Bad Blogger, Good Mommy.

Sorry, everyone. The work laptop I use at home has a horrible habit of freezing up when I download pictures and I have given up on posting several times in the last few weeks.
But enough excuses, onto pictures!


Elliott has a "bad" habit of falling asleep during "tummytime." I don't think he is going to die of SIDS while laying on the living room floor, so I'm not stressing out about the "back to sleep, tummy to play" campaign. He sleeps on his back at night.

Plus he looks like his Daddy when he sleeps like this. How cute is that?!

His little jeans are getting a tad too small, but the little striped onesie is one of my favorite things he owns. SO Cute!

When we were in Saginaw for Thanksgiving, Elliott met Rebecca. My sister Meredith is holding her (she is delicate and petite and much quieter than Elliott). Rebecca is the first daughter of one of Meredith's childhood friends, Mary. Mary visited and we freaked Meredith out by sitting next to each other on the couch and breastfeeding. I can understand why... it's not everyday that two people you've known for decades are sitting in your mother's living room with their infants.

I also love how Elliott is smiling at my Mom is this picture.

Elliott continues to love his "Pap," my Dad. Pap introduced "jumpajumpa" which Elliott loves. Jumpajumpa is basically what you say while lifting the little guy over your head repeatedly. It works wonders and makes him quiet down and take in his surroundings. Elliott is not a huge fan of Pap's hunting beard, it's scratchy, but he looooves his Pap.

Elliott is also in love with his Grandma Carolyn. She hides kisses behind his ear and tells him that they are always there for him. It is adorable.

I call this the "my daddy did WHAT when he was little?" face.

Dave and I are learning to multi-task and have conversations with Elliott while we are doing stuff around the house. He's not a big fan of being put down yet. Unless he wants to be put down, then he gets mad. Hey, the kid knows what he wants! Speaking of which, he'll also tell you whether or not he wants his pacifier (Binky to some, plug to others, suckie to me). We discovered during our Thanksgiving travels that it we needed to find a pacifier shaped like our pinkie fingers to pacify Elliott. He did not want the "orthodontically correct" pacifier that I got for free. Luckily, the Gerber silicone soft center pacifier worked. Otherwise, our pinkies may have never stopped looking like we had been in the bathtub for too long.

Elliott is a morning baby. He likes to hang out and coo and gurgle and blow bubbles and smile in the a.m. hours. If you catch him at the right times, he is quite the little charmer.

I love these little baseball shoes, but I had to shove his little feet inside of them. They were a one-day only wear and then they got put in the "too small" pile.

Whoa, sorry Elliott. Mommy isn't too good at taking pictures one-handed.

Sometimes, Dave takes the occasional picture. Usually after I make some strong hints. Like this afternoon when Elliott was wearing his adorable "baby pirate" outfit and sitting up like a champ.

His latest trick is holding onto his toys. If you put it into his hand, he'll hang on. Only if he wants to, of course. So far, he loves the giraffe and elephant from his play gym and the little Baby Einstein turtle guy the best.

Luckily, I can make him smile and take a picture at the same time. I call him "guy smiley" when he gets all cooey and cute like this. Plus, Guy Smiley is one of the coolest guys on Sesame Street.

Raise your hand if you're cute!

Awww, sleeping babies. My Mom bought Elliott this adorable fleecey sleeper from Carter's. It has a snowman on the front and little pockets in the shape of mittens and little snowflakes on the bottom of the feet. I don't know what it is about Carter clothes, but they are always my favorite. The 3 month stuff fits him perfectly right now... but not for long I'm sure.

Elliott hasn't quiiiite figured out that he owns his hands, but he is much better at getting his hands to his mouth. This is quite helpful when he just wants to suck for the sake of sucking. He can't decide if he likes his thumb or his first two fingers better... Really, he would always rather be eating. Hands are only a delicious appetizer in Elliott's baby world.

End of photos and onto my random babbling...

Thanksgiving was marvelous. Elliott is getting better and better at traveling. He likes his carseat, sleeps well in the car, but wakes up raging mad about being tricked into sleeping somewhere other than in our arms. That, and I think he can't effectively fart or poop in his carseat, which makes him even madder. Intestinal difficulties are one of Elliott's biggest challenges. This is just one more reason why I am glad I am breastfeeding. That and the fact that my clothes all fit and I weigh less than I did before I was pregnant.

But I digress... Thanksgiving. Drove north on Wednesday, stopped in Gaylord to visit the Scott's, continued on to Central Lake, ate delicious food at the Newcomb's, drove to Saginaw, ate delicious leftovers at the Ebig's, shopped a little while my Dad monopolized Elliott, woke up Sunday morning to discover that our car wouldn't start. Taking apart the dashboard and wiggling some wires has it working again, but I'm sure you all understand why we are moving up our car shopping efforts. There can be no wire-wiggling when traveling with an infant.

We also bought a new couch and chair. Having spent lots of time sitting on our old, broken-down couch week after week, I finally cracked and just visited the pushy salesmen at Art Van. The couch arrives tomorrow, hooray! We celebrated by renting a Rug Doctor and cleaning the carpet, too. (actually, Dave cleaned the carpets. I fed and played with the baby.) It looks and smells lovely in our house. However, we moved everything out to clean the carpets, and don't want to move it back before the new furniture arrives, so we are camping out in the basement "manroom" if we want to watch television.

Aaaaah, television. Some of you may know that we have been without cable for almost four years. I never missed it, but Dave certainly did. I didn't think it was fair to coop him up in the house with an infant and no ESPN and it's downright handy to have the internet at home, too. Plus, I love Elliott a lot, but I can only stare at his cuteness for so long when I am nursing him. Eventually, I need in some distractions. The Food Network, The Price is Right (I'm loving Drew Carey), TLC's Baby Block, Ellen, Oprah, Wheel of Fortune and much, much more! TV is a lovely guilty pleasure of mine, and Dave has even MORE sports knowledge than he did before.

Elliott had his first official "babysitter" last week as well. My best friend Mary Frog Toes has a lovely sister, Teresa. She is a nursing student at MSU and was very happy to watch Elliott while we went and met Tyler the seemingly slimy car salesman who we eventually discovered speaks four languages and spent a large portion of his youth as a church missionary in Haiti. Go figure. Anyway, Teresa did a great job watching Elliott. He was smiling and cooing at her when we got back, only to start fussing when I took him from her. Hmmm, I tried not to be offended. :)

Dave picked up another bartending job at a bowling alley on the north end. He'll work some evenings and the occasional weekend as well. His Dad and Pam suggested we put a picture of our cutie on the tip jar and write "Elliott's College Fund" on it. HA.

In other big news, Elliott has officially moved out of our bedroom and into his big boy crib. So far, so good! We also moved my rocker upstairs, which has been awesome. The next step will be to stop bathing him in the kitchen sink and start using his infant tub upstairs. This will also mean I'll start dressing him upstairs as well. Time flies, everyone.

I promise, I'll try to be better at posting! But rest assured, I'm doing my best to be a good mommy, even if I'm a bad blogger.

Family Life

Life is good. Dave went back to Pearson last week on Monday, so it's just been me and the boy during the day. This makes posting on the blog tough. Once I read through my email, a nap or quiet time is pretty much over.

But anyway, we've been busy. Busy learning to coo and goo and gaa. Elliott's conversation skills made me realize recently why the stereotypical baby sounds are "goo goo ga ga." Those are some of Elliott's favorite words.

Busy learning to eat from a bottle. I've been busy building up my milk supply and creating a cache of mommy milk in the freezer.

We have a very hungry baby boy, and luckily he isn't too picky about how he gets his mommy milk, as long as it is warm. Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Dave were the unlucky ones who discovered that a cold bottle is the devil. Dave and Carolyn were kind enough to come and watch Elliott while Dave and I both worked on Friday. I don't think we had to twist their arms too hard...

Busy wearing all of our adorable clothes. Elliott has started to spit up a bit now and then (Dr. Hoop says if he is a "happy spitter," there is no cause for concern), so he is wearing more outfits in a day. I also couldn't resist a supercute pair of baby tennis shoes. I love baby shoes, and Elliott looks cute in everything. :)

These khaki pants and blue sweater are my favorites...

Here are the cute shoes!

It hit me last week that because Elliott always gets dressed downstairs after his morning bath, I may be forgetting about some of his clothes in the drawers upstairs. And sure enough, he had to wear all of his 0-3 onesies that people painted at my shower because they were too small. Elliott really does love his aunties, he just hates having his chubby baby arms shoved through the arms of a too-small onesie.

Elliott is also just starting to wear bibs to save his outfits. This one is from Great Grandma Ebig. :)

Busy doing "tummy time." Dr. Hoop said as often as he would stand being put on his tummy, to do it. Luckily, Elliott likes it. He is getting really good at picking up his head!

Busy cheering for the Lions.

Busy learning how to smile. He is most likely to smile in the morning during his "awake alert" time between breakfast and bathtime. This morning, in particular, he was being so cute and just cooing away, I spent more than an hour taking his picture and talking to him.

I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of his room. I don't think I posted any pictures of the "finished product." I love how the custom vinyl we ordered turned out. Elliott likes it too, and I know I won't be able to walk away from the changing table much longer. He is wigglier every day!

Busy being on the go with Mommy... I get stir crazy in the house, so we have been to Coldwater to visit Mary Frog Toes and meet Eric and Mr. and Mrs. Frog Toes and of course participating in a little retail therapy with frequent trips to Target, the baby store, even the mall last week! :)

Hi Auntie Frog Toes!

Luckily, he likes his carseat.

Busy making faces.

Busy figuring out our daily schedule. My hypothesis is that Elliott is on a 48-hour schedule. I call the first 24 hours "napalicious." He'll nap in his pack and play in nice, long chunks and have calm, quiet alert times. Then the next day, you can't get enough food in him (although if you feed him when he's not hungry, he spits it all up on you, FYI) and can't put him down to save your life. I am lucky to get to pee and eat one-handed on the "second day." We may have outsmarted the baby though, because we bought a carrier that allows Elliott to sleep on my chest while I have my hands free to pick up the house, pay bills, heck, check email! It's awesome, and Dave is trying it out successfully as I type.

Busy playing. Elliott enjoys talking to Daddy and is just starting to figure out his play gym.

Everyone tells you that time flies, and I believed them, but wow, time flies! Elliott is six weeks old today. I go for my 6-week post-partum check-up on Wednesday and then we are hitting the road for Thanksgiving. I always knew that Halloween would come quickly, but Thanksgiving snuck up on me. There is holiday music playing in the stores and my Mom is patiently waiting for our Christmas lists! People keep asking what Elliott would like for Christmas... I've been telling people books. He looooves when people talk to him (especially yours truly, if I can be so bold) and as smart as David and I are, reading to your baby exposes them to something crazy like 4x as many words as your normal speech.

And in conclusion, I will steal a comment from my friend Lexi's baby blog for her little girl, Laynie. Apparently, babies have what is called the "fencer pose" reflex. Lexi and Rob coined the phrase... "Raise your hand if you're cute!!"

SMILE.

Baby Elliott smiled at me today! This evening it's just the two of us; Dave is bartending. I've been coaxing him to smile for a week or so now, but I was still so surprised and excited when his eyes lit up and he grinned at me. I had just fed him and was switching sides to give him more mommy milk, so his first smile was provoked by food. This is no surprise, he is my son.

Elliott is growing very fast. His newborn stuff is officially too small, including his "take me home" outfit that seemed so huge when we brought him home from the hospital. He is averaging about 2 ounces of growth every day and has gained 3 inches since he was born. Yesterday, he weighed in at 10 pounds, 14 ounces. To give you a sense of "average" babies, I had lunch with my friend Heather today. Her three-month old son, Parker, is in the upper 10 pound range as well.

Elliott also did a repeat performance of his last trip to the pediatrician and filled his pants twice while we were in the exam room. He also showered the nurses and the scale when Dave took off his diaper to have him weighed. He also did some spitting up and cooed at Dr. Hoop, so he pulled out all of the stops and showed off all of his baby tricks.

We don't have any plans this weekend, so Dave and I are looking forward to cleaning up the yard and playing with the baby. I hope there are some more smiles to share too! It made my day, my week, heck my LIFE. These moments make motherhood the greatest thing in the world.

He is quickly tiring of "tummy time," so I am going to cut this short and leave you hanging without any pictures today. More later!

The $11,000 Baby Cute

So we got the "bill" for our stay at the hospital. Just the hospital bill, not the bill for the doctor's time, was over $11,000. Thanks to our friends at MSU, all of our pregnancy, prenatal and postpartum care is covered 100%. So next time I complain about my job, smack me. Wow, huh?

Speaking of work, that's the big event for me in the last week. My current boss is retiring, so the national search for his replacement is going on while I am on leave. They have three finalists and each one is coming to campus for a day to give a seminar and have some one-on-one time with varies peeps, including my staff. So I put on my big girl clothes, pumped some mommy milk with my Medela Pump In Style Advanced and went to work for a few hours on Monday and Tuesday.

Elliott did very well with taking a bottle. Dr. Hoop said that if we introduced it early enough, it shouldn't be a problem. It's the babies who have had nothing but the boob until they are several months old that tend to have more problems. We are pretty well established now and Elliott has even been known to be pacified with the "suckie" now and again lately. It's a relief for me (and my boobs) to know that he can just be soothed by sucking on something other than me.

Halloween was a lot of fun! During the day we went to a potluck at my office. Elliott got to try his hand at eating in my office. It went well, which is great news considering we are hoping that he will be able to visit on my lunch hour to eat. Elliott wore his tiger costume from Grandpa Gary.

That was 100% polyester, so the little man got pretty hot. Fortunately, he was wearing a cute Halloween outfit underneath. Unfortunately, they don't make stylish nursing bras, so you get to see my grandma bra straps.

The day before Halloween we took an out of the house adventure. First, we hit the mall to pick up a few more nursing bras. We also couldn't pass up a onesie for Elliott that says "Little Version of Daddy." Heck, it wasn't even on sale! Very out of character for me, but it was too perfect to leave behind. :) Then we had lunch at Ruby Tuesday (mmm, salad bar). Elliott was a very good baby and slept the whole time. We went home to eat (Elliott, not us, we were full) and then Eli and I ventured out together, leaving Daddy Dave home to nap. We hit the baby store, the post office, TJ Maxx and Target. Whew! It was a lot of fun, and made me feel (semi) normal, always a good thing. Elliott wore his "Daddy's Little Pumpkin" onesie.

We took Elliott on his first road trip last weekend. It was a lot of fun, but also trying. Elliott is great in the car, but we definitely pay for it later with increased time in "Fussytown." We started in Saginaw and visited my grandmas. Elliott met my Aunt Cynthia and my Mom's staff at Guardianship Services. Elliott enjoyed visiting Grandma Joy at work. :)

Then we headed to Central Lake to visit Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Dave. Elliott went to his first football game--Central Lake High School versus Cedarville. CL won by one! Hooray! Elliott also got to meet Gavin, one of David's and my favorite little people. Gavin is exactly as old as David and I are as a couple. So it was so charming to discover that Gavin loves babies and kept telling us that Elliott was "so cute." Dave said he stopped counting the number of times Gavin kissed his head.

We ended our trip by heading to Gaylord so Elliott could meet Grandma Scott, David's paternal grandmother. She had many pictures to show us that further proved Elliott is a mini-Dave. Uncanny resemblance, people.

He does, however, seem to have my temper. Perhaps this is why I am alternately fascinated and frustrated by how quickly he turns from angel baby to tomato baby....

Elliott apparently also hates laundry like I do. What he LOVES, though, is himself. Or rather, his reflection. Screw the exciting ocean wonders bouncer with lights and sounds and vibration. He would much rather look at himself in the mirror.

David was thrilled to get last minute tickets to see the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Thanks Grandpa Joe. This also meant that I was left home alone with Elliott, so my Mom brought my Grandma Natali to visit and celebrate her 85th birthday with us. We had KFC and delicious cake. It was wonderful, and in my opinion, much better than any football game.

And finally, here are some random shots of our cutie.