Elliott - 12 months old

Here we are at the last monthly update for our sweet Elliott, who turned one last weekend.

Sweet is a great way to describe our little boy. People often ask me if he's always that happy. Mostly. When he's not happy, he is really not happy. But most of the time, he is generously spreading cheer with that big, crazy grin. I think we're entering the third month of virtually non-stop teething with Elliott's sixth tooth just below the surface. Even so, none of his teeth are fully into place, so he looks pretty silly when all of his teeth are showing. I worry a bit that he has my dental genes, which basically means that we should start saving our pennies now.

Those teeth allow Elliott to eat any and everything. He continues to eat the same food as the rest of the family and consistently eats more than Madeleine and close to my portion. He's doing slightly better with the silverware that we introduced last month, though he has a long way to go, and meals are so messy now that he's feeding himself everything. We've also started pulling him straight up to the table without his tray, which does not help the mess factor. On his birthday, I gave him cow's milk for the first time, a bit fearful that he'd reject it. Nope. He downed the entire sippy cup. While he still won't sign for more, he does throw things on the floor, push himself away from the table, and wave his hands forcefully when he is finished.

All of the food is necessary to fuel this very, very, very busy boy. He has surprised me by not taking to walking ahead of his birthday, but I think that is because he wants to move and knows that crawling will get him around quickly. Within the last week, I'd say he's switched to more regular crawling than army crawl, but he definitely reverts to old faithful whenever he's on a mission. He pulls up on any and everything, even walls. And he is a climber. He has crawled up the fireplace hearth and the stool at the bathroom sink. He can also climb both up and down the stairs, though he can't yet get himself into the right position for the descent. He doesn't often stop moving, but when he does, I find that he's sucking his thumb more and more. I'm glad he can use it to soothe himself at sleeping times, but I'm not excited about this habit expanding as we're currently in the process of breaking Madeleine's finger sucking habit.

Elliott still takes two naps a day, but his afternoon nap has gotten noticeably shorter. I'm both excited about and dreading nap consolidation because we'll gain some more freedom from the house while I'll lose some quiet time. Overnight, he generally sleeps from about 7:30/8pm to 7am with earlier wake ups during particularly bad teething times. I'm still nursing Elliott when he wakes up in the morning and before bed, but I plan to have him weaned within the next month. Although I reeeeeeeally hate breastfeeding in the early months and tolerate it the rest of the year, I'm once again finding the end bittersweet. Of course, Elliott's current habit of ending each feeding with a little bite is helping to encourage me.

There is still plenty of babbling going on around here. Pretty much everybody is Dah-dah, and there are certain words that he will repeat. He attempted to say Madeleine the other day, which was both hilarious and adorable. I've been trying to teach him that owls say hoo-hoo, and he seems to say "ow" and "hooooo." I'm not sure if I have a higher standard or his language is just more muffled than Madeleine's was at this age, but I'm not really ready to say that he has his first word.

I can hardly believe I'm saying it, but Elliott is more a toddler every day. He loves spending chunks of time looking at books (but will not sit still to listen to them) and playing. He likes playing games and laughing at silly songs or funny faces. He loves riding the plasma car inside and giraffe tike outside. We do laugh that he's part dog because he loves to find and chew on shoes - gross. On the other hand, it was so fun to see him soak up all of the attention he received on his birthday and just bask in the celebration.

When my big (90th percentile for height and 75th for weight) boy tries to wiggle from my arms to go and explore, it's hard for me to believe that it was a year ago that a short and intense morning labor brought our sweet boy into this world. I just want to hold his soft, plump baby skin in my arms forever.

The fox that used to be the size of Elliott...well, isn't anymore.

Friday I'm In Love

Welcome back to another Friday I'm In Love! Be sure to check out what Misha, Kendra, and Mary Beth are loving this week, too!

ONE: Nordstrom's Bra Conversions

Nursing is such a huge part of my day, between four and eight hours depending on Elliott's speed, that tools to make the process more pleasant are bound to catch my eye. I was thrilled to learn about this newish service (not sure when it started, but it didn't exist when Madeleine was born in 2012) offered by Nordstrom: for $16 a bra, they will convert any bra into a nursing bra (adding clips and a fabric sling). So few nursing bras are available in my size that this really impacted my selection. Perhaps the best part? When the conversion is complete, they mail the bras to your door for free.

TWO: Siblings

It wasn't long after Elliott's birth that I realized one of the benefits of having multiple kids is getting to watch a life-long relationship grow from the ground up.Madeleine and Elliott melt my heart on a daily basis the way they interact and adore each other. Madeleine constantly asks to hold Elliott, share toys with him, and, if he's sleeping, to wake him up. Elliott gives his smiles to Madeleine more freely than anyone else. We never had to prompt Madeleine to say "I love you" to Elliott, and I truly believe she means it when she says it. I can't get enough of these two!

What are you loving this week?

Elliott - One Month Old

This week, Elliott turned one month old. Honestly, the last month feels like about a year in length. While it has been challenging in many ways, my recovery feels a lifetime ago, and Elliott well and truly feels like he has been part of our family for a lot longer than a month.

Our little guy is rocking a particularly harsh and enduring case of baby acne on his uber sensitive skin. This week, we're hoping to finally kick the diaper rash he has endured for most of his life. Poor guy. None of these things bother him that much, and he continues to grow at an impressive rate. I can hardly believe that I'm already packing away large swaths of 0-3 month clothes that my one month old has outgrown!

Elliott is getting more and more alert and, somewhat reluctantly, finding his voice. I love hearing his squeaks and look forward to our early conversations. He is still somewhat chill, though we definitely notice that we're in the peak infant fussiness zone. While his sleep isn't horrible, I long for those nights where I'd feed him and, upon putting him in his crib, instantly have a sleeping baby until the next feeding. We'll get there again - this, too, shall pass.

Madeleine continues to adore her brother, as you could see from the fox photo, though her enthusiasm has gotten her into trouble from time to time. She often lays beside Elliott in the mornings when he has tummy time and, the other day, she told Elliott, "I love you, Elliott" unprompted. I feel so fortunate to have front row seats to this budding friendship.

Summer Update II

The changing leaves and grey skies tell the story of fall's arrival. I love changing seasons, and this change gives us a chance to reflect back on our summer. What a summer!

At the beginning of the summer, I shared our aspirational summer bucket list. A bit later, I shared our update from the first half of the summer. Today, I'm happy to share that we made more progress on our list without accomplishing everything.

JUMP AT THE TRAMPOLINE PARK: Just last week, I was finally able to take Madeleine for another morning at our local trampoline park ($5 for an hour and a half of toddler-exhausting jumping is a steal in my book). It was nice to spend an hour and a bit with my girl, bouncing and smiling, laughing and making memories.

"1, 2..."

HELP MADELEINE WITH COUNTING: Counting and ABCs are frequently heard around our house these days. Her counting is coming along but still not perfect; it usually goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11. I'm a bit confused about this development as she used to insert 8 as every other number. She can fill in the alphabet when we sing together and is really close to being able to do it all herself, though pronunciation for L, M, N, O, P will probably remain comical for a while. I feel a little guilty about it, but I haven't exactly drilled Madeleine on any of her academic concepts (numbers, alphabet, colors). Rather, they seem to be coming together organically by talking about them in everyday life.

HAVE A BABY: Check him out!

FINISH THE NURSERY: Fun fact: according to my blog history, I finished Madeleine's nursery one day earlier than Elliott's nursery. Given that Madeleine was born on her due date and Elliott one day after his, their nurseries were completed the same number of days in advance of their respective arrivals.

STOCK OUR FREEZER WITH FOOD: Even though I saved it for later than I should have done, I am happy to say that we have a chest freezer full of meals. Most of them were made during the two or three nights of marathon cooking that George and I tackled together. Hopefully they'll be handy as we adjust to the reality of our new normal (ie life after George's parental leave ends).

TAKE MADELEINE DOWNTOWN ON A BUS: I wrote a whole post about Madeleine's bus adventure. Apparently the experience made quite an impression because she requests a repeat pretty much every time we see a bus, which is pretty often.

HAVE A WEEKEND WITHOUT PLANS: It probably defeats the purpose when you have to actually schedule a free weekend, but we did manage to have a weekend without plans before Elliott's arrival. Come to think of it, I think there was only one weekend without plans in the six months or so before he joined us. No wonder we're a little lost now that our schedule is so wide open.

VISIT AT LEAST THREE DIFFERENT FARMERS MARKETS: We made it to three different farmers markets but that was it. I admit that my Saturday morning prenatal yoga commitment precluded a lot of visits we could have made, but I wouldn't trade that time for anything. The markets we visited were fun and full of delicious produce and treats, and one of them was held during a festival celebrating basset hounds. The Basset Bash is another experience Madeleine routinely requests to repeat. Our most recent farmers market included the newest member of our family, who was a trooper until about 3 minutes before we were going to leave.

On top of these anticipated experiences, we also visited the aquarium, had a visit from Grandma Janie, and had a big girl bed transition. Between all of this fun, the second hottest Seattle summer on record, and Elliott's arrival, we won't soon be forgetting the summer of 2014.

In the spirit of the new season, here is a "foxy" picture of our kiddos all ready for fall:

Recent Happenings

As expected when there is a new baby in the house, the blog has been rather quiet. I can assure you, though, that our house has not been so quiet as we are all learning to adapt to our new normal. Spoiler alert: a new baby is not the only change we've experienced over the last month.

Like Madeleine's growth spurt wasn't enough, she suddenly looked like a giant next to Elliott!

I've spent a fair amount of time - though never enough - admiring this beautiful baby boy.

At his first brunch, Elliott asked to be fed as our food was arriving and, after being fed, was very chill again. 

The week before Elliott was born, Madeleine climbed out of her crib for the first time. We pretended like it was an isolated incident until, first, we watched her on the webcam as she threw her leg up over the side of her crib and then we had to run across the house to stop her from launching out of the crib...two days in a row. After that, we deployed operation Big Girl Bed. 

In preparation, I took Madeleine fabric shopping so that she could pick out fabric for pillowcases for her new pillow. I whipped up a couple of simple pillowcases using this tutorial. This was a big moment for me, handing over design control after pouring my heart and soul into the perfect room for Miss M. Her primary colored underwater creatures now hang out with Christmas puppies and pastel zoo/safari animals. 

On the day of the big move, Madeleine busted out her tools and helped her dad turn her crib into a toddler bed. 

I can't tell, but I think she may have been excited about the results. We've had a few hiccups, but I'd say that the crib to bed transition has gone much better than expected, especially given the poor and sudden timing. If we could only end the nap strike that is nearly a month long and counting...

For Elliott's first trail walk, Madeleine busted out her hoodie and prepared her pockets for trail treasures, though we were sure that the blackberries she picked went in her mouth and not her pockets.

Elliott enjoyed his inaugural ride in the Beco Gemini. 

Another day, Elliott enjoyed his first bottle al fresco. I'm so grateful for the flexibility of having George feed him liquid gold when I want/need to spend a bit of time away from Elliott.

Grandma came to our rescue for a couple of weeks, and we were so grateful for the time she spent with each kiddo, books she read to them, and weeding she accomplished in our yard. While she was here, we went to the aquarium, where the octopus, Delilah, put on a great show. (Madeleine has asked to go back and/or pretended to swim like a diver at the aquarium almost every day since our visit.)

I wonder if the ice cream treat we got while downtown has anything to do with her attachment to the aquarium.

None of us wanted Grandma to leave.

Elliott and I had a great play date with Eloise and Misha. Can't wait to watch these two (slowly, please) grow up together! Hopefully this is just the beginning of regular play dates.

I hesitate to say that we're starting to find our stride as a family of four. Some days/nights are better/worse than others, but we're making it through and trying to take advantage of George's few remaining days of leave by going on some family adventures. We just might survive this period of intense transition.

Elliott - Three Weeks Old

We got to know Elliott a little better this week. As his vision improves, he is spending more time taking in his surroundings, and it's fun to catch him staring at some little detail that I never would have noticed...like the other morning when I was pumping and he was checking out his reflection in the gloss white paint of his built-ins. He continues to be pretty chill with a flash of drama when he wants fed or has to have his diaper changed. The word content is often used when people see him, though I can tell you that he has the ability to nearly turn himself inside out with screaming, too. I think he's going to follow in Madeleine's footsteps and be a finger sucker, but I think he may be a little quieter as I've only been able to elicit a few little squeaks from him in the vocal department.

Life with a newborn revolves around eating and sleeping. Elliott has been all about eating this week, and he has an extra pound and second chin to prove it. Given our difficult start with his imperfect latch, I was particularly chuffed to have a pediatrician compliment his latch yesterday. Elliott's eating exhausted me earlier this week when he decided to demand milk every 2 to 2.5 hours around the clock for about 30 hours.

Fortunately, sleep follows eating during a growth spurt. If last night is any indication, Elliott's sleep is getting into a better pattern with longer blocks at night. We're still working on getting him to sleep in his crib most of the time and on establishing a bedtime routine. I'm curious to see what his sleep looks like over the next several months because Elliott already wants to roll onto his side as soon as he's laid down and he manages to wiggle around the crib, covering a surprising amount of ground in the process.

I'm pleased to share that Madeleine still adores her little brother. She loves to kiss him, report her adventures to him ("Baby Elliott, I saw an octopus!"), sing to him, and tell him what to do ("Wake up, Elliott." "Drink milk, Baby Elliott."). When I'm feeding him, she likes to crawl up in the chair beside me and ask to have his "piggies" sit on her lap so that she can admire his toes. It's pretty cute.

Speaking of cute, check out our little dude.

Elliott - Two Weeks Old

Elliott's second week of life included the low experience of being ready to throw in the towel on breastfeeding and the high of getting a great report from the pediatrician. This is the week that Elliott seems to have figured out how to eat, and his mum seems to have figured out how to chill out and trust herself a bit.

Elliott continues to be very chill, though I have seen a stubborn streak show through from time to time. I'm super interested to watch his personality develop. When he starts to fall asleep, he flashes this huge grin, which totally melts my heart. Tonight, his daddy seems to have gotten one of these grins during awake time; I hope my turn is next.

Now that Sir E has figured out how to eat, he seems to be growing very quickly. He is so long! The few newborn items I have will probably only get one more wear, and I'm not sure how long the 0-3 month clothes are going to fit at his current rate. Did I mention that he is one long baby?! As you can see, we've introduced cloth diapers. Because we only have a handful of tiny ones, we're still using disposables for about half of our daily diapers, and I'm anticipating that we'll need to move into the next size of cloth diapers within a week or two.

Although Madeleine did tell us "all done Elliott" this week, she continues to be very fascinated with her little brother. He is the first thing on her mind when she gets up in the morning and has to get a goodnight before she goes to bed at night. She is just dying to pick him up, which keeps us on our guard at all times. I hope that Madeleine's positive affection for her brother continues!

Elliott - One Week Old

Here we are with a one-week-old baby. As anyone who has had a newborn knows, the first week is such a rollercoaster with plenty of challenges mixed with the highest of highs.

Elliott continues to charm us as we get to know his personality just a little bit. Primarily, he is one chill dude. As a result, I've had more than a handful of feeding frustrations as he would rather sleep, relax, or give a crappy latch rather than properly feed. We're working through it, and I know that he'll be a champion eater again before we know it. I'm hoping that his lax attitude pays off when we can finally let him sleep until he wakes up.

He's opening his eyes a little more each day, and his umbilical stump is hanging on by a tiny thread. He has dragon talons that grow at an incredible rate. His jaundice seems to be slowly dissipating, and his purple feet are slowly coming right. Hopefully his weight will be headed in the right direction from now on, too.

Although I am not undertaking the full 52-week photo project that I did with Madeleine, I do want to document Elliott's growth these first few weeks and then monthly through the first year. And so, without further ado, enjoy this first week:

Welcome, Elliott!

We are pleased for you to meet the newest member of our family.

ELLIOTT PAUL

22 August 2014 at 11:15am

8 lbs. 13 oz. (4 kg) and 22.5 inches (55.9 cm)

I was blessed with an amazing birth experience, which I attribute to George's constant support, our out-of-this-world great midwife, a pregnancy full of yoga, and somehow managing to follow my instincts through the process. Stay tuned for a birth story at some point. 

Elliott (so far) seems to be a very chill baby. It's a bit of a shock to hear newborn cries again, especially when he wakes up. Forget the toddler babble we're used to hearing - he wants attention now. But, once he's fed and clean, he's usually pretty relaxed. In the looks department, he takes a lot of resemblance from George, a bit from Madeleine, and a touch from the likes of Winston Churchill and Benjamin Button. I can't wait to see his little personality and body develop!

Madeleine loves him to pieces and has already tried to share her (completely inappropriate for his age) toys with her brother. Because his name is also a surprise to our little chatter box, she is still learning it and also refers to him as "Baby Brother" (his name from the pregnancy) and "Brand New."

Fortunately, we have lots of time with George home to help us ease into our family of four status, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way. 

We're all so happy that Elliott has joined our family!

Game on!

What's one of the hardest games in humanity? The waiting game. For someone who plans everything and tries to constantly be fully prepared, it is excruciatingly difficult to wait for an event over which I have no real control and which will profoundly affect my life. In case you're wondering why the blog has been so quiet, it's because I've been playing this game.

While I don't have cute newborn photos to show you (yet!), I will give you a fun little little comparison in one of my favorite maternity dresses...both taken as pregnancies coast through the middle of week 39 and approach their official due dates. Madeleine was born on her due date, and I've sworn that this baby would be early through virtually the entire pregnancy.

Last time:

This time: 

Barefoot and pregnant. Waiting and waiting and over analyzing everything. That's what I'm doing these days. I am so lucky to have such good company (Denaye and Nico in addition to George and Madeleine) as I go through this time.

Stay tuned for cuter content in the days (??) and weeks ahead. 

Gender Neutral Nursery Reveal

Happy Friday! 

I have a little treat for you: photos of our completed nursery! Remember the preview, nearly five months ago? I've already shown you a lot of the individual projects, but let's have a look at how it all came together.  

You've already seen the mobile and the crib skirt and sheets, but this is where the magic is going to happen. Do you hear that, Baby Boy? You're going to be a great sleeper, just like your big sister.

The camera in the corner is a webcam. We're using the same model we have for Madeleine, and we securely link it to a free app on our phones, which is only viewable in our home.

The blue bear was a gift from a friend, and I'm so excited that he'll have his own bear after seeing how much Madeleine adores her Gund.

Right next to the crib is the chair we moved in from Madeleine's nursery. We want Madeleine to move to a new bed on her own timing, so we opted to only minimally reuse key items. This chair is amazing for nursing, soothing, and occasionally catching some ZZZZs with a newborn (it glides, swivels, and reclines), and now Miss M has a lower chair that is better suited for her reading. Happiness all around. I can hardly wait to curl up in the chair with Baby Boy and his houndstooth quilt. 

A couple of weeks ago, I strategically planned for Madeleine to paint in the colors of the nursery. She loves painting and enthusiastically complied with my wishes. 

Then, I surprised her by displaying a few of the pieces in the nursery. She is incredibly proud of her art work and points it out every time we go in the room. Turns out, it goes really well with the inspiration art piece and the bunting I whipped up.

Remember those built-in shelves and bench? This is how they turned out. We have plenty of space to store things as our needs change, and it's been fun to have a place to display things after a shelf-free nursery. 

The green light on the bottom shelf was made by George and should be a nice way to get a bit of light at night without turning on the overhead lights.

This is the fingerprint guestbook that the ladies made for me at my baby brunch. It's flanked by a kiwi that I convinced Madeleine to hand down and an owl door stop that I painted.

This silver dollar is one of the most special parts of the nursery. It has a long and meaningful history with George's father's family with roots here in Seattle. For the past four years, I've been waiting to find the right place to display it, and I think this is just right. It's "mounted" using museum wax to a piece of the fabric used for the window cushion.

I sewed the cushion for the window seat from an outdoor fabric meant to be fade- and stain-resistant, so I hope that it's true to its promises. Making my own piping and sewing on such a large scale were definitely some new challenges for me, but I really enjoyed watching this piece come together. It's not quite as tight fitting as I might like, but I'll take it!

On the other side of the room is the changing station and dresser. 

In the frame at the left, I've displayed two Hawaiian postcards. We found out that a new member would be joining our family on the morning we returned from our trip to Maui, so I thought it was fitting to include a little Aloha in the room.

We'll eventually be adding a diaper pail to this space, but it's currently backordered.

Of course, I took advantage of an excuse to make another divided basket. I'm pleased with how this one turned out, and I discovered that the "scraps" from making crib sheets are the perfect size for the interior lining. Score!

And, yes, that is an industrial container of hand sanitizer. We are ready!

Behind the door, at kiddo height, we hung these three lil' owls. 

The first thing you pass upon entering and last thing you see when leaving is another special part of the nursery. This horseshoe came from my grandparents' farm, and it still has remnants of dirt caked in the shoe. 

Phew. You made it through the tour!

Details:

Wall Paint: Thundercloud Gray (2124-40)

Ceiling Paint: Misty Gray (2124-60)

Trim and Cabinet Paint: Super White (PM-1)
Crib and Dresser: Pali Lucca Collection
Sheets: Homemade using this tutorial
Crib Skirt: Homemade
Mobile: Homemade
Chair: Best Chairs Tryp
Quilt: Homemade using this pattern
Brown Picture Frames: Aaron Brothers
ABC Print: Children Inspire Design
Bunting: Homemade with Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow fabric
Beaver Tote: 3 Sprouts
Clear Globe with air plant: World Market
Owl Bookend and Decoration: World Market (actually a doorstop)
Grey Felt Bin: Target (a long time ago)
Jacks: World Market
Cushion Fabric: Sunbrella Spectrum Mist
Olympic Peaks Art: Metsker Maps at Pike Place Market
Changing Pad: Keekaroo Peanut Changing Pad in Sable
Wipe Holder: OXO Perfect Pull in Aqua
Laundry Basket: Target
Owls: World Market

And now...time for the favorite part game. What's your favorite element? For me, it's a toss-up between the mobile and Madeleine's art.

(Psst - In case you're wondering, this is the nursery we prepared for Madeleine's arrival.)