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Soon to be the newest addition to the family . . .
a baby girl!

20 weeks

Fun with Fiona (or A Visit to Ventura)

We spend part of the long weekend visiting good friends in Ventura, where Elliot had a blast playing with Fiona ("Fu-ona"), and we got some delightful adult time while the kids played well together.
some photos:

At the beach, where E spent most of the time trying to avoid the waves.

He didn't eat all day, then decided to try deep fried octopus for lunch. Hmm. Weird kid.

Elliot at Two

Elliot turned two a month ago. He is a joy. Funny, talkative, outgoing, silly, happy, friendly, energetic. He loves to read, ride his bike, ride in the bike trailer, take walks, play in water. His favorite toys are animal figurines, dinosaurs, books, crayons, and cars/trains. But he will happily play with almost anything and anyone. He loves to talk, describing everything around him (mostly in his own language, but with more and more real vocabulary emerging everyday). He is still a very picky eater, refusing all fruits and vegetables unless in squeezy pouch form, or dried fruits. But he happily eats nuts/seeds, meat, cheese, grains, yogurt, and sometimes tofu. And he loves his milk.
Here are a few photos:

Settling in to Riverside

Here are a few photos of our first month and a half in our new Southern California home.

Our hallway is a nice place to read a book

Playground at Fairmount Park

Dayhike in Big Bear

At the SD Zoo

At the SD Zoo

Bubbles outside our house

Backpacking in Big Bear

We just got back from a short (overnight only) backpack trip up in Big Bear, San Bernardino Nat Forest. It was Elliot's first backpack, though not first time camping. We chose a short 2 mile trail since we had to carry all our things AND Elliot. Though as it turned out, he walked about half the distance up the hill (saving my load by 25 lbs!). Chris carried most of the gear, save the pots, which we accidentally forgot in the car, whoops. Luckily, it was only 2 miles down (and 2 back) to retrieve them before dinner! Some photos and a couple of videos:

Our packs

Enjoying the view

Make me breakfast!

Helping pack up the tent

Fun with Mom

Video: Elliot describes the evening sky.

Video: Running up the trail after 1/2 mile of hiking uphill.

Our Last Few Weeks in New Haven

Cherry Blossom time in Wooster Square

Fun with Greta

We play so well together.

On the Bronx Zoo Bug Carousel

Playing along the Andrew Goldsworthy stone wall.

A visit to Storm King Sculpture Park in NY with Grandma.

Mirror fence

 

Good friends. We'll both miss Greta and Caro a lot.

The fun turtles in East Rock Park.

Farm Day

There's an environmental high school in New Haven that has gardens, animals, and public education programs, and that is open to the public on Saturdays in the spring through autumn. We went to their season opening day yesterday with Elliot's friend Greta.

Before the big hug. Lately, Elliot has been hugging his friends Greta and Oliver.

Nature walk, collecting pine cones.

Exploring in the woods near the piglets.

They looked like twins yesterday!

Roaming with the chickens.

The truck-filled digging area attracted a flock of little boys.

Update on Eating

An update on Elliot's eating:
We are getting into a new rhythm as far as eating goes. At a doctor's appointment a week ago, we learned that he'd lost a pound since his 18 month check up (down to 23lbs from almost 24lbs 2 months ago). He's a very skinny boy, but not off the charts or anything. And the doctor said he looked fine, what he was eating was not a problem, and he may be more active now, thus weight loss. He is actually not as picky as some kids in stories I've heard! But he is also not very adventuresome either.

He gets foods from all the food groups:
fruit (in fruit leather and applesauce),
veggies (hidden in breads I make, veggie squeeze pouches, spinach in eggs),
bread (crackers of all varieties, bread),
protein (meat, peanut butter, eggs, hummus),
dairy (milk, cheese in eggs),
grains (rice, quinoa).


He has recently discovered that dipping is fun. He dips crackers in hummus, and french toast in applesauce.

He is also on his way to eating carrots, I think. He will put one in his mouth, even bite down, but spits out any little bits.

A bonus to his changing food intake is that we're now mostly just offering him food from our plates so not making him special meals.

Egg Hunt

We had a fun picnic and egg hunt with friends today. Here are some photos of Elliot with friends Greta, Oliver and Sam.

Sharing eggs with Greta.

A good storage place for his matzo bread. (hey, it's Passover! You need matzo with your eggs.)

What better basket than a pumpkin?

Goofing around with Sam.

Elliot does it his own way. Not a conformist, this one.

A Peabody Morning

A nice morning to go to the dinosaur museum.

Look at that!

The rest of the di-so went THAT way!

See the brown blur? It's hard to take photos of a moving target.

The towering greeter at the entrance to the museum.