History of the J Man

Not sure what it is about kids and taking their clothes off but last night, as we were trying to get them dressed for bed, both kids took off!  They were literally running around upstairs, bouncing off the walls and the beds yelling, “Naked Party!”

It was adorable!

We wanted to immediately reach for our cameras but stopped ourselves (they can thank us in about 10 years).  We were all laughing and running…it was one of those organic moments that reminds you how fun it can be to be a parent.  It was only slightly stressed by our concern about Elliott since he’s not potty trained.  :-)

Elliott turned 18 months yesterday and had his check up right on his half birthday.  He weighs 23.1 lbs and is 32.5″ tall.  That weight only puts him in the 20% for weight.  I’m not sure Jonah ever ranked that low.  Elliott seems to be skinnier than Jonah but that’s fine.  I attribute it to the fact that he’s not a big milk drinker like Jonah was.  Elliott a happy, healthy kid.He’s climbing all over the place, trying to do whatever Jonah does and talking more each day.  He was even saying, “no, no, no” as he fell asleep yesterday.  Plus he’s starting to string 2 words together.  His favorite phrases now are, “Let’s go!” and “And me!”

Below are some photos from our time at the new doctor’s office for his check up.  They make you strip down the kid to check his height and weight then have you wait in the waiting room.  So rather than get him dressed just to get him undressed again when the doc came in, I let him wear my sweatshirt.

Daddy & Elliott outside

A fun photo of the family taken before trick-or-treating

Elliott has decided that he likes to dip. This is a photo of him eating his yogurt with a tortilla chip, he doesn’t eat the chip just uses it to dip.

We did Halloween last night in 2 stages.  Jonah is at a stage where he doesn’t want to do anything so when we were ready to go trick-or-treating he didn’t want to go.  I think he was having too much fun passing out candy to the kids who came to the door.

The last thing I was going to do was force him to go get candy so we said fine and took Elliott out.  Elliott walked around holding on tightly to my hand on one side and holding a piece of candy firmly in the other hand.  When we got up to a new door he’d put the piece of candy from his hand into his bag then reach for a new one which he would hold until the next place.  He was reassured that he could keep it as long as it was in his hand.  I’m not sure if Jonah knew really what candy was when we took him out at this age.  Elliott certainly knows already about candy.  Fortunately I was able to swap out some all-natural fruit snacks for him after dinner, instead of candy.  Not any better for his teeth I’m sure but at least they had a full serving of fruit.

Then once we got in from trick-or-treating with Elliott and showed off all his candy guess who decided he was ready to go?  So out we all went again, this time with Jonah AND Elliott.

We should make Elliott walk a couple times around the block each night before bed.  The kid actually slept this morning until 6:00!  He usually wakes up around 5:00am.

I can’t get over how big these boys are getting and how different their personalities are.  They get along really well together but Jonah is like my sister was as a kid.  If you ask him he never wants to go anywhere or do anything but once you get him there he doesn’t want to leave.  Elliott, on the other hand, will bring everyone their shoes then go stand by the front door and shout “let’s go!”  Here’s a photo of them waiting at the door to leave.

And a photo of Elliott from our visit to Santa’s Village last weekend.

Jonah has been to the ER now about 3 times I think.  Last night was our first trip there for Elliott.

I came home last night to a slightly frazzled Nanny talking about a broken window and I see Elliott with blood all over his shirt and shorts. Apparently they had just come in from walking the dog and a few feet from home Elliott cut himself on a broken glass-block window on the building next door.  This was the first time the nanny had decided let Elliott walk on this walk instead of putting him in the stroller or strapping him on.  She was holding one of his hands, walking the dog and watching Jonah also.  Elliott must have reached out just at the wrong spot on the building.  He sliced his ring finger pretty good.  She got it washed off and bandaged up.  I was tempted to let it go but once I looked at it and saw a big flap of skin I thought I’d better take him in.

Once Chris walked in the door and changed his clothes we were off.  We were at the ER at Children’s by about 6:30 and got home around 10:00pm.  Elliott had x-rays to make sure there wasn’t any glass left in the wound.  They put some topical numbing stuff on it then finally gave him 5 stitches around 9:30 at night.  (To put it in perspective on Top Chef All-Stars Chef Jamie left the cooking competition when she cut her finger.  She only ended up with 2 stitches.)  He didn’t have any pain meds, no local and didn’t make a peep during the process.

Today he took a long morning nap and is favoring the hand a bit but otherwise seems no worse off. The stitches are due to come out in one week.  I’ve heard that process is worse than the stitches themselves so we’ll see.

I’ll try and take a photo of his finger tonight to post here.

I think all the time about how Elliott and Jonah are such different little boys already.  I hate to compare them but as a mom I don’t think you can help doing it.

• Jonah was my good sleeper, Elliott is not.  He still doesn’t always sleep through the night even at 14 months.  His favorite place to sleep is still on mom.  I say ON vs. WITH because he’s literally in the crook of my arm or tummy to tummy with me in bed.
• Both are good eaters but Jonah was done nursing by 9 months opting for a full bottle rather than me and he would down 8 oz of milk even after a big meal.  Elliott on the other hand, while also a good eater, is still nursing 3 times a day and doesn’t really care for whole milk from a sippy cup.  We have to find times to get him to drink it vs. Jonah who we had to limit the amount each day.
• Jonah is sort of the standard first child: cautious, reserved and likes to observe things before jumping in.  Elliott is classic 2nd kid who leaps before he looks.  He’ll get a devilish glint in his eye and will do something silly just to get a laugh.  He’ll do something he’s not supposed to do, look at you shake his head and say “no, no, no” then laugh!

They couldn’t be more sweet to each other though.  They both like to hang out in Jonah’s bed and Elliott will move the cars along the floor just like Jonah.  They like to sit side-by-side in the double stroller and entertain each other in their side-by-side car seats.  Both are officially sleeping in the same room now and even after Elliott cries at night Jonah tells me in the morning that he “didn’t hear a thing!”

Elliott seems to get teeth 4 at a time.  He’s has his top 4 and bottom 4 for a while, he cut his 4 first molars a in mid July and is now working on those 4 eye teeth.  Hopefully then he’s done!  We have friends the same age who have a lot fewer teeth than he has.  I’m not sure if 4 at once is a good thing or a bad thing.  When he was up crying at 3:00am last night it was certainly NOT a good thing.

Below are 2 photos of Elliott being a big boy eating his snack like a pro in the recliner on vacation.

This weekend we headed out of town with our next door neighbors and their 2 kids to spend the weekend in Lake Geneva.  We thought the two 4 year old boys could entertain each other and let us hang out with other adults a little too.

We all got there on Saturday, ate lunch then headed to the beach.  The big kids loved the water and the sand and the little kids seemed content to sleep or play on the blankets.  We got back, cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner.  They stuck us in the basement in a corner but we were totally happy there and the food was really good.  Yeah to Ryan Braun’s Taven for having a gluten-free menu.

The most excitement probably came in the form of Jonah’s first “sleep-over.”  In the basement at the Lake Geneva house is “Jonah’s bed.”  He’s slept down there by himself and also with his Aunts but never with another friend.  The babies went to bed in their respective pack-n-plays in the upstairs bedrooms and then the 2 big boys went to sleep in side-by-side beds in the basement.  The adults all left them around 8:30pm.  Jonah came up a few times, Luca came up a few times, each boy peed about 4 times. They chatted and whispered for at least another hour before finally falling asleep.  We heard them finally quiet down on the monitor and were a little surprised to find that they both fell asleep in their own beds.

The adults got to have a drink and chat for a bit in the upstairs living room and then everyone slept soundly until the babies woke up around 5:45 and the big boys at 7:00.  We went to breakfast at a new place and spent the rest of the day watching the big boys run around in the back yard.  They would wrestle, gather pine cones, look for birds and bugs and play baseball and soccer.   They got along really well the whole weekend, it was nice to see.

Of course the babies nap schedules suffered as we tried to entertain everyone and move with a group of 8 but they didn’t seem any worse for the wear.  Elliott is into everything these days and wants to run and play with the big kids.  If there’s anything going on he doesn’t want to sleep and miss out.  At dinner Saturday night he must have eaten as much as Jonah, easily.  He’s got all 4 first molars almost all the way in seems to be doing a good job of communicating either through signs or new words each day.  His current favorite word, much like Jonah at this age, is “ball.”  With 2 boys in the house some days I feel we’ll soon be overrun with balls and cars.

It took us a year but we finally got Elliott’s haircut this past weekend.  Everyone always thought he was a girl, maybe now they will see that he’s not.  He did great, no crying or fussing during the process.  Personally, I miss the long hair but he’ll be cooler this way for the summer.  See before and after pictures below.

As part of Elliott’s one year physical, I had to take him in to get some standard lab work done.  Our pediatrician’s office doesn’t have a lab so I had to take him separately.   I brought him in Saturday morning first thing and he did great.  I don’t know if he loved the nurse or what but he didn’t cry for any of it, even the blood draw.  It was amazing!