Nine Months Old

Nine. Months. Old. You know, before Elijah, nine months old still sounded like a baby.....and I know when I look back at this time, he will still seem like a baby but Chip and I were just discussing how, right now, to us, there is just so much more little boy in him than baby. He has his second tooth so that gummy smile that I loved so much is being replaced by the sweetest jack-o-lantern grin I have ever seen. He still prefers to have his Mama within arms reach (in fact we are going through a phase right now where this is not just a preference but a requirement) but he is fascinated by his world and loves to explore.  We have him somewhat barricaded in our living room with the help of furniture and our ottomans but our little Evel Knievel manages to find ways out either by climbing or by tunneling through our end table.  More than once I have been in the kitchen only to look down and see a naughty little monkey smiling up at me. Not only is Elijah a problem solover and quite mobile, he finding his "sea legs" and has become a very proficient walker. He is able to walk clear across the room, grab on to something, then turn around and come back. Right now I am researching which walking shoes will be the best for him as his walking journey continues to the great outdoors.

Elijah continues to say "Mama" and "Dada" though sometimes he also calls me "Mom" and "Mom Mom". No more words yet. I know several different grandparents that can't wait to hear their names in that sweet little voice. I made Elijah a board book of his family several months ago (Wrigley and Bonnie included of course) and we look at it almost every day and talk about the different people in our family. I hope this helps him to learn (and one day spell) everyone's name.  We are working on Bye Bye with a hand wave. Not quite there yet. He is able to turn lights in the room off and with the wall light switch.  As most baby's his age do, Elijah loves music. He enjoys banging a the keys on his toy piano Santa brought him for Christmas and smiles so big at the songs Mama and Daddy sing to him. We have special songs for the bath, and special grace song we sing before each meal, naptime songs and I try to have a special music time at least once a day that involves anything from a fun dance (we have danced to a lot of Pink lately) to Mama playing music and singing on the guitar. I have one children's song book that is okay, but I have been on the lookout for something a little better. We listen to a lot of Raffi so to purchase a Raffi song book so we can play the songs together. Chip and I are both passionate about music and I hope that love continues through our child(ren).

As I mentioned earlier, Elijah has been going through a pretty clingy phase which at times is wonderful. There is nothing sweeter than my little boy climbing into my lap because THAT'S where he wants to be but it can also make it difficult to get things done. Thankfully, I have a very understanding husband. This phase seems to also be accompanied by a bit of fussiness. But even so, Elijah continues to be the happiest baby I have ever known. As we close another three month period, I hope to make Elijah's three month montage as I have done since his birth so be on the lookout! Of course with the business of our life lately (swim class, Gymboree, my Photography class, Moms group, choir, church....) it may be a while before I get that completed. In the meantime, I managed to take Elijah's 9 month pictures. He is getting so very big and so very poised.

"Is it that time already, Mama"



Sweet angel baby
 



Such an incredible disposition



"I recognize that face!"

The happiest baby on the block....on any block!

He just loves the faces of his family

"Look Mama, there's our Wrigley!"

 

 

TWO TOOTHIES!

 

The boy that stole my heart

Like father, like son....spitting image of his Daddy.

Every day is a new adventure. No two days are alike. Savoring every moment with my little angel baby.

Swim Lessons

My parents are sponsoring swim lessons for Elijah which we began this month at our local YMCA. It has been such a fun class and my baby boy just loves the water! He has been a water baby for most of his babyhood from sharing baths with me in our huge and very deep garden tub to swimming in the ocean to several pools both indoor and outdoor. He just seems so at home in the water as we swim around together and although he is definitely a warm blooded baby, he is even getting used to the cooler water of the indoor pool at the YMCA. 

The class we are taking is a parent/child class and it is so much fun to interact with the other moms and babies. The babies are learning how to get out of the pool (very important!) by climbing over the edge.  WE sing songs and play water games, they float around on noodles and this week, they learned to dunk, with our help of course. Let me just tell you that for a mother to pull her baby into  and UNDER the water is sort of traumatic the first couple of times. I pretty much had to psych myself up to do it and was definitely not the first in line. But Elijah, true to form, was laid back and took it in stride. He was surprised, that is for sure, but took some deep breaths and we went back for more. The YMCA has  a strict photography policy during the lessons but they let you take pictures and video after class off to the side which we were excited to take advantage of and managed to not only get some photos but we got the dunking on video!

Me and my water baby!

He loves to float. When he is in the noodle, he lays back and the other moms say he looks like he's floating down the river in tube.

My little fishy.

A Photography Class

I have grown up a lover of photography.  It started when I was a little girl. I was always a camera ham. I loved being photographed. My mom loved dressing me up in cute outfits and posing me.  My aunt had a lot of fun doing photo shoots with me and even experimenting with color (white on white where I would have my face painted white and a white towel on my had with a white background). Taking pictures has also always been a passion for me. Not necessarily for the artistic quality but I loved having my memories recorded. I received my first camera for my fifth birthday. It was a Kodak Disk camera. Remember those? "I'm gonna catch you with the Kodak Disk. So easy that I'm not gonna miss".  Well one need only look at the boxes and boxes of photos that have moved with me through the years to know that semi obsession with getting photos of life with friends and family has not dwindled. In fact, since the birth of our son, I have had the desire to  be more creative and actually learn some of the basics that never seemed necessary with a point and shoot camera.

In steps The Feminine Mystique..........

A passionate photographer in my life (who prefers to remain anonymous so I dubbed her The Feminine Mystique for blogging purposes) approached me and offered to sponsor me in an online beginners photography course at Improve Photogrpahy.  Her generousity did not stop there....she gave me her old Nikon Coolpix 5000 to learn on as it has the capable to adjust settings that my point and shoot (though awesome) does not.

I am having so much fun learning more about this craft and I look forward to putting this new knowledge to use in Elijah photo shoots, family gatherings and maybe one day as a little business of my own.

As I learn more and more, I plan to post some of my "homework assignments" so I can share the progress.  In the meantime, I want to give a shout out to The Feminine Mystique for taking such an interest my development! Mwah!

A Church Home for the Parishes.

January has been a very busy month for our family. Elijah began Gymboree and swim classes which has been awesome. On his first day in Gymboree, he was moved to the next level of 10-16 months since he is walking now (up to 10-15 steps at a time sometimes!).  I love taking him to swim class at the YMCA and he has a ball in the water, as he always has.  As I have always said, he is a little water baby and that love of water extends to all sea creatures. Coincidentally he did try his first taste of meat the other night and it was tilapia. He confirmed what I already knew....we are not "there" yet.

This month the Parish family has also made an important decision. Chip and I have been "shopping" for a church home for about three years. Granted, we haven't always been actively looking but lately we have more diligent. We have, on several occasions over the past couple of years, attended Spring Baptist Church with Chip's parents and felt a real connection there. However we thought it would be best to find something that was closer to our home, in our immediate community. We had actually decided on a place that we felt pretty good about, though not perfect it seemed to have what we were looking for in a house of worship, though I think we will be agree that it did not fill our hearts the way a service at Spring Baptist does. The choice had been all but made.  Then Chip's mom told me about a Time Out For Moms group that was being held at the church. She knew that although I had attended several Moms groups, I had not really found one that clicked. So I tried it out. Halfway through the gathering, I texted Chip that this is where we needed to be. I felt so at home with these people. The childcare was AWESOME which is so important and Elijah seems to really enjoy his time there. I just felt this closeness with these ladies that I had just met and it is the same kindred spirit I felt with everyone I had ever encountered from that church.  That evening, the choice was made and Chip and I decided to surrender to what we had both known all along.....that we were mean to be there. That was a little over a week ago. We attended services on Sunday and checked out one of the Sunday school classes. We are going to try a few out and choose one to commit to by February. I attended my first choir practice last night (something I had really been wanting to do since we started looking for a church) and I have to say I am feeling so fulfilled and happy.....like this has been what we really needed, wanted and it is a relief to know that we now have a church and it is the one we wanted all along.  It is also such a bonus that Chip's parents call this their home as well. Last night during choir, Elijah got a little fussy in the nursery and Chip's mom had just finished up a bible study and was able to go spend time with him while I finished up. It just feels right and I am thrilled with our decision.

Times we have spent at Spring Baptist over the last year and a half

June 2011: This was our first father's day outside SBC when I was pregnant wit our first baby who was lost to us the following day.

April 2012: Happier times.  Almost 37 weeks pregnant on Easter which also happened to fall on my birthday.

May 2012: My first mother's day spent with four generations of Parishes beginning the day with services at SBC

 

June 2012: Chip and Elijah's first father's day together with Granddad. (That tree is outside SBC is a favorite spot for us Parishes to take family photos!)

 

December 2012: We enjoyed the SBC Christmas pageant and watching Granddad and our family friend, Rick, play Santa Clause!

December 2012: Christmas Eve services.....

We have already had so many memorable experiences at Spring Baptist and I look forward to see what the new year will bring for us, not only as a family of three (for now...) but also as part of this great community of Believers.

Baby Lead Weaning Check In

I wanted to do a quick check in on our Baby Led Weaning to solids is progressing. We began a little after five months old because Elijah showed all the signs of being ready (interest in food, able to sit up un assisted....since four and  half months!) We started very slow and did a somewhat modified version of Baby Led Weaning (BLW). Although Elijah was only given whole "grown up" food and he fed it to himself, I was gradual with what food we introduced and began with just a few choices of avocado and sliced baked sweet potato. Since then we have eased into eating two meals a day and snacks.  Elijah loved breakfast. He now gets choices of scrambled eggs, coconut milk yogurt, gluten free bread (we are gluten and diary/soy free for now), homemade muffins and sometimes banana or some other fruit. I found these great "organic puffs" that were developed by Dr. Sears and Elijah loves them.  They are a crunchy finger  food that Elijah loves and the ingredients passed my "Mommy Test". Those are a great snack.  I have to be careful what I eat around him because he knows we share. ( I like to let him taste what I have for lunch even though he isn't eating lunch daily yet and as a result we discovered he LOVES quinoa and marinara sauce!).  Dinner usually consists of a choice of avocado, squash, sweet or regular potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, sunflower butter on GF bread and the list continues to grow. Since it is sometimes difficult to plan our dinners around what Elijah can have, I keep frozen veggies just for him that I can microwave only a few pieces at a time. This way I always have something "Elijah friendly".  Because I was rather diligent about him feeding himself at the beginning,  I am able to spoon feed him on occasion without derailing any of our progress. Things like yogurt are sometimes just easier to give him myself. But thanks to BLW, we is actually able to navigate a loaded spoon pretty well and will often try to take over for me. We still nurse regularly and on demand with the exception of middle of the nigh. On the occasion that Elijah wakes up at night, we are working on soothing back to sleep without nursing. Oddly, these has seemed to coincide with better napping.  I am not sure if one has anything to do with the other but it as been awesome! I am thinking of adding meat to Elijah's diet next in the form of bone broth and maybe some organic ground turkey. Chip and I agreed that if Elijah is ever vegetarian, it will be by his choice and that we will include meat in his diet at this time so I have been researching sources for organic (preferably local) meats to serve my family. I maintain a strict no sugar policy for Elijah and all he drinks is water and sometimes almond or coconut milk. So there you have it, our BLW adventure so far. He is such an eager little diner and it is so much fun to watch him explore the culinary world around him!

New Year's Day

It was a very tame New Years Eve for the Parish family.  Chip came down with a nasty case of the flu and a high fever of 102.5 the night before and Elijah was in bed super early at 6:30 pm. Thankfully, neither Elijah or myself caught Chip's illness, I believe due to not just borderline obsessive hand washing my part but also thanks to the colloidal silver I administered to Elijah and myself as well as the thieves oil in the diffuser of the nursery.  New Years day, we had been invited to a gathering at my dear friend, Kelly's house. (See her blog here!) Kelly and  I were meant to be friends. I believe it was true divine intervention. I received an email last summer from one of the moms from my Bradley Method birth class saying she knew of a Mama that was having trouble producing enough milk for her baby and was looking for  donor. I was a registered donor for Mother Milk Bank of Austin and was excited at the possibility of donating to one family.  I had no way of knowing what an awesome person was about to come into my life. Kelly and I have found in one another someone to consult and vent to as we learn more about being a Mama. Her background as a wellness coach is so helpful to me and I love having her a resource Elijah is two months older than her beautiful daughter, Mykah and so I am able to give her some guidance on our journey thus far.  It has been a true give and take relationship and I love my dear friend.

So anyway, that is who our family chose to spend New Years Day with along with some of her other friends that I was so happy to meet. Since Chip was still under the weather, Elijah and I went and left Daddy to rest.  It was a great day full of yummy fresh organic food and lots of children for Elijah to play with. At one point, four of us Mama's were in the bedroom nursing together and just chatting about life with baby. I so needed that and realized how I need to have MORE of that in my life! Thank you, Kelly, for bringing Elijah and me into your group of friends. We look forward to the next get together and to building these relationships.

My adorable boy and cute little Mykah learning to share!

So grateful for my sweet friend!

Who can resist sweet baby hands

I love watching Elijah with other children

Sweet little Mykah!

"Hey Mama, who is this cute baby? Oh, wait, that's me!"

Such a big boy. He looks just like his Daddy.

Kelly's hubby, Andrew sang some Tiffany tunes from the 80's to Mykah. I got a big kick out of this.

There's a party going on!