Extra Extra!

Elliot's top two teeth have broken through! One tooth more in than the other, but both there! Some fuzziness detected! Further updates as event warrant!

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Yesterday, Elliot first ate cheerios. I feel this is a real landmark, because how do you get through the toddler years without cheerios? Elliot ate a lot of them, and then ate too many at once and sort of choked, and then puked them all up on my friend Shayna's rug. So our first cheerios encounter wasn't I guess a complete success, but I think we're on the upward trail here.

(In passing, I had never realized until Shayna pointed it out to me why it is cheerios that are the first chewable food of so many babies: cheerios have holes. So babies can't choke on them! Even if they get stuck in a baby's throat, the baby can still breath. It is pure genius; I'd never realized.)

Anyway, the other first of the day is more romantic: it's Elliot's first Blue Moon. Since a luminous and large full moon shined on us the whole way to the hospital the night Elliot was born, we always think of the full moon as Elliot's moon--this will be his tenth. And my friend Kate just called to leave a message to say that she was thinking of us because it was a blue moon--I hadn't realized--and she wanted to wish him a happy first. So nice!

Happy first blue moon, Elliot. We're glad you are here, cheerio-puke and all.

Family Milestone

Friends: Elliot is now a fan. Of the Cubs, of course. My folks were in town for the weekend, and Mama got us all tickets to go to the game last night. It tells you something about our family that the only two full-price/new items my mother has gotten for Elliot are his "Mama said Vote for Obama" onesie and his Cubs sleeper. Around here, we like to start the process of indoctrination early.

I was a little wary of the game, and had conceeded ahead of time only to allowing Elliot to stay for the first couple of innings, which would have gotten him home only moderately past his bed time. But it was sort of sweet and hilarious to have him there. We all agreed that it was probably the single most stimulating experience of his life; actually, it was probably more stimulating than the rest of his life put together. So many faces! So many Big Noises! It was thrilling. So thrilling, in fact, that he completely zonked out in my mama's arms at about the top of the fourth. So we ended up staying most of the game...he was peaceful, and we were all kinda in to it, even though the cubs had their usually upsetting number of errors and bullpen issues. Ah, the cubs.

In other news, it was a really exciting weekend, movement-wise. I feel like he learned some new "going forward" technique every couple of hours or so. I mean, really: I went to run an errand on Sunday, and by the time I came back he'd perfected a whole new crab walk technique. So he was really making progress Sunday, but by Monday he'd gotten interested in a new strategy of "walking" on both hands and both feet, like a little Gollum, which was clearly both more advanced and less effective as a walking strategy. So we'll see where we go from here. Also, this morning when I went to fetch him from his crib (he slept awfully well, post cubs) he was sitting up in his crib. So, evidently he can do that now! Sit up from a lying position, that is. But I have yet to see him do it in person.

NEWSFLASH

Elliot has teeth. Two of them! Kindof. I hadn't noticed them, but this morning Elliot was chewing on Brandon's finger and Brandon said, "....um...hey...can you...feel his mouth?" And I did, and confirmed that there are two emergent teeth, which are just barely through the gums. You can even see them, if you work really hard to watch while Elliot periodically opens wide his mouth.

This is exciting, because its exciting to have a new sign of his awesome growingness. And it's also exciting because it explains the runny nose he's had the last couple of days, and his comparative grumpiness. But also I will confess to being a little put out. His sweet toothless grins! I shall miss them.

Lately I have had the sense of Elliot "peaking," as Catherine Newman wrote of her baby--of Elliot being at the peak of a particular phase of his infant life. He's been sturdy and friendly and safe. And it seems that is true, that he has been at a peak, and that now we're over the crest of the hill and ready to embark on the next higher mountain, where there is crawling and biting and all sorts of new adventures. Mostly I'm excited. But a little nervous, and a little sad, too.