Starting "School"

I was going through pictures to see if I had any that hadn't been posted on my blog yet, and I realized that although I put it on Twitter & Facebook, I didn't put Elias' first-day-of-school photo on here!  How's this for an adorable big boy?!!?!

Look at me with my big kid backpack!

Dropping him off on the first day

He's been at school for two weeks now, which means he's been 4 times.  It seems to be going well!  He never fusses to be dropped off, although he usually is very glad to see me (and his favorite stuffed cat!) at the end of the day!  His teacher has confirmed that he does have trouble following directions or staying on the right task, but we knew that would be the case, and it's part of why we have him in school!  He really seems to enjoy it, though, and he is definitely learning things...  All the time we hear him talk about things that they must be doing at school because we have no idea where it came from!  Proud of this fella.

A Shutterfly Christmas

Many of you may have already seen people talking about the 50 free photo cards that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers who write about them on their blog.  So here is my little plug!

I'm a big fan of Shutterfly and all the really cute photo products you can get there!  I have given their photo books and photo mugs as gifts before, and honestly, when you have a kid as cute as mine, who WOULDN'T want a gift with his sweet face plastered across it?!?! 

They have a whole lot of cute options when it comes to their Christmas photo cards, though, and I'm really looking forward to designing one to send out to our family and friends.  They have a really neat feature on the left side of the page where you can narrow down exactly what you're looking for instead of having to browse through all 800+ of their options!  My choices of 5x7 folded cards that use 3 or more pictures narrowed it down to 85 cards to choose from - that's manageable!

A couple of my faves:

So watch your mailboxes in a couple weeks, and you'll see one of these sweet cards with our good-looking mugs on them!

And if you're a blogger, there are only 2 more days to take advantage of this awesome deal, so head over here and sign up RIGHT AWAY!

Two-and-a-Half

Today my precious boy is exactly two-and-a-half years old! He is such a joy and delight! I wanted to take an official 2 1/2 picture, but I couldn't get him to sit still. So I held him in my lap and took a self-portrait, and I think it's really cute! I've been so curious to see how he's growing, but I've been making myself wait until this milestone to take measurements. So my very approximate measurements of Elias at 2 1/2 are below.

Weight: 41 lbs.
Height: 39.5"

In other words, still huge. (On growth charts, his height is above the 99th percentile, and his weight isn't even on the chart.) :) He is also still so smart, and we remain exceptionally proud of him! Some other noteworthy things about him at 2 1/2:

- He is still a HUGE eater. The doctor has been telling us for a full year that his appetite will be decreasing anytime now... and we're still waiting for that to happen. Some days he eats more than Justin! I cringe to think about trying to feed this child as a teenager.
- He is also still not a picky eater. He eats almost everything we put in front of him, for which I am extremely thankful.
- He knows all his numbers and letters, and he can read them all too. He's beginning to learn phonics, for which I completely thank Super Why.
- He can count to 50, and he's learning the upper half of 100 now too. He also knows some counting in French and Spanish, and he knows quite a few words in Spanish too, for which I thank Diego.
- He still loves to read. Other favorite things to do are: watch TV, play with trains, work puzzles, build towers with large lego-type blocks, and roughhouse with Daddy.
- He can roll his tongue like his mommy!
- He only naps about 4 days a week, but even on days he doesn't nap, he stays in his room and rests on his bed for most of the time.
- He is a great night sleeper, going to bed at 8pm (How quickly he falls asleep depends on whether or not he napped that day) and getting up at 7am.
- His language is very good, and we're thankful that he's able communicate a lot of what he wants. Generally his only meltdowns are when he's tired and not thinking clearly.
- He has absolutely no interest in using the potty, although he enjoys sitting on it every day and reading his "Potty Time with Elmo" book.

Hmm. That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll add more as I think of them! I'm also compiling a list of Elias-isms, which is cute things he says, and I'll post that another time. All in all, I am so thankful and proud of our precious blessing, and I still maintain my claim that motherhood just gets more and more fun!

Potty!

Ack! Apparently we are now potty training! Elias has been practicing sitting on the potty for a couple weeks, but he's never actually tried to use it. But today he did! So apparently we are now potty training! Oy. Pray for us!

Big Childhood Moment

Today Elias crossed a HUGE milestone in American childhood... He played at the McDonald's Play Place for the first time!! We had some time to kill while our car was getting an oil change, and it just so happens that our oil change place is right across the street from McDonald's! So Mommy got a Mocha Frappe and Elias played. It. Was. Great! You may remember that Elias (and the rest of us for that matter) doesn't care for McDonald's food (Frappes are excluded from this statement!!), but we certainly love the Play Place! I'm a fan because it's safe - I don't have to hover over him every minute like I do at the playground. So he can just climb around and play while I enjoy my frappe! Sweet. Literally. So here are a few pictures of my big guy having fun.When I was getting these pictures off the phone, I discovered some from earlier in the summer that I forgot to download, so I plan to get those posted this week. Stay tuned!

No Boot Camp Required!

I mentioned in this post about our upcoming transitions that after Elias got settled into his Big Boy Bed, we were going to begin No-More-Paci Boot Camp to get him off the pacifier. I had really been dreading this because I thought it was going to be a huge ordeal. But Justin was more convinced than I was that we needed to do it soon and that he would be ok, so he managed to convince me. So this weekend, a temporary insanity struck me and I decided to just give it a try. I figured there's no way to know how he'd do without it until we tried it.

Elias turned 2 on Friday, so I thought Saturday would be a good day to see how he did without a paci. There was nothing I did to prepare him for it - I didn't even tell him I was going to do it. I just put him down for his nap without it, not mentioning it at all. He knows how to ask for it, so I figured it he was going to have a problem, he could just ask for the paci. But he didn't ask for it. He did whine a bit, and he didn't nap at all that first day, but he never asked for his paci. And that night he was so tired from not napping that he went right to sleep without it. And he slept all night and woke up at the normal time! Score!

The second day was Sunday, and he went down for his nap fine without the paci. I wasn't really surprised at this because church makes his nap later than usual and wears him out, so he was tired. Then he also went to sleep Sunday night. He did wake up pretty early Monday morning, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Monday was a little bit of a setback because he didn't nap at all, but he still never asked for the paci. And like Saturday, without the nap he slept great Monday night.

So dare I say it??? I think we're done with the paci! WOW! That was WAAAAAAAY easier than I expected! It's only been 3 days, so the struggle may not be over, but I think he has proven he can do without it, so we won't be giving it back to him. What a relief that there was no Boot Camp required for this transition!!!

Two Years Old!!

My precious boy is two years old today. That brings me a whole lot of joy and just a tiny bit of nostalgia. The nostalgia didn't really hit until today when I received my first edition of "Your Preschooler This Week" from BabyCenter in my email inbox - no longer will I see "Your Baby" or "Your Toddler..." My big boy is a preschooler! Aaaaaaaaack!

Buuuuuuuuuut, the vast majority of my baby growing up is joy. He is such a treasure, so smart and precious, growing so fast and developing so well. We had our 2-year well visit this morning, and he is perfectly healthy, and we thank God. Here are his 2-year stats:

Height: 38" (99%)
Weight: 38 lb. (99%)
Head: 20" (95%)

So he's still gigantic, but still proportionate and perfectly healthy. Today I asked the doctor about being able to switch him to 2% or skim milk instead of whole and she heartily approved. She laughingly said "I understand if you want to slim him down a bit... Next time you come in, he'll be carrying you!"

We'll be having his birthday party and his 2-year portraits made next week, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, here's a little bit of our birthday celebrations so far. We received packages in the mail from all Elias' grandparents, but we're opening the presents slowly instead of all at once. The first one we opened was from Nana & Granddad, and it was a remote-controlled Thomas! Be still Elias' heart! He's deeply in love with it, and I couldn't even convince him to put it down long enough to eat yesterday! So Thomas joined Elias for his snack:
Notice how Elias won't even take his hand off of Thomas long enough to eat... I'll post a video soon of Elias playing with the remote control.

Then we opened the card from Grandma & Grandpa, and it had Elmo singing happy birthday! More pure bliss for my little buddy. Here's a video of him pushing the button to hear Elmo OVER and OVER and OVER... Seriously, he did it for like 20 minutes. I spared you that, though, and only posted 50 seconds of it here.

I'll post more about our celebrations, and I have a backlog of videos I hope to get edited and up soon. But we are so thankful for our precious and healthy boy, and thankful to God for carrying us these two years! May we really have many more!

18 Months!

I can't believe my big boy is already a full year-and-a-half old! He grows more precious every day, and I mean it. He is so active and ornery, this is the only nice picture we got from our 18-month photo shoot last week. We got some other cute funny-face ones which will be on our Christmas card, so some of you can keep an eye in the mail for those in December.

He's STILL teething - he's been working on his incisors for two full months now, and they're STILL not in! Here he is chewing on the prop at his 18-month photo shoot. The tooth bumps get larger and larger, though, so hopefully we'll have a breakthrough soon!

I waited a couple days to post this update so that I could post his stats from our well visit today.

Weight: 33 lbs, 8 oz (>95%)
Height: 35" (95%)
Head: 19.25" (75%)

So as you can see, he remains large and in charge. I thought this picture I took last week did a good job of demonstrating how tall he his. Poor guy can't even sleep sideways in his crib anymore without his legs dangling out of it!

His vocabulary has absolutely EXPLODED this month. I thought about trying to compile a list of words he could say to post here, but seriously, there are too many to count! He's blowing us away with the way he's starting to communicate verbally. It's awesome!

He's also learning and picking up things so fast! Seriously, this child can count to 10! (Well, he can count from 2 to 10. He has yet to say the number 1.) This video was taken when he first started doing it a few weeks ago, so his numbers are much more intelligible now. But seriously!

I didn't crop off the end of this video because if you hang on until the very end, you can catch him saying the words "All done" along with the sign when he's done with his meal. So big! *Edit: Upon viewing the video after I published the blog, it seems like "Done" got cut off in the uploading. So you just have an extra 9 seconds of looking at my cute boy. You're welcome.

He just in the past couple of days showed us that he has started learning his letters! We were bowled over. He has a little magnetic alphabet set on the refrigerator, and the other day he pulled off the letter F and said, "F." I was like "WHAT?!?!" So I asked him "What letter is this?" and he said "F." No way. Since then, we've discovered that he also knows T, and he sometimes gets S and Z. For real. That's like... reading.

His play has started to become more creative and imaginative. Instead of just holding the car upside down and spinning its wheels, he'll actually scoot it across the floor and say "Vroom." Here he is playing with a little kitchen set I got him.He gets a big kick out of it when I hold the little frying pan over the stove and say "Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

So he is just a laugh a minute, and he's such a loveable, sweet boy! We remain proud of him and are astonished at not only how big, but how grown up he is! Definitely not a baby anymore.

All Clear

I took Elias back to the doctor today so she could check his ears and make sure the infection was completely gone. Praise the Lord, it is! It took him much longer than I expected to fully recover from this, but in the past couple of days, he's back to his old self. My precious boy. I have more pics and videos to upload that I'm hoping to get to over the weekend, so stay tuned!

I never did post an official 16-month update, which he turned on Monday. But I thought since I'm posting a plethora of pics and videos, you all are getting a good idea of what the past month has looked like for us. I fall more and more in love with this child every day!

Keeps Getting Bigger!

We had Elias' 15-month checkup today, and he just keeps getting bigger! Here are today's stats:

Weight: 31 lbs, 2 oz (99%)
Length: 33.5" (95%)
Head: 19.25" (90%)

Such a big boy! Not sure how accurate any of the measurements actually are because he's going through a huge stranger anxiety phase right now and he panics any time anybody besides me or Justin touches him. So you can guess that it wasn't easy getting him weighed and measured. I do know he's a big 'un, though, so these measurements seem close enough to me!

So this quite possibly may have been our hardest visit yet, at least for me. He's just SUCH a busy boy, all over the place. He wants to be up, exploring everything, touching everything, climbing on everything. I've always seen "those moms," you know, the harassed and harried ones that just can't seem to get a break because their kid is completely out of control, and I've looked on them with pity. And I was a little sad to realize that today in the waiting room, I was that mom. The other kids waiting were all either much older or much younger than Elias, and therefore not at the all-over-the-place stage.

Combine that with four vaccinations AND his terror at being touched, looked at, or even talked to by the nurses and doctor, and it was a hard visit. I'm praying his stranger anxiety passes because this is really rough. The doctor was very comforting, though, that it's perfectly normal, there's nothing we have done to cause it, and there's nothing we can do to help it besides just wait for him to grow out of it. Sheesh. Hopefully we won't have to go to the doctor again for a while, and by then he'll be grown out of it!

15 Months!

Didn't I just write our 14 month update? And now another month has flown by and Elias is growing and developing like crazy! He's turning into such a little personality, and he's learning so fast! If any of you ever get tired of me raving about how brilliant and handsome my son is, you may just want to stop reading here... For those of you who can get past the gushing, here's what our past month has been like.

Walking
Elias is walking like a champ now, and he just doesn't stop! I took a video yesterday of what our days look like now that he can walk. It's pretty long, but it gives you an excellent picture of what he does now.

He's no longer satisfied to just sit and play with his toys. Instead, he wanders around the house (well, the part we don't have gated off!) looking to see what he can get into! It cracked me up when he even put his chin up on the table to see what he could reach. (We have definitely learned to not leave water glasses too close to the edge! He grabbed the edge of one once and got a faceful of water!) And then he tried to climb into his high chair. Silly boy!

You will notice, though, that whenever I use my Mommy Voice (telling him not to touch the trash can or play with the cabinets), he listens, for which I am extremely thankful! Of course, I'd rather him not touch them at all, but that'll come. :)

You will also notice that there are no still photographs of him in this update, only video. This is because he's never still! Always up and running around.

Teeth
He has sprouted 5 teeth in the past month, for a total of 10 now. Six on top (the front four and two molars) and four on bottom. And he CONSTANTLY has things in his mouth, so that indicates to me that there are more coming. In fact, he has started chewing on books now, something we're trying to break him of. But the other day I had him looking at a book while I was making copies at the library. I noticed in my peripheral vision that he was chewing on something, so I looked and he had eaten part of the cover off the book! Like totally eaten it! (Photo at right.) Sheesh!

One Nap
He is now officially down to one nap a day. Today was the first day we intentionally did the new one-nap routine, although it has been quite a while that he hasn't napped in the morning. We'll still do an hour of crib playtime in the mornings so he has some quiet time and Mommy can at least get a shower! But he does well with it, and I REALLY like the 3+ hour naptime in the afternoon that I can get things done! (Or take my own nap!)

So Fun
The more he grows and can do, the more fun we have playing. He is just such a little ham! He still loves Peek-a-boo, and we finally got some video of what he does:

He'll crawl into the corner where the loveseat meets the wall, and he'll hide his face there before he pops around the couch to peep at us! I think that is SO FUNNY! That's all his own doing - he's never seen either of us do that. He'll do it over and over again, and it's funny because he really bonks his face into that corner - we can always hear the thud when it hits! Goofy boy.

So Smart
I seriously cannot believe how much this child knows and understands and can do and say! He is talking like crazy, and his vocabulary is really extensive for somebody his age! He can say the whole gamut of farm and zoo animal noises (including rare ones like squirrels, chipmunks, and kangaroos! I'll have to get those on video sometime). He's also getting to where he can repeat a word we say. A couple days ago, I was telling him about his pajamas, which had Winnie the Pooh playing basketball on them. So I said "basketball," and he said "dassss-da-da" which actually sounds pretty close! He really took to that word, and he walks around saying it a lot. So today I got him a little toy basketball and hoop, and he knows that it's his basketball and he knows what it means when we say "Put it in the basket." (Look for that video in a couple days!)

He's starting to learn the parts of his body. He can find his nose, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, feet, toes, hands, and belly!

Justin also made a discovery today that Elias knows his shapes! He has a little toy laptop that has six buttons that are each a different shape. Justin learned today that if you ask him where the square is, for example, he'll push the right button! We were floored! Such a smarty-pants.

Ok, this has turned out really long, but I warned you it would just be me raving about how brilliant my son is! And he is! I'm so proud of him!!!

4 Years Ago Today...

... I married my best friend.

Happy anniversary, sweetheart!

14 Months!

I'm a few days late with our 14 month update, but it turns out to be fitting to post a developmental update today because
HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS TODAY!!!!!!!
He's been cruising confidently for a while now, but I didn't think he was even close to walking unassisted. But when Justin got him out of his crib in the afternoon, he said that he stood up on the far side and then walked across to Justin all by himself! I was so sad that I missed it! So I stood him up at the couch, then I knelt down a couple feet away and said "Walk to Mama!" and he did! Just turned right around and took 2 or 3 steps to me! It's not like he's walking yet, it's more like flinging himself forward and managing to get a foot under him once or twice before he falls... But it's exciting and I'm so proud of my boy!

He's growing up so fast, and we continue to be so proud of him! He is such a sunny, happy boy - it never fails that we get at least 5 comments from admiring strangers every time we leave the house! I just burst with love and pride over how wonderful he is - sometimes it brings tears to my eyes how much I love this child. I never imagined how strongly motherhood would make me feel toward that little person.

He's making so many developments, turning into a little boy! I already did a post about his talking here; it seems like every day he learns a new word or can answer a new question!

Peek-a-boo is his FAVORITE thing to do! He's gotten to where he'll initiate it and do it himself - hiding behind the couch or a pillow, or even just covering his eyes with his hands. He thinks it's a hilarious game and can play forever! In the past few days, he's also starting playing when Justin or I are sitting on the floor with him. He'll crawl around behind us, pull up so he's standing directly behind us and then start giggling. That means he wants us to ask "Where's Elias?" and then he'll walk around until we can see him and start to laugh. So cute! This is a picture of him playing Peek-a-boo with me behind the kitchen counter while I'm making dinner!
He's still SO big and tall! He can reach doorknobs now, so it's only a matter of time before he can't be contained. I'm really not sure I'm excited about that day coming - I think I'm in BIIIIIG trouble.He's definitely getting a mind of his own, so we've entered into the world of discipline this month, which is a challenge. He definitely pushes boundaries and tests us, so we're trying our best to be consistent, praying for wisdom in teaching him right!But he is such a joy, he fills our home with laughter! We are so thankful for this sweet, sweet child.

Crawling Maniac

I haven't had a chance to post this until now, but Elias really started crawling on all fours the week of his birthday. It was kind of like one day he just decided to start crawling on all fours, and he didn't look back. Now he has gotten FAST, and he can even crawl while holding something in his hands. So he'll grab something (for example, the forbidden TV remote!) and then crawl away really fast so you have to chase him! Stinker! I took some video when he first started, so this is an assembly of those clips. They're a couple weeks old now, so he's a better crawler than this now, but it still gives you an idea of what a big, smart boy he is!

He's Feeding Himself!

I was planning on writing a post updating you all on Elias' self-feeding progress. I really had nothing to report since he still wasn't feeding himself. I had tried a few of your suggestions, but he just wasn't interested, and he got upset whenever I tried to physically move his hand toward his mouth. So I had just decided to chill about it and let him do it whenever he was ready. Once he put his hand in his mouth in what seemed like an attempt to put food in it, but instead he just bit his own finger, which as you can imagine did not do much for his self-feeding confidence. But then today, he just started doing it! Like he's been doing it all his life!

It's actually pretty funny. This morning for breakfast, he didn't feed himself. Today for lunch, he didn't feed himself. Then we went to afternoon VBS at church, which included his dinnertime, so I packed up his dinner and the nursery workers fed it to him. He wasn't quite done when I went to pick him up, so I brought the rest of his blueberries home for him to eat while we ate our dinner. So we served up dinner, put him in his high chair, and Justin put the blueberries on his tray. Justin turned his back, and two seconds later, they were gone. All of them. He was like, "Where are the blueberries?" Then he noticed Elias was chewing. He said "I think Elias just fed himself the blueberries!" So we put some Cheerios on his tray, and he just picked them up and ate them all. In rapid succession. Like seriously, the kid might as well have just put his face close to his tray and inhaled in all the Cheerios. For the rest of dinner, we just fed him off our plates like we usually do, except all we had to do was put a piece on his tray and he picked it up and ate it! Unbelievable!!! Now we need to concentrate on slowing down and actually chewing all of the food he puts in his mouth!

So I can't wait to ask the nursery ladies how on earth they taught my child to feed himself! This is seriously the fifth thing he has come home from church suddenly being able to do!!!

1 Year Well Visit

We had our 1-year well visit today, even though it was 2 weeks late. (Apparently, the beginning of summer is a rough time to get into the doctor's office!) Here are his 1-year stats!

Weight: 26lbs, 10 oz (90%)
Length: 31.5" (90%)
Head: 18.5" (60%)

So he's right on track to be a giant! LOL! I was looking back at his 9-month stats for comparison, and he gained 5 pounds in 3 months! Yeah, I guess whole milk and table food are agreeing with him.

I also learned today at this visit what a passionate, vocal child I have! I mean, I always knew he was expressive and dramatic, but I guess being in a public place where others are affected makes it feel so much worse! He just swings wildly from one strong emotion to another! For example, in the waiting room, he was smiling and laughing, flirting with the other people, playing with books, really happy. Then 2 minutes later, we go back to the exam room and get his clothes off, and he FREAKS OUT when the nurse tries to take him temperature. And it's not like she was doing anything invasive - they just use the temporal ones that get the temp from their forehead! But he was screaming and crying real tears!

So once she was done, I picked him up and he calmed down, then started smiling and laughing again. Until 3 seconds later when we went out to the scale and I put him down to weigh him. Once again, screaming, real tears streaming! So dramatic! We managed to get the weight and then when I picked him up again, instantly ok. While we waited in the exam room for the doctor to come in, he was shrieking again, but this time with joy over playing with his toys and sippy. What a weirdo. Then we rode the roller coaster again when the doc came in and tried to look in his ears - drama and screaming. Then happy again when she left. Then MAJOR drama with getting his shots. This is the worst he has ever done when getting shots - it took him 2 or 3 minutes to stop screaming this time, when it used to be just 15-20 seconds. What was really funny was after he got his shots and I picked him up, he was still screaming and crying, but he was just staring at the nurse, shooting daggers at her with his eyes, as if to say "Why on earth did you do that to me?!?!?!?!"

Part of his excitability may have been because he decided not to take much of a nap this morning, which meant that he was a little sleep-deprived by our appointment late morning. He conked out after lunch, though, and he's sleeping peacefully now.

So I'm so thankful for my passionate, healthy, growing baby boy!

Elias' Birthday Party

We arrived in Western Kentucky last Sunday evening, and we had Elias' First Birthday Party with the family on Monday. It was so neat that my whole family came down from Ohio to celebrate with us! We had quite a feast for the birthday dinner! My father-in-law cooked some meat on the smoker, and my mother-in-law made some AWESOME sides to go with it! For the dinner, Elias wore his "My 1st Birthday" bib that his Nana got him.
Then we pulled out the decorations and had our birthday celebration! It turned out really cute and festive! We didn't think there was any way that Elias would wear the hat and bib, but we were wrong! He kept them on the whole time we were having cupcakes! And he didn't cry when we all sang to him either - he just looked more confused than anything. He had never had anything sweet like the cupcake, and he REALLY liked it. We didn't let him eat the whole thing, and he cried when we took it away. He didn't make much of a mess either. Mostly just smashed it with one hand. (If you click to enlarge this picture, though, you will see that he managed to get frosting on his ear! That was a little hard to get out...)(In case any of you are wondering, he didn't feed it to himself either... I'll do an update post on self-feeding once I'm done with the vacation posts!)
After the cake cleanup, it was time to open presents! He got so many neat gifts! Toys, books, clothes, shoes... Thanks to everybody! After that it was bedtime and thankfully the sugar didn't keep him awake. I think he was exhausted from the hulabaloo!
It was a nice celebration, and I'm thankful we were able to all get together.

Birthday Portraits

Just thought I'd post some of my faves from our birthday portrait session today! They turned out SOOOO CUTE!!!Here's the link to get to all of them if you want to see more. Click here and enter the Customer Name (joni tapp):
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0494105250JCP

Happy Birthday, Elias!

Happy birthday to my precious baby boy! Can't believe that this was you one year ago today:And now look at you!I am so very thankful for the gift that God has given us in you, and I look forward to the many years of blessing ahead. I love you, Punkinhead!

P.S. Thank you all so much for your prayers and well-wishes for Elias' health. His fever is GONE - Thank You, Lord, for answering prayer! He is clearly feeling much better today, and I anticipate a quick recovery. God even answered my silly prayer that Elias' face and eyes wouldn't be so red and puffy because we're having his one-year pictures made today. And he looks just beautiful today. God is so very kind.

A Week of Firsts

This week has been a big week for my baby boy! He's had several firsts in the past few days, so I'll share them with you!

Last week he started cruising, meaning that he'll take steps while holding onto furniture. He'll cruise around the coffee table or down the length of the couch. He's trying to be able to go from the couch and turn around to get to the coffee table, but he hasn't quite mastered that yet.

He got his first haircut last Thursday! He still doesn't have all that much hair, but what he does have was getting long in the back and over the ears - he was definitely growing a little baby mullet! So we decided to just give it a little trim... Daddy distracted him while I did the snipping. Here's what he looked like before:And after:Not too bad for my first time! :)

Then on Saturday he drank cow's milk for the first time! I've been giving him his lunch and dinner bottles in a sippy cup for the past week in anticipation of this transition, and he did great with that. So then on Saturday for dinner, I just put milk in the sippy instead of formula. He did notice it was different, and he didn't seem to like it as much, but he did still drink it all. We've been doing milk at dinner every day since then, and he's still not completely gung-ho, but he drinks it. We'll change one bottle a week into milk, so next week it will be two bottles of formula and two of milk - I thought we'd do it slow to make the transition easier on his system. I'm VERY proud, though, of how well he's doing with the sippy.

And yesterday, he did TWO firsts! He did some intentional all-fours crawling, which he hadn't really done before. I had the laundry basket out, and he was playing with it, and then he crawled (about 4 steps) over to the couch to pull himself up. Then he sat back down and crawled back! But THEN he flipped the laundry basket upside down, pulled himself up on it, and actually WALKED across the room pushing it! I couldn't believe it! (Who needs those fancy walker toys?!) It was seriously 10 or 15 steps leaning on the basket as he pushed it. I ran and got the camera, but he was done by the time I got there. So hopefully if he keeps doing it, I'll get some video soon!

Such a big boy!!!

ETA: We recreated the scene tonight for Elias to walk with the laundry basket, and we got some video of it this time! Enjoy!