1 Month

At 1 month, Elliot measured 22.5 inches and 9 lb 3 oz. He still doesn't weigh as much as I did when I was born. My poor mother.

The many faces of young Elliot

Tummy Time

Elliot sure is a sweet little boy. He still sleeps a lot, but not really at regular times. He gives great cuddles and is starting to smile! He's pretty portable- driving in the car puts him to sleep, and he will usually stay asleep for a couple hours no matter how much we toss around his carseat. Those things are CUMBERSOME.

Pictures

Grandpa Johnson & Elliot

Napping Men

 Mimi & Elliot

The number of pictures I have of my mom holding Elliot is not representative- she hardly ever put him down. Also, Elliot looks unusually alienish in the second picture...

 Grandpa Blood & Elliot

Going on a walk

The first documented smile!

Family in Town

People were only in town for a few days, but we managed to get in a few adventures. 

We ate our first home grown oranges! They were delicious!

Mom volunteered to snuggle my baby for me, so I was able to tag along to the Titan Missile Museum and the San Xavier Mission. Both were only semi-successful. The full access tickets at the missile museum were sold out, so we were only able to walk around on the top side and not go down into the silo. 

My dad worked for Arms Control for the State Department back in the '80s, so he was able to give us all sorts of history on the Titan Missile program, which I think was better than anything they would have said on the paid tour. The Titan missile was HUGE! I thought I had seen some big missiles at Raytheon, but they pale in comparison to this 8 story giant. 

Looking down on the missile silo

We still had time after Titan, so we headed over to the San Xavier Mission, which is the oldest European structure in Arizona. It was built by Catholic missionaries to serve the Tohono O'odham people. They still have daily services in the incredibly ornate church. The museum was closed for the day, which is a shame because there is some really cool stuff in there but I couldn't remember many details to impress people on how cool the building is. They will just have to come back someday!

Inside the church

Jacob is a stinker

We checked out the animal statues on the Safari Trail for Avery, but the only picture I had is this one I stole from Joanna. 

Mom, Mom Blood, Elizabeth, and Joanna went shopping for me on Saturday night and got me lots of great new clothes as a birthday present! This is great because I need people to talk me into liking new styles of clothing- I still have some clothes from middle school that I'll still wear. Thanks guys!

Elliot's Baby Blessing

We were so blessed to have family in town for Elliot's baby blessing! My parents flew out, as did Aaron's parents with Jacob and Joanna. Kade, Elizabeth, and Avery drove down from Nevada and Scott and Mary's family drove down from Gilbert the day of.

The Blood Crew

The Johnson Crew

Grandparents 

My mom bought him a nice blessing outfit, and gave him non-stop cuddles

Our ward always has a deacon hold the microphone for baby blessings. Unfortunately, the microphone wasn't working. The deacon didn't seem to notice- he held that microphone steadfastly. I was pretty upset because I only heard a few words here and there. Fortunately, Aaron wrote down most of what he was going to say and was able to share that with me. It was a beautiful blessing of courage and a growing faith in the Savior. I'm sad that I didn't get to hear it real time, but I am oh so very grateful that my son's life is already blessed by the restored gospel.

Newborn Pictures

Behold: Fantastically adorable newborn pictures taken by Melony Hall! She brought all the props over and did a great job setting things up and editing. Elliot was very cooperative, except for the part where he peed on the blanket. That's what we get for taking his diaper off. 

3 Weeks

Elliot had a doctors appointment yesterday. He is in the 22nd percentile for weight coming in at 8 pounds 2 ounces. He is in the 98th percentile for length at 22.5 inches. Apparently we have made a tall skinny baby. We are shocked.

Elliot got to come on his first ever Walmart trip! He loved it, meaning he slept the whole time. It is becoming a recurring theme - we worry about him waking up and freaking out when we take him places, but then he sleeps the whole time. 

We were planning on getting two carts so that we could push him around in his carseat in one of them, but we ended up being able to fit everything in the shopping cart with him in it. We were quite amused at how completely oblivious he was. 

Walmart has their own Great Value brand line of babies now

The First Weeks of this Parenthood Thing

We celebrated Elliot's 2 week birthday today by taking him on his first walk!

Yes, he slept through the entire thing.

These past 2 weeks have flown by. Elliot is awake more now than he was the first few days, but he still sleeps almost all the time. When he's awake, he mostly just looks around with those big ol' eyes of his. When he does cry, it is usually only for a few seconds, then he acts like it tired him out, and he falls back asleep. It's quite adorable.

I thought that the hardest part about adjusting to motherhood would be the lack of sleep and dealing with a baby that never stops fussing. Neither of those things have been a real issue- Elliot will sleep for 2-4 hours at a time, so I get in the sleep I need. I haven't slept through the night since halfway through my pregnancy, so I'm pretty adjusted to waking up in the night. However, the physical recovery on my part was much more intense than I had thought. It took a week and a half before I could sit normally, and I still get sore and uncomfortable pretty easily. Aaron was incredible (per usual) at taking care of me. There were a couple of particularly rough days where I didn't leave the upstairs level of the house leaving Aaron to do all the hunting and gathering. He wins the 2014 Husband of the Year award if you ask me.

Christmas was a quiet affair with just me, Aaron, and our little 5 day old baby. The Hays gave us a cute Christmas onesie and we put a little bow on Elliot's head and did a little photoshoot with our little Christmas present. We had ham, green and red jello, surprise rolls, and stuffing for dinner.

Once again, he slept through the entire thing.

We also got to video chat with my brother Max who is serving a mission. He is as eccentric and enthusiastic as ever. He told us that he had gained a bunch of weight, so we made plenty of fat jokes.

Mom: Do you like the ties I sent you?

Max: No... We aren't allowed to wear skinny ties in this mission. 

Me: Are you sure they aren't regular ties that just look skinny because you're so fat?

I was particularly proud of that one.

The next day my mom came! She was SOOOO excited to meet him. They hit it off quickly and she hardly ever put him down. She left her mark in two major ways:

1. Aaron and I are now completely hooked on The Walking Dead.

What better way to welcome a child into the world than by watching countless zombies hacked to bits? But seriously. I don't know why I resisted watching this show for so long- it's AWESOME.

2. We are the beneficiaries of three famous Kim Johnson Projects. We asked her to help paint the baby's room and told her not to get any more decorations when she went to Target because we already had super cute things from my baby shower. Of course she ignored me and came back with 5 options for additional wall hangings. Mom, I love you, but you are over the top sometimes.

One of those panoramic shots

This "Alphabet Modge Podged onto cute squares" project happened sometime in the middle of the night while I was sleeping 

Squares from the baby shower (Thanks to all involved!) and a nifty shelf for diaper stuff

On top of the super cute nursery, she also painted and hung a quilt in our guest room and hung a ton of frames in our stairwell. She really is a wonder woman!

Melony was awesome enough to come over and take some newborn photos. She had super cute props and I'm really excited to see how they turn out! Elliot was awake and pretty cooperative, except for the part where he peed on her blanket. Sorry again, Melony!

The sneak preview

Elliot refuses to let his arms be swaddled. I like this picture because he had his hand next to his eye like this in the last ultrasound I had. This kid LOVES his hands!