Weeds

Weeds grow fast... as is Ellyotte Beall!

She turned 7 months on 21 February and must be going through a growth spurt because that baby is giving me a run for my money in the napping or, not napping, department.

Some facts about Miss EPB at 7 months: she weighs a solid 19 lbs. She's grown tremendously since she started eating solid foods. She also has 2 teeth! And there are several more coming in because sucking on a bottle is painful for her so she's preferring to eat more solids. Thus, more weight gain.

Ellyotte (on most normal days) gets up about 7:30 am. She then plays and goes back down for a nap about 9 or 9:30. Typically, she will take 3 naps: 2 short ones and 1 long nap. She goes to bed at 6:30 and will sleep all night most nights. But sometimes, she's up for a bottle about 3:30 or so. Then, she puts her paci back in her mouth, rolls back onto her belly and sleeps soundly.

Her hair is growing very long on top and the sides. It is hilarious because if we don't put it into a pigtail on top of her head, it will stand STRAIGHT UP!

She watches Noah constantly. They are so sweet together - she literally laughs uncontrollably at anything he does. They will eat lunch and dinner together and "talk."

She loves (well, we all know it is because her mommy loves) to have her toenails painted hot red :) They are so cute!

She eats a lot. She loves the baby Mum-Mums, wagon wheels, arrowroot cookies, and the organic cereal puffs. She's discovered that she likes yogurt and most baby foods. Ellyotte doesn't prefer green beans or sweet peas though so we stay away from those. She's also a fan of the yogurt melts - it is so cute to watch her self feed. She gets about 50% of it into her mouth and it is hilarious to see the mess she makes!

Ellyotte is a joy. She smiles constantly and is just the happiest little love. We are having a good time watching her grow.

From the Mouth of MY Babe

My sweet little boy has always been a talker. He's been babbling since he was about 6-7 months old. He is just like my grandfather he was named after: a preacher man from Ireland! Noah's got the "gift of gab," there is no doubt.

He is only 20 months old and can count to FIFTEEN! I am not kidding you: he has been counting for about a month and sometimes goes from 1-5 and then 7,9,10, but in the past week, he's learned to go all the way to 15. I am not exaggerating that - I will videotape it and let you guys see what a genius this kid is.

Here are some other wild words that are in his regular vocabulary:
- Helicopter (comes out hel, lel, lel...opter but you get the drift!)
- I hear airplane: I eah ahhh-paanne
- I yuv u, Mommy - melts my heart
- Jan-Jan, Graddy, Poppy, Grammy, Keddy, Papu: his grandparents, Aunt Kelly and his dog, Piper
- He loves to yell at horsies and airplanes flying overhead: "Come heuh now!"
- Shoes, juice, food, car, truck, BUS!, book, puppy, kitty-cat... he says so many words - I could go on and on.
- Tyrone, Melmo: he loves these two t.v. characters
- Nemo: comes out "Meemo" but we got him a Beta fish this week and he named it "Nemo"

He's been naming body parts for a while, mostly his privates! He's fascinated with his "tee-tee," "boobies," and "bum-bum." His new favorite game is to sneak up on me or Dan when we are changing and hit our "bum bums." A flattering picture but, hey, I am honest! He LOVES to do that.

And just today while at the Base Exchange and while we were waiting in line right in front of about 7 pilots, Noah reaches up from the cart, grabs my chest and YELLS "Mommy's boobies!" I WAS HORRIFIED. I whispered quickly in his ear that that was Mommy's private part and he should be quiet but the damage was done and my face turned scarlet. The pilots got a huge kick out of it!

This afternoon, he was being especially trying. He grabbed my water bottle, unscrewed it and ran into the middle of the living room where he dumped out the whole thing. The entire time I was yelling for him to stop but he defied me. So, I got up, spanked him and put him immediately into his crib for a "time out."

Right away, he threw his toys and blankets over the side of the crib and screamed bloody murder. After a few minutes when he'd calmed down a bit, I went back in and got into his face and asked him if he understood why he was in time out. He said "Mommy, Watee (water), Soddy (sorry)." So, I said "When Mommy says no, you are supposed to obey me." He responded with "Okay Mommmeeeee" and continued to sob. But we hugged, said we loved each other and he went and picked up his favorite toys, Tyrone and Elmo, and placed them back into his crib. Dr. Dobson would have been proud of me.

Ahh, my little talker: already embarrassing me!

School Days

Today our sweet boy started Mother's Day Out! What?! I can't believe it is that time already. He's growing sooo fast. But, we feel like this is the best thing for me and for Noah. He's such a social child so keeping him restricted in these walls and our backyard day in and day out not only makes him bored, but we both seem to wear on each other's nerves. He's only going for 2 days a week and it is a great Christian program that is clean, safe and fun for our little man. And even better, our next door neighbor is his teacher! Whoo hoo!

It was amazing to me how much I was able to get done between the hours of 9:00 am and 2:00 pm today. I cleaned, had my time with the Lord, continued to decorate our new home and was able to catch up on my preparation for the Political Science course I will be teaching this time next month online. I feel like a new woman - albeit a bit under the weather with a nasty cold.

It was so tough to drop Noah off for his first day; especially because I didn't go there with the intention of leaving him. We went to get him registered but since class began today and I desparately needed some "me" time, I decided at the last minute to leave him. He was so thrilled to get into his new class.... until he realized that I wasn't staying to play, too! All moms know what I am talking about when I say that the guilt that accompanies most things that you do as a parent was a tad overwhelming for me. We all question almost every decision or move we make as parents and I am wondering if that will ever stop!?

After dropping Noah off, I realized I had forgotten my cell phone in my diaper bag so I had to go BACK in after saying "goodbye" to Noah and the drama started all over again. He was being a Houdini - he actually hadrun between his teacher's legs to come find me when we ran into each other in the hall! It was pitiful.

While I still consider myself a "stay-at-home-mom," we had to do this for everyone's sake. Noah needs the social interaction with other kids his age (he's in a class of about 8-10 18 month olds), I need the time to focus on getting Dan ready to leave home for such a long road ahead of us and time to get myself organized for my class that I am going to teach starting this time next month. And I think BOTH Noah and I are going to need a break from each other twice a week once Dan has left home. So, while this was a hard day, it was a milestone that we inevitably had to cross over! And Noah was very ready to tell me all about his day at school when I picked him up this afternoon!

You know what they say about big feet....

.... long shoelaces! Haha, I had to throw that one in there.

I may allow my child to run around naked if he so chooses, and most days you can find him in a diaper and not much else (come on, he's a Hawaiian baby!) but one thing that can never be said about me is that I skimped on Noah's shoe selection. We should buy stock in Pedipeds and Robeez Tredz because I have bought him so many. Noah has about 3-4 pairs that he maybe wore once if at all. Talk about money down the drain...

In this last month alone, Noah went from a big foot to a gigantic foot for a 15 month old! Now, we expected that he'd have some big feet because Dan and my dad have size 14 feet, but we never thought they'd be so big so soon. Noah went from a good size 5 to a size 7 1/2 in a matter of weeks. That's the size many 3 year olds wear! Again, here is the reminder that he's only 15 months!

But you know what? Given what we were anticipating when I was pregnant with Noah (for those who didn't know, we had been told he had 2 clubbed feet but Noah was prayed for and was completely healed in utero. We had monthly ultrasounds and saw month after month that we would have a baby who would have to undergo casting and surgeries to correct the defect. Praise God he was healed!), I will gladly continue to buy him shoes because I rejoice in his perfect - and incredibly LARGE - feet.

(Check back in later tonight - I will post a photo of him kickin' it in his new shoes)