The Baylor Family Blog

Abi is at a stage in life where she is simply changing sooo fast! Do I dare say too fast? A couple weeks ago she started pulling herself up to the standing position and falling over. We thought it was so cute. Now its her favorite past time. Her biggest motivation to crawl is to a place where she can pull herself up to stand. And she just stands. She no longer plays in the bath tub. She just stands and holds on to the side. She stands holding on to the fire place ledge. She stands at the kitchen table, holding on to a chair. She pulls herself up by my leg to stand by me. She pulls herself up in her crib, though she found it difficult to sleep while standing up.

Which leads to a skill we forced her to learn: how to sit back down! Now she is pretty good at it in general. She over balances on the way down sometimes, but overall, I’ve been impressed.

Because she was starting to stand on her crib bumper, we took it off. I kept thinking, she is just so young. She’ll bump her head or get her leg stuck. But its hitting me: she is at that stage. With mobility comes bumps and falls and boo-boos! It has all happened so fast! Her cute little music mobile is also packed up. Her crib looks so different. And I realize that Abi looks so different from the day we brought her home from the hospital.

Truth be told, though…I love watching my kids learn new things. Though bittersweet at times, its so worth it!

And standing is not all she’s doing. She is “furniture walking.” As long as she has something to hold on to, she walks along it. She can side step over 12 feet from one side of our fire place ledge to the other. She can hold onto an upside down laundry basket and walk across the floor. She walks along the couch. She walks holding on to our fingers.

Did I mention she is only 8-months old…yesterday, actually!

Since we have so many stairs in her house, we’ve started some lessons with her. Eli started crawling up the stairs at 8-months. So we thought, why not? It was so nice that he mastered stairs at such a young age, so we are hoping Abi may too. She gets this great big smile at the top of the stairs like she’s climbed the biggest mountain. She has shown zero motivation to crawl over to the stairs and practice on her own. We are savoring our days, though they might be short-lived, without baby gates.

Sigh.

Oh, if all that wasn’t enough…Abi graduated from her infant carrier to her backwards facing bigger baby car seat. She loves it. Eli gets a much better view of his little sister, so he is much happier, too.

Last Wednesday, Matt took the day off so we could have a fun family day. With the stresses of work and the busyness of having two small kids, a day away from the normal grind is very therapeutic.

We started the day leaving bright and early at 7:30 in the morning to head down to Penrose, Colorado to the Happy Apple Farm. We told Eli he would get to go on a tractor ride, so he was quite excited! We were right on time and were among the first to hit the fields to pick berries.

We spent a couple hours at the farm taking tractor rides, picking berries, walking through the apple orchards, playing in the pumpkin patch, and enjoying the cool, fresh fall air!

With a little instruction from his daddy, Eli caught on amazingly quickly and loved picking berries. The blackberries were much easier to determine if they were “ready” to be picked than the raspberries, so we spent more time at the blackberry bushes. And man, oh man…these berries tasted a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We tried picking some apples, but they were mostly picked over. We did, however, get some amazing apple cider that I’m still savoring!

After the Happy Apple Farm, we took a short drive and went on a beautiful mountain drive through Phantom Canyon, seeing the very beginning of fall colors on the trees. We found a nook off the road and ate a picnic lunch. I’m not sure if Eli had more fun playing in the back of our Explorer or running around outside!

On our way back down from the mountains, we stopped at one of our favorite sweet shops, the Donut Mill, for a treat. Matt had a blueberry fritter, Eli had his very first donut, and I ate a cinnamon roll. Yummy.

The skies opened up and it rained and rained and rained. Since our kids did so well napping on the go, we decided to keep going! We dropped off one our vehicles for an oil change and headed over to the mall to browse. Eli loved being able to ride the escalators, which is one of his most favorite past-times! I managed to find some new head bands for Abi, so I was quite excited, too!

Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Early bed time for the kids! And some time for just Matt and I led to the conclusion of a wonderful day!

Was our day perfect? Well, not exactly. But its so nice to be able to get away and spend time together as a family. Its days like these that seem perfect in our memories!

Its hard to believe that at the beginning of the year Eli could only say about five words because now he never stops talking. We are adjusting to the constant “noise” in our home. But we are thankful that the “noise” includes understandable words not unintelligible whines and screams. Eli has recently started doing some pretend play. Its fun overhearing him talk as he plays with his cars or take care of his yellow monkey. He has also started singing songs spontaneously. He will often miss a handful of words or verses, but its been pretty easy to figure out what he is singing. One of his new favorites is “Ring Around the Rosie,” though he sometimes calls it “Spin Around the Rosie.” He loves falling to the ground at the end!

Eli is one big ball of energy. This morning Eli was running back and forth between all the bedrooms at full speed. That didn’t seem to drain much energy, so Matt told him to flap his arms like a bird and try to fly. So Eli took off at full speed with his arms flapping trying to fly. I’m not sure it drained much energy like we hoped, but it sure cracked us up watching him.

I divided up most of the toys in our house into four big sterilite containers. I’ve started pulling one container out at a time. After a week or so, I pack up the toys and bring out a different container. There are fewer toys out, but they are somehow more exciting because of the rotation. Toys that Eli has ignored for months are now becoming his favorites. And even better, he is taking bigger segments of time playing on his own! I also like that there are fewer toys to spread all over the house and eventually clean up! So far, its been a great system for us!

Eli’s memory has also taken off. He’s learned his alphabet and can count to twenty (most of the time). He also talks about places he’s been, people he’s interacted with, things he has done and so much more. He loves looking at pictures and talking about what we were doing or who he sees in the pictures. One thing that has really helped Eli for a long time is telling him what is going to happen so he knows what to expect. We used to do this only moments before the event happened because otherwise he wouldn’t remember. But now he remembers things that will happen quite a bit in the future, like how we are going to fly in an airplane to see grandparents in a few months!

We are finally starting to see more signs of flexibility in Eli, too. Though he sometimes cries when going to childcare at church, he recovers very quickly and does great. We can also move his nap time and bed time around to accommodate our schedule. He still desperately needs sleep, but if his nap time is short, we can make up for it at bed time and vice versa. We have waited a very long time for some flexibility with Eli’s sleep!!

Matt and I are amazed at how fast Abi is changing! A couple weeks ago, she could only sit for a few moments before falling over. She has now mastered sitting, which is her preferred position to play in right now! She has also started pulling herself into the standing position, thus her crib has been moved down to a lower setting. When she pulls herself to the standing position, she often falls a few moments later. She is a great army crawler and can take a couple strides at regular crawling before she quits. She is very interested in her surroundings and putting anything she can manage to reach into her mouth! She has also started kneeling to reach up and play with toys she cannot reach while sitting.

Feeding is actually going pretty well for Abi, too! A few weeks ago, we tried adding prune juice to her solid food, but that resulted in her throwing up a lot. So we stopped that. Instead, we have increased her laxative dose and have been very aggressive in preventing constipation. Sometimes, we have to hold solid foods until she can clear her system out.  It appears as long as we can keep her bowels moving, Abi can tolerate solid foods.  And she loves to eat! She’s eaten avocados, pears, apples, bananas, blueberries, squash as well as gummed down crackers, pretzels, and cheerios. We have some vegetables to give her, but they tend to bulk up her stools so we are going to very slowly introduce them. She still has no signs of teeth and hardly drools at all.

Abi is usually taking two naps a day and often a cat nap in the evening. We are still feeding her once during the night, usually around 4 a.m. Her routine before going to sleep is very simple. She often gets  bottle, then we lay Abi in her crib with her blanket, turn on some music, and she falls asleep. She has a little security blanket she has bonded with that helps her fall asleep. She moves all over the crib and carries her little blanket with her. She is doing just fine without her pacifier. None of us have missed it at all!

Labor Day weekend was extra special this year because it included a visit from my parents! Somehow they managed to keep up with our busyness, though i think we may have completely wore them out on some days! Eli and Abi soaked up the extra attention and have been going through detox this week, as they re-adjust to far less attention!

On Friday, we enjoyed time in our backyard. Eli rode his tricycle and changed my mom around the shed! Abi drove her car (with help, of course!). The kids loved all the attention! We ended the day at Mimi’s for some delicious chocolate dessert! Yummy!

On Saturday, we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed over to the Balloon Classic only to be disappointed that the hot air balloons were not able to lift off due to weather. Fortunately, my parents hotel was nearby and had a great indoor pool. Eli was thrilled to get to go swimming and thought everyone took way to long changing into their swimsuits! Abi’s growing love for water fits in well with our family!

If seeing hot air balloons and swimming wasn’t enough, we decided to head over to the zoo to finish off the morning! Eli was hesistant to feed the giraffes, but he loved watching his grandpa feed them! Abi hung out in the Baby Bjorn and did great napping on the go!

On Sunday, we decided to take things a little slower! We went to the late service at church and enjoyed a late grilled lunch here at home. We enjoyed some chocolate zucchini cake and played Rummi-Kub while the kids napped.

On Monday, we woke up once again at the crack of dawn to head back to the Balloon Classic. We weren’t disappointed this time as 73 hot air balloons were inflated and lifted into the sky! Eli was especially intrigued by the balloons this year. He immediately took his place on Grandpa’s shoulders to take in all the sights and sounds. We ran into our friends, Cameron and Lisa, and enjoyed catching up with them. Matt and Cameron were recruited to help with the inflation on a balloon. Any chance to have hands on experience always excites Matt! We walked around the lake watching several balloons dip down into the water. It was beautiful!

After the balloons, we met up with my mom at the hotel to go swimming. After swimming, we all changed into our sports shirts and headed over to Chick-fil-A to get our free sandwiches. Even Abi got one Unsurprisingly, the kids were simply exhausted and took great naps! My dad’s request for ice cream led us on a drive over to the Old Colorado City Creamery for ice cream and some window shopping. What a weekend!

We told Eli that Grandpa and Grandma were going to fly in an airplane to go back to their home. Now, when Eli sees an airplane, he points up in the sky and says, “Grandpa and Grandma!” When Eli woke up from his nap today, he said, “Me Grandpa and Grandma come back to me house.” Too sweet. He misses their attention greatly!

We had a great weekend! On Saturday, we loaded up in the car and headed to the Colorado State Fair. We’d been telling Eli he would get to see farm animals, so he was quite excited! We arrived before the fair officially opened, and we were able to explore the animal barns without much of a crowd! Eli was a bit anxious around the animals and preferred to be safe and sound on his daddy’s shoulders. But he’s been talking nonstop about the animals since we got home, so I know he still enjoyed it!

In the agricultural barn, Eli was able to play in a large box of dried pinto beans. He loved it. We literally had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the bean box. Good times!

After watching a shark show and monkey show, we sat in the shade for a simple picnic lunch with a touch of fattening fair curly fries (yummy!). Abi was such a trouper eating and sleeping on the go!

I think one of Eli’s favorite stops was looking at the big farm machines! He was completely enthralled and didn’t stop talking for a second as he ran between all of the machines!

Eli has always been a kid who doesn’t do well on less sleep. But to our delight, we pushed his nap back two hours later than normal and he did great! He had one major temper tantrum (after the bean box), but otherwise did great! He only slept for an hour on the way home and even made it until bedtime in a decent mood! Miracles do happen!

On Sunday, both Eli and Abi did great in their classes, so Matt and I were able to enjoy the service together! After church, Matt went to soccer practice while the kids napped.

On Sunday evening, we had Matt’s Grams and Grandad and Mom over for dinner. Grams and Grandad were in town celebrating their anniversary and staying overnight in the same hotel they stayed in during their honeymoon! The kids soaked up the extra attention!

What a great weekend