Fun in the Sun

Just some pictures here. An update is looooong overdue, but it will have to wait for a less hectic day...

Cracks me up: The Lady Mac Attack

Okay, not really sure why I think this is so funny, but I can't help cracking up every time I watch it! Our little Lady Mac sleeps much of the time, but about once a day she goes bonkers...

Elliot's camera smile--hilarium!

Deadbeat Blogger...

oh, boy it's been a loooong time in blogger terms. lots has been going on. it's getting warmer and we got outside many times per day. we got a pool and i can't think of any living things that could have more fun in a pool than two young brothers. there was more squealing and laughing than i thought possible...i was in heaven watching them! as an alternative we got a sprinkler, too. it's not quite as fun as the pool, but it makes hot afternoons bearable.

elliot has been talking more. he still has trouble making a variety of sounds, but he's getting the concept. he excitedly points out fish, airplanes, birds, the moon, balls, squirrels, dogs, and several other things. he also is starting (FINALLY) to understand the concept behind "easy! elliot, easy!" which we tend to say over & over when he's slapping someone in the face. he'll dial it down a little and pat their cheek but if we stop saying "easy" he starts hitting again. ...and not one bit of malaice in those smacks, by the way, he thinks people like to be abused. ahhhh.... he's also finally learning not to throw things from his highchair, which is so nice.

unfortunatley eli has discovered climbing and and we are hard pressed to keep him off elevated surfaces. all our dining room chairs are lying on the floor unless in use. looks pretty weird, but keeps him out of danger for the most part. of course we can't very well lay the big furniture on it's side, so he can still do crazy things, but he can't inadvertently tip over the couch, so he's a little safer on the big furniture. sad to say, tho, that he has bonked his head a record time over the past couple of weeks.

well, i'm being summoned outside...gavin needs a playmate b/c elliot is napping. more soon...

--emily

Great Easter weekend visit with Bizettes

Aunt Meli, Uncle Rhett, Leighton & Lexi came to visit with us for Easter weekend. What fun! I especially enjoyed harrassing Lexi in her bouncer and getting Uncle Rhett and Aunt Meli to hold me as much as possible. We went to the zoo; Gavin and Leighton had ice cream cones; we ate lots of yumminess; played outside a lot...had a great time!


At the zoo. Showcasing my mad rockclimbing skill.

That's me on a lilypad in the kids area of the zoo.

Gavin on the yellow brick road (there was some Wizard of Oz thing going on)

Leighton checking out a bird.

Gavin looking at the clown fish--I'm right behind him (that's my hand).

Leighton and Gavin crawling through an aqarium--I'm still to young for that.

We went for an exploring adventure at George Bush Park on the west side of Houston. It was pretty cool and nice and peaceful--a nice way to spend the evening on Easter Sunday. Can you tell me and Gavin are brothers? I bet if mom had kept daddy in the frame he would have had his left arm up, too. Ha!

Crayola John Hancock -- seeing the trend?

Okay, so I thought Gavin's little 'signature' stunt with the sidewalk chalk was a coincidence, but check this out.

Sidewalk chalk John Hancock

I've started tracing letters, but I don't know how to write yet. Even so, I was playing w/ chalk the other day and thought this little doodle looked like my name. I showed mom my "name" and she took a picture, of course. She thinks I must be important if I have a signature b/f I can even print. Ha!

Update from Gavin

Here I am painting. I like to talk about Nana when I'm painting. Miss her...

And here I am tracing the letters in my name; one of my newest endeavors. :o)

So I haven't updated y'all in quite some time. It has been so long that I'm not even sure where to start...

Well, let's start w/ my boy Elliot. He is getting more cool by the day. He laughs at my jokes and he does silly things that make me laugh. He is getting bigger and more stable so it takes a little more to knock him down than it used to. Translation: I get in trouble for pushing him a little less often b/c he doesn't always fall down anymore... I like to take his hand and lead him to my room to play with our toys; he thinks that's fun, too. So all around, we have getting along pretty well and I'm learning how to play nicely and we have a really great time.

I'm still reading away. Mom gave me the comics from the Sunday paper the other day. They are very cool: bright colors, cute pictures and lots of words. The trouble is that they aren't really for kids...at least not my age. There was a lot of things I didn't really understand--and mom says I probably shouldn't understand some of those things yet.

Another thing I like to do with words is spell them out verbally. The other day I was challenging mom to tell me what the letters I reeled off spelled: t-e-c-k-o what does that say, mommy? like that. Well, she started to tell me to tell her what these strings of letters said so off I went: h-o-u-s-o. small pause. "houso!" Boy was she surprised! Ha!

Me and the potty are really good friends. I go visit a million times a day. I have very few accidents anymore. There are toilets everywhere. Did you know that? And there are special rooms for men and women. This has led to many a conversation about the difference between the sexes. Well, it's has been pretty abstract so far, so I still get a little confused at time. A few weeks ago we went to visit one of these public restrooms and out of curiosity I asked a stranger: Are YOU a woman?. Mom was a little embarrassed because apparently it was very clear that he was not a woman. Anyway, luckily, he thought I was just saying something cute and he just smiled and nodded.

We are almost all settled into our new house. We have a super cool backyard with a couple small trees I can climb. Dad tied a swing to one of them just to keep mommy on her toes -- little brothers don't learn to stay back from swings until they are at least 2 years old. It has a big maple tree, a couple of Japanese loquat trees and a big ole holly bush (we're not supposed to play with the berries; they're poisonous). We also have a lot of patio space to ride bikes and roll balls and stuff. I have a new room, but all the same old toys, so although I do miss our old house a lot, our new one feels pretty homey already. We still go to the same church and see the same friends, so this move wasn't easy, but wasn't quite as hard as moving from Baton Rouge.

We get to walk around a lot now. There are parks to walk to and the roads make a big loop in our neighborhood so we can just walk for the fun of it if we don't really want to go anywhere.

Mom wanted to make sure I included this little list of Gavinisms:
NeighborHERD=neighborhood (already a little social commentator)
insurrection=interesting
stumfing=something

Well, I'm sure there are more, but we can't think of them right now.

~Gavin

Don't mess with Texas!

So we took a little exploration trip today to a part of the Houston area we've never visited: the lovely east side--Pasadena really. We weren't really headed anywhere in particular, but I started to see a few signs for the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, so I decided we check it out.

As we're pulling up to the entry guard Gavin is chattering away about the signs he sees: One has the name of the park; another has the speed limit; there's a Don't Mess with Texas sign (anti-litter for those of you who aren't regular visitors to TX); and one with a schedule of fees, etc. I'm trying to talk Gav through them as we go, but there are really too many, so I give up and decide that a quick overview of where we are would be more pertinent. So I start in: "Gavin, this place is where the battle of San Jacinto was fought. Groups of people came here from all over to have a big fight over who would get Texas." Gavin cuts in and says, "Mommy, you don't mess with Texas; Texas is dangerous."

--Alas, left the camera at home, so no pix.

Trip to BR

We made a trip to BR last weekend. Here are some pictures :o)

On top of the world...

...well, maybe just the table. The blocks were worth the climb.

Safari!

We were invited to a super fun birthday party at Bayou Wildlife Park. We got to play w/ friends, ride a tram and feed crazy animals, and ride ponies! Here are some pictures. We had a lot of fun!

Here is Elliot on "Babe."


















Gavin on "Babe."






















Gav and daddy on the tram checking out some furry guys.















Daddy and Eli




















We'll post a video soon...

A day in nature

We met up with some friends at a local park. Saw cardinals, hawks, dragon & damsel fly nymphs, mosquito larvae (mom's fav), turtles, a blue heron, and lots of beautiful Texas wildflowers.



As always the nunu is on it's way back in to Elliot's mouth. It's days are numbered...


Gavin running around in the discovery garden.



Cool tractor in the background...


Elliot playing on the alligator tube.

Gavin checking out the creatures that live in the pond.


A cool snowy egret weather vane (apparently roosters are passe).


A little bit of bed head :o)

Just Pictures

Sad news

We have been dealing with a very sad occurrence in our lives. A few weeks ago, my mom (Nana to the boys) left this world and entered eternity. It was very sudden, but thankfully peaceful. We are still very much in a season of mourning and we will miss her tangible presence in our lives very much. Mom gave so much of her life to those around her--most of all her family. She continues to give us comfort in her passing, because she lived her life ready to leave this world. We know we'll see her again. She loved our boys so much and her absence from their lives is the hardest thing to face. Countless people have been praying for our family and I know that's the strength that we feel as we walk through our grief. We really appreciate each thought and prayer. Please let this sad time in our lives motivate you to hold your family close. We strive to do the same. ~Emily

Elliot Family Party Videos

Here is the birthday song w/ solitary candle for everyone who was too far away to join us for our family party. We wish you could have come to celebrate with us. (Gavin picked the key we started in; that's why mom sounds like a squeaky door :o).



Here I am digging into my cake. Those white bits are marshmallows. It was pretty yummy, but what gives with that gooey frosting?? No wonder kids end up eating mud...they think it will be buttery, chocolaty yumminess!



Well anyway, I couldn't get over that frosting, so mom & dad wiped me down and gave me 'clean cake' (no frosting). Smooth move! I ate plenty of that and then the sugar kicked in.

Elliot's First Birthday

We had a little family party for Elliot today to celebrate having him as part of our family for a whole year! He wasn't really sure about the frosting this time.

Gavin's Third Birthday

Here are some pictures from my 3rd Birthday.



This is me wearing my funny birthday hat. You can't really tell, but it has 3 candles on it. As you probably can tell, it's plenty silly :o).


Mom & dad brought me to ride the ferris wheel downtown. I get pretty excited about riding it.

I told you...pretty excited.


Here we are on the train. It chugs around the grounds where the ferris wheel is. It even goes in a glass tunnel through an aquarium filled with sharks!


That was fun, too!

Our Elliot is a Whole Year Old!

We are so blessed to have had Elliot with us for a whole year now. He is a ray of sunshine wherever and whenever. If you've spent any time around him you know what I mean: he has a ready smile that lights up the room; he will giggle at the slightest provocation and belly-laugh if you are at all persistent. He is always scanning the room trying to catch someone's attention.

He's been walking for a couple of months now which has opened up a whole new world to him: the backyard. I think he'd live out there if he could. He mainly just walks around, but he finds it very entertaining.

One of his favorite things to play with is a ball. He likes to carry them around, bounce them, kick them... He loves to play with someone rolling it back and forth. It makes him giggle his head off :o). He's also tried to throw it through a hoop already--watch out NBA!

His teeth have finally taken on a more conventional formation. He has 8 now: 4 on top and 4 on the bottom. He's been working on more for a while, but they are a little slower in coming.

His trademark look is the mowhawk he's been sporting for a while. The sides are starting to fill in, but there is still a distinct central swath that is thicker.

Pacifier use is decreasing and vocab is increasing. He still doesn't say too many things that are acually part of the English lexicon, but we recognize when he wants more, or milk. And he has some unmistakable non-verbal ways of getting his point across.

He waves hello and bye-bye (along with a grin, of course). And he loves to hear his name.

He is always happy, very curious, a bit stubborn, and seems to be as perfect as he can be. We are so very glad he's part of our family!

Playing Ketchup

I've been falling behind on posting pictures...and I like ketchup--so there's the explanation for the title. My uncle Zane took a few of these -- thanks U Zane!

This is me w/ the super cool book Miranda sent!


Daddy was helping Eli open one of his gifts.


Oh, yeay! More presents!
Elliot's studious look for the tambourine.



Flying!

See, that ended well! :o)

More Birthday Stuff

Well, I'm almost a year old, but I got to celebrate early and often :o). Here is a video of me chowing down my first cupcake. Mmmmm!

Birthday Bonanza!!

Well Elliot & I have birthdays in the same month. Mine was yesterday and Elliot's is in a couple weeks (on the 26th). Mom promised this won't happen often, but she combined our parties this year. She also did it last minute so several of our friends couldn't make it, but we had a really great group. We older kids (2 years plus) had a scavenger hunt in our back yard and had some pretty sweet headgear to help us out. Check us out. More pictures to come. ~Gavin

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Well, we had snow a couple weeks ago, but it looks like we'll have a tropical Christmas day (temp is supposed to be in the 70s): so I guess we are getting the best of both worlds this year in Houston :o). We've been sick, so blogging has been on the back burner...upstaged by sipping antibiotics, puffing on inhalers (that's Elliot, he had some lung congestion issues), and keeping the snottage under control. But, we didn't want to miss a chance to wish everyone the Merriest of Christmases and a Happy and Healthy 2009. We started counting our blessings on Thanksgiving day and we're still counting. Thanks to all of you for your friendship and love! We hope to see and/or hear from all of you soon!

--Gavin & Elliot (and parents :o)

Snow? In HOUSTON?

You betcha! Here's proof :o)

Elliot Toddling

It's really tough to catch the action, but Elliot has been toddling much more lately. He doesn't even wait for encouragement anymore: if he feels like walking rather than crawling, off he goes! He can walk about halfway across a room before stumbling or getting so excited he just lunges for his target (as seen in the video :o).