It’s been a while!

Eli's cute surfer boy outfit from his Aunties Tasie and Heather- August 30, 2009

Wow, I can’t believe how fast September has gone by! My good intentions for keeping up on my blog have again lapsed…so has the cleaning around the house. Even though we’ve been parents for almost 9 months now, we still haven’t figured out a routine that works well for us in order to keep up on house cleaning. We’ve tried designating certain tasks to each one of us, but there is still always something more that needs to be done. Keeping up on dishes and laundry is about all we can manage with me working full-time at the law firm and Jason taking care of Eli plus trying to get his work done. So, when it comes to things like my blog, I kind of let it fall to the wayside.

We have been keeping busy with various things, more notably starting up our housing search again. We are encountering the same issues as last spring, though, with only being able to afford attached townhouses and condos or older detached homes in the outer Portland metro area. Portland has just become so expensive to live in as the city grows. As much as I don’t want to move further out, it is something I’m willing to consider at this point in order to have more space and rooms. I’d still like to move over to the eastside of town to be closer to my parents, but that side of town has pretty slim pickings for new developments. We are trying to cut costs across the board and are now considering selling the Audi A4 to get a more economical and hopefully roomy car…something like a Subaru or another family car. As much as we love the Audi, it gets poor gas mileage and not very spacious once you put a car seat, baby supplies, and a dog in it.

Eli and his other friend named Sawyer- this Sawyer's mama, Amelia (the sister of my best friend from college, Katie B.), has been babysitting Eli for us once a week, but now she just had her second child (another boy, named Asher!) so she's taking a break for a while to get adjusted to her new family addition- September 2, 2009

Eli apparently already likes playing with trucks and cars- September 2, 2009

He's doing his happy clapping!- September 2, 2009

Eli was having fun swinging at the park for his 8th month milestone- September 5, 2009

I couldn't decide which smile was cuter so I'm posting this one too...there are actually several more that are just as cute!- September 5, 2009

I thought this was a great shot!- September 5, 2009

Eli is 8 months old!- September 6, 2009

Eli continues to grow quickly and is the cutest, sweetest boy! He turned 8 months old on September 6, 2009 and will be 9 months old in a week! I really can’t believe how big he is now too! He is already wearing 12 month old size clothes and I have the 18 month old size clothes easily accessible. He now has 4 teeth- his two front top and two front bottom teeth. He is like a little beaver and loves to chomp on absolutely everything, especially my fingers. I’ve still let him do it at night when he’s holding my hand and trying to fall asleep, but those teeth are so sharp that I’ve been afraid he’ll draw blood. With his teething, he’s also more interested in eating solids and trying to feed him. Along with letting him experiment with feeding himself his oatmeal (a very messy experiment for mama) we started giving him some rice crackers as finger food.

He was trying to grab chunks of oatmeal with his hands and put it in his mouth...I don't think much got in there- September 15, 2009

Eli was excited to get to feed himself some broken up rice cracker pieces- October 2, 2009

Here is a shot of Eli standing when he first started doing it, and of course he always goes straight for what he shouldn't have!- September 5, 2009

Eli has pretty much mastered standing up and getting back down, as long as he is holding onto something for support. He is even beginning to walk a little bit as he holds onto the side of the couch, side of the crib, baby gate or window sill (basically whatever stays put that he can get his little hands onto). Well, maybe walking is not the appropriate word- I would say it is more like side-stepping as though he were rock climbing- he carefully moves one foot over and then slides his arm over and then the other foot. There have been a couple of times that he’s somehow gotten stuck with his legs split so far apart that he can’t get down to the ground without falling, and he will just stand there and cry. Eli is also a super fast crawler now. I think it kind of freaks Doc out to see a little person down on all fours scrambling around at his level. It’s like he doesn’t know what to do- he wants to chase Eli and play, but he also knows that he might get in trouble for doing so if his playmate suddenly bursts into tears. Jason and I don’t think it will be long before Eli is walking. I definitely expect it before his first birthday.

And on that note, Eli has also now fallen twice due to his lack of fear/knowledge of gravity and bumped his head which left a mark. He quit crying less than a minute or so after I scooped him up and comforted him, so I was never worried that he was ever seriously hurt (although I did still call his doctor to ask about concussions). Each time it happened was under my supervision so of course I felt like a horrible mother and had to battle my way up out of a couple days long depression. Even though both times I was right there beside him, he just moved so quickly that it happened right as I was moving to grab him. I just wasn’t fast enough and felt terrible that he had gotten hurt needlessly. I had to get past feeling like a bad mom and move on with life, though, since Eli didn’t seem to even realize he had gotten hurt and he needs his happy, loving mama to be there for him. And as I’ve heard from many other mothers, this is a common happening. Babies move, and consequently, they fall or bump their head or smash their finger. A parent or caregiver cannot physically be hovering over them every second of every day to try to prevent accidents like that. And boys, it seems, are generally proponents of rough and tumble sort of play so I’m sure there will be more boo-boos coming Eli’s way as he gets older.

Showing Mama his bat- September 27, 2009

We moved "Babyland" from the living room to the sunny kitchen nook area- September 27, 2009

He will stand and look out the window- September 27, 2009

We also did a little bit of rearranging and moved “Babyland” from our living room into the kitchen nook/sun room. We put down one of those alphabet puzzle foam floor mats so Eli has some cushion on the tile floor for his knees and in case he falls. We no longer have a dining table or formal place to eat, but Eli has a better play area. The sacrifices that parents make! LOL! It probably won’t affect us too much, though, since we have been putting off dinner until after Eli is asleep and then eating while watching our recorded tv shows. Sometimes we don’t eat until after 9 pm, and I’m reminded of my time studying abroad in Spain and how we would eat dinner late over there. The difference is that now we eat while watching tv before passing out on the couch during the middle of a show instead of eating for fuel before going out to discos and bars until 5-6 am.  That’s quite a difference! Now that Eli is starting to eat more solid foods, I’d like to have us all eat as a family (but now without a kitchen table, I’m not sure how that will happen). The main issue standing in our way is with me not getting home until 6 pm or later and then needing to immediately jump in and feed Eli. There just isn’t the time, nor do either of us really have the energy, to then prepare a meal from scratch. What we need is a personal chef…and a maid…then again, who doesn’t?!

Eli attended his first birthday party when his "cousin" Calvin turned 4 years old! Cal's big brother Noah loves Eli!- September 13, 2009

This was Eli's first trip to Toys'R'Us- September 26, 2009

He was having a lot of fun with his Mama and Dada!- September 26, 2009

Eli had fun "driving" a little car around the aisles, even if it was a pink princess car!- September 26, 2009

This bouncy horse is one of Daddy's garage sale finds- September 23, 2009

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