Weekly Retrospective 7/3-7/9/11

More from the Kitchen

I've been meaning to share this video for a while. Elliott was gifted this little kitchenette from our friends who saw it in a neighbor's garage sale and thought of him :)  Needless to say, he's put it to a lot of good use. Pooh is usually very full. And everything takes "4 minutes"!  This particular video also cracks me up, because he had to stop for a 'poop break'. heh.

Its also funny because this video was from June 13. I already see so many changes! He talks so much clearer now (and more, too!) and he looks so young! Hopefully this will teach me not to doddle too much in the future!

Weekly Retrospective 6/26-7/2/11

First Family 'Vacation'

I had mentioned in a previous post that we were looking to take a little family vacation this summer. Well an opportunity came through one of those 'daily deal' emails for a two-night getaway to Oxnard. I didn't even know where that was, but the reference to 'Channel Islands' caught my attention. It ended up being about an hour outside of L.A. and close to the water so it fit the bill perfectly for what I was looking for: beachy, not too far away, and someplace we hadn't been before.

Overall the trip was really nice. We went up on a Sunday and met up with our friends in LA, which gave Elliott a chance to stretch his legs.

Motorcycle Riding

Our kids haven't been able to spend much time together (even less so since they've been old enough to interact with each other), so it was nice for them to have a chance to play. Lucy even let Elliott borrow her car...which I'm pretty sure has never been honked so much in its entire existance.

Playing with Lucy

We also took the opportunity while we were in LA to visit one of Brad's favorite places to eat: Phillipe's. Shan had never been either so she joined us for dinner, too!  It's one of those places, where I never want to go, but I'm always glad Brad makes me. It is so delicious! I just have to get my head around driving into downtown LA first :P

Waiting for dinner at Phillipe's in L.A.

The next day we took our time getting our bearings since we really had no idea what was in Oxnard other than the beach and a harbor that takes you to the Channel Islands. We would have gone out there if we had stayed one more day, but we didn't want to be super rushy or planny, so we skipped it this time around.

The harbor was beautiful - so many boats! And the beaches were really great. Tons of sand, sand dunes and no body around!! My kind of beach! We walked around the beach in the late morning, then headed to the wharf for lunch.

Sand Tractors - these things were huge!

Walking the dunes

Elliott kept reaching under my sunglasses to use my eyes to hold on!

  

Looking at the boats

Resting

"Sail Boat!"

We saw a seal swimming in the inlet, so we had to take a picture to commemorate.

The wharf was actually really sad. There was pretty much just a couple places left besides the maritime museum. We ate fish and chips and looked at the crabs...so many crabs!

At lunch, deep in conversation :)

crabs - need I say more?

This sign is for you, Auntie Meagan!

On our way out we walked through the maritime museum where they had the most amazing boat models I have ever seen. The detail was extraordinary. The man who built them all for the museum made them from the original plans and hand fabricated EVERYTHING. There was also a few things Elliott could touch and the host even let Elliott ring the bell :) (He was a funny, piratey old man, who surprisingly enough had heard of Elliott's namesake, and seemed to think Elliott was about 5 years old - he was always surprised when Elliott didn't laugh at his jokes.)

One of the many extraordinary models at the maritime museum and E's 'only with your eyes' hands :)

The sad state of affairs at the wharf. One of the many long-closed businesses.

We then spent a little time at a really nice pirate-themed playground, then headed back to the beach for a little time in the sand.

Playground fun!

It was pretty windy by this point, so we didn't get too close to the water. Elliott wanted to make 'castles' which he remembered from going to the beach with Aunt Karen, grandma and grandpa. I felt bad, because I knew nothing would hold its shape when we dumped over the bucket, but Elliott didn't seem to mind. He still exclaimed 'castle!!!" when we ended up with a lovely sand pile ;)

Building castles

Fortunately mounds of sand satisfied his 'castle craving' - heh

As for the practical aspects of out first family vacation, well, it was challenging to say the least. The hotel room was beyond anything Elliott could comprehend. It was full of new things to mess with and he pretty much ran around the room getting into anything and everything he could find. The first night was tough, too. He cried on and off pretty much all night and asked to go home :( (Needless to say, mama made have teared up a bit herself at this.)  He ended up sleeping with us, so I was really glad we had that king size bed! Then being overtired, made for even more hyperness the next day. Unfortunately, we also had a neighbor downstairs the second night who didn't take kindly to toddler footsteps and actually started banging on the walls after Elliott made a couple passes around the room. He tried really hard to not run. He would make these exaggerated tip toe steps (ha!), but then something would catch his eye and he was off! Ugh. Note to self - request a downstairs room like the family checking-in in front of us did (and now I know why!).

Despite the above, I'm really glad we went. I loved that we were able to see so much in such a short amount of time. And I also love that I took another day off work after we got back (to celebrate out 14th anniversary!!), which meant we had plenty of time for normal errandy stuff before going back to work.

A Day at the Zoo

Elliott and I had a wonderful opportunity to spend the day with our friends visiting from Montana. It was SO nice to see them again since we haven't seen them since our visit to Montana in November!  They were in town visiting family, which also corresponded to an event their organization, Guide On was sponsoring at the zoo. (This is such a great group that they founded to help the children of our fallen military servicemen/women.)

The boys had a great time together. Elliott had so much fun with them and seems to have really bonded with Matthew (they even held hands :).  We even were able to finish off our fun day with a yummy sushi dinner, which was perfect since Elliott's new favorite thing is sashimi! (He ate 7 pieces of salmon!)  Here are some pictures from our day...(which I of course am sharing or else I may have a grandma mutiny on my hands soon!! Sorry its been so long between photos.)

Elliotisms

Here's a couple more "Elliott takes" on things he enjoys around our house:

Toy Story - "Buzz"
Sesame Street 1,2,3 Count with Me (Sesame Street DVD) - "1,2,3,5 Friends"
Move With Me (kids yoga DVDs) - "Poses"
Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss - "Walking Book"
corn kernels - "baby corns"
salad dressing - "salad sauce"
binoculars - "eyes"
paint - "colors"

Just wanted to record them for posterity!

Granpa's Helper

Elliott is a helper. I've talked about it in the past and its definitely one of the funnest aspects of having a two year old around the house. Unfortunately, there's only so many projects you can help with when you live is a fairly small rental condo. Fortunately, there's a place he can go to get his project helping fix.

Ready for today's project!

When Elliott spends the day with my parents at their house, my dad plans little projects. Sometimes these are things that he specifically plans for Elliott to help with (constructing the garden windmill, for example) or they may be projects that were already on the agenda for the day (such as fixing the leak in the bathroom sink).  Regardless, Elliott is invited to help.

Inspecting plants for weeds

In the past, I've only seen the finished product of the day's projects. But last weekend, I got to 'help out' as well. The main project for the day: installing a new water faucet in the lower garden. My dad had already tapped into the main water supply and had separately built up the pipe structure that would connect the water to a new garden faucet - all for the ultimate goal of having a water source at the bottom of the property. 

Learning how everything lines up

Making sure the facet knob works

So the day's project was attaching the faucet structure to the water source.  This was great fun because it involved digging a trench with a special trench shovel, connecting the pipes, leveling everything out and then testing the water.

Making sure everything's level

And this is where I must talk about how great my dad is with Elliott. Throughout the day, he was continually sharing what he was doing with Elliott, explaining how things worked, and why he was doing what he was doing. And as these pictures show, this is not lost on Elliott. He is taking it all in, processing it and storing it for later use. In fact, just the other night when I was getting something out from under our bathroom sink, Elliott kneeled down and pointed to the pipes under the sink. He then proceeded to explain to me how the water went through the pipes and how you had to make sure they were very tight. :)

Learning how to tell the difference between the plant and the weed

For a kid who wants to know how things work, I think its pretty safe to say he has a good time with grandpa. He loves to show off what he's accomplished for the day and still likes to make little 'tweaks' to the windmill when he gets ahold of a screw driver ;)

Showing off 'his' weed