7 months

Elijah at 7 months:

"jumping" in someone's lap is his passion

we can tell he has slept well when he wakes up happily babbling "bo bo bo bo..."

alert and observant

 beginning to babble with distinctive noises

smiles with his whole body!

can sit on his own

can stand holding onto something

not even close to crawling... we think he may skip this and go straight to walking, his true interest

loves people-- smiles and squeals to get their attention

empty water bottles and paper are his favorite toys

eats solids: rice cereal, peas and carrots

big!

Elijah's First Vegetables

Elijah had his first vegetables on Monday, December 21st. The response to the taste was priceless as he scrunched his face up in surprise and made gagging noises. Jamie was able to get him to eat all the peas by mixing it with his bland rice cereal.

Guest Blogger: Uncle Jeremy

Uncle Jeremy here, taking up the keyboard to report in on some family Christmas adventures.

 Elijah has kept the whole family entertained, performing tricks like sitting up, eating mushed peas, jumping and walking (with a little help from his uncle) to the applause of all. Though the rest of us weren’t nearly as interested in trying the concoction of green goo we took turns feeding him, we managed to feast pretty well on David’s signature turkey and some of Jamie’s famous pecan sticky buns.

Christmas day brought a host of new experiences for the little guy, although he seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than in the presents his doting relatives brought. He did manage to open a few all by himself, though.

Merry Christmas from the Ottens and Vosses!

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merry christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying celebrating Elijah's first Christmas with Jamie's family here in Massachusetts.

sitting in bath

Elijah sat up in his bath tonight, instead of reclining, as he used to have to do.  It made for a much more enjoyable bath experience for him, as he was able to splash and play with his "water temperature" toy.  It's nice to not have to worry about him sliding down, or supporting his neck like we used to have to do!

Christmas-by-the-sea

We woke up Sunday morning to find the world covered in snow.

We put up our tree... the first ornament was my first ornament!  Elijah helped me put it up.

Elijah's first glimpse of the snow!

Santa was supposed to come into Manchester by boat...

with a jazz band...

but showed up in a firetruck.  Guess he had a fire to put out.

Getting our Christmas Tree

We started our morning with a community pancake breakfast overlooking the water, complete with a live jazz band playing Christmas tunes.

Fueled by pancakes, we walked up to the Boy Scout meeting house to pick out our Christmas tree, Elijah's first.  All of the trees were beautiful, and Michael-the-Boy-Scout helped us find the perfect one.

Fitting with our quaint New England moment, David hoisted the tree over his shoulder and carried it down the road to our home.

Elijah's Baby Dedication

Sunday, November 29, 2009-- Elijah's Baby Dedication
We dedicated Elijah at Park Street Church with the Voss family here from Indiana.  David gave our testimony while Jamie introduced Elijah to the church by walking him down the aisles, as is our church tradition.  Here are the words of what David said:

Good morning,

We are so pleased to share Elijah’s dedication today with family from Indiana, our small group and church friends who have been our family here in Boston, and members of my lab. Thank you for being here, and standing with us in support.

Elijah's name means “My God is Yahweh.” It is our hope that our child will claim God to be his God, and will proclaim that with his life. David, his middle name, means “Beloved of the Lord.” We want our child to know that he is loved by God. We paired these names to show a mutual response and relationship between his names: Elijah loving God as God first loved Elijah. 1 John says:

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. We love because he first loved us. "

By dedicating Elijah today, we are standing before God and saying “This is your beloved child, whom you have given to us to love, and we will raise him to seek truth and to love You.” We are asking you to welcome Elijah as a member of this covenant community, to pray for us and help us raise him. Our prayer is that one day Elijah will choose to follow Jesus with his whole heart.

Elijah looks down the pew at his family.

a picture with the grandparents

a gorgeous cake Ruthie made for us

at our house for dessert after

1st solid food

A fifth taste was added to Elijah's repertoire this weekend (after milk, Zantac, infant Tylenol and Vitamins...)  At first, he was not sure about the organic, whole-grain, non-genetically engineered, iron-fortified rice cereal we offered him.  Who can blame him, with all of those qualifiers!  Though his face betrayed his true feelings, he assisted in shoveling in each spoonful until the bowl was empty, and he was covered.  Congratulations, Elijah, a whole wide world of tastes awaits you!

sitting!

November 28, 2009

Elijah sat for his Grandpa Voss for the first time.  He made it several minutes!

the Crane Estate

A few minutes drive from our house is the Crane estate, one of the few American "castle" stories that has a happy ending (the family happily lived here, then the son lived here, and he finally donated it to a conservation foundation.)  Here are a few pictures from a previous visit, and our visit with the Voss family.  Forgive the fact that there are SO many pictures in this post... we just got a new camera!

Birthday Boy Aaron turned 13

a North Shore tour with the Vosses

Having given the Boston Tour to the Vosses (and being told by Matt that he would do anything but walk the Freedom Trail AGAIN!) we took the family on part of our new "North Shore Tour."

First we saw the Fisherman's Memorial in Gloucester (from "The Perfect Storm.")

It was pretty cold, so we decided to make it a driving tour, looking at the New England architecture and coast line, and make our way to J. T. Farnhams for fried clams.

delicious!

though some of the Landlubbers from Indiana were not so sure about the seafood...

and off to the Crane Estate... (but that's for the next post...)