Changes: 2

Elias is crawling! We knew it was only a matter of time, but somehow I was still shocked by how different life is with a mobile child. Oh, how I long for the days of knowing exactly where my son was at all times. Now I'd need a small army task-force, cameras in all rooms, and a battalion of robots to keep track of him every second of the day. Within days of mastering crawling, he was already clambering up on the furniture and all low-level surfaces to get new perspectives and a boost to his feet. He's a handful. All the time. He keeps life crazy. And he is our joy.

"Helping" Mommy with laundry.

Changes: 1

When life is full, the blog suffers. Sorry. There's no way around that, but I can catch you up on what the last few months have held. Get ready for some marathon blogging...

First up: we had to say goodbye to our puppy dog in February; a sad and relieving ordeal.

Gavin was our furry first-born, but with an actual baby around he began feeling more and more neglected. He was sad all the time, not exercised enough and therefore was wreaking havoc in our yard. We adored him, but he was pretty annoyed with Elias being around and that made me nervous. Seeing that all parties would be better off apart, he went to live with some friends of ours who have older kids. He is loving life there and we're adjusting to being a sans-pet household for the first time in a long time. We'll have another dog someday when Elias is older, but for now: Goodbye, Gavin. We'll miss you!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

During the first snowfall of the season, Elias sat at the sliding glass window and tried to catch the snowflakes on their way down through the glass. He's just too cute!

Happy Christmas and Merry Winter!

Elias' first Christmas was a blast. We woke up the morning of Christmas Eve and let him open his gifts from mom and dad at home. He was, of course, thrilled with the gift wrap, but it was a Finding Nemo bath-time book from his stocking that was the hit of the morning. You'll likely see it in his hand and/or mouth in most of the pictures. Who knew a $1 book would thrill our son more than any of the things under the tree? We visited Logan's mom and oldest brother, Ryan and his family later that day before heading to Medford to see Erica's family (who decided we should all sport a goofy Christmas shirt for their celebration, commemorated below). A couple days later marked a Christmas celebration at Grandpa Martin and Grandma Susan's house and yet another to come in January with Logan's extended family who all live locally as well. This boy is well Christmased! He has had a lot of fun so far and it has been really neat to see him interact with other family members and discover all the new toys he has unwrapped...and there are SO many (thank you all, by the way)!

We missed all of you whom we didn't get to see this year, but we hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours!

December...so far...

December has been a fun month so far! Elias had his first Cheerios experience (which resulted in 1 Cheerio eaten and around 20 thrown in his hair or over his head), helped Daddy root the Ducks on to the Rose Bowl, braved a cold front of single-digit temperatures to help pick out his first Christmas tree, and he has officially discovered that there is indeed a dog that lives in our house that does fascinating things! He is constantly captivated by Gavin (our lovable black lab) and very curious about him. We're more and more intrigued with him as elements of his personality emerge every day. We just saw the tips of two little teeth poking out the other day and we can't believe he's that big already! Take a look!

Carrots!

A short time ago we started Elias on rice cereal: more of a practice-using-a-spoon experience, than an actual eating experience. He got pretty good at the whole spoon routine and is absolutely obsessive about trying to snatch food from his parents when they're eating, so as he is approaching his 6 month mark, we decided to let him try his first bit of actual food. He wasn't exactly sure at first...but he's warming up to the idea--quickly!

Happy Harvest!

An autumn update from the Martins! Elias was the cutest little giraffe for Halloween and had his first pumpkin patch experience. He is so into experiencing textures, sights and sounds lately, it was fun to see him soak it all in at Easy Orchards pumpkin patch here in Salem. Happy Autumn!

And we're off to the orchard...