Bottoms Up!

Elliott wishes everyone a very Happy New Year - may it be full of happy surprises and laughter!

Take it out for a spin... the tricycle, that is.

On Sunday, it was warmer and sunny, and we thought it would be a great day to take a trip to the park and try out the new tricycle! But first, I have to tell you, we were really worried about getting Elliott to wear a helmet. He was always vehemently opposed to putting one on in the store, for even a second. So, Bret and I took a deep breath when we pulled out Elliott's shiny new Sesame Street helmet... and whoa.... he loved it. He wouldn't take it off! He wore it in the car. He wore it into Lowe's. And then, the whole time at the park. Toddlers... full of surprises.

P.S. Don't miss the video at the end!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Elliott's World. We opened presents all day Friday and then still had some left over for the day after Christmas! Elliott was a little overwhelmed at times, but was a real trooper and managed to open them all. By the end, he was quite good at unwrapping! Here are some pictures we'd like to share with you!

After Santa came! (It's a lot harder than you think to build a track loop for trains that all connects!)

Elliott finds Santa has left him trains when he first arrives downstairs (we had to wake him up at a quarter til 8... we couldn't wait any longer!)

Trains are cool, but look at this red car!

Signal Station with working lights and sounds. Elliott has had his eye on this for a LOOONG time.

"Tree!!"

Elliott helps Daddy open his new camera.

Then, Elliott opens HIS new digital camera! We have lots of closeups of Elliott's face.

Elliott tries out his new R/C car. Vrrooom!

Elliott gets a new tricycle from Grandma! (More tricycle in the next post!)

Yum!!! Every kid needs a lollipop the size of his head in his stocking, right? (BTW, note Bret's naughty or nice Homer Simpson socks!)

Why they hate us at Best Buy

Tee hee... just had to share this with you guys! He's hard core.... well, except when he plays monster ballads.

Thank you local Best Buy for putting up with our shenanigans, as well as the screaming that ensues every time we exit the store. And for not barring the doors when you see us coming.

Countdown to Christmas!

Bret and I are downright giddy in anticipation of Christmas. Elliott is pretty much oblivious. Every day, the stack of presents under the tree grows bit by bit, and Elliott is way more concerned with the cheap chocolate candy in his advent calender. (I think he might be the only 21 month old on the planet whose daily vocabulary includes the words, "advent calendar.") Here's a few pictures from after we put up the tree.

The other side: Quiet, contemplative Elliott.

"Touch? Touch?"

Elliott calls the ribbon "moon," I'm assuming because it is silvery like the moon?

It's typical that we would get the perfect Christmas card pose AFTER we send out the cards.

In case you were feeling like some blog deja-vu...

We have wonderful great big oak trees in our yard that we enjoy most of the year, but every fall, we have a ridiculous amount of leaves. Ridiculous as in we have a leaf pile at the back of the yard that is taller than Bret. And that is just from the leaves collected as far as the garage. The leaves behind the garage have to fend for themselves. So, here we are, raking. Again.

Elliott helps out! He calls the rake a broom.

Elliott helps put leaves (about 5 at a time) in the bin so that Daddy can carry them to the back of the yard.

Elliott didn't want to wear his mittens, so he took them off and "hid" them in the trunks of the crepe myrtle. That's why he's wearing only one in this picture.

Cuteness.

Proud of a hard day's work. Hmmm... where is that other mitten?

Pumpkin Pie, A Thanksgiving Post

So, as many know, Elliott's nickname is Pumpkin. If I'm feeling particulary gooey towards him, I call him Pumpkin Pie. He responds to "Pumpkin" in the same way that he would respond to "Elliott" and if I ask, "Where is Mommy's pumpkin?" Elliott pats himself on the head. So, this Thanksgiving when I wanted cherry pie and Bret wanted a pecan pie, it seemed positively unacceptable to not have a pumpkin pie for my Pumpkin!! So, Elliott loved his pumpkin pie (with Cool Whip, of course!) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as we have tons to be thankful for!

Is it really already mid-November?

I guess the old adage is correct... Time flies when you are having fun. Here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

Here's Elliott at the apple festival (which was lame!) but wow, they had really big tractors! Elliott on Daddy's slightly smaller tractor.

"Helping" Dad rake the leaves, a childhood rite of passage, right?

Another picture, in case the first one wasn't adorable enough for you.

After doing some hard work, we all deserve a little downtime.

Elliott pushes Mr. Frog in his "manly" stroller - "manly" as in less girly. It is almost impossible to find a stroller that is not babydoll pink... not that Elliott would mind. Pink is his favorite color.

Making alphabet cut-out cookies during the Nor'easter. Elliott really liked the sprinkles part.

And yes, the "Z" is backwards. Elliott did that one all by himself.

And the best part about making cookies is eating them! Well, not really. Elliott apparently thought they were too pretty to eat. Bizarre little child.

And that pretty much sums it up.

Gymnastics!!!

Elliott has been doing gymnastics since September - just a playgroup, no actual organized instruction is involved. As anyone can imagine, he loves it! So, I finally got around to getting some pictures (it's kind of hard to get pictures of Elliott while I'm supposed to be keeping him safe around all kinds of dangerous (read: enticing) apparatus, but Bret was able to come with us when these pictures were taken.) These pcitures are actually a couple of weeks old... with Halloween and stuff, it has taken me a while to post them!

On the trampoline... it is very hard to get pictures "mid-air."

You can't really tell, but he is in the air!

Bret joined in on the fun. (He's just a big kid himself.)

Little monkey man!

Bock, Bock, Hooray for Halloween!

Despite having a fever of 101.5 on the 30th, Elliott rallied and managed to have a very full Halloween, with just a couple of minor changes to our original plans. Our Halloween actually started on Thursday with a party at music class. To his dismay (and our delight!), Elliott wore his chicken costume. For the first time in Kindermusik history, Elliott sat on my lap and looked pretty much miserable until we plucked him of his feathers.

Ok, in this picture he doesn't look so miserable, but shortly after this photo was taken, he remembered he was supposed to be acting miserable and came back and sat on my lap. "Doggone ball, distracting me from my misery!!"

We were very excited that Bret was off work and could join us at music class!! (Still miserable.)

Unfortunately, on Saturday, Bret did have to work, so pumpkin carving duties were passed on to the Momma. I think we did ok. Not surprisingly, Elliott refused to touch the pumpkin (1. Ewww, slimy and messy (clearly my child), and 2. pumpkin looks a lot like a vegetable.) But I did manage to get him to pose with the finished product.

The weather here was like 80 degrees on Halloween, making the chicken costume even less appetizing to Elliott. However, he tolerated the costume yet again for our costume playdate at Caleb's house.

By the time night came, I was feeling pretty sorry for Elliott (it was still 74 degrees at 6:00). So, I quickly whipped Elliott up a new Halloween costume - a basketball player!! He (happily) ran around the neighborhood with a small basketball and was still adorable.

Please note: Chicken costume - $20. Basketball jersey - approx. $1.25 and a Sharpie marker. Sigh.