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We still need pics of Aunt Leah and Aunt Jira with Elliott, but here’s the start!!

I had a fabulous Mother’s Day! Jordan and Natalie made a special breakfast – protein shakes (she chose that over waffles or pancakes)! It was really fun that Natalie was excited this year to celebrate, thanks to coaching from Dado.

Natalie, I love you big sis! (I love how Elliott is looking at his big sis!)

We had a yummy dinner at Nana’s and Pop’s too!

Did you know Nana is a mom too?!!
We said goodbye to Grandma yesterday and are so thankful for her too!

Happy Mom’s Day to everyone who is a mom, wants to be a mom or loves like a mom! We are so lucky to have so many fabulous moms in our life!

Before I left for NOLA, I needed to load up on cute Natalie pics. She’s my silly little Goof-a-Loof….

For the past two years, I have been in an education fellowship program – the Broad Residency – with 40 other folks from across the country. We graduated in NOLA this week and my mom and Elliott joined me.

Representing for my Daddy who has been at Mama’s last two graduations (since they were his graduations too!)

Five other women in the program also has babies over the past two years, so we received a special Mamas award.

Although the youngest baby, Elliott was heavier than at least half of them. Another mommy referred to Elliott as a tank! :). Thank goodness Elliott isn’t old enough to roll yet or he may have squished the other kids!

The Broad folks have already started recruiting Elliott for the Class of 2041-43.

It’s never too early to advocate for great schools for all kids!!!

The three of us were able to explore the French Quarter a little too.

Elliott and I were so lucky to have Grandma with us for four days! The three of us were really glad to come
Back to Chicago to see this cutie/goofball!

where’s Natalie?

We visited our friends, Taylor (almost 2) and Hailey (5.5 weeks old, 8 days younger than Elliott) for a Friday afternoon play date. (A little different Friday afternoon than their mom Kate, one of my college roommates senior year, and I used to have!) we wouldn’t trade if for the world though! So much cuteness!!!

PS I write this 10 min before our grad school reunion starts. Such is the life of a mom!

Elliott and I studied up on letters, Eric Carle style, this morning. He was inspired by his big sister’s love for letters. (See end of post for a video of some her favs.).

no, E stands for Elliott – not elephant!

glad you agree Mama

After a busy morning, Elliott was happy to take a break and cuddle with Nana, who kindly comes over a couple times a week to give me a break and spend some QT with Elliott.

This is my kind of tummy time

Now if I could only find the letter D for Dado….

I have 25 more variations for anyone who is interested!

No surprise, but Elliott is off the charts in weight, height and head circumference. Good news is that he is very proportional.

Weight: 13 lbs, 10 oz. (98th percentile) – compared to Natalie who was 10 lbs, 13 oz (67th percentile, although this varies by gender). Jordan had guessed 12.5 lbs; I guessed 12 lbs. We were off!

Height: 23.5 inches (100th percentile)

Head circumference: 41.5 cm (100-105th percentile) The doc asked me if we had any big heads in the family… I responded no, but that is totally incorrect. His Daddy kinda has a big head, as evidenced by his large baseball caps. That would also explain why the baby hats that I ordered for 0-6 mo. didn’t fit, nor did any from his big cousin Trevor. Luckily, Nana scored us a couple from Bloomingdale’s!

My sister Leah recently emailed me: “Also, the amount of Elliott pictures is already a lot less than Natalie pics! The wo’s of a being the second child ;)”. So here you go!

Thanks for the love Auntie Leah! Way to look out for the youngest!

I like your kiss but how about you let Mama hold me instead?

Yay! The girls included me on their play date!! They are exhausting. I slept for 40 min straight in my crib after Mama and I got home!

Aw, Ms Megan. Thanks for the special 1-on-1!

Natalie’s friend Hannah just became a big sister too! Her Dad (my boss) is on paternity leave so we have has two fun-filled, but hectic, play dates this week.

Natalie was having some trouble sharing Mama so we talked about some great things about being a big sis. Big sisters can:

Play with play dough
Eat mini bagels
Dance
Have friends over
Play with toys
Hold babies

Babies cannot do those! They mostly do this:

Elliott also loves sleeping in the Ergo baby carrier. I need to try to wean him from this a little.

Natalie continues to shower Elliott with kisses and try to help when he is crying. As long as that help doesn’t mean Mama carrying Elliott instead of her. That’s reasonable, right?!?

Happy 1-Month Elliott! (Okay, it was really on Friday the 19th, but Natalie was unexpectedly home after an Arctic Parade at school – it was freezing and she was crying – and an expectedly busy Saturday.)

Yep, I'm a Big Guy - certainly filling out my onesie! (My belly button, which was initially an outie, is now an innie, helped out by my good eating!)

Hey, hey, hey... I used to be the star of this blog. Don't forget about me - Natalie!

Although it has been an incredible month, I am thankful that we have our first month as parents of 2 kids under our belt – how do folks ever do a ratio of more kids than adults?!?

Here’s a summary of who Elliott is and what he likes at one month old (I tried to use the same categories as I did for Natalie… it was fun to compare and reminisce!):

Weight / Height: TBD – Doc’s appt is next Thurs, though he’s clearly gaining weight well. He’s filling out well and there’s not much room left in the 3-month clothes
Who does he look like? A lot like his big sister Natalie! He definitely has Jordan’s eyes. And probably my skin tone. My dad said this picture looks a lot like me when I was a baby… its nice to actually have a kid who might resemble some of my traits. After all, the mom is the one who was pregnant for 9.5+ months!

Do you like my St. Patrick's Day outfit? Even though I was a couple days too late to wear it on the holiday, I still am Mommy's Lucky Charm!

Favorite Food: Mom’s Milk – about 8 times a day. (He tried his first bottle with Nana yesterday… she said he was confused at first, but gulped it down.)
Nicknames: None from me yet… I have to work on it! Jordan calls him his Little Buddy (as does Natalie) and E-Man, I think. (In reading Natalie’s 1-month post, I saw that we called her Hungry Hungry Hippo… that reminded me what an incredible eater she was – she just acted like she was STARVING. Elliott is not like that, though he does eat well.)
Favorite Songs: You are my Sunshine. Mommy Loves Me. Elliott Boy (to the tune of Macho Man)
Favorite Author: None yet – we’ve read a lot of Courdory and How Do I Love You and I Love you More. Elliott loves to read in bed with his big sister, Natalie – and she loves to have him.

Natalie: Stop tickling me, Elliott! (Just kidding - more, please, more!!)

Favorite position: Lying on someone’s chest or wrapped up in the Ergo baby carrier
Fussy time: Every time he doesn’t get to fall asleep on someone and is expired
Ways to soothe: Ergo baby carrier with pacifier, jiggling, I’ve even resorted to jogging up and down the hallway in the house with Elliott on his side b/c he seems to like the motion so much. He has taken to the pacifier a little bit, though seems to be paci picky. He def. has a fav.
Places he has visited: Natalie’s school (almost daily), Doc’s office, 2 restaurants, Church, a Hotel swimming pool (sidelines only), the park
Favorite Things to Do: Watch his big sister, nap on someone, look at faces. He seems less into his black-and-white shapes than Natalie was, which were a big hit for her. He does like the Sunshine next to his diaper changing table.
Least Favorite Things: He isn’t a great independent sleeper yet… as I type this, his strapped to the front of me in the Ergo Baby Carrier (This is after 1 hr, 40 min of trying to get him to sleep in his crib on his own… the 2nd day in the row I’ve tried that for a mid-day rest!)

How is Elliott compared to Natalie? He seems a bit quieter – he doesn’t talk quite as much. I think he is a little easier going, though figuring out sleep stuff is always a challenge (we’ve made great strides since my first draft of this post 3 days ago though!) He is quick with a smile, especially in the morning after eating or when he gets a close up with Dado, Mama or Natalie. Overall, I want to spend more time getting to know him better… I feel like he slept a ton the first two weeks and I spent weeks 3 & 4 treating him like a newborn… but he’s not, so I’m still figuring this little cutie out!

How has Natalie reacted to Elliott? Natalie showers Elliott with hugs and kisses. She runs to get his “RoRo” or a paci if his fusses. She asks about him when she wakes up and wants to see him when she gets home from school (or at school, if Elliott goes to pick her up too). If Elliott is fussing, she’ll ask Jordan to pick him up. One time, she did say that she wanted Elliott to “go bye bye”. I asked her why and she said because she didn’t want me to feed him and she wanted to play with me. We talk about how its okay to be sad sometimes that she has to share me or Dado or sad about some of the changes. Her teachers at school said that they haven’t seen any change in her behavior… and in fact, the week he was born, she was awarded the Sapphire Hero for being such a good communicator about her baby brother! All in all, Elliott couldn’t have a sweeter big sister than the one he has. We are so proud of her and can learn a lot from the generous love she shares.

Hey Mom, are you taking this picture because you're impressed with my neck strength... or because you really just want to show off the whale on my cute bum?

Thanks for reading our blog and caring about our two cute, wonderful, adorable and loving kids!