Misplaced socks

Why are the socks in the bathtub? I asked Elliot the same question. I wondered why he kept walking past me in the hallway with socks - one at a time. When he returned each time, his hands were empty. He stopped at this number. Not sure why.

Here he is enjoying one of his many books. He is very excited about books lately. He reaches for them when he first wakes up, he wants them in his crib when he lies down for a nap. Michael and I only have a couple memorized. I'm sure there will be many more in the future.

Thanksgiving

We had a lot to be thankful for. Our house was full of friends and a big fat turkey and ham. Here you see Michael and his dad carving the old bird. His parents came up to celebrate with us, which was a lot of fun. We also had a slightly belated impromptu birthday party put on by Michael's parents, complete with a Coldstone ice cream cake. Oh my goodness. Those things are worth the rediculous price you pay for them. I'm still rationing the last pieces. Overall, it was a great holiday.

New perch

So we ripped through the plastic cover on the high chair. We were a little rough on it, probably. But it gave me an excuse for moving on to this little contraption. At first I didn't think it was possible. But through a little reconfiguring of the straps, Elliot is now movable and comes with a drawer full of towels and bibs. He also includes baking dishes beneath his feet. He moves around the kitchen with me, watching me cook, reaching for things, enjoying his perch.

I'm pretty sure the kid said "shoe" yesterday. It came out, "Jew". I'm not sure about the relation of God's chosen people to a shoe, but I was proud of him nonetheless.

More from the playground

Hi. Just a couple more pictures from the playground that I thought you would enjoy. He really liked the tunnel. Who knows how many times we did the tunnel. We're still receiving "NO" speeches around here, and looking forward to Thanksgiving. Papa (Michael) turns 32 on Sunday, so last night we enjoyed a great dinner (thanks to Open Swim, a college ministry where Michael spoke) at Pueblo Solis, THE best mexican restaurant that exists. Seriously. It's like Mi Ranchito up 3 notches. It's Michael's favorite place, and we lived it up last night. It's fairly cold and gray around here, but Elliot doesn't seem to mind. He is loud and demonstrative as usual today - great characteristics for getting through gray days in St. Louis... ;)

Slides

I can't tell you how happy Elliot was the other day to spend some time on these slides. He loves to climb and seldom gets to do it. He especially liked the red slide you see here, as it was made for someone just at his level. He could climb the stairs himself, push himself along at the top, and slide down face first, tummy down. He would giggle all the way down, flip over at the bottom of the slide, practice stepping from the slide back onto the gravel, and then walk to the steps to do it all over again. How many times did he do this? I lost count after 11. The kid enjoys repetition.

Otherwise, he's begun giving speeches most every day. I'll try to capture one on film. He begins by raising a hand, usually his right, and speaking with great authority in his voice. He walks around in a circle, giving his speech with great seriousness. He gave one at our friend, Karsee's house the other day. He mostly gives them in the kitchen. Often they include pointing at everything we've said no to in that room and saying "Neh. Neh, neh, neh." You'd think that's all we ever say to the kid.

Favorite toy

This is currently Elliot's favorite toy. He actually prefers a McDonald's cup, but we're trying to limit his intake of the grease giant. This can entertain him for at least 20 minutes. See the Simpson's behind him? This may also entertain him, unfortunately. But not for 20 minutes. It is, however, the only thing on television I've ever seen him pay attention to. What does this say about my kid?

GO CARDS

We're still pretty excited about the Cardinals winning the world series. There was a parade downtown on the Sunday after the series, for those of you who don't live here in St. Louis, and I heard there were 500,000 people there! Though Elliot missed the parade, he does often show his enthusiasm for the red birds by wearing papa's hat.

Michael and I kinda miss the world series. It was like, for a few days, people would just walk by you on the street and say, "Go Cards!" like we were all in something together. There was always something to do at night once the kids went to bed. Something to anticipate. I was happy and sad when we won. It was kindof like Christmas, like that post-Christmas let down once it's all over.

In other news, Elliot very clearly said "bye-bye" while waving to Uncle Jeremy Patch last night. It was very impressive. Totally out of nowhere. I think I don't really believe the kid is ever going to communicate like a real human. So when these understandable words come falling out of his mouth, I feel as if he must be a child genius. At least for a minute.

First word

It's official. Elliot's first word is not "mama". Nor is it "papa" or anything else normal. It is "dog". He starts saying it as soon as we hit the first floor in the morning. He is looking for Nana, pictured here, or "the beast" as Michael and I often call her. They have a love-hate relationship. Nana is always the love part. Elliot could go either way. If he's board and Nana is running around, chasing things, or running from the remote-controlled truck, it's definitely love. If she's licking him to death so that his hair looks as if it were recently washed from the dog slobber, it's usually hate. He taunts her, as she obediently sits, like she is here, waiting for a morsel from the high chair. Sometimes it comes, sometimes no. Elliot always looks suprised when she actually takes the entire graham cracker out of his hands, even when he wasn't really offering it.

So "dog" it is. This has been quickly followed by some body parts, though none sound quite as close as "dog" to the actual English word. He's working on "nose" right now. However, it's very close to "knee".

Daily life

Well, we're sort of getting back to normal. The kid's still not sleeping very well, but I wonder if he's teething again. Here he is worshiping (does that have two p's?) his favorite speaker, as usual. He usually raises his arms to it and then dances. Later he checked out some recipes. No sign of cooking for me yet.

For those of you who have had little people out there, when did they give up their first nap?

Recovery

We had a wonderfully uneventful (healthwise) day. Elliot mercifully slept (with us) until 7:20 and then slept 3 1/2 hours in naps. He had NO fever today. The highest he hit was 98.0. We are very thankful! He's still a little cranky, but also still catching up on sleep. He played today, drank more, and ate a bunch of mac and cheese for lunch. A sure sign of health for him.

Thanks for your prayers. Our little person is on the mend! Here he read a bit of propoganda from AAA with his papa after dinner. Probably the last read of this book. Nana got ahold of it while we gave Elliot his bath. It was mostly shredded. Obviously the dog disagreed with the organization. We, however, are renewing our membership.

I've thought so much in the last couple of days about people who live in other parts of the world with poor or no health care. We live 20 minutes from 2 of the best children's hospitals in the world. Why do we have this priviledge? I don't know. I'm just thankful for it. After the past few days, Elliot's first few smiles of the day were about the happiest thing I could've seen.

ER

Hey everybody. We just got home from Cardinal Glennon and though it's late, I'm still a little wound up, so no sleeping yet. The long and short of it is, the powers that be in the ER think Elliot has pneumonia. Not sure if viral or bacterial yet, but treating him with a couple of antibiotics. We were there from 4-11pm and had some GREAT nurses and docs. They sent us home after the poor sweet baby went through a chest X-ray, two tubes of blood, an IV and the worst - a catheter to get some urine out in order to test it. He was a trooper.

We are medicating him with Tylenol every 4 hours to keep the fever down, treating with Amoxycillan, and hopefully seeing the doctor to follow up on some tests in the morning. He seemed much better by the time we left the hospital. Temp was down to 100, (after 105.2 today, which started this whole fiasco), color much better, sleeping on the bed in the exam room.

If you happen to read this and you are a believer, would you pray for Elliot? Thanks. We'd appreciate it.

Signing off from a long day for the Gordons...chris