Perhaps the thing that Shelbi and I were most excited about with having Elliott was that we would have the opportunity to experience all of the things we loved about our respective childhoods again through him. But I think we may have been a little too eager with this. We have had the tendency to jump the gun a bit and, in essence, forced him to celebrate each holiday in the past year despite the fact that he has been incapable of understanding what was going on around him. In some cases, he did not have the capacity to even make out shapes more than two feet in front of his face yet.

He was born a week before Christmas and we put a Santa hat that nearly weighed as much as he did on his head in the Neo-Intensive Care Unit. I actually let this happen. I even bought him a tiny baby-sized stocking that was not only ridiculous since he was 5 days old but also completely inpratical since it could barely hold one pacifier. 

For Easter, Shelbi bought him his own basket complete with a tube of Desitin and we have a handful of pictures of him looking half-comatose next to it. 

For my birthday, Shelbi made an I Love Daddy onesie which he proudly wore despite not being capable of that emotion for a few more years.

We actually own a My First St. Patrick's Day bib. He is 1/8 Irish. (Unfortunately Baby's R Us ran out of Bastille Day bibs.)

On the opening day of baseball, he wore his Giants outfit. For the first week of college football, his Ducks bib made an appearance and for the first day of the NFL season, he sported his 49ers onesie. 

Now it's Halloween and, of course, he had to carve a pumpkin. Elliott actually seemed to enjoy this event a little more than the previous ventures. Perhaps it's because he's more aware now... or perhaps it's because his Elliott-sized pumpkin looked enough like a breast that he thought he could nurse off of it. But, below are the results. Note: All of the pictures of Elliott show him physically touching his pumpkin because, once we took it away, he went balistic. And, in case you were wondering, Shelbi has already purchased his Baby's First Thanksgiving bib and has his first birthday planned two months in advance.

     

    "And I helped!"                            The dog and I both think this is food

    

   

   I know mom is holding it, but I want         Pumpkin family.