The Redirect

My blog decided to marry Kenny's blog.  And on our son's birthday no less.  Please visit the new home:

http://kodkagels.blogspot.com/

A Big First and True Love

My mama is in town.  This evening she, Eli and I were playing in his room when he stood up unassisted and clapped for a bit.  Standing unassisted has happened previously, but it usually only lasts until Eli realizes he's not holding onto anything.  I was pretty excited.

It was my* turn to host book club** tonight.  Our friends Patrick, Amy and baby Stella arrived first.  Amy had set Stella on the chair and Eli was standing holding onto the coffee table.  Overcome by the arrival of his betrothed, he went to her--taking his first steps!  

And I saw it!  Actually, Kenny, Amy, my mom, and I all saw it.  I had semi-resigned myself that he would likely take his first steps while I was at work and I would miss it.  Instead, Eli was kind enough to do it while we were all staring straight at him!

And it means that if Eli likes girls and Stella likes boys they totally have to get married now!  

*My turn to host, but of course Kenny did all of the cooking.  Everybody should have a Kenny.

**Book club used to be 3 to 4 of us girls getting together to actually talk about books.  Of course wine was always a big part of the club too.  Then some of us got pregnant and had babies and it became difficult to read books and also to drink wine.  

DIY Kenny

So.  This is happening.

We're in weekend three of ye' old bathroom remodel.  I miss my husband.  

He's taken down white tile (and walls) so that he can put up new (walls and) white tile.  It's like HGTV right in my own house.

No place I'd rather be

1. We've got 18ish inches of snow and it's still coming down.  Naturally, I am working from home today. I hope to use my lunch break to build a snow structure of some sort.

2.  I'm currently sitting in my PJs, drinking coffee and Kenny is making oatmeal.  Am cozy and happy.

3.  Eli is eating roughly 50% of his cheerios and giving 25% to Leroy and 25% to Jack.  That's only fair because...

4.  I took 4 pieces of dog food out of Eli's mouth this morning.  He somehow got Leroy to abandon his food and then kept putting another piece in after I got one out.  May not have been on my A game this morning.

5.  Eli is now standing and taking the cheerios out of his high chair seat to give to the puppies and eat himself.  

6.  How do people have babies without puppies?

7.  Life is very good. 

Baby is disappearing...

...and being replaced by a boy!  He is eleven months old.  

My little baby who used to go to bed at 6:30 is now busy taking apart our house until 8 or 9.  He plays hard and he sleeps hard.  If he wants to get up before us, he wiggles his little body out of the bed and onto the floor feet first.  Then he takes off and does his rounds.  Rounds in the bedroom consist of inspecting the mushroom nightlight. scratching the lamp shade, cruising around the bed, moving the alarm clock onto the floor, and then crawling out into the hallway to see if there is any danger to be had out there.  

Rounds in the living room consist of spreading out the Everyday Food magazines on the floor, spreading out the coasters, taking coasters off of another shelf and chewing on them, crawling over to his exercauser and hitting the buttons until a song plays (much prefers the songs over the animal noises), and so on.  He's just always very busy.  Much as we think he makes messes, he must think we're always moving his things.  

He loves the dogs' water bowl, daddy's beer bottle, and everything in the refrigerator and everything in my bathroom.  He throws big fits when we take these things away from him.  

This month he's started taking these monster 1.5 to 2 hour naps.  He never ever did that before.  And though it's probably more information than you'd like to know, he's also pooping all by himself--free of any and all medicinal intervention.  We are very proud parents.  

He's still fairly bald but is beginning to have enough hair that it can get messy.  

We've decided to go ahead and declare him left-handed.  He's seemed to favor his left for months now, but it's become really undeniable.  I guess that means we'll have to get some of those green handled scissors for him one day.  

Since I went back to work after New Year's, he's been taking fewer ounces of breast milk during the day.  I will not be sad when I can stop pumping at work (not stop nursing at home). 

He used to take pacifiers with Kenny when he slept.  He's lost interest in those--except for using them as the occasional chew toy.  He does often suck on his thumb--particularly after being picked up.  Really, he uses his thumb as Sherlock Holmes used his pipe--in a contemplative manner.

His vocabulary (if you can calls sounds that aren't really words a vocabulary) has exploded this month. Until recently he was seeming pretty content with the grunts and squeals.  He's begun to have entire conversations in gibberish though.  You never know when he's going to start yammering, but I love it when he does.  There was definitely a "ma" sound somewhere in his monologue yesterday.

In his opinion, the funniest thing we do is tell him "un uh."  He cackles and tosses his head back--but half the time he will stop doing what we're trying to get him to stop doing, so that's something. 

My baby boy fell asleep on me about an hour and a half ago.  I should probably take us both to bed now.

My Jewish son's first Christmas

Okay, maybe I'm a few weeks late in posting this but better late than never.  We went to Kansas City to spend Christmas with my family and stopped in St. Louis going and coming.  Road trips are always soooo much fun, what with the two adults, two puppies, and angry baby in the little Corolla.  There is always much singing of Old MacDonald and listening to a CD of baby dance tunes.  The baby dance tunes is basically techno/polka instrumental versions of kid songs.  It's horrible, and Eli loves it.  Even the baby techno was not working on the way to St. Louis so we broke out the laptop and Baby Einstein DVD.  Eli watched it for a few minutes and then finally passed out.

Meanwhile this is going on in the front passenger seat.

And this on backseat passenger's lap.

We spent a night in St. Louis, visited Kenny's grandparents and had lunch with his parents.  Then we headed to Columbia for a quick visit with some friends.  I discovered they had a stock pot bigger than ours so I of course had to put Eli in it and take about 40 pictures.

I just love babies in stock pots.  For dinner, we went to the 'Berg.  It's a bar that's been in Columbia for a million years.  It burnt down while we were seniors and they rebuilt it to look exactly the same, only cleaner.  Love to take the baby to bars.

 That night we drove the rest of the way to Kansas City.  Apparently Eli wanted to stay in Columbia because he screamed non-stop for about 75% of that drive.  We stopped at Stuckey's for a diaper check and to see if nursing him would help.  We'd stopped at the Stuckey's a bajillion times while we were in school and driving back and forth.  It was funny to think of what a different place we are in our lives now.

When we got to my mom's house, she immediately began unleashing the stash of garage sale goodies she'd been amassing for him.

The spoiling continued the next night at my Dad's house.

Grandma is smiling so big in this picture because Eli is actually letting her hold him.  He's just working on coming out of a big stranger/separation anxiety phase.

He wasn't too happy while his Uncle Zack tried to hold him.  We even tried placating him with Kenny's glasses (his all-time favorite object).

On Christmas Day Eli agreed to be happy in my dad's lap too.   

No trip to KC is complete without some barbecue.  Since he loves meat so much, we didn't feel right eating it in front of him and not letting him partake.  Questionable parental judgement?  Maybe.

We also went to Winstead's and had lunch with his cousin Harrison and Harrison's mom, Erin.  Eli went on to eat half of Harrison's lunch.  Apparently we need to start ordering him kids' meals when we go out.

When we got back to Chicago, we unloaded all our bags and such into the living room.  Eli spotted his box of Cheerios and decided to help himself.

While in Kansas City, Eli picked up a cold which he was kind enough to share with me.  We ended up canceling our NYE plans with our friends who have an itty bitty baby.  Eli did not stay awake to see the ball drop.

Better luck next year.

Ten months going on two years

This little boy has very little in common with the one we brought home 10 months ago.  He's become crazy, danger-seeking, crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything baby.  He's mastering the temper tantrum--when upset will arch his back and flail like a madman while screaming.  If he had an online profile, it would read something like this:

Hobbies: playing in dirt if he can find it, putting anything related to the dogs in his mouth, playing tug of war with Leroy, sneaking up on Jack, banging on things, giving toothy grins when you tell him "un uh", making door stops make the boing noise,  biting/sucking/pulling electrical cords, tipping over the dogs' water bowl, latching onto any and all plastic bags

Food: mashed potatoes, beef, turkey, cheese, whatever it is that you're eating (particularly if there is a limited quantity and you are really hungry and really want to eat it)

Literature: anything by Dr. Seus, Brown Bear, the first half of most books but not usually the second half

Film: Baby Einstein (only when nothing else will work ;-)

Heroes: Leroy (seriously, if Leroy is doing something interesting--he will totally take Leroy over Mommy)

Hates: the car (with a furious  passion, still)

His sleep has changed a lot this month.  He's dropped the 3rd nap and in Kansas City, for some reason, he only thinks he needs one.  Hopefully that's a fluke.  

He tolerates the high chair pretty well and is a pretty good eater.  He eats comically large portions of food and will grunt and reach for more--particularly if we're talking about mashed potatoes or meat.  The boy loves steak.  

Overall, he's become a much more independent boy.  A few months ago, you couldn't really put him down.  Now, he goes on little journeys around the house by himself for 20-30 minutes at a time.  Of course, he still often crawls to our legs where he pulls himself up and reaches to be picked up--but that's just adorable.  And of course, he spends most of his independent time seeking danger.  We have taken to putting him in a cardboard box every now and then.  What?  He likes it.  

Note the intense sorrow that befell him when the toy was taken away.

Trying to pull it together.

Okay, you can have it back.