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.