Excited

This is how excited Elliot is that Grandpa Bill, Uncle Kyle and Uncle Todd are visiting.

New Phrase

Elliot's favorite phrase the past couple of days has been, "Oh no. Mess."

Can I tell you that I love that I have a child who seems about as concerned as I am when his cup leaves a water ring on the dining room table?

Scaring Nolan

Lately, Elliot's favorite thing to do is to "scare" people. Unfortunately, our favorite victim, Aunt Kara, is out of town. So we had to get creative. Enter Nolan.

Mommy is Daddy No More

So, as it turns out, the out-loud musings and ironic observations that provided me with entertainment as I fed, changed and bathed my child each day were, while amusing, not the best method to teach a kid to talk. This became clear when one of Elliot's friends, who is just a few months older than Elliot, was talking about blasphemy while Elliot was blowing raspberries and wondering who the heck this mommy person everyone kept talking about was. So I mended my ways. Instead of pithy comments, I narrated, narrated, narrated ("mommy take Elliot out", "mommy put juice in elliot's cup" and so on). This is the result. I am officially mommy. Cue the jubulation and celebratory milkshakes.

Elliot's Idea of a Perfect Afternoon

Reading a new Lightning McQueen book while eating Lightning McQueen fruit snacks. Life just doesn't get any better (and, yes, that is a trickle of drool on his chin). Thanks to Grandma Suzan for the great Valentine's package.

V-Day

Since we rarely venture out of our neighborhood, this morning we decided to head down to the City Bakery for their annual Hot Chocolate Festival. The flavor of the day was (as one might guess) love potion. Basically, they took their already very creamy hot chocolate and added hot fudge. It was like a hot chocolate soup. Now I want to go back and try banana peel -- and get another one of their pretzel croissants - those things were amazing.

On the way home we stopped at Books of Wonder, an independent kids bookstore. I think Elliot has found his new favorite store in Manhattan. In fact, the only way we could get him to leave without making a scene was to allow him to read his new book as we went.

This kid cracks us up.

Home Again

We just got back from spending 3 weeks in Connecticut babysitting my siblings while my parents were in India. Some thoughts:

1. My kids are definitely doing home study seminary. Or walking.
2. An uncle will love his nephew even if said nephew nearly bites a chunk out of said uncle's cheek (see picture below).
3. Snow days, delays and early dismissals are part of the school district's secret plot to drive all parents insane.
4. After doing a week's worth of laundry for 6 kids, encasing the kids in plastic wrap starts to seem reasonable.
5. Having one kid suddenly seems like a breeze.



In other news, Elliot likes decorating sugar cookies. Or, rather, getting a lot of frosting on his hand and licking it off.