Roseola and a First Tooth

Elliot had a super high fever all weekend, and then Monday morning, the tell-tale rash appeared on his belly: Roseola!

Thank goodness that's all it was. Tuesday, it was fading from his belly and spreading onto his back. Wednesday, it was fading from his back and spreading up the sides of his cheeks / under his ears, and down the front of his legs. Today, it's mostly gone.

Tuesday, he cut his first tooth - bottom right. He must have been so miserable all weekend with fever AND the tooth coming in.

(You can hardly see the tooth I circled, but believe me, it's there!)

Funny how his sister is losing teeth, and he's finding them!

He's eating like an old pro now, and my babyfood-making affinity is in full swing. I'm trying to stuff him full to make up for all the time he lost - and he's happy to oblige. His 9-month visit is fast-approaching and I'm hoping for some improvement on the ol' growth curve. When you're already in the 1st percentile, there's literally no where to go but up, right?

Elliot Eating, Part Two

So in just a matter of weeks, Elliot has gone from gagging on food so strongly he throws up, to begging for the food to be put in his mouth faster! It's been an amazing transformation.

Once the gag reflex subsided, he started accepting a wider variety of foods and will now pretty much eat anything we put in his big gaping maw. I've even started adding formula to some of his more liquidy foods in hopes that he'll get used to the flavor and take a bottle or two this weekend for Ryan while I'm away at the church's women's retreat. (Not sure I'll have enough milk pumped to last him the whole weekend, but I'm working on it!)

Just a week ago, he started wanting to eat more but still didn't have the mechanics of it down. He was so used to me putting bits of crumbled food like bread on his outstretched tongue, that every time I tried to get a spoon in there, his eager tongue would inadvertently push it out of the way. Today, after practicing a few times daily for a week, there is no tongue fighting my spoon and feeding him is a much simpler process. He will happily scarf down three meals a day.

Now all of a sudden, the big question isn't, "When will he start eating and growing?" but, "Whoops - he wants to eat all the time and we don't have anything to feed him!" So this morning while Jacob was at preschool, me and the girls took him to Pathmark for groceries to make baby food.

*Tangent: Three kids at the grocery store is immeasurably better than four. I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking it has something to do with a heaping dose of perspective... and only one kid walking around freely. End tangent.*

Now his daddy won't have any trouble figuring out what to feed him while I'm away - worrying about him refusing to take a bottle will be enough trouble!

All of Our Ducks in a Row

This weekend, we went for a family bike ride. Lily and Jacob did pretty well following along, sandwiched in between me and Ryan. Sam and Elliot shared the trailer behind Ryan's bike, which was super cute.

We spent a lot of time stopping and reinforcing the rules of the road...because carefully riding your bike - with both the steering and the braking - AND staying on the side of the road AND going the same speed as the person in front of you were too many steps to remember all at once and needed lots of repeating. I think with more practice, they'll do a great job.

At one point, the road angled downhill and Lily's bike was going too fast for her to control and her feet slipped off the pedals, which were still spinning without her so she couldn't get her feet back on them, and she ended up veering across the road and crashing into a neighbor's curb, falling sideways onto their lawn. She wasn't hurt, but as it was her first crash, she was pretty shaken up. We praised her for falling onto the grass instead of the asphalt (not sure how intentional that was, but still), and after walking her bike down the rest of the steeper part, she got back on and rode the rest of the way home.

I'm looking forward to many more bike rides this Spring and Summer! It feels like forever since we've had a summer where I haven't been pregnant and have been able to participate in family activities like this with the kids.

The Best Way to Travel

Jacob's a wonderful big brother and really, really can't wait for Elliot to grow up and build ramps and play trains and ride bikes. Until then, I guess they'll find their own creative ways to do boy stuff together :)

Spring Has Sprung

Goodbye, Blues

Sam had another one of her random fevers last week - we're sooooo glad it's gone and my happy, silly, stubborn, chatty, affectionate girl is back!

Sittin' Around

Elliot started crawling so quickly at 7 months (seriously, like a couple days of practice and then he was off! haven't seen him since!) that he never really took the time to master the art of sitting unassisted. Who has time to sit when you can CRAWL?! Places to go, things to do. Within the last few days, I've actually wondered if he COULD in fact sit without any help, because I'd never actually seen him do it.

Until today.

All of a sudden, he was like, oh cool, here's something else I can do while I'm down here if I don't feel like going anywhere but don't want to lay down. And he sat there on the carpet chewing on a [closed] marker for like 15 minutes. So, um, ok...guess that answers that!

Should I also mention that just a week or two after he started crawling, he discovered the art of pulling up (and letting go)(and falling over)?

Resurrection Day

Yesterday was a memorable Easter - Jacob asked Jesus into his heart!!