The Baylor Family Blog

This weekend, Eli seemed to turn the corner with eating. He now is eating mostly table food and feeding himself. He’s enjoying cheese, edamame, pears, apples, bananas, strawberries, chicken, roast beef, potatoes, carrots, yogurt, and probably more! I don’t know what caused the change, but he will try just about anything at the moment! It feels like all he’s wanted to do the past few days is sit in his chair and eat and eat and eat! I started timing his meals and he will eat on average for 45 minutes to an hour right now! Granted, he’s not taking adult size portions and it takes him a while to chew and swallow, but the fact he is content to sit and eat that long amazes us! Maybe its because I’m a first time mom or maybe its because of all of Eli’s eating issues and vomiting, but I’ve always been a little nervous about Eli choking. Well, this weekend, we learned Eli’s feeding style is to keep putting food into his mouth until he’s reached capacity, and eventually he swallows. And thankfully, no choking! So that’s helping me relax a lot! He is also a lot more interested in his sippy cup taking and is taking an ounce or two at a time (huge progress!)! I still offer him a bottle before nap time and bedtime, but otherwise, he’s drinking out of his sippy cup! We have learned to take everything a day at a time, but we feel very encouraged by his progress!

Thanks to spring weather finally making its way to Colorado, we have been able to enjoy more time outside! It is so fun to watch Eli explore outside! I’ve taken probably a half dozen or more rocks out of his mouth from our backyard. He has had my fingers swooping his mouth for “unauthorized things” so many times, I’ve found him doing it to himself! He loves sticks and dirt and bark and bushes and leaves and bugs and everything else that’s not indoors! If I had any doubt left I had a little boy, I no longer do We’ve stopped at the park on the way to or from running errands a couple times this week. I think I enjoy it as much as Eli does! His favorite activity at the park is swinging, closely followed by playing with the bark on the ground. I can’t convince him to play on the jungle gym or go down the slide. He ultimately will do whatever it takes to return to play with the bark. And hold onto it as long as possible! Here are some pictures:

We had a small victory last night at dinner. My several attempts to feed Eli his baby food for dinner were met by screams. So I was ready to give up when Matt suggested putting a little bit of what we were eating on his tray to see what Eli would do. Not having anything to lose (though always running the risk or Eli throwing up), we put a tiny bit of roast beef, carrots, potatoes, and strawberries on his tray. And he picked it up and ate it. And kept eating it as I refilled his tray. I never would have guessed he would respond so positively! Today, he was much less interested in table food. Who knows what tomorrow will hold. But we still claim a victory that we are at least a tiny bit closer than we were before to Eli feeding himself!

On another note, Matt separated his shoulder this past weekend and is learning how to survive life with his right arm in a sling. Fortunately, no surgery is necessary. He should be back to normal in four to six weeks with physical therapy and not using his right arm. Its been a bit crazy establishing new routines this week, but Matt is noticing some improvement each day, and for that we are very thankful!

What has Eli been up to lately??

–He is walking everywhere now, and only crawls occasionally!
–He is learning to walk on and between different surfaces (grass, pavement, rocks, etc) without losing his balance.
–He can crawl up the stairs and down the stairs backwards by himself.
–On a beautiful day this week, he had his first chance to explore the backyard and play with sticks, stones, grass, and meet the neighbor’s dog!
–He loves to swing at the park!
–Stroller rides no longer lull him to sleep but provide lots of fun things to look at!
–Eli screams when we are done playing outside.
–He figured out how to turn the shower on when the bathtub is filling up with water!
–He loves watching things fall, whether its a cheerio taking a plunge from his tray or toys taking the leap of death down the stairs!
–He can feed himself cheerios, but throws them on the floor when he’s finished.
–He can drink a small amount of water from his Dr. Brown sippy cup.
–He is starting to eat chunks in his baby food.
–He is learning to eat meat by force, as I puree it into all his baby food now!
–He changes pitch and inflection when he babbles. His only word is still “dadadadadada.”
–Every toy is his favorite toy right now! He will play with almost anything in front of him!
–He has figured out how to put the toy coins in his toy piggy bank.
–He can put the circle, square, and rectangle into the shape sorter all by himself.
–He has six teeth now, four on top and two on bottom.
–He can now open dresser drawers and thoroughly enjoys taking all his clothes out.
–When dressed only in a diaper, he can now remove the diaper.
–He loves bath time and making big splashes with his hands and feet.
–He naps on a regular schedule (praise God!!!)!
–He loves his blue blankie. When he tries to carry it around the house, he often trips because the blanket is so long. But he keeps trying anyway!!
–He likes to put the caps back on his bottles.
–He can crawl to the top of his slide and slide down backwards on his belly by himself.
–He has stayed in the nursery three times in a row and has actually played and had fun! That makes daddy and mommy really happy!!
–He loves to take a spoon and stir inside a bowl.
–He walks around the house carrying pots and pans.
–He plays bigger or better with regards to getting things up the stairs. This morning, he was working so hard to get his bulldozer up the stairs, but finally gave in and let his mommy help.
–His enjoyment of books is growing! I often find him sitting on the floor flipping through pages of a book, or he will bring a book to me to read aloud.
–He has this great belly laugh that brings so much joy to his daddy and mommy!

So that’s our update!

In March, we welcomed two sweet little babies into the family! Eli now has two cousins on both sides of the family, two older, and now two younger!

Matt’s brother, Than, and his wife, Michelle, had Katya Eliana on March 7!

My brother, Brad, and his wife, Andrea, had Tycen Bennett on March 19!

Aren’t they so precious? We’ve been able to meet Katya and are hoping to meet Tycen as soon as possible! We are so happy for both additions to our family!!

After debating whether Matt and I were going to get Eli a birthday present, we came across this adorable cube at Target and couldn’t pass it up. Literally, its the perfect toy for Eli right now. There are doors to open, gears to turn, shapes to form, lots of things to move, and so much more. Each side of the cube has something different to play with. Eli is such an active hands on little guy and I think he’ll enjoy this toy for years to come! And better yet, it doesn’t take any batteries!

Just before Eli’s birthday party, our washing machine hit the dust. So after some shopping and research, we invested in a new front-loader washer/dryer set. To my delight, this big new gadget renewed my husband’s love of doing laundry and provides tons of entertainment to our little boy!

March Madness, Baby!

Hi, I’m Eli and I’ll be your waiter today!

Peek-A-Boo!

Mommy, can you make me some eggs for breakfast, please?

We were delighted to get a visit from Matt’s parents! They came to Eli’s party and stayed overnight with us! Eli got a new Sportsman Warehouse sweatsuit from them. I thought it would be too big since the size is 18-months, but was pleasantly surprised to discover it fits him already! I got a kick watching Eli go about the house with two paw prints on his back side

Eli got a new slide from Gran B and Papa B for his birthday. I love that its small enough to fit indoors, yet can also be an outdoor toy! We’ve been working very hard at teaching Eli how to crawl up the the back to the landing. Although he still needs some help, he has learned which side of the slide to climb up! He loves to stand on the landing for so long that I think he sometimes forgets there is a slide right beside him to go down! The slide has helped break up some of the monotony to the day inside as we are desperately waiting for warmer weather to explore outdoors!

After being treated to an always tasty breakfast at the Egg and I, Gran B and Papa B travelled back up to Denver!

A few days after Eli’s party, Matt dropped Eli and I off at the airport to fly to Wisconsin for a week. My dad had outpatient surgery just before Eli’s party and could use some extra hands and feet to help out! Besides nearly missing our flight, Eli screaming so hard he threw up on the airplane, one of suitcases (the one with all our clothes) not arriving, and the airline breaking the handle off our stroller and damaging all of our suitcases, the trip there went fine! My parents were delighted to see their grandson who has changed a lot since Thanksgiving! Although Eli’s been taking steps occasionally, it was on this trip he started walking more often and farther distances! We enjoyed lots of trips to Walmart and a few special trips to an amazing park in their town! Eli loves to swing and go down the slide! Eli got to wear a new outfit (top picture) from his grandparents the next day, as he didn’t have any clothes until our suitcases arrived later in the day! The pants were just a little big and as he walked around the house, they slowly fell down until they were around his ankles. It was hilarious to watch! Since being washed, they fit much better now Unfortunately, Eli was a bit fussy all week as he was cutting three teeth! Poor guy! My mom was a guest speaker at a women’s retreat at a local church in her town, and I did get to hear parts of her talk while chasing Eli around the church. That was an unexpected, special blessing.

The trip home went more smoothly, thankfully! Since the plane wasn’t full (and maybe out of pity from all that went wrong on the flight out), the airline let me bring Eli’s car seat on the plane and he was much more comfortable and actually slept half the flight. Unfortunately, Eli started getting sick just before we left and was coughing a lot. So we deplaned, grabbed our bags, hugged Matt really hard, and drove straight to the pediatrician’s office. He was treated for croup, but didn’t improve, so we returned, and Eli now has a nebulizer. Though he hated the nebulizer treatments, they helped him a ton and about four or five days later, his coughing decreased significantly and he wasn’t struggling to breathe! Yea! He still has a runny nose, but he is in a much more pleasant mood now! I also just discovered Eli cut yet another tooth just this week, which brings him to four on top and two on bottom. Eli was kind enough to share his sickness with me, and I was kind enough to pass it on to Matt. So all three of us are fighting over the Kleenex box and anxiously awaiting to get healthier. But we are glad to be back together again

On March 12, Eli reached the milestone of his first birthday! Besides some reminiscing between Matt and I, we didn’t do much on Eli’s actual birthday! But a few weeks later, on the afternoon of March 23, we were privileged to open our home to lots of friends and family to celebrate Eli turning one! Along with chili and cornbread, we made a frog cake (as frogs are the theme of Eli’s nursery), as Matt and I tried our hand at cake decorating! We had a lot of fun and thought the cake turned out great!

Though he slept through the first hour of his party, Eli woke up in a great mood and did great with a house full of people here to see him! He wasn’t sure what to do with the cake at first, but with some encouragement, we got him to get his hands dirty. I’m not so sure he ate much of it, but he at least had fun playing with it!

Eli got lots of fun things and hugs and cards for his birthday. But I have to laugh that it is still the everyday things that he gravitates to! So I couldn’t help snag a picture of him that day carrying this big pot up the stairs the day of his party. This is no small task for the little guy, mind you!

Thank you to all of you who have walked beside us and made Eli’s first year of life so special!