Nine Months In, Nine Months Out

Nine months in. Nine months out.

It took about nine months (271 days, give or take a couple) for our baby to go from a couple cells hidden inside of me to a wiggly eight pound kid.

Nine months later, and he's almost fourteen pounds heavier, almost eight inches longer, and way, way more wiggly.

This has been a big month. He's got six teeth total now. He cruises everywhere he can reach- fast. He doesn't balance very long while not holding on to anything, but I don't think it's too far off. He eats all sorts of things, and gets very, very insistent when we don't include him in mealtimes. He figured out how to clap, and does so when excited with a big open-mouthed smile that is heart-meltingly cute. He waves at people somewhat inconsistently. His hair's getting long enough around his ears that we're considering cutting it already. He's happy pretty much all of the time.

A new favorite game is to open the tupperware tops drawer and empty it, then proceed to spread the tops all over the kitchen and living room floor. Fun.


My baby's now been on the Outside longer than he was on the Inside (as of last Friday. Yes, I did the math.) He's becoming his own person, wanting to crawl away and explore on his own. He always comes back, though, and climbs up my leg to make sure I'm still there- and that I can't move even if I wanted to.

I'm not going anywhere, Baby. Don't you worry.

Photo catch-up

Elliott's cruising everywhere- as long as we keep the furniture close enough together.

At the aforementioned consignment sale, I also got him more leggings. I'm a fan. Josh is skeptical. What do you think about leggings for boys? (The filter on this particular picture make them look pink, I realized after the fact. They're red, promise.)

The house siding project continues. While Josh & his brother worked on the siding, my nephews played our Wii. Elliott wanted to play along, and definitely got some important Mario tips he's filed away for later.

The following really grainy pictures demonstrate how all-the-time happy he is. The big, open-mouthed smile is a regular occurrence. Also, he claps now. That's pretty cute.

I cannot explain how fun this kid is. So. Fun.

Unconventional farm

So, we were at Goodwill, and found this Fisher Price barn for $3. Because locally-produced, farm-fresh food is something we want to expose Elliott to, we bought it. Actually, we got it because it's a toy he would hopefully be able to play with for a long time, that wouldn't require batteries. (It CAN take batteries, but is perfectly functional as a toy without them)

Elliott is perfectly happy and this point to open and close all the doors on the barn and play with the limited number of moving parts. But, at some point, I think he'll want actual farm animals or people to play with in the barn. Goodwill, while having two of these barns, had no Little People figures. My plan was to keep an eye out for the farm figures on Craigslist and Goodwill, and if none are to be found, order them from Mattel for $13 for the set.

Fast forward a few weeks, we were perusing the Indy Kids Consignment sale, and I had Little People on my shopping list. I knew it was a long shot, but I scoured the toy table- and there they were! Four farm figurines for a dollar! Hooray!

And then, in line to check out, I take a closer look. Cow. Horse. Sheep. Lion? Hmm.

One of these is not like the others.

I have a feeling Elliott won't mind.

We'll just call the lion the most awesome barn cat ever.

What will I tell him?

Four, five, ten years from now, he'll have questions.
About the images appearing on the news every September.
About the planes. And the buildings. And the crying people.

About the heroes. The firefighters and police and dogs and airplane passengers.
About the villains. Why and how and who and when.
About the victims. Could it be me? or mommy? or daddy?

I want to give hope.
The villains were evil men, but not everyone is evil.
I want to tell him the heroes did the right thing even when they were scared.

The victims, we can't forget them.
We can't forget the victims that came later, either,
All over the world.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear."
We can't live in fear, I'll tell him.
Hate won't solve anything.

Forgiveness is hard.
Perfect love, even harder.
For the world's sake, for your future's sake, we've got to try.

My Pre-toddler

I haven't been here.

I mean here, on the blog.

It's just, my baby- my little 8-month-old- seems to be morphing into a toddler before my eyes, and I wasn't ready for this.

I mean, he's not toddling yet, but he did start cruising on furniture last week. I guess I had it in my head that babies learn to walk right when they turn one, so I was expecting to have a cruising baby at Christmas, not Labor Day.

He's got six teeth now. And lots of hair.

Sunday, in the nursery at church, the teacher reported that she gave him Cheerios, and he ate so many "I finally took them away because I was afraid he'd get a tummyache." He is all about eating, and can drink water from a straw.

Along with pulling up on everything, he plays peek-a-boo on the furniture. He'll peek over the edge of the couch or pack & play, catch my attention, lower himself down out of sight, pop up with a big grin so he can see me, I'll say "There's Elliott!" or "Boo!", and he'll repeat the game.

And then there's the communication thing. He's started waving. And, when he sees his rubber duckie, he exclaims, "A duh!" and "Quah quah quah".  When he sees Daddy, it's "Dadadada". He repeats "Moooo" and "Uh oh", too. Sometimes I think he says "Hi!" but I'm not sure. He's started pointing at things.

We went to a concert this weekend, and Elliott started dancing- bouncing and waving his arms with this huge smile on his face, the whole time the music was playing (and he was awake). It was the cutest thing ever. There are witnesses.

My child is no prodigy. I've heard of other babies reaching these milestones earlier. It's just all happening so fast. I feel like, if I blink, if I take my eyes off him for a second, I'll miss something really important or fun. I want to enjoy my baby before he runs off to the next stage. So, blogging and picture-taking has slowed, replaced with being present every moment I can.

Evidence of cruising (I really should get a video...):


(Just keeping it real. Yes, our living room is most often toy-strewn; yes, the coffee table is cleared because he's thrown all the coasters on the floor; and, yes, the swing he's probably too big for is still set up. He's not wearing pants because I like his new diaper. This is our life.)

Yogurt

In case you wondered:

Yes, it is possible to eat yogurt with your fingers. Messy, but doable.