4 months/Christmas

Here's a funny picture to start out the post....Daddy likes to make me look funny when we are changing my clothes....silly daddy!


Anyway, Eli turned 4 months on Christmas Day! We've so far had 2 gift opening sessions and have one more to go this coming weekend in Des Moines. It will be our first out of town/overnight trip! Hopefully all will go well. Eli has received an abundant amount of gifts including clothes, toys, & books. He now wears 9 month clothes and so we encouraged buying 12 month size so it would fit nicely and he can wear it for longer than a couple of weeks. Aunt Holly, Uncle Chris, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Stephanie and Grandma Bidney came down from Des Moines over the weekend to participate in Eli's baby blessing on the 23rd. I will post about this later as I need to get the pictures from my sister. Grandma Bidney is staying with us and will drive back up to Des Moines with us this weekend. We opened gifts with them on Saturday and with the Clarkson side on Christmas day. Lots of fun!! Here are pictures to show our festivities:

Gift opening with Bidney side

Daddy reading 'The Night Before Christmas' (see video below)

My Christmas outfit....aren't I adorable

Mommy & me

I love Christmas!

My family (I'm their precious gift ;)

See a pair of my new overalls!!

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Today we had our 4 month well check and Eli passed with flying colors. He weighs 18 lbs. 3 oz. and is 26 3/4 inches tall....95th percentile for both!! He can start eating cereal if we chose but it is up to us. He can remain exclusively breastfed until 6 months when we would start food. We'll see what we decide although he does watch us eat very intently. We also will need to get a convertible car seat pretty soon before he reaches 30 inches. I never thought about needing a new car seat so soon! We also will take away the sleep positioner and see how he does in his pack-n-play bassinet before moving him to his crib sometime in January. I also will start trying to wean him from sleeping on or with mommy during nap time. I will start with one nap a day and move up to 2 and so on over the next couple of months. I must do this before he goes to daycare starting around March (or whenever I find a job). All of this will be a big transition for all of us! Wish us luck!

Eli seems to be doing something new each week. He really is grabbing his toys now and even takes them out of the toy bin when I lay it next to him. He is pulling my hair/necklaces, anything he can grab and boy, does he pull hard! He is starting to try to roll over by looking back and going to his side. He still struggles with tummy time but at the doc he did very well with it and pushed himself up while playing/eating the bed liner. We decided we need to buy crinkly paper for him to lay on during tummy time as he seems to like it and it gives him motivation to lift his head. Tonight we used tissue paper and he lifted his head pretty well again. He also talks like CRAZY!! At breastfeeding group they can't believe how much he talks for his age. He is always cooing and almost screaming it is so loud and high pitched. He loves music probably due to us always singing to him. The toys that sing and talk are his favorite as they really grab his attention.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and I'll post about Eli's blessing next week. Have a great new year!!

16 weeks

This week was pretty uneventful and for some reason I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. Part of that is probably due to Eli and I have a slight cold that started on Thursday. My throat has been hurting and I've been congested and sneezy. Eli is primarily snotty, coughs a little and sneezes. But, he doesn't act sick and just keeps on with his high activity level! This was hard on mommy, especially on Friday, but we made it. Hopefully we'll both improve soon, if not, I'll take Eli to the doc.

Monday we went to the chiro and she said we don't have to go back for 2 weeks. He really doesn't have much of an issue anymore except for when he is tired he tends to favor that side still. Now I need to go to the chiropractor as my pelvic pain never really went away after he was born. I'm out of wack somewhere in there for sure so probably starting in January I will go.

Due to the weather on Monday and our cold on Friday, we didn't attend breastfeeding group this week. Therefore, I have no weight to report. I imagine he has reached the 17 lbs. mark. Big boy!

We are looking forward to Christmas. For one, Eli will turn 4 months on Christmas Day! We bought Eli his 1st Christmas ornament and a cute stocking that has Rudolph who sings. Our plan is to stay in KC due to Eli being blessed the 23rd and then go to DM for New Years. This will be our first outside of KC trip and I'm a little concerned about it. Eli can do wonderful in the car but other times he just has a melt down. When I say melt down, I mean it as he starts to choke he is crying so hard! So, the usual 3 hour trip will probably be 4 due to him needing to eat and having to stop to make him happy. We will bring our pack-n-play for him to sleep in, which is fine because that's what he sleeps in right now. Hopefully his sleep won't be too messed up due to different surroundings.

Enjoy the pics and videos!

Whoops, my arm is stuck in my leg hole...but I don't mind!

Extreme close up!

Me and Mr. Blue Bear!

Trying the swing in the upright position....I'm a big boy!

Play with my toys...whatever...watch t.v. instead!

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Just playing around with mommy!

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Long video of me making funny faces in the jumeroo with daddy watching me

Bumbo Wars

Eric found these videos on youtube....too funny...

Bumbo Wars
Bumbo Wars II
Bumbo Wars III

15 Weeks!

Eli turned 15 weeks this weekend...soon to be 4 months-on Christmas Day! Eli was able to enjoy his first snow and ice (we were pretty much "iced" in this weekend). Not too many activities this week except that Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris came to visit for the afternoon on Monday. As soon as they walked in, Eli immediately showed Aunt Holly how funny he thought she was by laughing at everything she did. It was too cute. Here's pics & video of their visit:


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Even though it was a short visit it was good to see them! They'll be back along with Aunt Sarah & Stephanie and Grandma Bidney the weekend before Christmas to attend and participate in Eli's blessing. Eli and his friend Pari Smith (Vadsana & Adam's littlest one) will be blessed during the same service. It should be really beautiful as Aunt Holly & Sarah are playing their violins and Da & Sue are singing a song. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Eli continues to babble and babble along with exercising all of his arm and leg muscles. He is so active when he is awake! He does well with his sleeping at night by going to bed between 8pm-9pm and then waking to nurse anywhere from 2am-4am. That's anywhere from 5-8 hours at a time! After the initial long stretch it reduces to 3 hours and then back to 2 hours by morning. Napping is a different story, though. If he falls asleep while nursing or I get him to sleep while cradling him, OR I lay next to him, he can sleep for 1 to 2 hours. If I lay him in the guest room (the darkest room due to the sky light in our room), his naps are at the most, 30 minutes. I've noticed and read about a correlation between how well they nap and sleeping at night so I usually allow him to sleep on me and I just watch t.v. I'd love to be able to lay him down at least once during the day, but it just never works! I'm not willing to do any sleep training, at least not now, PLUS, he can be so stubborn about everything else (which he gets from his parents), so I highly doubt letting him cry would even work! Anyway, I'm hoping as he grows older he'll get better with his naps....we'll see!!

Eli spent the first time away from mommy & daddy for longer than 2 hours on Friday night. Mommy & daddy attended daddy's work Christmas party and Eli stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson. I was initially concerned due to his difficulty taking a bottle, but he decided he was hungry enough to take it (after a little stubborness, off course ;), so that made mommy feel much better. Now I know he will take the bottle while I am away, so that is a big relief.

We went to the doctor on Monday to check on his torticollis. The doc stated that he looked much better and that the chiropractic care must be doing the trick. Yay! We'll just keep doing what the chiro says to do and stretches at home. Eli still hates tummy time and has a hard time lifting his head. This is partly due to his torticollis, so hopefully this will improve now. He does really well with holding his head up and even standing (with help, of course), so I know his neck muscles are strengthening. I just don't think he has figured out how to use his arms to push up. Here is some video to show this and how he gets really upset while on his tummy:


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I love ANYTHING in my mouth now days....especially my hand or fingers!

What are you looking at?

I'm just cute...that's all!

Guy time with Daddy (watching t.v., of course!)

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My new monkey hat...it's so warm!

Eli's first snow....

Eli wasn't too impressed by the snowfall today. He just seemed to look at it and think to himself "boy, it's cold out here, why don't I have my coat on??" But, here are the pics and a video of his first experience with snow.

I think this picture is funny because we have the same furrowed brow

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14 weeks

Eli turned 14 weeks this weekend and he sure is a growing boy! On Friday he weighed 16 lbs. 7 oz.-no slow down in sight yet! The lactation consultants say that breastfed babies tend to slow down on their weight gain around this time so we'll see if he does or not.

This week was pretty low key. We went to the chiropractor on Monday and go again tomorrow. He continues to improve and is only going weekly. Soon he'll stop going all together and just return when he starts to crawl and other milestones to make sure he stays aligned. Eric worked this weekend so we had a slow weekend, too. Our friend Sue came to visit which was nice and I actually got a picture of her holding Eli. I take a lot of pictures of him and forget to get pics of him with people, so I'm trying to do better with this. Today we decorated the Christmas tree and Eli did so well during this. He sat in his papasan chair and then I held him in his Baby Bjorn which he really seemed to like. We had the fire going, drank hot chocolate and watched 'A Christmas Story' so it was a lot of fun.

This coming week we see the doc to confirm his torticollis is improving and see the chiro after that. Thursday we are attending a program called Music with Mar that is being sponsored by Parents As Teachers. I guess it's similar to Kindermusik so it should be fun. Eli really likes music so he should enjoy it. Friday we leave Eli for the first time (for longer than an hour) to attend Eric's work Christmas party. Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson are baby sitting so it should be fun. He is better about taking milk from a bottle but only if he is really hungry. We plan to only be gone for about 3-4 hours so he may not even need to take a bottle before going to bed. Hopefully he'll do well for them and take the bottle and go to bed without an issue. I'm sure I'll be wondering how he's doing the entire time I'm gone...but he'll be in good hands!

Fun things Eli is doing:

1. Eli continues to talk, smile and laugh A LOT. Sometimes he does this cute thing where he will smile and then turn his head like he's being shy. We'll have to see if he keeps that up as he gets older.
2. One of my favorite things he has started to do is he loves his hands and has them in his mouth, grabs for toys, and is just really active with them. While breastfeeding or trying to nap with him, he takes my hand and plays with it with his hand. His hands are so beautiful and it's so fun to play with him like this.
3. While feeding he does a lot more of unlatching and looking up at me or around if he hears his daddy. He also does this funny thing of looking up at me and then smiling and talking and then turning his head back to feed, latches on, and then comes off again about 5 seconds later and does it again. It's too cute. I'm glad I stuck through all the problems with breastfeeding as it is a time I really enjoy now....very precious time!!!
4. He loves to look in the mirror at himself and mommy & daddy. He just smiles and laughs...so cute!
5. While reading to him he is starting to grab for the book and act like he wants to turn the page!
6. When daddy calls I put him on speaker phone and Eli's eyes just get really big and he stares at the phone. He loves his daddy!

Okay, now for the fun part-pics & videos!!

I have a funny tail in the back of my head!

Mommy & Daddy are #1!

I was watching my mobile and mommy came to check on me and I had turned myself onto my side to look at my crib bumper-not quite all the way yet but getting close!

Just a cute picture of me

Looking at the parrot on my jumperoo

With my friend Sue

Looking at the pretty tree with mommy

Mommy & me

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Good times

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Just talking to my toys!