useless Organ.

I went back to work in January. A few times since then, I have awoken in the middle of the night puking and otherwise sick. Bad food choices, stress, a variety of things that I figured were the cause(s). When my Grandma Ebig passed away, the attack lasted for several days, so I finally bit the bullet and visited my doctor. It took one carefully placed push on the right side of my abdomen, just below my rib cage for him to nod and say, "Yep, it's your gall bladder."

My attacks have since moved from gastrointestinal mayhem to some really extreme pain in my belly. We celebrated Dave's 34th birthday on Tuesday and by 9pm I was REALLY regretting eating cheese sticks for lunch and putting full fat ranch dressing on my salad at dinner. Not to mention the big piece of birthday cake I had just eaten. The pain got worse and worse... by 4am I would have gone to the ER if it didn't require waking Elliott up and all of the craziness that would entail.

Long story short, I had a surgical consult yesterday and my gall bladder is set to come out on August 22. My new boss is amazing and agreed to let me work from home so I won't have to take too much unpaid leave. Surgery is on Friday, should be at least semi-functional by Monday and I'm planning to return to the office on Thursday, the 28th.

I could vent for PAGES and PAGES of blogosphere about the ignorance of doctors about breastfeeding. Let me just say this. It's OK if you don't know something, Dr. GallBladderRemover. Really, it's OK. Tell me to ask my pediatrician. Tell me to call my local La Leche League. Just don't suggest that I wean my 9-month-old because I'm going to be under anesthesia for a couple of hours and need to take it easy for a few days. Idiots.

Elliott will be 10 months old by the time I go under the laparoscopic knife, so perhaps we'll be done breastfeeding by then, but if we're not, then I'm not stopping because the nurses don't want to wait for me to pump in the recovery room.

On a happier note, I'll post some pictures from our adventures at Coldwater Lake last weekend. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some more time with the radiant Mary Frog Toes, and frankly, the weather was perfect for a lakefront Michigan Saturday, so we had a great time. Elliott did, um, OK, for his first boat ride and swim in a big lake. Let me just say that a life vest is NOT his favorite thing to wear.

I'm just finishing up lunch here at work... A vegetable sub from Jimmy John's and a big pickle went down well. Not totally fat free, definitely better than a burger and fries. This weekend, I am hoping to make it to Ohio Day at the VFW National Home and then we are heading to Bangor on Sunday to celebrate David's birthday with the Wiacek's. Woo hoo for family fun!




See Buddy? This is fun! Just look at Mommy's crazy face!
Trying to calm Elliott down after he gets his face wet in the lake. Not an easy task.

This is supposed to be fun, Buddy!
Safely in our little yellow car, thanks to MFT.
Settling down. Elliott eventually stopped crying and would play "Splashy-Splashy" in the water. It's just like one big bathtub, Buddy!
Back in the cottage. Dry and warm. Good news: His adorable Old Navy jeans fit! Bad news: It's July. Putting jeans on Elliott isn't nice, no matter how adorarable they are.Mr. Nardon is the coolest and let Elliott drink water from his glass. This is one of Elliott's favorite things to do: drinking cold, cold water. I know, who knew?! He ended up with a lot of it on his clothes, but he enjoyed himself. And I think Mr. Nardon did too. He is going to be a FANTASTIC grandpa.

Here we are!

We're still here, I promise. And as you can see above, we are cuter than ever!

Don't miss Elliott's post below about his new friend, Miss Michigan.

I'll take care of this post, though, because Elliott is too busy these days to tell me what to write in his blog. :)

Busy is the word of the day, month, heck, series of months! Elliott is BUSY! I'll share my favorite new pictures below, but here are some notes.

About Elliott and His Development

• At his 9-month appointment on July 9, Elliott was 20 pounds and 29 and 7/8 inches long. He continues to be tall and skinny. 92nd percentile in height and 40th in weight.


• He is eating well. Getting the hang of solids and at least tasting the table food we put in front of him before he spits it out. Loves Gerber puffs and eats a HUGE bowl of baby cereal, a whole container of vegetables and almost a whole container of fruit for dinner each night. He eats cereal and fruit for breakfast and will usually snack at lunchtime or have another bit of veg/fruit from Gerber. He still definitely prefers fruit to vegetables, but he is doing well eating both. His favorites are bananas, pear/pineapple and peaches.

Here he is with Aunt Larry's (and her boobs). He does really seem to like sucking on whole fruit.


• We call rasberries "spitties"and despite all of our attempts otherwise, spitties are how Elliott tells us he is done eating. It sometimes takes some detective work, because spitties are also a fun way to communicate and get attention, so our litmus test for "done with eating" is when he'll spittie straight fruit.

Here he is doing "spitties" with Uncle Nate and Aunt Meredith at his baptism.


• Elliott is babbling up a storm and is quite the talker. My Dad pointed out that he talks mostly to Dave and I, which I hadn't noticed until then. But it's definitely the case. Dadadadada seems to be his favorite sound. He has definitely made the "mamama" connection to yours truly, which just about melted my heart. His other word appears to be "yeah!" which makes a lot of sense considering we say it to him all the time. He's also "oooh" "aaah" "baa" and "oohaah" quite a bit. Overall, Elliott has lots of sounds in his baby repetoire, but is just now starting to connect the words to people and objects. Dave says you can literally see him learning things as he is exploring the world.


• From the gesture standpoint, Elliott is doing ok. He will wave at "the baby in the mirror," but isn't likely to wave when you say "bye-bye" like a lot of babies. He will do "clappy-clappy" (our term for patty cake) when he is in the mood for it, but again, not on command. He raises his arms to be picked up and reaches out for someone to hold him, but he's not pointing to things or shaking his head no yet.


• Physically, Elliott is definitely focused on cruising the furniture and getting into stuff. He could take his first steps tomorrow, or he could take them in 2 months, and I wouldn't be surprised. He is very adept at cruising and walking behind his scooter, Sasha. He will walk while you hold his hands, and has tried standing up on his own several times, but when you encourage him to take a step he definitely plops down onto his bottom.

Helping Daddy load the dishwasher.


• The stairs are one of Elliott's favorite pasttimes, and I now encourage him to head upstairs when he is ready for bathtime and nighttime routine to start. We of course keep the gate up at all times and correct him if he starts up the stairs without one of us right behind him, but he has only faltered a couple of times in all his trips up the stairs. We haven't started working on "down the stairs" yet.


• Elliott will also climb just about anything he can. On top of Dave, on top of milk crates, trying to put his foot up to climb up a gate, whatever is in his way, he wants to step up on it. It's very cute, and totally frightening at the same time.


• He is definitely into his 12-month wardrobe in tops and one-piece outfits thanks to his monster torso, but the 6/9 month pants and shorts still fit best. We put him in a 9-month sleeper last night and he about busted out the bottom. So those will be packed away this weekend!


• No teeth yet, but David didn't get his first until he was 14 months old... so nothing to worry about. Elliott is also biting me when nursing, so I'm in NO rush for him to get teeth.


• Yes, biting me. Like, thanks for the perfect nutrition Mom. Thanks for not drinking your nightly margarita, thanks for planning your day around your pumping schedule, thanks for sitting in your office twice a day hooked up to a breastpump, thanks in general for the Mommy Milk, but now I will bite your nipple.


• Along with not having any teeth and thus unable to do any real damage, Elliott is just too damn cute to make me truly mad. I thought he was a sweet little suckling when he was born. He got cuter when he smiled. But lately, there seems to be NO limit to how cute he can be.

About What We've Been Doing Lately!

• Elliott was baptized at my Grandma Ebig's funeral on July 7. She would have been thrilled. Meredith and Nathan stood up as his godparents, and Melanie has been officially named his fairy godmother.


• The summer seems to be flying by for us. Elliott loves to swing and go to the park. Dave likes to take him to Hawk Island to walk the trails and play, but those dates seem few and far between.
  
• Elliott has gotten over his hatred for grass and now not only plays in the grass, he eats it. It's hilarious to watch as he uses his newly-developed pincer grasp to get a piece of grass and put it in his mouth.


• Elliott had a playdate with my friend Heather's son, Parker, last weekend. It was so fun! The boys actually played together this time, even if that meant grabbing toys away from each other and Elliott trying to grab Parker's hair and poke him in the eye. It was progress.


• Speaking of progress, we have been working hard on "NICE" with Elliott, Mr. Grabby Grabberson. Especially as it relates to our kitty, Runa. She has let him touch her a few times now, and seems to enjoy letting him chase her around the dining room table in the evenings. She has ways to get away from him, but seems to just let him chase her until she tires of it. Last night, specifically, Runa was letting me pet her and Elliott got close enough to get a few swipes of her fur. To my relief (and surprise) he used an open hand and did not "bang bang bang" on her like he likes to do to everything these days.


• Dave is back at Pearson this week, sorting papers for a September project. He worked a couple of weeks in July and will work into early next week, but has otherwise been home with Elliott. We are very lucky that our daycare provider, Brenda, continues to be flexible with us and take Elliott on an as-needed basis. He LOVES playing with Logan at Brenda's. He won't eat very well for her, but he definitely isn't going hungry, so we're not worrying about it too much.


• After some bloodwork, an ultrasound and a lot of sickness, I've been diagnosed as having gall stones. This means I'll need to have my gall bladder removed sometime in the next few years. Woo-hoo, right? My pancreas is functioning well, though, which means I can avoid surgery if I watch my fat and red meat intakes. My lack of sick or vacation time dictates that I take this under strict advisement.


• I've been freelancing for the VFW National Home, which is taking up most of my free time after Elliott is down for the night. Things are also very busy here at work with a new boss and lots of new ideas and initiatives and strategic thinking and growth for me. It feels really good, but boy am I tired!


• Pap (my dad) is in China, so we are looking forward to seeing my Mom more often for the next few weeks while she is home alone. Dave's birthday is next week, so we're looking forward to celebrating that with his family the weekend of August 1. We're taking a trip to Mackinac Island the weekend of August 9 with both sets of our parents for a girl scout reunion and recreation. I'm VERY excited about that!
  
• Overall, life is really good. Elliott's laughter is truly music to my soul. Sometimes, Elliott will find his way into our bed during one of my sleep-deprived attempts at getting to rest while nursing him in the middle of the night. One of my favorite things is waking up and seeing "my two guys" sleeping in bed next to each other. I'm very, very lucky.

I hang out with hot chicks.

Miss Michigan is pretty. I wanted to grab her crown. I met her at Ag Expo last week. She thought I was pretty cute and took my picture with her pink camera.

My Daddy is awesome. He brought me to see my Mommy at Ag Expo every day in my stroller. Boy, was it hot!

We weren't done yet.

My Grandma Bertha Ebig passed away last night around 2am. My deep, mournful sobbing at 5am gave way to a hopeful, but somber morning. She lived 80 wonderful years. She raised four sons, including my father, who I love so much. I'm not shocked, I'm not asking the "why, God, why?" question, I'm just sad. Deeply, truly, mournfully sad.

I wasn't done. I wasn't done hearing her signature laughter/clapping mixture, being smacked on the arm three times, or seeing the joy on her face when she interacted with her first great grandchild, my son, Elliott Milton.

I just wasn't done having her in my life.

I feel regret that I did not go to see her in the hospital last week. I feel heartbroken about not physically seeing her ever again. The last time we were together, though, we played Scrabble with my Mom and Meredith (Meredith beat us all soundly...) and laughed and had a wonderful time. She was so full of life, love and laughter that day, I know it is best that that is my last memory of her face, her presence, her hug.

My Grandma's signature saying was "We're family." And her passing means we get to live out what she loved best about life in her honor. I get to see my sister Melanie who I ache to hug every day. I get to see my Uncle Brian and his family from California, who I want to meet Elliott so badly. We all get to be together again; it's a tribute to my Grandma and the strong family ties she has left behind.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to have Elliott baptized. It's something I've been meaning to arrange for for months now, but I wanted my siblings to be there, I wanted to have the ceremony at St. Thomas where we were married, where I was bapitzed and had my sacraments. I should have made arrangements around Christmas time, but no regrets now.

When I called my Grandma Natali to ask how she was doing, she was quick to mention it. She told me she prays for Elliott to be baptized every day. Well heck, Grandma! If I would have known that I would have had my butt in gear a long time ago.

Anyway, there will be joy and grief next week when we all come together.

I know I'm a bad blogger, but this crazy job of mine keeps getting in the way of my Web 2.0 time. Things are changing at work, I'm taking on more responsibility while still trying to get my previously assigned work done. I'm managing an amazing student intern, Laura, who I am so proud of and feel like I am making an impact on her professional skills.

Elliott is WONDERFUL. He is a rasberry-making, quick-crawling, stair-climbing, food-eating, trouble-seeking, super-babbling baby guy. I'll try and post some pictures soon. He is SO big. Crawling so quickly, and moving quickly from standing up to cruising around our living room furniture. He still hasn't caught kitty Runa, but lots of close calls. He loves being outside, loves his Daddy, and is so playful and fun. He is a blessing.

Lots more to say, but it's going to be a long (short) week.

My Grandma visited the blog a few times at my parents' house. She referred to the internet as "that dot com thing." Oh Grandma, I miss you already.

Climbing.

It's 8:15 in the morning. Do you know what your 8-month-old is doing?

Mine is CLIMBING UP THE STAIRS in my house.

Dave called to tell me that he got up seven stairs before he got tired. Dave just sort of hung back to make sure he didn't hurt himself while Elliott ventured up and up and up and up.

In my head, this translates to him jumping off buildings at age 3, because that's when kids usually master the stairs, right?

Let me just mention that I don't have any gray hair right now. But that may end soon.

Indianapolis

Mommy and I went to visit Mommy's best friend, Mary Frog Toes and her husband Eric this weekend in Indianapolis. We had WAAAAY too much fun.

First, we rode in the car for a loooong time. I slept. I played. I fussed a bit. I sucked on my suckie. We stopped at a rest area to eat and change my diaper. I freaked out just past Muncie and we stopped again. Then we got to Mary FT's house! We went to the Indianapolis Zoo!

Mommy and Frog Toes are silly. The Zoo is featuring koala bears right now. We saw them awake. This is apparently a big deal because koalas sleep between 19 and 22 hours a day. You didn't know I was so smart, did you?

I was much more interested in eating my toys in the stroller or grabbing things than watching the animals. Mommy thinks I may be more interested next summer.
It was hot and sunny, so the rhinoceroses were laying around sleeping.

Mommy thought I should sleep, too, but I didn't!
My Auntie Melanie sent me a new book called "Llama Llama Mad at Mama." It's Mommy's favorite book. We read it pretty often. There were llamas at the Zoo. Mommy got excited and Frog Toes took our picture.

Again, I was much more interested in grabbing the fence than I was in the large African creatures behind Mommy. Whatever, Dude, I'm only 8 months old!
We were going to go out to dinner after the Zoo, but I FREAKED OUT. I had been in my car seat long enough! I was tired! I was hungry! I was hot! I was mad! So I told Eric, Mary and Mommy. We went home and ordered pizza instead.

Frog Toes named my blue scooter Sasha. I love Sasha. Frog Toes' house is perfect for riding around on Sasha.

Frog Toes' couch is also the perfect height for me to pull myself up.
Frog Toes bought me a stuffed frog. You won't believe it! The frog had TOES! Frog Toes!

My yellow t-shirt is really cool. It's from my Aunt Melanie. It has a picture of a stroller on the front and its says "This is how I roll."

On Sunday, it was hot again, so we went for a dip in Frog Toes and Eric's neighborhood swimming pool. They have a pool just for babies. It's only one foot deep. Mommy stayed out of the water, but Frog Toes played with me!

There was a little girl at the pool. Her mommy thought I might enjoy her floatie seat. I DID! It was cool!

Sunday afternoon, we went to a cold room with a lot of seats to watch Frog Toes dance ballet. Mommy called the room an auditorium. Anyway, it was cold. I liked the music and the colors flashing on stage. Frog Toes was beautiful!
We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory after the recital. I tried to be good, but I was tired again. Then I whacked my head on the table. Ow! So we left shortly after that. Luckily, Mommy was done with her AMAZING food, including tiramisu cheesecake.

One of my favorite things about this weekend was playing with Eric. He's a cool guy. I liked his books a lot. He is in graduate school. Mommy tells me she is getting her master's degree in mommying right now instead of public relations like she had planned.

Silly Mommy! You can't make plans anymore! I'm here now!

Anyway, I want to learn like Eric does. He engineers the insulin that my Grandma Carolyn takes so she can watch me graduate with my master's degree someday. Eric got me started early.

Luckily, Eric let me play with some toys, too. You can only read so much about business statistics!

I slept through the night both nights in my pack and play in Frog Toes' spare room. It's a good room for babies. I hope Frog Toes and Eric have a baby soon so they get to sleep in the sunshine yellow room. It's pretty cool.