Elliot turns 100

A few days ago was little Elliot's 100th day out in the world. And I have to say all in all things are going fabulously. He is endlessly amusing and officially the most-fun-time-suck I've ever encountered (and I quite enjoy solitaire on the computer). I never imagined that watching someone trying to get a brightly coloured toy into their mouths for twenty minutes could be so much gosh darn fun.

To commemorate Elliot's 100th day, I thought a status report would be appropriate because sometimes pictures just don't cut it.

Weight: 6.920 kgs (15 lbs)

Height: 63 cms (25 inches)

Rolling over: Sorta. He's done it a couple of times no problem, but usually shows very little interest. Oh well, Nacho wasn't too interested in learning to roll over either.

Smiling: All the freaking time. I've never met such a happy little guy. And I love it.

Sleeping through the night: Thank you Jesus, we got ourselves a good sleeper. He fights like hell to stay awake, but once he finally gives up the battle around nine, he usually sleeps until 6.30ish when Paul wakes up to get ready for work. After a bottle and a cuddle with Daddy, he goes back to sleep (or amuses himself with some quiet conversation with his mobile) until 9ish when I finally wake up. I'm so spoiled.

Sitting up: Elliot's a bit of a show-off with the sitting. It's not like he can sit himself up on his own or anything, but once sat up in a balanced position, he'll quite proudly sit by himself for ten, twenty seconds. And he loves to sit up against the couch cushions and watch TV (which I guiltily admit, he very much enjoys . . . I'm already a delinquent parent, I know.)

Giggling: Okay this one chafes me a little bit. . . . I've overheard him laugh once or twice and it's absolutely precious. In fact, just the other night he giggled ecstatically for a full five minutes or more for some friend of our neighbour. But he's never, not once (yet) had a good giggle with me. I'm starting to get a bit of a complex. I've found myself forcing fake giggles and resorting to all sorts of dumb tricks (like tickling and goofy voices/faces/songs/dances) to try to beg out a Casey-induced giggle, but no joy . . . and not for Paul either. We are obviously just not worth the effort.

Other really cute things about Elliot:

He's obsessed with his tongue. He pokes it out all the time and loves to turn his head real quick while I'm kissing him on the cheek and lick me across the face. Not so sexy. Sometimes, we can't get him to put his tongue back in his mouth; it just dangles out for ten minutes or more. Maybe Nacho's been schooling him while I'm not watching.

Elliot's a shameless attention seeker. When we leave him in his playpen to entertain himself, he starts to babble more and more loudly until finally Paul or I just can't resist the cuteness any longer and come to pick him up. He's also already learned to put emphasis on his sneezes and coughs just in case nobody noticed. I've never heard a little guy sneeze so unabashedly or sigh so obviously afterward just to make sure someone was paying attention to his suffering.

One of the cutest things Elliot does is try to communicate through raspberrying his lips. He did it accidentally one day, so I did it back. He raised one eyebrow (which is yet another adorable Elliot quirk), smiled, and raspberried again. So I raspberried back again. And now we raspberry back and forth, grinning proudly at our accomplished conversations, until our lips go numb.

So now you know what I've been up to when I haven't managed to email anyone back or post a blog for weeks.