the below photos

to explain some of the photos below, they are from some sunny days in Grosse Pointe, out at a restaurant for lunch after the March for Babies walk, a crazy international grocery that had so much I'd never even heard of before, and the last 2 photos are from our March walk that took place on a 3 mile loop along the lake shore in a park in St Clair Shores.  I'd love to come back there more often because it's only 20 minutes north of our house and there is so much to do on the little park that is surrounded by Lake St Clair and a canal with waterfront houses all along it.  I hear it gets pretty busy there in the summer!  There was even a pool with slide and alot of kids stuff to do there.

Baby slept the whole time we were at the walk, which was great for us because he was happy and alert for lunch after.  I'm becoming much more involved in my moms club as well as with some other women in the area and my weekend was full of moms/babies get togethers and my upcoming week has a nice schedule as well with a few walking groups and hosting a playdate at our house.

Weekend

A mix of sunny and rainy this weekend but we did alot of fun things! Details later but phone pictures for now

Alone

Home alone, as usual, and on a Friday night. I'm home alone all day every day and on a Friday when I'm supposed to be getting help earlier than the rest of the week, of course I'm sitting here all by myself talking to no one with a screaming baby upstairs and tired of trying to think of one more thing to entertain him with to pass the time. I feel like I'm doing this completely on my own.

Lately

Sneaking in moments during the nicer weather around here

Hipster baby

From scabib.etsy.com

Holding his breath

Lately he's been holding his breath and making a drawn out grunting noise when he's frustrated, or he will make this moan sound with his mouth shut.  Jared and I have both agreed this sound is more annoying than regular crying - we'll even take shrieking over it!  Oh well, hopefully he grows out of it.  I'm just trying not to encourage it by responding when he does it because it seems like he is doing it more and more.

Dada?

I think his first "words" are officially RaRa and DaDa.  As of a few days ago he is talking up a storm.  He looks and sounds very emphatic when he does it!

Below is a video of him babbling - we were able to have a pretty easy lunch even though he was tired because I turned the highchair facing the window and it entertained him for the majority of the lunch.

^^ At Vinsetta Garage for lunch after the zoo^^

Last week was my first week without class and Jared's first non-tax season week.  It was a busy one!  I went to several Mom's Club events including the business social, the coffee club, and a playdate with some other babies 7-9 months old.  I've been making a conscious effort to try to get him lots of friends to play with because he is so excited about other babies these days.  We also went to the zoo again over the weekend with some friends and snuck in a baby-free date the day after tax day.

It has been pretty cold and rainy but it's finally perking up here and I foresee lots of afternoons in the park for me and him!

^^at the Detroit zoo in the Arctic tunnel (He loved the shadows)^^

I spy a tooth!

Teething has officially begun!

If I ever thought he might have been teething in the past, I was wrong.  I can now see the gums are visibly bumpy/lumpy and the lower right front tooth is going to be the first to pop through I think.  I can actually see it raised up out of the gum, but there is still tissue over it, so it hasn't technically come through yet.  He has been moaning and crying throughout the night the past handful of nights, even with medicine and nursing throughout the night.  I may start co-sleeping with him because then I don't have to keep going down the stairs to get him out of his crib to nurse, which seems to be the only thing to pacify him for a few hours.  He will wake every hour or two it seems, and he will be crying pretty loudly.  He is also usually our happy morning baby who talks and plays for a bit before getting louder in his crib.  But lately because of the pain he wakes up super early (5:30 am anyone?) and is instantly upset and crying hard.  He is obviously in pain.  Any fussiness he had before that made me wonder if he was teething was simply fussiness because I can see a big difference in his behavior now versus all the other times.

Jared's a little sad that his baby is going to have teeth - he liked the gummy smiles.  I think they will look cute!  But only a couple.  After that I think I'll feel like it's "all over" and he's too grown up!

9 months

Elliott had his appointment :

19 lbs, 28(I think?) inches, and he is ever so slightly anemic.  

The oatmeal fortified cereal I feed him every morning should be enough but he was premature and he will catch up on his iron levels eventually.  Nothing to be too concerned about.

He doesn't crawl or pull up still, but he is getting noticeably better every day/week.  Any day now.  I left him with his toys sitting downstairs and I was only gone maybe 1 minute but when I came back he was in another spot trying to pull up on his play table.  The days of leaving him unattended sitting down were short and are now over!

Still no teeth but definite pale white areas under his gums and the Dr said any day now for that as well

Photo bomb to follow...some of these are from last month but I have so many cameras now that it takes awhile for me to get around to uploading from all 3 of them

 

 Elliott having a meeting with his friends bunny and larry

 

 This is what happens when Boy-With-Allergies sneezes.  Evvvvery time.

 Tasty cheek??

Hair documenting

Playdate with Bryn

How rude Elliott!

Happy Easter!

More attempts at gum pictures

Trying to pull up