The Way the Cookie Crumbles

There is a slow degradation of standards that tends to happen with parenting. I think the same thing happens with health food as happens with cleanliness standards. Or course you all know that when a baby is a newborn people usually sterilize everything, and then by the time the child is a toddler, you're claiming the ten second rule when their food falls on the ground. Just pick it up and blow on it, and it's good to go. Yeah, so the same goes with health food. I started off thinking that I was only going to feed my child the healthiest food in the world. But, that just isn't the most practical idea, especially when you are out and about, going to friends' houses, restaurants, and whatnot. Who want's to make a public scene of bargaining for your kid to eat three more bites of vegetables? Who wants to deprive their kid of ice cream when all the other kids are getting some? Not me. So, before I knew it a couple of days ago, I found myself squishing nacho cheese Doritos (at his request) between the halves of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich at Cisco's in downtown SLO. And, he liked it! And, I have to admit that if he had asked me for a hot fudge sundae, I would have been tempted to deliver it in exchange for a few non-whiny moments while Erik and I enjoyed our lunch on the sunny patio. So, I suppose it's all really a balancing act - at least that's how I choose to look at it. PB&J a la Doritos may not be the healthiest lunch ever, but he liked it, and the parents need it for "mental" health reasons. Works for me. :)

En Guarde

Yesterday was a fun and eventful day. We made a trip to Target to return a disk swing we had gotten there (it didn't work that well for Elliot), and a trip to Target often yields many more treasures and many more dollars spent than originally expected. So, we found soft foam swords in the "dollar spot", and of course we had to buy six of them. Why wouldn't we? Erik told me that if he had the choice, he wouldn't have bought them, but once he saw them, he really didn't have a choice - he had to buy them! He and Elliot had a marvelous afternoon of duels, while I trimmed back my lavender and put it into bundles for drying. What a nice way to end the day, once again thinking on how blessed we are.

Hop on Pop

Just killing time on this unproductive morning. We lingered a little too long in bed, then lingered a little too long in our pajamas. Before we knew it, it was 11:30, and we were gathered around the computer looking at peoples' new babies on myspace and whatnot. Ah, well. We still have the afternoon to get some work done on the garden of paradise. As you can see from the pictures, Elliot likes to be naked, and likes to climb on Erik. Erik always loves to be jumped and climbed on. Especially when Elliot is naked. It's even an added bonus when he is holding a hot cup of coffee! Note the gleeful expression on his face. Ah, family bliss!

Special Delivery

This was so funny. This is the box that Chewie's dog food comes in (we order it online), and Chewie seems very curious to see what's in the box. You can see the progression of Chewie's ears perking up, then he cocks his head to the side as he gets more curious, and out pops Elliot!
Then Elliot had a great time laying down in the box and asking us to close the lid because he was going to sleep. What he actually said was, "Please close the door I am sleeping?" He said it as one sentence. We finally had to put the box out in the garage because when it was actually time for him to go to bed, he thought he was going to sleep in box. What a clown!

All About Elliot

As you can see, we are enjoying life immensely. It's great to have Erik here to share in the every-day cuteness and fun things that Elliot says. Some recent Elliot quotes are, "I love to boss! You're not the boss, mom!" "What about weeby-wobble weeby-wobble?" "All right, well, we can do that." It would probably be to lengthy to explain the context of all these, but trust me, they are very cute and funny! Elliot's favorite things right now are taking baths, swinging, running around nude, peeing standing up, singing, being tickled, making faces, dancing, jumping on his big boy bed, eating yogurt, oatmeal raisin cookies, and peanutbutter and honey sandwiches (he calls it, "honey sea-wich and pee-dee butter"), picking up spiders and mosquito hawks, dead flies, snails and any bugs he can find. He tries to get bees, too, but luckily he hasn't succeeded on that venture thus far. He also loves going on walks as long as you're okay with him stopping to pick up every bug he can find. He's into climbing and jumping on mom and dad from as high up as possible (that's loads of fun). The last picture is when Elliot took a really, really long nap. I think it was about 5 hours. I opened his door and started the laundry, put his clothes away, woke him up a couple of times, but he just kept rolling over and going back to sleep. I guess he must have needed the rest, but I figured when he did this pose, it was a golden photo opportunity.

Swingers

This was Elliot's belated birthday present from us (it took longer than expected to put it together). His swing turned out fabulous! It's really big and sturdy, with two regular swings, and a "trapeze" in the middle. Plus, we designed it so that the top beam sticks out over the grass. We are going to put a disk/rope swing there. Elliot has been obsessed with swings for a long time. In fact, it's almost not fun to take him to parks sometimes because he's on the swing wanting to be pushed the entire time, and then cries when we have to leave. So, he loves having swings of his very own. The only downside is that now he begs us to push him constantly. Oh well, it's good for us to take a break and get outside with the kid! I think he'll learn to pump with his legs pretty quickly, anyway. Fun times! Now our backyard looks like a park, and we will never have to leave!

Oh Boy!

My dear friend, Annie, had her baby! Dustin is so adorable and sweet! I was lucky enough to be able to go and see the VanZante family the day after his birth, and share in the homecoming- new-baby-love. Dustin hardly ever cried, mostly just slept, and it was so great to see Annie and Beau enjoying their new little miracle. I'm so glad that I got to be there when he was so new. Boy, oh boy, do I wish I lived closer to them so I could see them more! It's funny how seeing a baby born is such a different experience than having one yourself. I suppose when I had Elliot, I was mostly consumed with all of my brain and energy focusing on taking care of his needs. Getting to watch (from afar, mostly) Annie and Beau on their adventure, I have been thinking and thinking. Just seeing them have a baby now has brought back memories of Annie and I sharing childhood together, and made me think so much about life and how amazing it is that we all make it into this wonderful and crazy world. Life is amazing!