Elliott's First Overnight Trip

 My goodness, where does the time go?  I can't believe it is already mid-November and I haven't posted anything this month for Elliott's adoring fans.  He is getting bigger, happier, and more talkative by the day, and is now so much fun to be around.  Don't get me wrong - I have loved every minute spent with my son, but in the beginning he didn't do much besides eat and sleep.  Now he has a personality that is upbeat and easygoing, with glimpses of a great sense of humor.

Here are some highlights from the month of November:

We made our first overnight road trip down to San Diego to visit Great Gram and the rest of my Dad's side of the family.  We were a bit nervous as to how Elliott would handle long stretches of time in the car since our 1st road trip to San Louis Obispo threw off his sleeping schedule for weeks.  We broke up the trip on the way down by stopping for dinner with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Reed.  Sadly we didn't get any pictures of this part of our trip, but imagine us sitting around their dining room table, eating In-n-Out, and Grandma Claire holding Elliott while he smiles at her adoringly.

When we finally made it to Great Gram's a bit after midnight she was up waiting for us, and after her and Elliott got caught up on everything that happened since she visited us in October before we hit the sack.  I'm happy to say that Elliott stuck to his sleeping/napping schedule through the whole weekend (waking once in the night, and several naps throughout the day).  During the times that he was awake he had a blast hanging out with Great Gram.

It rained almost the whole weekend, but that didn't stop us from taking advantage of being so close to an Ikea.  Here's Elliott at lunch looking like the little rocker he is (Uncle Jason proudly commented that he is giving the "Rock On" sign).

And here's the outcome of our Ikea visit - a new rug for the living room to replace our rust red shag carpet that sheds more than Reese (seriously), and the discovery that Ikea is running a 20% off special on kitchens through the end of the month.  We're in the process of redesigning our kitchen with similar cabinets.  Sadly we will have to lose the original teal blue tile countertops we currently have (but not so sadly the new countertops will be way more easy to clean!).  We can't wait until Elliott is big enough to help Daddy with the home projects.  Maybe when we get around to re-doing the bathroom...

While in San Diego we also got to visit with Steve's friend Miguel and his family.  Miguel's parents Sal and Kathy had so much fun with Elliott, and snuggled and soothed him during dinner so Steve and I could eat a full meal uninterrupted.  It was awesome.

Miguel showed Elliott (and Steve) his new guitar rock game.  It was pretty cool - you hook up a real guitar to play.  I'm sure Elliott will be excited about that in the future, but for now he was just happy to snuggle:)

Of course, we had to spend some time playing with Reese as well.  Reese is still impatiently waiting for Elliott to be big enough to throw the ball.

The weekend was over way too quick, and as we hopped in the car we decided to stop in on my college roommate Jodie and her family in Anaheim on the way home.  Maaike was so excited to hold baby Elliott.  She sat there for a good half an hour gently patting him and whispering "Hi baby... hi baby..." It was very sweet.

Overall Elliott did great on the road trip!  It was only in the last hour of the drive that he got frustrated and started crying.  Of course Steve and I felt the same way, but for some reason we had to restrain ourselves from screaming along with him because it is not a very "adult" thing to do.

Elliott's 2 month birthday was on November 11.  It was a bit cold and rainy, but we didn't let that stop us from celebrating with a trip to the park to play with Reese.  

Elliott's 2 month check up with the pediatrician was yesterday. He is a 95th percentile baby coming in at 12lbs 9 ozs, and 24 inches tall.  Of course I am convinced he is in the 95th percentile for smarts too, but the pediatrician only smiled and nodded when I asked for confirmation.  We finally decided to put Elliott on medication for the reflux. As much as I hate medicating someone so small, we couldn't handle watching our happy kid in pain any longer.   The medication doesn't stop the reflux, but it does stop the resulting pain.  We have already noticed a huge difference, and he is much happier, and now cries only when tired or hungry. We are also trying a chiropractor (several moms have told me they had success with their reflux babies).  We'll keep you updated on how that goes.

Thanks for checking in on us.  We feel so fortunate that Elliott has so many loving friends and family in his life. We know that with your help we are giving our awesome kid the best possible start in life. So as your reward, here's a pic of the milk coma of the month:

Who can resist wanting to give this kid big hugs and kisses?