A Pony, Some Pumpkins, and a trip to Texas

Hello to all! It's Matt; I'm finally contributing to the authorship of this blog dedicated to our Little Man; Eli. It has been a while since we have posted and as most of you already know Eli had to have surgery for sagittal craniosynostosis in San Antonio, Texas in September so we took a little sabbatical from the blog. It went as well as could be expected and the outcome is excellent to say the least. He was back to normal within about 5 days. We are all looking forward to seeing many of you soon for his baptism in New Jersey in November. Anyway, enough of the exposition. On to the pictures!

Here is little man, or Easy-E as one of my friends has dubbed him, with his favorite toy, The Pony which Aunt Julie gave him. Aunt Julie has threatened to buy him a real pony and I'm frightened because she has a reputation of following through on her threats. Whenever we make a galloping sound he starts giggling.

Eli at the gym. He loves this thing. He is rolling over, grabbing toys and doing all of the expected baby stuff he is supposed to be doing.

"Well, did you take two aspirin like I told you to?"

The Grandparents bestowed this onesie upon us. It's cute; we will see how the healthcare system pans out before Eli commits. Anyway, he can be whatever he wants.

Ugh! There is daddy with that blasted flasher thing again! Can't he see I'm busy?

Larry (Terry's father) was kind enough to meet us in Texas to help out during Eli's surgery. Most of you know him. As Terry's family knows, this is a common position. It looks like he has a loose grip on that remote but only a rookie wouldn't know better...

Despite his relaxed look in this photo, he was very supportive in Texas and we are grateful he was there!

Daddy and Eli at the pumpkin patch. Eli was mostly unimpressed but Daddy and Mommy wandered around eating roasted corn, fresh apple pie with fresh ice cream and wandered around in hay-mazes for hours. You can also see Eli's helmet which he wears for 23 hours a day for the next year. Built in protection for the upcoming toddling which is sure to come soon.

And here is our first attempt to post a video. Notice the silly voice and meaningless phrases I use to get him to smile. Terry chose this video for a few reasons. One, it shows Eli and his precocious navigation of the Exersaucer (I call it the Parents-Can-Eat-Together-Now Saucer). Two, it makes me look stupid with all my silly baby-talk. Three, you can see where his scars are. Actually what you are seeing is Dermabond which has since fallen off. It covers the incision and makes sure it stays together. Anyway, you can barely see the incisions now but we thought we would show y'all.

We will try and post again soon as he is growing and changing rapidly! Hope everyone is having a fantastic fall!

Some Smiles to Brighten Your Day

It took a lot of silly high pitched noises (you know, the noises you swear you won't make until you actually have a baby), lots of goofy faces, a little bit of singing and the promise of a pony but we finally captured some smiles on the camera! (And we're hoping he won't remember the pony promise....)

Here is Eli in an outfit I bought him because it makes me smile. 

Here you can see he is really getting a lot of head control. We've also noticed that he is beginning to move his eyebrows more and I don't think it will be long before he can raise an eyebrow.  Hmmm, I wonder where he got that from.....

Anyway, we hope this post added a smile to your day! 

Sleep Deprivation

I know, I know it's been awhile since the last post, but we've been tired!  

Eli is 2 weeks old in the first three pictures, you can see we all look a bit sleep deprived! 

This is Eli (with Grandpa Larry) at 3 weeks

Eli is 4 weeks in this picture, you can see how big he is getting. He is hanging out on his playmat. He is getting good control of his head and we have seen some intermittent smiles, although we haven't gotten any on film yet. 

Eli is 6 weeks in this picture (he will be 7 weeks on Monday 7/13).  He has slept through the night a few times (which means he slept from 8 or 9pm until 4 or 5 am). I've never been so happy to wake up at 5 am!! 

Luna has been adapting well to Eli's addition to the family. We yelled at her the first couple of times she tried to lick him and she got the message and decided that Eli is just not fun and now just ignores him. I'm sure that will change once we start solid food and he discovers that the food disappears when he throws it on the floor! I expect they will become the best of friends at that point.....

So that's all we have to report right now, I will try and post more pictures soon. I hope everyone is having an awesome summer!

Welcome to the world, Elias Matthew Steiner!

Here are some pictures of our little "Eli" who is proving to be a GREAT baby (i.e. he sleeps a lot and is easily consoled).

 Eli was born via C-section after 30 hours of labor! Apparently he likes to do things on his own terms. He was born May 25th, at 4:23am at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. He was 7 lb, 1oz and 20.9 inches long. He was, however, born with a large conehead so he may now actually be under 20 inches!
He is eating and sleeping like a champ and has already started to gain weight.
Terry is doing well and was up out of bed the day after the c-section and guess who is currently updating the blog....

We came come from the hospital and everyone is adjusting well. 
Here are some initial pictures so you can see what the little man looks like, Enjoy!!!

Fun in May

May has proven to be a good month so far.  Brian and Joan came for a visit, and we had a good time taking out the convertible. Here we are out on Pacific Coast Highway near the Big Sur. 

This is me pretending to push Brian off a cliff (at least he thinks I was pretending)!  Ever see a pregnant assassin before? 

My birthday this year was a lot of fun. Matt took me to the historic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo for dinner. The whole restaurant is the color of Pepto-Bismol! I had told him I didn't care where we went as long as I could have some chocolate cake. As you can see he definitely provided the chocolate cake!  

What can I say? It doesn't take much to make a pregnant lady happy! We ate two slices, took a small piece home and Matt took the rest to work so his staff could enjoy the cake too. I asked him to take the cake to work since I don't want to give birth to a 20lb baby! 

And last but not least here is the latest belly picture. You may or may not be able to tell in the photo that the little guy has "dropped".  It makes for easier breathing but now everywhere I go strangers ask me when I'm due (I think they are worried I'm going to go into labor in front of their eyes)!  2 more weeks!!!

The First Picture of the "Little Man"

I'm not sure how clearly you'll be able to see this but this is a picture from an ultrasound done in late March. Most of the ultrasounds are done in 2-D imagery but at the end they always turn on the 3-D feature to get you some good pictures, and this is one of those 3-D images. Technology is amazing! Although the doctor who does the ultrasound did say that the 3-D technology hasn't actually helped them at all diagnostically but it makes for great pictures! 

Here is a belly picture of me, also taken in late March. You're probably thinking, " Wow she doesn't look that big." Which is true if you look at me head on........

but when I turn to the side, the truth pops out!!

Here is one more belly picture taken just two weeks ago. You'll notice the blue t-shirt that I'm wearing is the same one from the photo in the first blog post.  The receptionist at my doctor's office said I look like I've swallowed a bowling ball, I would say it's more basketball shaped myself.....

Anyways, one more month to go and I am counting down the days!!!

Baby Shower Fun

Thank you to everyone who came to our baby shower, we had a great time and really enjoyed seeing all of you.  We are hoping to see everyone we missed on our next trip out east (sometime after the baby is born!)

Here are some pictures from the shower, Dave was nice enough to make use of our camera while we were busy having a good time. 

Snow in California!!

It didn't actually stick for more than an hour, but it sure looked pretty.....

Watching Luna's first interaction with snow was great.  Her predictable response was to try and eat it. That's why her nickname is "piggy"! 

And what would a post be without an updated shot of my belly?

This one was taken last week.  The baby is quite the kung-fu fighter and I have been feeling all kinds of kicks, punches and I don't even know what else!

It's A Boy!!!!!!

So according to the ultrasound (which SHOULD be accurate) we are having a boy. And I know there are some people out there who are dying to see my rapidly expanding belly so here are the belly shots we have taken so far: 

This top picture is the most current, taken this past weekend. For those of you on the east coast- don't hate me that I'm at the beach in January in a t-shirt ;)

Welcome to Our Blog

I know we said we were going to do this back in October, but better late than never!

Terry will be maintaining the blog for the most part so unless it says otherwise assume it's her doing the blogging.  I will be working on getting some pictures and good stories up here, and I will do my best to post regularly. I hope you enjoy it!