Little Straws

Oh it’s been too long but we have been a busy little family. I’m sure I will leave things out in this update but it’s hard to remember what I had for lunch today let alone 6 weeks ago. No big doctor’s appointments since his birthday, just a few helmet adjustments and scans to monitor his head’s progress. His last scan showed the Elliot's head is making positive progress so at this point he will be scanned again in May and we will look to see if he is continuing to progress or plateau-ing in his progress, then it will be decided how much longer he needs the helmet.

So, no big doctor’s appointments but lots of pediatrician appointments due to a yucky lingering cold that eventually turned into a double ear infection, poor little guy, but after a round of antibiotics he was on his way to feeling MUCH MUCH better…until we noticed all 4 of his one-year molars are coming in, haha, he just can’t win.

We were able to fly to Cincinnati over our spring break this past week to visit with my family and many many friends and fan’s of Elliot. My mom had a little or I guess I should say big Open House for people to finally come and get to meet Elliot. It was a lot of fun showing him off and Elliot performed well…While home, we ate lots of Skyline Chili, Zips, Montgomery Inn Ribs and UDF Ice Cream and now that we are back home we are feeling like we made a lot of bad choices, haha. Elliot had lots of fun with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Kendall and Daddy and Mommy had lots of fun not changing a diaper for the past 6 days. He even got to go to the Children’s Museum with his Cincy buddy Jackson! Elliot also got to finally meet his Grantie (great aunt) Peej! We had a great trip, too short as usual but lots of fun. We also had a lovely flight home….NOT. We had a 4 hour delay in Indy and finally got home at 3am. However, Elliot in true Elliot form made the best of the situation and survived his first red eye to the best of his ability. We are just thankful to be back home and not still in Indy!

Elliot has been a lot of fun this past month and is growing and doing new tricks everyday. He is babbling up a storm and calling us mama and dada more often now...but he still loves the word no. He says forms of ball, bath, more, milk, up, filson, doggie, truck, car, shoe, sock and probably lots more. It's fun to see how much he understands now too and he how defiant he is becoming about certain things. He is still crawling everywhere, but cruising all around our furniture and getting a little gutsier and trying so hard to stand alone. He is so much fun.

Our last weekend before heading back to work tomorrow was spent playing outside in the beautiful 75 degree weather and really getting excited about Summer Break!

Life is good with a ball in one hand, Curious George on TV and a truck

Cowboy

So excited that he can crawl to Filson's toys, Filson is thrilled too!

Sweaty head from his helmet and this is what he does to a PB&J sandwich, lovely...

Ahhh and now the food and water bowls

Elliot now wants to feed himself and this is how he eats his applesauce

Fun new tunnel

Who dresses this poor child?

Sleepy boy snuggled up to his toys

Auntie Kendall and Ehmil

Loving life

Always happy when he has his cups

Little snack at Ault Park

Visiting Mommy and Daddy's wedding reception site

Enjoying his first taste of Skyline Chili

...and the aftermath...

Short visit with GG

Bath time with Grandma

This was my old high chair, haha, archaic

Kai really isn't this ferocious, Elliot had a blast crawling after him all week

Ohio family photo

Loving Grandma and Grandpa

Happy Boy

Missing Chris, Marissa, Max and Ehmil...but the closest thing to a full family photo

Grantie Peej got to meet Elliot

Playing cars with Stan

All snuggled up with Pam

Playtime with Jackson

The kids

She loves me!

Fun at the Children's Museum


Thank you Auntie Kendall for going to the Museum with me Not professional shots but some I took today for comparison

Whoa, whoa, whoa, life needs to slow down...did Elliot really just turn 1?

I need to start by apologizing to the moms out there that I have made fun of in the past. I have ALWAYS thought it was so cheesy when moms would write their one year old a letter about their little ones first year and get real sentimental...well although I haven't gone the letter route, it definitely crossed my mind this past week. And who am I to talk I put the chees in cheesy in this blog. Even driving home from work yesterday I got a little teary eyed just thinking how far our little family has come this past year.

I personally, like I have mentioned earlier, dreaded that Friday we found out the news about Elliot...we now call it "black Friday" and I have to say that this "black Friday" we survived! The only surprise we had was that I had a snow day and had the day off to spend with Elliot. At about 10pm that night, Byron and I both looked at each other and just smiled, thinking, wow we made it and it was a normal day just like any other. Then on Saturday, February 4th we decided to have a Birthday party for Elliot to continue with making new, better memories for that weekend. We celebrated with friends and family and had such a good time. Elliot had a Cookie Monster cupcake cake that he gobbled up once he realized how delicious sugar was and while everyone was signing "Happy Birthday" to him I almost broke into tears, but held it together so I didn't look like a lunatic a child's party, haha. It was a good time had by all, especially Elliot!

Despite fighting a nasty virus for the past week and his mother freaking out about it and taking him to the doctor twice he is hanging in there and growing everyday. He is getting better and better with pulling himself up and even mastered pulling himself to stand in his crib. Needless to say, Byron had to lower his crib to the lowest setting so I could calm down and not have a coronary about him falling out of the crib.

So, today is the day that our baby was born at 8:03am. Since we had to take him to Children's for an appointment...yes we have totally gone full circle and the poor child has to go back to where he started a year ago, ha, we decided to make a day of it with a family trip to the Denver Aquarium before his appointment. We showed up at the Aquarium at the same time as probably 50 preschool kiddos...it was a tad CRAZY. We made our way through the masses, had an early lunch and then went back through later and it was just us, the fish and a bunch of senior citizen (it was like a nursing home had a field trip). We then headed to Children's. We were early so we decided to take a visit to the NICU and see if our favorite nurses Sarah and Morgan were working and oddly enough, they were both working and they were joking that they were in the same pod that Elliot was in when they were both his nurses last year. It was so fun to show Elliot off to them and of course they are both super cute so he flirted away.

His appointment went well, no new surprises. The abscesses were evaluated and they could still happen for the next month, but no big deal, it seems so small when compared to everything else. They took some new photos that we should be able to see by next week and that will determine how much longer they think he should wear the helmet. We brought cupcakes to all the doctors, nurses and receptionist in the neurosurgery clinic and they smothered Elliot in gifts too. Brooke the craniofacial surgeon and her nurse Maureen gave Elliot a GIGANTIC stuffed bear that is about 5 times the size of him. The receptionist gave him another bear and our favorite Nurse Jane gave him a beanie baby...like the child needed more toys, haha. Elliot had such a long day with only a 15 minute nap and he really held it together through his appointment and let everyone poke and prod him head. He even pulled out all the tricks and showed them all his new moves.

Byron and I couldn't be proud of this child and I think we were beaming from ear to ear all day just thinking wow we made it! So here's to a BORING, NORMAL 2nd year!