Couch Dancing

Hoorah for Christmas Morn!

New Beanie #2

Delighted with my new handknit beanie from Seth and Sara (Seth is so good at knitting!)

Opening Presents

New Beanie #1

More of Santa's chubbiest reindeer

This little reindeer has had one too many Christmas goodies

Airplane!

One of Elliott's favorite playtime activities of late.

I snuck a peek at my stocking

I'm not sure if I was on the Good list or the Naughty list because there was a Spam single in my stocking. Maybe it was something better, and if you sneak into your stocking early, it turns into Spam. I made it into a sandwich.















Then I realized who put it there. It was Santa's chubbiest little reindeer!


"You better eat that Spam."

Elliott not quite rolling over

Elliott rolled over just after I turned the camera off. Cest la vie.

Holiday dinner

Here we are in front of a Christmas tree. We went over to Laura's for a Christmas dinner of roast beef (which Jess made), fixins and cheesecake. It was deelish. Elliott's getting really good at just hanging out. He didn't sleep the whole time. Instead, he stayed up with the grownups and talked about politics and his thoughts on literature.


Here's Elliott and his mom. That's Laura in the background...


Here's Elliott and Laura...


And here's a random photo of how good Elliott is at tummy time now.

Buddha Belly

Vibrant

Chillin with frog and my fist

This is how Elliott rolls (part 2)

From Elliott: "Sometimes, when I'm at a party, the ladies will get a little touchy feely with me, but they'll forget to tell me that their parents are at the party also. When a young bird's dad shows up and she's getting to be all like, Dad, meet my boyfriend... That's when I cut ties and make a face like, I don't know this girl, yo!

Ain't nobody tying me down just yet! (Thanks Unkie Jepp for the photo)"

This is how Elliott rolls

From Elliott: "When I'm partying, I like to rock the sweater vest and long sleeved collared shirt. A martini is a definite must and any time I can end up on the lap of a young lady. . . Well let's just say it was a successful party."

Elliott is healthy

Elliott's been a really good eater...
















I'm just kidding. That's actually just a really fat Chinese baby. It's not Elliott.

The littlest Padres fan?

We know it's no longer baseball season, but the days are getting brisk here in Charlotte and Elliott's favorite beanie at the moment is his SD Padres hat. Can you tell he and Dad are getting excited about being back in San Diego in a week? Also check out the super-clever onesie with retired Pads numbers that Pad Squad Stef made for Elliott. It even says gaslamp ball on the back. Pretty rad.

Whose eyes are googlier?

Our little googly-eyed boy standing over a head taller than his buddy Elmo

Sleepy Times

Halloween Smiles

Elliott is starting to be quite the little smiler these days. He was just happy because he got most of the attention on halloween night. We only had one trick-or-treater, our three year old neighbor, who made a very cute little tigger. Elliott thought he was cuter in his black cat beanie from grandma gigi and his "BOO" sleeper from grandma zsa-zsa. If you're wondering about the grandma names, don't ask me, ask his crazy grandmas. They have to be sooo glamorous and exotic with their titles, no simple grandma will do for them. Hope you all had a happy halloween!

More of Dragon-Boy

Here is our little Dragon-Boy wearing his Boo Couture costume made by his Fairy Godmother Shannie. We're gonna have a hard time topping the cuteness of this costume next year unless we can get our hands on some more Boo Couture.















One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more...

moo!



















So sleepy after his reign of terror.

OH MY GOSH, IT'S A DRAGON!!!

Actually, it's just Elliott in a Halloween costume. He put it on all by himself.

Elliott meets Jasmine

The baby on the left is Jasmine with her mom, Vickie. Jasmine's exactly a week younger than Elliott. The babies didn't really acknowledge each other. Elliott mostly just blew bubbles with his spit.

Bright Eyes!

Elliott is liking his aquarium bouncer more now that he can focus in better on the fish and the lights. This morning it had him, mesmorized...well, long enough for me to at least put in a laundry load of drooly onesies. Everyone who has met him lately says he looks very "alert". This is true, when he is awake, his eyes are wide, wide open.

You wake me, you pay!!

Squeaky Clean!

Oops, I meant to put this sock on my foot!

Morning routine with Dad

So Dex and Elliott have gotten into a morning routine of "dressing up" a little crazy before Dex leaves for work. I don't know who's responsible for this craziness as I'm usually in the kitchen scarfing down breakfast and getting a cup of tea ready. But, when I come into the bedroom, I find that Elliott has on mismatched socks, and little cow and pig rattle accessories on. He seems to be quite pleased about his "look" and Dex swears that he is picking out his own outfits...Anyway, he is a bit crazy in the mornings just like his Dad. Note the "big boy" vans and mismatched socks. Are we starting a new baby fashion trend? The second pic shows what Elliott looked like before I left the room and the mischief happened.

More visitors! Wowaweeya!

Uncle Dar and Auntie Missi came out this weekend to celebrate Elliott being one month old. Hoorah!

There's Auntie and Uncle and the baby. Elliott was so good and the reason why is because he's a little angel. And also, we started using a pacifier.









There's Auntie Missi and Elliott at City Tavern. It was the first time we brought Elliott to a restaurant and he wore pajamas thinking it to be the style.








There's dad and baby looking so delighted. We're charter members of the Best Buddies Club. Jess is a provisional member.

A visitor!!

Laura Lee came over to meet Elliott on Monday night! She was nice enough to bring us some sushi and a bottle of wine and a loaf of her mom's homemade bread! Thanks Laura, you made us feel super spoiled! Also, Elliott thought you were charming.


Here's a few more cute photos for those of you who are always on us to post more. Don't you think Elliott's chubbin out a bit? We do.

"How is your baby?" "He's awake."

Sorry for the lack of updates. Elliott has taken to what Jess refers to as the Vicious Cycle of breast feeding every hour, before spitting up and then pooping. It takes him about 10-15 minutes to breast feed and then he'll spit up for about half an hour before pooping for 20 minutes. That of course is slightly more than an hour to finish the cycle, but since the next cycle begins on the hour, it will often overlap before the previous cycle is done. We're pretty much at the point where he'll be spitting up and pooping while breast feeding. We're like Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory. We're Mickey Mouse in a wizard hat.

Every now and then he'll also fly around the room, from one corner of the ceiling to the other, laughing at us maniacally while terrorizing the cats by flinging yellow wet naps at them.

But he's our little angel and we love him.

Here are some photos...

When Elliott's awake, his arms and legs are normally a little flurry of activity. He's always grabbing around and making cycling motions. When he's about to poop however, he gets a very contemplative look on his face and drops his arms to the side. He holds perfectly still.

It all looks very serene and tranquil until the terrible squirting noise begins.










There's Elliott on his little changing table. You see all those diapers, clothes and wet naps at the top of the photo? Yeah. That was Tuesday.















There's Elliott in the middle of some tummy time. We're slowly but surely training him for Baby Races, Thanksgiving 2007. He is quite the competitor already.

That photo also shows how he's developing a butt crack. For the first week or so, he didn't have a butt crack. It was like one big cheek with a dimple in the middle. I was starting to worry it would never show up. Jess didn't say anything, but kept giving me looks like, I know I have a butt... This lack of butt is Dex's fault.





Last one for now. That's Jess there with the baby at a park near our house. Look how cute mom and baby are. Elliott's very hit and miss with the stroller. Sometimes he falls right asleep and looks super comfy. Other times, he screams like we've thrown him in the iron maiden.









I'll try and throw more photos up more regularly. We'll let you know how the Vicious Cycle works out. Personally, I don't think Jess should have named it anything at all. It's like the Axis of Evil. Better to leave the pooping, spitting up and breast feeding alone to their own devices. Associating them with a name only gives them a starting point to coordinate their diabolical schemes.

Seriously though. Breast feeding is going good, but I'd be lying if I said the poop doesn't smell. It's not a dry heave stench, but there's definitely an odor.

First hospital visit and some photos

We took Elliott to his first hospital visit yesterday. Doctor Walker said that he gets an A+ for health, which is his first A+. Jess and I gave each other a little wink as the grade was handed out. Valedictorian, I thought quietly.

Elliott's not jaundiced and he's starting to gain back some of his lost water weight. His poops are progressing normally. I remember when I was in college, after spending 60 hours straight in the computer lab working on a project, when such a diagnosis would've come as a welcome relief. Alas, no Dr. Walker was nearby to give me an A+ (on my health or the project).

But I digress...

Here are some photos:

That's Elliott getting ready for his trip, all strapped into his car seat. We just woke him, which is why he looks like such a wise little gnome in the hat. In fact, once we had him in, he started making gurgling, gravelly noises like he was talking, but it was nonsense.

"You must listen to the prophecy! The basilisk prince must be abated with lemondrop teas and cookies baked with the milk of a unicorn from the azure forest on the cloud!"

See? Nonsense.







There he is in the waiting room. Waiting patiently. Some might think he's sleeping. I think he's meditating on the deeper meaning of wearing a blanket with cartoon monkeys on it.










There's Jess holding him while we wait for the doctor. If he (or Jess) looks a little yellow, it's because the color of the walls is so purplish-pink. I can't think of another place where you would find walls with the color of a slightly moldy plum, but I've never been much for decor.










And this last one is of him making a super cute face while pretending to be sleeping. I know he knew I had the camera on him. Sometimes, if Jess is mad at me, I'll pretend to be asleep. If she's onto me, she'll usually say something like, "I know you're awake." At that point, I'll put my fist up to my cheek and make a really cute face while discretely putting my finger in one ear.

Works every time.