Today Elijah had his 2-month doctor visit.  He is officially healthy and average!   He clocked in at 22 1/2 inches long (30th percentile) and 11 pounds 11 ounces (50th percentile).

It's hard to believe he's already 2 months old.  December always flies by anyway, let alone when you have 3 kids.  Elijah has been such a joy to our house.  Yes, he's still colic-y and keeps us up but he also is so cute and lovable.  At night we continue with the drill of Dad getting up to change diapers and Mom feeding.  Dad also will take Elijah out to the living room during longer crying spells.  (I then get on the computer and stay up later than I should after Elijah falls asleep on me!)

Today Elijah rolled over from front to back.  Oh the little things you celebrate with a baby.  Eljiah has also been smiling a lot and we're learning the little tricks to make him do it. Emma and Elliot have not lost interest in the baby.  In fact, Elliot continues to show a lot of affection to him and we're trying to teach Elliot how to love him gently :) Only a few people have had the privilege of seeing the real Elliot (if you watch the kid's video, you get an idea).  Elliot, the other day, was standing at the changing table while I was changing a diaper and recounting the whole Christmas story for Elijah.  (It's quite amazing - he knows it all - from the wise men, to the bad king, shepherds, angels, Mary and Joseph)  I hope some day I can be at the right place at the right time with the video camera and I'll show you what I mean.

Nicole's mom brought over her baby book and we checked out the resemblance.  I still maintain that Elijah is a good 50/50 mix of the two of us.  Sometime soon I hope to post some pictures to show the comparison.  For those who haven't adopted it may not occur to you that the whole resemblance thing is something new for us (yes, I know, Emma and Elliot DO look like us).  I find myself staring at him a lot trying to see who he looks like.  And I came to an interesting realization the other day.  I will be, in a sense, watching myself grow up.  Remember, he was born on my birthday?  What I mean is, Elijah kind of looks like me (and maybe acts like me?) and will be exactly the same age I was for all the holidays and stuff.  I can imagine very clearly what I was like on my first Christmas.  Kinda cool.

Here is a post I'm sure many people are interested in.  Here are 11 recent pictures of Elijah.  Click on the picture to see it full size.  Enjoy!

A few days ago Elijah started smiling.  I tell you - there's nothing greater than your baby smiling at you for the first time.  Tonight at a get together our friend De was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time and snapped a picture! (thanks, De)

Remember when we came home from the hospital with Elijah and there were so many leaves we couldn't see the driveway?  Well, the weather was good and I had this crazy Dad-idea.  What if I made the world's largest leaf pile?  I thought the kids would love it.  Plus I really just wanted to see how big of a pile I could make.

So I went out and spent a good 2 hours with the leaf blower and rake.  If I would have had more time I could have gathered leaves from the entire front yard (which is what I was hoping to do).  At any rate, I made the largest leaf pile I've ever seen.  It was also amusing to see cars go by and kids in the back seat turn there heads in amazement.  They probably laid in bed that night dreaming about jumping in that leaf pile at the house they drove by that day.



I had to have Emma stand in front of it to capture the true height on camera.  I had to all but tie the kids down to keep them from jumping in it before I got a proper picture.



Play time! With such a huge pile I felt ok about tossing Emma up as high as I could to land feet first in the pile.  After a few throws she insisted she go put on her bike helmet - probably a good precaution because Dad was getting a little crazy with the throwing!  Of course, Elliot wouldn't have anything to do with me.  I don't blame him. 

The kids did great.  I was able to wait at the road while they went up the driveway and got their candy all by themselves.  At one scary house Elliot was shooting all the scary things by pointing his chest at them and making lightning shooting noises with his mouth.

Of course, it wouldn't be an outing without a classic kid moment.  We were down one long street about to make our way back on the next street over (in other words, as far as we could possibly be from home) Elliot subtly lets me know. "I have to pee reeealllly badly!!"  Of course.  Then Emma said she has to go, too.  But it was obvious that Elliot was in a state of emergency.  Luckily Dads are super heros in and of themselves.  I ran a lot of the way back passing other families and kids on the way.  Well, we didn't make it.  Luckily Elliot's lightning suit handled the wetness without any short circuiting.  After a 10 minute bathroom break, we went back out for another 30 minutes.  We ended just before the kids arms fell off dragging around their heavy candy buckets.

Oh, and Elijah?  The little cub stayed home with the candy passer-outers.  Maybe next year!  

With Elijah just born and having visitors in and out, we crammed our traditional pumpkin carving into a busy day. Of course, Dad did most of the work!