Happy Father’s Day from Tennyson & Eliot

Tennyson & Eliot want to wish their three grandfathers a very special “I Love You” today.

Ask us to translate if there are any words they said that you can’t understand.

Eliot at 7 Months

Eliot was 7 months on March 27th.  He is getting so big so quickly. We are just madly in love with him.  He has a laughter that makes your whole body tremble and gives the wettest kisses any mom could ask for.

Eliot has achieved the following milestones:

1. He is finally sitting.  One day he could barely sit, and the next day he was almost a pro. We have our occasional falls, so I like to lay a pillow or boppy next to him just in case.

2. He moves objects from one hand to the other.  He loves to grab anything and everything including my hair. Ouch!  Seriously, you have to move everything away from him.  His hands are just reaching for something all the time. The other night I left the kitchen for one second to grab something, and when I returned, he had taken my pimiento cheese sandwich apart and was playing with the cheese. One day, I had my back turned for a minute (I was doing something at the sink), and when I turned around, he had pulled all the tissues out of the tissue box.  We have got to get him a high chair. He still sits in a Bumpo seat on the table.

3. He is eating puree foods well and has started eating some solid foods such as saltine crackers and small bites of banana.  He gets really mad when he gets food stuck in the palm of his hand and cannot figure out how to open his hand to get it out.   Unfortunately, he has already been tainted by a Nilla Wafer.  I took him to my home town Church in Iuka over Spring Break, and in cradle roll, they gave him a cookie.  Imagine that.  He had not even had a cracker and here they gave him a cookie.  I was a little appalled but giggled at the same time at how much he enjoyed it. He was not happy when I took it away from him.  He attempts to grab all the food off of my plate also.

4. He blows raspberries and still babbles like a pro. He still has not said “ma-ma” but has said “ma” a few times when he gets really upset.

5. His repertoire of different cries has expanded.  It’s not just sleepy, hungry, pain, or wet anymore.  There is now “I’m bored mom” type of fuss.

6. He loves games such as peek-a-boo or “where’s Eliot?”.

7. He absolutely loves books. We have always had to force books on Tennyson but not Eliot.  He attends and interacts.

8. He is starting to learn his name and understand some commands such as “give me kiss”.

9. He loves Tennyson and really engages with her. He thinks she is funnier than any of us at times.

10. He is starting to have separation anxiety.  At times, he has it a lot.  Distraction is still a very good tool though at this age.

11. He understands object permanence. He will drop something on purpose to just be able to look for it.

Tennyson is Two!

You may be saying to yourself, “Really?”. At least that is what is running through my mind as I reflect over the past two years. Once again, I am overwhelmed with ambivalent emotions similar to those of last year. Will this happen every year? I am so excited about all the new milestones Tennyson has accomplished, but I feel so sad that my baby that I brought home two years ago is quickly slipping away from my arms. She is sleeping in her big girl bed with a side rail. To my surprise, this was also very emotional to me. It did not hit me until I saw her asleep in her new bed. Once again, memories rushed over me to the first night I placed her in her crib.

Tennyson is a ball of energy eager to learn everything we do.  Her favorite game is “Monkey See, Monkey Do”.  She imitates all of our actions and is fast mapping language. She is starting to combine words. One of my favorite combinations in the past week is “Happy Cake”. Yes, she is VERY excited about her birthday party. She LOVES cake. She discovered this delightful treat at Christmas time. Now she is anxiously awaiting her party so that she can blow out candles and eat cake. That is another thing that is fun. She anticipates events.

Tennyson’s favorite play time activities include working in her kitchen, washing dishes in her play sink, taking care of all of her baby dolls and stuffed animals. We cannot forget the monkey, pig, giraffes, and teddy bears. She rocks and puts them all to bed.  She loves to read books and watch Spot or Elmo.

We are having lots of fun together.  Thank you God for allowing these two years with her. She has truly blessed our lives.

4-Months

I am behind on this post. Sorry. Eliot turned 4-months on December 27th.

I am happy to say we have made lots of improvement with sleeping. At 4-months, babies just start doing so much better. We are on a eat/sleep schedule. He takes 3 naps and eats 6 times each day.  He eats at 7:00-7:30, 10-10:30, 1:30, 4:30-5:00, 6:30-7:00, and 10:00.  That’s right. No more eating in the middle of the night.  He still wakes up on occasion around  5 but mostly falls asleep quickly.  He has learned how to suck on his fingers which soothes him back to sleep.  He sometimes wakes around 6 which is no fun, but at least there are no more 3 am feeding calls.  I feel more normal.    He naps around 8:30-9:00 am, 12:00, and then again at 3:30-4:00.   He even slept over the holidays while we were with family. I was very proud of him.

At his 4-month check up, he weighed almost 16 pounds placing him in the 62nd percentile and was almost 26 inches long placing him in the 75th percentile. Still a big baby compared to Tennyson.  He took his shots like a champ. He only whimpered on one.

I started back to work. It was bitter sweet. I really have enjoyed being with both Tennyson and Eliot, but if felt good to get back into my profession and to interact with adults. It is only part-time. We have a wonderful nanny that will begin tomorrow. She is like a grandmother who we have to pay.

Riding in the wagon Santa Clause brought him and Tennyson.

Money Saving Tip

Tonight, I was finally catching up with printing our digital pictures. I had not printed any since May. Yikes, can you imagine? Especially since we have such a cute toddler and baby. Needless to say, it has taken me all day. I had vowed to wait until Snapfish offered free photo deals; however, I had missed many of these and today I had the time to do this task. At checkout, I realized that S&H was going to be $20. Yikes, again.  That was half of the printing cost. I searched for online Snapfish coupon codes and found one for “free shipping”. Wala—-20 dollars saved.

That’s it folks.

P.S. Snapfish’s website never displayed this coupon. I did a quick scan through their website and never found it.

3-Months

Eliot is 3 months. Whoo-Hoo. The fourth trimester is over.

Eating and sleeping remain the same as last month unfortunately.  We are starting to work on improving night time sleep. He made no progress this past month independently.  We let him cry the other night since he woke up only after 4.5 hours. After he finally went back to sleep, he did not wake up until 4:30.  That makes a 9.5 hour stretch.  Anyways, the next night he slept from 7pm to 4 am without crying.  Definitely an improvement.  We are trying to introduce the 10 pm feeding; however, he will not wake up despite my efforts. Once he accepts the 10 pm feeding, I am hoping we are on the road to sleeping through the night.  Naps remain the same. He still takes four 30 minutes naps.  I cannot get him to sleep any longer despite efforts. Usually, there is one nap that may be 45 minutes but I do not know when that will be. I am just hoping that in the next month the duration of wake time and time between feedings lengthen.  He eats every 2 to 2.5 hours. Still the same as last month.

What has changed? He is definitely engaging with us more. He has begun to notice Tennyson and smile at her. She plays peek-a-boo with him, shares her “baby” (lovey), shows him toys, and gives lots of hugs, kisses, and pats. Such a good big sister.  He squeals and giggles. He is starting to bear weight on his legs and thinks it is a fun game.  He absolutely loves his bath. He loves looking in mirrors. He squealed out of delight when I finally faced him forward in the baby carrier the other day. He is starting to reach for and manipulate objects.  He is really trying hard to suck on his thumb. For two parents who did not take a pacifier or suck their thumb, we may end up with two thumb suckers.

Here are a few shots from his 3-month photo shoot by Lisa Slate Photography. She does a great job.

Some candid photos.

We are really starting to have a lot of fun.

Rock Box

A while back, I picked up this bookcase frame from the corner of Mrs Cheap’s yard. I just knew I could put it to some good use. Initially, I thought I would use it as a raised bed for herbs, but then I came up with a better idea. We laid weed fabric down, put the frame on top, and then poured in the pea gravel. We added some beach toys that I got on clearance. It even has a “bench” that she can sit on which I’m assuming was the molding for the top of the book case. Tennyson loves her rock box, and it was easy and inexpensive.

Welcome Fall

Uh-Oh

Tennyson accidentally fell in the tub a couple of weeks ago while I was getting Eliot ready for his bath. I left Tennyson in the bathroom with just a little water running so that she could fill her bucket up and then empty it. While changing Eliot, I heard her start whining and thought she had just dropped her bucket in the water and could not reach it. When I walked into the bathroom, this is what I found. Now, every night, while I bathe Eliot, she stands beside me exclaiming, “Whoa”.

Bling-Bling

Yes, she even asked for her coat.