July

I notice I'm forgetting cute things if I don't write them down. I know I said over a week ago that Elliott started blowing me kisses before bed. A few days later, he even, upon request, blew some kisses at some nice women he was hanging out with during their al fresco dining experience in Shirlington. We were sitting on a bench waiting for carryout food when he was making eyes at one of them, who enticed him with "Quieres venir?" So John took him over and he sat in her lap for a while as she and her friends -- apparently women from several different Latin American countries -- fawned over him. So at the end, he was happy to blow some besos to them. Now he's really getting into the smacking aspect - no longer just the hand to mouth gesture but very much the sound effect.

We've got lots of very intricate babbling but still no words we recognize as English, French or Spanish (or German, for that matter, though the sound is closer). We've decided that, despite Elliott's fair complexion and red hair, he really is Slovenian. During the few seconds he managed to pound on my laptop the other day, he did a Google search for ZDUS, known in translation as the Slovenian Association for the Dramatic Arts. There's an alternate organization, Zveza društev upokojencev Slovenije, but I don't know what that is.

This week Elliott got to play with Mack, Courtney and Brian's son, who is just about the same size as Elliott now, but with lots more red hair. Elliott did not, despite Courtney's prediction, walk right up to Mack. In fact, he hasn't really taken any new steps since last I wrote. He seems a little freaked out by the idea. He still cruises with hardly any support and will walk holding only one hand, but if we set him down when he's not in the mood, his legs buckle and he goes down on his bum to wail.

Elliott has been pointing for a while, but now it seems more intentional. He appears to point at food that he wants and rewards us with a happy chuckle when we give it to him, and he often raises his right arm when he wants more. This morning I stayed in bed for a short while until Elliott pointed upstairs and said "Mama" a bunch of times. We left him with Karey for an hour to go to an appointment, and she said he pointed at the door and got a little sad every ten minutes or so.

On the food front, he's become a fan of tomatoes and is still liking watermelon and blueberries a whole lot. He's eating egg more and will try most anything. Tonight he happily sat in the chair munching snacking on baba ghanouj, chicken shwarma, tomato with mint dressing (and rice cake and apple from home) had a great time greeting people as they came into Lebanese Taverna. John asked, "What did we do to get you?" Elliott is a lot of fun. However, at home he's taken to standing up in his high chair. Even if we have him strapped in, he wriggles out and wants to turn around and look in the window. Or into the kitchen. Or at whatever is behind him, however we turn the chair around. So then we lower the chair to the floor and sometimes leave him in it and sometimes take him out to stand in front of the tray. Sometimes he'll be okay and stand and eat or play with something on the floor, but often he whines to be picked up; he wants to sit with us and pick off our plates. It's tough to know what to do. If we have mealtime just be over, he'll just want to nurse more. So we tend to keep letting him eat as long as - and wherever - he's interested, at least until we're done eating, but we might come to regret that.

We had our first paddling experience on the Potomac this week. A woman I know from one of my email lists owns a canoe and kayak and has all the gear for adults and kids. So Elliott and I drove out to meet her and her two kids and another couple and their 20-month-old. We tried Elliott in the front of the canoe with me while the other woman steered and her 4-year-old sat in the middle. Elliott was fine for the first few minutes but then freaked out. I took off my vest so that I could nurse him. Then he was happy to just stand there, attached, as I paddled. We stayed away from the shore.

Later he had a great time hanging out on the grass as we all had a picnic. Then he had even more fun frolicking in the water, sitting and playing with a yogurt tub and watching a dog play fetch by swimming out to retrieve a tennis ball. Water is a big hit, and I think we should get a little pool. Tonight after dinner he pointed to the fountain at Pentagon Row. Once we got there and watched it, he seemed disappointed that I couldn't hold him out to stick his hand in the water like we did in Shirlington. I got a nice photo of that on my phone, but before I got a chance to transfer the file, Elliott did some chewing and I think fried the phone. He's got three of his molars in (so that's eleven teeth total), and one of the eye teeth is about to break, too. Should you be curious about when teeth usually make their entrance, here's a link to Web MD: http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/dental-health-your-childs-teeth

Finally, Elliott's other favorite thing these days is putting tops on things - bottles, jars, etc. He gets mad if they are screwed on too tight for him to lift off. He's started to mimic screwing them on but hasn't really figured that out yet. One fun but a little scary mimic was when he tried to gently stick a q-tip in my ear. I really think he thought he was helping.

Throwing and rolling balls have become easier and more fun for Elliott. He is also enjoying climbing playgrounds and going down slides. He's pretty good at climbing up the slide for someone who can't walk. He's gotten strong enough to open the drawer on our coffee table, so we had a whole new explosion of random stuff littering our living room floor this week. He enjoys putting an electronic phone from Grandpa Jim in this drawer. The freaky thing is that every time we turn on the TV (which sits atop this coffee table), the phone chirps, "It's A-B-C time!" or "Goodbye!" We have no idea how these appliances are communicating.

It often sounds like Elliott's attempts to communicate are more for the benefit of dogs than humans. His barks do really sound canine, and they tend to come more emphatically when he sees dogs, so the imitation is not lost on anyone.

Well, Blogger seems to be crashing when I try to add photos, so I'll pause here for now.