Crib

Elliott has moved into his crib.

About a month ago Elliott decided not to follow the good behavior he had established and no longer wanted to sleep through the night in his bassinet. It took us a couple weeks to realize he was serious about his choice.

We thought that perhaps the bassinet was too small, and that was why he was so fussy. We moved the crib from Alden's room into ours to test the theory. It has had good results, but Elliott still gets up a couple times a night...

The original plan was that Elliott would gracefully transition from the bassinet in our room to the crib in Alden's room (because he was such a good night-sleeper). The way things are now, we cannot let Elliott disturb Alden, so it looks like he will stay in the master bedroom with expanded quarters for a little while longer.

Going to the Gym

Last week Alden went to Maddie's birthday party at a gymnasium. It was great because many of his school friends were there, especially Cady, who is the tops in Alden's book.

I was not able to attend, but Ilana said he had a great time and that the gym environment was one that Alden really liked.

We did not think it through, so Alden was a little overdressed (sweater) for some activities, but that did not seem to slow him down.

Elliott Cuteness

Community Meetings with Alden

I have been going to more community meetings with Alden lately. 

I think he might still be a little young, but we've been to three in the past two weeks and he keeps volunteering for more and he seems to dig them. He has been good at them, despite getting board sometimes and running off. That is one great thing about small towns, things are safe and everyone knows everyone else.

Anyway, I'm tickled by his civic involvement at such an early age. He even won a 1 troy oz silver dollar at a raffle. I think I was more excited than he was. Although when I told him it was treasure he got more interested. Unfortunately Alden's idea of 'treasure' is the shiny marbles at the bottom of the fish tank. It took some wrangling to convince him not to throw the coin in with the fish.  

Happy Purim!

According to the Book of Esther, in the Hebrew Bible, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus (presumed to be Xerxes I of Persia), planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing; Purim, celebrated the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar.

In our house Purim is the holiday marked by surprise cookies that arrive in the mail from aunt Kay and the subsequent exclamation, "Dang, is it purim already?" Ilana has some context and feels bad that she forgot. I have no context and honestly believe that if Kay sent us hamantaschen  three times a year, I would think it was Purim every time.

The new narrative for Purim that I have developed is that it is a holiday where cookies get sent to the kids to remind them of their heritage. The arrival of the cookies is a complete surprise and prompts the telling of the story of Esther. Then the cookies magically disappear as everyone in the house sneaks cookies at any opportunity for the next couple of days.

Thanks aunt Kay!

Elliott in the Box

Elliott is getting stronger and jollier every day. Here we are playing with a cloth box.

Blizzard 2013

 We hunkered down all day and let the blizzard pass. The only blizzard fighting we did was to shovel a path to the wood shed so we could get logs for the fire. Otherwise it was an indoor day.

Alden and I went out at dusk to get a batch of logs and he played in a drift for a few minutes. In some places the snow drifts were over his head... but I think the average snow fall was about two feet.

Elliott Tells it Like it Is.

Baby babble with some great faces.

Milestoning Elliott

Elliott started doing real babbling this week, He is transitioning out of his baby roar and starting to make try babbling sounds. We also let him try solid food about a week ago... but then the entire family got a stomach virus and were knocked sideways for a couple days. We are better now and will try cereal again soon. Elliott isn't crawling yet, but he is able to be on his stomach for long periods lift himself with his arms. He has a great disposition and loves making faces. He weighs about 16 pounds now!

Fissues

  

The aquarium Alden got for his birthday is having some water issues. I am having a bit of a learning curve since I had it set up decades ago. I have forgotten all I knew, and to be fair I was a pretty bad fish owner before. I really want to do it right this time around. 

The core of the problem is that we put too many fish in the tank too quickly and the bio-buffer in the water couldn't handle the load. The ammonia level in the water keeps getting dangerously high so we are doing daily half-tank water changes so the fish don't die. 

 Hopefully the situation will level out within another week and in the meantime we keep our fingers crossed that when we wake up the fish are still swimming.