18 month blocks

I am not a photographer.  I have a tiny point and shoot camera, I know nothing about staging photos and my lighting is horrible.  I'm pretty good at centering and I've gotten better at not cutting heads off, but that's all I've got. 

 

My lack of photo taking skills is clearly evident in this series of 18 month block photos.  The blocks are too bright, Elliott is too dark, he's too far away (although that was intentional because he kept throwing the blocks on the ground), there is a glare from the flash on the countertop and the background is a disaster.

 

These are not much better.....

This is what we finally picked to be "the picture", mostly because this entire family was sick and tired of trying to get a good monthly picture and a good 18 month block picture.

 

The whole series, thus far.

I actually have ideas for about 4-5 blog posts this week. 

 

Say what? 

 

They are all more interesting than this one.



18 Months

18 Months

 

Date

June 16, 2013
 

The official 18 month picture

Weight/Size

At Elliott's hepatology appointment last week he was 29.4 pounds and (I think) 30 inches.  He fell in percentiles.  He was in the 95th or 96th and now he's in the 90th.  He gained a pound since he was 15 months so his weight gain has finally slowed down.

Sleep

My biggest complaint is that it takes Elliott a long time to fall asleep at night.  He throws a huge fit and won't go to sleep at all if we just let him lay by himself, but sometimes I rock him for close to an hour before he's out.  Once he's out though, he's out and he sleeps until morning.

His wake up time is pretty variable.  Anywhere from 7:20 to 8:45.

 

(Not Elliott's finest moment)

Movement

Walking, walking, walking.  He loves walking and will walk circles around the house just because he can.  He tries to run to keep up with Spencer but just falls flat on his face.

Communication

Elliott combined two words for the first time a few weeks ago.  He said Bye-Bye Dada.  It's just the beginning of more and more communication.

 

He has around 60 words in his vocabulary.  Some of his new ones that I can think of are door, bubble, bagel (he says it "babel" and it's totally cute) and ah-choo (a fake sneeze).

Food

Hmmm.  I can't really think of any new foods.  How boring.

 

He's nursing at nap time and night time.  He's pretty indifferent about it. 

Teeth

Both of his bottom first molars are in.  The top first molars have cut through but are not all the way in yet.

Favorites

Reading, reading, reading.

Going places.  He will get the keys, hand them to me and say Go!

Blowing bubbles in the pool.

Going underwater in the pool.

Dislikes

Blood draws, doctors and haircuts

We were in Tucson this weekend and we "tried" to take 18 month pictures at my parent's house.  They were less than successful.

And if you think that the tiger shirt looks familiar, you are correct.

Spencer wore the same shirt for his 5 year-9 month photo shoot 10 days ago. 

 

It was planned and intentional, thank you very much.

June 2013

5 years-9 months and 18 months

Space and swimming

The camera was still broken all day Saturday due to the unfortunate snowball in the pocket incident on Friday.  It's OK, because Saturday was not very exciting.  We went to the Lowell Observatory (where Pluto was discovered) in the morning, but in all honesty, it's a pretty boring tour. It's fun to go at night and look through the telescopes, but by the time it is dark enough it is past bedtime.

 

They have a special exhibit about space suits right now. 

We had just put Elliott back in the stroller and strapped him in when an employee volunteered to take our family picture.  We decided that excluding the baby was the way to go to keep him from screeching when we put him in there again.

Saturday afternoon we drove back home.  It's always interesting watching the temperature raise from 79 to 110 in less than 2 hours.

 

The rest of the summer is pretty much going to look like this.

 

Elliott and I are taking mommy and me swim lessons.

Spencer is Mr. Independent. 

 

He's going to do swim lessons for the last time next summer and then I'm putting him on the swim team.

This is the biggest news I have to share.

 

We had Elliott's appointment with Dr. Miloh (hepatologist) yesterday.  I was all prepared with the camera to take a picture of Elliott and the Doc together since it would be our last appointment and all.

 

Well.  Wishful thinking.

 

Elliott's ALT (liver enzyme) is still elevated.  It is almost exactly the same number 6.5 months after his last blood test.  Dr. Miloh said he's not incredibly worried, but he was worried enough to order an entire urinalysis (Elliott hasn't had one done since last March) to be done immediately.  He also wants us back in 3 months instead of the standard 6 months.  He ordered an entire array of blood tests for when we come back.  Some of them are repeat tests, a lot of them are brand new.

 

Elliott was exhausted after the appointment.

So.  We are bummed.  And my anxiety is starting to go back up.  Way more than after the last two appointments.  I was actually really worried that Dr. Miloh was going to bring up the liver biopsy again (he didn't).  UGH.



We took a baby on a ski lift

Flagstaff is always about 30 degrees colder than Phoenix.  In the winter, when it is 70 here it is 40 in Flagstaff.  In the summer, when it is 110 here it is 80 there.  That was the case on Friday when we thought it would be a good idea to go to AZ Snowbowl and take a 17 month old on a 30 minute long ski lift ride.  And that's 30 minutes each way.  1 hour total.

 

During the summer only one of the five ski lifts run.  We took that one all the way to the top of the San Francisco Peaks.  It's 11,500 ft and about 20 degrees cooler up there than Flagstaff.  It was great!

 

I thought ahead and brought the baby belle carrier so that Elliott could be strapped to my body the whole time.  We thought about doing this with Spencer when he was a baby (we never did) and I've had horrific images of a baby falling from the ski lift bench stuck in my brain for the last 4 years.

The Grand Canyon is about 70 miles to the north and you can actually see it from up there, although you can't see it in these pictures.

 

Elliott "hiked" for about 20 seconds and then he was done.

 

We took the picture of a couple in exchange for them taking a picture of us. 

Snowbowl got a decent amount of snow this past winter (219 inches.  I googled it) and there is still some of it left in the shady areas.

Spencer had been in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans before he turned 3, but this was his first experience with real snow.

 

It was Elliott's first time too.

 

I dug for a clean chunk because I knew this was going to happen.

 

MMMMMMM!

 

We actually had a mini snowball fight.  It was really fun until Spencer threw one at me and part of it fell in my pocket where the camera was being kept.  That little bit of water broke the camera for 2 days.  By Sunday it had dried out enough that it started working again, but I think we need to buy a new one with just a tad more water resistance.