Elliott is walking!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family.  Some day I will get around to posting  pictures of our T-day  with the Grandparents (they kindly drove to us this year so we only have to make one big roadtrip this holiday season).  But today I wanted to give you the exciting (and slightly scary) news that Elliott is walking!

Papa's 60th Birthday

We hit the road again a few weeks ago to meet up with the rest of my family in Livermore for my Dad's 60th birthday.  As a surprise (which turned out not to be a surprise since Mom spilled the beans) my sister Jessica flew out from Austin with Boaz, her youngest kid, who was born 6 weeks after Elliott.

Since we all got in late on Friday night, Bo and Elliott had to wait until Saturday morning for a good play session.  They were both rather mellow and snuggly at the start of the morning.  Here's a textbook example of a sweet Bo grin.  He turns one today!

Elliott enjoyed the variety of new (to him) toys to explore.  That was actually my blue and red shape sorter in the pic below from when I was his age!

Elliott goes back to the Doctor

This may not be the most upbeat post I have written, but in the spirit of documenting stories of Elliott as he grows up, I wanted to share what he has been going through over the last month.  

We had a glorious reprieve from doctor visits during the months of July and August.  The ear tubes Elliott got in June put a stop to the recurring ear infections he had since January.  Everything was going great, and when he would get a cold I didn't feel like I needed to rush him to the doctor since his body was finally able to fight them off without the assistance of antibiotics.  And then, mid-September, he woke up on a Monday morning with a runny nose and a slight cough, which I didn't think much of because I am no longer worried about ear infections.  Throughout the day at daycare he was fine, until he woke up from his afternoon nap at 4:30.  By the time I picked him up after work at 5:00, his lungs were very congested, he was running a fever, and he was struggling to breath.  He continued to worsen after getting home, and we were concerned about how we would get through the night. Thankfully urgent care was open until 7pm, and as soon as we arrived the nurses and doctors flocked to us.  They were concerned about the way his ribs were flaring out as he was trying to draw in air, and his low blood oxygen levels.

The doctor and nurses were fantastic, and we were quickly rushed down the hall for a chest X-ray.  It was a very scary moment, and at the same time I was so fascinated by the process that I paused to oblige the little voice in the back of my mind telling me to document the moment for the blog, and future memory.

The single greatest word ever, and other milestones

As I mentioned previously,  Elliott is developing quite a vocabulary.  His first words were "Daddy" and "dog", which he now consistently uses at the appropriate time.  Like when waking up and pointing to show he wants to go see Steve in the other room, or when there is a dog walking by down the street.  By far his favorite word is "uh-oh", which he says in a sing song manner (often right before he drops something).  Other words he picked up are "wow", and "stuck", which he says right after he rams his walker into the kitchen cabinets, and then continues to repeat until we turn him around so he can take off in the other direction.  He also says "woof" in response to the question "Hey Elliott, what does a dog say?"  "Hi" may be the word he says most frequently, and is always charming strangers with it.

Elliott Turns 1!

Yikes!  How is it October already?  I barely got a chance to post in September, and I'm still trying to figure out what happened to August.  We have been so completely caught up in living in the moment - for good reasons (enjoying every minute we get with our awesome kid), and not so good reasons (super stressful time at work), that I haven't had a chance to document to the special moments in our lives.

The most special and exciting moment in September was Elliott's first birthday!  I can't believe we have been riding the crazy roller coaster of parenthood through all 4 seasons (ok, who am I kidding, we don't really have seasons in SB).   The other morning at breakfast Steve commented on how crazy it is that we have  another person in our family.  Elliott has definitely made the transition from helpless baby to an independent and unique kid full of personality.  We are more in love with his sweet gentle nature, and quirky silly sense of humor every day.  He's not walking yet, although he can get anywhere he wants to quickly, and his vocabulary has expanded to "Daddy", "hi", "dog", and "woof".  Yes, my kid can bark, on command, but still seems to have trouble saying "Mommy" consistently.

Papa's Blessing

My dad is affectionately known as "Papa" to his 5 grandchildren.  In addition to being a loving and caring grandfather, and the world's best rambunctious playmate to all of them, he also writes a very special blessing for each one when they are born that he gives when they are dedicated in church.  Since we don't attend church regularly (although I would like to find a church home when Elliott is old enough to go to Sunday school), my dad chose to give Elliott's blessing while we were in Livermore, during a picnic at Murrietta's Well, the winery where Steve and I were married.

Flashback Livermore

How is it September all ready?  I've been meaning to compile and post the pics from our Livermore trip for awhile, and all the sudden realized that it was a month ago already.  A lot can happen in a month for a guy who hasn't even lived through 12 of them yet, so I think this qualifies as flashback post... don't you?

 If you will remember from my teaser post a few weeks ago, Steve's parents, and Steve's brother Jason's family all joined us at my parents house for a weekend get together.  Here's a whirlwind recap of the time we spent with them...

Friday evening we all went to play bocce ball at a nearby restaurant/bocce court.  Elliott enjoyed the snuggle time and walking practice with Uncle Jason and Aunt Lori.