12.06.2009
11.24.2009
Fourth generation
Elliott recently got to meet his "Great-Pappaw," my mom's dad. It was so cool to introduce them, and see them interact. Elliott is the first boy in the family (my mom is an only child, and my parents had two girls), so it will be neat to have the new dynamic of a little boy in the mix. Since we are blessed to have my Pappaw nearby and my parents visiting for a few months in the winter, come January, we'll have an awesome opportunity for all four generations to spend time together. We're really looking forward to it, and to Elliott growing up knowing and loving his Great-Pappaw just like my sister and I have all our lives.
Elliott already loves his Great-Pappaw!
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Pappaw and Jean, proud of little Elliott!
The whole family! We look forward to another photo of all four generations when my parents come down in January.
Elliott already loves his Great-Pappaw!
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Pappaw and Jean, proud of little Elliott!
The whole family! We look forward to another photo of all four generations when my parents come down in January.
11.14.2009
Cousins meet
We recently had a great visit from Chris, Jess, Henry, and The Fetus.
Henry was pretty happy to give his cousin Elliott some help swinging.
Chris got a bit of a chill when it dropped down into the 70s.
Cousins excited to pose for a photo on the couch
Henry's first time to the "Ocean."
Henry's first time standing in the surf.
A proud uncle
Henry was pretty happy to give his cousin Elliott some help swinging.
Chris got a bit of a chill when it dropped down into the 70s.
Cousins excited to pose for a photo on the couch
Henry's first time to the "Ocean."
Henry's first time standing in the surf.
A proud uncle
10.25.2009
Go Colts!
Since it's football Sunday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to put up this post. My sister Stephanie (AKA World's Best Aunt, Colts Fan Extraordinaire) thought (i.e. knew) that her little nephew needed to represent down in Florida. So she outfitted him in some Colts gear, and we're (hopefully) making her proud! :)
10.20.2009
Two Months!
I realized I have been lame and not posted much (well, anything, to be exact) on our blog in the past month. So since Elliott turned two months old yesterday, here's a rewind of the past month of his life. (He is twice as old now as he was in the last post. Is that crazy or what?)
I took him to the doctor yesterday for his two-month well baby visit and to get his vaccinations. He officially weighs 12 lbs 8 oz and is 24.5 inches long! (He's gained over four pounds and grown almost three inches in two months!) He's in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. He's a very healthy, growing boy!
Here are some of the things we've been up to in the past month:
Showing off his big muscles...er, his rolls. :)
Finally getting to meet Aunt Stephanie! He loves her!!
Hitching a ride on Daddy's back.
Playing in his ocean gym. He plays in there for sometimes up to 30 minutes!
Taking an evening walk. Elliott loves to be outside!
Cashed out after a long drive on the way to Indiana. Not quite ready for the big boy bed, yet, though. He spent the night in a drawer. :) Driving all the way to Indiana at 7 weeks old was a pretty big experiment, since he had never been in the car for more than 10 minutes at a time before we dragged him on a 12-hour roadtrip! He was a great traveler, though -- and good thing since Kelly and I like to do a lot of roadtripping!
Elliott's been smiling and "talking" a lot more this month, and has become even more aware and engaged in his surroundings. But perhaps his biggest feat of the month was making major strides in his attempts to roll over. He tries to roll from front to back and from back to front. When he wakes up for his middle-of-the-night feeding, I now often find him laying either on his side, or 90 degrees from how I laid him down. He's moving all around!
When we first told Kelly's parents we were pregnant last Christmas, Mary wanted to get something for the "Poppy Seed." One of those things ended up being this cute pumpkin sleeper, decorated with jack-o-lanterns and candy corns. Elliott loves his mobile (he'll watch it for so long I have to restart it after the 18-minute automatic shut-off), so here's a little video of him watching his mobile in his pumpkin sleeper:
And this is his little pumpkin butt. So cute!
I will try to be better at posting things this month... :)
I took him to the doctor yesterday for his two-month well baby visit and to get his vaccinations. He officially weighs 12 lbs 8 oz and is 24.5 inches long! (He's gained over four pounds and grown almost three inches in two months!) He's in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. He's a very healthy, growing boy!
Here are some of the things we've been up to in the past month:
Showing off his big muscles...er, his rolls. :)
Finally getting to meet Aunt Stephanie! He loves her!!
Hitching a ride on Daddy's back.
Playing in his ocean gym. He plays in there for sometimes up to 30 minutes!
Taking an evening walk. Elliott loves to be outside!
Cashed out after a long drive on the way to Indiana. Not quite ready for the big boy bed, yet, though. He spent the night in a drawer. :) Driving all the way to Indiana at 7 weeks old was a pretty big experiment, since he had never been in the car for more than 10 minutes at a time before we dragged him on a 12-hour roadtrip! He was a great traveler, though -- and good thing since Kelly and I like to do a lot of roadtripping!
Elliott's been smiling and "talking" a lot more this month, and has become even more aware and engaged in his surroundings. But perhaps his biggest feat of the month was making major strides in his attempts to roll over. He tries to roll from front to back and from back to front. When he wakes up for his middle-of-the-night feeding, I now often find him laying either on his side, or 90 degrees from how I laid him down. He's moving all around!
When we first told Kelly's parents we were pregnant last Christmas, Mary wanted to get something for the "Poppy Seed." One of those things ended up being this cute pumpkin sleeper, decorated with jack-o-lanterns and candy corns. Elliott loves his mobile (he'll watch it for so long I have to restart it after the 18-minute automatic shut-off), so here's a little video of him watching his mobile in his pumpkin sleeper:
And this is his little pumpkin butt. So cute!
I will try to be better at posting things this month... :)
9.25.2009
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9.10.2009
Kidney stone
Well, this doesn't really fit into our "look at our cute baby and we're a family now" theme, but I think I can tie it in.
Shortly before Christmas of 2008, I had a kidney stone dislodge and begin the excruciating journey from the kidney to the bladder (far more painful than from the bladder to the outside world). Unlike a couple smaller stones that I had had before, this one moved slowly and lasted for a couple weeks before the pain really let up. I never found the stone, but assumed it had at least made it to the bladder because the pain was not nearly as bad.
Fast forward eight months.
Sarah is in labor, and not loving life. We've just arrived at the hospital after waiting as long as she could at home. I'm very much wanting to be a support for Sarah in that crazy process of labor and delivery, when I begin to feel the familiar sensations of a moving kidney stone. I tried to ignore it, then tried to just focus on Sarah and hide it, all the while desperately praying for it to go away so I could focus on being there for Sarah. After perhaps an hour of discomfort, it went away. Elliott's birth was an amazing process, and I was able to be present and involved the whole time, for which I am very thankful. This was enough motivation for me to go in and get it checked out. It turned out that I didn't actually have a new kidney stone. Rather, the one from December had lodged itself in the base of my right ureter and had never quite made it to my bladder. My kidney was huge and stressed from the partly blocked flow, and the stone was 1 cm across (I don't use "diameter" because it isn't really spherical). This meant I would probably never pass it on my own, so I had to get it blasted. I opted for the less invasive sonic blast option instead of having someone put a scope up there, lasering it, and manually pulling the pieces out. Either option required general anesthesia.
Here is a photo of the X-ray that shows my kidney stone. It's the light spot indicated by the huge black arrow.
Here's a photo Sarah's mom took of me a couple minutes after I woke up after the procedure. As an aside, I found out from the anesthesiologist that they don't really understand how or why the anesthesia works. They just know that it does work, and they're pretty good at using non-lethal doses. I thought that was interesting.
I feel much better now. I've heard people refer to kidney stones as the closest thing a man can experience to childbirth. After seeing child birth first-hand, and coincidentally experiencing kidney stone pain at the same time, my impression is that when it's all said and done, childbirth seems more intense and I'm glad I don't have to do it.
Shortly before Christmas of 2008, I had a kidney stone dislodge and begin the excruciating journey from the kidney to the bladder (far more painful than from the bladder to the outside world). Unlike a couple smaller stones that I had had before, this one moved slowly and lasted for a couple weeks before the pain really let up. I never found the stone, but assumed it had at least made it to the bladder because the pain was not nearly as bad.
Fast forward eight months.
Sarah is in labor, and not loving life. We've just arrived at the hospital after waiting as long as she could at home. I'm very much wanting to be a support for Sarah in that crazy process of labor and delivery, when I begin to feel the familiar sensations of a moving kidney stone. I tried to ignore it, then tried to just focus on Sarah and hide it, all the while desperately praying for it to go away so I could focus on being there for Sarah. After perhaps an hour of discomfort, it went away. Elliott's birth was an amazing process, and I was able to be present and involved the whole time, for which I am very thankful. This was enough motivation for me to go in and get it checked out. It turned out that I didn't actually have a new kidney stone. Rather, the one from December had lodged itself in the base of my right ureter and had never quite made it to my bladder. My kidney was huge and stressed from the partly blocked flow, and the stone was 1 cm across (I don't use "diameter" because it isn't really spherical). This meant I would probably never pass it on my own, so I had to get it blasted. I opted for the less invasive sonic blast option instead of having someone put a scope up there, lasering it, and manually pulling the pieces out. Either option required general anesthesia.
Here is a photo of the X-ray that shows my kidney stone. It's the light spot indicated by the huge black arrow.
Here's a photo Sarah's mom took of me a couple minutes after I woke up after the procedure. As an aside, I found out from the anesthesiologist that they don't really understand how or why the anesthesia works. They just know that it does work, and they're pretty good at using non-lethal doses. I thought that was interesting.
I feel much better now. I've heard people refer to kidney stones as the closest thing a man can experience to childbirth. After seeing child birth first-hand, and coincidentally experiencing kidney stone pain at the same time, my impression is that when it's all said and done, childbirth seems more intense and I'm glad I don't have to do it.
9.04.2009
Splish, splash
We gave Elliott his first bath the other day! He was so good and didn't cry at all -- although he did poop in the bath twice, which meant we had to wipe him down, dry him off, drain the water, wash the sponge and start all over again twice...so it took a little longer than we anticipated!
8.28.2009
Diapers green...
..., blue, orange, yellow, and white.
Sarah and I decided to use cloth diapers. Part of it was the long-term monetary savings of not continuously buying more disposable diapers. The other part was the appeal of being "green," or environmentally sensitive. After a lot of reading, mostly on Sarah's part, we realized it wasn't as cut and dry as we had originally thought. The amount of water used to wash the diapers each time, plus the energy used, especially by the dryer, is not to be ignored. However, we decided that if we could line dry the diapers, it would end up being the best option for us.
When I was a baby, I'm pretty sure the options for cloth diapers were white rectangles... or white rectangles. Though fewer people use cloth diapers now, there are more creative options than there ever have been before. With the generous help of friends and family, as well as some large buy in from us, we got the Bum Genius diapers seen in the photo above. They apparently work as easily as the preform disposables that are widely used, but can be used over and over again. They also come in fun colors if white doesn't cut it for you.
We're just at the front end of using these diapers, and will probably give an update as we develop our opinions of them. If you're interested in cloth diapering, let us know, and we'd be happy to share any info we found while researching, as well as anything helpful that's come from our own experience with them.
Sarah and I decided to use cloth diapers. Part of it was the long-term monetary savings of not continuously buying more disposable diapers. The other part was the appeal of being "green," or environmentally sensitive. After a lot of reading, mostly on Sarah's part, we realized it wasn't as cut and dry as we had originally thought. The amount of water used to wash the diapers each time, plus the energy used, especially by the dryer, is not to be ignored. However, we decided that if we could line dry the diapers, it would end up being the best option for us.
When I was a baby, I'm pretty sure the options for cloth diapers were white rectangles... or white rectangles. Though fewer people use cloth diapers now, there are more creative options than there ever have been before. With the generous help of friends and family, as well as some large buy in from us, we got the Bum Genius diapers seen in the photo above. They apparently work as easily as the preform disposables that are widely used, but can be used over and over again. They also come in fun colors if white doesn't cut it for you.
We're just at the front end of using these diapers, and will probably give an update as we develop our opinions of them. If you're interested in cloth diapering, let us know, and we'd be happy to share any info we found while researching, as well as anything helpful that's come from our own experience with them.
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