cookie monster

When Ryan was little, he had a Cookie Monster. Now Elijah (like father, like son) has one too! Once in a while the cookie monster comes alive in Daddy's hands.

touch and feel

Last time we tried to read a book, Elijah was mostly interested in sucking on it. But times have changed! He is now able to somewhat concentrate on what's on the actual pages, although he still makes attempts to explore the book with his mouth. Yet he has discovered a new tool for exploration as well - his index finger! And it works perfectly for Touch and Feel books. His favorite page is in the Pets book - a cat. He loves to pull on the cat's whiskers (pieces of fishing line).

It's fun to see him recognize distinct shapes on a page. In another book we have (Who Lives In The Pond) he likes to point at small pink things (a snail and a salamander). They are marginal unimportant characters in the book, but each time we turn a page that has one of them on it, his tries to scrape it off with his index finger.

eight months old

We celebrated Elijah's eighth month birthday by heading to our favorite park (it also happens to be the one within walking distance, which makes it our park of choice in the absence of a car). Once again, the day was beautiful, the park mostly quiet (at least when we arrived), the swing empty. We had a picnic lunch right there, although Elijah was more interested in watching other kids (who filled the play ground by lunch time) swing, than eat. So most of the food ended up on his face.

In the evening, when Daddy came home, we took our official picture. Here it is.

dessert

Eating solids has been an adventure for us. After Elijah's initial love of rice cereal and bananas, we offered him peaches. He made the funniest faces and we about died laughing, but the sad result was that he refused to take solids for at least two months after that. He would make a face when he'd just see the spoon, long before anything reached his mouth. Finally, a couple weeks ago, we had a fresh start. This time we offered vegetables, and he fell in love with them! We usually start him with a container of sweet potatoes, squash or green beans each night for dinner, after which we offer bananas or apple sauce for "dessert". The veggies go down pretty well, but he would let us know he is done after just a few spoons of fruit. (When he thinks it's more fun to blow food out through pursed lips than to swallow it, we know he is done!) We thought that perhaps he was too full by that time, until one day we gave him fruit first. He ate a couple spoonfuls and was done. That didn't seem right, as he usually eats at least one container. We then offered some veggies, and he ate them up! From now on, vegetables are served for dessert! The only thing he still can't make friends with are green peas.

This is a video of Elijah eating peaches on June 15th, 2006.

life is beautiful

Life with a young baby can be challenging at times. It's not always a walk in a park, but today it was :)

My plan was to have Elijah sit in his stroller at a nearby playground and watch bigger kids play while I read The Economist. But no one else was at the park. Well, almost nobody. There was a dad with a girl of what looked like about 5 years old, plus a couple people (looked like a grandfather with a granddaughter) played tennis a little way off. They were pretty bad, but didn't care a bit and apparently thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Good for them!

Having nothing for Elijah to look at, I had to take it upon myself to entertain him. He spent a little time in a swing, rode a small iron horse, walked a little, and then decided he was tired. I held him in my arms and paced back and forth for a while. It was a beautiful day. A sunny blue sky, a cool breeze, a quiet park, green trees, a squeaky swing, tiny shoes, small steps, a precious little baby boy with blue eyes, a content mother. What else does one need?* Life is beautiful.

The peace was so overwhelming that I couldn't help but hum a little to myself (I indulge myself in singing once in a while, but only when no one can hear, as I really can't carry a tune in a paper bag):

If you want to live life free,
Take your time, go slowly.
Do few things, but do them well.
Little joys are holy.

*All right, one also needs a job, a place to live, something to eat and to wear, and preferably health insurance. But other than that?

tooth #2

We discovered tooth #2 yesterday. We knew it was coming a couple days ago, but could feel its sharpness with our fingers yesterday. It's one of the top front teeth (his right side). While Ryan was trying to feel it again today, Elijah dug his bottom one into Ryan's finger. Ouch!