Baby love

It's time for a Baby E post, isn't it? In the last two or three weeks, E has taken some enormous cognitive and physical development leaps, coming more and more into his own. He can now sit up on his own, has been able to do so since before our trip to North Carolina, and likes to play with toys, as long as you put them in reach. His favorite "toys" are silicone cupcake holders, his rubber-coated metal baby spoons, his brother's wooden stacking train toy, and his own pacifiers. Yes, he is spoiled!

E is very vocal, much more so than his brother was at this age. He likes to sing to himself in the car (where he gets to play with an actual toy, his beloved caterpillar, a gift from Aunt Karen and Uncle Doug) and hoot while standing in his exersaucer. He laughs easily, particularly at any and everything done by Toddler J. Baby E already has a clear case of hero worship, I'm afraid! J insists that E is talking to him, and he very well might be when I'm not around; you never know.

Baby E looks less and less like a baby every day. He is now a robust 25 pounds and is wearing 18 month clothes pretty consistently. He eats twice a day, two full stage 2 containers of baby food augmented with cereal each time, along with as many baby rice crackers as I will give him. He really, REALLY wants to eat whatever we're eating and thus adores his rice crackers, because they look a lot like our food. I can't wait until it's time for him to eat cheerios and the like. He already has five teeth, three on top and two on bottom, but there is evidence of quite a few more just about ready to come in, at least on the top. I would feed him more, and he would eat it, but his reflux continues to plague him, and his system just can't handle as much food as he would like.

E is a champion sleeper still, sleeping through the night with very little protest in the night. Left to his own devices, he would sleep until 7am, but, sadly, J wants to get up any time between 5 and 6am and usually yells enough to rouse poor E. He will go right back to sleep if allowed to snuggle with one of his parents, which is nice, because I am going to do everything in my power to prevent yet another insanely early riser from dogging my mornings!

Tomorrow is E's surgery to correct his tongue-tiedness (or Ankyloglossia, to be more precise). He will be under "light" general anesthesia for a little while but should be able to eat as soon as he wakes up, which will be good, because he is not allowed to eat before his 7am surgery. Wish him luck!