The Baylor Family Blog

Matt is into his second season of playing soccer, and his team is starting off strong! Eli and I try to go to as many games as possible, and the warm weather has been such a treat! We are working on teaching Eli to kick the soccer ball, but most of our time at the games involves me trying to keep Eli off of the field! Eli recognizes his daddy running around, and he follows suit and claps whenever anyone else does! So, I had my soccer boys take a few pictures after Matt’s game today!

When we bought our front-loader washer and dryer several months ago, I never dreamed that they would provide so much entertainment for Eli. Eli still loves to wash the washer go through its cycles through the window. He also quickly discovered that he can now reach the buttons. I was relieved to find there is a child-lock button, but quite disappointed to learn that the child-lock setting does not prevent the function of turning the washer and dryer on and off. To me, this makes the child-lock completely ineffective…but I digress!

Anyway, one of Eli’s secret hiding places for his sippy cup is now inside the washing machine. Its worth looking inside now before I dump in a load of clothes. Well, one day Eli went into the laundry room. I didn’t think too much about it until I realized I hadn’t heard him for the last 10 minutes. Upon walking into the laundry room, I found Eli had crawled into the washing machine and was loving making the tub spin while trying to maintain his balance! After my initial laughter, I decided not to encourage the behavior and made him get out. But on several occasions, he has still managed to crawl in. Matt was around on of these times and encouraged me to get some pictures…so that’s the story behind these pictures!

Eli LOVES water. We first introduced him to swimming when he was three months. Several times a week, he gets to go “swimming” in the bathtub. But it isn’t as often that we have the opportunity to go swimming. It is hard to justify paying public pool admission when our toddler really only wants to swim for an hour! Though we don’t go very often, Eli always seems to enjoy it! We have a recreation center with an indoor pool very close to our house. We recently discovered they have discounted admission on Saturday evenings, so we decided to enjoy an evening of swimming as a family! There is a zero entry pool that has waves every 10-15 minutes, as well as a lazy river, and a water slide (that only Matt and I are tall enough to go on!). Although cautious at first, Eli quickly gained confidence and had a blast! In fact, he turned into a fearless little boy running into deeper water while the waves were running! Though he went under several times and had waves crash right in his face, Eli just smiled (sometimes coughed) and refused much comfort so he could run right back into the water! Though he was rubbing his eyes and ready for bed, Eli would have played in the water forever!! Fortunately, his daddy and mommy knew best and got him home and in bed at his regular time!

Eli much preferred carrying his flotation device around rather than riding in it! He sure likes his freedom! While in the lazy river, he kept trying to grab the edge of the pool to climb right out!

I think life guarding could by in Eli’s future!

Daddy and Eli!

Garden on the Gods is only a short distance from our home, but we realized we haven’t visited the beautiful red rocks up close in a while. On Monday, we had the opportunity to take a short hike. Our first choice would have been on the grounds of Glen Eyrie, but they were not accepting visitors that day. Fortunately, Garden of the Gods is next door! Eli is switching around his nap schedule, though neither he nor I have figured out what works best. Shortly after these pictures were taken, our little boy was tuckered out and fell asleep in the backpack! Thank goodness its a comfy place! We are loving the outdoors right now!

Today Eli had his 18 month appointment! Probably as a result of some of the struggles during his first year, I am always anxious to hear the numbers related to his growth. So, I was absolutely thrilled to find that Eli has been growing like a weed. All of his percentiles increased, some quite dramatically. So as a proud (and relieved) mama, here are the numbers:

Weight: 21 pounds, 14 ounces (6th percentile)
Height: 32 inches (41st percentile)
Head: 18.8 inches (45th percentile)

We knew Eli had been growing, but we didn’t know where everything would fit in the percentile charts. Eli is drinking regular whole milk with nothing special added to it and continues to eat table foods…and we get to continue with that plan! She recommended keeping nuts and shellfish out of his diet until he is two due to risk of allergies, but we confessed he eats peanut butter daily and does fine…and she was thrilled and said he can continue We don’t routinely have shellfish, so that shouldn’t be a problem!

The only real concern, which I have been anticipating for weeks/months, is that Eli is not talking. I am far less concerned about this developmental delay than I was with the eating/weight concerns. Eli babbles and can sometimes uses “dadadada” and “mamamama” appropriately. He recently learned a few sign language terms, which help somewhat. He can follow simple directions and point to things that Matt and I say. I really do not believe hearing and comprehension to be the problem. Matt and I both strongly believe that Eli is stubborn. He may have to get incredibly frustrated before he’ll speak…and he may burst out in complete sentences for all I know! We’ve received a lot of encouragement from those around us not to worry about it. But our doctor has been concerned about his lack of words since he was 12 months and had already recommended speech therapy, which I declined, at 15 months, so I was anticipating a strong push that direction during this visit. We agreed to go to at least one visit with a speech therapist…and then we’ll decide what to do from there. I totally want to do what is best for Eli, but I also don’t want to over-react and have months of therapy when he’ll figure things out in his own time! So we’ll see what happens!

Otherwise, the doctor was extremely pleased with all other areas of development and we don’t have to return until Eli is two years old (and he’ll have a little sister by then!)!

Around four months ago, Matt and I had the privilege of telling Eli that he is going to be a big brother! God surprised us with this second pregnancy, but we are very thankful that I am tolerating it much better than my first! I am 19 weeks along now with a due date of February 8th. My nausea is well managed with medication, but I am experiencing chronic hives this time around, which can be very miserable! Fortunately, with the help of a dermatologist and medication, I am learning to manage the hives, too! Though my body shape is changing, it isn’t obvious to most that I am pregnant yet. My goal is to avoid maternity clothes as long as possible! My biggest prayer is for a healthy baby. I am on a few extra medications to prevent the complications of my first pregnancy (IUGR), and I will have a few extra ultrasounds to help catch any complications early. I don’t think Eli has a clue as to what is ahead! We have been working on turning the bedroom that was our home office into what will become Eli’s new “big boy” bedroom with a construction theme.

Oh yeah, we’re having a girl! Here she is sucking on her hand in-utero!

If you haven’t already noticed, I am having an incredibly difficult time keeping up with the blog right now! At first, we were having trouble with pictures on our computer. Now that problem is solved, but I am having lots of trouble finding time to blog. I stay home with Eli, but my time is not my own! So, I am in the mood to blog and Eli is in bed…so therefore, I’m trying to make up for lost time and post all the things I’ve been meaning to post!

A highlight over Labor Day weekend here in the Springs in the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival downtown. Even better, the event is free to the public! We’ve been looking forward to bringing Eli this year as he is very mobile, thinking he’d enjoy all the colors and balloons! We woke up very early Saturday morning and made the quick drive to the park. I dropped Matt and Eli off and went to find a parking place! Upon finding my guys, I quickly learned that Eli was very minimally interested in his surroundings and preferred to sit in his stroller and eat cereal! Oh well…so much for providing stimulating environments for this kiddo!

Matt loves watching the balloons fill up with hot air and take off…and he is looking forward to sharing this love with Eli!

After just about all of the 300 hot air balloons had lifted off, we decided to take a walk around Prospect Lake, which is right by the park. Matt was able to catch the above picture…very beautiful! Eli was definitely interested in the water and wanted to walk right in. Eli has no fears (except of strangers)!

We spent the rest of the weekend on home improvement projects around the house. The time flew by and left us all quite exhausted! But its good to get things done, too! We did manage to take a break to show up at Chick-Fil-A on Labor Day for free chicken strips for wearing football shirts…yum yum!

Fall seems to be coming quickly this year, and we are enjoying the warmer days as much as possible while they are still here! Last weekend, I was working, so Matt and Eli had some time for just the two of them to hang out! So Matt took Eli to one of our favorite parks for a ride in the stroller and some time to run around. I managed to meet them after I was done working and we enjoyed some time as a family!