Jumperoo

This was Spencer the first time we put him in the jumperoo. It was his 5 month birthday (February 6, 2008).  If I remember correctly he started crying right after I took this picture and it took something like 2 hours to calm him down.  Even after he was calm he kept losing it again all day.  He'd just start crying out of nowhere.  Man that kid was intense as a baby.  He was in overdrive all. the. time.

So here we are 4 years later and the baby of extreme emotion is now the big brother.  We decided to put Elliott in the jumperoo tonight.  He likes standing so much that we thought he'd be happy to be able to stand on his own.  He's just ever so slightly too short, even on the lowest setting, so Spencer happily carried his biggest book from his room to the living room.

It ended up being too big of a book. Elliott should be on his tippy toes and not flat footed.

He wasn't sure what to think of it at first.

Hmmm.  Do I like this?

Then Ginger came over to check out the commotion.

Then Spencer got all up in Elliott's business.

Then Ginger felt momentarily ashamed.  Of what we do not know.

And then Elliott started bouncing around like a madman.

The verdict?

He loved it.

We're so glad.

I mentioned before that my friend Sandy gave the jumperoo to me when I was pregnant with Spencer.  I'm so sad that I don't get to share Elliott enjoying her gift with her.

I've had the same dream about Sandy twice in the last couple of weeks.  I'm at a party and the doorbell rings.  Someone opens it and Sandy comes walking in.  I run over to her and give her a big hug and say, "But Sandy, you died.  There is no way you can be here.  I don't understand this."  Then she laughs and says, "No, that was all a big mistake.  I never died.  It wasn't me.  It's so crazy and it's been a huge mess." 

I don't think it takes a psychologist to figure out what that dream means.

Sleepy Sleeperson

I was headed to bed about 10 minutes ago. I peaked into Spencer's room and had a mini heart attack because I couldn't find him.  I got a little closer to his bed and this is what I found. 

We've never been able to convince him to sleep under the covers, but he'll pile 84 pillows on top of himself.

Since I took pictures of my first born sleeping I thought I'd take pictures of my second born sleeping.

Elliott has been ravaged with acid reflux so he is sleeping in the rock n play all the time now.  It puts him at a perfect angle so he's not uncomfortable. We got a prescription for some reflux medicine from our pediatrician today, so hopefully that helps.  He hasn't even been cuddling with me in bed for the last 2 weeks because I can't get him at the right angle.  We had some rough nights before we decided to just try this for all his sleep.

Tonight is his first night in the new Halo Sleep Sack Swaddler.  He is getting too long for the miracle blanket (which he has slept in every night since he was about 5 days old), but he still really likes being swaddled. This one is much longer and gives him much more room for kicking.  So far, so good.

And my adopted daughter.

She was the only one that woke up from the flash.  Then she glared at me.

Some pictures of the kids before the pediatrician appointment this morning:

 What the hell, Spencer?

By the way.  The kid on the right?  11 pounds 14 ounces.  I was feeling reeeeeeeeally good about it until Amy told me that Trenton, who weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth (less than Elliott at birth) was 11 pounds at his 1 month check-up.

You knew this was coming

The annual crab clothes post! It's here.  It's happening.  Now.

In March, 2008 I bought this adorable little crab outfit for Spencer.  We took his picture in it.

In March of 2009 I remembered that cute little crab outfit from 2008 and when I was buying Spencer some new summer clothes I thought it would be fun to buy another crab outfit.  I was already blogging then, so right then and there it became a "thing".  A dedicated blogger would share some links here taking you to previous posts.  I'm too tired for such nonsense.

In 2010 I couldn't find a crab shirt, so I bought an iron on patch and made my own.

Last year I was lucky enough to find this little gem at Wal-Mart.  I believe it was $3.50.

Last Mother's Day I woke up and took a pregnancy test.  It was positive.  It was Elliott!  We just didn't know it was Elliott.  After we went to lunch that day we stopped at Carter's because I really wanted to buy something for the baby.  I thought this was appropriate.  I would have totally put this on a girl too.

It was the only thing in Elliott's closet.  For about 5 minutes.

And here we are, 12 months later.  The truly sad thing is that I almost forgot we had this onesie, because silly me put it in the 6 month onesie drawer.

I also don't have a 2012 crab shirt for Spencer yet.  I'll have to get on that soon.  I do, however, have a 6 month crab outfit for Elliott and I'm thinking about buying one for next year.  It's reeeeeaaaaaally cute.  Carters, of course.  I just need to decide if I should go with 18 months or 24 months for the size.  If he stays on duocal much longer neither will fit next year because he'll start sharing clothes (not just getting hand-me-downs) with Spencer soon.

No crab clothes.  Just cute.

This Week

This week was kind of boring.  Really, every week in this house has been pretty boring since Elliott's arrival, but this week felt more boring than others.  Elliott slept like a clown on Sunday night and then pooped all over me and the hallway on Monday.  I had a nervous breakdown right after that.  For favorite parts that night Michael said his favorite part of the day was when he got to leave the house and go to work.

But, I need to blog about something since I've gone 5 days without a new post.  There was some actual exciting stuff today, so I'll stick that in at the end.

Elliott praticed sitting in the high chair some more.

He also practiced being in the crib.  For 5 minutes.  Fully awake.

I did some artistic photography.

I took a picture of the back of Elliott's head so I can always remember what it looked like at this age.  I love his hair.

Elliott practiced standing. A lot.

He would stand all day long if we let him.

Spencer and I made bath paint.

And he had a blast in the tub.

I tried, again, to get a good picture of this trio.

We kicked the beagle out, again.

Elliott wore his first crab themed clothes.  There will be another post about this soon.

Ginger didn't know I was home when I was getting Elliott down for a nap and sat on the back of the chair waiting for her people to reappear.

She tried to sneak away when she saw me, but I'm faster than her.

Spencer came home from school incredibly proud of his really blue lips from the icee that Ms. Erin got him.

I had to do an extreme zoom to see these really blue lips.

Elliott got weighed at Spencer's doctor's appointment yesterday.  11 pounds 6 ounces.  His new name is Chubs.

Elliott broke his quarantine and joined us for Spencer's preschool picnic today.

We took separate cars and Elliott and I left after an hour.  We also tried to sit really far away from any kids.

This is how Spencer felt about his picnic.

Until we released him to play with his friends.