...that would be a description of Elliott's vocabulary and Sprout's size.

Sprout is showing his/her presence through Cheryl's obviously rounded belly and although it's mostly only noticeable to Cheryl, he/she is doing A LOT of moving these days.  Christmas did prove to be the turn-around point for Cheryl's morning sickness.  She's now able to cook meals again, do more housekeeping, get out more for playtimes with Elliott, and sometimes get things done in the evening.  There's still some definite times of sickness but it seems to be more associated with blood sugar issues (waiting too long between snacks) or having the wrong type of food (too much sugar or grease, too spicy).  Weight and size gain seem to be right on track and all indications are that Sprout is healthy and developing just as he/she should be.  Praise God for his blessing of a relatively healthy pregnancy - we know that is a gift from Him.

Elliott has been to a couple of doctor's visits with us and seems curious about the sound of Sprout's heartbeat when they monitor that, but otherwise I don't think he really understands much of what's going on.  He is interested when he sees other babies as we're out and about, so hopefully it's something he can enjoy when there's a new baby in the house.

I'm thankful for Elliott's continued vocabulary development, as I think it could be particularly helpful once Sprout is born to be able to rely more on verbal communication with Elliott.  He's also having fun seeing our reaction to using new words.  We've been using a combination of different resources to teach and reinforce new vocabulary.  After a bit of work, he seems to be starting to really get animal names and some animal sounds.  Farm animals have been a little easier, as I think he's had a bit more exposure to those animals.  He knows signs for some clothing items and things that we do around the house each day.  Elliott's also starting to pick up on trying to mimic spoken word sounds.  One of the earlier ones was "shoe", along with "mama" and "dada".  For a while, he wouldn't even try when we asked him to "say _____", but now that he's figured out how excited it makes us when he tries, he's willing to give just about anything a shot - repeating back vowel sounds, numbers, some letters, animal sounds, and even some words like "home" and "applesauce".  It's fun to have Elliott see a picture of an animal now and often turn to me to say or sign the word, looking for confirmation or praise from me.  The other day I put the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book on his lap while we were driving somewhere and noticed that he was turning pages and making signs for the animals he recognized.  That was pretty cool, too!

I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment about a lot of the words Elliott's now using, so maybe I'll have to add them as comments as I notice him using them.  I'm sure at some point, when he gets really good at verbal communication, that we'll get tired of him talking so much, but for right now it's fun to see the progress and we're proud of what he's learning.

In other news...Chris took the side off of Elliott's crib last weekend and after a week of trying it out I think it's probably going to stay off.  Nap times are a little iffy, with it being a little harder for Elliott to be convinced to lay down and fall asleep, but he's done really well at night with staying in his bed after we go through our bedtime routine and he seems to still fall asleep fairly quickly and mostly sleep through the night.  We put his tiger pillow (a large, flat pillow that folds up into a stuffed animal) next to his bed to help cushion the couple of falls he's had by accidentally rolling off the bed, but the mattress is also set really low so it's nothing too dramatic for him to fall out.  We've found once or twice when we looked in on him that he had rolled off his bed but gone right to sleep on the tiger pillow...or one time I found that he was sleeping with his head and torso on the bed but his legs hanging off the side, making it look like he was kneeling beside the bed to pray!  The next question will be whether Elliott will be ready to move into a twin size bed we have within the next six months so that we could use the crib for Sprout when that's needed.

I think that's all the kid-related news for now.  Chris is working on weekends to finish up a bathroom remodel project he started during his week off around Christmas/New Year's and Elliott is always fascinated to look in on what he's doing.  Elliott was sad to see the Christmas lights get put away, as he had developed that habit of regularly signing "light please" to ask us to turn on the lights.  Then again, he gets just as excited about anything that lights up and/or moves.  We try not to get too many toys that do a lot of noise & lights, but there's some and there's also our technology "toys", which he is always fascinated by and unfortunately already knows way too much about how to operate.  At least "FaceTime" is a nice feature of our Apple devices - it allows us very simply to connect any two of our compatible devices for a video chat.  So Elliott's had chances to "see" Chris while he was away on business trips or for work.  They can talk, Chris can see what Elliott is doing, and they can do "fist bumps" or last time Elliott tried feeding Chris a piece of cheese by putting it up to the spot where Chris' mouth was displayed on the screen. ;-)

Good times...and pictures to come soon (I wanted to get this updated but now I need to take a nap while Elliott's napping, so I'll post pictures later).

Pictures here

I'm going to choose to blame it on "pregnancy brain" that I had to actually make a chart to list out the month anniversaries of Elliott's birthday in order to calculate that he is now 20 months old.  I kind of knew it but wanted to make sure I had the right number and we're also getting up into the higher numbers...a lot times these days I just say he's about "a year and a half" old. ;-)

I also looked back at our photo album to figure out what "latest" I could describe of Elliott's goings-on.  A while back we took part of a Saturday to go to a couple of resale shops and look for a Halloween costume for Elliott.  At one shop there was a tricycle sitting by the front register that Elliott was dying to try out.  We let him check it out but figured it was by the register because someone was going to buy it.  Then we found out that it had just come in and they were about ready to put it out for sale.  The price was right and we figured it'd be a good item that Elliott could grow into, so we went ahead and bought it to take home.  It has a removable bar in the back that allows an adult to push and steer the handlebars, so nowadays we're mostly either taking Elliott down to the park on his tricycle (Chris added a seat belt for extra safety going down the hill) or having Elliott walk.  Ever since our summer road trip, Elliott has also enjoyed walking between Elliott and myself and holding our hands...mostly because every once in a while we'll swing him between us, which I think is one of almost every kids' favorite games.

We also got a dinosaur costume for Elliott, although he was not happy about trying on costumes at the store in comparison to playing with the tricycle.  We took him to the pumpkin patch on the Saturday before Halloween, although it turned out to be such a warm afternoon that we decided to just take a couple of quick pictures with his costume on and then put him in shorts and a T-shirt.  Elliott had a blast and enjoyed some different activities that he wasn't able to make use of last year.  He wandered through a hay maze, which was a perfect size for him.  I stayed on the outside and it was funny to see Chris and other adults' heads popping up to stand up and look around in the parts that were open, then duck down to go through the tunnel areas.  We also went on a hay ride, though I think the tractor pulling us was the most interesting part for Elliott.  Elliott then spent a very happy 20 minutes or so trying out sledding on a pile of cottonseed they have set up for kids.  Chris got some good exercise walking up the hill then pushing and guiding Elliott down the hill on a disc sled.  We tried out the petting zoo, explored the abandoned vehicles left for kids to play on, and then let Elliott pick out his pumpkin.  It was a fun 2 hours that left us all feeling good but very tired.

In other news, Elliott is getting better at communicating, although there's still a fair amount of grunting and pointing going on.  He's better at expressing his opinion & saying "yes" or "no", particularly when it comes to foods he's interested (or not interested) in eating.  He still loves bananas and is good at holding them on his own...we're still working on teaching him to pull back the peel - so far he can do the peeling if we hold the banana but he gets confused if we try to get him to both hold the banana and pull the peel back.  Elliott is also frequently expressing his food interests by saying "yum!" when he likes a food.

Another new word, one that he's picked up in sign language, is "wash hands".  He loves to be held up at the sink and allowed to let water run over his hands, and an adult adding some soap to the mix doesn't bother him.  He actually signed "thank you" to me once after I let him wash his hands! =)  So words are still very functional, but he's gradually getting a few more and I'm still working on exposing him to abstract ones like colors, numbers and animals, which I'm sure he'll start using when he's ready.  He recognizes many of these enough to be able to try pointing to some of them in books, so I'm sure we'll get there eventually.  The other new word, another spoken one, that Elliott now uses regularly is "out" - as in, "I want to go outside".  This is one, however, where the mispronunciation due to his learning curve is rather unfortunate.  He kind of mixes "out" with "outside" and loses some of the "u" sound, so that if you know what you're listening for, Elliott's repeating "Out? Out?" as he stands at the baby gate definitely sounds like "Ass? Ass?"  Ahh well...this too shall pass.

Among other cute things Elliott's been doing lately - when he wants us to read him a book (he's working and getting very close on learning to do the sign for "book"), he'll go to his room where he knows the books are kept and bring one or a couple out to us.  We'll read them and then tell Elliott to put them back in his room...at which point Elliott runs off with the book(s) and puts them back in the pile where the books normally live!  He sort of does the same thing with the supplies of diapers we keep by his changing table, except he's a lot better and more interested at taking them out of the package and distributing them around the living room (bringing 1 - 4 out at a time, then going back to his room for more and repeating the process until they're almost all out in the living room).  It takes quite a bit more work to get him to take them all back and put them in the box in his room.  Elliott also loves playing with his red playground ball or a balloon Chris brought home recently.  Elliott will sometimes reach up with the ball in his hands to the window/shelf between the dining room and living room to push the ball through to the other side, then run around, pick up the ball and climb up on the loveseat in order to roll the ball along the shelf in the other direction (to the dining room).  It's almost like he's playing a very slow game of "catch" with himself, but he absolutely loves it!  He also enjoys running up and down the hallway and will chase or throw the ball up and down that if someone will play catch with him there.  I think the balloon threw him for a loop recently because it's about the same shape as the ball but behaves so differently and hangs in the air longer.

With my continuing pregnancy sickness, Elliott has been having some opportunities to interact with Chris more, especially in the mornings.  Chris favors cooking omlettes or scrambled eggs for breakfast, and he gives Elliott the chance to help beat the eggs.  Elliott definitely enjoys "cheesy eggs" and also is getting used to getting extra food from his mom while I lay on the couch trying to settle my stomach and get ready for the day.  Chris now tends to make twice as much oatmeal for me in the morning to accommodate for the amount that Elliott eats as he comes over to me frequently, points to the oatmeal, then to his mouth, and makes his grunting sound (which I liken to the sound a baby bird might make when begging for food from its mom).  Another morning tradition is for Elliott to sign "music" in order to get us to start up his kids' music playing on the computer or the iPod.  He then sometimes starts his humming or dancing along, which is of course also very cute to watch.

Lastly, this past weekend we were blessed with a couple of rainy days and found that (no surprise) Elliott really loves getting out in the rain.  He held his hands out to catch rain falling off the carport roof while we got ready to leave in the car.  The next day was dry and when we went out Elliott stood by the carport edge, held his hands out and looked up questioningly.  He then made the sign for "wash hands" to ask where the water was, to which I replied, "Sorry, Elliott, there's no rain today so it's not going to come off the roof."  The following day it rained again and we had an opportunity for a little bit of a longer walk in the rain...and I learned that Elliott has already developed an eagle eye for spotting puddles to try to step in or put his hands in!

Most are from the pumpkin patch, but here's what pictures we have from the last month.

I was starting to wonder about trying to change the name of this blog, as our news of Elliott isn't really "baby" news anymore.  However, God has blessed with the gift of a new baby on the way, so I guess the blog can keep it's title for a bit longer.  We've had the first ultrasound to conclude that it's one baby, with a strong heartbeat, and due somewhere around May 8, 2012.

Of course going through pregnancy again has it's challenges - namely fatigue, nausea and vomiting.  Those have been hitting me hard and it's been a challenge for Chris to come home from a long day of work and then be called on to take care of all the things I need help with because of not feeling well.  Elliott has generally been cooperating great, since he's such an easy going child.  He's willing to play on his own or interact with me while I lay on the couch and I try to make sure we get out for activities like story time or play dates at least a couple of times a week so he gets some variety of interactions.  Elliott has also really been enjoying listening to children's music I have loaded on the computer.  He's learned the sign for "music" and he can listen or dance or shake his rattle/cymbal toys while I'm resting.

In the last few weeks I've noticed that either the nausea is a little worse this time around or having the extra responsibilities of housekeeping and childcare is making me feel I'm less able to manage with my symptoms, so we've been looking into some new remedies and other solutions.  At our first prenatal appointment the nurse practitioner let me try out a sample acustimulation wrist band they have and it seemed to do a bit to lessen the nausea (I noticed more just feeling hungry b/c the nausea had prevented me for eating much before the appointment).  So we tried ordering one of those and I've had it on for a couple of weeks.  I think it helps some, but was still having a fair amount of nausea and was vomiting as much as 2 - 4 times in a day.  Chris' mom has also offered to be on call and available to help for any days when I feel I could use some help.  Last Tuesday was a day I wasn't feeling well at all and needed to lay down to try to keep food and water down.  We also host a church group on Tuesday evenings, so I was grateful to have her come over and help do the housecleaning that I usually like to do on those days to get ready for having people over.

I've been trying all the normal remedy stuff: "grazing" (small meals throughout the day), taking Vitamin B6, ginger snaps/ginger ale, soda crackers, etc.  I also remembered that "Preggie Pops", hard candies designed to combat morning sickness, sometimes helped when I was pregnant with Elliott, so I picked some of those up recently.  They work for the time I'm sucking on them, but that doesn't help me feel up for eating or drinking more. 

It was still proving difficult to get a decent amount of food and fluids down each day, although I could keep at least something down each day.  However, I noticed I felt like I was going to pass out when I was trying to get things done in the kitchen a few days ago, so I called the doctor's office to talk to them about that and they suggested prescribing an anti-nausea medication.  It sounds like it's a fairly commonly prescribed medication but is an off-label use for pregnancy (it's designed to fight nausea in chemotherapy patients).  I care a lot about trying to avoid medications during pregnancy, since that's always safest, but the nurse made a point that if I can't get the nutrition and fluids I need to stay healthy, that's worse for the baby.  So I went ahead and tried one last night and it helped me eat a decent sized meal, get extra water down, stomach my prenatal vitamin, and this morning even though I'm passed the effective time of the medication, I'm feeling better able to get up and eat and function.  So I probably will still try to only use the medication when I really need a break from the nausea, but it is a nice option to have.

With not feeling well, there aren't a lot of pictures of big outings lately, but there's always cute things Elliott is up to, even around the house, so here's a few pictures.

A few vignettes of memorable moments from our trip:

"Thank You"
I taught Elliott to sign "please" when he wants something as a way of keeping him from whining or crying.  Chris decided he wanted to encourage Elliott to now also sign "thank you" after being given something.  I noticed that Elliott picked up this new sign very quickly - within a few days on the road he had started using his own version of the sign - just a tapping of his chin with his hand, where the actual sign is starting your hand against your chin and moving it down and away from you.  It's similar to how he signs for water, but definitely has a gentler and distinct style of movement. 
The really great part is that after coming home, I've noticed Elliott starting to sign "thank you" occasionally after getting something WITHOUT BEING PROMPTED TO!  Once again a way that Elliott's behavior at this stage (I'm pragmatic enough to realize it may not last) is very gratifying and makes me happy as a mom.

LeapTop
Each long distance trip we go on, I get a new toy for Elliott to distract him on the road or airplane.  I had been looking for a board book with musical buttons along the side, but these turn out to be getting scarce these days.  However, I found a Leap Frog product for ages 2+ that was on clearance for $10.  It's in the style of a laptop and is programmable with Elliott's name (spoken and written/spelled), messages ("email from Mom, Dad and Jesus"), and selected song list.  I was able to pick "head, shoulders, knees and toes" as the song, which is currently one of Elliott's favorites.  The LeapTop also plays a song that spells Elliott's name along with rhythmic clapping and that was another favorite of his.  We also found at the campsite that our friends had a similar style of item for their two boys, so it was funny at one point to have 3 kids sitting in a row playing with the toy laptops (note - this was one instance out of the whole weekend, the rest of the time the LeapTop stayed in the car and Elliott enjoyed the great outdoors when possible.

Banana Peel
To keep our pace up for driving days, we did our best to eat meals and snacks in the car along the road.  I had brought some bananas, but of course Elliott dropping a piece of banana in the car would not be ideal, so Chris tried giving Elliott a whole banana in the peel, with the top peeled back.  It turns out Elliott was able to manage this way of eating and it is now his preferred way of eating banana.  He would eat down to the split in the peel, even sometimes trying to eat the peel, then be willing with coaxing to hand back the banana for the next section to be peeled back.  Considering that Elliott has been known in the past to stuff so much banana in his mouth that he looks like a chipmunk with cheeks full, I'm proud that Elliott seems to have learned to feed himself and manage to take appropriate-sized bites.

Snow
We noticed as we approached Crater Lake National Park that there were still patches of snow along the road in some areas, so we resolved to find a spot where we could stop and let Elliott feel snow for the first time.  At the end of the day, on our way out, we found a perfect spot, next to a turn-out, with a large section of snow with a flat section at the top and a slant down the hill a little ways.  We took Elliott out on the snow, and he seemed dubious at first, signing that he wanted "help" because the snow was slippery and made it difficult to walk.  We started showing him you can pick it up and throw it, engaging in a bit of friendly family snowball fight (with loose handfuls of snow).  It's funny that at this age Elliott actually enjoys having things thrown at him - he giggles wildly as it hits him gently.  Chris then wondered what we had in the car that could be used as a toboggan and we figured out we had a blue plastic tarp.  So we folded this up and set Elliott in it, with Chris directing him down the slope and keeping him upright while I took video.  Elliott was fully laughing at this point and seems to be convinced that snow can be lots of fun!

Classic Mini
On our trip back home, we spent two evenings and a day in San Jose, staying with my aunt & uncle.  On the second night Chris got talking with my uncle about their shared interest in sports cars, particularly those of British origin.  In the course of the conversation it came up that one of my uncle's good friends is also a fan of these cars and owns a classic mini that he has been thinking of selling for a while.  This type of car is one of Chris' favorite and it would be a dream come true for him to own one.  Next thing you know, my uncle is calling his friend to ask about the status of that car and they're close enough friends that it turns out it works for us to go over that night to take a look at the car.  There's a lot of reasons for it not being practical to buy the car, but it's in the back of our heads and we know that this guy is thinking of selling it but isn't in a rush at the moment.  We'll see what happens down the road!  However, for the evening it was definitely exciting for Chris and his face was lit up like a kid in a candy shop to have the opportunity to look at this car!

There's No Place Like Home
Elliott did very well, all things considered, for this trip with long days of driving and various places to stay each night.  However, it certainly did disrupt his routine, especially as he didn't seem to be able to sleep very well in the car.  Normally we've been able to get Elliott to sleep without having a parent stay by him or rock him or anything like that, but this trip called for nights when I either rocked him in my arms or laid down next to him and held his hand.  Of course it's cute to be able to cuddle, but it also of course demands more time and energy from parents/mom.  So it's nice to be home and get Elliott back into his routines and familiar environment.  After a few days, Elliott did seem to get more comfortable and get over the excitement of rediscovering his toys that were left behind.  In fact, I've noticed lately that Elliott is even taking initiative in some parts of his routine.  I give Elliott a cup of milk in the kitchen, then say "let's go to your room" and he'll walk in that direction.  He helps close the door when we get in his room.  Sometimes he doesn't want to sit in my lap while I read books to him, so he'll wander around touching some of his toys or looking at the book from a distance while sipping his milk...or sometimes he sits himself down beside me by leaning up against the wall and sliding his feet down until his bottom falls to the ground.  When he's done with milk, he wants his pacifier and blanket while I finish reading books.  Then I say "let's go brush your teeth" and he sometimes throws his blanket and/or pacifier into his crib, knowing that they'll be there for him when he gets done with brushing his teeth.  He'll then walk to the door and help me open it, walk to the bathroom and wait for me to pick him up and set him on the counter to brush his teeth.  When we're done I'll say "nap time" and he often makes the sign for "nap" to show that he understands.  I then lay him in his crib, give him his pacifier and blanket if he doesn't have it already.  I say goodnight/bye, turn out the light, and close the door and Elliott goes to sleep!  Yeah! =)