8 months old today!!

Well hello there!!

This past week and a half seems to have flown bye for some reason. We haven't been doing much, just day to day things. First of all how did 8 months go bye so quickly? I still can't get over it, but it sure has been a blast! Eli keeps making us laugh and smile more and more each day. I never thought being a parent would be this fun. You just don't know until you have your very own!

On the development front Eli is right on track, doing all the things he should be along with a few extra's. He hasn't quite crawled to the point where we need to baby proof everything but we know that day is right around the corner. We are slowly starting to baby proof the house this next week. I wish I had some current stat's on Eli but that won't be until his 9 month appointment. I do know he weighs in at 18lbs. 2 ounces as of this morning at 1:30am. You might ask why do I know that?

Well... we had to take Eli to the ER because he was wheezing quite a bit. (insert of Eli's "oh no" reaction...)

At first when I got home from work yesterday his breathing sounded really labored but he was in good spirits mostly. We decided to keep an eye on this, but that is just down right terrifying. We couldn't stop being worried about it and when I put Eli down to sleep at 7:30 his little chest kept going up and down allot when he breathed. We thought this could be asthma symptoms or a the start of a bad cold but we were not sure. By 11:30pm he hadn't improved much and we went to the ER with him. They put him on a nebulizer and it helped tremendously, we also came home with an inhaler. The doctor was not convinced this was allergies or asthma, he did think it was the start of a cold. In the end we did the right thing and when we got home we felt much more at ease and Eli could breathe so much better.

On a brighter note....last weekend we met up with my freshman year college roommate and her family. Good old Facebook reunited us. I haven't seen Melissa since we graduated college, life got busy for both of us I guess... Well I take that back - life got super busy for Melissa. After graduating college she got married right away and had 4 children with her husband! They range from 19 months old to 5 years old. Her kiddies are so cute and very well behaved, it was a fun play date. Eli felt like he was in daycare all over again at her house, he was mesmerized with all the kids and what they were doing. He just can't wait to be able to run around and play, you can just see it in his eyes.

So I promised a tooth picture last time I blogged. That stupid tooth has caused not only many sleepless nights but it doesn't like to be pictured! This is the best I could do. The closer I got to the dam tooth the picture got really blurry... All I know is that after all the discomfort Eli was in and the rough nights we had we only got one stupid tooth?? WTH!

Today we have one of my best friends engagement party this evening back home in Milford. It should be a fun time. Eli will be at my mom's house for the night and so will we after the party is over. This will be Eli's first sleepover at Grandma Neyda's house! I am sure my mom will love seeing Eli bright and early tomorrow morning :)

Here is a picture from bath time this week! I got Eli smiling at just the right time!

Have a great weekend!

Photoshoots & Race Registration

Well hello!! Over here on our end has been sorta quite I guess. Nothing too crazy other than normal baby stuff. Eli is still figuring out how to crawl more effectively each day. He is getting so mobile that I had my first scare yesterday morning. He was on our bed in the center while I was getting ready for work with pillows lined up on the sides of him. I turned around for a quick second and he had made it all the way to the end of the bed where I didn't have pillows and almost fell right off. Luckily we have a bench at the end of our bed that is cushioned but even so I freaked out and got over there SO fast, I was terrified. Having said that Eli is not allowed on the bed anymore for any reason unless we are on the bed with him!! So much for him being completely entertained on the bed while I blow dry my hair in the morning.....things just got a little more interesting that's all!

After Eli's ear infection cleared up just over a week ago we had a few rough nights due to teething. Really, timing couldn't be worse. The poor kid wasn't sleeping well due to the ear infection and then this. Thankfully the tooth came through after just a few rough nights. I know it is all a matter of time before the next tooth pops out and we go through it all over but the last 2 nights have been lovely. He slept from 7:30-5:15am and that is a full night for our little guy so that is all I can ask for! I can't wait to post a picture of his first tooth but right now it is just out of the gum and not high enough to really get a good picture. Ahhh...the things that fascinate me now! hahah....

On the running front - I am signing up for the Amica Iron Horse 1/2 Marathon this week! I am very excited about it. I have been thinking about running it but now I am committed which is even better. Also, I have a running partner! I recruited my friend Traci, the race is June 6th. It is a perfect amount of time for us train for it and to get my mileage up. Having Traci to do training runs with is great and I think will be better for me. When I really think about it, it's not so much the motivation that I need it is more the time. I would love to keep running lots of times but I have to cut it short because I need to get back to Eli. Having a running partner helps me section off time better I guess.

Also, I have begun to multi-task more by running with Eli in the Bob stroller to daycare! The total mileage is 3.6 miles RT . The weather in the morning is a bit cool right now so it is a judgement call in the morning. I don't want to be running Eli out there in the cold or rain, but every opportunity when the weather is at least 55 degrees & somewhat sunny I am out there with him. Eli goes to daycare 3 days a week so this gives me a good opportunity to get in some added extra workouts that are desperately needed!

Oh yeah....
I realized when we had Eli's christening that I never got a good picture of just him in his outfit. I felt like I really needed a good picture of this & his first Easter outfit for memories down the road. I scheduled an appointment to get professional pictures done of him but we missed it due to his ear infection. While Adam was out golfing this Sunday, I took matters into my own hands. Since it was sunny and gorgeous outdoors I set up my own little photo shoot area on our lawn. Here are some pictures below from our session, Eli did pretty well with the photo shoot for the most part (except he would not let me put on his khaki's that went with his Easter outfit) but it did end up in a quick meltdown. Don't they always?

Easter Weekend & Gorgeous Weather!!

This weekend was so much fun, the weather made it so great! Good Friday I had off from work and took Eli out for a play date with my friend Sylvia & her son Jack. We met at the bike path to go walking with the babies, it was so nice to be outdoors. Then we grilled outdoors at our friend Rob's house in the evening and Eli just hung out while we enjoyed being outdoors. Saturday morning, we took a family scenic ride out to Simsbury to go to an estate sale but it ended up being a dud....oh well! Then we got some really yummy coffee at a place in Avon that is also an antiques shop. It was very nice, and since we were in the neighborhood we stopped over Sylv's house. Jack was all excited to play with Eli that he screamed in Eli's face & Eli started to cry! hahah.....These boys better get on the same playing field fast, we are all going away to Cape Cod this summer for a vacation!

Sunday we started Easter off by going to church with Adam's mom & grandmother, it was really nice to see them because after church we headed over to Milford to be with my family for the day. Here is a picture of the 4 generations!


Eli in his handsome Easter outfit from Aunt Tammy just before leaving the house

On the deck Saturday enjoying the sun
Eli playing with his Easter toy from Meme', it is so cute! I am starting to think I get a kick out of this more than Eli :)


Here are some bath time pics....haven't posted a bath time pic in a while

Eli's first real attempt at crawling!

Play time before bed with Mommy & Daddy :) On the camera I couldn't see the long piece of drool!

Eli's first attempts at crawling, he is moving but the poor kid is going to get a rug burn! hahaha...


Our little guy posing, I need to get a picture of me as a baby up here, I feel like Eli is in a stage where he looks like me :)

*Update* Eli was given a stronger prescription on Monday at the doctors again because he had gotten worse and THANK GOD it has made such a huge improvement! He is drinking his bottle much more and seems much more comfortable!

One Sleep Deprived Post

Well hello....

Poor little Eli has an ear infection & is teething. Needless to say, the past 5 days in our household have been rough. He is super happy or really cranky and barely drinks his bottle. We are doing our best with offering the bottle as much as possible; and luckily he does eat his solids decently.

This is the first time we have to have him on antibiotics and we are giving him Infant Mortin to keep him comfortable. I feel so bad for the little guy. He falls asleep at night for a few hours then is up for most of the night in pain. We have caved and brought him into our bed 2 nights in a row. We prop him up on pillows so that he can fall asleep sitting upright to alleviate the pressure on his ears. It isn't real sleep for us because one arm is around him but at least it is rest I guess.

Anyways, today we were back at the doctor’s office for a stronger prescription. The script we got from Friday's visit just wasn't cutting it. We hope to see more of an improvement over the next few days.

Today is a fresh start I hope :)

On another note, the very last post I was bragging about Eli sleeping through the night finally and look how quickly things changed! These babies.....really just when you think you have them figured out they switch it all up on you or they get sick!

7 months today!!

Our little man turned 7 months today! Everyday is just more fun than the last with him, we love to watch him discover new things and see him grow so strong. Sitting up & rolling over is old news these days for him! haha...He is now focused on trying to crawl, he leans over from his "tripod" seated position and gets onto his belly now. He picks up his knees and pull them in but hasn't really had much forward movement where he connects everything together. I am sure that will all come very soon!

Teething is still going on and we can't wait for a dam tooth to pop through finally. Sometimes Eli goes from completely happy to fussy and gumming everything he can. I just feel bad for him!

On the sleeping front - Eli has slept the night now for the past week. Even with all the extra mucus production going on with the teething and him coughing at night he is going through the night! We stopped doing the "dreamfeed" a week ago and it worked. He doesn't wake at the 10:00-10:30 time frame for a bottle anymore and he goes from 7:30-6am now. That is a HUGE improvement and makes mommy & daddy very happy!!



Everything we have tried for baby food Eli loves. He still isn't a huge bottle drinker though. We have to really be careful and balance his solids intake with his bottle of formula because he would much rather have solids and not finish his bottle. That is a frustrating at times because I always worry about dehydration. We have begun to train him to hold a sippy cup over this past month more but he still doesn't do it that great. I have trouble working on this as much as I would want to with him because I don't want him to fill up on water out of his sippy cup when he really should be drinking more formula than he currently does.

Here is Eli in the baby carrier, he is getting so big compared to how I used to have to carry him in this! He loves to see everything and observe things right now so he really enjoys being put in this while I am walking around the house trying to get things done!

Saturday morning fun with Daddy....

A Very Special Weekend

Best godparents ever!! Auntie Tammy & Uncle Tommy

Adam's family
My family


This past weekend was Eli's Christening and he did great! We couldn't get over how quite & observant he was during the ceremony. It was so funny to watch him listening so closely to the Priest almost like "Yup, I got it, keep my butt in line...!" I have to admit I did practice with Eli by taking the shower head to his face & head at the end of his bath for the week preceding this ceremony. I figured I would get him used to having water splashed in his face so maybe he wouldn't cry. I would like to think it worked :)

My sister Tammy & Adam's brother Tommy are Eli's god parents and we are so lucky to have them in our lives. Eli is surrounded by a very loving family, on Sunday we celebrated all together with a luncheon in the church hall after the ceremony. The day was a success thanks to our helpful family. It was so nice of everyone to contribute in all forms - cooking/cleaning/and helping with packing up the cars at the end of the reception.

A very special thanks to those who traveled all the way to CT for Elias's big day. It was greatly appreciated and we loved having your company.

Here are some more pictures from yesterday, enjoy!

What Eli does when Uconn looses

The good old Uconn Men's Basketball team are sucking it up hardcore this year and this is all Eli has to say about that.....

Here he is once he got out all his frustration, what a cutie pie :)

6 month stats

We just got back from Eli's 6 month appointment today.

Here are his stats:

16 lbs 9 oz. (35-40th percentile )
28 inches long (90th percentile)
44 head circumphrance (50th percentile)


This boy sure doesn't get his height from his mommy that is for sure!
I am a whole 5ft 2 inches with my shoes on so thankfully Eli has inherited his height from Adam's side!

The doctor said Eli has allot of muscle tone and is very strong. He said this at our 4 month appt. and again now & I am just getting more scared that I will have an early walker ! YIKES. That is just payback coming at me....my mom said I never walked I just ran. Adam and I will have to be on top of our game once our little guy becomes more mobile. So far he is attempting to crawl, he keeps getting his knees up underneath him but no forward movement just yet.

Here are some pictures from today at home. Hope everyone is enjoying this warmer weather we have been having in CT lately. I can't wait for spring and to be outdoors with Eli!


This is my old Grover stuffed animal I ADORED growing up, it was my favorite so I love that Eli is now enjoying him too :) Poor Grover has seen better days but he cleaned up pretty nicely on the delicate cycle so Eli has been having fun with him now. My mother had to sew back on Grover's leg (not sure how it fell off) but for some reason his leg never went back on straight so he is pigeoned toed on his right leg. Oh yeah and I dropped his leg in a candle growing up (yeah I know real safe right?) so one of his feet has candle wax that hardened over the years and I have been able to chip off, still his foot has never been the same. hahaha..



Loving all my toys!

Officially 6 months old! (well yesterday...)

Elias is officially 6 months as of yesterday! Next week is his appointment so we will have to wait until then to get the official stats to report for you all. I am going to cringe when he gets his shots as I always do but I am excited for this appointment.

Here is Eli playing with his new favorite toy, he loves to sit up on the floor (with the slight assistance of a boppy pillow) and stack these up as well as put them in his mouth.



Clowning around....


HUGE present for Mommy & Daddy!


Look how happy it makes him. This kid is too much. If you notice he has poop creeping out the side of his upper thigh! hahaha...


Sorry for the last 2 pictures if they grossed you all out. I figured as cute at this little bugger is the world must know what gross things he produces!

Shopping & a quick trip to NYC

On Friday night into Saturday morning, Adam came down with a nasty bug that has been going around so Saturday I decided to run all my errands with Eli in tow. I figured us being out of the house was a much better idea than keeping Eli home with a puking Daddy.

Here is Eli in his stroller, he doesn't look overly happy in this picture but I can assure you he does love being pushed in the stroller and all the old ladies going crazy over him!



My to-do-list on Saturday was pretty agressive for bringing a baby along but I figured this was still my best option. Here were all the things I needed to do & actually completed. I was so happy with Eli, he did awesome :)

1. Visit Fleet Feet to sign up for the 1/2 marathon training group runs.
2. Go to Play It Again Sports - Adam is looking for a free weight set starting at 25lbs and up, I figured I would pop in and see if they had any with the rack, no luck.
3. Drive over to the West Farms Mall for Eli's Christening outfit
4. Visit J.Crew & Ann Taylor Loft with my gift cards :)
5. Pick up my free bag of Moose Munch from Harry & David with my certificate from spending so much $ there this past Christmas, YUM
6. Stroll through Pottery Barn just because I love that store

So overall my Saturday with Eli was a success. We had to take a 15 minute break for Eli's bottle but other than that he was so content in his stroller with his little piggy stuffed animal & looking all around. He seemes to really love this new perspective as opposed to being strapped into the infant carrier.


Sunday I went to Brooklyn, NY to visit my grandparents & Dad. I left Eli with Adam since he was on the mend. It would be just too much for me to handle without Adam. Plus, we are dog sitting right now so Adam kind of had to stay home anyways. Overall, it was a good traveling day- nice & sunny out and not too cold. The ride down took 2hrs and back in the evening about 2 1/2 hrs due to traffic. I was home by 7:15pm and tired, we also went to church in the morning before I left for NY so it was a full day.

Here is Eli sporting his zip up sweatshirt from Alaska. Our friends Sue & Rob went their for their honeymoon last June and brought this back for Eli. Thanks guys!

Family trip to Cabella's!

Saturday we woke up early (we don't have an option anymore but hey at least the little guy is cute....) and got some things done around the house then headed off to Cabella's in the mid afternoon. It was my first time going & Eli's 2nd time. Adam took Eli with him there when Eli was about 2 months old. Cabella's is Adam's all time favorite store and it was a pretty fun experience for me I have to admit. The store is quite fun for little kiddies with all the animals and the aquarium. I imagine that Eli will really enjoy going there with Dad when he is bigger for sure. Here are some pics from our trip!



In the evening we had our friends Chrissy & Ben over for dinner and it was a great time. Eli couldn't play much with their daughter because of the age gap right now and he isn't mobile just yet. As soon as he can walk he will be able to interact more with Charlotte. I still can't get over how fast Eli has developed already - he is starting to sit up on his own now more and more. He is getting stronger with so many things it seems. Pretty soon he will be able to fly solo with sitting up on his own where we feel confident that he won't timber over!

Today we had a very mellow Valentine's day. We really celebrated V-day on Friday night. We had Adam's cousin Kayla babysit Eli and we went out for a great dinner at Bricco's in W.Hartford. It was soooo yummy! I love going out for a really good meal. The funniest part of the night was that we were done with dinner at 8:30pm and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. We picked up Eli around 9:30 or so & as we were driving home from W.Hartford I commented on how just a few short years ago we were just leaving the house at 9:30pm to go out!

Which leads me into our adventures from today. We decided on going out for a low key lunch/early dinner at a Pavillion pizza near our home. Except this time, it would be our first time taking Eli out to a restaurant by ourselves. Right now Eli is on the brink of coming out of the infant carrier system and into a convertible car seat. He is really uncomfortable in the carrier so when we got to the restaurant we put him in the high chair for the first time. Since he is in that in-between stage we had to stuff a baby blanket behind him to prop him up. Overall he was very happy and cooperated nicely (it is a good thing we called in our meal before we got there, it was ready when we got there).

After our big trip to the pizza restaurant we went to Ocean State Job Lot! hahaha...too funny. What a difference a year makes, last year we were at Cugino's restaurant in Farmington enjoying a fancy shmancy Italian dinner & today we were excited to have conquered our first outing to a pizza restaurant with a baby!

So overall, this weekend was really nice over here. And what is even better is that there is no work for me tomorrow! Yippie!!

Hope you all enjoy your long weekend :)

HA

I am not sure if I have shared with you all my small obsession with keeping my home/car tidy and clean at all times. Most of you know but basically, I don't let things pile up when it comes to mail, coffee cups in my car & genereal areas of our home. I am also pretty good with cleaning my home on a schedule as best as I can so that I am never really heavy duty cleaning get what I mean?

Well today I was on good old Martha Stewart's website (which I frequent when I am planning an event/party or having people over for dinner) and even I got a good chuckle out of a cleaning article. I stumbled across this "weekly" cleaning checklist that even I (a.k.a. "Monica" from the show Friends according to my sister) had to laugh at. I mean really who has the time to dust the tops and spines of books on shelves? HA....for more entertianment feel free to read the rest of her list!

http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2009Q3/ms_checklist_weeklyclean.pdf

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was pretty low key with exception to Super Bowl Sunday. Friday night Adam's cousin Matt & his wife Val (who is preggers) came over and we hung out & made homemade BBQ chicken pizza for dinner.
Sunday we went over to our friends house for a super bowl party and it was a good time. Adam received his winning from the fantasy football league and his trophy. He was very excited about that. I also won $25 from my square picks for the last quarter of the game, yippee!! I never get lucky with gambling it seems!

Today I am working from home and waiting for my work PC to be back up and running so I figured I would squeeze in a blog entry. I plan on getting on the treadmill at lunch time, which I so desperately need after all the super bowl treats I ate yesterday.....

Here are some pictures from this weekend... Enjoy :)


It is so nice that the past few weeks Eli has grown to enjoy tummy time. I thought for sure we were going to have a child that only screamed when placed on his belly!


Eli feeding himself some multi-grain cereal, the process was quite messy but I had time on my hands to let him try it out. Eli loved playing with the dipper, I figured I would try it out since he keeps reaching for the spoon when we feed him.

Adam favorite feeding position when giving Eli a bottle. Although not the "recomended" position I am sure - but it does limit Eli's ability to stare at the dog or watch the cat walking past him or any other distraction he seeems to find!

Our little guy 6am Sunday morning. He makes it so hard to upset & cranky when you see him so happy that early in the morning!