Thursday Night – 12/16/10
I’d really wanted to keep up with regular blog posts about Elijah. Trouble is, free time is scarce these days. I’m starting to get into a routine, so that really helps.
Let’s see… what’s happening with Elijah. He’s had a few “first steps” but not a lot of freestanding walking. He’ll pull himself up and he’ll walk along the couch while holding/touching it, but the moment he steps away from it, he’ll sit down and start to crawl.
Every day, he understands more and more words. About a week ago (or so) I told him. “If you want me to pick you up, then stand up.” Sure enough, he grabbed my pant legs and pulled himself into a standing position. Pretty neat.
When Elijah gets near the cats and he starts getting rough with them, all we have to do is say “gentle” and he’ll calm down and pet the nicely. This has had the also beneficial action of when he starts flailing his arms around our faces we can say “gentle” and he’ll stop. (Of course, he’ll also start petting us like we’re cats, but still, it’s a win.)
We’re also having some luck teaching Elijah some sign language. “Up” was the first one. He now knows “all done” as well as “more.” Sometimes he forgets, but other days he’s right on the money. I think, up next, is “please.”
We’ve not weighed him or measured him for a while. Martha and I are talking about a Disney trip to Florida to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in September and she said something like “8 more inches to Splash Mountain.” (I seriously doubt that he’s going to grow that much, but it’s funny to hear her talk of milestones in terms of Disney park height requirements.
I’m much more cavalier about introducing new foods to Elijah’s diet. Though, I’m usually smart enough to try new things before he gets a bottle of milk or his regular solids.
(I can’t remember if I mentioned before… Elijah is off formula completely and no longer taking the medications for reflux. It’s like a $250/month pay raise.)
Last week, I found some ravioli like things from Gerber that I picked up at the store. Martha wasn’t going to even try them for a while, but this week I gave it a shot. No problems at all. Not to say that all new foods are going to be easy, but we’re making progress with chewing and swallowing. It’s pretty exciting.
Eli’s had his front teeth for a while now, four on top and four on the bottom. Right now, he’s got a number of 1st year molars coming in behind them. For a while, it seemed that the teeth were ready to erupt but his jaw/gums were growing faster than the teeth were moving. Now, that trend has stopped and you can see the little white nubs poking through. Of course, he’s not happy with this, but it seems to be less problematic than the first teeth.
As far as talking goes, Eli will be in full “babble mode” where he is incredibly vocal or he’ll just sit and be quiet. I’m not sure what turns his urge to talk on or off. He’ll parrot some words. He’ll vocalize the word “hi” from time to time, but we don’t know if he’s really saying hello, of if he’s just repeating the word like a voice recorder. I suspect that, very soon, he’s going to use a word correctly and knock Martha and me out of our chairs. I’ll let you know when that happens.
Sometime in the next week or two, we think Elijah’s going to get his first haircut. We’ll see how that goes.
We’re also going to look into some parenting classes. One of the “side effects” of being an older first-time parent is that I’m willing to get help in an area of which I know very little. 20 years ago I would have probably said “if my Dad could do it, so can I.” Today, I sometimes wonder how my dad lived through not 1 child, but 3.
That’s my update for today. (Made possible by today being my last day of teaching for the quarter and I have no homework on a weekday for the first time in 3 months. Whew.)
More soon and season’s blessings to you and your families!
