Mr. Baby and I are on our own these days. Mike is back at work, so it’s just me and Elliott all day. It is so far true that I don’t have time to do much else but hold the baby (and sleep!)… Although I haven’t had any problem taking a shower or eating 0r having multiple cups of coffee. I have not been able to work on my birth announcement addresses or get any christmas shopping done… Just a minute here and there. He always seems to be hungry as soon as I want to do something.

Elliott is still a really good baby, we are so far pretty lucky with him. We each get up once each night to feed him. During the day he pretty much only cries when he’s hungry.

His three talents are being awake, eating, and sleeping. He is very good at all those things. He laughs in his sleep, and grunts, snorts and clears his throat. He doesn’t really do anything else.

I’m feeling fine these days. Holidays mean that you need a doctor when they are all closed, so Thanksgiving I developed a whole body itchy rash! Still not sure what it is, but I’m on three types of allergy meds and a topical steroid and it seems to be getting better.

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Wow, three weeks old! And yet Elliott already seems so grown up, picking his head up and eating 3oz or so at a time. He is still doing awesome and has been great fun!

His grandma and grandpa are here now, and we had a lovely thanksgiving. No cooking, hurrah! We ordered a whole meal from a local BBQ place. It was pretty good, and better that we didn’t have to cook it. And, thankfully, the meal included pie.

As you can see from the photo, our Thanksgiving was pretty typical.

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Elliott, (a.k.a., Mr. Baby) is two weeks old as of this evening. He had another great check-up today, his doctor says he looks great! His weight is up: 7lbs, 7 oz, and his length is 20.25 inches. (Yes, he measured at 17.5 at birth, and was 19.25 a few days later. We don’t consider the birth length wrong, it was just as long as his little breechy legs could stretch to after he came out. I think he must have done a good bit of uncurling those first couple days.)

I’ve left him a total of three times — once with Mike and twice we’ve left him with my parents. It’s been good to get those little trips under my belt. It’s been nice to have the live-in babysitters (and cooks and laundry-doers and dishwashers!) Wow, I’m spoiled with Mike and the visitors. I pretty much sit on the couch, which has certainly facilitated my recovery.

Mom and dad leave late tomorrow night — sad! But we’ve had a great week and I hope they’ve gotten a lot of baby time. Highlights have included lots of home-cooked meals together, book shopping, and staring at the baby. They also read him one of those recordable storybooks, which is really super cute. (Goodnight, Moon.) Thumbs up to Hallmark for making those.

The last two weeks have been great, and they’ve flown by. Next thing we know, he’ll be in college. But right now he’s doing this:

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 Eleven days old today! Eleven is his number, after all.

Today we took a trip to Elliott Bay Books to get him some extra books to read. We went there because it’s the awesomest book store, not because of the name… We have been reading lots of books to him, favoring some with a few extra words since he doesn’t really understand them anyway. (They say you could read The Economist to a newborn and he would love it, right?) So far we have enjoyed reading Goodnight Moon, Eli, No, Haiku Baby, Winnie the Pooh, The Giant Jam Sandwich (a book Mike used to like), Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes, and today we picked up a copy of Corduroy (one of my old faves), and T’Was the Night Before Christmas. Mike is looking forward to reading that last one to him (just like they do in Christmas Vacation…).

He is enjoying some extra snuggles from Nana and Gampy. My parents will be here until Saturday night. They’ve been a big help with the doggies and house stuff, although most importantly we want all our visitors to get plenty of cuddle time with Elliott.

Mike and I continue to enjoy lots of bonding time with him home from work, and sleep has not been that unattainable so we’re grateful. So far, so awesome!

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Week One has been awesome. Mike, Elliott and I have gotten into a groove — at least for now, until he changes. (Which he will do every day, of course.) We’ve both been sleeping and eating and getting out, all while enjoying every minute with our Mr. Baby.

He’s usually interested in eating about every two hours during the day, and at night we swaddle him up tight and he’ll go for about three or four hours — ah, sleep! He screams and cries very little, just in little bursts. He calms easily these days and goes between super alert and super zonked. You know, like a newborn.

Today he had his photos taken by a professional photographer. He could not have been cuter. She sees a lot of babies and insisted that he was super awesome. We had no choice but to politely agree. I’m not going to argue with a professional. I can’t wait to see his pictures, I think there will be a million, it’s going to be hard to pick! I guess we shouldn’t have had such a cute baby. Oops.

His Nana and Gampy come tomorrow! Elliott’s thrilled to meet his family over the next couple weeks. We weren’t prepared for him to come so early, but it has been a blessing in disguise to have this week to figure him (and us) out. Turns out so far we’re pretty calm. It will be fun to see what he’s like next week, and the week after that… We don’t expect any one phase to last too long, so we’re enjoying each minute as it comes.

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