Almost Christmas - Elliott's 11 months old!
December 23, 2005
 Elliott these days is learning all sorts of new things. He is starting to stand up, and briefly let go of things and for a split second. We're slowing weaning him from his bottle and to a sippy cup. It has been hard for him, he seems to really not be interested in drinking a whole 8 ounces of milk from it. But he will get used to it soon. He seems to understand a few words, mainly the word "cat", which when you say it, he looks around for his pal Tipsy.

Elliott is finally over a string of 5 ear infections which seemed to destroy his great sleeping habbits. We are slowing getting him back his old self where he would sleep about 11 straight hours.

Some of Elliott's favorite foods are his puffs (which are like Cheerios but they're banana flavored), baby sized raviolis, pretty much any fruit and last but not least, animal cookies and biter biscuits.

It has been awhile since we've posted any videos but now that we're all settled into our new routines here in Asheville, we've got the video camera out, charged, and ready to go when we see the next opportunity we need to capture on tape.

Asheville
November 11, 2005
 Yes, it has been awhile since our last posting here, please forgive us.

Anyway, we are now living in Asheville NC. It's really beautiful here and is a nice change of pace from living in Raleigh. Now, on to the important stuff and the whole reason you are here, there are three new pages of pictures entitled, Nov. 2005, Newspaper, and On The Playground. Check them out. Elliott is really turning into such a handsome little boy.

New movies
September 19, 2005
 Elliott has come a long way since we last posted here. For awhile, we thought he wasn't going to figure out how to crawl. But, if you click over to the "Movies" page you'll see that he's really getting the hang of it now. Also on the movies page, the "Kicking the ball" video shows it doesn't take much to make this very happy baby, laugh. And the "Having Fun" video, Elliott is starting to learn he can make other noises other than just laughing.

You using that?
August 10, 2005
 Elliott has started to get his first tooth in. If you try to push his lower lip down so you can see it, he immediately sticks his tongue out to lick you or suck on your finger. So, the only real way to tell it's there is to run your finger over his gums and you can feel a sharp little object starting to emerge from his lower gums.

We weren't really expecting this tooth because Elliott didn't have any of the usual signs of teething. He wasn't cranky and he didn't get any kind of fever. But now that it is in, you can really tell he knows it is there. The first 3 or 4 days after it came in, you could see him using his lower lip and tongue to feel it. He was making all sorts of funny faces as he tried to figure out what this new thing was in his mouth.

Also for some reason, with this new tooth came the new obsession of putting absolutely everything in his mouth. If you're holding the remote control, he goes to reach for it to stick it in his mouth. That pen you're writing a note with? Elliott wants it. That newspaper you're reading? Elliott's gotta have it! All those toys of Elliott's? All go in the mouth and come out sopping wet.

Odds and Ends
July 27, 2005
 Elliott has come a long way since we've last posted here. We have been to the Outer Banks and spent a week with cousins, aunts and grandparents and had a great time at the beach. There are pictures of that on the "Pictures" page.

Elliott is now eating cereal and the stage one foods and getting ready to move onto stage 2 foods. Some of his favorite foods are sweet potato, apple sauce, and pears. He really dislikes his peas and won't hesitate to spit them out with enough force to make you need to cover his mouth so it does not end up on your clothes.

Elliott is really starting to get the hang of sitting up and rolling over. He really loves to "rough-house" with Daddy. He especially likes it when Daddy scares him or bounces him on the bed (the higher the more fun). He is also quite very fond of peek-a-boo.

Last Friday Elliott had his 6-month old shots. About the only side effect of them was a reduction in appetite. In the past, shots have ended up making him cranky for several days afterwards so this was a nice change.

On the "Movies" page, there is a new movie of Elliott sitting up in his bathtub. That was one of the most interesting bath times we've had with him in awhile.

Also on the "Pictures" page there are a couple of pictures from our hike in Umstead State Park. Elliott really loves to ride in the back-pack carrier. From his lofty position, he's able to look all around and really take in his surroundings.

At the beach
July 4, 2005
 Elliott is spending the week of July 4th in Nags Head on the Outer Banks. He's enjoying many hours in the pool and on the beach. He loves to feel the sand between his toes and the wind in his hair. All his older cousins provide lots of entertainment as he watches them run around the house and play with each other. There are pictures to be seen on the "Pictures" page.

Family Reunion
July 3, 2005
 Over on the pictures page are various pictures of Elliott's first trip to the Baumrind reunion in Charleston SC. He enjoyed meeting all his new cousins and seeing his grandpop and aunts.

Currently Elliott is in Nags Head on the Outer Banks. Maybe we'll get some pictures uploaded during the week.

Cereal
May 25, 2005
 Elliott is starting to take to being fed from a spoon. Last week we decided it was time to start him on rice cereal. After the first couple of attempts, he was wearing more of the cereal than he actually ate. He seemed to think the spoon was just another toy that was suppose to entertain him. When the spoon wasn't in front of his face trying to get the cereal in his mouth, he was trying to get his hands in his mouth along with all the cereal. It turned into quite a mess. Click the link for the "pictures" page because yes, we documented the first feeding.

It didn't take too long in the first couple of feedings for Elliott to tire of this game and start to complain about us sticking goopy wet stuff on some kind of toy into his mouth. By about the third day of this, he seemed to understand that he should try to swallow what was in his mouth. Whatever he didn't swallow got squished out when he smiled at us.

Elliott has found that his toes are quite the play things, and when his socks aren't on, they provide much entertainment to him. He has rolled over from his stomach to his back several times but not enough to say that he is really doing it on a consistent basis. He hasn't yet figured how how to roll from his stomach to his back. He can get halfway there, to his side, but that seems to be about as far as he's interested in taking it.

Editor's note: Okay, so I have it backwards. Elliott has rolled from his stomach to his back but not from his back onto his stomach. Sorry Mom.

Laughing
May 19, 2005
 Click over to the "Movies" page and check out the latest video of us making Elliott laugh. The first time that we were able to make him laugh it was really funny and we didn't get it caught on film until now...

Elliott also seems to have "found" his feet. Now when we are trying to change his diaper it is almost impossible to because he's all balled up trying to grab his toes.

"Talking"
May 4, 2005
 Elliott has been increasing the amount of "talking" as we call it. One of his favorite things to talk to is his floppy-friend giraffe. Click over to the movies page to see a cute video of that (in addition to lots of new pictures on the "pictures" page).

Other developmental things we are starting to notice is that he is intentionally reaching out for objects with the purpose to get it in his mouth. Not only are objects going in his mouth, but at times he tries to get his whole hand in there. Mornings are when he is in the best of moods. A fun thing to watch is to have him in his bouncy seat. He will sit there, talk to us, kick his legs and wave his arms around all at the same time. It is quite cute to see.

In the "Stomach Time" video we had hoped to catch him rolling over. It seemed like he was going to do it but instead he decided he was too tired from his busy day to worry with it. Instead he would just lay there and watch us make funny sounds and faces just to try to make him laugh.

And since it's such a popular question, Elliott is sleeping from about 10pm straight through to about 6:30 when we wake him up. He's such a great baby!

Don't wake me
April 20, 2005
 This past Sunday was Elliott's turn at the Baptismal font. He decided that instead of making a fuss over having cool water poured over his head that he would just sleep through the entire thing. The Priest assures us that even though he slept through it, he is still baptized. What a relief! Unlike when you sleep through math class, you don't have have to repeat the baptism.

As part of the Catholic ritual, the Chrism, which is a mixture of oil of olives and balsam and blessed by a bishop, was used on his forehead to make the sign of the cross. After the ceremony, because of the balsam smell (smells like pine), he had a very pleasing aroma, much different from his usual baby smell.

There are two pages of pictures from this day, labeled "Baptism 1" & "Baptism 2". Enjoy!

Friday Night Fever!
April 15, 2005
 Okay, so it is really Thursday night fever but who cares when your little buddy is under the weather? Around 4pm on Thursday Elliott was acting a little cranky and by about 4:30 we noticed that his head was starting to feel a little warmer than usual. By 5pm his head was quite hot feeling and his cheeks and forehead were a little flush looking. We took his temperature and it was 101.9 and Elliott was in the middle of his first sickness. He's just about at 3 months old and this is his first sickness. Not too bad when you compare him to other 3 month olds, most have already been sick a time or two.

Being the trooper that he is, he didn't mind too much the uncomfortable way you must take a baby's temperature (I'm sure you all know what I mean) and in between the crying we were still able to make him smile and talk to us. After a dose of infant Tylenol and two hours later, his fever was down below 100 again but we could tell he was still feeling uncomfortable.

This morning at 6am, after a full nights rest without waking up (probably thanks to the 10:30pm dose of Tylenol) Elliott still had a 99-point-something degree temperature which required another dose of that delicious smelling Tylenol. Although with a slight fever, he was his happy and smiling self again. This is starting to look like something that may not last long or be too bad.

Sleeping good
April 7, 2005
 Two nights ago we decided it was time to move Elliott from sleeping in the cradle at the foot of our bed to his crib in his own room. We were getting the feeling that he was more aware of his surroundings. When we would lay him down in the cradle, he would turn his head if he could see us in his peripheral vision or at the sound of our voice. That made us wonder if now wasn't the right time to make the move, to head off any kind of sleeping problems.

We were surprised to find out that we were actually kind of sad to be moving him out of our room. It was only an additional 30 feet farther away from us, but it felt like we were moving him down the street. I thought I'd be glad to not be waken up by his little noises he makes, the gentle rumbling of the white noise CD we play for him. But when we laid down on the first night I think we felt alone without him.

On that first night, after his 10pm feeding, we laid him down to sleep in his crib. At 5:45am we woke to him "talking" and making noises which is what he does before he's fully awake and screaming for us to come get him. We couldn't believe that he had just slept from about 10:30 to 5:45! We thought to ourselves that this must have just been a fluke because the most he has slept at one time was 6 hours. Now, he just slept a little more than 7!

Last night was night number two in his new sleeping location and it was another record night! He slept a full 8 hours and 15 minutes. We actually had to wake him up so he wouldn't miss his 7am feeding!

Traveling with Elliott
April 6, 2005
 For Easter, Elliott headed to the mountains of NC to visit Grandma and Grandpa Urban. He had lots of fun meeting all of his Grandparents close friends at their jobs and at church on Sunday. Being this was Elliott's first trip out of town, he didn't seem too bothered by it at all.

After making a stop at Elliott's house in Raleigh, the Easter Bunny was able to catch up to Elliott and was able to deliver his basket of goodies to him. Elliott scored a Baby Einstein DVD and a stuffed "Marshmallow Peep" that looked exactly like the real marshmallow peeps.

On the ride back home to Raleigh, Elliott slept the entire way home. By the time Elliott got to bed at 11pm, he was wide awake and kept his parents awake until midnight. He was just smiling away and being his usual happy and awake self. Around 4am he woke up ready to start his day again! It took another hour to convince him that it was just to early to be starting the day at 4am.

Some pictures of Easter are posted on the "Pictures" page. Be sure to spot his "Marshmallow Peep" stuffed animal! Aunt Jenny is sure to be jealous.

Someone say shots?
March 21, 2005
 Sorry for the lack of pictures over the past week but there just hasn't been too many photo opportunities that I thought would be good to share. For most of the week Elliott has been battling an eye infection that started off with one of his eyes completely swollen with lots of "eye-gunk". After about 5 days and two different types of antibiotic eye medications, it seems his eyes are about back to normal. The problem started off in one eye but by the second day, it was in both. They were so blood-shot that it looked really painful but thankfully it didn't seem to bother Elliott at all.

On Friday it was time for his two month old appointment. He, in 8 weeks, has managed to gain 5 pounds. It looks like a future in basketball might not be what he's destined for after all because he has gone from the 95th percentile in length to just the 75th. The point of the two-month appointment is to get his immunizations which consist of 3 shots in his thighs. We gave him a dose of Tylenol to get ready for the aches associated with the shots and also the fever he may get. He didn't cry too much or for very long after the shot. The nurse was very good at it, she managed to give three shots in under 10 seconds, we were amazed. Elliott was drowsy that evening and all day the next day but other than that he's doing great.

We will get some more pictures posted this week so stay tuned!

He smiles!
March 9, 2005
 We have read that around the 6 week old mark, babies might be able to smile back at you. So, for the past week or two we have been smiling our hardest to get a response from Elliott. Then this past weekend when he was staring directly at us (and not out the window, ceiling fan, or lamp...all of which seem to be much more entertaining than we are) we were smiling and talking in our "happy voices", he gave us this big toothless grin. Before the grin was in full force, you could tell it was coming. His eyes started to get a little squinty, and you could see the muscles in his face trying to copy the look we were giving him. Then all of a sudden he was able to do it! Check out the "Pictures" link to see for yourself!

A Real Bath
February 28, 2005
 I shouldn't have called the last post "Bath Time". It should have maybe said "Sponge Bath" because today's post should be called "Bath Time". Friday night when we were changing Elliott we realized that what was left of the umbilical cord had just fallen off. Now that it was gone, we could give Elliott a real bath....with a tub and all! Previous to this, it has just been sponge baths.

Well, we grabbed the tub someone had given us at one of the baby showers and filled it up with warm water. We grabbed Mr. Cutie and put him in it. We knew that he'd either have a full-blown meltdown or he would like it. Well, because we have the perfect child, he loved it. He even let us pour warm water over his soapy head.

Pictures of the event can be found under "Pictures", click the link for "5 Weeks Old". Also, a short video is under "Movies".

Bath time!
February 22, 2005
 Elliott seems to really enjoy bath time. Since it seems to relax him and get him sleepy, we moved bath time to nights instead of during the day or whenever we can fit it into the schedule.

During the bath, he gets all relaxed. He just lies there and looks at us making all sorts of cute sounds. Usually it's hard to wash his hands since he always keeps them balled up in fists which is a typical thing for newborns. But that too he is growing out of and doesn't ball them up so tightly anymore. His toes on the other hand, you can't pry them apart unless you try to tickle his foot. Then for a half a second, he'll spread his toes wide, just enough to wash a toe or two.

Can you follow this?
February 17, 2005
 Everything is going well. The couple of developmental things we're seeing with Elliott is that he's starting to focus on objects like our faces, bright lights, a flickering TV, or toys with high contrast patterns. Elliott is even able to move his head to follow the object as long as you're moving it slowly and horizontally across his field of view. From what we've read, being able to track something vertically is developed after the horizontal tracking ability.

On tap for this weekend, we have Aunt Jenny making yet another visit! Jenny will be here Friday to spend the night and to go to a wedding shower on Saturday then go back home.

We did have Jan's friend Mark coming from Charlotte on Saturday but he's caught some kind of funk (his doc says the flu) and he doesn't want to give it to his boy Elliott. So, we'll reschedule for another weekend soon.

The Mall
February 13, 2005
 Yesterday we decided it was time to go on a quick outing. Elizabeth wanted to get out of the house for a little bit and we wanted to go someplace with Elliott. Elliott had just been fed so he was good to go for a couple of hours. We loaded him up in his carrier, put him in the car, got his stroller and headed to the mall!

The visit was quick. We returned a couple of things, picked up some pictures we had printed and grabbed lunch. Elliott slept practically the whole time. I was on the ready to swat any hands of strangers that wanted to touch our little boy and spread any kind of germs they may have.

Grandpop's visit
February 6, 2005
 Elliott knew that with his cute looks and winning personality, Grandpop wouldn't be able to resist another visit. Elliott was right, it has only been 9 days since Grandpop Baumrind's last visit and now Grandpop was back! There are several pictures to be seen, just click on "Pictures" above.

More visitors
February 5, 2005
 Today Elliott is getting to meet his great aunt Laney (on the left in this picture) for the first time. She's just going to love him. Also making a repeat appearance here today will be Grandpop Baumrind. We knew he wouldn't be able to stay away for very long!

Don't forget to check out the Pictures link. New pictures are being uploaded almost daily!

Daddy's to do list: Get at least ONE picture of Elliott with his eyes open! Can you believe I have exactly ZERO pictures of him with his eyes open? I guess that goes to show how much time a new born spends sleeping

Leaks
February 2, 2005
 Well, today has been an exercise in how well we can change a diaper and all Elliott's clothes. He's been through 4 different outfits today all because of leaky diapers.

The color of his eyes seems to be changing a bit. When he was born they were very dark grey. They've lightened up a bit and now they are starting to look like they're greyish blue and at times even a light blue.

Adventures in diaper changing
February 1, 2005
So, who knew that changing a diaper could be so challenging. I think Elliott gets great pleasure of relieving himself once the diaper has been removed.  Looks like this is pretty common since these are available.

Elliott had his 2 week old doctor appointment this morning.  His head was measured, he was weighed, his length was measured and he was given a once-over by the doc who gave him a clean bill of health.  His weight was in the 50th percentile and his length was in the 90th percentile.  After a busy morning of riding in the car and a doctor's visit, Elliott is resting peacefully while his parents eat lunch.

Last week...
January 31, 2005
In an effort to catch up on past events, I wanted to post that we got a 4 day visit from Elliott's grandma and grandpa Urban last week.  They arrived last Sunday and stayed until Wednesday night.  Grandma was very helpful around the house, she washed clothes, cooked and entertained Elliott.  Thanks for all your help!

Elliott is very nervous today for tomorrow is his 2-week old check-up at the doctor's office.  He knows that anytime he goes to that office they strip him down naked to weigh him on a scale and he's so embarrassed to just be lying there in his birthday suit.

More visitors
January 29, 2005
Elliott's grandmom, great grandmother and Aunt Jenny came to visit this weekend.  There are a couple of pictures of this visit under "pictures", check it out.

Yesterday he was quite temperamental.  It seemed like if he wasn't eating or sleeping, he was completely unhappy.  As long as those kinds of days don't happen too often, I think we'll be good.

Elliott appears to be working his neck muscles a lot.  Anytime he's laying on his chest on you, he's always lifting up his head and looking around.  Elizabeth and I like to just say "he's advanced".  And I think he is.
 

Keeping Mommy & Daddy on their toes
January 27, 2005
That's right, Elliott is keeping us very busy with diaper changes and feedings.  He had a visit from his grandpop Baumrind.  Elliott is grandpop Baumrinds first grandchild.  Also today we had a visit from the O'Donovan's who brought with them dinner for everyone.
 

Ready or not, here I come!!!
January 18, 2005
Baby Baumrind was born today!  We named him Elliott Paul Baumrind.  The "Elliott" is his father's and grandfather's middle name but more importantly, it was his great grandfather's first name.  His Great grandfather was such a great person that we hope little Elliott will follow in his footsteps.  His middle name "Paul" comes from his grandpa Urban who has Paul as a middle name as well.  Grandpa Urban is equally as great of a person and if little Elliott can be anything like either of these two men, he will grow up to be a very wonderful person!

Hopefully we will be having many comments and adventures to post here.  Also, we're hoping to have lots and lots of pictures and even some movies that you can check out, so stay tuned!

If you're looking for postings from years other than 2005, click on the archived year, on the left, that you want to see.