26 weeks

Here is what is going on with Elisha this week according to babycenter.com;

If you want to introduce sign language to your baby, now's the time. Her understanding of language and her motor skills develop much faster than her ability to speak. Most babies, for example, discover how to wave (around 9 months) and point (by age 1) long before they can say "bye bye" or "look at that!"

Giving your baby the tools to express herself may help cut down on her frustration. While baby signing doesn't promise to eliminate tears or tantrums, babies this young have been taught to "sign" successfully.

To begin, try using a hand signal every time you use common words such as "book" (open your palms with your hands together) or "hungry" (put your fingers to your lips). Later on, your baby will be able to express more complex ideas such as "I'm done with my juice" with a simple gesture such as putting her palms up at shoulder height.

And don't worry: Signing won't interfere with your baby's progress in learning to speak. In fact, it may actually help develop her language skills.

Your baby may favor one hand for a while and then switch to the other. But you can't really tell whether she's a lefty or a righty until she's about 2 or 3 years old.

Don't try to influence your baby's hand preference (it's determined before birth). Forcing her to use her right hand when she's really a lefty, for example, may confuse her and lead to problems with hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and handwriting down the road.

Your baby will love turn-taking games, especially ones that involve sounds and language. Let your baby be the leader sometimes, and mimic her vocalizations. When it's your turn to lead, a good way to teach — and amuse — your baby is to make animal noises ("quack-quack," "bow-wow").

One upside of these kinds of games is that they can be played anywhere. Your baby will delight in the sounds of water splashing in the bathtub or blocks hitting the floor. Show your baby how to make these fun (if sometimes annoying) noises and then let her have a turn.

Elisha is doing great.  He's had a lot of changes over the last few weeks and has taken them like a champ.

He had his first sickness, with a runny nose/ cough/ cold for several days, but unlike Noah, he never got a fever and he was a happy trooper through the whole thing, even when his breathing sounded like an asthmatic pug dog.

We started solid food and he has been responding really well to it.  He eats everything that I give him, which is usually 2-3 servings per sitting.  He eats solid food twice a day (around lunch time and dinner time) and nurses about every 3 hours all day long.  So far he has had rice cereal, banana, avocado, and yogurt.

We finally stopped swaddling Elisha when he sleeps.  This went on a little too long, but he just recently got past his "falling reflex" within the last month.  I put this off for a while cause he already isn't a great sleeper at night and I've been scared that the transition would be rough.  Elisha continues to amaze me at how flexible of a baby he is!  On the first day, for his 2 naps and nighttime sleep he cried less than 5 minutes each and easily fell asleep unswaddled.  If I had known it would have been that easy, I would have done this months ago.

He has started to show some attempts to crawl or scoot, but isn't quite there yet.  He also doesn't roll over all that much yet, but I think he is held a lot more of the day than Noah was at this age.

He is really showing an interest in playing with/ shaking/ holding onto toys, especially rattles and crinkly toys.

At his doctor's appointment last week he was 18 lbs 8 oz, and his head was 17.5 inches.  He continues to be on the larger side of all of these measurements, continuing to grow at a good rate.

Just for kicks, here is a link to Noah at 26 weeks.