Picture Perfect

It's Christmas time and for most new parents that means inundating friends and family with cavity inducing photos of the little one. Call us bad parents but when Kelvey presented the required task to me, we both gave a simultaneous "guugh". The thought of taking Eli to a Sears or babies-R-Us for a photo shoot seemed like such a daunting task of getting him dressed up, keeping him clean of drool and spit up, and of course, keeping him happy enough to smile for the camera.

Luckily Kelvey was determined to make it happen as quick and painless as possible. We put our heads together and thought of the perfect plan to get it over and done with within the span of a weekend afternoon.

Step 1.) Go to Goodwill and find some cheap Christmas outfits instead of paying top dollar for outfits he would only wear for a few days. We hit up the Goodwill down the street from us and struck gold in finding a snowman sweater vest and some christmas pj's! Unfortunately, I had to go to 3 different stores before finding a santa hat for Eli to wear (probably because of all the other poor suckers/parents doing the same thing as us).

Step 2.) Set the scene. In case you didn't know, Texas is not exactly a winter wonderland so we had to do some quick thinking about how to Christmas-up Eli's picture. Hmm . . . snow is white . . . our comforter is white . . . why not have Eli sitting on a fluffy cloud of white comforter with a white comforter backdrop? Done.

Step 3.) Get Eli prepped. Eli was in a good mood (hell, he's almost always in a good mood, that's what makes him awesome!) so we quickly dressed him in some jeans, a white long sleeve onesie, his new sweater vest and his hat. His sweater vest was a size too big so we used binder clips on the back to pinch it tighter. His hat was a size too big as well, but luckily Eli has a big head so it fit perfectly.

Step 4.) Picture time! Kelvey had the lion's share of the task because she had to keep Eli's attention forward, keep him smiling and take the picture all at the same time. I just stood behind Eli holding the comforter up. We traded places so I could try to take few pics, but I failed miserably and gave up quickly. After taking 24 rapid fire pics, we looked them over and could instantly pick out at least 5 or 6 that were golden. Believe it or not, the one featured here is NOT the cutest one. It's too bad that you will have to wait to see the chosen few because Kelvey will not let me post them until the framed versions have been sent out to our families. She doesn't want to ruin the surprise. After some begging and maybe a little bit of whining about how I wouldn't have anything for the blog, she let me post this one. Enjoy this one for now and brace yourself for eye-melting cuteness once the others are posted on flickr.

Travelin' Man

So we're preparing for our second trip to Colorado to see my family for Christmas, but we were having a hard time figuring out how and where Eli will sleep. My brother reserved an apartment for us so we will not have a crib available like we did at the hotel in Denver and we have not been able to find a portable sleeping unit that is soft, sturdy, or big enough for Eli to be comfortable in. What are we going to do?! We couldn't have him sleep in bed with us because we might roll over on him. We couldn't leave him on a couch or bed of his own because he might roll off. We were beginning to accept the sad realization that we would not be getting any sleep on this trip either.

We were at our wits end when a brilliant idea struck down like a bolt of lightening from Einstein's mustache. I grabbed the padded mat from Eli's play yard and our largest suitcase and BOOM . . . I got chocolate in my peanut butter and an instant travel crib was born! The play yard is designed to fold up for portability and to my amazement it fit perfectly within the suitcase. We gave it a test run by placing Eli in it and it looked like it just might work (we even strapped him in with the suitcase straps and laughed to ourselves about checking him at airport). Eli tends to toss and turn and scoot around in his sleep so we may need to help him adjust within the small space, but hopefully that will be the least of our problems.

Zombie Baby Eat Your Face!

Eli is the coolest and sweetest kid right now. He's already cute and cuddly and the perfect size to snuggle with, but now he is returning the love by giving us full on hugs and kisses! When I pick him up from a nap, he reaches out, wraps his arms around my neck, and burrows his face into my cheek or neck. When we are playing around, he will occasionally reach out to grab my face and pull it towards him so he can kiss me. His hugs are spot on, but he's still learning the technique for kissing. When he goes in for a kiss, he doesn't really pucker up. Instead he opens his mouth really wide and tries to stuff your entire face into it. Despite looking like a zombie trying to eat your face, he's actually pretty gentle and if he happens to get your nose or cheekbone in his mouth he just lightly gums it or licks it.

Eli Eats!

Now that Eli is starting to eat more than Kelvey's milk factory can produce, we decided it was time to get Eli into training for real food. We picked up some rice cereal as suggested by our pediatrician and mixed up a delightful little batch with Kelvey's milk. We strapped a bib on Eli, grabbed an extra burp rag for clean up, and braced ourselves for the most magnificent mess we've ever seen, but to our surprise Eli took to eating like Takeru Kobayashi takes down hot dogs. He must have been studying how Kelvey and I eat because he knew exactly what to do when he saw the spoon approaching with a tiny puddle of rice cereal on it. It was a little difficult at times when he tried to grab the spoon and feed himself but he was easily distracted with another spoon he could hold on to. Here's a clip of him getting his grub on:

We still have some more training to do, but I don't think Tubbs here will have much difficulty picking it up.

Eli heads to Denver

Last week Kelvey had a conference in Denver, CO so I was left in charge of Eli for the week. Since I can't produce milk and it is too hard to catch and milk the squirrels in the back yard, I packed Eli up and we headed out to Denver to so that Eli could continue to drink the sweet nectar of milk from his mother. Eli and I hung out in the hotel room and took walks around downtown while Kelvey worked throughout the day. I tried to take Eli to the Denver Art Museum so he could become cultured in the contemporary arts, but he ended up sleeping the entire time. I waited around until he woke up and then tried to show him some of the cooler interactive exhibits, but he was still half a sleep and did not seem to know what was going on. Maybe next time.

Later in the week we met up with my brother and his fiance and went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. There was quite a bit to see there but I was a little worried when Eli was more intrigued by the goldfish swimming in a tiny tank than the giant stuffed grizzly bear right next to it. As we explored the museum some more Eli became more aware of the crazy exhibits and he seemed to enjoy the animal displays the most.

It was fun hanging out with Eli all day and then relaxing together as a family in the evening, but when the sun set and bedtime rolled around . . . the beast was unleashed. For some reason, Eli could not sleep at all in the hotel room. He slept fine the first night but the following 2 nights he woke up every hour with a blood curdling scream. We couldn't tell if it was the diaper rash, the hard mattress in the hotel crib or the high altitude that was making him uncomfortable, but we did not get wink of sleep those 2 nights. I could deal with the getting up, but what made it worse was the anxiety that the people next door to us were having to suffer the commotion as well. We were worried that Eli had reached the point of being fussy at night for no reason like some of our friends had told us about their babies, but thankfully everything went back to normal as soon as we got home. He is now sleeping through the night again and all is right with the world.

The thing I liked most about our trip to denver was that Eli got to see some real snow. Since we live in Texas, Eli doesn't have any clothing fit for playing in the snow so we couldn't actually roll around it and make snow angels without him getting completely soaked and freezing. We did make a snow ball for him and he did his inquisitive scratching to figure out what this crunchy white stuff is. For more awesome pics of our trip to Denver, check out our flickr.com page.

Happy Halloween!

It's Eli's first Halloween and we were excited to dress him up! I initially wanted to find a way to attach him to me so we could be like that guy from Total Recall with the quatto, but I didn't have the time or effort to put into it. Plus, he's a baby. He's supposed to be something cute. Luckily, his Nana Karol had gotten him a Frankenbaby costume a few months back and he looked adorable in it! We didn't take him trick or treating because he wasn't going to be eating any candy and we thought it would be rude to take candy that could be given to other kids. We did take him to a couple of parties that night, and our friends were able to gasp and rant about how cute he was. The only problem with taking him to the parties was that he stayed up a little later than usual and his routine was thrown off. It didn't help that it was Daylight Savings this weekend as well. We completely forgot about it being an hour earlier as we began his bedtime tonight and got an earful of tired baby. As soon as I set him down in his bathtub he began screaming because his internal clock was telling him he should be getting his last feeding and going to sleep by then. Hopefully he will adjust to the new time schedule without too much hassle.

Sit. Stay. Roll over. Part II

Eli has been getting tired of us deciding whether he is on his back or his stomach lately so has been putting in work with his rolling attempts. The first video here shows him hard at work trying to figure out this rolling thing on his own. Listen at the 00:25 mark for his strain of frustration:

After a few days of practice, Eli finally got it down . . . sort of. He's pretty much just learned to rear his head back until the weight of that large noggin forces the rest of his body to flop over. Here is is in action (he had already rolled over multiple times for Kelvey before I got home and that is why he does not seem so happy or proud of himself when he was finally filmed):

Batboy

Eli LOVES to hang upside down these days. He will crane back any chance he gets to look at the world from a whole new angle. Maybe he thinks he is one of the famous Austin bats.

Sit. Stay. Roll over.

Eli finally rolled over! Twice! We were playing on the floor last weekend and he managed to just flop over somehow. I immediately rolled him back on his tummy and FLOP! He rolled over again. Kelvey and I were freaking out so much that we rushed to get the camera hoping he would do it again. Kelvey was able to catch the aftermath of the second roll, but by the time we got him back on his belly and ready to video the next roll, he was already starting to crawfish and fuss (when he gets tired of being on his belly he splays his limbs backward in the air and teeters on his belly while crying). He hasn't rolled over since then, but he wants to. He just hasn't learned that he needs to tuck his arms in under his chest to do it.

What a weirdo.

Last week, while staring at Eli as he lay in his play-yard quietly playing with his toys, I found myself thinking, "Huh, Eli seems to be a little quieter these days." He hadn't been babbling or trying to make conversation like he usually did and it seemed a little odd to see him so quiet.

Me and my big mouth.

Within 24 hours of of my comment, Eli became a blathering fool. He must have been resting his lungs so that he could belt out hours of, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHhhh, AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhh, AAAAAAAAAOOOOOOoooh" the rest of the week. When he had our attention, he would sing to us. When he was by himself, he would sing to his toys or to keep himself occupied after waking up from a nap. On one particular lazy Saturday, Eli was hanging out on our bed playing with his burp rag, singing, and grabbing a hold of his feet (his newest and favorite trick) while I was folding clothes. He seemed very content in telling me stories (maybe has was talking to his feet; I couldn't really tell) and I was content in listening to him. All of a sudden I heard a loud, sharp guttural grunt come from Eli's general direction. I turn to see Eli laying there with a smile on his face looking back at me. I laugh at him and he smiled back giving another sharp grunt. What made it even funnier is that he had his chin tucked into his neck and he would tighten his entire body to make the noise through his nose. He looked a lot like a tiny Chris Farley. He continued to do this in place of a laugh as we joked back and forth. Of course, once I try to get some good video footage of him, he becomes more interested in the camera than in what he was doing to entertain himself a few seconds earlier. I think it may be the bright blue light on the camera that distracts him. Anyways, here's some footage of him playing with his feet and giving a solid grunt at the very end:

Take that Stephen Hawking!

Eli seems to be developing faster than I can keep up these days. It seems like just a few days ago he was still flailing his arms around wildly like a muppet on Sesame Street, and now he is able to grab anything he wants with both hands and manipulate it. Most of the time he just pulls whatever he is holding to his mouth so he can suck on it, but he is capable doing much more like shaking it, pulling it over his head, or passing it between his hands.

He has also started reaching out to scratch things as a form of studying them, further proving that our boy is a GENIUS. We'll just be chillin' on the couch and for some reason he will become focused on one of the cushions or my shirt or whatever is close to him. He'll extend a single finger to gently scratch at the fabric and will take a few seconds to study and absorb it all. He also does this with the monkeys lining his crib bumper (the pad that lines the inside of his crib walls) when he is not tired enough to fall asleep for his nap. Genius, I tell you. Genius.

Sleepy-Head

Since Eli has perfected the art sleeping through the night, we have started working on getting him into a nap schedule during the day. Eli has been pretty good about letting us know when he is tired by whining and saying, "nya, nya, nya, nya" so it wasn't hard to figure out a pattern of times throughout the day when he is tired the most.

When it is time to put him down for a nap we do a small routine of laying him down in his crib, giving him his pacifier and a blanket, and turning on some soft music (usually Neko Case or Feist- I have yet to develop a tolerance for kid music and try to avoid it as much as I can for now). It's kinda funny to watch him fall asleep because he sometimes looks like he's playing peek-a-boo with himself. He'll grip his blanket and pull it up to his face, then squirm a little and pull it back down. He'll do this until he falls asleep and sometimes he passes out before he can pull the blanket back down. When I walk in and see him in crazy position like this, I can't help but laugh.

On the flip side, though, it kind of makes me paranoid knowing that he is moving around so much in his crib and I end up checking on him a lot while he is sleeping. Sometimes I stand just out of his view and watch him as he tosses and turns and sometimes I just creep in and check to make sure he hasn't worked his way into a corner of his crib or under a pile of toys. When he is really struggling to fall asleep he will repeatedly lift his legs to his chest and kick them back out, which causes him to scoot around the crib. One night, he turned a full 180 degrees in his crib from all his fish-flopping! I check on Eli about 3-4 times before I end up going to bed at night just to make sure he is alive and sleeping well, but also to keep my mind at easy.

Heads Up, Big Guy!

Eli's days of muffled screams as he lies face down in a blanket on the floor are over! This week he finally realized he has the strength to lift his head up of the floor and he has never been happier. He used to DREAD having to do tummy time and would just lay there with his face plowed into the blanket crying in passive defiance until we eventually felt bad for him and picked him up again. I was starting to think he was never going to get his head up because he never used his hands or chest to prop himself up. I'll be honest with you, the boy has the legs of a mule but he was kind of lacking in the upper body strength area. He got a little stronger as he learned to move his arms and grasp things and with a little encouragement a-la-Mickey from Rocky, Eli is now eatin' lightening and crappin' thunder in the head lifting department. Plus, Eli is so starved for attention these days that he is happy to lift his head just so he can hear us cheering and making a big to-do about it.

Eli's Giggle Fits

The only thing better than being greeted with a smile from Eli every morning when he wakes up is his laugh. Eli has been laughing up a storm lately and we were lucky enough to catch an episode on camera! This video is of a laughing fit that happened a few days ago but it is actually kind of mild because it happened right before his bedtime routine and he was already a little tired. At the end of the video you can see our dog, Bosley, trying to join in on the fun by sneaking some quick licks on Eli's face.

Earlier this evening, though, Eli and I were laughing our butts off at each other and I didn't even have to do anything. We just sat there face to face laughing at each other. It was great! I'll try to get better footage but, as you can probably tell by the quality of the video, the camera we use is our regular photo camera and does not take very good video footage.

The weigh-in!

We took Eli to his 2 month check up on Sept. 1st and we were excited to to get the official word on how big he has gotten. He weighed in at a brawny 13.1 lbs. (80th percentile) and an astonishing 24" (90th percentile). In case you are not aware, Kelvey and I are pretty short people with very tall family members so we are wondering if Eli will soon be towering over us. Tubbs here is still in great health, but unfortunately I did not get the OK to take him to the river and springs I was hoping for.

A whole new world

Eli has had some astonishing realizations lately. His first enlightenment came to him while he was spending the day at work with me. I had him sitting in his car seat on top of a table while I washed out his bottles, and when I turned around . . . I saw his eye locked in an intense stare aimed directly at his feet. He was so enthralled that he didn't blink for over a minute. I think what caught his eye was the bright white socks with single blue stripes he was wearing because his usual bare feet never really caught his eye (FYI: Just because Eli lives in Austin, is often barefoot, and is wearing a tie-dye onesie in this picture does not make him a hippie. I was trying to get a good picture of him playing with his feet but he just kept making cute faces so I decided to just post one of him smiling instead. Just image him saying something like, "Dude, you won't believe what happened to me today!" in the picture and it will fit the entry better). Since then Eli will remember he has feet down there and will attempt to wiggle his toes and grab things with his them. In the tub the other day he was flexing and curling his toes and trying to clench my fingers with them. I warned Kelvey that he has inherited my insane ability to pinch with my big toe and she should would be wise to keep her distance or suffer the wrath of the toes. He also notices them when he is sitting on the couch with us and it is kind of funny to see him scrunch forward over his big belly to look at them.

Another thing Eli has discovered is that the dogs are actual living things that do not just make background noise. I often take Eli for a walk around the backyard after I get home, but I also kick around a tennis ball for Bosley, our skinny retriever, as we wander. Eli usually has his eyes pointed to towards the rustling leaves above us, but now that he has a new favorite position of slouching in the crook of my elbow his eyes are pointed down more and he can see the dogs more. While kicking the ball for Bosley, Eli became entranced by Bosley's movements back forth across the yard. His eyes locked on him as he chased the ball and ran back, chased the ball and ran back. Eli still doesn't pay too much attention to the dogs in general but every now and then he will lock onto them as they peek their head over the side of the bathtub while he is bathing (they always come to check on him) or when they try to siddle up next to him during tummy-time on the floor.

The biggest development for Eli is that he is realizing he can somewhat control his arms, hands, and fingers. He loves to bat at the toys hanging around his playyard and playmat and is trying his hardest to actually grab at them. Today Kelvey called me to say that he had actually grabbed a hold of one of his rattles and had brought it to his mouth to suck on! He still has a ways to go before he is flossing his teeth on his own, but he is trying his hardest to get there as soon as possible. When he is laying there playing with his toys you can hear him grunting as if he is saying, "C'mon hand! Just swing over and grab it. C'mon!" I'm pretty proud of our little guy and can't wait to see what other discoveries and developments he makes in the coming weeks.

By the way . . .

In case you thought I was kidding about Eli's drool . . . behold:

Eli's Big Splash

Last weekend Eli went for his first dip in a pool!  Kelvey's parents were in town and invited the Oeser family to join them at their hotel pool for an early morning dip.  Kelvey and I tried to get some diapers made especially for swimming before heading over there, but we couldn't find any in Eli's size.  Instead we just had to wait until for our window when it was safe to put Eli in the pool . . . . meaning we had to wait until he had used the bathroom and could go in with a clean diaper.  Luckily our window came pretty quickly and we were able to hop in with the rest of the family.  I figured the best way to help Eli get adjusted to the water was to ease him in a little bit at a time.  First I dipped his toes in, then his feet, then his legs then we went for the gusto and got waist deep.  I expected Eli to shriek in discomfort but he took to the water like a regular Mark Spitz (minus the dashing mustache).  Of course, it helped that we were about to have our 65th 100+ degree summer day and the water was not much cooler than his usual bath water so it was a somewhat familiar feeling to him.  Had it been about 10 degrees cooler he may have had a different reaction.  We'll see how he does when I take him to the Barton Springs river which is, on average, 68 degrees year-round.  I haven't taken him yet because I want to make sure the pediatrician gives the ok first.  As much as I want him to experience the joys of river hiking and swimming, I don't want to expose him to any crazy bacteria, bug bites, or infections while his immune system is still developing.

Geez! The mouth on this kid!

Eli hasn't quite started talking yet, but has has made some pretty big advances in the mouth department over the past couple of weeks.  For one, he has become a drool factory.  About 2 weeks ago I noticed that every time I picked him up and held him in my arms, my arm would become glazed in a thick layer of slobber.  Sometimes it would be so bad that it would drip off the bottom of my elbow.  The weird thing is that he started drooling so suddenly!  It wasn't a slow build up over time, but more like his salivary glands just exploded from pressure and a geyser of drool erupted out of his mouth.  It can get kind of gross at times, but it helps to have a burp rag around at all times to keep things from getting too messy.

As Eli's drool increased, so did his urge to suck on things.  After sucking on a teat for 8 weeks, Eli seems to have learned that the best times in life are when you have something to suck on.  Maybe it's the milk-coma he sinks into after every feeding, but the kid has a heavy jonesin' for something to suck on these days.  For a while he was sucking on my bicep every time I held him and he would leave a hickey the size of a quarter on my arm, but he eventually discovered that his thumbs were more accessible and much easier to suck on.  It took him a while to get the coordination down and he would often end up fish-hooking himself, as you can see in the picture.  He's gotten better, though, and actually looks pretty cute once he gets his mouth locked down on a thumb.  Things get a little difficult for him when he gets greedy and tries to shove both hands in mouth.

Last but certainly not least, Eli has started making more deliberate noises with his mouth and can hold a conversation with you.  There are times when he is laying on the changing table and he updates me on all the exciting things he has done that day.  He has bypassed the cooing stage and has already started making grunts, squeaks, oohs and aahs.  He is even developing a laugh to go with his smiles, but right now it just sounds like a stoned surfer.  We keep reading and talking to him every day, so hopefully he will be giving full dissertations by the time he is 3 months old.

Eli's new favorite trick

Eli has always been good about his taking his bath . . . I say that like he's been taking them for years but in actuality I have been to Taco Cabana more times than he's had baths.  Anyways, Eli has always been good about his taking his bath but this past week baths just got a whole lot awesomer!  Eli is quickly becoming more aware of his body movements and has perfected a deliberate movement similar to a fish flopping on dry land.  He will start out soaking in his tub, enjoying the relaxing warm water and intoxicating smell of Johnson&Johnson baby wash, but eventually he realizes that he is naked and free from the everyday constraints of his clothing prison.  With lightening quickness he flexes his legs straight out and clenches his butt cheeks which causes the entire lower half of his body to pop out of the water!  It's tough to capture his awesome power and speed on camera so the picture does not accurately portray this movement.  He actually flopped 3 times while I was trying to take just this one picture!  It's like trying to take a picture of a lightening bolt with a polaroid camera.  All you can really see is the after math of water splashing everywhere.  It can sometimes be a little frightening because he will catch you off guard while you are scrubbing his feet or putting more soap on the washcloth and the commotion makes you think he is just slipped and dunked himself underwater.  When you turn and look, he's just splashing away.

And, in case you're wondering . . . yes, it is a pink bathtub.  We are a very progressive family that does not feel we need to conform to society's blue-boy and pink-girl motifs.  We actually got it from a friend at a baby shower who couldn't remember if we were going to have a boy or a girl.  We didn't know what we were having at the time either and did not feel that the color of the bathtub would have any detrimental impact on our child.  So we kept it and it works just fine.  The effects on Eli remain to be seen.

The first official smile!

So last week, as I was conducting my usual morning routine of kissing my wife, kissing my child, and kissing my dogs goodbye, I was abruptly bombarded with rabbit punches of cuteness to the face!  I had propped eli up on his Boppy pillow to see if he could entertain himself while Kelvey ate breakfast and noticed a Christmas miracle occur . . . . Eli began to smile at me!  At first I thought he was just wincing out a fart or burp like he usually does, but with a little coaxing he stretched it out into a full on smile.  I was so happy I couldn't help but try to see how many more I could get out of him.  It didn't take much to get him smiling ear to ear.  I'm not sure if it was the comfort of the Boppy, the beautiful morning sun pouring through the window, or the smile he saw on his old man's face that made him want to smile so much . . . . but it made my day.  He has had a few sporadic smiles every now and then (mainly after feeding) but nothing to this magnitude.  I still cannot wait for the day that he is able to laugh and smile as part of his normal interaction with us.

Eli is a month old!

So Eli turned 1 month old last week and we celebrated with cupcakes from Hey Cupcake!  Eli couldn't partake in the deliciousness, but I'm sure he got a taste of later through nursing.  Which reminds me . . . Kelvey keeps talking about how all the baby books say that if the mother eats gassy food then the baby will be gassy as well.  I'm not exactly sure how the miracle of milk production works, but I find this hard to believe.  Even if it is true, at least Eli will be well adjusted to the effects of cheese enchiladas and queso by the time he turns a year old.  Have I mentioned how much Kelvey loves cheese?  

Anywho, Eli is steadily packing on the pounds and stretching out as he gets older.  We measured him yesterday while he was on the changing table and he was a whopping 22".  That's 2" longer than when he was first born!  He has gotten so big that he is actually hitting the walls of his bassinet when he flails.  I also tried to weigh him on our scale and he came in at roughly 10.5 lbs.  I had to do the old weigh-us-both-then-subtract-my-weight trick so it is only a rough estimate.  We won't get an accurate weight until his next doctor's visit on Sept. 1st, and we are anxious to see what percentile for size and weight he will be in.  The extra pounds are showing, though, because he is starting to get a few extra creases in his once slender legs.  We have been doing deep-knee bends and the Jane Fonda workout so hopefully we can curb some of the chubbiness!

Poor little guy!

It's tough being Eli.  It's bad enough that he was born with his dad's hairline, but now he is starting to go bald.  You can see in the picture that he has lost a significant amount of hair on the right side of head and he is not happy about it.  The funny thing is that he is mainly loosing it on the top of his head so he still has the ring around the bottom.  I know I shouldn't laugh, but it looks HILARIOUS.  He's like a tiny middle aged man that can't even do a comb over to hide it.

On a serious note, though, I am a little discouraged about his hair falling out.  I was hoping that he would keep his beautiful blonde locks, but now we don't know what type of hair he will have.  

Things we have learned about Eli.

At the time of this post, Eli has been in our lives for 4 weeks and in that time he has taught us many things about himself.  He has taught us that when he is bobbing his head around like a cockatoo he is hungry, when he shuts his eyes and gives a guttural scream he is tired, and when he holds his breath and clenches his entire body he is really fighting to pass some gas.  We have learned that we can sometimes help him with this last one by grabbing his legs and scrunching them to his belly so he curls up and puts little added pressure on his innards.  He's like a little hand accordion; just scrunch him up and he lets a fart loose right on cue.  The other day I scrunched him 3 times in a row and each time he let out lengthy, almost musical, fart.  And these aren't the little *poots* you might expect from a baby.  No, sir!  These are full on rip-roaring farts you might expect from 300lb construction workers sitting around pounding Lonestar and hot wings all day.  Our dog, Roxy, still holds the title in our house for loudest and most comical farts, but she definitely has some competition now.

Eli is not always this predictable, though.  He likes to have an element of surprise about him, especially when he is at his favorite spot: the changing table.  There have been times when we know he is struggling to pass gas and have helped him out while the old diaper is on, but as soon as that diaper comes off . . . . Ka-plow! . . . he's covered the changing table and your hand with a stream of projectile poo!  We have learned to give him a few minutes before changing him, but every now and then he gives us a surprise attack to keep us on our toes.  As you can tell by the picture, it's not just the poo attacks that catch us off guard.  We've had our share of water fights as well.  The boy loves to feel the breeze on his junk and his pee in the wind.  We have learned not to leave him diaperless on the table for too long because he will most likely let loose a fountain of urine.  Same thing happens at bath time.  I wait until I see that little yellow stream let loose to taint the water that cleansed him before I take him out of the tub.

The funny thing about all this is that it is not all that disgusting.  Then again, we have yet to enter the solid food stage.  This topic to be continued at a more gut-wrenching time . . . . 

By the way . . .

If you would like to see more pictures of Eli, you can go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/39950198@N06/ where we are posting pictures on a more regular basis.  The blog will be a better source for Eli's most recent exploits and shenanigans.  

Say Hello to Eli!

This is Eli.

AKA Elias Stewart Oeser.  

He was born on June 28th, 2009 at Seton-Central at 3:36pm.  

As you can tell by the nonchalant demeanor he has in this picture taken shortly after his birth, he's a boy with a certain air of mischief, mystery, and je ne sais quoi about him.  The clenched hand and cocked head is reminiscent of the debonaire yet powerful poses found only in esteemed Sears catalogs of the 70's, but his sleepy eyes seem to say, "I'm a simple man simply in search of someone to love me".

Now, I realize I may be a little biased being his father and all, but he is pretty great.  Hopefully you'll feel the same about him as you share in our experiences with him.