A Very Merry Christmas: Part 1

Tim and I have established, with the blessing of our families, that we will no longer travel over the holidays. So this year, Tim's family (mom, step dad, & brother) joined us for Elliot's first Christmas! They arrived just in time to join me in one of my favorite traditions, making Christmas cookies. We had so many sweets covering our breakfast table, that the cookies actually hardly got touched. Elliot was a big help in the kitchen :) She made sure that the spatulas were accounted for. (And no, she is not eating dough, those are baked apple pieces).
On Christmas Eve, Tim took his family into DC to see the monuments. Elliot and I stayed at home and enjoyed a quiet morning. That afternoon, we had an early Christmas and Skyped with my parents! We love Skype! The grandparents were able to watch Elliot open their presents and chat with us for a long time :) Her favorite present from them was the jingle bell attached to one of the bows.
That night, we all went out to our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Shirlington. We bring all our guests here. It's amazing! Elliot spent most of the night flirting with a boy baby at the booth behind us. I think she's already giving her daddy some gray hairs...After dinner, Tim, Elliot, & I snuggled up on the couch to read "Twas The Night Before Christmas" (my mom made Elliot a recordable version). Then I sent our darling baby to bed with belly full of warm milk and visions of teething in her head (yes her top two teeth came in, so needless to say it was not a silent night).

To be continued...

Countdown to 1st Christmas!

I cannot believe that it is almost Christmas! My parents instilled in me very early the LOVE of Christmas. Christmas carols always playing on the radio, constant rotation of treats through the oven, and decorating the house like we owned a Christmas novelty shop. Poor Tim has embraced my sometime annoying holiday spirit, and laughs as I try to pass down my good tidings to Elliot.

As a kindergarten teacher, we are always doing crafts this time of year. So I was in a particular ambitious mood when I decided my 9 month old was ready for some crafts. I was ready. Paint, wet wipes, glitter, markers, and a naked baby looking at me like a crazy person from her highchair. Elliot let me know right away that she did not appreciate paint on her hand. Baby girl's shrikes could be heard throughout the house. But I was determined to get one holiday craft for her 1st Christmas! Poor baby. Anyway, above you will see the product of our labor... it is a hand print Christmas tree. After our crafty adventure, Elliot took a long nap :)Elliot loves daycare, and I adore the lady who runs it! She had all the kids, including my baby, make adorable Christmas crafts all month! Yesterday, Elliot came home with a wreath made out of her tiny hand prints, a Santa she colored, and a photo album of Elliot during their little holiday party. I almost cried, I was so happy. Elliot also brought home her own gingerbread house which proudly adorns our kitchen windowsill :)I am so excited for Elliot's 1st Christmas! Of course, 80% of the presents under the tree are for her...but I wouldn't want it any other way. Tim's family (mom, step-dad, and brother) are joining us this year :) Stay tuned for more pictures...probably next week. Have a very merry Christmas!!!

...and we're back!

Has it really been over 2 months since I blogged! Goodness! Well it's not entirely my fault, we've had internet problems (that still aren't resolved) and I cannot access the blog from work... so that's part of my excuse.

Well since it has been so long, I figured I'd update you through pictures...since that the best part anyway :) This blog will be about October and November.

Tim, Elliot, and I participated in the DC chapter of Light the Night Walk in honor of one of his coworker. It is a wonderful cause, and the route we take through the city is breathtaking. The streets are blocked off so you can stroll through our beautiful city surrounded by amazing caring people. Even though we had to take a short cut due to a tired baby, we still had a good time!
Elliot turned 8 months in October and crossed over to major personality. She so desperately wants to be a big girl, but doesn't want to take the steps, or crawls, to make it happen ;) She looks chubby in this picture which is deceiving ( I think she just ate), because according our charts Elliot is still thin.
Happy Halloween! Elliot was DeSean Jackson, the WR for the Eagles. Friends of ours got her the jersey when I was pregnan,t so we thought it was easy, and oh so adorable. And no, I did not paint her face. Come on. It is painters tape with very little stickiness colored black.

In November, we got Elliot a highchair. She and the dog love it! She was feeding herself before, but now she can sit up high with Mommy and Daddy. It is a nice wooden one that matches our dining set. When my parent came to visit I said "Did you notice the highchair?" My Mom: "No." Me: "Exactly!"

We had an amazing fall this year!!! The leaves almost made it to Thanksgiving...which is really long. With every light storm the leaves hung onto the trees and just got more vibrant. Here is the tree outside our kitchen window. Isn't it incredible?!
My parents came up from FL for Thanksgiving! They were a big help! I needed some support since I had been taking care of a sick husband (Tim had pneumonia for 3 weeks...only 1 hospital visit) and a baby on my own for awhile (it sucked). Although Elliot's "separation anxiety" kicked in again, they were able to get some quality time with her. We, minus Tim who was still sick, went to my Aunt Nancy's for Thanksgiving dinner along with my cousins and friends. As always, their visit seemed too short.

In November, Elliot turned 9 months. I love this age! No she's not officially crawling yet, but she makes up for it by hanging out and talking our ears off. I love it! Every day after I pick her up from daycare, we chat about our days at school. She mostly yells/sing-songs babble with a couple "mama" and "dada" thrown in there from the car seat. Elliot is also now very polite (aside from the loud talking). She loves to share her toys and food, and she gets really excited when you say "thank you!" Elliot also waves hello and goodbye to us...and the dog...and the washing machine...and basically anything. She did well at her 9 month well visit, where she got her second round of the flu shot. I am so thankful (thanks Brittany) that I had her get the flu shot, because through all of Tim's pneumonia, her and I did not get sick! Elliot is also still our long and lean girl at 28 1/2 in. long and almost 18 lbs.
Now that I flew through October and November, our recent events in December will be close by...if the cable company can fix the internet on Saturday...

Yay October!!!

Did you know that I LOVE fall?! Of course you did because I talk about it all the time, sorry Tim. I love everything about it! The changing colors, cooler weather, breezy days, fresh pumpkins and apples in the stores, pumpkin spice lattes, and of course...the Renaissance Festival! This was our 4th annual trip with the Clements. Our first trip was when they first met Tim, and then slowly we've all gotten married and had babies. And every year we have the best time! Rachel and I drink hard cider and watch the guys Drench a Wench, while their two year old, Wilson, says "Let's go Daddy!" So the Renn Fest is MD at a permanent location. It is this big area surrounded by trees with permanent building housing shops, food, stages, and of course jousting. And let me tell you, the craziess really come out for the event. There are of course the paid actors who portray the king and queen and so on, and then there are the people who dress up as whatever they want, and boy do they take it seriously! Let's just say it is my favorite place to people watch ;) So here are some pics from this year's trip:

Mommies and Babies:

Princess Elliot doing the "princess wave":

Queen Ellie and King Wilson:
First time on a swing was a hit!

7 months!

On Sept 24th (I'm still catching up on the posts), Elliot turned 7 months old! We don't have a dr visit this month, so I don't know her stats...but she's still our long & lean girl. Here some new developments:

• Her two bottom teeth are about a third of the way out. This mean I will probably stop nursing her soon...no explanation necessary.
• She sucks on her thumb occasionally but still wants nothing to do with the pacifier, which I'm told is a good thing.
• She shoots, but not too much. She still prefers to roll around.
• She says "mmm ma, ma, ma" when she eats. I have a feeling "Mama" might be a first word ;) Sorry Tim.
• She gets slap-happy at night right before bedtime. So that's when we get some really good laughs out of her!
  
• She loves any kind of food she's given and always squeals for more. Except store bought baby food. We forgot to make a new batch of her food, so I had to use my emergency stash of Gerber baby food. So gross! The whole time she was looking at me like "Really Mom?! This is supposed to be bananas?!"
• She is holding on strong to the 4:30 am feeding. I have a feeling another round of Cry it Out might be in store (cringe face).
  
• She loves daycare and hanging out with the big kids.
• She is over her stranger anxiety, thanks to daycare, and will let people hold her again.
• Her favorite restaurant is Guapos, THE best Mexican restaurant which happens to be in our village that we walk to. She loves all the lights and bright walls.
  

I know you all probably get tired of hearing this...but I love this little girl! We are so blessed to have her! She cracks me up every day and I can't wait to see more of her personality shine :)

PS-Today, Oct. 5, marks Elliot's first real cold. She has a little cold with some conjestion a couple weeks ago, but this one was accomponied by some feverish nights and fussy days. So with some good advice from my friend Brittany, and hopefully the dr tomorrow, Elliot will be well again soon!

Mary Vistis!

Tim's mom, Mary, came for almost a week in September. We had a great time! It's been hard balancing chores and caring for baby girl now that I'm working, so Mary helped out with some of the chores, which was nice. She also bought Elliot some adorable outfits that I can't wait to put her in this winter! The 5 of us walked to Village almost everyday and ate at some of our favorite restaurants. On Saturday, Elliot and I took her to Le Madeline. I knew Mary loved everything French, so I thought it would be perfect place for a girl's lunch. While Elliot contently muched on Cheerios, we dinned on soup, salads, and pastries.

On Monday, we went to Dogfish Head Ale House for Tim's favorite beer...and dinner. Of course they were out of his favorite, but they had mine! Tim likes it too, it's called Punkin. It is a nice pumpkin flavor beer with yummy spiced but not too heavy. The Today Show featured it, and the hosts loved it too! We usually eat dinner with the early birds because Elliot be less fussy (although she's always well behaved), service is better, and we get better seating. It was also a great time to get some nice photos of us :)
This one is my favorite:

Working Mom

I wrote this post a couple weeks ago, and I just forgot to post it...

So this week was the first week of school. My 20 kindergarteners arrived at 8:30 am in the gym where we met them to walk down to the classroom. As the tearful and eager parents watched through their photo lens their babies walk off into elementry school, I thought "That will be me some day." Being a mother has already made me a better teacher. I am more easy going and don't worry about the little things, like our schedule being changed on the third day of school. And when a kid is giving me just a little too much attitude, I think "this is someone's Elliot."

It is a first day tradition that we read "The Kissing Hand" in kindergarten. I'm sure many of you have read it, but it is about a little raccoon who is nervous about going to school. So his dear mother kisses the palm of his hand and tells him that her kiss will stay with his all day and even at school. As I was reading this story to the class, I started to get teary eyed think about my own little raccoon at daycare and how I wish I could give her a big kiss. Thankfully, kindergarteners are pretty oblivious to everything, so no one noticed their emotional teacher.

So now that they first week is over, and putting these two examples together, I think it will be a good year. I am now a Working Mom and I have excepted that role. Elliot is in good hands and enjoys being around older kids, and I am getting my adult conversations while also donating to our saving account. I value my time even more with Elliot. While some days this summer were spent running errands between naps, now Elliot and I have quality time together :)

Weekend Tradition

My favorite family tradition we've started is the Weekend Mornings. Tim, Elliot, and I always sleep in, eat breakfast in bed, and watch a little TV. It's the best! Our favorite is watching Sunday Morning while eating a breakfast trail mix while Elliot chows down on Cheerios :)
Here are some of my favorite pics of my favorite snuggle bunnies.

Happy Half Birthday!

Wednesday, marked Elliot's half birthday! I cannot believe that our precious baby girl is already 6 months old! And 6 months from now she'll be a toddler! Whoa, I need to slow down.

So anyway, Elliot is developing beautifully at 6 months. She sleeps 9 hours at night, loves her dinner of solid food, and communicates with us frequently (squeals, babbles, and/or shrieks). Elliot is still a girl who knows what she wants and will not be fooled with a substitute. She especially knows that she likes food. Tim and I have been using some sign language with her for awhile now, and she always gets really excited when we do the sign for "food." Elliot has also decided that if you are eating, she must have some food too. This is why we have random piles of Cheerios around the house...which the dog appreciates too. Elliot's newest favorite food are frozen waffles. A friend recommended giving them to her to help her teething, and now she's hooked!

Elliot is still our long and lean girl. She weighs 14.9 lbs (25%) and is 26.5 in long (85%-90%). Elliot doesn't look very long, but once you get her to stand up she towers over all the other babies we play with. Elliot is also pretty strong, however she refuses to use her muscles to their full potential. She is fully capable of rolling from her belly to her back, but it is too much work so she screams instead. She can almost sit up consistently on her own, but she likes to spot where I am and fall towards me so I'll help her. Yes, Elliot is officially our adorable drama queen :)

Stranger anxiety is something she's recently developed (which isn't good since daycare starts tomorrow). She was always a little shy with other people, but now she refuses to let them hold her. This is was usually happens:
-Friend reaches out to hold Elliot.
-Elliot starts to look uneasy.
-Elliot looks back at me and starts the cry with her bottom lips sticking out.
-Since the friend obviously didn't get the hint, Elliot starts to cry with full lung capacity.
-Elliot goes back to me and she immediately stops crying, and gives the friend a little smile.
Usually after a few meetings, this game stops and Elliot is okay with the other person. But seriously, the girl already knows how to play us!

When I was pregnant, I would daydream about what my little girl would be like. I would obviously try to make her my girlie girl, but what would her personality be like. Elliot is everything I could have hoped for and more! We are so blessed to be the parents of a sweet and animated baby girl. Happy half birthday Elliot!
PS- I think I fixed it where you can leave comments. Thanks Kim!

My Last Week

My woe is me moment:

This week is my last week as a stay-at-home mom. It is an emotional time. My wonderful husband has made it possible for me to stay home with Elliot for 6 months. I have loved every moment of these 6 months. It wasn't all sunshine and giggles, but it was memorable. That is the hardest part about going back to work, that I'm going to miss out on memories. Elliot does so many little things throughout the day that bring a smile to my face or make me laugh, and it makes me tear up even now thinking that someone else is going to see those special moments. Now I know that I will still get to see my silly baby girl and her quirks in the evening, but I still feel sad about it. I am hoping to save a lot this school year and start tutoring to earn extra money, so maybe I can stay at home again. My mom asked me, "But wouldn't you miss teaching?" Yes, I would. I would miss teaching the little kiddos how to read and how to be a good citizen, and being a part of that foundation that is their education. However, I would rather be at home with my little one and shaping her into an amazing little girl. And I know that women all over the globe make the difficult transition back to the working world, but that doesn't mean it is any easier for this little mom in her corner of the world.
It is going to be so hard to leave this face in the morning...
Looking on the bright side:

So there are some positives of our new stage of life. The pressure of getting ready for school has helped me put Elliot on a great feeding and nap schedule. Elliot will be 2 minutes from my school at an in-home daycare. She will be learning nursery rhymes and colors right along with the older kids, not just sitting in a bouncy chair all day with 16 other babies. Elliot will be well loved in a smaller (8 kids) setting. She loves other babies so I know she'll get the socialization that she needs. And best of all, I get to see the big smile on her face when I come to pick her up after school!
Something like this...
Tomorrow is Elliot's half birthday, so I'll try to get on the ball and have her 6 month pictures up this week :)

PS- We had a 5.9 earthquake today! So crazy! Tim, Elliot, and I were sitting in the office because Tim was working from home. We were chatting about the day, when all of a sudden we started to feel a slight rumble. Then out of nowhere, the ground started to move up and down and everything was shaking. My Midwestern husband put his tornado drill knowledge into action and rushed us into the bathroom (actually you're supposed to go outside). The whole thing was over in about 30 seconds. To be honest, with us living in the DC area, I thought it was a terrorist attack. Tim reassured me that it was an earthquake (who would have thought an earthquake would be the better option?!), and we turned on the news. 5 minutes later, CNN was announcing the breaking news. I cannot even imagine what a bigger one feels like! That was enough for me!

Girl's Weekend!

While the hubby is away, the girls will play! Tim went to Minnesota for a guy's weekend, so my mom came up from Florida for a girl's weekend. We had a blast! I love that when my mom comes to visit she doesn't have an agenda. She is perfectly happy hanging out at the house as long as she's with us and gets to be Nana. With that being said, we didn't just hang out at the house. My mom, Elliot, and I went for walks, baked yummy treats, drank sangria (just me and mom), bought baby girl some clothes, watched chick flicks, and chatted the nights away. Although Skype is great, you don't really get to see all the little things a baby does during the day that melts my heart. My favorite such moment was the hilarious laughing fit Elliot had when my mom started coughing!

She was also, of course, a big help around the house. My mom either took over certain household duties or entertained Elliot while I did them. Brinkley, our dog, also appreciated the extra attention from Nana! It was perfect weekend filled with lots of love! We agreed that visiting Elliot is good for her health and visit in the fall was in order :)

Sleeping Beauty

Elliot has started taking 2 great naps in her crib regularly each day! She takes a nap at 11am and 3pm, and each is around an hour. Now of course we do have some hiccups in the schedule. Elliot made a liar out of me when my friend Diana came over to scrapbook. There I was bragging about how she sleeps for around 2 hours in her crib, and baby girl decides to start screaming over the monitor after only 30 minutes of sleeping. So I guess I should say she usually takes two great naps a day. Before last week, she would only have a good nap if I held her or she was in the Bjorn. Now I have the weight of a baby off of me, two free hands, and I don't know what to do sometimes with the extra time! It's Amazing!!! I didn't think I could, but I love this little girl even more :)

Tim leaves tomorrow for a guy's trip to Minnesota. Usually a bunch of couples get together, but we all had babies this year (crazy!) so only the 5 daddies are meeting up for the weekend. I am very excited for Tim to have some much needed guy time, but of course I'm going to miss him terribly. That's why I invited my mom to come visit for the weekend! She arrives tomorrow night and will be here until Sunday. I'm super excited to see her and for her to see how much Elliot's grown. We hope to have a fun and relaxing weekend...I hope you all have the same :)

5 Months Old!

Precious baby girl turned 5 months old last Sunday! Elliot is blowing us away on how much she's grown developmentally and socially in one month, which was a welcome change from last month. 3 months was heavenly and then 4 months threw us off. I had heard that the 4 month mark is when babies are not quiet themselves. During the 4th month, Elliot was not sleeping consistently, her evening fussiness returned, she would only occasionally smile at other people, and so on. She was still our sweet girl, but she was a little more dramatic than usual. So we gladly welcomed month 5 and embraced our maturing little girl. Elliot is still a drama queen, but it is small part of her personality that blooms more and more every day. Here are some new developments with Elliot:

• She sleeps from 7:30pm-4:30am (9hrs) and then wakes up again around 6:30am! Major progress!
• She still eats every 2-3 hrs both boob and bottle. I would like to get her on a bottle for the morning and afternoon, and then breastfeed in the evening.
• We don't know how much she weighs because there isn't a 5 m. checkup, but she weighs about 14 lbs and wears 6 m. clothes (still long and lean).
  
• She rolls over from her back to her stomach and stomach to back, although she is not happy about it. She still cries if she can't flip back over in lest than 10 seconds.
  
• She plays/explores toys! We went to Target the other day to buy her age appropriate toys because all she had we stuffed animals and a rattle. But don't worry, she has a bunch now :)
  
• She LOVES to watch you brush your teeth! So weird.
• She hates the pacifier and wants nothing to do with it (which makes me sad), and now wants to suck her thumb instead.
• She talks a lot! Now when I say talk, I really mean yell. This girl is so loud when she babbles that she woke up the sleeping baby next to us at New Mom's Group!
• Her favorite book is still an ABC book that I bought at the grocery store. We read it every day. Her favorite page is M for mouth because it has an up close picture of a baby boy who she likes to flirt with.

There is so much more that I can't remember that I'm sure I'll share with you soon.
Here are some outtakes from her 5 month pictures:

Zoolander Face:

"Chao Momma":
Happy baby:
Aanndd we're done:

What we have been up to lately...

Sorry I haven't written in awhile! We've been really busy lately as summer ends and work it beginning to rear its ugly head. The Reynolds family has had something going on every weekend almost the whole summer, and then I'm filling my week with play dates and back-burner chores. So far, this is some of what we've been up to...and there's more to come :)

Bouncing baby girl: Elliot has always had strong legs, and I thought maybe a jumper/bouncy chair would be a good purchase. We went over to our friends Rachel & Michael's house for Rachel's birthday, and Elliot got to try out Wilson's (their 2 year old) retired bouncy chair. She loved it! Sweet Rachel is letting us borrow theirs so we don't have to buy one! Right now Elliot doesn't bounce too much, she just enjoys watching everything from up higher and playing with the musical attached toys. She hasn't connected yet that she is making the chair move.
Here is a picture of Elliot, Tim, and Micheal minding their home bar and her new chair.

Solids foods: Why did we ever doubt that she would be a good eater? She is OUR child after all, and we know how to eat. Elliot loves fruits and veggies! She has had avocados, bananas (her fav), carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes. (Please note that peas have a lot of fiber so they make babies gassy, so don't serve them a helping of just peas, we found out the hard way). Elliot is our baby bird who now knows to open her mouth even before the spoon is in sight, and eats 1/2 cup of solid food before she goes to bed. Brinkley, our dog, has also discovered that hanging around Elliot during dinner time is a fruitful endeavor. Although he often gets in the way and distracts Elliot, he has proven himself as a good washer. Here are some pictures of Elliot eating carrots.

Here are some recent photos of her experience with peas...it took a couple days for her to get used to them.

Crying it out: I know you didn't hear it here first, but "crying it out" SUCKS! It took baby girl almost 2 hours to fall asleep the first night. Tim and I tried to play a game of Scrabble, but I couldn't even come up with CAT, I was so frazzled. Since then it has been better. Now it takes her about half an hour to fall asleep, with full lung screams the whole time. Then she sleeps until about 5am. I hoping she can stretch it till 6 am and then we'll be really for when I go back to work. The best part of this whole thing is that she doesn't remember how awful her parents were the night before! So sweet Elliot greets us with smiles and gladly joins us in bed to grab a few more winks :)