Flashback Saturday: Elliott starts solids, and other mischief

I'm back with another flashback post for you.  This one I actually wrote and uploaded most of the pictures for back in April, and then got sidetracked before posting.  So don't get confused - he's not pulling a Benjamin Button on you, and getting younger as the months go by.  Today, he is 10.5 months old, but the pictures and stories you are about to enjoy took place when he was a young little whippersnapper of only 6 months...

Yikes! Where does the time go?  I have a backlog of cute Elliott pics to share with you.  He is now 6 months old, and so much fun!  He's rolling over, babbling up a storm, and always smiling and giggling.

The beginning of the year was challenging.  Elliott had ear infections pretty much every other week from January 1 through the beginning of March.  He's a trooper, and was still generally happy during the days, but all of us were lacking in the sleep department as nights seemed to be more painful for him.

A Typical Weekend in Paradise

Not to make all of you jealous, but we had an amazing weekend on the beach, and we barely even left home!  Saturday we met our friends the Quinn's at Ledbetter beach for an afternoon BBQ.  I would love to say that Elliott was the life of the party, but he was super content to play by himself, and peacefully gaze at the ocean.  Here he is enjoying a chew toy with Genevieve and McKenna.

And Camryn sweetly sharing her toys with him.

Flashback Saturday: Elliott's Firsts

As I was looking through my blog files I found pictures for a post on Elliott's firsts that I had started awhile back, but never finished or published.  As I sat trying to convince myself to wait until next Friday to share these in a "Flashback Friday" post, my impatience got the better of me (many of you know, patience has never been one of my strengths).  So here you go - pics and stories of my baby from way back when he really was a baby, in no specific order...

First Hipster Moment: We met my parents in San Luis Obispo mid-October to help my dad celebrate his birthday.  Before dinner we grabbed a cup of coffee at a local hipster hangout.  Look at him rocking the beanie with Grandma Starla.

Flashback Friday: Elliott's Ear Surgery

Since there are so many great stories from the past 10 months of Elliott's life that haven't made it on to the blog yet, I am starting "Flashback Fridays" to share some of those moments in Elliott's life to date that are too precious (or too momentous) to leave behind.  So, since I mentioned last week that Elliot got tubes in his ears, I though that would be a good place to start.

To give you a bit of background - Elliott got his first cold back at the beginning of January.  He was still incredibly happy while sick, but since he was super congested (and I was a nervous momma), I decided to take him to the doctor.  We discovered that he had not one, but two ear infections.  Between then and the end of May we were at the doctor almost every other week.  Any time he got a cold, and even when I thought he was fine but was just taking him for a check-up, the doctor would say he had an ear infection.  She was concerned since continued fluid on the ear can impair auditory development, and each time she put him on antibiotics to clear up the infection.

She's back! Aunt Janine visits again

Aunt Janine came to the rescue again this week to watch Elliott for a few days during another gap in daycare coverage.  Elliott loves hanging out with her, and they are great buddies.  Case and point - a text conversation between us on Tuesday:

Me: How's my kid?  I wish I were hanging out with you guys...

Janine:  We had fun.  He's sleeping now.  He liked kissing/eating my nose.  It seemed to be a fun game we both enjoyed:)

Crazy kids, both of them.  In a good way.

Elliott's Big Day

Elliott has been getting more and more active over the last weeks, doing lots of lots of yoga moves like downward facing dog, and practicing pulling up on all sorts of low items, like this chair at the beach a few weeks ago.  The weather may not have been wonderful, but he was happy to be begging for grapes from Steve (strikingly similar to the way Reese has acted on many occasions).

Yesterday was the day it all clicked.  Elliott figured out how to pull himself up to standing position, and he started doing it everywhere.  Like on the dining room chairs...

Elliott's First Concert

Since Elliott loves music so much (and since we're looking for sources of free, family friendly entertainment these days), we decided to head out to Chase Palm Park Thursday evening to check out the Concerts in the Park series.

Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries were playing "oldies but goodies", but Elliott didn't seem to notice the music.  Perhaps it is because we decided to stay at the very back of the 3,000(!) people crowd, so it was difficult for him to discern the music over the noise of the crowd.  Regardless, Elliott had a great time watching all of the people, eating graham crackers, and crawling all over our blanket.

See Elliott Swim!

Elliott continues to love bath time, and beach time, so at the beginning of June we decided to enroll our water baby in baby swim class.  The first time we got in the pool his eyes got wide with excitement when he realized what a big bathtub we got to play in.  

Unfortunately we had to miss quite a few classes in the middle of the "swimmester" when Elliott got tubes in his ears.  Notice the fancy ear plugs he's wearing?  They are a happy alternative to visiting the doctor every other week for ear infections. 

Elliott says "Thank You Aunt Janine!"

Aunt Janine came to the rescue this week when our beloved day care provider, Anita, needed to take a few days off.  I thought I was asking too much when I mentioned to Janine that we needed help two days this week AND next week, but she agreed right away in her nonchalant, it's no big deal kind of way.  So she drove out from Santa Clarita early Monday morning to get here well before I had to leave for work.  Elliott loves Aunt Janine, and they had a great time together.  

Elliott's Saturday Adventures

Here's the thing I love about being a parent - everyday is an adventure.  Granted they aren't obvious or big adventures, like living in Africa, or working on an Abalone Farm, but exciting none the less.  

This morning started off slower than normal at 7:30am (ugh, when did 7:30 become sleeping in?).  I recently came to the conclusion that Elliott needs to start sleeping through the night. Even though he has been doing so sporadically, he has been sick so often that even at almost 10 months we aren't on a good sleep schedule yet.  So starting last night I decided that I am not going to feed him in the middle of the night to reduce the incentive for mid-night waking.  Being a guy that knows what he likes, he cried for almost 2 hrs straight.  So sleeping in until 7:30 this morning was much needed for everyone in our family. 

 To let Daddy sleep a bit longer, we decided to visit my work friend Roane's garage sale where he scored a new pony (stuffed pony that is).

Elliott says Happy Friday!

Well, it may have been a short week for us, but we still felt like celebrating the fact that it's (finally) Friday.  Since Elliott goes to bed around 7:30, we have to cram in all of our celebrating early.  We decided to hit up McConnell's for some of their amazing ice cream (if you're not a SB local you are missing out on the best ice cream in the world!)

Elliott goes camping

As many of you know, the annual 4th of July camping trip is one of the biggest traditions in my family. We have been camping with my cousins for longer than I can remember - maybe 33 or 34 years (does that make me old?).  I have many fond memories of these trips growing up, and now that we are all grown up with our own families the fun (and number of participants) has grown.  This year it came full circle as we initiated Elliott, and a few of his cousins, to the joys of camping at El Capitan State Beach, just outside of Santa Barbara.

The weather was beautiful for the first part of our camping trip, so everyone hit the beach.  Elliott absolutely loved the ocean, and playing in the wetsuit that my parents brought for him. My Dad already had him in the breakers on a boogie board, and is looking forward to getting him on a surfboard next year.