Friday, May 20, 2011

Happenings

Let's see what has happened in the last few weeks...

We celebrated my first Mother's Day, which was fantastic and filled with lots and lots of baby love.  Elliot ended up stealing my credit card and buying his Dad and I tickets to see Les Miserables, now hopefully he will pick up the phone and find himself a babysitter.  Elliot also started all his different therapies a couple of weeks ago, we think the PT, OT and DI are wonderful and full of good suggestions and advice.  Its nice to have different therapists perspectives, I'd rather just be Mom and not Elliot's therapist.

Elliot has totally discovered his neck muscles and his head, we thought he was in constant motion before, now he really is in CONSTANT motion.  The kid loves attempting to hold his head up.  He continues to look like a bobble head but he is trying so hard.  He focuses so much, that he drools.  Yes that's right Filson has taught Elliot how to drool with the best of them.  So now I have drool on my pants from Filson and on my shoulder from Elliot.  The PT has us trying all sorts of new things with Elliot.  We finally get to see him in his Bumbo seat, which is just hilarious and so cute.  His chunker thighs are so big that we have to squeeze him into it.  Yep that's right our 3 month old baby weighs a whooping 15lbs...hearty and healthy.

Drumroll please...after multiple weeks of thumb sucking, Elliot is finally able to find his thumb in the upright position.  This is very helpful in car rides and so far is only working in our favor.  He is favoring his left thumb and using his right hand to rub his shunt, odd but cute.  He is just starting to open his fist and grab at his toys and blankets now too.

I could continue to brag and ohh and ahh over all the happenings in this household but I'll spare you and let you enjoy our newest photos.

I'm 3 months old

Kissing my Elephant toy

Such a dude

Naked Baby

Kickin' it in his swing

Flying baby

Just chillin'

Baby Gap Model??

Loving on my Mama


Just like my daddy

Bumbo seat

Brothers

When you lift your head, its a whole new world out there

My heads weighing me down

Bathtime

Elliot exercising

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

We are totally obsessed parents

 

Elliot talking and smiling
 (It may take awhile to load, sorry)

 

Elliot working on his neck control



Sunday, May 1, 2011

We love Noodles & Company days!

So going back to work means two things, one,  I miss my little boy very much during they day and two, I don't have time to update the blog so I apologize to my avid followers, ha.  Let's back track a little...

My mom came out on the 16th and was Elliot's "nanny" for a week.  We got to celebrate her "29th" birthday and Elliot got lots of grandma time.  There is nothing like having my own Mommy in town to selfishly take care of me...oh yea and Elliot and Byron too, ha!  Needless to say it was sad to see her go.

Lucky for us, once one grandma leaves another one arrives.  Byron's mom and dad arrived just in time for Easter.  We have celebrated many Easters in Colorado, but this was the first with some family.  Poppy Straw (Byron's dad) got to meet his grandson for the first time as well.  Blair also came over and stuffed her face with the rest of us with Ham and Potatoes.  And now for the last week and the week to come Byron's mom has been Elliot's "nanny" as well.  Its wonderful that Elliot has had this time with his Grandma's to show off all his little tricks and put them under his grandson spell.

I'm back at work now, and although I do miss Elliot every drive to work, it does feel nice to see all my little kiddos again and get back into my routine.  However its a good thing I only have 4 weeks left because when I get home from work, I pretty much snuggle up with Elliot and crash!  We can't wait for summer.

On Friday we headed down to Children's for a regularly scheduled MRI and appointment with the Neurosurgeons.  Like usual, Elliot acted like an old pro with the MRI.  I'm always a nervous wreck and almost in tears seeing him go under the MRI machine and even though its only 2 minutes long I feel horrible that he has to go through it.  Even after 5 MRI's I'm still not used to it...but I'm not sure I want to get used to it...We then headed up to see Dr. O'Neill.  We got to look at Elliot's brain scans and the doc is still feeling good about his brain's progress and development.  Compared to his last scan there is about another 2 cm. of brain growth (now that is totally just my guess from what I saw on the images, but you can definitely tell more is there than a month ago).  Dr. O'Neill, isn't thrilled about the fluid around the shunt track, but at the same time because Elliot's brain is "sponging" back and because he is meeting his cognitive developmental milestones, he wants to leave it and hope that it fixes itself "soonish"(my words, not his).   He wants us to keep the bands on his head till our next appointment in 6 weeks...6 WEEKS! Sadly, I'm not sure I can wait that long for another update, but at the same time, how exciting that he is doing so well!  So once again Elliot has at least evaded another surgery for 6 more weeks.  We also discovered at this appointment that he weighs 14lbs 7oz (seriously quite a chunk!) After the appointment we got to indulge in more Noodles & Company which we always love!  Thank you Elliot!

Ok, so now we are caught up to today, May 1st...can you believe its already May 1st?  We had a great day, Elliot was baptized today.  He wore my baptism gown which my great grandmother made for my grandfather and has been worn by my whole family.  It was a lovely baptism with Byron's mom and our friend Chris as the Godfather.  Elliot slept through most of it and only let out a little peep when the priest poured the water on his head.  Considering the only family member we have out in Colorado is my sister Blair, our friends showed Elliot some love on his big day.

Enjoy the photos!

Watchin' a little tv with mama

Future Farmer of America

Snuggling with mama after work

Elliot and Poppy



Elliot in his smoking jacket

Family Photo

Auntie Blair

Baptism Crew

Hangin' with Mom and Dad

Elliot doing the "cabbage patch"

Bath time with Grandma

After work snuggles

Gram and Poppy

Three Generations of Straws

 
Group shot at the Baptism

 
Me and my mom at my baptism