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Elliott turned 7 months on Sat, Oct. 19.  We celebrated by tailgating at the ND-USC game!

I am 7 mo. And very wiggly.

Karen – our dear friend from college – and her family were kind enough to host us.  They moved to SB about 2 years ago.  Natalie and Elliott LOVED playing at their house.  Delia and Claire took very good care of Elliott… and Natalie loved joining in with the girls, but also loved Cormac showing her things.

When can I come back to Camp Kennedy?

(Note: Natalie wasn’t in this picture because she literally threw a temper tantrum about us leaving… she asked to stay behind, while the rest of us went back to Chicago because she so desperately didn’t want to leave.)

Girl time!

Weight/Height: No update here, but close to 22 lbs.  We used to call Natalie “chunk light” sometimes – Elliott is “chunk heavy”.  I am sore in all sorts of weird places after holding him a lot while tailgating and trying to keep up with his wiggles.  He likes to lean to the side to be silly.  He is solidly in 12 mo clothing.

Developmental Milestones:  This boy is on the move!  His sitting isn’t always 100% reliable (some tumbles), but his army crawl is in action.  He loves to scoot to get anything and everything he’s not really supposed to – favorites seem to be his sister’s shoe collection and her dollhouse.   His 2nd tooth broke through on his “birthday”.

See my two teeth!

Personality: Still as easy-going and happy as ever!

Hey, have you met my friend Hailey? Here, Hailey - feel free to chew on my squishy crab, Sophie the giraffe, or my sister's dolls

Foods: Elliott is getting to be a better and better eater – enhanced by his increasing fine motor skills.  Although we’ll spoon feed him cereal and Gerber foods, he can pick up O’s, small bites of soft fruit and peas with his meaty little hands.  He has seemed to like everything so far: oatmeal cereal, wheat cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, garden veggies, bananas, applesauce, pears, O’s, strawberries, cantaloupe.

Schedule: He is usually up between 6:45 and 7:30am and sleeping by 6:30pm.  He sleeps 3 times a day, spaced 2-3 hours apart.  Sometimes, if the first 2 naps are longer, he only has 2 naps.  I haven’t exactly figured out when and how much he should be eating, so he tends to eat after he wakes up and at dinner time with us.

(Seriously, how cute is this pic????)

Favorite Activities:  Chewing on everything and anything.  Bath time, especially when it involves chewing on a dolphin and splashing.  Crawling.  Getting into his sister’s things.  Peak-a-boo (loves, loves, loves that – and often initiates it).  Singing and dancing.  Swinging at the park.  The one thing he isn’t very into is “walking” with assistance – which Natalie LOVED at his age.

Let the hand-me-downs begin... you may recognize this hat and jacket (inside out) from Natalie in 2011... and these shoes were Trevor's in 2011 too!

Unique Traits: Hmm.. I cannot think of much to write about here.  He has a little freckle on his bum. No bigger marks (like how Natalie still has her strawberry mark on her wrist).

PLAY DATE!!!!!!!!

Today also marks my Mom’s 34 months (2 years, 10 months – conveniently, just 5 days shy of Nat’s age) of no smoking!!!  We are so proud of her and thankful for her commitment to this and love for her grandkids!

It’s spirit week at Nat’s preschool. Today was Crazy day. Its hard to see her full outfit but she wore the shirt that we made with the markers from the baby shower. And then, she wouldn’t wear a jacket to school (even though it was in the 50s), but I convinced her to wear her WI sweatshirt. So, she actually looks a little coordinated there. Her “twirly skirt from Grandma” has so many colors in it, almost everything kinda matched. Thursday is a day where she matches with a friend – luckily, she got her fav color – BLUE!

Jordan was in CA this past weekend, celebrating the wedding of a good friend from college.  With working full-time and Elliott still nursing 5+ times a day, I opted out of the trip.  And, Grandma and Grandpa came down to help out.

Natalie awoke Fri morning, calling “Grandma”.  She seemed to know that Grandma was coming after Dad left and that Dad would be gone, but exactly what tomorrow vs. Saturday vs. another day means… we’re still working on it.  We then called Grandma to tell her we couldn’t way to see her.  Natalie asked Grandma to say “hi” to every one of her “friends” who sleep in her bed.  She would hold up the phone and would expect Grandma to know which friend she was referring to.  (We’re also still working on the concept that Grandma doesn’t have a smart phone.)  Grandma only seems to be a morning person when it has anything to do with Natalie, Trevor or Elliott, so she cheerfully greeted Natalie’s friends for about 4 min at 7a.m.

Elliott has had the sniffles, so his morning naps were long.  The only thing we really had time for outside of the house on Saturday was a picnic in the park.

Mom, why is Elliott wearing my pink Elmo bib??

Natalie loves playing hide and seek in the park.  Elliott had a grand time too.  (Note: this morning, I awoke to Elliott pulling his leopard onesie over his face as a greeting to me and shrieking with joy as I pulled it off.)

Whoa!  How’d you find us?

On Sun, we ventured out to the zoo – one of Grandma’s favorites.  Natalie has been resisting picture taking lately, but my trick to have Grandpa take a pic of just Grandma, Elliott and me brought her in for a fast cuddle.  Granted, its not a smiling picture, but I’ll take a cuddle!

Hey Grandpa, you should get in on this picture with all of our favorite girls!

Mom, enough picture taking – I need you to hold onto me.  This zebra is high!

I got more QT with Elliott than I have had since my maternity leave… which means that Natalie was constantly busy with Grandma.  At one point, she asked me to give her and Grandma “a little privacy please”.  Ouch.  Jordan sometimes gets this, but I don’t.  Miss Independent (or perhaps, Miss Dependent-on-Grandma).  At one point, Grandma went over to look at Elliott and Natalie asked where she went.  Grandma explained that she was coming back and Natalie said… “you were looking at Elliott!” As if she caught her doing something she shouldn’t have.

Quick – take our pic before my sister sees!  P.S. Go Pack!

We are so blessed to have my parents close and more than happy to help out at any time.  Unfortunately, they were rear-ended on the way down here (luckily, everyone is okay – if not the bumper and it was 2 miles from our house, which means they couldn’t turn around).  Although my Dad would probably bypass the City of Chicago for the rest of his life, we have 2 cuties that keep them coming back!

I think I saw a ghost!

Granted, I put EVERYTHING in my mouth, but I’m not so sure about this

This isn’t mine! It’s Elliott’s!

I ‘m a little MOBILE monkey these days!

While watching her first movie, Finding Nemo, Natalie made the suggestion that Nemo’s dad “should take an airplane to find Nemo”.

While Jordan was sneaking spinach into the morning smoothie, Natalie tattled to me: “Daddy is putting salad in my protein shake!”

Elliott is such a playful little buddy. He LOVES peak-a-boo and often initiates the game. If I’m changing his diaper and give him a lovey to play with or set his pants on his tummy, he grabs whatever and puts it over his face. He then chuckles and squirms until I saw “Where’s Elliott???” and pull the fabric down. Then, repeat. Again and again. I really think he’s quite advanced. 🙂

He LOVES rasberries lately too. Once again, he initiates and loves when you make a silly noise back.

Finally, we’re trying to teach him sign language…. we found it so helpful when our former nanny Kaila taught Natalie signs like “more” when she was about 15 mo. old. I guess you can start as early as 6 mo. So, we’re starting with Milk and Sister. Which are two of his fav things. Our current nanny Phoebe told us that Elliott was just cracking up at the sign for sister. So cute. Those two are good buds.

How is this just not the cutest thing ever? I am such a lucky Mama.

Hey there little brother….

These two were enjoying Mr. Singer this morning! Natalie and Mr. Singer had an extensive conversation at the end of the concert… she told him that Nana works in the garden, that she was going to ask Nana where Poppy was, that her Daddy read Madeline to her this morning and that her brother’s name is Elliott. Mr. Singer commented that he feels like Natalie understands his music more than most kids and that makes him happy. He carried and talked to her for a couple minutes – I was very surprised that Nat would go to him for so long, esp. since he was uber-sweaty.

Nana’s friend from the garden, Gloria, showed Natalie how to be a farmer by laying down hay. Natalie also liked the watermelon and spiky cucumber that Nana shared! “Nana, do you have a snack for me in the garden???”

Farming is fun, Gloria. Can I have some more hay??

We give Mammaw, Pappaw and Pop credit for jumping out of bed to join us. Elliott was kinda zoned out when Mammaw arrived, so I had to get down low to catch his attention. He also tried hay this morning.

Yep, just hanging with my ladies….

The sun was super bright, hence my inability to get a good pic where both kids were smiling, but this is still super cute.

The sun is too bright! Mom’s glasses are too big! I want a snack! I want to see an animal!

Before nap, Natalie and I read Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems, which we got from the library and is a fav of hers right now. In it, Trixie dreams that Knuffle Bunny travels the world…. we think the pics are of China, Bolivia, Hawaii, Alaska, Italy, and London. When I ask Natalie where she wants to visit, she always answers…. “Alaska, where Aunt Leah is!”

Natalie keeps us laughing… its amazing to hear the things that she’s thinking about and the connections she’s making. We hear a lot of it – this girl can be a chatterbox.

Last night, Natalie decided that she needed to feed her Baby Ellie. She’s done this before, but always used a bottle. For some reason, last night, she decided to feed Baby Ellie just like I feed Elliott, so she set up her purple chair, wrapped a neck pillow around her torso and had me get Baby Ellie for her. A lot of set up for Mom… while the act of feeding took all of 30 seconds.

This weekend, she’s also been pregnant, had a baby and put the baby back in. She keeps on carrying around her “tiny little baby” (basically, an invisible baby that seems to be the size of her hand). However, she puts it back inside when it’s time to eat because she “doesn’t want to share my peanut butter and jelly (sandwich)”. Smart girl. If only it was that easy.

Natalie’s loving pretend play. Even a walk in the neighborhood has many opportunities, such as picking blue carrots out of “mud” holes in the sidewalk on the way to church/Nana’s house. When she doesn’t have a pocket to hold her carrots, she pretty much digs into the front part of her diaper (yes, she’s still in diapers). I think I’m going to have to strategically pick outfits with pockets for weekend walks for now on.

Natalie loves hide and seek lately. The four of us had a great game of hide and seek going at the park. Of course, she was famished so munched on pretend animal crackers for much of the seeking portion.

She’s also obsessed with her little farm animals as of late. They love to play doll house too. The pig and sheep are her fav.

Finally, Natalie’s really concerned with football losses. She was so sad that the Packers lost last weekend (oddly… the Packers win today didn’t seem to have as much of an impact). When Jordan was talking about the Notre Dame – Arizona State game yesterday, she asked “What’s that?” I responded that its a football game, but when she’s older she can go to Notre Dame for college, not Arizona State. She asked Why not Arizona State? Dad responded that the girls are too slutty… and I responded that she’s too smart. Jordan chimed in that she could go to UW-Madison, Harvard, or Princeton too…. gotta start this college talk early, right?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pics to share with these stories, as Natalie loves taking pictures lately, but not being in them. I was able to snap a pic of Natalie and my college roommate Tricia (who was in town for work and kindly carved out 2.5 hours to spend time with us!) on the swings. I have a few other randoms that I’ll include in here too.

Another under-duck please

I’m a giraffe. Munch. Munch

Two people doing tummy time

After a lot of teething, little E cut his first tooth!!! We will try to get a pic tomorrow! This close up doesn’t show it !

Natalie is a silly, goofy little girl…. who likes to tease and play tricks. Nearly every night, when she gets her vitamin, she gleefully runs away with my vitamin. She used to hide it behind her back. Now, she puts it under her bum while sitting in Elliott’s pod and squirms around. I usually have to close my eyes, open my mouth and count to c (a, b, c) to get her to give it to me…. these minutes are always filled with tons of giggles and smiles. The other night, when doing this routine, Natalie stuck her foot in my mouth on C. I was seriously surprised – which she just LOVED. I guess sniffing her smelly feet (a long time favorite game) wasn’t enough… I needed to taste them. Thankfully, she had had a bath that day!

A trickster? Who? Me? Never!