Thanksgiving trip home and a bunch of pictures

Dear Loyal Reader (that would be Marcela)--

I am sorry for not doing a better job keeping up with this blog. We seem to be getting progressively more buried under work, dissertations, sniffles, and the day-to-day...

But we did make it home for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving itself was lovely, and many of these pictures come from that trip. You see Elliot playing with his cousin Finn, hanging out with Grandpa Tom & Grandma Deirdre, chilling with fun Auntie Sarah, behind bars in a hotel crib in Indiana...and there are a few new pictures not from Thanksgiving but from the same time frame. I didn't mean to post the teeny versions of the pictures but if I go back in to fix it now I fear I'll fall asleep halfway through and not get this posted, so I'm just going to plow on through!

We decided to drive to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, it worked before when Elliot was smaller, why wouldn't it work again? Well, it wouldn't work again because a 9 month old apparently has considerably less tolerance for extreme carseat confinement than a 4 month old does. That poor kid.

We got on the road at about 1 p.m. and it was very slow going with a lot of stops but we were hoping to make up some time when he fell asleep for the night. His sleep was really fractured, though, and every time we stopped at a toll booth, went under bright lights, hit a bump or whatever, he'd wake up and by about 10 he was really strung out so we decided to stop for the night. It was a good decision.

Eventually we made it and had a lovely visit with the Grandparents Miller, and Elliot got to meet his aunt Bernadette for the very first time! We also had a great time with Aunt Sarah Rose, Uncle Tobi, and Cousin Finn who seems to be getting so much bigger every time we see him. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Dad and Deirdre's--the Millers and Sarah came over, too, and then we went to Matt and Liz's huge Thanksgiving blow-out later on that night. Elliot got to see *everyone* and he was just basking in all the attention. Katie was so happy to see him that she fell down the steps and broke her ankle or something, and she must have hit her head too because she decided to report for her Black Friday shift at Kohl's all hobbled.

Grandma Marie was in town for the holiday helping Sarah get her apartment in order now that she's a real grown-up working teacher and she got to spend some good quality Elliot time, too.

I know it's been a while since we'd been home because everyone said Elliot hardly looked like the same person. Tobi said he looked more like a boy and less like a baby, and I suppose it's true. I can hardly believe it, though. He wasn't even born yet this time last year and I feel like he's been with us for so long.

Because the roadtrip was so rough, we decided that Brendan would drive the car back to PA and I'd fly with Elliot. Working out the details of this, though, proved to be quite the task, and we finally made it back about three days later than we meant to.

Boy did they miss him at daycare! Though I do have to mention that they have a new baby there (just on Thursdays) who is younger than Elliot, and I guess our poor little baby is just the tiniest bit jealous. He's used to being the center of attention. (Wonder where he gets that from? I guess the oldest child of two oldest children is probably bound to have some problems.) Normally Elliot spends a lot of time crawling around and playing but I guess the new baby who was getting used to daycare needed a lot of holding and Elliot didn't like it that Miss Jessica had her arms occupied by someone else. Apparently she had to spend a good part of the day with a baby on each hip.

Let's see, what else? We took Elliot to the library today because they have a fantastic children's room with all sorts of toddler-sized tables and toys, puppets and big windows, and cushions to crawl around on. I think we'll be there a lot this winter because already our house is far too small. We met a little German baby named Larry and Larry's mother--isn't it funny how we never exchanged our names, just the babies'? and Elliot kept trying to stick his fingers in Larry's mouth. Then Brendan spent about a half hour just holding Elliot in front of the windows, watching the cars go by.

My advisor told me my dissertation was "close" and I'm working like a crazy person trying to get that done. Oh, how I want to leave it in PA when we come home for the winter break. I guess I'm defending on February 13th--that's a Friday! This can't be a good sign.

Marcela, bless her heart, is coming over to babysit tomorrow afternoon for a few hours. Yay for Marcela.

Hope you're all well. Sweet dreams!

slapdash updates

[First photo is just a nice sweet one where he's showing off the full range of tongue motion from the frenectomy. I'm so glad we had that done. He loves playing around with his tongue! His top tooth hadn't popped through yet in this photo, but his two underneathers were there. Second photo is his new favorite activity that we actively discourage but obsessively supervise because he loves to try to pull himself up on the coffee table and then just lay into it with his teeth. I don't know why he prefers the table over his teething rings to such a great degree. ANYWAY...]

Because I just realized that I'll be away from easy computing for the next week and it's been awhile. We very last-minute decided to load up the kid and all associated stuffs he needs into a rental car and head to Minneapolis for Thanksgiving!

And one Ms. Bernadette Miller will get to meet her nephew for the first time!!

But what Elliot's been up to: he's crawling with a vengeance, pulling himself up on everything stable or not-so-stable he can get his chubby little hands on, really enjoying crumpling up paper and hanging up on his grandparents, chewing on all sorts of surfaces...including ME while nursing and something has to be done about that or we will be weaning really soon and I don't think either of us are ready for that yet. But I'm talking two blood blisters today!

But the bright side of that is that it couldn't happen without his 3rd little tooth, this one on top! His grin looks so different now.

What else? He doesn't whistle anymore, but he clicks his mouth by sucking air down low on one side. That didn't make any sense, but if you see it you'll get what I mean.

Okay, must sign off now because I still have a bit of work to do and then packing, but my next post will be about Thanksgiving with all five grandparents and all six aunts and uncles.

We are blessed, truly.

"Mama won't understand..."

I was in the kitchen cleaning up while Brendan and Elliot were enjoying a nice fall afternoon in the front yard. I heard them come in, I heard Brendan say the quote above, and I walk in the living room to find what these pictures only begin to describe. I've said it before, I'll say it again, the Dustbuster is the single best household purchase ever.

But how can you even be frustrated at that face?

Thoughts on Halloween

And they're going to be brief, because I'm about to toddle off to bed, but...

Oh, what a cute day today was! Elliot has a Nittany Lion costume (Penn State's mascot) and we justified buying it because it's going to be his snow suit, too. It's all plush and furry with paw prints on the feet, a long tail, a hood with little lion ears on it, and it's got a little paw on the bum, too. When I dropped him off at daycare, all the other kids were dressed up, too....there were lady bugs, supermen, spidermen, wizards, princesses, a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a bumblebee or two. They invited me back for their Halloween parade, and I'm so glad I went.

Elliot was the only really little one there today, so they had him in one of these indestructible four-kid buggies. He was strapped in, looking as calm as could be, just gazing around at the circus around him. His buggy-mates were a few kids who had disabilities that prevented them from walking very quickly or far, and he looked like such a little man with these older kids! His seat-mate kept patting his head and he took it like the cool customer he is. I'll add pictures to this tomorrow.

You know, I just can't wait for the day when he can burst into the house and yell "Mama!" and grab me around the waist, but I am so in love with this little person he is right now. This little person who recently discovered how to play peek-a-boo when he's wearing one of my winter hats that fall down over his face, or smack his lips like he's trying to blow a kiss, or do this sitting-up scootch that he's adopted as his primary mode of transportation instead of the crawl which usually sends him backwards instead of where he wants to go.

He's darn near perfect, if you ask me.

Growing up so fast...

So much is going on with this little guy. He went to the doctor this week because he's got an ear infection left over from a cold that's a few weeks old. The doctor said he wouldn't have guessed Elliot had an ear infection because he seemed so happy. He does continue to be a happy baby, it's true. We're so lucky.

He always gets a little fussy and right on the borderline of overexcited before bedtime, but he falls asleep most nights between 6:30 and 7:00 with really no trouble at all. Sometimes he rolls right over and falls asleep, sometimes he'll babble and coo until he drifts off, and once in awhile he'll fuss a bit, but never for very long. Miss Jessica reports that he sat up by himself yesterday, but neither of us have seen it, and to this day I remain the only person to have actually seen him crawl. Brendan is starting to doubt my story, but it's true. I think Elliot just figures that he can get where he wants to be more efficiently by rolling or scooting.

And he whistles! Isn't that the craziest thing?

Anyway, I'm really sleepy and not feeling too eloquent, but the real reason I had to post tonight was to show you these videos. The first one is Elliot's first fruit baby-food. His expressions just slay me. You would think he was eating a lemon, from the squints and shudders, but he keeps coming right back for more. The second is just before bedtime when Brendan discovered that a little jump would make Elliot giggle, and a bigger jump would make him giggle more! I think there isn't a nicer sound in the world than baby-giggles.

Hope all is well in your corners of the world. More to come soon....

Put me in, coach!

A cute outfit from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Deirdre!

Quick updates

Sorry I've not been doing a better job keeping up with things here.

In a nutshell:

Elliot has a tooth! I'm thinking by Halloween he'll look like a little Jack-O-Lantern. We've tried but not succeeded to get a picture showing this, but trust me, it's there.

He crawled for the first time! I was the only one who actually saw it, but trust me, it happened. Yesterday morning before daycare. I tried to get him to do it again when Brendan got home, and he got up on his hands and knees with no trouble, but he just sort of rocked front to back and mostly ended up scootching backwards. It's coming, though.

Tonight, this miracle angel-baby just rolled over and fell right asleep when I put him in the crib! No fussing, no nothing. I've got a much longer post about the general topic of "sleep training" coming up, but I just wanted to say at least this much. He's been going to sleep in his crib for one week exactly tonight. It's really different around the house when things are regular like this. It's almost totally good, but I do realize that we (or I, depending) had some time with him between 7 p.m. and when I went to sleep, so in a way this feels a little lonely, too. But mostly it's just good. He needs his sleep, and he's getting it. Go Elliot!

Brendan's friend from MIT is coming to visit for the weekend and meet Elliot. It should be a lot of fun. Hesky was one of Brendan's groomsmen in the wedding, and he moved to NYC to work for google maybe a year ago, but this will be the first time we've gotten together.

[Note to Mike & Carl--it is possible, and not even inconvenient, to come visit from New York for a weekend on Amtrak. We'd LOVE to see you! :) ]

That's about it for now; we hope you're all doing well. If you're reading this, we miss you!

(I added a few recent, random photos...)