Early fall

This will not be a long, newsy post, but I did want to share a few photos and some updates. Here you can see that Elliott's hair is growing in on top - the U of M photos are from two days ago. (Yes, that is a Homer Simpson Pez dispenser. We've been reorganizing in the basement. Stuff has gotten moved and suddenly accessible. What can I say?)

Elliott and John are pictured in Elliott's new bedroom -- same double futon for now but will eventually be replaced by a single bed. The room is half futon!

Elliott is really into climbing these days, incl. ladders like the red one above, that goes way over my head. But he can do the whole thing all by himself, nearly giving me a heart attack. We've had three weeks of a tumbling class that he's really enjoying, especially now that he likes to swing on bars and rings. He's still no speed demon, but he sure enjoys running around, as well as walking on the balance beam, walking on tiptoe, walking on heels, doing bear walks on mats or bars with gaps he has to straddle. The place smells like feet, but it's fun.

He's getting a lot out of French class, I'm surprised but pleased to say. We're on un(e?) petit(e?) pause while the teacher awaits the birth of her second baby, but we're going to try to keep up informal playgroups. The other day I said "kiss" maybe reading a book or something, and he came up with "bisous!" I've since realized he does indeed know several words - eyes, nose, mouth, thumb, hand (I think), butterfly, fish. He's certainly interested, often asking, "How do you say ___ in French?" We haven't even started Spanish yet (that begins Friday), but he seems aware enough to understand it's another language b/c he's asked me how to say things in Spanish, too. My goal is to expose his ears and make it easier for him to learn later. However, he's pretty verbal, it seems, so I imagine he'll pick up a good deal as long as we keep up the exposure. CDs help a lot.

He is so funny and perceptive, we are constantly looking at each other shaking our heads. He's also maddening in that he won't nap and won't even rest, with or without me next to him. My lying down next to him is a health hazard (to me), and without me lying down, he just wants to play. I'm trying to be more consistent now that he has his own room - we stay there for at least 30 minutes and then I might put away laundry or something but still we stay upstairs for an hour or more. We moved him into the room b/c of the nap issue but I'm sure the transition is also somewhat unsettling, even though he seemed fine the first few days.

It sure is a disruption to the kind of day I had gotten used to with him taking 2.5-hr naps! I have lost 10-15 hrs/week of solo time in the past few weeks... since he's turned two and a half! At least he's usually going to bed earlier, but then that means we don't all eat together and that I end up making dinner twice. Then I'm up late to try to attend to regular life -- mail, laundry, cooking, cleaning, email, work, writing, stuff for the new chapter of Holistic Moms Network -- and that frenzied energy of mine probably doesn't help baby boy to calm. We're working on it. The Waldorf school is a good influence.

We've started using some essences and oils again -- lots of lavender in coconut oil after bath tonight! We also have had two CST sessions that, I'm told, had good releases in the temporal and parietal areas. He is really great about being worked on for a full hour. The first session might have exacerbated the sleep resistance and aggressive behavior I went in for. Hopefully both sessions together will help in the long run. Today he fell asleep during the session, and she said his rhythm felt good. John said he was very sweet and fell asleep easily in bed.

Well, that's all I've got tonight. A la prochaine.