Eliel: 11 Months

Eliel turned 11 months old on Sunday! He has been walking a little more every day and is very fond of getting into chairs and onto any kid sized table.  (This is somewhat scary since he not only stands up on the table but takes steps on it!) He has taught himself to get out our front door and down our three front steps safely.  He is fascinated by our four chickens (as are most of the neighborhood kids) and loves going outside to watch them.  He has at least three words: Mama, Dada and nana (banana) but seems much more intent on moving around than communicating right now. Instead of using words he employs various screams to tell us he is in need of something, so Colin has started some signs with him to help us get past that stage. Less than a month and we will have a one year old!

Apparently the baby mullet is in our DNA.  Mavry had one and Eliel's seems to be making its appearance even earlier.  Colin is holding firm on the no haircut until 2 years old so we will see what happens with that!

Eliel at 10 months
Eliel at 9 months
Eliel at 8 months
Eliel at 7 months
Eliel at 6 months
Eliel at 5 months
Eliel at 4 months
Eliel at 3 months
Eliel at 2 months
Eliel at 5 weeks

Eliel: 10 Months

Catching up on the posting again! I managed to get a few photos on Eliel's 10 month birthday, but didn't look at them til recently and only then realized there aren't really any good ones!

He took his first step on his 10 month birthday and it's harder and harder to get a picture of him sitting still. 

Eliel at 9 months
Eliel at 8 months
Eliel at 7 months
Eliel at 6 months
Eliel at 5 months
Eliel at 4 months
Eliel at 3 months
Eliel at 2 months
Eliel at 5 weeks

Mavry's 2nd Birthday Party

 

In the process of catching up with posts I realized Mavry's 2nd birthday was still waiting to be posted.  She turned two years old on February 6th! We celebrated with a pancake brunch in our yard.  It turned out that Mavry was still recovering from being sick (thus the rather stoic look in her birthday cake picture), but she still enjoyed playing with all the kids who came to celebrate.  Instead of a cake this year, she got a stack of small pancakes with two candles, berry syrup, and whipped cream.  She loves pancakes and was intent on her stack even after we finished singing and gathered for some songs on the guitar.  

 Ummm we did finally take down the Christmas lights sometime after the party.

Eliel: 7 Months

Eliel turned 7 months old last week!

His favorite things are scooting out the front door (he pushes the screen door open) to sun himself on the porch, watching the chickens, and pulling up to standing on whatever he can. 

He is now happily eating egg yolks, liver, avocados and bananas from our yard, stewed carrots, and some butter.  He loves all of it and gets most of it in his mouth from his tray. 

I sent Colin a picture of Eliel pulling up on this toy at the library.  Colin came home that very day with the exact same toy that he had found on Craigslist.  Mavry and Eliel have gotten a lot of good out of it but it is sometimes a source of discord when Eliel pulls up and Mavry tries to get him off of it. 

Eliel at 6 months
Eliel at 5 months
Eliel at 4 months
Eliel at 3 months
Eliel at 2 months
Eliel at 5 weeks

Eliel: 6 months

Yowza! Eliel is already halfway through his first year.  He is growing so fast and moving around so much. 

He has five teeth and is scooting around.  He can already get up on the lower level of our coffee table. His favorite thing to do is to scoot over to the musical instruments basket there and pull it down then bang the instruments on the floor and chew on them. 

We finally got a mirror installed in the car so that we can see him in his rear facing seat, so now I know what he's doing back there.  He keeps himself occupied with watching Mavry or smiling back at himself in the mirror.  I guess one reason he's happier in the car than Mavry used to be is that he has a companion back there (and she can't mess with him when they are in their carseats!)

Eliel at 5 months
Eliel at 4 months
Eliel at 3 months
Eliel at 2 months
Eliel at 5 weeks

Mavry and Her Dolls

Mavry got this doll last Christmas from Mimi. (Mimi loves to give dolls to little girls.  I think we got one every Christmas growing up!)  In the past few months, Mavry has gotten really interested in having a doll or a bear to hold while around the house.  Sometimes she will have one come along in the car too. 

The dolls are generally naked because Mavry strips their clothes off and asks me over and over again to dress them.  She watches carefully as I do but can't quite get the clothes on herself yet. 

Eliel: 3 Months

Eliel (pronounced EL ee el) turned three months old on Christmas Eve!  We were busy getting packed and getting the house ready for visitors to stay in while we were gone, but we did get a few quick pictures with Raggedy Andy. 

I dressed him in a sweater suit I got at a thrift store before Mavry was born.  It's so cute, but Colin told me I should change him into something else.  :)

He looks like he liked the outfit change too.  He is a smiley little guy who loves faces.  He has figured out how to turn over from front to back and back to front and enjoys his floor time for short periods.  He likes to swat at his mobiles but his floor time is a little more limited than Mavry's was because she is always interested in "helping" him turn over or thinks he needs his diaper pulled off or a blanket over his face, or whatever else. 

She's also quite interested in the camera when I'm taking pictures of her brother. 

Christmas Blvd

A nearby church has a Christmas event they call Christmas Blvd with sledding, trains, horse rides, food trucks, a puppy petting zoo, and other fun stuff. 

We had fun with Mavry and Eliel.  Mavry's favorite thing, judging by what she talked about all the way home, was the fire.  She kept saying "bye bye, hot!"

They had free pictures with Santa.  I thought Mavry would think it was fun, or at least feel relatively neutral about it, but she did not like sitting on Santa's lap.  Eliel, on the other hand, was sleeping, and didn't mind at all. 

Eliel: 2 months

Eliel turned two months old on November 24th!  Time is really flying. 

He enjoys getting time by himself under his mobiles or next to a mirror, but he doesn't get much uninterrupted time unless his big sister is sleeping! (Of course, I try to get him to sleep when Mavry is sleeping, which I am only sometimes successful at doing.)  He gives us wonderful coos and smiles when we make eye contact with him.  He's been rolling over from front to back since he was less than a month old.  He might be able to make it from back to front before the next month is over!

He's really a wonderful little guy and we are so happy to have a family of four!

Thanksgiving on the Beach

 

 

For Thanksgiving this year, we rented a little vacation condo on the beach in San Diego.  We had a full kitchen to make/heat up our Thanksgiving dinner.  We got rack of lamb like last year, which Colin cooked.  I made pork stuffing (highly recommended!), cranberry orange sauce, sourdough rolls,
mashed cauliflower, mushroom gravy  and coconut custard cake.  We took walks on the beach and had a little play time in the rain on the beach on Friday morning too.  It was so lovely!

Friday night, we saw a big Christmas tree from the highway and went in search of it, then found out it was at Sea World.  The parking was free since it was close to closing, so we decided to see if we could get close to the tree.  We ended up getting in for free with a one hour shoppers pass and we got to see the big tree, some reindeer, lots of fun holiday lights, and the dolphins.  When we left, Mavry said "bye bye dolphins!"

Before we headed back on Saturday, we took in some views and had lunch in La Jolla.  Eliel is getting to be a big boy already!