Happy Eleven Month Birthday Ellis!

I don't have a whole lot documented for Ellis' 11th month.  This isn't his fault though as I'm sure it was an active, eventful one.  My focus was on the fact that my mom, Ellis and Cavin's nana, died this month.

The only thing I have documented is that Ellis learned how to wave 'hello' and, well, 'goodbye'.  It is poetic really as we said goodbye to Nana for the last time.

She was a wonderful grandmother and it just pisses us off that the kids won't get to know her better.

Happy 11th to her grandbaby!

Happy Ten Month Birthday Ellis!

"Mommy I'm a mover!!!" is what that look says.  And Ellis' 10th month was all about Point B and how to get there from Point A.   He started off the month army crawling, quickly moved into crawling on all 4s, then kneeling to see the action on top of the train table, then pulling himself up to stand!  Somewhere in there he figured out how to go from all 4s to sitting up in order to take a break.

Moving like this also made him realize that what he wants, he gets.  And he's learned to express himself.  Moral of the story is brother has a personality!  He has started to scream in high pitched sounds when we take toys away, pick him up when he's not ready, or wants more food.  To compensate for this I'm pretty sure he spoke his first word: "mama" while also showing us he can clap!  So he can scream all he wants as far as I'm concerned.

So as you can see month 10 was an awesome one with a lot of action!  The only downside is croup visited us towards the end of the month with Cavin waking up with a seal like cough and 30 minutes later Ellis woke up with the same one while gasping for air.  I had my tennis shoes on and was headed to the hospital at midnight just as the doctor called back to tell us to take him outside to allow the cold air to open up his airways.  I will tell you, that was one scary night.

Happy 10 months to my little mover!

Happy Nine Month Birthday Ellis!

This month was a shaky one...literally.  It started off with two earthquakes in one day.  Very scary for these non-Californians!  Otherwise, Ellis has learned to *shake* his head 'no' when he doesn't want something...so that's been a treat.

In very exciting news, Ellis is pretty much sleeping through the night which is a HUGE milestone..well, to the momma at least.

Ellis is also ALMOST army crawling.  There's a lot of grunting and moving backwards but soon he will get where he wants to go!

Again, you'll have to wait until next month to get percentiles for height and weight.  I can tell you this much, he's put on enough lbs to support a 2.5 year old.

Happy 9 month birthday Ellis!

Happy Eight Month Birthday Ellis!

Well, hello there!  You'll begin to see a pattern in Ellis' Elmo photos...and that's a lot of smiling.  Well, except for that pesky 11 month photo - but I think that has something to do with him learning that I opted against chocolate as the flavor for his smash cake.

I digress. 

That 5th tooth finally came in this month. If you remember, we hate that tooth.  In fact, his 6 tooth followed right behind it.  Once they arrived, Ellis was able to move on to some more developments...such as pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and then finding his mouth and putting it back in.  Sounds pretty simple eh?  Tell that to Ellis at 2am when he's screaming.

Ellis also learned that he is starring in his very own show and doesn't appreciate the camera angle.  In other words, he has found his video monitor, grabs it, and moves it around.  It scares the bejeesus out of me when I click to look at the video and I see nothing but nostrils and teeth!  It is a good thing I married an enginner because Mike rigged up some contraption that will get us through the next few months - until Ellis grows a few more inches.

In other news, Ellis and I weaned from breastfeeding this month.  I was pretty darn proud of myself for making it 8 months while working a full time job that takes me away from my baby for 12 hours a day.  Kudos to us!!!  Sorry, someone's gotta give mommy and baby some credit. :)

Ellis has become quite the wiggle worm on Elmo...evidenced by the next couple shots.

We didn't have a pediatrician appointment this month so I don't have stats but I can assure you he's growing.

Happy 8 months big boy!

12 steps forward, 4 steps back

Just wanted to give y'all a heads up that we are taking it back about 4 months.  Basically, Ellis turned 7 months old, we went on a road trip to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, threw a Halloween party, my mom got sick and was hospitalized for over 2 months in the ICU, Thanksgiving happened, Christmas happened, New Years happened, and then my mom passed away on January 3rd.  A month later my baby turned one.  So, I've got very valid excuses for my absence BUT you people have a lot of Elmo to catch up on.

So you can start here.  And then we'll get on with the show!

It's the big ONE!

My baby boy...well he just turned one. Can you believe it?  Because I cannot.  Just yesterday I thought I was chanting "peeace" as Mom called the hospital and Mike raced over the bay bridge.

But, alas, here we are.  One year later with many laughs (and tears) under our belt.  It was a good first year.  And we are looking forward to many more candles to blow out in the future.

Speaking of candles, we had a wonderful party for the little guy (more of that to come).  And that's NOT to be confused with the party in his crib...

Happy FIRST Birthday Ellis!!

The 3rd of the month

I'm slowly but surely coming back to the blog.  I stand on a line between total sorrow and the necessity to move forward.  My kids, my husband, my friends...they make me move forward...and that's a good thing.  But the fact that she is clearly missing is heartbreaking.  Like when I think of calling her because while we toured a preschool Cavin randomly puked all over the place (she would of enjoyed that story).  Guess we can write that school off!  Or when Ellis is close to walking...or teething his molars...she's my first - and really only - call.  But that isn't there anymore and that's my new reality.

But then I have moments like yesterday...when I felt true happiness for a best friend's good news.  I smiled and laughed.  And it felt strange. But good.  Of course I usually would of called HER to tell HER the good news...because she cared a lot about that friend of mine.  Moving forward is good though. And smiling...well that's good too.

So this blog will be up and down for a while.  It has to be. There ARE great things going on (like my baby turning ONE!) but as good as I am at hiding things, there is sadness too...and that will come out as well.  I don't want to ignore the sad...but I want to highlight the fun things too (like football smash cakes!).

Tomorrow at 4:14pm marks one month since my mom died.

Foreshadowing

Replace the milk with a "Natty Light", a Schlitz, or a "Key Light".  Add about 15 years, a fraternity house, and he's all set to go for the toga party.

The Kappa Sigs would be proud.