Elliot Birthday Photos Part 2

Okay, down to business.

If you're a serious reader of this blog, you remember that I pre-revealed the theme of his birthday cake.  I'm not going to go through all that again, plus it's pretty obvious what this is: Ollie the Elephant!

Amazing job by Hannah and Kate.

He could tell this was important, so he made an effort to eat it.

But his heart wasn't in it.  "How do you people tolerate all that refined sugar?"

Then the opening of presents began.  First an awesome hat from Siobhan:

But then heavy duty stuff began to come out.

Which, everyone agrees, is when things got wild:

You can see from the expression on Elliot's face that he understands the power of these toys.

 Combine that with the covetous look on Nadine's face, and there's really only one way this can end.

That's right, head-bashing.

The adults all just thought it was cute.

Chaos ensured.

But ultimately a good time was had by all.

Elliot Birthday Photos!

Okay, I know everyone out there is itching to see how it went.  And we'll get to that in a second.

But first, let me say:  it was a party.  And thank you to everyone who made the party rock.  I never thought we could host 40 people in this tiny place, but it went off spectacularly.  Or at least, I haven't gotten any angry emails yet.

Now without further ado:

Preparations began in earnest at least 25 minutes before guests starting arriving.

The spread.  Actually just one small fraction of it.

Anne and Tim were the first to show up. 

 Apparently I am upset about this.

What's that term for how long the camera lens stays open?  Shutter speed?  As in 1/250th of a second?

That's about how long we managed to keep the crown on his head.

 Apparently Will loves to stare into the camera just as much as Elliot does.

I know.  I know.

Eventually the usual suspects arrived:

Bob with Audrey.

Emily.

Gerald.

Siobhan and Vadim.

Anna.

Lauren with Audrey.

Morgan with camera flash.

If I forget who these two are I'm in trouble.

Next:  Cake and Presents!

Puttering Pt 2

Puttering Pt 1

Happy Birthday Hannah!

In honor of the loveliest lady I know, here's a retrospective of her greatest hits.

One disturbing realization was that almost every photo of Hannah also has Elliot in it.

 Or if not Elliot some other small cute thing.

Space does not permit all the photos of Elliot's body parts being eaten.  

Yes Elliot, Hannah's toes ARE fascinating.

A variation on a classic.

Kissing Mr. Pinecone  (his friends call him Piney).

Skeptical of the photographer's intentions.

Last night Hannah said to me, "Why don't you put this on the blog?  This is what he looks like most of the time."

Elliot, I just want it on the record that I don't think you look this goofy all the time.

Happy Birthday Elliot!

Well, it's arrived.  Some of you thought it wouldn't happen.  But Elliot survived to one year old today.

It's about 1am and I can't sleep.

Maybe I'm just too excited about seeing his birthday cake.  Which is not yet fully completed, but will resemble this elephant:

Elliot loves this story.  When we start reading it he kicks his little legs and does a squeaky inhale.  Sometimes he stuffs both fists in his mouth.  Sometimes he turns and looks back at me to see if I'm excited too.  He seems to find the images of drops of water hilarious, sometimes he actually laughs out loud.

I love you Elliot, have a great birthday, with many more to look forward to.

Sleep

We've been having trouble with Elliot sleeping recently.  I think I've shared this with you.  He's been waking up a lot and screaming and standing up in his crib.  Usually 2-3 times per night.

So when Kate and Ed arrived yesterday, we warned them that if they were going to sleep in the living room they would have to put with lots of screaming.  We all went to bed expecting a rough night.

And we woke up at 7:30am.  When Elliot woke up.

My theory is that it was the "gently audible breathing sounds" produced by either Kate or Ed (I'm not here to name names) that comforted Elliot during the night.

One final note:  Apparently we didn't all sleep straight through til 7:30.  Hannah tells me that I shook her awake at 5:30am and said "has Elliot not woken up yet?" and when she said Yes I rolled over and went back to sleep instantly.  But she stayed awake for another half hour.....sorry babe.

Who Taught Me Fatherhood

I had one of those moments recently where you see yourself from the outside, like there's a camera in the room, pointed at you, and for a quick moment you have this totally clear objective vision of yourself.

Elliot was lying on the changing table, diaper off, goofing around.

He was content.  But I wanted to be included.  And when I'm trying to get Elliot to play with me, more often than not my instinct is to be aggressive. 

Sometimes this works.  You've probably seen a child laugh hysterically when being chased by an adult.  But context is key.  Chase them the wrong way and it's not funny at all.  Such a delicate art, making a child laugh.

I couldn't chase him while he was lying on the changing table.  So I growled and snapped my teeth and bit his belly. 

I thought this would be hilarious.  But it wasn't.  He looked at me like I was on drugs. 

Next, I found a toy and handed it to him.  I thought we could play tug.  He grabbed it, and I grabbed the other end, and I tugged.

I tugged it right out of his hands.  He didn't think this was very fun. He shot me a look like Why did you give me that toy if you were just going to take it away?

And that's when I had my moment of clarity.  That's when I saw what I was doing.

I was treating Elliot like a dog.

Not "treating him like a dog" like in some demeaning way.  Not metaphorically treating him like a dog.  I was literally treating him the way I would treat a dog I loved.

Chasing, tugging, growling.  Where else did I learn these things?  It's not like I've been a father before.

This blog is not about me.  I barely have a presence.  Hardly any authorial voice at all.

This blog is about Elliot.  And a few weeks ago Elliot and Hannah went to Michigan.  I can't believe I didn't come!

Happy Birthday Ed.