18 months

The 18 month language explosion. I remember reading about this stage and thinking, right, as if it happens like that, as if babies are on some sort of tidy, predictable schedule.  Ha! You can't fool me anymore, little one!  But it does seem like language is the theme of the month.  I was catching up on our copy of What to Expect: The Toddler Years (a book I read much less regularly than its infancy counterpart last year) and by the end of month 18 they write in the possibly-maybe-it's-a-longshot category that some toddlers will be speaking 50+ words.  50+ words! That's CRAZY, I told Neal. We figured Elias was using a solid ten words or so and nodded in satisfied agreement, and then decided to start a list.  Turns out Elias is using about three times as many words as we, off the top of our heads, had estimated.  It depends how you count animal sounds (do they count as "words" for those animals?) and very simplified words/sounds (like "la la" for music or singing...that sorta thing).  But here's the dictionary so far, a work in progress:

ah (for teeth or brushing teeth)
awa (for agua/water)
baa (for sheep)
baby
bathroom (it's hard to write out how this sounds but it's pretty close to the real deal)
boom boom (for balloon)
bowl (for bowl or plate)
bubbles
bun (for spoon or fork...or spork, as the case may be)
bye/buh-bye
dabo (for dipping, something he likes to do with any and all foods)
daddy
dop (for drop or dropped)
done (sometimes he says "ah done" as in "all done," sometimes just "done")
eee (for eggs - does that count?)
go (he was saying gaa go, as in "gotta go" for awhile but not lately)
hat
hoo hoo (for monkey...although I know this means something else in some families, if you get my meaning)
i (for fries and rice...see what I mean)
knee
la la (for music or singing)
lellow (for yellow)
mommy (sometimes he says, simply, "mom" and laughs, like he's calling me by my first name)
moo (for cow)
moon (n sound included, as of recently)
nana/nani (for banana)
nano (this one's a bit mysterious but it's definitely associated with trains and we think more and more means outside, as in going outside to see a train)
nigh nigh (for night night)
no
not (this is sort of a combination of bonk/nut from a book he has in which one of the main characters has a nut drop on his head and the book reads "bonk" when it happens - so this generally is said whenever somebody hits their head on something)
num num (for num num/yummy, i.e. at dinner)
poo poo (what else; interestingly he doesn't really say pee pee...)
pop (as in pop the bubbles)
tee tee (for TV)
toot toot (for train, his most favorite thing of all)
up
woof woof (for dogs, wolves, etc.)

I'm not sure I organized that correctly, more by sound than by the word he means when he makes the sound. Hmm.  Oh well, you get the idea. Fascinating, isn't it?  It really is my favorite thing about this age, I think.  When he first said bathroom, clearly the most complex word in his vocabulary, I had this flash of, wow, I'm going to be able to communicate with this person one day!  Imagine the possibilities!

Otherwise, month 18 was, frankly, a little rough.  With no daycare but several orders I'd already committed to, and Christmas right after, every day was a struggle to try to be a good stay-at-home mom and make plans, twice daily (morning and post-nap), to keep Elias busy and content, run errands, and make the most of his sleeping time, which meant every waking minute he was asleep I was working away in what felt like my own little sweat shop most evenings (not that I'm complaining!).  On top of that, Elias's nighttime sleep in particular was still less than ideal, waking up at least once a night for mysterious reasons.  I finally took him to an allergist after taking him back to his regular pediatrician, with no answers, thinking perhaps he was still having milk allergy issues after all (runny nose/persistent cough being one of the symptoms).  We did a blood test (aka baby torture) which revealed no allergies (yay!) and the allergist, who is now his regular pedi as well (third time's a charm, it seems), concluded that he probably had some lingering constricted airway issues from the virus he picked up at daycare #1 back in November.  And/or picked up a second virus on top of that, which, in hindsight, seems likely since I'm now about ten days into some sort of crazy, lingering, deep in the chest respiratory thing.  Bleh.  Honestly, at least one of us has had a cold at all times ever since we moved here in July! What gives, California?!

Additionally, early in the month we visited one of the first daycare providers I called a couple of months ago, before the Monday thing fell into place (and then fell apart), and put down a deposit to hold a part-time slot to begin after the New Year. Next week we'll begin the transition, visiting, together, on the mornings of the days he'll be there.  Hopefully this will help with the whole trust thing and he won't be so freaked out when I leave him there the following week.  He'll probably still freak out, though. I'm bracing myself for a rough transition, but hoping three days a week will be enough time for him to adjust a little more quickly than he did at the last place.

As for me, I'm feeling the expected mix of emotions, excited to finally have part of the week back to work and hopeful that this will help not only in terms of my getting stuff done but also as far as the marriage and family time goes during evenings and weekends, instead of feeling like a divorced couple, handing Elias over to Neal for most of the weekend so that I can catch up on work.  But of course I'm sad to see this stage ending. Or changing. Having only two days a week with Elias will be an adjustment, even if it's a largely positive change.  I wish I could do it all.  I know some women do.  Some women manage to be wonderful SAHMs until their little ones go off to preschool and then, or maybe even before then, during their perfect toddler's three-hour naps, launch successful small businesses, but I guess I'm just not one of them.  Since about the one-year mark, I've really felt like something's gotta give and either it's the quality of my time with my kid or my little glimmer of a life of my own.  I don't want to put it all off another 18 months and of course I'm focusing on the pros of daycare, interacting with other kids his age on a regular basis, getting used to someone else taking care of him, etc.

I'll let you know how it goes.  And in the meantime, if you could send me your good toddler transition vibes, I'd sure appreciate it!

Baby's 2nd Christmas

I have so much to catch up on. More consistent baby (or rather, toddler) blogging is on my ever-growing list of New Year's resolutions.  But for now, I thought I'd recap the recent holiday festivities.  Since we traveled for Thanksgiving we decided to stay put for Christmas and the in-laws came to us, which was as nice as it sounds.  December was one crazy blur of figuring out the daycare dilemma, finishing up work stuff I'd committed to before the daycare drama unfolded, and getting ready for Christmas, which translates to a tree purchased on December 13th but not fully decorated until about ten days later, just to give you an idea.  Good thing Elias was still not all that aware of what this holiday is all about.  Not sure I'll be able to pull off this level of procrastination much longer, though.

On Christmas eve we fulfilled my side of the family traditions by first trekking up the hill to the Mormon Temple, decked out in twinkling lights and with a gorgeous view of Oakland below and the San Francisco Bay beyond, to boot. 

As a bonus, the garden in front of the Temple provided a more or less contained space in which Elias could run free for a bit.  After we were all sufficiently wind-blown, we made our way back down the hill for pizza (courtesy of Zachary's - we got around their holiday schedule by picking up half-baked pies the day before) and the opening of one gift, which just happened to be pajamas (the tradition usually goes like this - pizza, pajamas, lights - but we modified things in order to maintain Elias's 7:30 bedtime and prevent him from falling asleep in the car while looking at lights, which is how we spent Christmas eve last year).  Funny how that Christmas eve gift is always pajamas...

Christmas morning started with various baked goods and a bit of waiting for the families' schedules to sync up, something I'm pretty sure we won't be able to pull off in the future when Elias is more aware of what's going on. 

Opening gifts was definitely more fun this year than last but it was all still pretty abstract and I think a bit overwhelming for him at times, even though we kept our (and Santa's) spending to a minimum, knowing most of the gifts already under the tree were for him. Our main gift to Elias - a toddler chair - sounds a bit dull but was really a big hit. 

This may sound odd to anyone without kids but Elias's latest trick is, believe it or not, sitting.  For the past few weeks he's been pulling this square arm rest cushion thing we have off the futon in the living room and backing up to it and then lowering to a seated position, like he's sitting on a bench.  He's even tried to sit on the cat a couple of times.  And the chair we settled on is perfect in that it comes apart and provides Elias not only with something he can sit on, but something he can take apart, move around, and climb over.

Other new favorites include a wooden train and train-themed backpack that he's sporting in the picture above (have I mentioned Elias is obsessed with trains? And the moon, but that's a little harder to incorporate into gifts...), as well as a few new toys that involve building blocks and/or wheels and other things that spin, lots of books, lots of clothes, and a new theme in his play curriculum: play food.

Two Christmases down, hopefully many, many more to enjoy.  Stay tuned for an official 18 month update and just generally catching up around here, hopefully before 2009 is over.

between a rock and a hard place

But let me begin on a positive note.  The family and I traveled north to Bend, Oregon to visit my Dad and Grandma for Thanksgiving and the trip was a huge success as far as Elias was concerned.  He was a bit crankier than usual here and there and did fight bedtime a couple of nights but the boy napped!  Can you believe it?!  In his pack 'n' play!  In a guest room!  For a couple of hours at a time!  And although he did resist nighttime sleep, once we successfully got him to bed, he slept pretty well through the night, occasionally requiring some reassurance from Mom and Dad, sleeping on a futon in the same room, but otherwise allowing all of us to sleep better than we have in months.  Pictures from the trip to follow.

The bad news is Elias has officially been expelled from his first daycare experience.  Turns out one day of daycare per week works better on paper than in reality.  The first day I picked him up after lunch and the daycare provider sang his praises, marveling at what an easy kid he was, how he barely noticed I was gone, just saying "Mommy" a few times throughout the morning, but otherwise playing happily with the other kids and eating like the growing boy he is.  The second week was our first full day and the provider's first attempt at an afternoon nap.  It didn't go too well but in the end he napped for about an hour and a half for her, which I found pretty amazing. 

But it was all downhill from there.  Elias picked up a cold the first day, either from daycare or the weekend immediately before that first day, and he still has a bit of chest congestion, a month later.  If you're a regular reader you know that he has a ridiculously sensitive gag reflex - coughing fits during past colds have prompted more than one barfing incident.  Combine that with just generally being pissed off and Elias paired vomiting with his weapon of choice: resisting sleep like it's nobody's business.  Fast forward three weeks and we're pretty much back to where we started, having only succeeded in thoroughly traumatizing both mother and child. 

To be fair to the provider, I think she would have been on board with getting through this if Elias was there more than one or two days a week.  It seems like every kid goes through a rough patch when transitioning to daycare, but when it only happens once a week that transition is bound to take a lot longer.  And the thing is, as a parent, after over 17 months of being practically connected at the hip, once you've experienced that kind of freedom and return to adult life for a few hours during the day, it's hard to go back.  And November was a busy month for me, professionally speaking.  Granted my work and income is bound to be unsteady in the coming months, but I think we've all decided (I guess I can't really speak for Elias, though, can I?) that we'll resume the search for three days a week (or half-days, avoiding the nap issue altogether), cautiously optimistic that I'll continue to have enough orders to make up the difference. 

I learned a lot this past month and will definitely go into future daycare interviews and tours with a different approach and brutal honesty.  The experience was mostly upsetting but also a tiny bit validating.  The past few months have been rough as far as Elias's sleep and recent cranky toddler behavior go and for awhile there I was just overwhelmed with feelings of guilt that I could complain about an otherwise laidback, fun little guy who waves at complete strangers at the grocery store.  Of course, it's not the kind of validation I want - I never imagined Elias would be the kind of kid that would be refused daycare and I still feel like he has the potential to be the kind of kid someone would want to watch.  He's got a lot of things going for him and hopefully with a more consistent schedule and a better match, he'll warm up to the idea of someone else taking care of him every now and then.

17 months

It's hard to get a 17 month old to sit still for very long:

In other news, month 16 was, like month 15, another month of inconsistent napping and restless nights.  There is, as I'm sure you've noticed, a direct correlation between Elias's sleep patterns and my blogging.  And, speak of the devil, someone is waking up from their nap (it was actually a pretty good one...I just got to this part of my weekend to-do list a little late).  Another brief post it is, but I'll try to add a little more to this before we fly north to spend Thanksgiving with Elias's Grandpa Dale and great-Grandma Rose. 

Oh, and in case the blurry images above don't satisfy you, here's one of the few clear images taken in the past month, when we took Elias for a ride on the steam train at Tilden Park recently.

Despite the very serious look on his face the entire time, Elias loves his trains and did not want to give the next group a turn.  Which, of course, is code for, he screamed his head off as we got off the train.  Yes, folks, I belive we have a toddler on our hands.  More on that later...

16 months

My last post was a pretty good recap of month 16 in that it focused on sleep, sleep being the focus of the month.  It's official: Elias is just not the world's greatest sleeper.  I think I'm finally accepting this little fact and trying to control as many other things about my sleep environment as I can, turning the monitor down at night so I won't hear every little peep he makes, going to bed earlier, and bugging Neal about getting a new mattress (it seems to take him about a year longer than me to feel the aches and pains brought on by an old or, in this case, just downright crappy mattress).  Elias is sleeping about as well as he was sleeping during the last post.  It takes him a long time to settle down for a nap, while bedtime has been considerably easier.  But he's still fairly restless through the night crying out briefly one or two times a night, not enough to warrant a visit from one of the parental units but long enough to thoroughly wake me up and make me feel slightly anxious about the whole thing.  On top of that he's been waking up earlier than usual, some mornings as early as 5:45 or so.  I'm still holding out hope that all of this sleep drama will settle down eventually.

When not fighting sleep, Elias continues to practice his verbal skills, adding "boom boom" (for balloon), "dabo" (for dipping, something he would do at every meal if it were up to him, even if it means dipping his apple in my split pea soup), "lello" (for yellow, although I'm not sure he's made the connection between the word and the color), and "baby" to his vocabulary, which now includes the very satisfying "mommy" and "daddy" in place of the variations he'd mastered during month fifteen. 

In other major news, Elias will be starting a very part-time daycare schedule tomorrow, giving me Mondays and possibly another drop-in day here and there to maintain my two Etsy shops (here and here, if you're interested in the little bit of time I spend not entertaining Elias), continue to look for that elusive teaching gig, make and try to show art, and just generally maintain my sanity.  One day oughtta be enough, right?  Okay, maybe not, but after 16 months at this job, one day will definitely help.  Not surprisingly, I'm feeling equal parts excitement and apprehension this evening.  Motherhood, man.  You just can't win.

Oh, and, by the way - Happy Halloween!

More fall fun to follow...

sleeping like a baby

Just in time for his 16 month birthday coming up, Elias has given us the gift of sleep once again. It still seems like he's not getting enough sleep, only getting about 10 hours at night and naps have been, well, all over the place the past few days, but there's significantly less screaming at bedtime and he's slept "through the night" (a phrase I thought would have lost its significance by now) the past few nights. One thing that seems to be helping with the bedtime routine is doing a little more of it while Elias is in his crib, rather than spending 45 minutes bathing, reading to, and generally coddling him and then dumping in his crib and immediately leaving the room. Tonight he even blew kisses and waved (then cried out, but very briefly) as we left, something he hasn't done for five or six months.

Anyway, I'm going to make good on a pact Neal and I made earlier this evening to get to bed early tonight. On that note, more updates later. For now, a quick photo recap of the past couple of weeks: first, during a trip to the Oakland zoo, where Elias managed to walk around the children's area without experiencing any face plants or major tantrums.

He's still not fond of holding our hands while walking, but he seems to be following direction a tiny bit better.  Otherwise, letting a toddler this age walk around on his own is like trying to corral a wild animal.  Extremely frustrating and potentially dangerous.

One morning last week while I finished getting ready Elias managed to get himself up into the chair we sit in to read books in his room.

I don't know if it's his expression or the fact that he climbed up into the chair on his own or the way he looks at books lately, but he seems like such a little boy to me in these images.

And some fun with a new toy, a toy that proved to be too much of a good thing and will hang out in his closet for a bit until the fun-frustration ratio levels out a bit.

More on the 21st (or so)...

15 months

Okay, 15 and a half.  Close enough.  Let's start with the bad news, shall we?  In short, Elias experienced a major sleep regression this past month, ever since our road trip to southern California that I blogged about last time.  It's probably too early to say he's turned a corner, but the past week has been mostly better.  On the other hand, the nights that have been bad (two stick out) have been really bad (one night getting himself so worked up the threw up not once, but twice) and the protesting continues but it seems putting Elias to bed a tad earlier (by 7:30) helps keep the whining to a minimum.  Less whining, more babbling.  Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we've also added several new vices to Elias's bedtime routine and nighttime environment, including turning on the projection portion of his SoundSpa, in addition to the white noise, and a new nightlight (after he broke the old one) - a penguin whose belly stays lit all night, thinking perhaps the fact that now it's dark when Elias goes to bed might be part of his issue.  At some point, I guess we're going to have to wean him of all these crutches, but when you're in the thick of it, as any parent knows, you'll do just about anything to get a good night's sleep.  Let's hope all of this continues to do the trick for a little while.

Other than some newfound separation anxiety and clingyness (surely contributing to the sleep woes above), Elias continues to be a pretty happy little guy, especially when we're out and about and I inevitably have a complete stranger tell me what a good baby he is (and I appreciate that but they don't have to change his diaper or put him down for a nap!).  After being in a bit of a funk the first few weeks on the west coast, I feel like we finally hit our stride together in September.  It's probably not a coincidence that we started music and swim classes last month.  I like having some structure back in our week, otherwise every day I feel a little bit like I have to reinvent the wheel.  And keeping Elias entertained and out of trouble definitely gets more fun, but also more challenging.  On the other hand, sometimes it's as easy as dropping a soda can:



He loves music - music class, listening to music, swaying even if there's no music playing, you get the idea.  I've tried to introduce him to the world of arts and crafts, but alas, it seems those labels that recommend 18 months and up are there for a reason.  He looks like he's a natural in this video, but as soon as I turned off the camera, he started trying to eat the brush and drink the water, which is more along the lines of what I expected:



Same thing for coloring books and crayons.  The interest is there, pointing to his coloring book on the table and signing "more" and he'll scribble a bit but he doesn't seem to understand the pressure necessary for making a signifcant mark.  And ultimately he just wants to eat them.

Otherwise, his language and desire to speak seems to be increasing.  In addition to various versions of Mom and Dad (mama, mamu, mamay, dada, daday, etc.), he seems fond of practicing the following words: apple, bubbles, pop, Ando (which appears to be his word for his cousin Alejandro), and two or three other sounds that are consistent but that we haven't deciphered yet.  He continues to use a few signs and it's amazing how well you can communicate with such limited resources, especially compared to the first 12-15 months of his life. 

Oh, and the kisses, those are pretty great.  Closed mouth little pecks on the cheek.  Sometimes given freely, sometimes you have to really work for them.  In short, a manic kind of month, with some low lows and some pretty great highlights, but I guess that's life with a toddler for you.

road trippin'

Since Elias appears to still be recovering - sleep-wise - from our road trip to southern California two weeks ago, I don't feel bad in only now recapping that experience. And as I mentioned to a friend yesterday the hellishness of that experience must already be wearing off since we've planned a nearly identical trip north in less than a month.

We decided to get an early start, but in hindsight, I think leaving at 6 a.m. is too close to Elias's usual wake-up time to really bet on him falling back to sleep.  My hope was that he'd sleep for a bit and then we'd stop and have breakfast after he woke up.  But that didn't happen, at least not on the way there.  In fact, he only slept about an hour or so of the entire 9+ hour drive (including three pit stops and Los Angeles area traffic).  I don't know why this sort of behavior continues to surprise me.  But we kept him entertained and occupied with toys, books, food, CDs, Grandma, and a portable DVD player purchased especially for this trip. 

Even with little sleeping, the drive turned out to be the easiest part of the trip.  Elias has never been a great napper and he basically refused to take his by now fairly standard one and a half to three hour afternoon siesta in his pack 'n' play in the hotel.  The first day we tried everything - putting him to bed as usual, laying down in the bed next to him, and bringing him into bed with us (we were beat so didn't mind the idea of sleeping alongside him in lieu of getting anything done).  If anything, our presence seemed to energize him even more.  After that first day we spent the next couple of days trying to allow him to catnap in the car as much as possible and didn't even bother with an afternoon nap. 

Bedtime wasn't much better.  But I think by then he was so wiped out, while he did protest vigorously, it was short-lived and he slept pretty well after that.  He woke up a couple of times the first night and somewhat earlier than usual but otherwise he did okay at night.  The screaming, however, hasn't subsided since we've been home.  I'm not sure if he's still recovering from the trip, or if it's coincidental with some kind of phase or a little bit of both.  Either way, it's pretty disheartening to feel like we're sleep-training all over again. 

Otherwise, the trip itself included mostly spending time with Neal's brother and his family, including their newborn baby girl, Elias's third cousin and our second niece.  We did make it to the San Diego Zoo on the first full day we were there.

Elias seemed slightly more interested in the animals than he has been during previous zoological experiences but that might be because you can get pretty close to many of the animals at this particular zoo.  Elias also got his first taste of ($10!) chicken nuggets but seemed fairly unimpressed and generally distracted during lunch.

He also got his first taste of pool water and reacted as he usally does to new experiences: he seemed neither terrified nor thrilled, mostly observant and just sort of accepting of the whole thing.

That Saturday was actually his first day of swim lessons at the YMCA, which we missed for the trip but sort of made up with this casual dunk.  Neal's report is that he seems to enjoy it all, including the full dunk and the kicking, but blowing bubbles is still a little tricky.

Getting back to the trip, though, on our final full day in Escondido we met the new family for their first outing to the mall, the same mall I blogged about when we were last there for their wedding, when Elias was barely out of the newborn phase and I was still nursing him.  It's a great mall for families: in addition to the bathroom I raved about, they have a great little indoor play area and a little train you can ride for $3 per person.  Elias is really into trains lately, so this was a big hit.  Here we are on the second level of the mall, watching longingly at the train passing below:

As usual, however, Elias seemed fairly unimpressed by the train ride itself:

We left bright and early the next day.  This time Elias slept about half the trip.  Unfortunately, I didn't really catch up on sleep myself because I had a constant sugar high thanks to our discovery of Peterson's Donut Corner right there in Escondido.  I didn't manage to document any of the ridiculously delicious donuts we purchased before eating them all up, but let me tell you, they are the best donuts I've ever had.  Doughnut Plant in New York is right up there but in a different way.  In a Manhattan way.  Peterson's donuts are frosted like cupcakes.  But I digress (this is a baby blog, after all, not a donut blog!).

In short, road tripping with a toddler is like moving with one - you should only do it if you absolutely have to.  But of course the end result - seeing family - is worth it, especially our west coast relatives we haven't seen in a long while.  Which is why we'll be taking to the road again in October.  God help us.

More on the move and the offical 15 month update to follow...

Elias gets his hair did!

This non-blogging business is getting out of hand. Life has felt a little off-balanced lately, with a lot of time going to money-making efforts and while Elias and I have been having a grand old (and yes, sometimes downright challenging) time together I haven't been taking the time to slow down and document it all. But before I catch up on my tips for moving with a toddler (don't do it!) or our recent road trip, let me quickly post a few images of Elias's latest milestone, the 1st haircut.

It took about three weeks to finally get around to making an appointment on the weekend, when both Mom and Dad could witness Elias's first trim, but we finally went to Lee at Snips in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland (just down the road from one of our favorite burrito joints, Cactus Taqueria). Elias has been doing pretty well with the one, longer afternoon nap (more on that later) so we actually had to wake him in order to make it in time for his 4:30 appointment, which might help explain how subdued he was during the whole thing.  Lee was great - very gentle and reassuring and armed with lots of diversions, including some old-school toys and tv/vcr combos at each station.

The experience was a little emotional for me - as I was warned a little snip here and there really did make my baby look like a little boy.

We'll see if future appointments go as smoothly.

mommy's secret confession

I have a confession to make: I hate the playground. On my list of activities to do with Elias, playground is on the bottom. Well, no, clipping fingernails is on the bottom, with playground a close second. Second to last. Let me demonstrate.

This is what Elias usually does when we take him to a playground:

He just stands there. Neal took this picture and I'm willing to bet Elias had to be placed on the play structure and coaxed into some actual interaction for this little piece of evidence.

To be fair, he will play in the sand/dirt a bit if we bring along his gardening toys.

Today he even ate some dirt. I don't know why I was surprised and therefore slow to react; he puts everything in his mouth these days. It was just a matter of time before he experimented with the outside world. I got most of it out but I'm guessing there will be some evidence of this little adventure tomorrow. If you know what I mean.

After he finished his snack of dirt, I tried to get him to walk with me to the bucket swings. After a few steps he stopped again and I ended up schlepping him to the swings and from there to the toddler play structure and from there to the one portion of the big kids' structure I thought he'd be mildly interested. He's clearly more interested in watching the other kids and pointing out the random airplane that flies overhead. Which is fine, but frankly, kinda boring. And when it's time to leave, despite seeming completely uninterested up to that point, he protests vigorously. Fortunately, his protests are easily quelled with a teething biscuit.

What's strange is that Elias has moved from toddling to walking to outright running at home, in our carpeted apartment, but outside he seems, not exactly cautious, but maybe a little confused. I say not cautious because he has endured several post-sprint face plants at nearby Children's Fairyland (what is it about that place?). Sometimes I worry that he'll grow up thinking the entire world is carpeted.

Otherwise, Elias has been going easy on me the past couple of weeks. After the craziness of the move, the teething, the cold - I feel like I'm missing a couple of things - Elias seemed to turn a hopefully not temporary corner and start napping again. I feel like most days he would probably fall asleep if I put him down for a morning nap but I usually try to push him until between noon and 1 pm, occasionally sneaking in a brief catnap in the car or stroller on the way back from our morning outing. And I have to say, feeling like maybe, just maybe, we've settled into a new routine is awfully nice. He has been waking up a bit on the early side, usually between 6 and 6:30 and some nights it's a challenge to get him to bed by 7:30, usually closer to 8, so I'm sure the slightly shorter nights have something to do with the occasional 3-hour afternoon siestas. I wouldn't mind sleeping in just a tiny bit some mornings but I have to say, I love the afternoon nap. It's all about the naps. When he naps I feel like I could do this indefinitely. When he doesn't nap?...well...let's just not go there.

I'm also worried that the return to some sort of order around here is at least in part due to putting him back on 100% formula for the 16-24 ounces of "milk" he gets each day. After a bout of digestive woes and some really bad diaper rash (oh yeah, that's what I left out) we decided to halt our efforts to wean him to cow's milk, but then he developed a cold a couple of days later so maybe the digestive issues were all part of whatever little bug he had. Our GI doc back in Boston suggested waiting until 15 months to try again and I plan to get in touch with our new pedi here this week. So I'm hoping it was coincidence because - and I think I speak for both parental units on this one - I'm tired of formula. He continues to do just fine with yogurt and cheese so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Otherwise, we had our first visitor last weekend. Grandma Joanne came for the weekend and we snuck in a visit to the Oakland Museum, right before they were scheduled to close for renovations that will continue into next spring.

Like the playground, the Museum's terrace proved to be a little difficult to navigate with a 14 month old and a stroller but it provided for some good photo ops.

After the Museum, Grandma Joanne and I enjoyed a couple of hours of child-free shopping while Elias napped and Neal got a bit of a break from us all, then we met back up for dinner and a boardwalk stroll.

Priceless pic, don't you think?

14 months

I think we entered some sort of time warp when we flew cross country a month and a half ago because although the first week or so was slow like molasses, the days have been flying by ever since. Things that happened two weeks ago feel like they happened yesterday. It's ridiculous. Somebody make it stop, already.

So now that Elias is over a week into his fifteenth month, let me at least leave you with a little then and now video coverage, demonstrating that Elias is still a fan of his parents' music, first at about ten months old:



And last weekend:



A proper update this weekend, I promise!

trying to practice what I preach

Where to begin? I'm having a hard time believing Elias will be 14 months old tomorrow, another month having passed me by with a pathetic amount of documentation to show for it. In short, the past month has been rough. When it rains, it pours around here and in addition to continuing to settle in after our cross-country move, teething (all four of the first set of molars and possibly a canine or two), and both naps and nighttime sleep getting wonky, Elias experienced a bout of digestive woes last week that may have been brought on by our attempts to wean him from formula to cow's milk and resulted in the worst diaper rash he's ever had. Oh, and he developed a cold over the weekend that he promptly gave to me. I think that just about covers it as far as what's been going on around here the past couple of weeks. Somebody write me a country song already.

Don't get me wrong; Elias is a delightful baby when he's otherwise healthy and so long as you're not trying to get him to stay in one place for too long (usually required for sleep), but even a happy baby is a handful eight or nine hours straight. In short, I feel like these past few weeks have brought on a second wave of baby blues, not unrelated to the stress of the move, of course, and also because my status as full-time stay-at-home mom, as much as I enjoy many aspects of this job, is not completely by choice at this point (hmm, I wonder if I can give my art career a rest for awhile and fall back on my French degree? d'oh!). It's hard to put so much of your life on hold for an indefinite amount of time, but I suppose the theme of sacrifice won't exactly disappear if and when I do go back to work full-time. And, obviously, at the end of the day, I feel extremely fortunate for Elias and everything else that's good in my life. But around 1 o'clock, I just want him to nap.

And that he has finally done the past few days, giving me a chance to finally get caught up on a few things (although he's woken up for the day around 5 a.m. each of the past two days so I'm sure that's key). Admittedly, some of the exhaustion I'm feeling is my own fault. I've been spending a lot of time promoting my more entrepreneurial efforts, hoping that side project might turn into some supplemental income in place of or until I find a more legitimate job. When I don't get much done during the day, I spend longer than I should in the evening trying to make up for it. Gee, I wonder where Elias gets his bad sleep habits from?

Needless to say, Elias and I have had lots of time to continue to explore our old/new neighborhood, which, I'm happy to report, I'm continuing to love, almost to the point of feeling like I'm still on vacation some days. The best part is being able to reconnect with old neighbors who factored into our decision to return and some new neighbors we actually met back in Beantown. What will I do when my friend Meredith, who had her second and officially went on maternity leave just days before we arrived (good timing, huh?), goes back to work?

So, just what have we been up to? I haven't been taking nearly enough pictures, but we've managed to get a shot here and there, like this one from our stroll down to the Oakland Lake Fest a couple of weeks ago. The kids' area was a little out of Elias's range, but we did brave a ride down the bouncy slide (and no, I won't be doing that again anytime soon), and borrowed our friends' Ergo carrier for the walk home.


While the adults enjoyed a pre-bedtime weeknight dinner together, Elias tried out friend Ivan's music instruments.


The boy loves listening to music and dancing. Good thing I've finally added some structure back to our week with a fall music class that'll take us just about to Thanksgiving.

Last week we checked out Play Cafe here in Oakland, which is basically a coffee shop with a central sitting area surrounded by young childrens' activity rooms - kitchen, ball pit, elevated train track. Elias couldn't quite navigate the ball pit but enjoyed being in it (and possibly caught the cold he later gave to me from one of the many balls I failed to keep him from putting in his mouth).


He spent most of his time when he wasn't snacking checking out the train track that you can see behind him in this image:


I could go on but I've run out of images and it's past my bedtime (see what I mean about being partly to blame for the exhaustion?). More this weekend with Elias's official 14 month update...

molars

Need I write more to explain the latest lapse in blogging? At least after months of "teething" Elias seems to finally be getting not one, not two, but all four of his first molars, which is pretty much how the first eight teeth came in, in batches of four at a time. Poor guy. Poor mama, since the transition from two naps to one continues and even that one nap has become a challenge. He slept for about an hour today and what a difference it made in my overall mood.

I'll try to get back on track one of these days and maybe include an image or two. In the meantime, it might be another early night for me.

settling in and sleep

I've been such a bad mommy blogger on this side of the move so far but I've been trying to give myself a break by reminding myself that we've only had our stuff for about a week and a half now and are technically still unpacking. We hit a bit of a plateau last week when I think we both became anxious to work on other things, things that generally do not involve cardboard or packing paper, but my lack of progress on those other things seems to be overshadowing the progress we've made on project move. We're feeling fairly settled in, despite some additional things to do in the way of unpacking (books, mostly...lots and lots of books), babyproofing (finally tethering things to the wall, something we never did in the earthquake-prone Bay Area, but which is now, of course, doubly important), and decorating (for someone who's spent the majority of her adult life invested in the arts, I'm not so good with interior design). That said, the place is pretty livable and Elias definitely seems to be enjoying the more open living plan of this apartment compared to our Boston digs. Backing up a bit, though, here are a few images documenting our week without stuff.

Thanks to Grandma Joanne's belated birthday gifts upon our arrival, Elias was not without toys those first few days in our new place.


Sadly, no airplanes to be seen out these windows.


Our cat Xander (who, along with Sophie, we were reunited with the first weekend after we arrived) approves of the pint-sized furniture.


I've since had to break down the table and store it with the chairs in Elias's closet, after he took a spill and got his first real "boo-boo" a little too close to his eye.

Here Elias gets his first taste of strawberry aguas frescas at Cactus Tacqueria, which was and, as it turns out, still is our favorite place to go for burritos.


While the moving crate was being unloaded a couple of Fridays ago, I took Elias to the San Leandro marina, just south of the Oakland airport, for a stroll and to watch the planes land. On the way back to the car we stopped at two different playgrounds - Elias's obvious enjoyment is a bit unusual as he seems to be pretty bored with the swings these days.


Later that weekend, while I unpacked Elias's room and the kitchen, Neal took him to Children's Fairyland near Oakland's Lake Merritt, our old/new neighborhood.


We worked pretty quickly to get Elias's room, the kitchen, and most of the bedroom done by the end of that first weekend and have made slow but steady progress on the rest of the apartment since.

Otherwise, the highlight of the past couple of weeks with Elias has been sporadic teething (I'm guessing he's getting his first set of molars) and the continued transition from two naps to one. For the most part, I've been able to keep him up until about 11 or noon before putting him down for one mid-day or early afternoon nap and a few times that one nap has lasted quite long (three hours to be exact...I don't really know what to do with myself after the typical max of an hour and a half). But for the most part, whether he takes one nap or two, he rarely sleeps more than an hour and a half or two and the transition continues to wreak havoc on any kind of predictability in terms of scheduling activities around his sleep needs. After almost a week of the one, mid-day nap, yesterday he was back to the morning nap from 9:30 until about 11 and another from about 2:30 until 4. Today, on the other hand, thanks to a restorative ten or fifteen minute snooze in the car on the way home from our morning activities and not one, but two poopy diaper interruptions during an attempt at a later afternoon nap, he basically didn't really nap at all.

As far as night sleep, it took him about 4 or 5 nights until he seemed more or less adjusted to west coast time, waking up sometimes as early as 3:30, groggy and confused but seemingly ready for the day. We could usually coax him back to sleep until 5 or 5:30. And while he's still waking up in the middle of the night every now and then (I'm not sure if it's night terrors or if he wakes up briefly and freaks out because it takes him awhile to recognize where he is or what), for the most part, we're back to a 7:30 bedtime with minimal protesting/babbling and waking up around 6:30, on average. It's funny how in hindsight, writing about it a week later, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. A friend told me that it takes about a day per hour of time change for them to adjust and I'd say that's fairly accurate - those first three nights being the worst. But like any difficult stretch with a child, when you're in the thick of it, it's like there's a part of you that just doesn't believe that things will ever get better. Like in the midst of all that there was a little part of me that thought, oh great, Elias is going to wake up at 3:30 every morning for the rest of his childhood. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. For now, at least.

13 months

Wow, that snuck up on me. Two weeks since my last post...I think that's a record, but I guess it's understandable, considering the cross-country move that will forever be remembered as the event of Elias's 13th month. I'll write more later about how things have been going (and what I'd do differently if I had to do it again....which, hopefully, will never be the case) and what else Elias has been up to (should anything else stand out over the past couple of sleep-deprived weeks), but in the meantime, thought I'd post a visual recap of our last few weeks in Beantown.

Aw, here we are enjoying our own in-unit washer and dryer, something I was very sad to leave behind, trading down to a shared, coin-op laundry room. Elias was fond of "helping" me with the laundry, sort of tease-tossing them almost into the dryer before taking them back out again and usually depositing them on the floor instead.


Hanging out in the side yard at our old place on one of the few nice days in early July. To be fair, the weather in the Boston area our last few days was simply gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for a better send-off, weather-wise.


Elias ate half of his first grilled cheese sandwich as part of his second kids meal at local chain 99 Restaurant, a very kid-friendly establishment where you're treated to complimentary popcorn as you wait for your food.


During our last couple of weeks in Boston, Elias was particularly fond of watching for airplanes, primarily outside, on walks, but occasionally from inside as well, gazing wistfully out his bedroom window.


While we'd made it to the Stone Zoo back in May, the Franklin Park Zoo (which, together, make up Zoo New England) had been on my Boston to-do list for awhile and we finally went with a friend and her daughter the week before we shipped out. Elias still seemed pretty unfazed by the animals, even the seriously stinky flamingos (fluting, indeed, which will make sense if you're familiar with Bill Martin Jr.'s books)


During our last weekend in Boston, when Neal and I tried to simultaneously finish packing and keep Elias entertained and out of trouble, he was treated to adventures new and old, like this walk around Castle Island, the day before the departure of the Tall Ships.


On Sunday, while the couple of guys we hired to load our Pod were doing their thing (one of the best decisions we made during this crazy move and frankly, a drop in the bucket, financially), I took Elias to the water play area at the Pope John Paul Park in Dorchester, our walking "staple" over the past year.


Not surprisingly, Elias was cautious for only about a second before gleefully running through the fountains of water and then running back to me, getting both of us wet in the process (and while I went to the trouble of putting him in a swim diaper and swim trunks, I forgot to bring a towel).


And finally, some evidence that some major changes were about to unfold. We did our best to maintain Elias's routine throughout the packing, finishing his room the morning of the day the movers loaded up our crate, but of course some disruption to the balance and normalcy of our everyday lives was inevitable. Doesn't he look a little suspicious? Like the look your cats give you when you pull out the suitcase...

Looking back at the pictures from the past few weeks, I'm actually sort of surprised we squeezed in as much as we did, and I'm glad. I'm happy to be back in Oakland, as close to "home" as I've ever felt, and I definitely found a lot of little things to complain about over the past four years, but we sure made a lot of amazing memories in Boston as well. The four-year stretch we spent in our old apartment was the longest I've ever lived in one spot (not one city, but one physical address) and of course as much as I complained about the funky layout and the outdated kitchen, the first floor of that old house will always hold a special place in my heart for a number of reasons but mostly, of course because of Elias.