The Peanut Tracker

Quick update.

No time to write much tonight…

It’s beginning!

He’s been standing on his own for two or three weeks now. This last weekend he stood up all by himself–without using anything for support–from sitting on the floor to standing on his feet. And he can stand for quite a long time.

Also, he’s been trying to walk for weeks now, but earlier this week he started taking a step or two before toppling over. This weekend he took 4 steps without falling–one big step and three shuffle-steps–from his Leap Frog music table all the way to Daddy’s arms a few feet away. And today he traveled two steps, stopped, and stayed standing in the middle of the floor!

I’m tellin ya, it ain’t long now.

-T

Elliot turned 9 months old yesterday!

Happy 9 months, Elliot!

Tania and Elliot (10/19/08)

-T

Some popcorn thoughts ‘n’ happenings:

• Elliot is saying “Da-da” now. Well, pretty much; he’s still working on his pronunciation. But he totally knows who Da-da is. Heck yes. Tania will have me on speaker phone and Elliot will laugh and usually say “Da-da” somewhere during the beginning of the call. It’s awesome! (He’d already been saying “Ma-ma” for quite a while now. He loves his Mama!)
• His second tooth on the bottom is threatening to poke through any day now. It’s been hard to get a decent picture of the one exposed tooth, though; it’s not really big enough yet to see easily. Soon enough.
• Elliot had his first nasty cold. (Well, minus the one when he was only a month or so.) And he did not much enjoy it. No sir. Poor kid wasn’t sure what was wrong with his nose. All that snot sloshing around in his sinuses and blocking his breathing, disrupting his (already oft disrupted) sleep–yeah, not so high a fun factor there. Nor did Elliot love the cold “maintenance”. Many snot-extraction missions were completed, using the dreaded B.A.D. (Booger Annihlation Device).
• For the first time, Elliot waved bye-bye to me this morning when I left for work. We do the same waving bye-bye routine every morning, but today he laughed and swung his little arm up and down when I said “Bye bye, son” and waved. That was awesome, too.
• It’s interesting; we’re starting to see little pieces of Elliot’s personality coming out now. For instance, Elliot isn’t usually much interested in the whole mimicking thing. It’s not that he doesn’t get it, either. He just doesn’t care to mimick; he’d rather be doing his own thing. He’d rather learn on his own. He prefers to uncover new abilities by himself. Often, when we try to get him to mimick something, he’ll put on this dry expression, as if to say, “Uh, what am I? Your little monkey?” Then he’ll laugh and try to climb up my shirt. I love it.
• Balance is starting to happen; standing unassisted is getting closer (though still a ways off). Although, for now, he climbs up anything and everything, getting himself easily into a standing position. He’s even walking along things a bit, like the sofa, chairs, etc.
• Leaving for work every morning stinks. Saying goodbye to my little boy and my wonderful wife, after only seeing them for a few minutes during the morning scramble–well, it just stinks. Sigh. Such is life; such is the double-edged sword of blessedness.

-T

Elliot’s first little tooth broke through yesterday, and the second is close behind. Both are on the bottom, in the middle.

We’ll try to get a photo, but it ain’t gonna be easy.

He’s got chompers now!

-T

Happy 8 months, Elliot!

-T

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been close to 8 months since Elliot entered this world! My, how time flies!

Well, this is the very first time I have had the time and energy together to be able to write a post since Elliot arrived on the scene.

So life has been great–lots of ups and downs, but overall great. I love San Antonio, TX. The people here are great and there is just an overall great feeling here. YES, it is hot here, but it’s not too bad.  Soon the weather will cool off and I am soooo looking forward to it.

Our good friends had their first baby 10 days ago, and we’ve been really exciting for them. Now, being parents, we are really able to appreciate babies, parenthood, and all that comes with it. As we awaited news about their new baby, Tobias and I started talking about how much our love has grown for our little Stinky Toes. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve loved Elliot from the minute he was conceived, but our emotions of love have grown and will continue to grow with each passing day. For me, the “feelings” of love were not instantaneous the moment Elliot was born (they were there, of course, but not like they are now). I had no frame of reference from which to imagine having and loving my own child. (From all accounts it seems to be the same when one adopts.) It’s amazing how with each passing day my “feelings” of love grow. It’s been really neat to get to experience this type of love–a selfless and deliberate type of love. I am a better person because of getting to love Elliot. Thanks to our little Stinky Toes, I now know what it is like to love a child, and I know that with our next one the feelings of love will be there even before he or she makes a first appearance.

Elliot is a really great kid and we are so enjoying seeing him grow and develop into his personality.  We are so sad that we are not able to share that–in person, anyway–with all of our friends and family.

Tania

Some updates a la quick:

• Elliot is crawling. Yep, full-on mobility. He turned pro overnight. No more scooching or fish-out-of-watering. Needless to say, Tania and I are out of breath half the time…
• Elliot has passed the 20 pound mark.
• Some sleep is actually taking place is our household. However, it’s too late; we’re already scarred: sleeplessness is torture, and sleep is merely a prelude to torture.
• Evidently a thoughtful citizen of San Antonio considered it awesome to remove the catalytic converter from our CR-V during the wee hours of the night last week. What a nice surprise that was. As was the cost of parts and labor that forced me to fall back on insurance. Hooray for pathetic metal thieves.
• I’m trying to learn life-ninjitsu. Two classes, a full-time job, and a family create one heck of a juggling act. So maybe I’m actually just a clown. Hmm. Anyway, of course it’s a two-person/parent job, so Tania is a ninja too. (Undoubtedly even more so.)
• Arrrrr! There be teeth in them thar gums! In non-pirate speak, that means two lower teeth are pushing up in Elliot’s chomper. Should break through in a couple weeks or so.

-T

Elliot is 7 months old today! Mr. Stinky Toes is getting so big!

Happy 7 months, Elliot!

Here are some photos of him taken over the last month.

(Click the photos for bigger versions in the Gallery.

Chowing on the rice cereal! (08/16/08)

Elliot after his first taste of squash. Yeah, not so much. And this only captured a small fraction of the fun. (He and squash get along now, though.) (08/19/08)

Elliot and Daddy celebrating a bowl of squash in the tummy, using our new high-five technique. (08/24/08)

The duck is unhappy. (07/02/08)

Our little bookworm. Just like Mommy and Daddy. (08/08/08)

Yo, yo, yo. (08/01/08)

Tania and Elliot... and the rings of power. (07/28/08)

Elliot thinking inside the box. (07/24/08)

-T

Elliot is 6 months old today! Time flies!

-T

As part of our transition into our home here in San Antonio, we planned and took the opportunity to move Elliot into his own room. (Applause!) And, much to his daddy’s displeasure, he’d already began to outgrow his Amby bed–about six months ahead of schedule–so out came the tools, up sprang his crib, and into his crib we moved him as well. Right smack in that 4-6 month window they tell you to aim for. It’s been pretty awesome; a process, of course, but one that’s gone fairly successfully.

Nerves? Oh yeah. Lots of nerves, at first anyway. It’s better now, though. Probably the best thing that’s happened so far is the breaking of our video baby monitor. (Thank you, Michelle and Jonathan! We used it until it croaked!) We loved it (despite it’s Rice Krispies-quality reception), but it was a great time to part with it.

We didn’t buy another for a couple reasons: 1) they’re expensive; 2) they’re insecure–all the models I’ve seen have no defense against anyone nearby tuning in on their frequencies. The same is true of audio-only baby monitors (although there seem to be more channels on audio-only), but, obviously, broadcasting both audio and video is more unsettling than just the audio. And if there is a video baby monitor with some kind of security, I’m sure it’d make problem one, the expense, much worse. I spent a few hours researching a video camera via computer network solution, and ran face-first into problem one. So, in the end, we picked up an under $50 audio-only baby monitor, and it’s been great. Clearer reception, better sound quality, less screen-watching, etc.

And now, pictures having nothing whatsoever to do with that story…

(As always, click ‘em to see the Gallery.)

Listening intently to the wisdom of his parents. Sure. (But he did do this all on his own!)

Our little acrobat.

“Please, mommy? Please can I stay up some more? I’ll be good!”

Tania and Elliot, my whole world.

Elliot hanging out and working with his Daddy.

-T