Elliott's weekend adventures

And we're back!! I can't believe my last post was about Thanksgiving.  The holidays and beginning of the year were stressful for me (not bad, just too much going on with not enough time, aka - "the usual"), and I began operating on "bare minimum" mode to get by.  My goal for this year is to have a more relaxed and peaceful life through organization, simplification, and doing things I love, like sharing my awesome kid and his adventures with you.  So enough about me, and on to Elliott's latest shenanigans.

We had an unexpectedly fabulous weekend full of good friends, family, and relaxation.  It started on Friday night with this little guy, running around the house with a few of his favorite things, and literally jumping for joy on the couch (I'm wondering if, as a parent I should be discouraging this kind of behavior, but it is so darn cute).  He loves to wear hats like this trucker hat he got for christmas, and that is a battery operated drill Santa brought him.

And then it was off to his play tent for a few stories before bed.  He's showing me how he can wash his hands like the boy in the book.

Saturday was a housewarming party for our friend Heather at her cute new (2 bedroom!) cottage.  Can't believe I didn't get a pic of Elliott with her.  When we first got there he was a bit shy and just stared at everyone, but soon warmed up and began running circles through her house, chatting up everyone, crawling up and down the stairs on her deck.  When he started playing in the toilet we took it as our cue to head out.

Steve's friend Eric stayed with us on Saturday night.  The boys had a much needed jam session - Elliott included! (I don't know if you can tell, but that's a dog shaped guitar Elliott is playing)

Sunday morning we had coffee at the French Press with Eric before he left town.  Elliott fit right in to the hipster scene with his cool hat, and charmed just about everyone around us with his sweet smile.

We set up a playstation at our coffee table in the front window, and it keeps him engaged and focused for about 5 minute spurts, which is pretty impressive these days.  He also gets to watch all the activity at the retirement home across the street.  His favorite thing to do is yell "bus" when one drives by, and wave at all of the passengers.

Elliott is also learning how to surf.  Maybe one day he will upgrade from cutting boards on the kitchen floor to a real board in the ocean.  If Papa (my dad) has anything to do with it, that will be next summer at our 4th of July camping trip.

Sunday afternoon we took a family hike at the Ellwood bluffs to visit the monarch butterflies in their annual migration.  While Elliott was a bit to small to notice the butterflies, he had a great time being outside with Reese.

However, our walk was very slow as he got excited about every single rock we saw and had to investigate.  The joys of being a kid are very simple.

It's funny that Papa came up in our conversation earlier in the day, because he and Grandma surprised us with a visit as they were passing through town.  We had a lovely dinner on the beach, 

and then came back to our house where Elliott got to open his Valentine's day gift - a new book about trucks.  He even read it to Papa saying "truck, truck,..."  

There was even some time for a few snuggles with Grandma before bed.

And now that it is 6:30 on Monday morning, I'd better go wake up my cute kid, get him dressed, off to daycare, and start another week.  I 'm already looking forward to the next weekend I get to spend with my special guy.

Have a great week!!

A Happy Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone.  I hope you are thoroughly enjoying the Christmas season (and not letting it's potential stress catch up with you).  Elliott is walking up a storm these days, so I figured I should post our Thanksgiving pictures before the holidays are over, and before he changes too much more.  So here you go - a small slice of our Thanksgiving week festivities...

We started off the week by driving down to see Grandma Claire and Grandpa Harry in Newbury Park. They are such joyful people, and Elliott adores them.

My parents and Steve's parents showed up Wednesday night, and we celebrated Steve's parents 44th wedding anniversary at The Palace.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the two of them at dinner, but I did manage to capture Elliott and Grandpa Wayne holding a drum circle in Cost Plus after dinner.

Congratulations Sandy and Wayne!  Thank you for sharing your wonderful son with me.

Thanksgiving morning we got down to the business of cooking a tasty dinner.  Even though there were only 6 of us and Elliott, we still felt the need to cook all of the traditional dishes, plus some (about 8 total).  And to top off the meal, my dad baked his famous apple cranberry pie.  It was delicious as usual.

No day spent at home is complete without a project or two going on in the background, and Thanksgiving was no different. Steve's dad built an amazing bar for our new kitchen/dining room border, and helped us to install it.  More on that in a later post.

And of course no day is complete for Reese with out a bit of ball chasing (Elliott gets pretty antsy also if he doesn't get his outdoor time.)

After his afternoon nap Elliott got all dressed up in his Thanksgiving best, and entertained the grandmas with his impressive toy collection and shaky walking skills while we put the finishing touches on dinner.

After 8 hours of cooking we were ready to eat, and it was quite a spread.  The turkey Steve cooked was amazing, but my kale-brussel sprout salad got quite a few compliments as well.  Check out the mostly finished kitchen in the background, and a sneak peek of our new bar behind my mom to the right.

We passed on the black Friday sales, and opted to enjoy lunch at the beach instead.  Here are my guys  looking cool while waiting for a table at the Shoreline.

And our awesome table in the sand.  Does life get better than this?

After lunch we walked down to State St.  - Elliott included!  On a side note, our family walks with Reese take forever these days because Elliott insists on walking and not being carried, but he is still pretty darn slow.

When he got tired of walking Elliott did let Grandpa Wayne carry him on his shoulders while we were passing through the harbor.

Our ultimate destination was actually the waterfront shuttle - Elliott's favorite thing ever.  Here's the giddy grin he flashed while we cruised up State St.

We hopped off the shuttle for coffee and snacks before turning around and hopping the shuttle back down State St.  Elliott loves his Grandmas!  He wanted to sit directly between them.

It was a very happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday, and our little guy was wiped out as we made our way back to the car.

Just for fun - here is Elliott last Thanksgiving.  What a difference a year makes!  

Hope your Thanksgiving was as great as Elliott's, and that you were able to take a moment to reflect on the things in your life that you are thankful for. Top of my Thankful list is definitely the time I get to spend with my family, and our beautiful (and ever improving) home in Santa Barbara.  I do my best to soak up the moments of our daily life - big and small.  Elliott is changing on a daily basis, and each new phase is more fun and exciting than the one before. 

Elliott is walking!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family.  Some day I will get around to posting  pictures of our T-day  with the Grandparents (they kindly drove to us this year so we only have to make one big roadtrip this holiday season).  But today I wanted to give you the exciting (and slightly scary) news that Elliott is walking!

Papa's 60th Birthday

We hit the road again a few weeks ago to meet up with the rest of my family in Livermore for my Dad's 60th birthday.  As a surprise (which turned out not to be a surprise since Mom spilled the beans) my sister Jessica flew out from Austin with Boaz, her youngest kid, who was born 6 weeks after Elliott.

Since we all got in late on Friday night, Bo and Elliott had to wait until Saturday morning for a good play session.  They were both rather mellow and snuggly at the start of the morning.  Here's a textbook example of a sweet Bo grin.  He turns one today!

Elliott enjoyed the variety of new (to him) toys to explore.  That was actually my blue and red shape sorter in the pic below from when I was his age!

Elliott goes back to the Doctor

This may not be the most upbeat post I have written, but in the spirit of documenting stories of Elliott as he grows up, I wanted to share what he has been going through over the last month.  

We had a glorious reprieve from doctor visits during the months of July and August.  The ear tubes Elliott got in June put a stop to the recurring ear infections he had since January.  Everything was going great, and when he would get a cold I didn't feel like I needed to rush him to the doctor since his body was finally able to fight them off without the assistance of antibiotics.  And then, mid-September, he woke up on a Monday morning with a runny nose and a slight cough, which I didn't think much of because I am no longer worried about ear infections.  Throughout the day at daycare he was fine, until he woke up from his afternoon nap at 4:30.  By the time I picked him up after work at 5:00, his lungs were very congested, he was running a fever, and he was struggling to breath.  He continued to worsen after getting home, and we were concerned about how we would get through the night. Thankfully urgent care was open until 7pm, and as soon as we arrived the nurses and doctors flocked to us.  They were concerned about the way his ribs were flaring out as he was trying to draw in air, and his low blood oxygen levels.

The doctor and nurses were fantastic, and we were quickly rushed down the hall for a chest X-ray.  It was a very scary moment, and at the same time I was so fascinated by the process that I paused to oblige the little voice in the back of my mind telling me to document the moment for the blog, and future memory.

The single greatest word ever, and other milestones

As I mentioned previously,  Elliott is developing quite a vocabulary.  His first words were "Daddy" and "dog", which he now consistently uses at the appropriate time.  Like when waking up and pointing to show he wants to go see Steve in the other room, or when there is a dog walking by down the street.  By far his favorite word is "uh-oh", which he says in a sing song manner (often right before he drops something).  Other words he picked up are "wow", and "stuck", which he says right after he rams his walker into the kitchen cabinets, and then continues to repeat until we turn him around so he can take off in the other direction.  He also says "woof" in response to the question "Hey Elliott, what does a dog say?"  "Hi" may be the word he says most frequently, and is always charming strangers with it.

Elliott Turns 1!

Yikes!  How is it October already?  I barely got a chance to post in September, and I'm still trying to figure out what happened to August.  We have been so completely caught up in living in the moment - for good reasons (enjoying every minute we get with our awesome kid), and not so good reasons (super stressful time at work), that I haven't had a chance to document to the special moments in our lives.

The most special and exciting moment in September was Elliott's first birthday!  I can't believe we have been riding the crazy roller coaster of parenthood through all 4 seasons (ok, who am I kidding, we don't really have seasons in SB).   The other morning at breakfast Steve commented on how crazy it is that we have  another person in our family.  Elliott has definitely made the transition from helpless baby to an independent and unique kid full of personality.  We are more in love with his sweet gentle nature, and quirky silly sense of humor every day.  He's not walking yet, although he can get anywhere he wants to quickly, and his vocabulary has expanded to "Daddy", "hi", "dog", and "woof".  Yes, my kid can bark, on command, but still seems to have trouble saying "Mommy" consistently.