The Baylor Family Blog

So Eli received a new outfit in the mail from his great Aunt Carlean and spent the day showing off in his new overalls! Here are some pictures of his adventures:

We are starting Eli in driver’s ed a little earlier than most!

His newest hobby: ladder climbing.

Why should one go around the ladder when one could go over the ladder?

The weekend wasn’t too eventful. I worked, and Matt and Eli got some quality time together. Eli has started waking up several times throughout the night hungry. It seems that his formula isn’t satiating him anymore. Though our kiddo is over 10 months old, its felt a bit like we’ve had a newborn as we’ve been feeding him at least two times throughout the night or more. And we continue to feed him every 2-3 hours during the day. He can only handle rice cereal at most two times a day, and that’s the only other food that doesn’t make him miserable. So there really isn’t anything else we can do but get up and feed him at night. This is definitely a subject we’ll chat with his specialist about.

Which brings me to today. This is the day I’ve been dreading for two weeks: the day I give Eli food to make him miserable to prepare him for his scope tomorrow. He survived peas this morning, and I am going to give him some carrots at lunch, and then peas for dinner…all in all to irritate his GI tract. On top of it all, Eli woke up with lots of snot this morning and seems to have a cold. So it could be a long couple days for us (though we have been expecting that). The scope is tomorrow morning at 11 am. Matt is taking time off work so he can be with us. It is an invasive procedure and Eli will be put out, but it should only last about 20-30 minutes. So we’ll see what happens. In some ways, we are really hoping for something abnormal to show up in the scope to give us some answers, but at the same time, we don’t want things to be wrong, either. Its getting harder, though, as Eli wants to eat food and can’t and doesn’t seem to be getting satisfied with his formula anymore. As always, your prayers are appreciated!

So I just wanted to show our grown up our little guy is becoming. Its amazing to start seeing him as a little boy, not as a little baby. One of his favorite pastimes is walking around pushing his mail cart. He has come along way in the past months. At first he leaned so hard on it, it tipped on him every time. Now he has mastered pushing it, though for a while he got quite frustrated when he pushed his mail cart into the wall or couch. But now he has mastered how to back up and turn it. He just loves walking and pushing!! And he is learning to laugh off the “opp’s” when he gets distracted and falls over.

Our growing big boy! Did I mention he is up to 17 1/2 pounds now?

Pushing the mail cart…its a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Laughing when things don’t always go as expected!

So I realize this blog is much in need of an update! Fortunately, things have improved quite a bit since my last “frustrated” post. We stopped giving Eli solid foods that day (followed by permission from the doctor the following day). It took Eli about 36 hours to get the food out of his system, and he finally started sleeping and being happy again. His scope is scheduled for Wednesday morning, and we will start him again on solid food on Monday night or Tuesday (poor kid). Eli’s schedule has been a bit off from the events, and I’m not to excited to force him back into his previous schedule as he’ll get off again this week when we start him on solid food again. Maybe afterwards…

So as things got a little better for us, we decided to tackle a home improvement project. I mean, our son was happy again; therefore we had tons of time on our hands, right?? Matt and I have had the supplies to re-do the downstairs bathroom, we just haven’t mustered up the time or energy. Well, this past weekend, we tediously removed the awful wallpaper from the walls (and took oaths that we would never ever torture a wall by applying wallpaper to it), fixed the walls, painted the walls and put a chair rail up. It was a lot of work (mostly taking the wallpaper off), but sigh, it looks gorgeous now! I’ll try and remember to post a picture sometime…

Well the boost of energy quickly weaned Sunday night. Matt and I both caught a GI bug…we are pretty sure it was food poisoning. I got it the worst (correlating with my streak of sickness this past year!). Matt took an unexpected day off work to care for Eli and recover himself. Eli has been having some trouble holding down his Elecare and rice cereal off and on…we are pretty sure its not a bug, just another cycle with him. So at the moment, I think we are all healthy!

I’ve remained busy child-proofing our house. Lately, Eli has been ever so attracted to telephones, especially the buttons. So in my efforts to avoid long distance phone charges to places like China, the phones keep getting moved higher and higher! And as I move things higher and higher, Eli finds useful things to help him get higher and higher. Who knew Bibles (see pic below) could be used to help reach items on the third (formerly un-reachable) shelf? And I used to be able to use a laundry basket to prevent access to the “no-no” items on the end table. Then one day I turned around and Eli was standing on the laundry basket about ready to crawl up on the end table (see pic below). We’ve also had to remove his crib bumpers. You guessed it; we caught Eli using them to climb up (fortunately, he didn’t get up so high that he got out of his crib). I even gave in and bought one of those expensive trash cans for the kitchen due to the fact I got tired of our old trash can sitting on the counter top all the time because Eli just loved to knock it over and play with the fun contents…or better yet, suck on it. The new one has passed the Eli test (so far, at least) as he hasn’t figured out how to knock it over or get inside (yet). Eli remains quite busy clearing off book shelves, pantry shelves, shoe racks, CD shelves, or anything else that needs cleared off. If you haven’t caught on, we have a very active baby!!

So here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

A new use for Bibles.

Helping daddy hang chair rail in the bathroom.

Enjoying basket time.

Overcoming obstacles to explore new territory. Hmmm, is that a phone I see over there? I think I need to call Botswanna.

One of the reasons I haven’t posted in a while is that Eli has been keeping me quite busy at home…not just by exploring! We both ended up with colds upon returning home from Christmas; Eli always seems to take longer to recover! And when he is sick, eating and sleeping don’t usually go as smoothly. So to make a long story short, Eli had a few days when he pretty much stopped eating again, but started back on his plain Elecare and rice cereal with a spoon and all his problems seem to disappear (at last for the moment). He hasn’t thrown up in a week, his intake has increased dramatically, he is happier, sleeping longer, etc. Matt and I have been able to take a deep breath and enjoy parenting again!

So that brings us to Monday. We brought him into see the GI Specialist with lots of questions since all his allergy testing was negative last month. It is still very possible that Eli had some allergies, but outgrew them, as most babies due by the time they are one year of age. The fact is we may never know. With the hopes and likelihood that a baby will outgrow allergies, most doctors do not due invasive tests, etc. until necessary. With Eli being unable to eat so many things, allergy testing became necessary. Now that allergies are ruled out, Matt and I are going to introduce two new foods a week. If he does well, then Matt and I will be jumping for joy that Eli’s feeding woes may be behind us! However, one of the goals of introducing the foods that have bothered Eli in the past is to irritate his GI tract, as he has an upper GI scope scheduled for January 30th. The doctor will be taking a biopsy to check for abnormalities in the tissues of Eli’s GI tract and will be looking for inflammation, signs of damage from acid reflux, or anything else that is preventing Eli from tolerating food.

So that’s the scoop on Eli’s most recent doctor’s appointment! I am learning to take everything one day at a time. And I cherish the words we’ve heard from so many health care providers in regards to some of the unusual difficulties we’ve had, “Your next baby will be a breeze.”

So Matt is thoroughly enjoying our more active and interactive little guy! From chasing each other around the house to tickling to lots of bubbles in a bath tub, these two like each other a lot!!

Though we were quite disappointed that the Colts lost on Sunday, we were relieved that we weren’t going to have to squeeze Eli into his Colts outfit that he has pretty much outgrown anymore!

What a fun new toy!! Eli was more than delighted to help his daddy install cabinet latches!

So what have we been up to in the past couple of weeks?? A big word would be “exploring.” Matt and I have watched (and laughed) as Eli has taken to checking out every nook and cranny in our home! Its amazing all the things he hasn’t seen in his already 10 months of life! Here are some pictures of everyday life here in our house these days:

Eli discovered the kitchen cabinets and thoroughly enjoys exploring the pots and pans!

Once upon a time, we could leave the pantry door open with no worries. Not anymore as Eli finds it as his personal mission to “help” daddy and mommy by emptying all the shelves he can reach! Let’s just say we’ve done a little re-arranging in the pantry! However, the pantry is one of his favorites in the kitchen, and I’ve been able to get more done with his new distractions and entertainment!

Indeed, he is a boy. Eli is still trying to figure out how to get up on the fire place ledge, but I don’t think he’s far from accomplishing that goal! I just laugh as he climbs over (instead of going around things) and just loves to climb up!

Another kitchen moment. I pulled an extra formula feeder out of the cabinet and Eli is incredibly intrigued with this and will spend ten minutes (and sometimes more) playing with it. Who would have thought such a thing would amuse the boy so much?

So what else are we up to these days??

–keeping our son from sticking his fingers into outlets
–keeping our son from sucking on cords (and pulling them out of outlets…then see above)
–helping our son survive the nursery (which he did for the first time in forever on Sunday…yea for progress!)
–helping our son not melt down while we take a shower (let’s just say his separation anxiety can be intense!)
–keeping our son from falling down the many steps in our home (we gave in and invested in more gates for sanity’s sake!)
–adding many 9-12 month clothes to his drawers as Eli is growing out of some of the smaller sizes
–adjusting to a new nap cycle (he now prefers two longer naps as opposed to 3-4 shorter naps)…which is much nicer for dad and mom!
–and so much more!