Fall is fun!

I knew it had been a long time...look at the date of the last post: Sept 6. Well, It's been a busy month for us around the Malden Territories. Mommy has us on this roaring fall schedule--well relative to our summer calendar it's busy, but we love it. Mondays are MOPS days which is boring meetings for mommy, but we get to go to our church classrooms and have a great time. I don't get to be with Gavin on these days so there have been a few tears at goodbye time lately, but I have a great time w/ all my nearly 2 year old pals. Our classroom is often dark when mom comes to pick me up b/c turning off the lights is wild fun (not tall enough to turn them back on yet...I'm sure that will be just as raucous!). Gavin was bumped up to the 4 year old class for MOPS days and he loves that; he gets to make more crafts and play games---super fun. This past MOPS meeting was especially cool for Gavin b/c he got to go see a firetruck. Someone thought I was too small...hmm. Anyway, he liked that and of course asked questions that mommy couldn't answer b/c she's not a firefighter.

Tuesday is an off day which these days means lots of playing in the yard. The weather is splendid and our yard is even more fun than previously because daddy (with some help from Peepaw and Uncle Daniel) made us a CLUBHOUSE!!!! It is high in the branches of our holly bush and it has a cool railing (great for driving cars on) and steps to climb to get up there. It's fantastic! Even Lady Mac likes to chase us up there. Fun. Daddy also made us a seesaw. It's pretty fun to sit and go up & down w/ Gavin on the other end, but what we really like to do is walk up from one end, balance in the middle and then run down the other side. That gives mommy little heart flutters (especially when I do it), but she just needs to get used to that. We also have a balance beam that is a little advanced for me, but Gavin loves to walk across it. It's a regular outdoor wonderland; I guess we should start charging admission :).

Wednesday is WOW (Women of the Word) Bible study day at our church. Me and Gav get to play in the same class and we love it! We see a lot of the same friends we see at Sunday church and MOPS so it's a good time together.

Thursday is CBS (Community Bible Study) day. We get to walk to this one b/c it's only 2 blocks away (at a different church than ours)! Gav and I are in separate classes for this one, too. Gavin LOVES going to CBS. He's learning memory verses and doing all sorts of cool cool crafts. He has the best time. I really like my teacher, but my class is full of kids that are smaller than me and not as many cool toys as my classes at our church and so ... I tend to get in trouble. Well, c'mon, I like to climb and do rough and tumble things and my classmates just don't get into that stuff. I can't figure out why they don't like being mowed down by my big burly self. Hhh. Oh well, I'm getting there. Each week my teacher gets better and better at keeping me occupied (it's pretty much self-preservation). :)

Friday is another off day. We like to go to the library (if we remember) or we run the errands we've been putting off all weekend. I looove the library, but I'm not real keen on that rule about being quiet. What the...?? Libraries are hilarious fun: what with the rug with letters and numbers, all those cool books, and studious strangers to be met (bugged). I know why kids grow up thinking libraries are boring tho...all this about being quiet. Harrumph!

Speaking of letters and numbers: there are only a few letters that I have trouble identifying. And I let mom & dad in on a secret this weekend: I can already count to 10 by myself!! They were so shocked and proud; I might just have to surprise them with more things like that :). All this and I am still in the point and name phase of talking. I've put a couple of words together, but mostly I just like to point at stuff and try to say what it is. Guess that's why they were so surprised that I can count. Oh, I love to sing too, not really getting words out per se, but it's pretty clear when I'm singing even if the lyrics are garbled.

I still like to eat with a fork and spoon (rather than fingers). I don't like bread. I love black beans. I like fruit and most veggies. I am good at reading regular books but tend to tear up board books. Gavin and I are sleeping in the same room at night now; it's fun. I love trains. I love cars. Daddy getting home is the highlight of my dad; he is so great! I rarely walk; I run mostly. I finally don't make a bee-line for the street every time I walk out the front door; I'm getting really good at following Gavin and it keeps me pretty safe. I really like looking through our photo book of family friends; I am getting better at remembering people even when we don't see them a lot. I am still a really cheerful, friendly and happy kid...a bit more mischievous as the months go by, but it's all in good fun :).

Well, that's it for now, I guess. It's pretty tough to get much more in one update...I'll just have to write more later.

~Elliot

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.

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!

Thanksgiving

Well, we have lots to be thankful for--food for one thing! The video is Elliot enjoying food like only a 10 month old can. And Gavin didn't need any encouragement to dig into his grub either (note the cheek full).

Feasting Eli Style

So, I started sprouting teeth not too long ago and so mommy thought perhaps I'd be ready for a little texture in my grub. She tried a bunch of different things and got the expected icky-face response, and then I'd start gagging and usually ended up throwing up all over the place. Well, it didn't take her long to wise up and try the texture first so that I wouldn't throw up a whole meal each time, but I still wasn't tolerating any texture, not to mention solids. She started to think that maybe I was just not going to be as easy as Gavin in the whole eating arena.

Then one fair evening a couple weeks ago she got the notion to put some peas on my highchair tray just to see what I would do. You are a genius mommy! Nobody likes to eat peas all ground up; they are perfectly packaged for tiny fingers to grab and tiny throats to swallow. Now, that's not to say one hasn't caught me by surprise and caused a little gagging, but they were a big hit.

It did take some practice to actually get them to my mouth. I'd say I was swingin' at about 2% that first day. And yes, I realize that means 98 out of every 100 ended up in my highchair rather than my mouth. We persevered tho, and within a couple days it was 50/50 and I'm happy to say that I'm now getting about 80% in my mouth--gotta leave SOMEthing for mom to clean up; she sweeps three times per day!

So, the end result of all this work? I ate exactly what everyone else ate tonight: creamy chicken soup with yummy veggies and barley. Mmmmm!

SWEET Sixteen

Hey all y'all!

How's every little thing?? I'm great! Some really (REALLY) cool friends just gave me a car...I know, we couldn't believe it either. Well, okay, it's more for mommy, but the bottom line is that we aren't confined to home all day, every day, every week, every month, every year...I'm getting a little carried away, but you get the idea. We have had one car as long as I can remember, and really, I was fine with that (hey, it was all I knew), but now that we can get around I don't think I could go back. We go to the park, we hang out with friends more during the day, we are even scheduled to go visit some baby goats soon; it's very exciting!

I'm talking quite a bit these days, still no sentences (unless "Thank you!" counts), but I like to practice all my words. When I'm reading books I love to name off all the things that I know -- even if no one is listening. I also copy mommy/daddy's silly inflections, so I don't just say 'gourd,' but rather ...."GOOOOUUURRRD!!!!" in a full-throated growl voice. (If you've never seen Veggie Tale books that might sound a little strange: a wee little boy like me learning the word gourd, but it's nothing weird. I promise!) Speaking of veggies, they are some of my favorite things to eat AND drink! I love all sorts of veggies (especially tomatoes and broccoli) and V8 is one of the best ways to get me to take my vitamins. Mommy hopes that continues into adulthood; she wishes she loved V8 as much as I do. Na na na boo boo! ;o)

So swimming season is back and better than ever!! I have a little slide (affectionately called "wee!") that plunks me right into the water: what a blast!! I pretty much just jump around, splash, screech and holler until it's time to go inside, and then, needless to say, I'm exhausted.

For those of you who don't know, Baton Rouge has ever-present road construction and lately that has been in my FRONT YARD! Whoopee!! There are backhoes, dump trucks, bulldozers, piles of sand...it's little boy heaven!! On the weekends and evenings daddy takes me to slide on the sand pile, but during the day they are working like crazy, so I can't go past "the tree." I have to just watch: I wave my arms around and yell as much as I want and lots of times those tractors & trucks will honk for me. It's sooo cool!

Well, that's it for now. I'm attaching a picture of me in my Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes altho, it wasn't Sunday and there wasn't a meeting when I wore them. And I know, I've heard it all: I look like a politician, a frat boy, a little boy off to boarding school in the 1950s...whatever...the bottom line is that I look CUTE! ;o) HA! Just for fun...if I was running for office I'd promise: swimming year-round; playing only in construction sites; and V8 for all!!

I always love to hear from all of you!

-Gavin for President

Checking in at almost 15 months

Hey everyone!

You haven't heard from me in a little while, but I'd better not catch you thinking that's because not much is going on with me!! Life is getting VERY exciting! I've started running from place to place. That's especially fun outside, altho my increased velocity still doesn't help me catch the birdies; and it looks very much like I'm about to tip over at every step. I love helping mommy wash the car; puddles are sooooo much fun to stomp.

Mom and dad's latest project is training me not to fling my cup on the floor and to resist sweeping all my food off my highchair tray. I sometimes pretend not to know what they are talking about, but I probably could have been trained not to do that a few months ago. It really only took one day of concentrated training & now I almost never throw anything from my highchair :o). They are also teaching me to tell them when I'm all done instead of fussing. Sometimes I'm just so tired tho; I don't feel like talking!

My vocab has exploded! Car is one of my favorite words, I make sure mommy asks a few times and then out it pops with much gusto: Car! I also say tractor, shoes, see, birdie, flower (sounds like wowah...very cute ;o), yuck (for ant hills and garbage cans outside), broom, down, night night, cheese, book, and I say my name (altho it sounds a whole lot like dada). I love learning about letters and numbers; my favorites are 3, c, t, g, ...really anything with that "ee" sound at the end :o). I can also say 'arf' like a dog and 'ooh ooh ah ah' like a monkey :o). I get very excited when anyone mentions a bath or outside. And I like to pick flowers with daddy (to give to mommy, of course).

I've started giving very good hugs and with a little more practice I'll be giving kisses. I also like to give little love squeezes when I can't give a full hug. For example, if mommy is reading to me and I don't want to turn all the way around to throw my arms around her neck, I'll just hold her forearm and give it a little squeeze to let her know I like how she's reading to me. Creative right?

I also like to put things in & out and on & off, like putting a golf ball in a measuring cup or trying to put lid back on the peanut butter (whoops! don't tell mommy!!). I have a little trouble sometimes, which often leads to loud protests on my part; it's just so frustrating when things don't cooperate with my cute little fingers. Does that ever happen to y'all?

Some of my favorite things to eat are peanut butter sandwiches, apples, bananas, peas, broccoli, green beans, cheese cubes, and crackers. My absolute favorite is pizza...I can put a hurtin' on some pizza!! I love to say "mmm mmm mmm!" when I'm eating. Mommy & daddy will usually join in for even more fun!

Okay, better go. I guess I shouldn't let so much time go by between updates... this is really long!

Gavin