Elias at 6 Months

At six months I am introducing Eli to a variety of solid foods.  Watching him taste something for the very first time is a mix of excitement (what will he think?) and anticipation (will he like it?).  The amount of pleasure I get watching him move a bite around in his mouth, make a face like he has just been given sour mash, and then bang the tray for more, is borderline questionable.  Cedric had a palate for sweets.  My boy loved fruit in any form and was less enthusiastic about the savory dishes.  Eli has been the opposite.  He will gobble down the squash, beans, peas, etc and quickly loose interest in sweet things like apple, pear, and banana.   Where my boys' tastes dovetail is with ice cream.  Thanks to the genetic makeup of Zach’s mother and her mother, both boys show a remarkable predisposition for that cold dairy confection.

Behold the video evidence! (Backstory: Cedric had given me the unfinished part of a mini drumstick and when I noticed how intently Eli was watching the cone, I lost my mommy head and let him have a taste for the pure enjoyment of watching him taste ice cream for the first time.)

Personally I would take a bowl of fruit with whipped cream or sorbet any day.

Other than ice cream, Eli has tasted rice cereal, sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, green bean, banana, apple, carrot & parsnips, acorn squash & apple, green beans & potato & kale.

I introduced a Sippy cup.  It was kind of a disaster in terms of successfully drinking water out of it.  But he has been a fan of chewing on the spout.  After reading this post I tried letting him drink out of a shot glass.  It looks very wrong because its obviously a shot glass, but he is really good at it – so long as I actually hold the glass for him.  Its his preferred mode of drinking.

He has two bottom teeth and lots of swollen gums where more are sure to appear.

Wakes up at least two times at night to nurse.  Just like his brother at this age.

He doesn’t roll over but he seems interested in the possibility of rolling over.  What can I say, this baby is content to watch the world around him and vocalize how he feels about it.

What has been difficult is his sensitivity about the environment where he will nurse.  Upstairs, in a quiet, dark room is The Place where nursing happens.  If I try to feed him downstairs, at someone else’s home, or horrors use a nursing cover, Eli does the baby version of wigging out.  This has resulted in nursing strikes that last upwards to eight hours.  During which I am a mental and emotional wreck.  So even though its frowned upon I nurse my baby in a dark, quiet room.

6 Month Stats

Weight: 19lbs 2oz – 90th percentile

Length: 27 1/4 inches – 75th %

Head Circ: 43 cm – 50th %

140, 40, 7, 6, 3

This post is all about the numbers.

Its been 140 days since my last post where I announced that we are expecting a baby in May. A lot can happen in 140 days. This may be the understatement of the year.

For instance I was challenged to learn how to make macarons. The French version. The incredibly fussy, its the hardest thing I have ever made version. Its true I never shed tears during the process; unlike the lemon tart that I ruined driving it to a party or the beef burgandy that ended in disaster 10 minutes before company came over for dinner. But still, I have never had to give something 3 attempts before I felt like I was getting the hang of it.

I made pistacho macarons with chocolate ganache frosting.

And lemon macarons with vanilla bean buttercream. They are pretty. They are also incredibly tasty. I think I will make them again. Some day. These days I find myself thinking about making stuff like this.

40 days of Lent came and went. This year I focused on prayer and feel like the Lord revealed some more of His perspective on suffering. More about this later, as I have lots of thoughts to digest and put to paper...err....blog post.

7 items still on my master to-do list before Wednesday. Some are easy, like putting a trash can in the bedroom. Others are more time consuming, like finishing the layout and wordsmithing of the baby announcements. I was inspired by the birth announcement for my Aunt Susan that her father came up with when she was born several decades ago.

Speaking of which, there are only 6 days until this baby will be here. This makes me both full of anticipation because I can not wait to meet this little guy AND full of holy-smokes-we-have-so-much-to-do and I am So Tired, how will it all get done?

There may be some half-priced Starbucks involved.

And while we are on the subject of this baby, we have no idea what to name him. Last night we whittled the list down to 3. Today I was ready to chuck them all out and start over. You can read more about our name saga here. What is currently written on the board; Logan, Desmond, and Roland. Thoughts??

140 days has brought a change of season and big changes for Cedric too. We just went through a stuttering stage. Its adorable to me. You can see it in his face that he has LOTS to say but just gets hung up on the first syllable or even the first word. For example:

Hey, hey, hey, hey what's happening? Are those men building something with that boom lift and skidstear?

The stuttering never bothers me - it usually goes away in a few weeks and it usually indicates that he is going through a language development burst. Today he pointed out a picture of an apple looking at a peach and asked me what I thought they were thinking about. He's never asked something like that before or indicated that he understands other people (or apples/peaches) may have their own thoughts/perspectives.

So I guess that leaves me with 1 - 1 new thing that my 3 year old did to amaze me.

Baby Pictures

This morning I had an in-depth ultra sound and got to spend about an hour looking at our baby. And can I just say, he is adorable! At one point he stretched his leg straight up and out and then tucked it back down, crossing his feet at the ankles. (Cedric and Zach also tend to sit with their feet crossed at the ankles.)

Everything looks great - he as all the appropriate limbs, digits, organs, and in the correct quantities. I just couldn't wait to show off some pictures!

He is sucking his thumb in this one.

So Guess What

We are expecting! Our next baby boy will be making his appearance in mid-May, hopefully after commencement. I've obviously been sitting on this information for awhile and though several times I've almost shared it, I just didn't have the courage until now.

I thought I would after the CVS results came back negative (good thing) basically showing that there were no chromosome abnormalities.

Then I thought I would after my last appointment when I started the second trimester, but I couldn't overcome my anxieties then either.

But after hearing the heartbeat today and feeling him move for several weeks and knowing that I will have an in-depth ultra sound on Thursday has pushed me over the edge. I'm ready to share the news with the interwebs!

Being pregnant this fall has been the reason for the utter lack of food related posts of late. With this pregnancy the nausea has been worse than the other two and my taste buds have reverted to something akin to a pre-teen. Doritos, skittles, ramen, grilled cheese, and the occasional sushi have been the highlights of my diet for months. I made an amazing lasagna but didn't take pictures (next time I will - promise!). We also hosted both my family and Zach's family for Thanksgiving where my inner-Italian grandmother pulled out all the stops. Sadly when you're cooking for 15+ you don't have time to take many pictures (like zero). Hopefully my taste buds will go back to their old likes and cravings and I'll have recipes that I feel are blog worthy.