Turtle Monkey

Elias took a few steps between me and Mark tonight! I’m so glad Mark was able to see him take his first steps (even if he isn’t truly walking yet) before we left for Maryland. I have a feeling Elias is going to get the hang of walking while we’re up there. We leave tomorrow night. I really hope the drive goes well.

I’m going to take a lot of pics and hopefully videos while I’m up there, so expect a big update in a little over a week!

There are several new photos on Flickr starting here.

Last Christmas, Mark and I got this little fabric play yard thing for Elias which he never really cared for. Several months after that, we got a big bag of balls to fill it, but we only got the balls out once. Mark decided he wanted to get the whole shebang out again and now my living room looks like a Chuck E. Cheese blew up inside of it.

Elias got a kick out of playing with the balls, but little holds his interest nowadays except exploring the areas and things we tell him are off limits.

Last week, Elias started standing unsupported for several seconds at a time. Throughout the week, he mastered this skill and can usually stand unsupported until he feels the need to move somewhere. He’s getting more daring at trying to take a step, but it usually ends with him on his hands and knees and crawling away. Yesterday he took one full step before falling on his hands and knees.

This weekend, he fully mastered standing up on his own (without needing to pull up on a wall or object.) A couple times yesterday, he also crawled off a few times with his arms and legs extended instead of the usual crawling position. I can’t help but think walking is right around the corner.

He’s babbling in baby sentences now. He uses a few baby words pretty regularly (”slur”, “huh”, “nana”) but I cannot at all tell what he means. On Saturday, he said, “Teh” several times when trying to get Teyla’s attention. (He also discovered the joy of feeding her Cheerios.) The only word he consistently uses correctly that I can figure out is, “uh-oh”. There have been several times when we’ve had to do a double-take when he says something because it sounds like he’s saying something specific. Yesterday he was in his pack and play and I was in bed and Mark said it sounded like he distinctly said, “Get. Up.” twice. Since he rarely repeats these words or sentences, I don’t really feel it’s right to count them.

Here are a couple more pictures. We’re hoping to get a smaller camera sometime soon to make it easier to whip out and take photos. Elias and I will be in Maryland next week. I’m really apprehensive about that and don’t feel good at all for separating him from Mark for so long, so we’ll see how that goes.

Oh, how did my baby go from looking like this:

to this:

in just one year!? They say time flies, but it is really hard to believe that just a year ago we brought Elias onto this earth. In such a short time, he’s figured out how to make sounds, hold baby conversations, roll over, sit up, crawl, stand up and cruise! He’s gone from studying us with his gaze to giving us hugs and blowing raspberries at us while smiling.

Here’s a brief photo journey of his development this past year!

Two months:

Five months:

Seven months:

Eleven months:

Elias is more than I could ask for in a baby. He is easy going and likes to sleep, which makes his care pretty darn effortless (especially in a completely baby-proofed room).

He no longer relies on formula and drinks whole milk and eats whatever it is we’re eating. For the most part, he’s not picky and he loves to stuff his face instead of being spoon or fork fed.

He’s teething at the moment. We’re pretty sure he’s getting another molar. He currently has his front four top and bottom teeth and one molar on his right side, totaling 9 in the tooth count.

He is a super happy baby. On a bad day, he might cry for 5-10 minutes due to being cranky and things not going his way. Usually he makes it through the day with nothing more than a few whines to voice his displeasure or frustration. He loves to play and study and get in the middle of things.

He gives Leah true “pets” and buries his forehead in her fur to hug her. He’ll hold out his hand to let Teyla lick it and likes to watch her play.

Elias points to everything and talks to or about it. Mark and I love watching his little personality come out in every way.

For his birthday, we had a very small party with just the three of us. After dinner of chicken tortilla soup, Elias opened his birthday present and played with it briefly before we gave him his birthday cupcake. It was the first time he’d ever had a true desert and to say he loved it would be a complete understatement. No ill effects were suffered from all the sugary goodness, much to our delight and relief.

You can view the full birthday set on Flickr. Below is a highlight of photos and videos from the evening.

Elias is turning into such a little boy right in front of my eyes. I haven’t found the opportunity to take a lot of pictures because every fourteen seconds I have to pry him off of something he shouldn’t be touching. I am not sure there’s a way to fully baby proof an apartment with as many electronics in it as we have. The bedroom is the safest place, but he keeps going for the diaper genie, the standing fan and his changing table drawers. I know I can get locks for the drawers, but I don’t know what to do about the other two.

He’s starting to pull himself up to stand on everything. He will walk with our help and readjust his legs somewhat when he’s standing, but he still doesn’t get the concept of cruising or walking. It seems like it’s going to happen soon though.

Elias loves to offer us things. He’ll hold up a toy, his pacifier, some food, whatever and reach it out toward us. Sometimes he says, “Da!” at the same time. He absolutely loves to feed me Cheerios.

He’s really into playing games. Right now his favorite game is to turn himself over when I’m trying to change him and crawl over to the light switch to turn the light on and off. He has this toy with three buttons on it that play a variety of sounds and songs. Usually he’ll mash the buttons over and over again without regard to what is playing. Last night though, every time the “itsy bitsy spider” started to play, he’d whip the trunk of his body around to look expectedly at me and Mark, waiting for us to sing and do the song’s hand movements.

Mark and I have really been blessed to have such an easy-going boy. He sleeps well, eats well and is as independent as an infant could be expected to be. He’s a happy baby who loves to explore and loves other people. There are two other boys at his daycare around the same age and I cannot tell you how adorable they all are playing together.

Mark finally put together the changing table yesterday. We cleaned out the pack and play and washed the sheets. For the first night ever, Elias spent the entire night sleeping on his own. It’s been getting very obvious that Elias needs his own space to sleep. He likes to move around in his sleep a lot, which is not so fun for me.

He slept so well; I was quite surprised. He didn’t wake up once between 7pm-6:30am. He’s taken a couple of naps in it today without a problem. I know my boy loves his sleep, but I was expecting the transition to sleeping on his own to be a bit more difficult. We’ll see if it remains this easy.

Our bedroom is really coming together. It’s almost baby-proofed, but he keeps going for the glass cabinets on the TV stand and the standing fan. Not sure what to do about those other than sit in front of them (luckily they’re together). It’s nice to have an organized, spacious bedroom space again.