Yay for Elliot--he gets to eat real food!  Well, pureed real food anyway.  So far he has had squash and bananas and likes them both.  The food is going over better than the cereal alone did.  Now when he sees the spoon coming, he sits there with his mouth open like a baby bird.  Too cute!  Yesterday was day 3 with the bananas, so tonight he'll try some peas.  What a lucky little fella!

I think it will not be much longer until our sweet Little Peanut is crawling!  He is already rocking back and forth on all fours.  He also does the funniest thing...the worm!!  I think hip hop dancing is in this boy's future!  His form is flawless!  It makes me want to go out and get a camcorder...I'm fairly certain he would be the next You Tube sensation!  Last night he was worming toward a ball and Travis kept moving it away from him.  He just kept going for it without getting frustrated.  It was too funny!

I finally took Harry for a much needed haircut today.  I couldn't take the mullet/rat tail much longer!  He hates them so much...it's not like he's being a brat about it.  He is so terrified of the whole process and I feel so bad to force him to do something that he is so scared of.  The good thing is that it doesn't last long and he is friendly to the ladies when he is done.  After he calmed down from the haircut trauma, I had to drop him off at daycare.  Double whammy!  He has reverted back to flipping out when we take him to Katrina's again.  It is so strange, he seems to cycle through good times and bad times with the separation anxiety thing.  As soon as we get him through this, it will be Elliot's turn to go through it. 

We hope everyone has a great weekend!  Ours is chock full of activities:  Travis's 10 year class reunion (football game tonight, dinner tomorrow), church, and the Colts game on Sunday.  This doesn't leave too much time for my ever-growing list of stuff I'd like to do around the house!  Not to fear, winter will soon be here to trap us inside to get it all done! 

I think it's fair to say that Travis and I are not exactly morning people.  On some days, my job requires me to be there at 7am, and in my 5 years plus of working there, I haven't gotten used to it still.  Travis is the same way, only probaby worse.  If he had his way, he could probably sleep until noon.  So needless to say, once Harry got into a predictable sleeping pattern, we loved it because it also fit our lifestyle.  He would typically get up between 9 and 10, go down for an afternoon nap (sometimes close to 3 hrs!) and go to bed about 9:30.  It was perfect.  Then of couse, Little Peanut came along and I was up and down all night with him.  It was still not that bad because Harry got up late enough that I could still get up about 8:30 and have enough time to get a shower before he got up.  Those days are over!  Nooooooooo!  We go to bed at the same time, and he all of a sudden one day started getting up between 7:30 and 8:00.  Elliot usually follows shortly thereafter between 9 and 8:30.  Naptime has also started to become somewhat of a struggle as it usually takes us several times of him getting up and us putting him back down for him to settle down.  It kinda stinks, but I guess that is part of him getting older.  He has also tried to sneak in bed with us a few times in the middle of the night, but we haven't let him get away with that yet!  Thank goodness Elliot is regularly sleeping through the night or this early wakeup schedule would really be killing us! 

Sorry about that lack of sleep, Mom!

Elliot unbelievably turned 6 months old 2 days ago!  He has changed so much lately--into a complete wild man!  He grabs everything, rolls everywhere, babbles and screeches all day long, and as you can see from the next picture, can almost sit up all by himself.  He continues to be his very happy, good-natured baby self, and for that we are very grateful.  We went to the doctor today for his 6 month well baby check and for 3 shots.  Just like last time, he didn't cry at all for the first stick and just a little bit for the last 2.  Such a brave and strong boy already!  Here's the tale of the tape:

• Weight 16 lbs 8 oz (40th percentile)
• Length 27 in (75th percentile)
• Head 44 cm (50th percentile)

He stayed in the same percentiles in everything except weight, which he went from the 25th to the 40th.  Little Peanut is chunking up on us finally!  The doctor said he was growing just beautifully and we are so grateful that he continues to hit those growth milestones beautifully!

Look at me go!

I felt like I have always struggled to capture a picture of Elliot that shows what a content and happy baby he is, and I think this comes pretty close.  It also shows off his dimple and 2 teeth pretty well too!!

I still am a bit suprised about how well Harry has taken to Elliot.  I thought there would be a lot of love, but also a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings.  I am very happy to be wrong about my fear that Harry wouldn't really like the baby...he looooves Baby Brother and the feeling it totally mutual.  No matter what kind of a mood he is in and even if he is upset with me or Travis, he never takes it out on the baby.  Thank goodness!  I have a feeling that might change a bit when Elliot is more mobile and can get into the toys because Harry still thinks that everything is "mine".  Hopefully I'll continue to be wrong!

The evening weather here has been awesome and we have been trying to get outside to play and hang out as much as we can before it gets too cold.  Harry can totally chow down on watermelon, so we have been letting him outside and go to town on it!  I had never purchased a whole watermelon before, but it turns out I couldn't have spent the $3.50 any better!

Holy Cow....September already??  Yikes!  It seems like only yesterday that my and my big pregnant belly (poor Little Peanut!) were wiping out in the snow and now summer is almost finito.  I am a little excited for fall...I love jeans and sweater weather and I love putting cute little layers on the boys.  But when you have to add on the coat, hats, gloves, that's where I draw the line!

To say that Harry has been a handful the past few days may be a bit of an understatement.  Let us go back to Thursday when everything was right with the world.  I took the day off because Dad was having a heart cath.  Due to his/our horrific family history when it comes to heart disease, he and mom had a heart scan done a few months ago, which led to a stress test for Dad.  Although he did really well on the exercise portion, the doc was still concerned about some possible blockages that were showing up on the scans.  They weren't even sure that anything needed to be done since he wasn't having any symptoms, they were just being extra careful.  Well, thank God that they did--they put five stents in his heart!!  He had a few vessels that were 80-90%; blocked.  To make that long story short--he is doing great, he got to come home the next day, and he is already back on the east coast for work.  It's all a bit surreal, and it makes me scared for my little heart's future but that's besides the point of the story.  Since he had to stay at the hospital longer than we had expected, Travis brought the boys over so I could feed Elliot which messed up naptime for that day.  Since Dad was doing well, we kept our plans of going to Ikea (I know---we're hooked.  It's a sickness) in Cincinatti on Friday.  We weren't planning on taking Harry since I understand why it wouldn't be appealing for a two year old to take a long car ride and shop for a couple of hours, but since Mom and Dad were occupied he came with us.  Um, mistake.  He was not happy about it. 

Our weekend went downhill from there.  We will have spurts of good, normal behavior, then we have jags of the worst behavior we have ever seen out of him.  Yesterday, our neighbors were having a cook out and I put him in time out for not listening, etc. and he let out the most shrill, awful scream I have ever heard right in my ear.  He is very lucky we have decided to raise our kids spank-free or he would have gotten his first one right there.  We thought this was all brought about by his naps being shortened for a few days, but now we're not so sure.  He slept well Sat. night and had a decent nap Sunday and he was still a little monster.   It's just hard to know how to handle him when he's like that.  Ignoring him seems to escalate the situation, but being stern with him does too.  One thing that does work sometimes is being really calm and loving to get him to chill until five seconds later when you do something to set him off like talk or smile, you know, really mean stuff.  Today was one day that I really wasn't all that sad to go to work.  We are pretty slow and I am enjoying the quiet!  This toddler stuff isn't for wimps!

Dear little sweet Elliot...I told Travis the other day he is bad for birth control!!  After we got him through the newborn stage, he has been the most wonderful baby!  I am so spoiled.  He is still sleeping through the night, and better yet, he is developing into a Mama's boy!  Sometime within the past few days he started to be able to tell when I leave the room and it makes him cry!  Nate and Krista were kind enough to let us borrow Mary's Bumbo seat and he looks sooo cute in it (even though it is purple!).  He got to eat his rice cereal alfresco last night in it while Travis was trying to wear Harry out on the playset.  He is doing so well with eating that I need to start giving it to him twice a day to get ready for the baby food coming up in about 10 days or so.  He is totally into the Exersaucer and Jumperoo, and he loves tummy time with some toys on the floor as well.  I think he is quite a bit smaller than Harry was at this age, which is okay by me since I think it makes him more like a baby longer!!  We were working on sitting up the other night--I put his hands out in front to prop himself up, let go, and he would stay there for a few seconds before toppling over.  He's not quite ready yet, but he'll get there soon.  He is also very grabby--it is dangerous now to try to eat, read, or do anything with him on your lap or it will be in his hands in a split second! 

The Monkeys--in happy times!

Never a dull moment at our house...I don't think we would have it any other way!!