Nine Months Old

Today my mom's dad, Wayne Hiner, passed away at age 80. He was a sweetheart of a man and will be missed very much in our family. He had cancer which took him very quickly. Fortunately he was able to meet Elliot in August when we visited him in Colorado.

Meanwhile, Elliot is now nine months old. Here are some new tricks he is doing.

He pulls himself up to standing very easily now.

Instead of watching us put the ball down the hole in his piano toy, he can put the ball down the hole all by himself.

He can go from a crawling position to a sitting position.

We put him in his hop & pop bouncy seat toy and he bounces all over the living room.

He likes to take showers in the morning with mama. He really likes the shower spray on his head, but even more he likes to sit on the shower floor and play with his Sesame Street bath toys while mama washes her hair.

He is taking to the bottle very well, although formula causes him to sometimes spit up. It also doesn't make for the easiest clean-up at diaper changing time. He still likes the boob before bed and luckily I still have milk for him then.

He loves Yo Baby! yogurt and would eat this for every meal if we let him.

He is a squirmy worm on his changing table, and poop usually ends up in places it shouldn't.

His favorite games are chasing Abby around the house to steal her bone, and pulling her water dish over on himself, then splashing in the water. These are not Abby's favorite games but she puts up with it because he gives her his teething biscuits.

There is still no sign of his top two teeth. Maybe he will get them for Christmas.

We leave for Colorado on Thursday. Merry Christmas!

Moving... and a Playmate for Elliot

We finally moved. Moving is not our favorite activity, but we are unpacked and are happy to be in our big and bright new space. We are in a family area in South Austin with walking trails, parks and a pond for Abby. Elliot has room to move all over the house, and Abby has lots of places to hide from him. Best of all we have a dishwasher and a garbage disposal. After only a week here, it is safe to say we will never go back to living in an old house without modern conven-
iences!

As if we didn't have enough excitement around here, we will be doubling our fun come mid-June when we have another baby. We might be crazy, as Elliot will be 15 months old when the next one is born. At first I was feeling like I was intruding on Elliot's babyhood by bringing another baby into the family so soon. That might seem crazy, but feeling sick and yucky didn't have me in the best mood. But those feelings passed and now I am excited to have two little tikes running around here. They will be great buddies. Dr. Polon says we are very lucky. I am in the 14th week of this pregnancy and looking forward to the end of morning sickness very soon I hope.

As for Elliot... although he is still very much a boob boy, I have far less milk for him now. My supply went down when I became pregnant, but now that I am heading into the second trimester, it is slowly diminishing. It makes me sad because I am having to wean him much earlier than I had ever wanted. I still have a little milk throughout the day and at bedtime, so he gets the boob for a little longer. Overall I think formula is expensive and inconvenient so I'm glad I was able to breastfeed for this long. Elliot doesn't mind the bottle so much because this morning he gulped down 10 ounces.

He also likes solid foods, and especially likes to whine for ours even if it's a slice of pizza. He has mastered the army crawl and can really cruise. He also likes to do downward dog and cobra yoga poses a lot. He has pulled himself up to standing about 3-4 times. Getting back down is trickier. He says "ma ma ma" especially when he is tired, hurt or sick. He can also say "da da" and "ba ba". But it is all just babble at this point. He also really likes his bouncy chair called a "Hop & Pop".

We are looking forward to going to Ouray next week for Christmas and New Year's. We can't wait to get home to the mountains and see our families. We really miss them, and they really miss Elliot. We will be flying, so Abby is spending the holidays at Dogboys Dog Ranch. We will miss her but we seriously doubt she will miss us. She loves that place.