Eli is staying busy on the kitchen table while I make breakfast.

Eli looks like such a big boy in his overalls.

We finally found something Eli likes, the Rainforest Swing. He likes to swing, nap and look at the bright mobile. It also makes animal noises and when the monkey hoots Eli makes little baby noises back at it.

I have discovered that my Baby has a snooze button. When he starts to wake up he grunts and groans, and if I catch it early enough I can stave him off. I just give him a few pats and he'll go back to sleep for about 5 minutes. This only works 2 or 3 times, and gives me just enough time to really wake up. I didn't know we signed up for this feature, but I love it.

Before we had Eli we had all of these great ideas about parenting, we thought we knew it all. I've had some experience with children from helping my Mom with her daycare and I knew I never wanted to start patting my child to sleep, give him a pacifier or let him sleep in my bed. I thought it was a mark of good parenting if a child would go to bed on their own, unassisted.

Well, after almost 7 weeks of not sleeping you can see what we've resorted to. I should've learned by now not to judge people, sometimes you end up doing just what you thought was all wrong and then you have to eat your words. It's a good thing words are calorie free, or I'd be having a tough time loosing this pregnancy weight!

Last night Eli slept for 6 hours straight, same as the night before. I love the Binki and he loves our bed!

Yesterday was Eli's first trip to the park. He ate and then slept while Sterling had some fun on the slide.

I couldn't help myself, even though I know outfits with ears are embarrassing.

It seems like every time I nurse Eli he's a little bit longer and a little bit heavier. Yesterday I decided to weigh and measure him and even I was surprised. He's 24 1/2 inches long and 14 lbs. I guess we're going to have a big boy!

Sometimes he just likes to hang out on the changing table.

I bought Eli this chair thinking he'd love it, but as you can see he thinks it's a torture device. Now I'm selling it on Craigs List.

Eli loves his tub from Uncle Chris. Well, he loves it until we wash his hair!

Elijah Benjamin Rowe

Date: Jan 22nd 2007

Time: 12:43pm

Weight: 8lbs 15oz

Height: 20in

We got 3 inches of snow today. Since it doesn't snow very often it's quite the novelty. We got to stay home from work and hang out in our PJs all day. The snow still hasn't melted, so tomorrow could be another snow day.

Only 4 weeks to go

25 Weeks and counting!!

It's a Boy!

Today was our 20 week ultrasound. We got to see the baby play with his umbilical cord and wag his bum at us. We also got to see his little feet, so to celebrate, we bought him some little shoes.

The Cantaloupe is getting bigger........

There has to be some balance. I want my household to be healthy, but I don't want it to be too inconvenient.

My Brother and I were recently talking about using plastic in the microwave. I went online to find out more and I found a lot of information. After reading many articles it seems like we shouldn't microwave anything in plastic. I guess "microwave safe" means the container won't melt, not that it won't leak toxins into our food.

Numbers 3, 6 and 7 seem to be the worst for any household use, they contain PVC's, polystyrene and bisphenol-A respectively. It is recommended not to store anything fatty, liquid or acidic in any type of plastic, as these substances can breakdown plastic chemicals and transfer them into our food.

So, I'm thinking......Why did I stop eating hydrogenated oil, but I'm still microwaving plastic.

A lot of the articles I read were very technical, they listed all of the components in plastic and gave links to studies on how they effect our health. The bottom line was most of the things used to make plastic aren't good for you. Here's a link to an article that has some suggestions about how to limit your family's exposure to plastic chemicals.

http://www.deliciousorganics.com/Controversies/plastic.htm

To start I'm going to stop microwaving and storing my food in plastic containers. If there is a convenient alternative I will buy something in a paper carton rather than a plastic one.

We'll see how much this inconveniences my life and if it's not too bad maybe I'll take some further steps.

We went to the Midwife yesterday and were able to hear the baby's heartbeat again. Every time the Midwife started to count the heartbeat The Cantaloupe would kick the Doppler! It took her 4-5 tries to get a count that wasn't interrupted by an inquisitive kick.

She gave us an order to have our 20 week ultrasound. I was so excited to call and schedule an appointment this morning. I called first thing hoping they would have something available today, but alas, the next available appointment isn't until Monday 09/18. So, one more week of unbearable suspense until we find out if The Cantaloupe is a boy or a girl.

Restraining myself from buying everything I see in pink has been hard. I guess I have to reconcile myself to the fact that there will still be cute gender specific clothes left in the stores next week.