Breakthrough!

Eliot's first tooth has seen the light of day! It was discovered this morning as a small white line along his gum line. It's just visible in the photo above (one of about 20 attempts to capture it on film). If you run your finger along his gums you can feel its sharp, serrated surface. So all this grumpy, clingy, feverish, drooling, gnawing, chomping business has been for a legitimate reason after all. Congratulations to our little guy!

Bath time!

The girls at work threw me a baby shower--in some shadowy, previous life--and the question was posed, "What is Nora looking forward to most about caring for her baby?" Any or all of the offered suggestions could have made the cut, but the one I picked was bathing.

I have loved giving Eliot his baths ever since that first sponge bath back when his belly button consisted of a plastic clamp.

Graduating first to the kitchen sink, then to the bathtub, Eliot has grown to love them too. Now when I turn on the water to draw his bath his legs start pumping in anticipation and he reaches down toward the water.

Bubbles are a fascination, plastic cups and whiffle balls a delight, and that gurgling sound as the water drains, an unfathomable mystery...

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend Eliot and I drove out to the farm to find the perfect pumpkin for Eliot's first Halloween. Barthel's Fruit Farm features prominantly in my own childhood. When I was young (well, younger than I am now) my family and I would head out to Barthel's in the summer to pick fresh strawberries and snap peas. In the fall we picked apples and pumpkins. Trips to the farm were always followed with a flurry of culinary activities. Strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pie, applesauce and apple crisp were just some of the things we looked forward to.

When Eliot and I arrived at the pumpkin patch things looked a little less promising than we'd hoped. After trudging around in the mud, and picking my way around peices of smashed pumpkin, I had decided that we were going to have to return to the main barn to select a nice, clean specimen.

But just at the edge of the patch, we spotted it. Sitting upright with a nice, shiny round face and a gently curving stem (perfect for taking hold of), our pumpkin was waiting patiently for us. Eliot seemed pleased and we headed back to the barn where I sipped some warm spiced cider and Eliot supervised the apple sorting machine with rapt attention. We got some good pie apples (which we transformed into apple crisp later that evening) and counted the outing a great success.

Go Oilers!!

The Oilers' first game is on tonight, and in this household that means chips, salsa, and donut holes with a side of Spencer's running commentary.

Eliot is learning at an early age that if you want to be a part of this family you have to show a little team spirit. Eliot's got spirit in spades and the PJs and jersey help with the rest.

GO TEAM!!

A Weekend Visit

This past weekend we were all treated to a visit from Spencer's dad, and brother Hugo. We were sad that Diane couldn't join them but work wouldn't let her get away (I can certainly sympathize). It was a whirlwind visit that included a Brewers game, a trip to Madison and the purchase of a car. Though Eliot didn't make it to the baseball game, or to Madison, he did help pick out our new vehicle and revelled in all the attention from Grandpa and Uncle Hugo.

Eliot got in some wrestling with Uncle Hugo but he still has a lot to learn (i.e. it's unsportsmanlike to take hold of your opponent's face).

Grandpa and Uncle Hugo also helped out with the bedtime routine, which included a healthy helping of green bean puree and rice cereal followed by a reading of 'Goodnight Moon'.

Like any visit with family, it was over too soon and left us looking forward to December.

The wonderful thing about tiggers...

...is tiggers are wonderful things. Their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs. They're bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! The most wonderful thing about tiggers is that I'm the only one. Iiiiii'm the only one!

I can't help but think of this song from Winnie the Poo whenever I see Eliot in his Jolly Jumper. He just loves to jump, no matter where, no matter when.

Jiminy Cricket!

Now that the semester has started Spencer spends Monday night at a friend's place in Madison so that we can save a bus ticket on Tuesday. Last Monday I drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of the crickets chirping outside. One little guy was particularly loud. The next day I got home from work and upon walking in the door was greeted with an enthusiastic CHIRP! It was then that I realized that the sound I'd heard last night had been coming from someplace inside the apartment. Feeling somewhat creeped out, I finally narrowed his location down to the bathroom, but search as I might I couldn't find the little guy. When Spencer came home he joined in the hunt, and discovered the intruder crouched behind the toilet. He snatched a piece of toilet paper and was poised to take action when I stopped him. I don't know what it was. Perhaps it was all those years listening to the "goodnight noises" when visiting my grandmother in rural Kansas, maybe it was that song about wishing on a star, or maybe the fact that the chirp had started to sound so plaintive and the little cricket looked so small, and helpless. But strangely (and I say 'strangely' because I detest any and all spiders 'Charlotte's Web' notwithstanding) I'd come to feel a sort of camaradarie with the little bug. So, I grabbed the strainer and a piece of card stock (I didn't feel enough camaraderie to actually touch him, mind you) and escorted our guest back out into his little world. Perhaps he promptly got gobbled up by someone a link or two up on the food chain. I'd like to think he made it safely home to Mrs. Cricket and all their little crickets, or at the very least rejoined his buddies in the football field behind our home and is singing blithely with them each evening.