Bathtime and a not so hip hairdo

One day he'll see this photo and say, "Moooommmm, that is SOOOO embarrassing! If only they knew how much we loved them...

He's up!

Yes, Elliot can push himself easily to all fours and rock all day long. Forget sleeping, this is like winning the lottery! He can now sit completely unassisted as well-what a big boy! It's wonderful, bittersweet too, to say goodbye to the little helpless creature who needed help even to hold his little noggin up, and say hello to our independent ball of energy!
He got onto all fours at least 100 times yesterday and hasn't stopped since. I'll try to get the video up here tomorrow.
Now, off to try to sleep...

too tired to center these--but isn't he lovely?

**pictured here is Elliot blowing bubbles and trying to crawl at the same time. His efforts are short lived (the crawling anyhow, the bubbles can go on forever.) He is making one of many "Serious Baby" faces.

I am officially 29 today. There's a novel I could write on all that is good and all that is not so good.
Elliot=good. The best thing I've ever done, good.
Me=not feeling so good...nothing new, just that I feel worse.
Elliot is babbling more and more and I just love it! Also, very adept at grabbing and ripping your face off--or boob. OUCHY! Looks like crawling won't be too far off...oh my!
I think this kid is just so unique in his random lifestyle. As I wrote before, he does NOTHING on a schedule--he really never does anything at the same time he's done it before! He likes to keep me guessing. He wakes at every hour of the night still--despite what all the books tell me.
It's so funny for me to hear other mothers refer to things like, "the 2am feeding," or "the 3pm nap."
Right now Elliot is in his new walker looking at me and making his "gobble" face movements. He gobbles now. Adorable.
He also takes time to look up to see what is happening on the ceiling...you never know.
He's smiling at me every time I look over to him and he knows that if he squeals I'll stop to laugh at him. I can already see the little attention seeker evolving.
He lives to make me laugh, I live to make him laugh.
I can see now that he is already a specific personality. I give a whole lot of credit to the "nurture" part of things, but I've got to say, "nature" has already played a huge part.
I have to keep looking at him as he speaks to me in grunts, squeals, and babbles--I stare at him, smile and tell him, "now you little one, you are special."

Our little Banker

When Elliot was just 8 weeks old, my funny and off the wall sense of humor brother started to call Elliot the "Banker."
My sweet husband didn't like this much and told me later that Elliot "did NOT" look like a banker.
..whatever a banker looks like... :)
Anyhow, here Elliot is in a Polo shirt from his Great Aunt Carolyn.
Can we say, "banker?"

Whoa there tiger!

Can we say new skills?! As of late Elliot is strong like bull! He is a little crawdad. He pushes himself backwards to get his knees under him. When he does this we slip our hand under his belly and he rocks back and forth in fast forward--he is thrilled to do this, his little heart pounding and screams of joy.
He sits rather well, I'm shocked at how good he is at it and at correcting himself when he's about to fall. He loves to be standing--if only to jump :) I think walking is far in the future as his platform (feet) are like little china doll feet. He has nothing to balance on!
He is still unpredictable though I am much better at reading his signs. I know what tired is. I know what hungry is. I know happy, bored, frustrated.
He has been making the "Maaaamaaaaa" sounds and although I'd love to think he was calling me "Mama" I know that it's less that and more so that he is hungry. In a way he is calling for me as I am the one who has the food.
A bit on that note:
We are still struggling with nursing even at close to 6 months. The past two weeks have been awful. He gets so much gas in the form of burps that he can't eat. Every time I burp him he cries and fusses and tries to latch back on only to pull right off, as who can eat with a tummy full of air? It just kills me. The burps are so big and deep and numerous. Also, more spit up lately.
I have been completely off dairy for months and now it looks like we've got to keep digging for the answer...what am I eating that's bothering Elliot's tummy?
I am so frustrated. Nursing takes FOREVER as I try to get enough milk into him. When he's not writhing with gas he's too fascinated with EVERYTHING in the room to be able to focus on eating. I literally have to go into a dark room and cover up anything of interest. Even a glass of water is too cool for Elliot to miss. It needs exploring.
I am in a tough spot too as Elliot could not be more captivated by food and what goes into Mommy and Daddy's mouths. He KNOWS. I want to start solids because I feel I have no choice. That kid wants to eat our food more than anything else on earth. I can't eat anything around him or he grabs and fusses to get to it. Gone are the mornings of my organic waffles and tea...sigh...
What some people don't realize is that if a baby already has a reaction to breastmilk (ie: what the mother is eating) than when solids are introduced, this reaction might well become much worse as the child is already susceptible to food sensitivities. SOooooo...the problem can get much worse and cause all kinds of rashes, more gas, more discomfort, more frustration for baby and mama.
James and I are going to do what we've been trying to avoid--baby blood test for food sensitivities. Ugh. Maybe it will give us a place to start.
So on to sleep:
What sleep? Well, Elliot is getting better at naps and worse at nighttime sleep. There is no linear pattern to his progress. Last night he woke after 2 hours and then after another 4 1/2. Then he only slept 1.5 hours from 3:30 to 7:15. That whole time he was babbling and rolling and Mommy was listening to the monitor. We are tired.
He wakes almost everyday in the 5's. Yes, in the 5 AM hour. He sometimes goes to the six's, and RARELY the 7's. He only sleeps later if he's been up for many hours in the middle of the night.
For all of the marks I was looking forward to, the 6 month mark was the one I was most excited about. Many babies begin to sleep through the night at this point due to a more mature nervous system and a burst of melatonin much like they had when they were first born. Well, it's 8 days until 6 months...and melatonin has yet to rear it's beautiful head.
Oh, just something cute I thought I'd mention in relation to the "talking" I wrote of earlier: James has been working with Elliot for months on saying, "Daaadaaaa," I have also helped him learn to say "Dada." I haven't worked much, if at all on "Maaamaaa" and it came first. Even though it just means "hungry" to Elliot--it doesn't hurt to hear it...and you know, I deserve it. ;)

Random

Elliot hates schedules. Mommy LOVES them and always has. God looked at Mommy and said, "Here you go (God hands ELliot to me) learn a lesson in giving up control...
Yes, Elliot is everything but predictable. There is no set nap time, nurse time, play time, etc. We just go with it. I TRY to get some semblance of a schedule and it goes kablooee pretty fast. I do still attempt these control efforts in the hope that as he gets older we'll know just a tad bit more when the best time to go out or have company over might be. Again, the key word here is, attempt.