Summer- visitors, vacations, and Elliott being adorable

Posted by Kathryn Hixson August 20, 2016

Summer- visitors, vacations, and Elliott being adorable

Elliott has recently gotten really cute (even more cute than before), and our families have gotten really Elliott-starved, so we have had some visitors in Boston these past few months to see us, the city, and mostly our adorable little giant. First, my mom and dad were on their way to a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to Italy for some sightseeing, gelato, and bike riding. They got flights in and out of Boston with long layovers that allowed for some great time for Elliott to see grandma and grandpa. This happened over Memorial Day weekend, so we went to see the flags in Boston's public garden, and went out to eat. My mom and dad also had a day to spend with Elliott taking care of him while Nate and I were working. Grandparent day care was exciting for him and I'm sure he got much more one-on-one attention then he normally does!
In July, Nate's dad, sister, and mom came into town for a short, sweet visit. Connie and Clair also got a day of day care in and were shocked by the amount of food he can eat! (I am too, because I have to make all that food every day!) We got to go to a Red Sox Game with Brooke and Clair, to the sand sculpture festival in Revere with Clair. One day Elliott, Nate, Brooke, and Clair all went to the Marriott Customs House overlook of Boston. Elliott loved all the attention.

before his first hair cut

after his first hair cut

at Revere beach sand sculpting festival

Marriott Customs House

At the Red Sox game, where we got to see Big Papi make a home run, but ended up losing :(

More recently, this month, Laura and Braden made their long anticipated trip to Boston, because Braden had never been, and to see baby Elliott (and us). They explored lots of Boston without us when we were working, and we also went to the North End, Primark, Squantum point park, and to Castle Island together. We also played some board games and watched some olympics together. (Katie Ledecky, eh??, She is pretty amazing!)

Another Red Sox Game with Laura and Braden

At Castle island

Practicing his standing at Castle Island park bench

How much of his morning nap is usually spent

Braden LOVED going to fenway and we rocked the Diamondbacks 9 to 4!
It was a perfect game

Piggy back on dad at Squantum Point Park

We also went on a trip in July to Buffalo, Niagra Falls, and Palmyra NY with some friends that are moving away from Boston. We went to the falls on the Canada side, to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, a reenactment of the Book of Mormon, to a Frank Lloyd Wright house, to an awesome black light mini golf, and made s'mores and roasted hot dogs.

At our cabin near Palmyra, NY

NIAGRA FALLS

In the Sacred Grove

Enjoying some s'mores

Palmyra Temple

Walking to the Hill Cumorah Pageant

Monster Mini Golf

DANCE PARTY

Twinners, we dressed them up for 4th of July

At a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Buffalo, NY

I was freaking out behind the camera

Gonna miss this girl!

In other news, NATE PASSED HIS 2nd CFA EXAM!!! We were so excited and glad we have a bit of a break before he has to start studying for exam 3 next June (not too long though, probably only a few more months) and putting in 3 hours of studying a day again.
I have been pretty busy at work lately, which has finally died down a bit because I submitted my first NIH grant. It was so much work to get it all in, and you need to write about EVERYTHING... in addition to writing a research proposal with detailed explanation of all your experiments and expected results, you have to write what equipment I have available, the facilities available, why I chose my mentor, exactly what I will do in a time table... blah blah blah. It took A LOT of time, but I'm so glad it is finally in, and it was really good to plan out the research I'd like to do to get me excited about my work again, since being away from Elliott is pretty hard!

Elliott has grown up a lot since we last wrote, and he is still as cute as ever. Now he is CRAWLING!!!! AHHHHH! We have been procrastinating the baby proofing, but need to get to work ASAP! He also is great at standing and even taking steps with support, sitting up on his own, and even getting into a sitting position from being on his back or tummy (this makes "nap" time pretty void of sleep since now he just sits and plays in his crib.) He is chatting with real syllables, so it sounds like talking, and he can now do bababa dadada, and mamama. (Unfortunately, mama, came after dada... which I was pretty upset about). He loves screaming high pitched and just seems amazed and amused that he can create those noises himself. He smiles at everyone when they are looking at him, and he rarely cries unless he is really tired or hungry. Recently, he has gotten a little more separation anxiety seen by him crying when I leave the room for a second or... one of the most adorable things ever... when he reaches his hands up to me with a frown on his face so I pick him up... works every time! We've been letting him feed himself real food (aka, not just pureed baby foods, but cut up soft foods, like toast, fruits/veggies, eggs, meat, fish) he has NEVER refused any food or even shown a sign of distaste more than a little bit of a frown, so we're hoping he's not nearly as picky as his mom and dad. I've fed him all the allergenic foods now to make sure he doesn't get any food allergies, because anyone who knows me knows I don't do life without peanut butter.
About 2 1/2 months ago Elliott was hardly sleeping during the day or night, he would wake every 2-3 hours, and sometimes he would stay awake crying at night for several hours. He was clearly exhausted all the time, as were we. Luckily, a women I know was giving away some stuff as she was preparing to move and gave me a book about baby sleeping that has literally saved our lives, it involved a bit of rough nights for some initial training him to fall asleep on his own, but now he sleeps like a champ EVERY NIGHT, and he wakes up 1x for a short feed before going right back to sleep. He still doesn't nap much during day care, which unfortunately means that he goes to bed very early, and that doesn't give us much time after work with him (in fact, sometimes Nate doesn't get to see him at all), but his improved night time sleeping has made him so much happier all the time when we are able to be with him in the mornings, on the commute each way, and in the afternoon when I get home before he goes to sleep.