Just some details
I still haven't gotten to the Michigan and earlier posts, but I wanted to share a few cute anecdotes before I forgot them. It's late so these aren't organized in any particular fashion.
Elliott is now blowing me a kiss before John takes him up to bed. Hi mimicked this the first time we did it last night and tonight did it again and got a real kick out of it. He doesn't perfectly touch his mouth - sort of half-mouth, half-cheek, and of course the mimic with missed aim just makes it that much cuter.
Elliott has elaborate pretend conversations now with anything that remotely resembles a telephone. He waits for replies and sounds like he's asking questions as well as offering clear affirmations. A budding empathic listener?
Today we had a playdate with Susan, and she had a musical toy. Elliott mimicked one of its little tunes in perfect pitch and rhythm. It was like a three or four-note ba-ba-ba-ba kind of thing (which means he got the "words" right, too). Susan looked up at me, as amazed as I was. It's nice to have someone with a background in musical theater think my kid's ear is as good as I do. While playing with that toy, Elliott also rocked a lot with his whole body in a way I haven't seen before. She thought it was clearly an attempt to dance. We think Elliott looks really long at home, but he's a lot shorter than Sawyer. He does, however, have much chunkier legs than Sawyer.
During Elliott's craniosacral appointment, he pulled off some tape on a makeshift shaker toy she had. It's nice when someone who works with lots of kids comment on his dexterity and fine motor skills: "you're the first one who's ever done that!" So, we're not walking or speaking words (except for that weird Czech/Hungarian thing he's got going on), but we can sing and use our fingers. I also think he wanted to pretend sign when I sang the ABC song, which I often do signing the letters. That's really the only time I've seen much hand movement outside of clapping, the incomplete pass move and the hand-up militaristic gesture (sometimes open palm, sometimes with pointer finger extended).
Elliott is much more interested in books lately. He's been enjoying looking at them on his own for a while, but now he's more likely to hold up a book for me to read.
Elliott takes his cod liver oil straight these days and licks the spoon. He's eating a lot -- all with his hands. He's more interested in utensils, though, so I think we could start encouraging that more. He likes to "dip" his cracker or carrot or whatever he's eating into a bowl, so I often give him the hummus container when it's almost finished. He gets a real kick out of the real thing. He's really enjoying raw goat milk cheese, though I haven't recently heard him say "cheese" like I got him to a week or two ago. We've started introducing some nuts, and I think he's doing fine with them. He even tried some fresh pesto with raw garlic; I only gave him a few tastes and I don't think he would have eaten a ton, but he did try a second and maybe third time. The next day he grabbed a big chunk of my Lara bar, and I let him have it. I think it had almond and walnut (and date). He ate the whole chunk. So this week I made some cookies mostly out of almond flour and some rice flour (and grated carrot and zucchini), and we've both been enjoying them. They're sweetened with applesauce, a little molasses, a few drops of stevia and a little bit of honey.
There is an obsession with tops these days. He wants the top to water bottles to play with and then put back on. If it gets stuck on he gets upset and hands it out to me to loosen so he can take it off again. He wants to put the lid on any plastic container. He can get his hand around the whole lid to the sunflower butter jar and wants to try to screw it back on.
Shape puzzles are getting easier. He's been able to put the basic shapes in the right spot on the one with knobs for a few weeks, but now he doesn't even have to think about it and easily turns the piece to fit. We inherited several more puzzles from my sister and he seems to like them and does well with them.
It's impossible to keep this boy quiet at the library. Or anywhere. He is such a shrieker! And I only mean with delight; he doesn't much fuss out in public unless he wants something I won't let him have -- my phone, the car keys, a computer terminal.
Water is definitely on Elliott's hit list, along with dogs, electronic devices of all kinds, and people with faces. He loves to stand and get sprayed while I shower, and he enjoyed kiddie pools at my parents' house and friend Adele's pool. Filling cups with water and pouring them out is fascinating to him. We don't really have tub toys, so this is new.
Rolling and throwing a ball have gotten smoother. He seems to have a lot more control now, and he really enjoyed passing the ball back and forth with Mia, our 3-year-old neighbor who is moving at the end of this week. Whenever she's outside when we pull up in the car, he just screams down the sidewalk at her. We'll really miss having her and her parents around, but we hope the new toddler boy who's moving in will be fun to play with.
We are tending toward taking one three-hour nap a day, usually 1:00-4:00ish. I do mean we. Elliott gave John a good fight this weekend. John won, but it made me feel like trying to get him to sleep without nursing is not going to work easily in the near future. I don't feel like dealing with the kind of door-pounding and screams John reported. On Sunday while I was jogging, John gave up and took Elliott for a walk. He fell asleep on our block and transferred well to the bed. When I've transferred him from the car to the bed lately, I can't do it without him grabbing at my shirt, even if he seemed to be snoring as I carried him up the stairs. Sometimes I can sneak away after he's in a deep sleep, but most of the time I'm tired enough that I just sleep the whole time, too. The only problem is when I stay up too late and then he wakes up early for some reason. We were having 8:30 a.m. wake-ups but the past few days have been before 7:30 a.m. He's going to bed later, between 8:00 and 9:00. He's so happy in the evening and really enjoys playing with John, so we don't push him too early. The other night we tried too early and he was doing laps around the bedroom, crawling all over the futon and our mattress, back and forth. John came down bleary-eyed quite some time later: "That took forever."
While I got my hair cut this morning, Elliott sat in his stroller and observed happily for most of the time, just until the blow dryer came out. Then he wanted to stand up in the stroller, so I held him on my lap for the last few minutes. The stylist is a mom, and it's a quiet salon, so it's much easier to just bring Elliott than deal with a sitter for such a short time. All the time to make the house presentable and prepare snacks for him and then have him cling to me while I explain things to the sitter... right now it's just not worth it for a 30-45 min appt. When I have a two-hour acupuncture and massage appt., that's worth bringing in the sitter. A neighborhood mom and I might try some playdates in the hope of doing some swapping at some point, and I'm going to try using a high school student who lives just around the block. Our great sitter, Doris, has three kids who are out of school for the summer, so she can't come very often for a while. Last time she was here, Elliott was playing so happily when I came home he just waved and smiled at me and kept playing while I made lunch and chatted with Doris. It feels really nice to not have Elliott whine and cling to me as soon as I get home.
When John left for work yesterday, Elliott cried really hard and just sat there looking out the door. It was sad but also really sweet.
It's 1:53 and he's waking up, so off to bed I go.
Elliott is now blowing me a kiss before John takes him up to bed. Hi mimicked this the first time we did it last night and tonight did it again and got a real kick out of it. He doesn't perfectly touch his mouth - sort of half-mouth, half-cheek, and of course the mimic with missed aim just makes it that much cuter.
Elliott has elaborate pretend conversations now with anything that remotely resembles a telephone. He waits for replies and sounds like he's asking questions as well as offering clear affirmations. A budding empathic listener?
Today we had a playdate with Susan, and she had a musical toy. Elliott mimicked one of its little tunes in perfect pitch and rhythm. It was like a three or four-note ba-ba-ba-ba kind of thing (which means he got the "words" right, too). Susan looked up at me, as amazed as I was. It's nice to have someone with a background in musical theater think my kid's ear is as good as I do. While playing with that toy, Elliott also rocked a lot with his whole body in a way I haven't seen before. She thought it was clearly an attempt to dance. We think Elliott looks really long at home, but he's a lot shorter than Sawyer. He does, however, have much chunkier legs than Sawyer.
During Elliott's craniosacral appointment, he pulled off some tape on a makeshift shaker toy she had. It's nice when someone who works with lots of kids comment on his dexterity and fine motor skills: "you're the first one who's ever done that!" So, we're not walking or speaking words (except for that weird Czech/Hungarian thing he's got going on), but we can sing and use our fingers. I also think he wanted to pretend sign when I sang the ABC song, which I often do signing the letters. That's really the only time I've seen much hand movement outside of clapping, the incomplete pass move and the hand-up militaristic gesture (sometimes open palm, sometimes with pointer finger extended).
Elliott is much more interested in books lately. He's been enjoying looking at them on his own for a while, but now he's more likely to hold up a book for me to read.
Elliott takes his cod liver oil straight these days and licks the spoon. He's eating a lot -- all with his hands. He's more interested in utensils, though, so I think we could start encouraging that more. He likes to "dip" his cracker or carrot or whatever he's eating into a bowl, so I often give him the hummus container when it's almost finished. He gets a real kick out of the real thing. He's really enjoying raw goat milk cheese, though I haven't recently heard him say "cheese" like I got him to a week or two ago. We've started introducing some nuts, and I think he's doing fine with them. He even tried some fresh pesto with raw garlic; I only gave him a few tastes and I don't think he would have eaten a ton, but he did try a second and maybe third time. The next day he grabbed a big chunk of my Lara bar, and I let him have it. I think it had almond and walnut (and date). He ate the whole chunk. So this week I made some cookies mostly out of almond flour and some rice flour (and grated carrot and zucchini), and we've both been enjoying them. They're sweetened with applesauce, a little molasses, a few drops of stevia and a little bit of honey.
There is an obsession with tops these days. He wants the top to water bottles to play with and then put back on. If it gets stuck on he gets upset and hands it out to me to loosen so he can take it off again. He wants to put the lid on any plastic container. He can get his hand around the whole lid to the sunflower butter jar and wants to try to screw it back on.
Shape puzzles are getting easier. He's been able to put the basic shapes in the right spot on the one with knobs for a few weeks, but now he doesn't even have to think about it and easily turns the piece to fit. We inherited several more puzzles from my sister and he seems to like them and does well with them.
It's impossible to keep this boy quiet at the library. Or anywhere. He is such a shrieker! And I only mean with delight; he doesn't much fuss out in public unless he wants something I won't let him have -- my phone, the car keys, a computer terminal.
Water is definitely on Elliott's hit list, along with dogs, electronic devices of all kinds, and people with faces. He loves to stand and get sprayed while I shower, and he enjoyed kiddie pools at my parents' house and friend Adele's pool. Filling cups with water and pouring them out is fascinating to him. We don't really have tub toys, so this is new.
Rolling and throwing a ball have gotten smoother. He seems to have a lot more control now, and he really enjoyed passing the ball back and forth with Mia, our 3-year-old neighbor who is moving at the end of this week. Whenever she's outside when we pull up in the car, he just screams down the sidewalk at her. We'll really miss having her and her parents around, but we hope the new toddler boy who's moving in will be fun to play with.
We are tending toward taking one three-hour nap a day, usually 1:00-4:00ish. I do mean we. Elliott gave John a good fight this weekend. John won, but it made me feel like trying to get him to sleep without nursing is not going to work easily in the near future. I don't feel like dealing with the kind of door-pounding and screams John reported. On Sunday while I was jogging, John gave up and took Elliott for a walk. He fell asleep on our block and transferred well to the bed. When I've transferred him from the car to the bed lately, I can't do it without him grabbing at my shirt, even if he seemed to be snoring as I carried him up the stairs. Sometimes I can sneak away after he's in a deep sleep, but most of the time I'm tired enough that I just sleep the whole time, too. The only problem is when I stay up too late and then he wakes up early for some reason. We were having 8:30 a.m. wake-ups but the past few days have been before 7:30 a.m. He's going to bed later, between 8:00 and 9:00. He's so happy in the evening and really enjoys playing with John, so we don't push him too early. The other night we tried too early and he was doing laps around the bedroom, crawling all over the futon and our mattress, back and forth. John came down bleary-eyed quite some time later: "That took forever."
While I got my hair cut this morning, Elliott sat in his stroller and observed happily for most of the time, just until the blow dryer came out. Then he wanted to stand up in the stroller, so I held him on my lap for the last few minutes. The stylist is a mom, and it's a quiet salon, so it's much easier to just bring Elliott than deal with a sitter for such a short time. All the time to make the house presentable and prepare snacks for him and then have him cling to me while I explain things to the sitter... right now it's just not worth it for a 30-45 min appt. When I have a two-hour acupuncture and massage appt., that's worth bringing in the sitter. A neighborhood mom and I might try some playdates in the hope of doing some swapping at some point, and I'm going to try using a high school student who lives just around the block. Our great sitter, Doris, has three kids who are out of school for the summer, so she can't come very often for a while. Last time she was here, Elliott was playing so happily when I came home he just waved and smiled at me and kept playing while I made lunch and chatted with Doris. It feels really nice to not have Elliott whine and cling to me as soon as I get home.
When John left for work yesterday, Elliott cried really hard and just sat there looking out the door. It was sad but also really sweet.
It's 1:53 and he's waking up, so off to bed I go.
posted by Jessica at 1:02 AM
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