Introducing… Elliot and Winston!

Born April 2012 and May 2015

Exciting Times!

I found Logan’s Father’s Day Gift.

Monday night, Elliot, Gingy, and I went to have coffee with Gabi and Gabi’s mom at The Coffee and Ice Cream Shop in Seymour. Gabi’s mom seemed to like Elliot. We talked about swaddles and she mentioned that Russian babies are practically put in a cocoon. Elliot would hate that!

Later, I read “Frederick” to him, a nice book that Jessica got him. He liked it! We went to bed and for the first time I fell asleep while feeding piglet style. An hour later, he was still lying on his side in front of me (thankfully not squished!)

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Tuesday, Logan tried taking him to the office alone. Elliot gave daddy heck. Per Logan he screamed all most the entire time. Logan was only able to write one e-mail the whole morning. Lynn, Logan’s sweet neighbor, brought Elliot a “Jungle James” for the office, which Elliot wouldn’t even look at for all his crying!

I did not have conference again, so I met up with my family at Agave Azul. Afterward, Elliot got to meet our friend Tim at The Fresh Market. He liked him instantly! He grabbed Tim’s finger and squealed, probably thinking “Oh, a real live leprechaun!”

That night he got a little over 5 hours of sleep right in a row!

Wednesday morning, Elliot awoke before I left which was nice. I played with him at his Jungle James! He got fussy right before I left, so I and then held and rocked him. He conked right back out! Later, he grabbed his octopus toy again for daddy.

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I got to stop by at lunch briefly to see him. Great Granny Slappy and Slappy were there and had brought KFC. I would say it was hardly worth driving 40 minutes to see him for 20, but it was totally worth it! When I came home later, Elliot entertaining himself on Jungle James. That evening he grabbed his pacifier with his hand, accidentally removed it from his mouth, but then managed to put it back in his mouth!

We read “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel,” another nice book that Jessica got for him. While we were at the hospital, Gam Gam and Linzy brought Jessica’s present by. When I opened it, I saw Mike Mulligan and exclaimed, “Oh yeah! This is the story where they turn the steam shovel into a -” but Logan interrupted “Don’t ruin it for him!”

Today, Elliot was up again to say bye bye to mommy. His Aunt Lisa and Cousin Kyra came to babysit him while Logan went to court in the morning. Lisa texted cute pictures of Elliot all morning!

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Big smile!

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Kyra and Elliot taking a nap!

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Kyra feeding Elliot a bottle (the first time she has ever fed a baby)!

Elliot did this for us when I got home!
http://youtu.be/TbSPASahLGc

Tomorrow is Elliot’s 2 month birthday! I think this first week back has gone pretty well. I haven’t cried or been particularly worried about him. I know he is well cared for and loved. And I know when I come back from work there is someone special waiting for me. It makes me happy and excited to go home!

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W Day

Well, that was hard. Harder than I expected. It’s strange to go from spending almost every waking and non-waking moment with someone to leaving them for 10 hours of the day. Elliot was courteous and gave me a 4.5 hour block and then a 2.5 hour block. He wanted breakfast at 5:15, which worked out well since I had planned to get up at 6. I was able to get him back to sleep and have plenty of time to get myself ready. I pumped before I left and put his bottle in the refrigerator with the date and the inscription “Love, Mommy.” Then I kissed Logan and him goodbye and I was off. The radio in the car played “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite” which fortunately is not what Elliot and I did last night. At least on the rocking aspect. Hopefully he will get a good roll in today.

Gingy is here to help us with the transition. Today she, Logan, and Elliot spent the morning at Logan’s office, where Elliot actually slept most of the time while Logan got some work done. He took his bottle without too much issue except that he is not drinking quite so much as we expected. With nursing there is not really anyway to tell how much he is eating except by how long he has been latched on. And he likes to latch on for quite awhile sometimes, though less often now. He is still gaining weight and seems satisfied which is the main thing.

I did not have conference today at lunch, so I went to Aubrey’s with my family for lunch. It was so great to see Elliot! I helped feed him a bottle and hugged and kissed him as much as I could. It was wonderful!

Yesterday we took Elliot to the Ijam’s Nature Center. Uncle Tom took a bunch of pictures!

I carried him around in the Bjorn first.

Then Logan carried him for awhile… like a football…

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8 Weeks

Elliot is 8 weeks old today! It is also my last day of leave. So this week’s anniversary of his birth is bittersweet. But there is no getting out of it. We have a mortgage to pay now and mommy cannot get anymore behind in her program or she won’t graduate on time. So it goes. Elliot will be getting quite accustomed to dad’s office soon. Maybe we’ll get more posts from him about Elliot. For that matter, maybe some of Elliot’s relatives who have kindly offered to babysit would like to post. We could probably set that up! I will do what I can to post at least once a week, but I imagine my posting is going to decline somewhat.

Yesterday Elliot rolled for the first time! He was doing “Tummy Time” and was lifting his head and chest, a feat he has been performing since Memorial Day. Mommy went to get the camera and as soon as she got back (but too soon to have the camera going) his big head wobbled and he rolled towards his right! He looked surprised but pleased.

Yesterday Dolly Parton sent him his first Imagination Library book. Logan read him The Little Engine that Could and he paid pretty good attention. I thought he could!

We ordered the first new bead for my bracelet yesterday. We got a smiling crab for Elliot’s first swim since his boat has a crab on it.

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Last night Elliot would not fall asleep until 11 and then was up from 2 to 3, which frustrated mommy who will need to sleep tonight for work tomorrow! He seemed like he was getting used to the swaddle, so I put him in it while awake to see if he would kick around for a bit and then go to sleep. He didn’t. Turns out the swaddle still makes him mad. But he does sleep better (or at least longer) in it. I also tried leaving his feet in while I nursed him piglet style at 2am and then quickly velcroing him up as soon as he fell asleep after eating. Didn’t work. My frustration was escalating. Then Elliot pooted (which might have been the issue all along). Logan took him to change his diaper and when he came back he put Elliot to sleep, explaining every step gently along the way. “It’s time to go to sleep buddy.” “Here is your pacifier.” “Now I am going to put you in your monkey swaddle.” “Now we are going to your bassinet to sleep.” It was magical! I had to pop that pacifier back in his mouth a couple of times but otherwise he was out. Go Logan!

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Facebook Frenzy!

In celebration of our blog adding facebook buttons I am posting some of my favorite facebook comments from when Elliot was born!

Art:
“Woo I’m the uncle of Elliot Frederick Dyer the giant baby! 9 lbs 12 oz!”
“And he’s huge. Like if you stacked all of the cars in the world end to end Elliot would be bigger. It’s really makes you think.”
“Baby Elliot Fact #2: Baby Elliot performed his own C-Section. Cut his way to freedom he did.”
“Baby Elliot Fact #3: The original ending of the Lord of the Rings involved Gandalf getting Baby Elliot to fight the orcs and rescue Frodo and Sam. Tolkien later revised it to a group of eagles because Baby Elliot seemed overpowered for the setting.”
“Baby Elliot Fact #4: Baby Elliot can eat his own body weight in plankton. He just rather not.”

“I don’t know what you said but you got him to facepalm.”

Lara:
“Happy Easter! hope that bunny gets here soon :)”

Jessica:
“I. cannot. wait. to. talk. to. you. 🙂

Give Elliot as many kisses as you can handle for me.
I’m so happy for you!!!”
“oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!!

You two are so sweet together.
And I really have to reiterate Art’s observation….seriously huge baby. Then again, Kate’s always been an over-achiever. :)”
“Look at you already planning for baby #2. Ambitious!”
“Kate, you’re a ROCKSTAR! You delivered that baby… A HUGE, wonderful baby. 🙂 No cheaters here.”

“ooooooooh Kate! The look on your face is so perfect!!! You look so relieved and happy. This is HANDS down my favorite picture. PLUS, it sort of looks like the tents that are erected when Elliot and E.T. are being monitored… it’s come full circle.”

Marietta:
“Such an amazing photo!! Awesome baby making you two!”

Patrick:
“Nice. Have any superpowers emerged?”

Sarah:
“Kate, you are my hero for delivering a 9 lb. 12 oz baby.”

Barbara:
“Welcome to the world Elliot! I love your name. Congratulations to picking such great parents. I hope you didn’t give your mom too hard of a time.”

Ginny:
“lots of good thoughts coming your way! At least the Easter Bunny ain’t got nothin on you guys today. Plastic eggs? Psh. Puh-leeze. Amateur.”

Coburn:
“It has begun?”
“Outstanding! You will now be able to consolidate two celebratory days, Easter Sunday and Elliot’s birthday, into one event in the following years: 2018, 2029, 2035, 2040, 2046, 2057, 2063, 2068, 2074, and, hopefully, 2085. I know that Oasis promised us that we were all going to live forever, but…”


Roger:
“awesome shirt, hard to believe Bengal scouts are already sending him appareal and trying to butter u guys up for an early signing..lol”
Cathy:
“must have heard how much he weighs…”

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Save Point

Mommy did a couple of short test runs of going to the hospital on Thursday and Friday. Thursday Elliot went to daddy’s office, where he tried to keep Logan from getting his work done. Friday he stayed home with daddy. Both days he took a bottle without significant issue.

We went out to El Paso last night for dinner with Gam Gam and Slappy. Elliot was awake and well behaved, which always seems to surprise me. Slappy commented that he was looking forward to taking Elliot out when babysitting him so he could say, “Well, his mom is at the hospital and his dad is in jail!” Gam Gam and I talked about how empty life would feel without children. Things are hard now but in 20 years I could not picture myself having not had kids.

We read Elliot “Anything for You” last night, which his sweet cousin Kyra gave to him.

Logan and I are avid gamers and often view the world from that perspective. For example, Elliot’s last save point was in his bassinet. He falls asleep and ends up back there, from which he has to once again figure out how to tell us what he wants with limited communication skills. “A” is kick and squirm and “B” is grunt and, eventually, cry. He’ll learn more skills as he levels up.

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“Oh man, I’m here again!”

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