Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Zoo Days
After a break of over a year, mostly for financial reasons - thank you, 'economic downturn', we have finally renewed our membership to the San Diego Zoo. I've missing going to the zoo so much and I was super excited to be there when Elliott went to the zoo 'for the first time'. He wasn't even a year old the last time he went, so I knew the zoo would have a whole new meaning for him now...especially since now he knew he was looking at animals (not just 'the background') AND these were very special animals he had only previously seen in books!
We made a mid-week zoo trip at the end of March to get our memberships and miss most of the weekend crowds. It was so nice to take a day off work just to be with my boy...and mom and aunt, too :) ...By the way, I could really get into the whole SAHM thing...pretty sweet gig if you ask me!
Elliott was pretty much in awe of everything and mostly pretty reserved.
And naturally he found some things more entertaining than others...
I never realized how many padlocked doors, secret doors, pipes, valves, drains and other assorted 'goodies' were at the zoo!
The polar bear exhibit is full of all these 'contraptions' now which I don't like esthetically, but Elliott sure enjoyed them!
He even pretended to be a seal!
And flying a helicopter? Who could resist that!?!
We also made our way to the children's zoo, where goats were petted...
And we even found the Mouse House! A particular favorite since Elliott's favorite things to say at the time were mouse and house.
We also took some silly pictures that make me smile whenever I see them!
Elliott's already been back to the zoo twice (including yesterday with grandma and aunt Karen) and will probably go again in the next couple of days (with grandma and grandpa from Texas!). I'm bummed that its almost summer - more crowds - but we know how to work it, so hopefully, we will be able to go a lot this summer, too!
We made a mid-week zoo trip at the end of March to get our memberships and miss most of the weekend crowds. It was so nice to take a day off work just to be with my boy...and mom and aunt, too :) ...By the way, I could really get into the whole SAHM thing...pretty sweet gig if you ask me!
Elliott was pretty much in awe of everything and mostly pretty reserved.
And naturally he found some things more entertaining than others...
I never realized how many padlocked doors, secret doors, pipes, valves, drains and other assorted 'goodies' were at the zoo!
The polar bear exhibit is full of all these 'contraptions' now which I don't like esthetically, but Elliott sure enjoyed them!
He even pretended to be a seal!
And flying a helicopter? Who could resist that!?!
We also made our way to the children's zoo, where goats were petted...
And we even found the Mouse House! A particular favorite since Elliott's favorite things to say at the time were mouse and house.
We also took some silly pictures that make me smile whenever I see them!
Elliott's already been back to the zoo twice (including yesterday with grandma and aunt Karen) and will probably go again in the next couple of days (with grandma and grandpa from Texas!). I'm bummed that its almost summer - more crowds - but we know how to work it, so hopefully, we will be able to go a lot this summer, too!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Fun Word Associations
Once again Elliott is going through a language boom. It has been really noticeable by most of us who are around him regularly. His vocabulary has probably doubled in the last two weeks and we are hearing a lot more sentences and sentence fragments. Never mind that there are times when we can carry on complete conversations, which is still so amazing to me :)
However, perhaps what has tickled me more than his language growth, of which I am extraordinarily tickled, is the funny associations he has made when identifying some objects. Here are a couple that have popped out at me over the last week or so:
dental floss: "hair" - pretty much any long, skinny, string-like object is currently being dubbed 'hair'
hair rubber band: "tail" - in homage to my occasional pony tails
protein powder: "loud noise" - because protein powder goes in the blender, of course!
However, perhaps what has tickled me more than his language growth, of which I am extraordinarily tickled, is the funny associations he has made when identifying some objects. Here are a couple that have popped out at me over the last week or so:
dental floss: "hair" - pretty much any long, skinny, string-like object is currently being dubbed 'hair'
hair rubber band: "tail" - in homage to my occasional pony tails
protein powder: "loud noise" - because protein powder goes in the blender, of course!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mother's Day
Mother's Day has become one of my favorite days to celebrate. Not until I became a mother myself, did I understand the true unconditional nature and extraordinary volume of a mother's love. I love this day to stop and say thank you to my mom (as if it were even possible to do that!), revel in the love for this amazing little man who has allowed me to be a mom, and cherish what a special and amazing club this is to be apart of.
Elliott had spent the night with my parents the day before so I could attend a quilting class on Saturday. So we met up at Elliott's Gymboree class Sunday morning for our 'exchange'. It was fun to have the extra visitors at our class and he kept wanting 'gampa', 'gamma' and 'Kare' to join in his class :)
We had decided to have lunch afterwards and, rather selfishly, I decided that nothing would make me happier than to eat 'spaghetti' with my boy. There are still very few foods he will eat along with us when we go out, but pasta is one of them!
E was such a trooper while we waited an exceptionally long time for our pasta. But it was worth it. He ate an entire plate of pasta and had the most glorious of naps afterward...which meant mama had the most glorious of naps :)
Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day as well!
"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
Elliott had spent the night with my parents the day before so I could attend a quilting class on Saturday. So we met up at Elliott's Gymboree class Sunday morning for our 'exchange'. It was fun to have the extra visitors at our class and he kept wanting 'gampa', 'gamma' and 'Kare' to join in his class :)
We had decided to have lunch afterwards and, rather selfishly, I decided that nothing would make me happier than to eat 'spaghetti' with my boy. There are still very few foods he will eat along with us when we go out, but pasta is one of them!
E was such a trooper while we waited an exceptionally long time for our pasta. But it was worth it. He ate an entire plate of pasta and had the most glorious of naps afterward...which meant mama had the most glorious of naps :)Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day as well!
"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Easter Sunday
This year we tried to squeeze as much Easter celebrating into one day as possible. Easter marked the end of Brad's Spring Break and my vacation from work. Because it had been a pretty busy week beforehand, we ended up doing all the fun Easter activities on Easter Sunday.
Elliott and I got up early and dyed Easter eggs. This was Elliott's first time dying eggs and I'm sure it won't be his last. We both had a lot of fun, but it definitely helped to 'let go' a bit and not worry if fingers ended up in the dye or eggs ended up a swirl of mismatched colors.
I love Elliott's "Look What I Did!" face
The fruits of our labor
Elliott also hunted for eggs in grandma's garden and found a little clown friend.
Talk about a great place to look for Easter eggs!
Easter also meant the opportunity for a couple 'treats'. Since Ellliott is still not a candy eater, I opted to swap the obligatory Easter basket for a new backpack. This is a project I've had in the works for many months, but it serving as Elliott's Easter basket gave me the motivation to get it done. In his backpack was a new drawing notebook, new toothbrushes, a drum and maraca set, and a pencil roll with color pencils.
The little pencil roll was made with things from my stash, including the piece
of Winnie the Pooh canvas my dad 'recovered' for me many years ago.
Here is the backpack in action!
We also headed to Meagan's folks' place for Easter brunch where we ate lots of good food and the sangria was delicious :) Elliott was also spoiled by Meagan's family with some fun little toys and treats. He seemed to have a great time hanging out, playing with new toys and eating grapes :)
All in all, a great day spent with family. Hope your Easter was wonderful as well!
Elliott and I got up early and dyed Easter eggs. This was Elliott's first time dying eggs and I'm sure it won't be his last. We both had a lot of fun, but it definitely helped to 'let go' a bit and not worry if fingers ended up in the dye or eggs ended up a swirl of mismatched colors.
I love Elliott's "Look What I Did!" face
The fruits of our laborElliott also hunted for eggs in grandma's garden and found a little clown friend.
Talk about a great place to look for Easter eggs!Easter also meant the opportunity for a couple 'treats'. Since Ellliott is still not a candy eater, I opted to swap the obligatory Easter basket for a new backpack. This is a project I've had in the works for many months, but it serving as Elliott's Easter basket gave me the motivation to get it done. In his backpack was a new drawing notebook, new toothbrushes, a drum and maraca set, and a pencil roll with color pencils.
The little pencil roll was made with things from my stash, including the pieceof Winnie the Pooh canvas my dad 'recovered' for me many years ago.
Here is the backpack in action!
We also headed to Meagan's folks' place for Easter brunch where we ate lots of good food and the sangria was delicious :) Elliott was also spoiled by Meagan's family with some fun little toys and treats. He seemed to have a great time hanging out, playing with new toys and eating grapes :)
All in all, a great day spent with family. Hope your Easter was wonderful as well!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Breaking News!
Elliott said his name for the first time last night! It came out more like "ehyy-ot" but I'm not going to hold that against him! I was saying to him that I had "grapes for Elliott" and he responded with "grapes *head nod* ehyy-ot" and then said it again for practice :D Brad and I were very excited. I know most kids have been saying their names for a while now, but we kind of saddled him with a mouth full for a name ;)
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