Poor sickie-pooh

Poor little Eli is such a mess! He is teething and sick simultaneously. I know that teething is possibly associated with a little fever and other ills, but this cold/cough seems to be serious in addition to the screaming from the tooth pain. Poor little guy! But he's actually been quite a trooper considering the snot and the phlegm and the drool and everything else he's dealing with. And, although it's much harder to tote him around at 27 lbs than it was at 10-15 lbs, it's kind of sweet that he wants so many huggies lately. He actually fell asleep in my arms for the first time in a million years yesterday. Okay, he hasn't been alive an entire year, but it feels SO LONG since that last happened. Here he is trying to smile even though his eyes are watering and he can barely breathe.



In other news, we took Eli to a St. Patty's Day parade on Saturday. He was not impressed with the bagpipes or the dancers or the fire trucks or Mr./Ms. Teen Delaware or the old fashioned cars or the marching bands or the mummer-like folks (including the group led by Teen Wolf's dopperlganger). Nope. He just liked the big bunches of balloons that people were selling. And cotton candy. Just like his mama. Of course, like idiots, we forgot the camera. So it looks as if Eli has never done anything in his life but sit on a colorful alphabet mat, but it's still cute, right?

Happy 11-month birthday, Eli!

OMG. Eli is almost a year old. How did that happen? I feel only slightly more competent as the caregiver of a child after 11 months with him. Why are there not better instructions on how to do this?
He is doing really well. He remains a giant. He has actually pulled himself up from sitting to standing using the coffee table (at least twice). He still can't get from lying to sitting. Not sure when that'll happen. He also can't crawl but he will sometimes pull himself across the floor military-style (like he's crawling under one of those rope nets or something) if there's something worth his while. So far, water bottles and our High School Musical box of tissues are about the only things deemed worthy of the effort. He can play peekaboo, do "so big!" (though a little inconsistently), and "lay keppe" (which means "lay your head down" in Yiddish - well, keppe is Yiddish).

He is eating more foods now too. He survived DAIRY! We are planning an ice cream cake for his birthday (mostly b/c it'll be Passover - poor kid! I bet that's going to happen to him a lot and it's going to S-U-C-K! - but partially b/c I haven't attempted eggs again after the barf incident. Though I think wheat is okay.). What I really need to do now is get better about getting him more appropriate finger foods so he can do some more of the work.

I am sort of starting to wean him too (or, rather, I'd really like to be done with the boobs as soon as possible after he turns 1). But that's not going awesomely. In an ironic twist, the kid who had such issues with the boob early on never really took to the bottle and still isn't awesome with a cup - after quite a few weeks of him getting one at least 3 times a day (just with water though - he is icked out by juice. Weirdy.). I don't know how I'm ever getting him off the boob. I was planning on giving him a cup of boobmilk for one of his regular feedings but I don't produce very much in the middle of the day (when I was thinking of doing it). So I don't seem to be able to pump a good amount for a serving (though who knows how much he gets when he usually eats then anyway). So I thought I'd try formula. I used some stuff they gave us at the hospital. He didn't like it, and I tried it and it was GROSS! I think the dha/ara stuff in it made it taste like fish oil (which I remember from puking up my prenatal vitamins a few times - also gross). No wonder he was not into it. So...I am going to try again today. And give him the almost 3 oz I just pumped and call that good enough.

Oh...I think I hear him now...wish me luck!


BTW, here's one of his girlfriends again, Mary Hatch. Notice how she's putting the moves on him...