music lover

One of Elijah's favorite music pieces is Benedictine chant. It's a two volume album. We keep one disk in the car, so that when he gets restless, we just turn it on and Elijah freezes right away, listening. The other CD is kept at home, for all of our listening pleasure.

tooth #1

Yes, we have our first tooth! I could feel it yesterday when Elijah was sucking (or, rather, biting) on my knuckle, but he didn't let me look closely. Today, however, we were able to look and see a tiny little white line in the middle of his lower gum. Razor sharp!

a walk that never happened

Living among boxes for three plus weeks has been a challenge. One of the results is that some things I planned never happened. For example, early in our life at the new apartment Elijah and I were hoping to go on a walk. It used to be that a walk was a matter of tying my shoes and getting out the door. Not any more. Now we need a stroller, a diaper bag, a bottle of water for me, a toy for the baby, a hat for each of us, and the list goes on. Finding all of this among a stack of boxes triples the effort involved. It took me at least thirty minutes to get everything ready, but for the life of me I could not find Elijah's hat! I did, however, find my bandana. When we finally got outside, I couldn't open the stroller with just one hand (something came off while it was being transported from the old apartment), and Elijah screamed in my ear while I was holding him with my other arm. The walk had to be called off, but I figured I'd at least take a picture.

sitting up

I promised a picture of Elijah sitting up a few weeks ago. Here it is. It's still in the old apartment. Elijah learned to sit on the bed as pictured (he practiced with Daddy every morning for a while). He also learned that falling down from sitting position is fun and soft. He still throws himself back with reckless abandon when sitting on the floor. To minimize brain damage, I usually surround him with pillows for now :)

sleepy feet

I am not sure if feet can be sleepy. I know eyes can, but feet? In any case, here's proof that I sneak into my child's bedroom when he is asleep and take pictures of his feet. It may seem a little weird, but I can't help myself. I just find it too precious to go unphotographed.

seven months old

Here we go, Elijah's seven months old picture. Note the presence of hair! It may be short, but it is unmistakably there! :)

hats off!

Elijah figured out how to take off his hat. It took him a few days to perfect his technique, but he is now quite good at it. He is usually supposed to wear a hat when we go outside on walks, but it appears that he came to a conclusion that hats are overrated, and likes to take his off and throw it overboard. After that the events usually unfold as follows: we run the hat over with the stroller, go for a while without it, then I notice the hat is missing, and we spend the next several minutes retracing our steps looking for the hat. Once the hat is found, it goes back on Elijah's head, and everything starts over.

fourteen days without the internet

We moved to a new apartment! Whether the move was successful or not is a matter of oppinion, but the fact is that all three of us are now reasonably settled in our new home.

It took Elijah a couple of weeks to get used to his new bedroom separate from his parents. The poor child had a rough first night, and perhaps that set the tone for the next two weeks. We didn't make it in on our first day till after 10 pm, which means he was woken up several times after his usual bed time (to get into the car and then to get out of it - he is such a light sleeper sometimes). Once in the new apartment, it took several attempts to put him back to sleep. One of them was a brilliant idea to put him on the floor on his mattrass. He, of course, rolled off of it unto the floor minutes after we left him there sound asleep.

I had all kinds of plans for finding parks, mothers' groups and things to do with babies in the area. Turns out, you (or at least I) can't do much without the internet. I couldn't buy books I wanted, couldn't look up stores near by, or do much of anything for fourteen days! The theme song for me during those two weeks became this (think "internet" where it says "you"):

I can't stop thinking about you,
I can't imagine living without you!

milk carton

Every morning we have breakfast as a family. Elijah, actually, eats first. It's easier that way :) Once he is done, Ryan and I sit down to a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and some milk. Since Elijah is usually very calm and rested in the morning, he quietly plays with whatever toy we give him until we are done and ready to start the day.

Not so during dinner. He is at the end of his day and the end of his rope. He demands attention. No toy satisfies him. Then one day we stumbled upon an ... empty Organic Valley milk carton. I guess it doesn't really matter that it was Organic Valley milk, but the milk is good, so why not mention the brand? Elijah usually wants to get a hold of whatever is on the table, and that time it was the milk carton. A milk carton is not a knife, not a fork, nor Daddy's tea, nor Mommy's Russian salami, so we didn't really mind him playing with it. And what a find it was! It's big enough to keep Elijah's attention, hard enough to grab to keep it challenging, and parts of it are easy to suck on. Best of all, he loves it! We've had a number of peaceful dinners since.

koala kare bear

Turns out, Elijah only likes his changing table, and he is not fooled when he has to be changed on one of those Koala Kare Bear changing stations in public restrooms. We learned it the hard way.

Since we are moving to a new apartment (and what now feels like a new life) early July, we have been making it a point to spend some time with friends living on the north side of Chicago (we are moving to the south side). Tonight we went to Chipotle with my co-worker Bob. While en route, Elijah was making sounds of what seemed like hard straining. We had a guess of what he was doing, and we were right. It wasn't just the diaper, it was his clothes and the car seat that got dirty as well. Chipotle, to my surprise, did not have a changing station, so I had to take Elijah to a Corner Bakery next door.

This was our very first time changing the diaper in a public restroom. The moment I laid him down, he started screaming so loud, I was afraid people were going to come to check out what was going on. My (what I considered to be) comforting whispers had no effect, and I was a little too self-conscious to sing him my Russian cartoon songs. I ended up having to hold the naked screaming child with one arm and clean him with my free hand, all the way hoping he wouldn't pee on me. After all, I still hadn't had dinner at that point. I also learned that those changing station aren't big enough to lay the dirty diaper and wipes out of baby's reach. The thought of other people's diapers getting turned over by their baby's kicking was enough to give Elijah a soap bath.

My dinner, but the way, was delicious. Thanks Bob!

six months checkup

Weight: 19 lb 12 oz
Height: 26.5 inches (according to the doctor's records, Elijah only grew 0.5 inches in the last time, but we all agreed that there's a good chance one of the previous measurements was off).
Head circumference: can't remember (those mind-erasing pregnancy hormones are not all gone yet :-))

We can't wait till Elijah is over 20 lbs, so that we can legally turn his car seat and face it forward. The poor kid doesn't fit in it any more facing backwards. His legs are bent and his feed are pushing against the back seat.

He's been sleeping and eating like crazy in the last couple of days, so we are guessing he is growing. At this rate he'll probably hit 20 lbs before the week is over!

Elijah's first "bonk"

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. My little baby was going to get hurt one way or another. And so he did. He was practicing sitting on the floor (he is getting quite good at it) and was doing so well. I was right there watching him like a hawk, making sure I'd catch him if he lost his balance. But he didn't need my help. He was busy chewing and shaking his toys. Then, for a few short seconds, I looked away to answer Ryan. The next thing I saw was Elijah's head heading for the floor, and then "bonk!" and a scream. Oh, no! My child will be brain damaged for life!

He cried for less than 2 minutes, and was once again a happy baby sucking his thumb. And it looks like he is going to be just fine.

P.S. Come to think of it, this wasn't the first time he was hurt. A few weeks ago he got pinched by a high chair buckle.

official picture

Help us choose the official six months old picture. Which one should it be: the tongue or the smile? Cast your vote by leaving a comment!

six months old

Elijah turned 6 months today! To celebrate the event, North Park Covenant Church threw a block party complete with food, games, and other attractions! (OK, the party was planned independently of Elijah's big day and just happened to be today, so what?) We spent almost three hours outside - the longest he's ever been outside in one stretch. The activity all around kept our curious boy awake for a while, but he finally crashed in his new backpack carrier (thanks Jim and Norma!)

He also learned how to sit by himself in the last few days with a lot of help from Daddy and hours of practice. He is not always entirely stable yet, but he's getting there. I'll try to post a picture when I get one. Stay tuned!

watch your watch

If you have a watch, you'd better watch it. Elijah loves watches. If he sees one on your wrist, he will work hard to get it, because he just absolutely must have it! It doesn't matter if it's a fancy watch or not, expensive or cheap, as long as it's within reach.

not embearrassed (or is he?)

wilson

Elijah's new favorite (competing with his keys) is a toy that's good for many things: it makes noise, it has a convenient holding handle, it has a face to look at, and "hair" to suck on. We call it Wilson, after Tom Hanks' island companion from the movie Castaway. Tom Hanks' Wilson started as the first image, and ended up as the second. Elijah's Wilson is starting out as shown on the picture. We'll see what it ends up like ;)

a moving toy

One of Elijah's outfits has feet that look like a ducky's head, complete with yellow fuzzies, blue eyes, and a red beak (click on the picture to get a better view). Each time he wears it, his attention is caught by these two bright moving objects, and he is very curious about what those things are. He reaches for them and tries to grab them with his hand. However, the two duckies are very devious. They keep moving, which makes it hard to grab them. This can get very frustrating, especially if you are five months old and absolutely must have the thing you want, yet lack the hand-eye coordination to make it happen.

two boys

A (former) co-worker came to the office the other day to say good-bye and to show off her four months old baby boy Calvin. He was born just 6 weeks after Elijah. Taking the opportunity, Elijah visited Mommy's work as well, and made a debut at the IS department. The last time the two boys were in such close proximity of each other was back in November before either of them was born. As you can see on the picture, Calvin has by far more hair, and his fingers seem to be a preferred snack.

Who knows, in 18 years Calvin and Elijah might end up as roommates at North Park, but they both have a lot of ground to cover before that (minor things like sitting, walking and talking would be good).

he rolled over!

Well, he sort of rolled over. Ryan put him down on his back. Next time he looked Elijah was playing on his side, as he has been doing for a while. The next time Ryan looked, Elijah was playing on his tummy. We think it was more of an accident rather than a purposeful "I want to be on my tummy so I am going to roll over now" kind of thing. He probably wanted to look at something, arched his back, and ended up on his tummy. He has previously rolled over from his tummy onto his back, but that really was an accident, as he just lost his balance and then looked very surprised to find himself flipping on his back. That was a while ago when grandma from Russia was visiting us. Yet, the fact remains. Today is the official first roll-over day.