Cutes

Our two adorable children!

We're back home now, getting back into the daily grind. Hurricane Ike is spicing things up a bit. We have not been ordered to evacuate, but have been told to batten down the hatches. My house will have boarded up windows. That's weird. Is there a place in the United States where weather disasters don't pack seriously high winds and the ability to move the ocean onshore? I want to live there.

Two neat (if you ignore the scariness of them) facts about Hurricane Ike:

1) It is one of only five storms (3 of which were this year) that can fill the Gulf with its wind and cloud cover
2) Hurricanes are conglomerations of hundreds of tiny thunderstorms. Just like fish swim in schools and cows travel in herds, thunderstorms travel in Hurricanes.

What's in a name?

Eli's vocabulary is expanding rapidly now. He surprises us all the time with words we didn't even know he knew! One of my favorites is when he talks about Grammy's german shepherd and says, "Big dog...big dog walkin'." It's also very cute the way he rolls his whole mouth around the word uncle. He seems to say it with an 'o' instead of an 'u'.

The silliest thing he says are his and Leah's names. They always come out the same way, but without this post you wouldn't have any idea what he was saying. He sat in the living room and said the first and middle name of his cousin, but when you ask him to say 'Eli', he says 'Audi'. Even when you slow it down and ask him to say 'E' he will say it correctly, then you ask him to say 'li' and he says 'Audi'. Eeeeeee....audi is how it comes out. Every time. It is so weird and cute. When you ask him to say Leah, and if he doesn't insist on saying Baby as her name, he will say Waudi. I just don't get it. Even when he is absent-mindedly repeating what he hears, if his name is in it, he'll say Audi not Eli.

Airplanes

Some reasons why Eli likes airports:

1) Big airplanes
2) Big windows



3) Baggage cars which hook together and look like trains!

Mom and I packed a days worth of activites to keep him busy on the plane. He used some while we were waiting but on the plane both kids were as good as gold. Since carseats go only by the windows, Mom and Eli sat behind Leah and me. No screaming, whining, crying, or painful ears...amazing!

Cousins!

more to come...

It's coming!

Her smile is almost here!

Cousins!

My sister-in-law flew in this week and we got all the cousins together. We had a good time watching the older ones interact. We took everyone to the Children's Museum and even though we had one adult per child (both grandmothers were on hand) we were still exhausted by the time we got home!


Here I am holding my new niece Claire! She's several weeks older than Leah and smiles and coos at you, it's so cute.

Madelyn and Eli are figuring out how to share, most of the tiime they were pretty good at it.

Claire and Leah were unaware of each other's existence, but aren't they cute!

We had a good time walking to the museum, walking through the shade and running through the sunshine.

Playing with plastic tortillas is always a hit when at the museum.

It always surprises me how much little kids like to hold hands with each other, but not with mom. Check out Eli's face!

I have several pictures of Eli and friends at my grandma's piano. It should be no exception that her great-grandchildren should play it together!

Bribery

I just bribed Eli into eating a bite of sweet potato by offering a bite of broccoli as a reward...and it worked.

Hold her!

"Hold her, hold her" he said.

so we did.

He's 2!

Leah got all dressed up for Eli's brithday. She spent the rest of the morning sleeping, but had to throw a fit about being put in her car seat...but isn't she cute?!

Eli had a busy birthday! We took him to the park to ride the train. It's a 25 minute ride that keeps his head swivelling back and forth. As we were waiting to the leave the station we snapped a few pictures and tried desperately to get him to smile. The most successful attempt was when I asked him to show us his teeth. Looking good!

The train was recently upgraded to a slightly bigger model, which makes it easier for parents to sit with their kids. Our conducter had a dry sense of humor perfected after days of 25 minute train rides in the summer heat.

We prepared Eli for the inevitable end of the train ride by suggesting an audience with the "dirt" going on all over the park. Construction crews were digging up various parts of the park and Eli narrated all of the successful back-hoe maneuvers with the phrase "got it" and all of the unsuccessful maneuvers with "stuck". No picture of the dirt movers, just an ill-choreographed attempt at a mother/son photo opp.

The train took us past some fountains in the park that I have always wanted to get Eli to play in. The other kids look like they are having fun and it's free! I guess he was just waiting to turn 2!

Remember when I said you could see the fountains from the train? Eli loved seeing the train from the fountain!

To end his very busy birthday, we took him to Chuck E Cheese, where he was less than thrilled with the mouse. He did however like riding in the motorized horse race!

Little lady and gentleman

A cute sleeping girl.



Yes, we put his hand around her, but he likes her.

He did this all by himself.

Keep scrolling for lots more pics...

Celebrity

It reminds me of one of those tabloid shots.

How to eat a pudding pop!

Then you strip and hop in the tub!

Outside

Eli really enjoys playing outside, especially with water. Our friend snapped some great shots of Eli, so here is the beginning of a series of posts.

Since we don't let him spray us...

I suggested once that he put it on his head...

Risky...



Just because he can...

Real trains

These are some of my very favorite pictures.

Ringing the bell was a big hit!

This is how Leah enjoyed the trains.

Little Lady Jane