Au de Spank!

Hello friends and family. I don't have any new pictures to post for today, but I thought I would give an update of Elliot's new words and funny things that have happened.

So, new words are coming more and more often. Hopefully soon he'll get to where he just repeats everything, and takes off language wise. But here are the latest words:

Dolphin, lizard (oh-youd), crab (pwab), whale, moon (bone), shark, seal, animal, lion, van, kid, hair, mouth, nose, hurt, cold, on, off, in, out, up, down, bug, cat, dog (very clearly), yes, oh yes!, all right!, woo hoo!, okay, pita, turkey, grape, pants, jump (pwump), spank, sand, beach, mess, yucky, dirty, shell, splash, throw, lotion, buns, one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, way (as in out of my), sun, sunflower, wagon, push, ........I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now.

I forgot to mention the funniest thing at El Cap (besides Jennifer getting pooped on by a seagull). Elliot was playing naked on the beach and put his rear end right in Erik's face, then said, "Au de Spank!" as he spanked himself, and then took off running!

A week or so earlier, Erik had a funny experience in Starbucks when Elliot came into the men's room with him. He was showing Elliot how it's done, when Elliot reached out and grabbed the stream of pee. Then he said, "hot!", as Erik was trying to figure out what to do. So funny!

Today Erik got his hair cut for the first time since I've known him, and probably the first time in 15 years or more. They put a bunch of gel in his hair and it made his hair stiff. I was surprised that Elliot noticed the difference, but he did -- he kept calling it a hat! We thought it was hilarious.

Elliot counts to three correctly now, and if I say four, he can keep going till nine. He did that yesterday unexpectedly. I didn't even know he knew the rest of the numbers! Mostly Elliot spends his time running around the back yard nude, and in and out of the wading pool. It's so run to watch him enjoying the yard, looking at all the flowers and bees and rolling around in the water. Life is great. Hope you are all doing well, too. xo

The Payoff

This is the reward for the work I did in March of re-doing and seeding an empty flower bed. It is the reward of the hard work done by Erik and Bill and me last summer, and Mary's babysitting. It is the reward of my high school Ornamental Horticulture class, from which I retained an astonishing amount of information, and of my mother, who taught me how to grow things. Every day I am amazed at the garden and how much it has grown. It's so wonderful to have a place like this to enjoy with my family. Every time I leave to go to the beach or on an outing, I think, "Why am I leaving? It's so nice right here!" I feel so blessed to have this little remnant of paradise here in my back yard. Thank you so much, God! And thank you to my family for making it happen on the nitty gritty, road basie, concretey end of things. I appreciate it every single day!

Whipper Snipped

First professional haircut at Whipper Snippers. He watched Finding Nemo very intently while she cut his hair. It turned out really really cute. We will be doing this from now on, I think!

El Cap

First family camping trip! We got a sloped site banked by poison oak, but we still had fun. The first day we were there, after setting up camp, we headed down to the beach. Elliot played in the water and sand with his daddy while I fell asleep on the beach blanket. When I woke up, there were tons of dolphins playing and jumping out of the water in twos and threes. Just a tiny breeze to curb the heat, and kids and families enjoying the beach. Beautiful! We froze that night because we didn't bring enough blankets, and the next day got really windy in the afternoon, but despite that, we still had a fun and exciting time. Maybe Jalama next year? Maybe Plasket Creek? We brought the body board, and Erik went in for about 30 seconds and caught one wave, after which he immediately came back to the blanket. It was too cold for him. The beach was very tarry, and so was the water.

Good Cop

Elliot hates it when I play guitar. He screams at me and hits the guitar. I basically can't play when he is awake because this happens every time. Erik, on the other hand........Elliot dances to his music and sits nicely and plays with him. They are so adorable together. It has been great to see how much Elliot has bonded to him this time that Erik has been home. Whenever he leaves to go surf, Elliot misses him and searches the house for him about every half hour. He cries when he leaves, wants him when he's sad, and for sure prefers daddy to put him to sleep and wake him up. I'm much more likely to trigger a tantrum or some angry struggling. But all this is okay with me, because I see how much fun he is having with his dad.

First Rodeo

This was a first Rodeo for both of them! We went on Friday night. After about 30 seconds of "sitting" with Elliot, which really means jumping around and grabbing him and pulling him back and holding his had while he jumps off the bleachers, I realized he was going to need a snack to keep him occupied. Kettle corn worked for a couple minutes. He didn't like the cotton candy. He liked watching the horsies, which he still refers to as "shi-shi", and the chuck wagon as it went around. He loved watching the guy parachuting down at the beginning, and continued to search the sky for more airplanes and guys the rest of the night whenever he thought of it. We all had a fun time this year at the Rodeo. Now we are looking forward to when he is old enough to sign him up for mutton bustin'! We also had a great visit with Brooke and Darin, and are so looking forward to meeting their daughter when she is born!

The Macaroni Express

First you load it up with Macaroni and Cheese and then you go make some deliveries. Some for the mouth, some for the dog, and of course a couple piles on the table and floor. That's what he must have been thinking while I was taking these pictures. He was carefully lining up the macaroni lengthwise in the bed of the truck and zooming it around the table. Occasionally he would stop, eat it's contents, and refill at the station/bowl.

It's so fun to watch him learn new and exciting and messy things each day! At least this is better than picking up dog poop or drinking out of the dog water dish. :)

Elliot has finally learned how to say "car" or "Cars", with a thick accent. He also likes to say "another one" and "the other one", as well as "oh my goodness", which sounds more like "deh-dess". Sometimes he shortens it to "Oh, dess!" He also says scone, "bone" or "mone", church, and Starbucks, "Ah-bucks", honey bee - "ah duh bee", and push. I think that's about it for words that he's learned recently. He's been doing some really funny dances with lots of arm and shoulder movements.

What an adventure....all aboard!