Life is sweet!

Little Elvis is definitely getting into the act of feeding himself. He doesn't want much help at all now, unless he's super hungry and his oatmeal is runny.

He also seems to really like expressing his food opinions. If something doesn't pass muster, he just chucks it overboard. We can't really figure out his reasoning here, though. He'll gladly eat one bit of food and throw an identical bit over.

Sometimes he isn't content just to throw it over. If he finds something super offensive, he holds up his little hand and refuses to let us put it on his tray. He also will use this tactic to push someone away and to make someone (usually Mommy) stop talking.

Lots of fun, and of course, very music video friendly.

Enjoy!!

Little Elvis visits museums

It's interesting going to museums and national monuments with a 14-month-old. The parts of the buildings that interest him aren't necessarily the same ones that interest most.

Bob's aunt and uncle looked at the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Magna Carta.

We examined the marble benches, the water fountain, the carpet in the entrance to an exhibit on the National Archives, some grates in the same exhibit...

The security guard loved his puppy dog leash, and told me he wished all parents had them. There were some marble steps that Little Elvis really wanted to examine, but I was easily able to keep him away. Apparently, those steps are attractive to all toddlers.

We also trekked to the National Museum of Natural History. Little Elvis wasn't too enthused by the dinosaurs, or the Hope Diamond.

Actually, not even a banana from the gift shop helped. Maybe next year he'll be more impressed.

Little Elvis, The Entertainer

Little Elvis had houseguests this past weekend and he pulled out all the stops to keep everyone entertained. It took a little bit of time to warm up to all the new faces, but then he realized that all these new people were playmates. He put his new tent (a Christmas present that we've finally made room for in the playroom) through its paces. He loves to play peek-a-boo with the flaps and finds the translucency of the sides to be transfixing (did I mention that this is Bob -- Meredith says that I'm too formal in my writing).

Grandpa Stew brought a golf club and Little Elvis showed excellent form in knocking the ball around the room. We'll work on his fade and his draw when we take it out into the backyard.

Until then... enjoy his entertaining skills.

Crinkle-facing 2.0

Little Elvis had a busy weekend. He got to visit with three relatives and had a good time. Bob's Aunt Julie and Uncle Joe arrived on Thursday morning right in the midst of a huge nap-fight.

I realized my efforts to get him to sleep were futile, so I rescued our poor little boy and for the first time ever... he was shy. He didn't want to see these new people. He pushed their hands away and refused to let me put him down. I was worried that he was starting a new stage, but I think it was more tied into his lack of a nap, cutting two molars, and his little eye hurting.

He ended up having a great time with his guests, although naps and bedtime became really difficult.

Then, his Grandpa Stew came for a visit on Saturday, bearing gifts. Little Elvis is now working on his golf swing with a nifty club and golf balls. He was actually pretty good at whacking the ball. We got video and will post it at some point.

He finished his visit with his grandpa by upgrading his crinkle face.

Again?

It was just a week ago that Little Elvis chipped a tooth. How could something happen again so quickly?

Grr.

Little Elvis and I were looking for Slappy under our bed yesterday afternoon. (Don't ask.) And he tripped and fell, hitting the side of his head, by his eye on the bed frame. I had no idea I was supposed to baby proof the bedframe!!

Poor little guy cried and at first I didn't know what was wrong. I was kissing his little knees and hands when I saw the red spot beside his eye.

I tried to wipe it gently with a wipey (unscented) and tried to keep something cool on it. He didn't like the idea of anything touching his little eye. So now it's a little swollen and pinkish purple.

He really looks like a bruiser now. And to top that off, we went to visit Daddy at work this afternoon for "Bring your kid to work day" and Little Elvis fell on the pavement. He scraped his little knee and his forehead. Aaargh!

Bob's aunt and uncle are visiting us right now and Bob's dad is coming in this weekend. They must think I'm training Little Elvis for fights.

No pictures. He looks so pitiful, and I'm embarrassed about the whole bedframe thing. I've since wrapped old thick socks around the parts I think could be most dangerous.

Objets d'odd

Items I never thought we would intentionally leave the house with: bottle of mostly empty Baby Vicks, a round brush (for a mostly bald baby), Daddy's dinner spoon ...

Little Elvis loves so many things. At least for certain amounts of time. And once he gets his sweet little hands on a loved object, it's a whole lot easier to let him keep that object in his tight grip.

We walked all the way to a playdate last month with him gripping his tub of Baby Vicks the entire way. He gave it to me when we got to the house, and I put it back in his hands when we left.

He fell in love with Bob's dinner spoon (maybe it was the ice cream that was once in it) and took that on a walk this evening. This was funny to me, and I should have snapped a picture. Our spoons are HUGE! I use the small spoons when I eat, but Bob doesn't mind the super-sizedness of our regular spoons. Little Elvis spent most of our walk, alternately sucking and licking the big spoon, which was at least a third the size of his face.

I'm not sure what the group of giggly teenage girls was more impressed with: Little Elvis' choice of toy or Bob's sense of style -- polo shirt, baggy shorts, dark blue dress socks and bright green running shoes. We are so, so cool.

The many loves of Little Elvis

Little Elvis is becoming more of a finicky eater every day. I am blaming the two molars that are just starting to poke out of his little gums, but then I've always blamed his teeth for any problem that we're having.

Still, he does have some go to favorite foods. One of them is obviously pudding. He's been working on using a spoon with the messy stuff, but typically, he just digs in with his fingers. Mommy taught him how to "drink" from a bowl and he thinks it's a novel way to get the good stuff from the bowl and into the mouth.

You can kind of see the outline of the bowl on his little face.

Think KozyShack needs a spokesperson?

He may like chocolate pudding, but that's a rare treat. His favorite regular food is blueberry. Followed by banana, pear and strawberry. Little Elvis also likes bread, but he could really do without veggies and meat at this point.

As usual, Mommy raises her fist and says, "Darn teeth!!"



Another love? The outdoors! Little Elvis has become a big fan of being outside.

He likes to run around and touch everything. You may not be able to see it, but in this pic, he's holding a branch. In his world, sticks are good. But rocks trump sticks and cell phones trump everything!!

Little Elvis still likes to chill in his stroller and he knows the routine that goes down before walks. He rushes to the door and will even grab the keys out of the key bucket thing by our door and hold them up to the doorknob.

He is not patient, our little guy. Our new stroller, while extremely cool, is also heavy. I can't take him and the stroller out in the same trip.

I have to trick him to get him away from the door long enough for me to get myself and the stroller out of the door. He runs to the door as soon as he realizes what I've done and bawls until I open the door to get him.

He also bawls when I try to take him back inside after he's been allowed to run around the yard.

I love how everything is new and fascinating to him. And that he needs to inspect absolutely everything.

Life lessons continued

One more kind of strange life lesson. Do not store your extra sticks of deodorant in front of a heater vent.

I have to admit this wasn't my bright idea, but I didn't question it. I had no idea what would happen.

The deodorant is made to stand up to all types of sweat, but apparently not designed to stand up to an actual heating vent.

I have two tubes that look more like glaciers than deodorant sticks. I tried to mold them back into the original shape, and they just crumble. I've been forced to apply deodorant over our garbage can.

It's not a good deal when you only get 2-3 uses out of a bargain stick of deodorant.

Wordless Wednesday: Little Elvis' "new" smile

The chip's small, right? He's back to crinkle-facing all the time, so I think he's ok since our accident.

Chip

I feel (felt) like I've done a pretty good job Little Elvis proofing our house.

Most of the time, he's locked in the front of the house. He gets to roam from our living room to his play area. But I do like to let down the baby gate that leads to the back of the house and let him roam back to our bedroom, closet and bathroom (I'm usually there.)

Our bedroom, closet and most of the bathroom have been proofed as well -- other than the toilet seat, it's apparently too big for a toilet lock.

There's only one room that isn't Little Elvis proofed -- the guest room.

This room is usually closed off. I keep my sewing stuff in there, as well as our winter (or summer) clothes. I had it opened during my massive reorg, and he mainly just played with the wicker trash can and the dress form.

This week that room has been housing stuff for our upcoming yard sale (Saturday.) Yesterday I was in there trying to go through Bob's old CDs while Little Elvis wandered around.

I keep forgetting how tall he is. I heard a thump and a wail and turned around to see that my precious little boy had managed to pull a vintage candy dish (heavy and glass) down off the dresser and onto his face.

His mouth was bleeding and he was crying so hard. While frantically checking out the damage (and apologizing over and over again) I saw something tiny and white on top of the cut in his lip. I brushed it aside and wondered what it was.

It was a piece of one of his front teeth. You know the ridges on baby teeth? It's that. It's a ridge. It's tiny. And I notice it everytime he smiles, making me feel even more guilty and awful for letting him in the room with the big shiny glass bowl on the dresser. The bowl didn't break, thank goodness. Not for the bowl, but for the fact that he didn't get hurt by shards of glass.

My mom told me to make sure neither tooth was loose and I did that as best as I could. He was definitely able to take several good bites of Mommy's fingers during this process.

His little lips were dinged and I tried to put a cold pack on them, which didn't go over so well. So I poured him a sippy of cold milk, hoping the cool of the milk would help them.

Little Elvis was a picky eater last night, but he was able to eat. I think it's more that he doesn't like my cooking. He refused the casserole I made. He wouldn't even look at it. But he happily devoured a fruit bar, crackers and yogurt.

Sleeping was also a little difficult last night. We think his lips were hurting him. Poor little angel. He looks like a little bruiser.

Life lessons

I learned a few things this weekend, and wanted to share them. One I learned this summer, but I didn't realize how true it was until this weekend.

1. It is not a good idea to change Little Elvis' diaper while he's standing in his crib. And just to let you know how dense I am, it took me twice to realize this was truly a bad idea.

Little Elvis is a little monkey when we try to change his diaper. He kicks, he fusses, he rolls over. Every once in a while, I stumble upon a trick that works. But that trick only works twice, tops. He's a smart one, and quickly catches on to what I'm doing.

So, I've been changing his pee diapers in his crib. He plays with a music thingy on the side of the crib and wanders around while I chase him with a diaper. The best thing about this set-up is I'm pretty sure I'm burning more calories than I would if he would just lay still for 15 seconds.

Thursday morning I went to change his diaper. I didn't smell anything, and it wasn't his usual time of day for a poo (he's such a male.) I undid the fasteners, and there was a diaper full of pee and poo!

Great. I said over and over, "Don't sit! Don't sit! Don't sit!" while tossing the dirty diaper in the pail as quickly as I could. Guess what he did. Yep, he sat. And he didn't just sit. He sat on his crib bumper, as well as his sheet.

Later that day, he had another pee diaper. And, since I'm apparently more like President Bush than I would ever want to admit, (fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice... shame on... well shame on someone darnit!) I let him wander around his crib while I de- and re-diapered him.

As I turned to toss the pee diaper in the trash, I heard something. What was...? No! No, surely he didn't just... It was a full diaper, he didn't have more pee in him. Sigh. Yes, he did. He peed on his shirt and his newly changed sheets.

Bob and I have struggled through diaper changes on the diaper changing table ever since.

2. Pick up the rocks and sticks in your yard. My mom told me last summer to always pick up the sticks in the yard, because men (i.e. my dad and possibly Bob) will not pick them up before they mow. She told me this while my dad was trying to repair a mower that he'd just run over a big stick. I've tried to be diligent about the sticks, but didn't think too much more of it. Until this weekend when Bob broke a lawnmower blade while trying to mow something he says he should have been weeding. I told him what my mom said about men and mowing and he agreed. He said he would definitely mow over sticks, and probably complain when he broke the mower. So, I will continue to pick up the big sticks in our yard.

I wanted to share these lessons in hopes that others might benefit (and not have to change as many sheets or lawnmower blades!)

Pimp my stroller

Mommy, I've been thinking, I need a new stroller. That little umbrella stroller you've been squeezing me into is too tight and it's just not cool.

I am a cool baby, and my ride needs to reflect that, ya' know?

Several months ago, I wrote about having stroller envy for these cool orange strollers that I kept seeing everywhere. I googled them, and found out they were Joovy strollers. I wanted one. I wanted one very badly. But they're kind of pricey.

Bob didn't seem to feel my pain on this, but then Little Elvis' umbrella stroller started getting kind of hard to buckle. And he fought us everytime we tried to put him into it. So, Bob began coming around to my way of thinking.

He even added his own wants: a stroller that can transition for more children in the future.

Again, I found a Joovy that I liked. Still pretty expensive. Then, this morning, on craigslist, I found our dream stroller. A Joovy Caboose. It's not the cool orange I envisioned, but bright red is still pretty groovy. And... we got it!!
So, I spent some of our hardearned craigslist dough on something else from craigslist. Definitely not a bad exchange if you ask me.

Little Elvis and I took our new stroller for a spin as soon as we got home this afternoon and he seemed to enjoy this new mode of travel, and he really enjoyed getting to snack and drink while Mommy pushed him to the park.

We then took it for a longer stroll when Bob got home.


Pretty happy looking boy, huh?

Ah, finally a stroller worthy of my utter coolness. Way to go Mommy!!

Eyes

Little Elvis has his Daddy's dark brown eyes. I spend most of my day gazing into these deep, dark eyes and when I catch a glimpse of my much lighter eyes in the mirror, it makes me stop. Wait, my eyes are different. After seeing such dark eyes all day, my hazel (green and brown) eyes are so different.

I don't know why this throws me off, but it does. The other evening, I just kind of looked at my eyes in the mirror. I don't really, really look at my reflection all that often these days. I had forgotten what my eyes looked like. So, I just stared at them for a while.


Some days I worry that I'm losing myself in being a mommy. Don't get me wrong. Little Elvis and Bob are the best things that have ever happened to me. I was never very happy at any of my real jobs, but now I'm at peace and happy most days. A little lonely, or maybe the better word would be isolated. But still very happy.


My life has changed so much in the past year. I no longer work or bring home a check. I try to stay in touch with my childless friends and we really don't have all that much to talk about anymore. I send them links to videos of Little Elvis, they tell me he's grown so much, they ask how we're doing. I reply about all of his accomplishments and don't have too much to say about myself. My world is wrapped up in him and Bob.


I think this realization has been the cause of my crazy need to re-organize the house. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment with each room that I complete, and I think the house looks much better. Little Elvis adores his new play room and has the best time helping me organize. Not only have I been organizing, I've also been putting up and selling stuff on craigslist.


And I've been posting my clothes that I designed and made on craigslist. We took down my website with my clothes when I became pregnant. All of my pieces were one-of-a-kind, and that's a whole bunch of stuff to write and keep up with. These pieces aren't going for anywhere near what they are worth. The amount of work put in, the vintage fabrics, the creativity. Yeah, those are not considered when these people show up to shop. They think the clothes are cute and want to pay lower than Wal-Mart prices. I've been ok with this, because I'm just so thrilled that people actually like and are buying my stuff. I had a good week last week, and this week I think will also be pretty good for my clothes.


It's great feeling like I'm helping out financially, (I can buy a couple of tanks of gas!) and I've been enjoying my sense of accomplishment with each clean and re-organized room.

Yes, I am a mom and a wife, but I'm also a lot more. I guess I just have to remind myself of that every now and then.

A growing boy needs his tissue

Little Elvis is getting so tall! And he's making full use of his growing height. I have to admit this has caught me offguard.

Yesterday I left my water glass, about a quarter full, on the table while I loaded the dishwasher after dinner. Bob was wiping off the plastic mat we keep under the high chair.

I turned around to say something to Bob and watched as Little Elvis reached up over the dining table and grabbed the glass which was a full three inches from the edge. I yelled out at Bob just as Little Elvis toppled the glass onto himself. It was plastic, so it didn't hurt him. It just drenched the front of his shirt and the carpet.

This morning, he discovered that he can reach the 'Power' button on the TV. He really enjoys turning the TV off and on and off and on now. Not only can he reach that button, he also realized that he could reach the box of tissues.

You don't have to imagine the fun that was had, because Bob had the foresight to pick up the camcorder.

Karma... grr!

Little Elvis now officially has eight teeth. Number 8 reared its little head this week.

In other news, I might have jinxed us. After writing about what a great sleeper Little Elvis has been, well, he hasn't been doing so well.

First, he's been peeing out again. He's woken up at 3 the past two mornings drenched (despite wearing a Huggies and a Diaper Doubler!) That means full scale change of outfit and sheets. That, plus waking up cold and wet, means he needs some milk and rocking to get back to sleep.

At least he was still napping (and peeing out!) though. Until today. Today he fought napping with all of his might. Finally, on the third try, he napped for an hour. Then he woke up in a fussy mood.

I called Bob and fussed and fussed about being such a dolt and jinxing us. Bob said I was being silly.

This brings me back to that tooth -- Little Elvis wasn't that fussy before it broke through. He was just drooly. But after it poked through, his drooling increased! He's always been a drooler, but it's been coming out in buckets the past few days.

This afternoon, after the nowhere-near-long-enough nap, our sweet little guy would not let me put him down. He didn't really want me holding him, but he definitely didn't want me not holding him.

So, I decided to feel around in his mouth. Yep, two molars are popping out -- one on each side of the top gum.

Aha!

Mommy should be looking up stuff about baby teeth on this thing, not playing around on craigslist!

No jinxies, no jinxies!

I've been debating whether or not to post this, because I don't want to jinx us. But... Little Elvis is completely weaned, sleeping through the night (honestly, none of this up at 4, but really, he's sleeping through the night because it's such and such hours) AND he's taking a 2 hour nap! Sometimes he'll take a second nap of about 45 minutes. This is craziness.

Why have I been responding to blogs more and posting more? Because I'm getting more than 30 minutes online at a time. And I also finally joined the rest of cyberspace and started using a feedreader. (Thanks Billy!)

We thought the weaning would be awful. And it first, it was kind of bad, but not in the way we expected. The first morning we cut out his morning feeding, we brought him into bed with us and got him a glass of milk. He ended up gulping his milk and falling asleep on me. Bob took him back to his room and he slept for a few more hours.

This continued for several days and I decided we were starting bad habits, so one night we didn't give him any milk. He cried and cried and cried for 2 hours! We were swaying, rocking and doing whatever we could to console him. Finally, we brought in the glass of milk and all was well.

Does anyone else see what was happening? I didn't. But Bob (the smarter one) realized that maybe I wasn't making enough milk for our little angel anymore. That would explain his crying for 2 hours straight, even with constant attention from Mommy and Daddy.

So, that night we completely changed up his bedtime routine and replaced breastfeeding with a glass of milk. He didn't cry much when we put him down and slept until after 6 the next morning. Then took two long naps the next day!

It's taken us a while to work out the kinks of the new bedtime routine, but he's taken the changes very well.

For my part, I don't miss the breastfeeding. I really enjoy rocking quietly with my angel while he drinks his milk. I can smell his freshly clean hair and the feel the warmth from his little body. When he finishes his milk, he lets the glass go and puts his chilly hands between the two of us to warm them. It's amazing. It's peaceful. I love it.

And... Bob gets to take part as well. We've been changing off. I rock him one night, Bob rocks him the next. He seems to enjoy this just as much as I do.

Oh I hope I haven't jinxed us!

Why Mommy dreads bathroom breaks

They shouldn't be called potty breaks. Bathroom trips are not for the weak. And they certainly aren't "breaks."

Little Elvis LOVES bathroom breaks. Now that I've taken the bad stuff out of his drawers, he's moved on.

And discovered the wonders of the toilet paper roll. It rolls, it has soft paper on it! The paper can be torn into jibbles! And if Mommy's not looking, it can be eaten! (I've pulled several bits of paper out of that sweet little mouth.)

He's also fascinated with the toilet itself. Bob keeps saying he'll put a lock on it, but the only time Little Elvis is really interested in the inside of the toilet is the split second it takes me to stand up and try to slam down the lid. That's when he wants to get into the toilet.

So, to remedy the craziness of the bathroom I've brought in some reinforcement. We now have bathroom books. The options include "Bunnies on the Farm," "Take a Look Down at the Ground!" and "Count with Me!" I'm hoping these will keep his attention long enough for me to flush and wash my hands.

Sweet little curious boy. Oh! And he's working on his second word. He's got "dada" down cold. What's the second word? Cat.

Watch out Slappy and Wally!

Meme about Me!

Two people want to know more about me! I was tagged for a meme from The Burp Cloth Babe and mip.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

1. My favorite food is mashed potatoes. How bland is that? I love them, though.

2. I've always been a kind of crazy dresser. I love clothes, especially funky ones. My freshman year of college, I decided to try and wear "classic" clothes. It lasted about half a semester.

3. I vacuum several times a week now. I used to fuss about having to vacuum when I was younger, but now I don't mind. I used to do whatever I could to get out of doing that chore. I remember dragging my foot across the carpet in straight lines so it looked kind of like I vacuumed. My poor parents.

4. Not only did I used to sew and design clothes in my spare time, I also used to refinish furniture. I've refinished just about all of the wooden furniture in our house.

5. I can't dance, but if they ever had try outs for "Dancing with the Regular Folks," I'd audition in a heartbeat.

6. I think the name hydrangea doesn't suit that particular flower. I think it looks more like a bougainvillea.

7. Anytime there's a penny (nickel, dime, quarter) on the ground, I will pick it up. The only exception was a week before Little Elvis arrived. My big ol' belly got in the way.

Several of the bloggers I've been reading have been talking about the amount of time they spend on writing, reading and commenting. I'm not going to tag anyone, but if anyone wants to participate, I would love to read 7 interesting facts about you!