21 months

The zebras and Elijah

My baby's a boy. A true toddler. He's growing too fast. Somebody, make it slow down. He's no longer my sweet cuddler unless he's sick, in a cartoon trance, or I steal them during the night.

He's quick, and he runs everywhere. I can lose him in a second if he's not strapped to something.
He'll walk off with a stranger in a heartbeat and kiss dental hygienists on the mouth. (If he's wanting a kiss, he'll lean in and go, "Hmmm")
He loves music and hates bedroom shoes.
He likes the idea of dogs, but is shy to pet them. Until he decides it's a good idea to bonk them on the nose.
He speaks his own language that has little in common with English. He is not a performer and does not comply with requests to show where his nose or toes are.
His new favorite cartoons are Mickey Mouse Club House and Backyardigans. There is a part that makes him laugh every time in Backyardigans. That's my favorite.
He is very polite and tells everyone "Hi" and "Bye" that we ask him too.
He's a great independent player and we often hear him in his room playing with toys and solving the world's problems. It's especially funny when things aren't going his way and we hear, "no, no, no, oh no."
He LOVES playgrounds, especially the slides.
He pretty much knows his limits and before he decides to push them, he'll stare at the object he's not supposed to touch, or down the stairs he's not supposed to climb and shake his head while saying, "nooo nooo". I'm not sure if he's preemptively disciplining himself or lasting as long as he can before temptation wins out.
Eli can also loves to fake sleep. He'll catch our eye sometimes, throw his head back, close his eyes and snore. The kid is either narcoleptic or picked this up from who knows where. It cracks him up. He and his dad love to go back and forth playing this game, especially when they can trick mom.


These are some pics from our first zoo trip this past week.

The first words the lady at the gate told us were, "Do Not brush your hair with the goat's brushes" That is the first thing Elijah decided to do. I'm afraid my poor mom face has this expression 98% of the time. But, Elijah loved "petting" and brushing the goats.



In true Eli style, completely oblivious to the outside world.

These two were following this nervous meerkat back and forth along his cage. It was great fun.

Little Girl's Arrival Prep

We're busy getting ready for the arrival of Little Girl Hartley. She's due to arrive sometime in December, but we're not taking any chances like we did with Elijah. I'm not saving all of my "to-dos" until my last month so I stay busy like I tried with Eli. Also, it takes me twice as long to do everything anyway with a toddler "helping".

Some things we've been working on:

We're stocked with newborn disposable diapers and we've got our cloth diapers ready to begin using once she turns 1 month old.


I made a big shopping trip with my mom during her last visit and we stock piled household goods, postpartum, and newborn care items.


My mom and I both have been stocking our freezers full of ready-to-heat-& -eat meals. We'll start soon making and freezing chilli, meatloaf, banana bread, breakfast casseroles, etc.

I had a great natural quick birth with Elijah, but had a long postpartum recovery. Frozen meals, my mom and good friends were our saving grace during that time. I don't know how we would have eaten otherwise.

We organized the upstairs baby room closet and we'll move the bassinet in our room sometime next month. She'll stay with us until she's 4 months old or so. Then we'll *try* Elijah and baby girl in a room together.

We've been to consignment events and clearance sales since the change in seasons and bought Little Girls clothes until she's 12m old! I'll be washing up her layette to 3m clothes next month.

Baby Girl's layette and blankets

Elijah and Little Girl's summer and beginning winter clothes for next year.

I'm making a car seat cover mostly for the fun of getting ready for a new baby rather than necessity. It and the infant car seat will go in the car mid November as well.

After much searching our Birth Team is finally assembled. We've got our hospital, midwife, and doula all ready to help welcome baby girl into the world.

You may notice she's being referred to as baby girl - we're not being coy or evasive; it's because she has no proper name and won't until birth. We're giving ourselves time to get to know her. We've got a list of possibles....a long list...that is revised often, but that's about it. We'll all just have to wait and see.

As far as big brother prep goes - I'm using one of my old baby dolls to help Eli learn the concept of gentle. I've started placing baby paraphernalia around the house. I also point out babies to him where ever we go (though, he could care less) and Rob and I are discussing how to handle any behavioral challenges that a new sibling could cause. We've decided extra snuggles and distraction is our first tactic.

He looks like a stellar big bro, right?

I was seriously stressed last month about ALL I had to do to get ready for her. But after my mom's visit earlier this month, I feel much more at ease. Next month, I'll wash up her clothes, pop her car seat in the car, put a few things in the freezer, and make her bed. Voila! And cue baby's arrival. It has been MUCH easier getting ready for baby #2 than baby #1. We have bought virtually nothing. I think all I've purchased is a cradle swing (would have killed for one with Eli) and I'm on my way this afternoon to pick up a Nose Frida from a local drug store. Ever heard of them? I've heard amazing things. Oh, I have picked up a few sewing projects for her, but they are all just for fun. This is in large part, though, due to generosity of grandparents. They've picked up a lot of stuff for us, including this beauty below!