My last post was when Elliott started walking toward the end of April and well, anyone who has been a parent knows that life is never the same after that. In good ways, of course! Peat and I have been running after Elliott now for 3 months — it seems with walking comes an entirely new set of amazing discoveries. Outlets are not for Elliott, a sewing kit is not for Elliott, under the kitchen sink is not for Elliott, the fire pit is not for Elliott — keeping up with options that *are* for Elliott is the hard part.

But the great thing about his newly found independence is also the unique personality that is all his own that we are starting to see come out. Elliott is quite the dancer as you will see in the video below, but yet at his new school, he is not such a fan of the finger painting…yet. And though it was hard to take him there at first, there are many days where Elliott greets the snackman in his classroom and waves bye to momma and daddy, because it’s time for us to go. He has things to do.

Auntie Vanny has been singing Itsy Bitsy Spider to Elliott a lot. And it looks like her work has sunk in. If you can forgive my singing, here is a cute video of Elliott doing the “spider” for the song.

Birthday video and photos coming soon!

Elliott is 1 today! 

Feb 14, 2009, 8:30 PM

PORTLAND, Ore. – It only took Elliott Bakke 11 months and 3 days to discover his first love — baseball. With his red plastic Louisville Slugger, in front of adoring fans, Mr. E (as he is lovingly referred) took his first shot at the Bigs on Newcastle Avenue on Valentine’s Day. Surely, the first of many tries at making it to The Show.

Elliott awoke to a stocking full of goodies and presents under the tree. Unfortunately, Santa had trouble fitting Elliott’s new wagon into his sleigh, so he is making a stop on Friday. Santa ate the cookies and had a shot of the Dalmore that Elliott left him and the reindeer chomped on some carrots. We opened gifts and Elliott swam in a sea of paper. Of all the presents he received today, his favorite was the purple gift tag and green and gold bow that Auntie Vanny and Uncle Dal gave him. He played with that until he got sleepy and crawled into Momma’s arms. Merry Christmas everyone from Peat, Nova and Mr. E!

Favorite Gift

Family at Christmas

Elliott is asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head. Earlier tonight his cousins Bea and Margaret (who live just blocks away) paid him a visit. Beatrice was very concerned that Elliott get a present to open on Christmas Eve, so Mr. E got his first chance to rip up some paper. I am pretty sure this is one of the only years where Peat and I will be more excited about Christmas morning than Elliott.

Unwrapping

Elliott is super cute in his new knit hat. He’s not a big fan of hats right now — he always pulls them off immediately after we put them on. I am not sure if he just thought this one was super stylin’ or if the shiny wrapping paper had him distracted enough. My bet is with the wrapping paper, but the hat (thanks Liza at Auntie Vanny’s work) is adorable on him. Not sure yet if Elliott has the wrapping gene, but he definitely likes paper. There will surely be a wrapping paper extravaganza waiting for him on the big day!

New Knit Hat

Memories don’t come easy. Sometimes you have to roll out a strange, sticky substance multiple times in order to have the perfect canvas on which to capture your son’s handprint. And sometimes, it takes several attempts to get said son’s hand to imprint in a somewhat satisfactory way. But we did it! And now, Elliott will not only have a handprint ornament from his 1st Christmas, but also a funny, frustrating, lively story to go with it.

Handprint Ornament

Elliott was sitting in his high chair at the dinner table tonight and started grabbing at his sweater. We thought maybe he wanted to take it off — he hasn’t enjoyed the bundle up part of the snow storm. But he kept yanking at his sweater and looking up at us with anticipation. Uncle Dal realized he was playing peek-a-boo with us, so we all started in with, “Where’s Elliott? There he is!” I didn’t catch the peak of the action in this video clip, but you can fill in with your own warm memories.