The Peanut Tracker

A few weeks ago, our little man was slightly short on patience when lunch was being prepared.

Hey, it’s understandable.

Mr. Crabby Pants from tiznobias on Vimeo

-T

We’re very excited to introduce to you all the latest addition to our family: Peanut #2! (We’re working on something more snappy.)

Tania is 10 1/2 weeks pregnant now, and we just went to her first appointment (and ultrasound) yesterday. So far everything is looking good, although Tania’s getting hit pretty hard with the all-day “morning” sickness. Not so fun.

The timing here is actually pretty great. We wanted to expand our family fairly soon after Elliot was born (like right about now). It’s exciting to know Elliot will have a little sibling to grow up with, and we’re looking forward to meeting and welcoming him or her home!

Elliot was in the room during the ultrasound, watching his little brother or sister on the big monitor above Tania’s head. He was distracted and tired of being held–he just wanted to run around–but when I pointed at the monitor and told him, “Look son, it’s the baby in Mama’s belly; you have a sister or a brother. You’re going to be a big brother!”, he focused on the monitor, watching his little sibling. He doesn’t completely understand yet, of course, but he knows something is up. Elliot already knows what a baby is (he says “Mei-mei”), and Tania’s been showing him that there’s a little baby in her belly, just like him before he was born. (When she tells him, he looks downs at his belly, confused. ) Just the other day while reading to Elliot about Mary and Joseph, pointing to Mary’s belly and explaining that baby Jesus was inside, he pointed over at Tania. So anyway, he knows something’s up.

Let’s see if we can’t answer a few questions here, preemptively:

• The name factory is steaming away. Nothing to report yet.
• It looks like the little stinker is aiming close to my birthday to be born. Interesting. Well, it would make for a great birthday present! (Tania, you still have to get me something. At least those little chocolate-covered almonds from Whole Foods. And ginger beers. Oh, and…ok, I’m off track a bit.)
• Of course, it’s too early to determine whether we’ve got a little boy or girl brewing… But…
• Just kidding, I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that. The doctor said she thought she saw little boy-parts. Actually, she described what she thought she saw as “sort of glowing”. Make of that what you will.

See the pictures below (click ‘em for the Gallery).

Our latest little one, relaxing. Legs dangling a bit on the left.

Evidently Peanut #2 already has a strange sense of humor, judging by the moon-shot here.

Another side view of our little one.

-T

A string of photos from different, but recent, times and places…

(Click each photo for a bigger version in the Gallery!)

Elliot under tickle-attack

Hmmmm...

Yo, yo, yo

That's the effect Elliot has on the living room every morning.

Staring Daddy down

Pasta!

Breakfast with a little bed-head

With Mama at Elliot's 1st birthday party

At Elliot's 1st birthday - who doesn't love tearing up wrapping paper? (Or tissue paper, whatever.)

At Elliot's 1st birthday - he loved to start his own applause.

At Elliot's 1st birthday - unveiling of The Daddy Book

-T

• I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet, but Elliot has 4 teeth on top in addition to the two on the bottom. Cute kid. He’s got a big-boy smile now.
• Elliot will be 13 months old in about a week!
• Elliot thinks the difference between his nose and his nostril is hilarious.
• Wow. I’ve been too busy. Work, busy. School, busy.
• Tania is awesome. She’s got Elliot learning daily lessons from this book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. Good stuff.
• For those of you who knew I was in the hospital, as far as I know I’m fine. For those of you who didn’t know, as far as I know I’m fine.
• Elliot is a good traveler. When he wasn’t sleeping on the planes to and from California, he was socializing with everyone around. He did cry once or twice, though I think it was due to some ear pain. Oh, and lesson learned: no more scheduling night flights with a baby; no one will sleep well for days.
• I’ve sort of fallen off the blogging wagon this last several weeks, but I’ll try to load some pictures really soon and write more.

-T

As of last week, our little man has conquered his first year! He’s now hard at work on number two.

-T

As any of you who are parents know, parenthood is packed with pains and pleasures, joys and sorrows. Seemingly paradoxically, the sorrows seem to sweeten the joys and make the pleasures more pleasurable. One of these sorrows, for me, comes in the early mornings.

Now that the spring semester is upon me, I leave for work early every day to make up the time I spend going to class during work hours twice per week. But some mornings that means I leave before Elliot wakes up. And this breaks my heart. It hits me hard when I’m looking for my wallet and keys, after I’ve showered and dressed. It hits me hardest as I’m opening the front door to leave, walking out of my home and away from my son who I didn’t say goodbye to, who I didn’t hug, who I didn’t tell “See you later!” Walking to my car, eyes blankly scanning the never-swept concrete-floored hall, my mind shows me what I was robbed of seeing: Elliot’s toothy, ear-to-ear grin; his seemingly always-combed chocolate-brown hair, seen from above as I hug him tightly; his little arm, flailing up and down furiously as he waves “bye-bye” to his daddy. Only they’re cheap copies, illusory counterfeits, lies of the mind. And then blinking even robs me of those, of my son, forcing the gravely asphalt into my vision.

Worse still are the days when I miss him in the morning and get trapped working late at night. Nothing so guarantees the wrenching of tears from my eyes than missing my son in the morning followed by coming home too late and missing him again.

Time forces me to cut this short. But I’m remembering this week that some small sorrows, if I let them, will make the joys all the more sweet, all the more worth waiting for.

-T

Elliot started kicking his ball around the house the other day (January 2, ‘09). Awesome!

Check it out.

(Click me!)

-T

We’ve Elfed ourselves!

So without further ado, and with only minor introduction, we present to you–framed in the context of three well known, historically documented, and scientifically proven facts–ourselves thoroughly elfed.

(Click the pictures.)

Fact #1 - We’re Texans now.

Fact #2 - We’re old school.

Fact #3 - Dude. The Flatterys know how to get down. Don’t even mess.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, etc!

-T

Mobility. Sweet, blessed mobility.

Elliot loves it, loves to walk, to move freely, to (sort of) run. Crawling was yesterday. Today–well, today Elliot moves about as man was intended: on two legs.

And so also do his parents. Quickly, too, since the boy is finding new areas to explore, new shelves he couldn’t see before, new nooks and crannies to search for treasures inside of. We’ve even bought him a pair of big-boy shoes now, so he can with victorious steps conquer the world outside his home.

Elliot isn’t the only one picking up new things to say, either; we’re learning new phrases too. “No, son, that’s not for you.” “Elliot? Where are you?” “Son, what are you doing in there?” “Be careful!” “Come on back, son. Come back to Daddy.” “I can’t hear you, son. What are you up to?”

-T

P.s. And here’s a few more photos. Y’know. Just ’cause I like ya.

Yay for big-boy foods!

Stopping for Cheerios at an ol' Texas ranch.

Another time-deprived, buckshot-style this ‘n’ that…

• Elliot is walking all over the place now. He’d been sort of partially walking since about 9 1/2 months, but he got really mobile about a week before his 10-month mark. Since then he’s just gone bonkers. He’s learned to hold stuff in both hands while he walks, and he’s currently working on increasing his speed so as to acquire larger bruises on his face from falling. He picked up a tiny shiner today from face-planting himself onto his toy car… Ouch.
• The apartment management company thought it prudent to put hardwood flooring in the upstairs apartments. We’re downstairs. And evidently the new upstairs neighbors hold high-heels parties every night. Superb.
• Tough start, but the Spurs still rule.
• We took Elliot to a little cowboy farm-ranch type deal. He waved at all the longhorn cows during the wagon ride and almost cried when the wagon drove away from them. He’s a social one, our boy.
• A couple weeks ago Elliot started saying “Dog!”. Well, sorta. It sounds more like “uh’daw”. At first, I couldn’t figure out where the vowel on the front came from. But then I realized I’d been pointing at dogs and saying, “Look, Elliot! A dog!”
• Oh yeah, he’d also been saying “‘at” (cat) and “buh” (ball).
• Tania is my favorite person. Ever.
• We’re sleeping now. For the past few weeks, Elliot has been sleeping straight through the night. There’s an occasional wake-up, but it’s usually easy. He’s pretty good at this now. Tip: bedtime routines, even simple ones, seem to really help (see the next point for part of ours). (Of course, I still don’t get any sleep, due to classes. Bah.)
• Elliot’s current favorite book, and the last one we read to him every night before bed: Pajama Time! Highly recommended. But you have to sorta sing it. (Thank you, Grill family!)

-T