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...)

We love solid foods!

We are working on the solids. I feel maternally deficient as far as that goes, though, because all the other 7-month-olds are eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and cereals, and our guy gets oatmeal or rice cereal mostly when we feel like it and have the time and inclination to deal with the mess. And what a mess it is. He's such a good little helper that he insists on controlling the spoon himself. Sometimes it even works!

The picture is of him "eating" this teething biscuit. He goes crazy for them because I think they make his gums feel better--he's got his first tooth fixing to pop through one day soon now--and also because he gets to hold it himself. These are a treat we like to save until just before bathtime.

I'd like to take a half a day sometime soon here and make a bunch of baby food to freeze in ice-cube trays. You can pop the cubes out and keep them in freezer bags to heat up one at a time whenever you need them. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Frenectomy

(That's "tongue-clipping" to those of you who never had to deal with this and would have no reason to know what it's called.)

(Picture is unrelated but fairly recent and painfully sweet.)

(I resolve to stop talking in the parenthetical!)

One thing we've been thinking about since Elliot was born is whether or not we should have this done. The doctors said he was "a little bit" tongue-tied. This means that the little piece of skin that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth is longer than most kids. His wasn't too bad, but he couldn't stick his tongue out very far, and when he did it looked a bit like the top of a heart.

For some babies, it interferes with nursing. We saw a lactation consultant who recommended that we get the frenectomy done, though he was doing okay with eating. Other concerns about tongue-tie include possible speech impediments (though many kids with tongue-tie compensate in other ways and don't have anything noticeably different about their speech) and difficulty doing things like licking ice cream cones. Or French kissing. And you know with Obama making kindergartners learn everything about sex by the time they're five, he's going to need to be able to do that, well, any day now!

A lot of people take a wait-and-see approach. I don't think there's anything wrong with going that route because why subject your kid to a surgery (of the most minor kind, but still surgery) he doesn't need? Especially if he's nursing fine as evidenced by the below-the-mean-but-still-perfectly-fine weight gain?

We went back and forth on this and it wasn't made easier by the professionals we consulted. I guess it's quite controversial, though I never would have guessed beforehand. The lactation consultant said we should, his pediatrician said there was no reason to, the ear-nose-throat doctor said it was elective because Elliot's tongue-tie was a "5 out of 10" and he said he didn't know what he'd do if it were his own child.

So we read and read and talked and talked, and in my reading I came across a message board about tongue-tie that had a bunch of teenagers writing about having it. I saw so many comments about wanting to get the surgery, wishing they'd had it, feeling awkward on dates, getting teased...we knew, too, that if you're going to get it done, the earlier the better because they have more time to get used to the new movements, it can be done without general anaesthesia when they're babies, and if there are going to be any problems with a gap between the bottom front teeth, it's better to do it before they have those teeth.

For all those reasons, we decided to go ahead with it. He had it done today! My poor sweetie. The thing I hate about anything that's going to cause him pain (e.g., vaccinations) is that it's impossible to explain to him beforehand what's going to happen. So Brendan did me a great favor and left me at home for the morning.

Everything went really, really well. Elliot slept for most of the hour and a half drive to the place that does it, and he was fussy by the time they got there because he wasn't supposed to eat anything for two hours prior. They had to immobilize him in a sheet and Brendan had to leave the room--that part sounded awful. Brendan said he could hear him crying but that the whole thing took about two minutes. Then Brendan came back, Elliot went to town on his bottle, and he was cooing by the time they called me.

When they got back, Elliot seemed to be in great spirits and was busy experimenting with sticking his tongue out in ways he couldn't before. It was adorable.

I was planning on staying home and not sending him to daycare because I thought he'd be fussy and sore, but he seemed to be neither (they gave him Tylenol before sending him home) so we brought him in to play with his friends for a few hours.

All in all, I think everyone in the house is happy with the decision, though to be fair I have to acknowledge that by the time we can ask Elliot about this he won't be able to remember it.

The Week in Review

This is what we think of cell phone bills.

Anyway...

There aren't a whole lot of updates, really. This was just a pretty normal week. Peanut continues to amaze us all by growing several inches a day.

We continue to make progress toward the family goal of Finishing Grad School. Brendan and I both met with our committees this week, though mine was less formal. Apparently I'm going to be defending my dissertation on December 9 or 10. I suppose this means I better get to finishing it!

Elliot is doing really well in daycare. We are so lucky to have found this place. He's finally napping well there and seems to relish sucking on a toy giraffe. One day this week I dropped him off and then peeked in the window where I saw Miss Jessie dancing with him. It was such a sweet sight that I teared up.

He really seems to have an extraordinary focus. I'm going to try to get a short video clip of him in the bathtub. It's so funny--what he wants to do in the tub is KICK. You can't catch his eye, he doesn't smile, doesn't cry, doesn't do anything but stare at those feet and he'll go until I take him out because he's winded. The other day I went to check in on him while he was asleep (on a futon mattress on the floor) and he was awake and creeping towards a bottle I'd left on the floor. He was so intent that he didn't react to the door opening.

We're making slow but steady progress on the solid foods. So far he just eats single-grain oatmeal and rice cereal--the pediatrician says he should be having about 9 tablespoons a day, but we're lucky to get 6 because it takes so long and such a small amount makes it into his mouth anyway. But he's a great helper, grabbing the spoon and shoving it whichever-way-up in the general direction of his mouth.

Well, folks, I think that's about it! Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your weekends...