Six Months

What he's up to:
* Living with Grammy and Grandpa while waiting for our household goods to arrive! They finally did and we moved into our house on August 8. Though without cable, internet, washer dryer and a car we stayed with Grammy and Grandpa for a little while longer until the second car arrived.

*Had lots of fun watching the movers unpack all of our things, and loved sleeping in his comfy crib instead of the hard pack n play! He doesn't even like sleeping with mommy any more since it's so comfy! :(

* Is only contained by baby jail, we've got it wrapped around our couch to both keep him contained and separate him and the dog when mommy has to leave the room and can't supervise.

* Visited Papa for his 58th Birthday as well as his cousin Hunter for his 10th birthday!

What he can do:
* Figured out how to roll in succession on July 24, he's rolling across the floor at the speed of lightning now! Time to babyproof!

* Starting to figure out how to lift his bottom up on July 25, one of the first steps of crawling. Where's the pause button?!


* First play-related injury on July 25 when he pulled his steering wheel toy down into his face and bumped above his left eye. Just a few seconds of crying and he was ok though!

* Since learning to pull his bottom up he's on occasion accidentally scootched forward a few inches and in his crib when he's mad he'll get up on his knees at elbows. Though I'm sure that's totally unintentional!

* Had his first taste of solids on his six month birthday. Before then he's had a baby mum mum here and there but nothing real substantial. We tried oatmeal first and he wasn't quite sure about it. We got the silliest faces out of him even though he was trying to help out! We're hoping to go the baby-led weaning approach if his pediatrician gives us the go ahead. I think he would approve.

His Stats: 19 pounds, 7 ounces, 26.6 inches long

Five Months

Gimme some of that cake and ice cream!!


What he's been up to:

* He's loving his jumperoo, he could sit in there all day playing with everything and watching all the lights and hearing all the sounds! He gets some pretty good air sometimes too!

* He's starting to reach for things a lot more now, even will lean over backwards in his jumperoo to get at the toys behind him. One of his favorite things to reach for is our drinks, doesn't matter if it's in a cup, bottle or whatever but he'll put both hands out and reach and make a mmmmmm sound and gets mad if we don't give it to him! He tried that with a piece of cake too!

* Enjoying being around his dogs, especially Grammy and Grandpa's dog who has long hair to pull!

* His favorite new activity is either straightening and locking his legs when mommy is trying to pull his diaper up, or scooting up and away.

* Loves swimming in his baby pool, it's getting harder for mommy to hold him just by his neck with how big he's getting. He's not a fan of swim trunks or a swim diaper, but he loves skinny dipping!

*Enjoying seeing the world upside down, will arch his back so he can see what's behind him and upside down!

* Searching high and low for the perfect house for us to move into and we found one! All of us will be moving in at the beginning of August! Elim will love it, there is a playground to play in down the street for when he gets older, and walking trails and a community pool!

* Searching high and low for furniture for our new living room! Our old stuff is in need of replacing.

* He loves trying to get attention with fake coughing fits. They sound like a bad actor is doing them, hilarious!

* Fighting sleep like a madman! There's just too much cool stuff going on for a silly thing like a nap or bedtime! We'll hopefully get him into more of a schedule soon, but for now naps in the car are ok too, at least he's a happy tired little guy usually!

* Sadly, the day after his four month birthday his Nana passed away after a year long battle with leukemia and we attended her funeral. She will forever be missed, and we are grateful that we got to spend those last few precious days with her before she went to go rock Elim's big sisters Emilyn and Hailey up in Heaven.

What he can do:

* He's perfecting the tripod sit, he's still wobbly but he's getting there! He even tries to lift one of his hands every once in awhile, sometimes successfully!

* Laughs like crazy when you find just the right tickle spots

* Rolling over back to tummy like a champ, and sometimes even for naps!

* He's learned to copy us when we make a sort of raspberry sound with his lips, we'll do it and then he will and keep going back and forth. It's so fun seeing him do that and knowing he's learning to copy sounds! He works so hard to do it sometimes and takes him awhile to figure it out if he hasn't done it in awhile, but eventually he gets it!

* He's standing so well with holding our hands, his legs are getting so strong!

His stats:
He is 26 inches and 18.5-19 pounds (the scale is only accurate to a half pound, we'll get a better measurement next month!).

Four months

All hooked in and ready to go on a walk!


Third date with Sophie, true love!


What he's up to
* He's having quite the love affair with Sophie Giraffe, he can't seem to take his eyes, or his mouth off of her! Such a little ladies man!

* Gnaws on anything that gets within arms reach.

* He accidentally dunked his head all the way underwater during a bath by kicking off the bottom and pushing mommy's hand, and thus his head all the way down. He was quite surprised, and not at all happy. Mommy had to turn him over on his tummy to let him cough it out then cuddle him all soaking wet until he calmed down.

* Enjoying long walks at night time in his stroller!

* Watched as all his toys get packed up into crates for the long trip over the Ocean on a boat to his new home.

* Traveled halfway around the world again, to his permanent home for the next three years, Oklahoma! Visiting with his Nana and Papa as well as his Grammy and Grandpa!

*Spent some quality time with his Nana who was very sick.


What he can do

*First laugh at three months and six days old, what an amazing sound!!

* Can sit up by himself, if Mommy or Daddy position him just right so he's in perfect balance! Though he's bent halfway over! Hasn't figured out the tripod just yet

* Loves to pinch arms and pull at hair much to Mommy's dismay! His daggers of fingernails get clipped often!

His stats
17 lbs 5 oz, and 26 inches long! He's now almost outgrowing his 6-9 month clothing.

Three months

What he's been up to

* Visited with the Easter bunny a couple of times, he wasn't scared but also wasn't thoroughly impressed with the big fuzzy thing. But we got the obligatory picture anyway!

* Elim loves his aden and anais blankets, they are perfect for this hot weather in Guam! He often will grab it and pull it up to his face

*He loves to be carried around in his carrier (not carseat)! Anywhere we go he is constantly peeking out the side, sometimes gnawing on the strap while checking out what is passing him by. He is getting so interested in the world around him! He used to fall right asleep, but not anymore now that there's so much cool stuff going on around him!

* He "walked" in the 2nd Annual Boonie Walk for Babies this year to remember his big sisters Emilyn and Hailey. He did it like a champ! No fussing or anything other than a couple seconds when he was being strapped into his stroller! Once we were moving, he checked out the sights and eventually took a nap!

What he can do:

* He can roll over easily when he wants to, though he's currently on a bit of a rolling strike. He rolled over like crazy for a few days then just stopped! I think it scared him a bit to roll over so fast because he would throw his hands up and they would be shaking right as he got on his back. But he's started doing it again!

* He can hold his own toys now, and more often than not they find their way to his mouth! His favorite toys right now are the green frog rattle that hangs from his carseat handle and another plastic rattle we have.

* He's getting better at holding his head up while in the Bumbo, at first he just flung it back but he's doing great now!

* Can hold his own weight for longer periods of time with us just holding under his armpits for balance.

* He's talking up a storm, I love having first thing in the morning long conversations with him. He loves experimenting with making all different sorts of sounds with his voice!

His Stats:

He weighs 15 lbs, 7 oz and is still 24 inches long! Packin on the chub, love it!

Two months

What he's been up to

*Flew across the world to Guam first class! He did wonderful and slept the majority of the flights with the exception of when he was eating or hungry.

* Blows bubbles all the time and has even done a few raspberries on accident!

* Starting to talk back to us

* Loves playing in his floor gym, especially the rattle that is right at his level to hit with his hand. Smiles away at the sun that attaches to the top, plays music and has different colored blinking lights.

* Loves naked baby time and starts kicking his legs in a circle when he gets it, rolled over from belly to back once but I think it was on accident since he hasn't repeated it.

* Loves his baths, I think they are his favorite thing. We slather him up with soap and then fill the tub up and put him in the big tub with lots of water supporting his head. Then he starts kicking away and goes nuts, he loves it!

* Grammy and Grandpa are here to visit! He's been travelling all over Guam and visiting places like Two Lovers Point, Tarague Beach Overlook, Tarague Beach, Jeff's Pirate Cove, driving around the island, going on a World War II tour, going to a few fiestas and many other things!

What he can do:

* First awake smile at five weeks two days old right after having his diaper changed.

* Smiled in response to something Mommy did at six weeks four days old

* Laughed when he was asleep at seven weeks three days old

* Smiles when he gets put in the position to eat

* Started lifting his head and shoulders up off the ground when he's on his belly when he was about five weeks old

* Will stand up with just supporting him under his arms to keep him from falling over, he loves bouncing up and down too!
His Stats:

He weighs 13 pounds and is 24 inches long, he's growing quick!

One Month

Wow, I can't believe that Elim has been here for an entire month already! It has already been filled with lots of excitement both good and bad.

What he's been up to

*On his fifth day of life he was admitted for dehydration and hypernatremia as well as a touch of jaundice. He narrowly escaped being admitted to the PICU only because they were full to capacity and waiting on nursing staff to come in so he could get a bed. In the wait time his sodium level went down far enough that he was able to go to the regular floor. He got an IV in his scalp because they were not able to get one started in his arms or legs since he was so dried out. Elim was admitted on Friday and discharged the following Monday night. We had high hopes of never having to see him in a hospital again.

*On his sixteenth day of life he was admitted to the hospital again, this time for RSV. We suspect that he caught it when he was in the hospital for dehydration. We went to the ER when his breathing rate got up to the high eighties. Once there, he acted like he was ok, his breathing slowed down and his oxygen saturations remained in the nineties. However, when we were getting his discharge instructions his saturations dropped to the eighties and stayed, so plans were changed, oxygen was started, IV was inserted and we were sent to our room. He was taken off of oxygen soon before we were sent to his room though, and he never needed it again. He was almost discharged the next night but while we were discussing it we fed him and his saturations dropped and stayed in the seventies, so we stayed another night. But the entire night he did great and we got to go home early the next afternoon!

*Met a lot of his family including Aunts and Uncles, cousins, Grandparents and Great Grandmas!

*Got his newborn pictures taken by a wonderful photographer

*Visited many places including his pediatrician about seven times, Babies R Us, the park, and his Great Grandma's house in Tulsa

*Loves staring at walls, they seem to be the most interesting things ever!

What he can do!

*Elim is a champ at holding his head up from the day that he was born! He's still a bobble head but he is so strong!

*Gaining weight like crazy, even through two hospitalizations he still gained weight and even jumped up in where he was at in the growth charts.

*He is quite the little actor! Between acting like he is ok at the hospital when he really is not and acting like he eats properly when a lactation consultant is watching but doesn't when she's not looking I think he deserves some sort of award!

*Tracks a glow in the dark light when the lights are out

Our Valentine

Our sweet Elim Henry-Otto arrived on February 14 at 6:46 pm. He weighed in at 8 lb 2 oz and was 21 1/3 inches long. Charles was not able to be here for his birth, but was able to meet him a few hours later via skype when he was in Hawaii waiting for his next flight to come meet his little guy in person.