Music Class

Today was Elliot's first music class! He is doing Music Together with his friend Ben. Its the same progfram Henry did when he was little, and we hope Elliot likes it as much as Henry did.

He was a little perplexed at first, but was completely enamored of the teacher's guitar, and loved the instruments he got to play with:

And, just for fun...first time eating chilli!:

A Few things....

On Sunday, we joined the Carlisles for ice skating! Henry was fearless...he fell constantly, but would pop right back up and start tearing across the ice again. No pictures, because somehow Mike snookered me into putting skates on and going with Henry (not a pretty sight).

After skating, we went back to Kate and Ben's house for a bit, where Elliot had his first real dog encounter with their super sweet dog, Tess:

We will keep working on it....

Today was a day off from school, so Henry and I braved the cold and headed to the Science Museum!

And this picture just makes me laugh...pretty typical for around here:

Community Meeting

Every few weeks Henry's school has "Community Meeting" where the classes come together, sing the school song, perform, share announcements, and the class that "hosts" teaches something. Today was the Kindergartners first time to host. Henry was VERY excited. They were in charge of teaching facts about snow. Some students read snow facts, or helped with solos in some songs...Henry's big moment was here:



(Horrible camera work. I was trying to stop Elliot from rushing the stage)

His line: "and now first grade will share about boats. And second grade has a special announcement".

He practiced his line for a long time last night - he did a great job! :)

And here is one of their snow songs (although Henry is in the middle so you can't really see him. Still cute)

Bathroom Bandit

Elliot has discovered the bathroom, and it is his new favorite place. The mostfun for him is to go into our storage stool where we keep the washcloths, lift the lid, and gleefully spread the washcloths throughout the house. The other day, I heard a suspicous splashing noise and ran in to find that Elliot had discovered the joys of dunking the washcoths in the toilet, then flinging them about (and, uh, maybe sucking on them. GROSS.)

Today I walk in to this:

The look of guilt says it all.

Standing and Walking

On Sunday Elliot stood for the first time! (well, the first time that we noticed...) We were at his friend Ben's house playing, and Elliot was standing while holding my arm with one hand. Then, he let go! He stood on his own for about 5 seconds...Mike was deep in conversation with Matt and didn't notice what was happening right in front of him, so I started screaming "Look! Look! LOOOOOOOK!!!!!". I may have screamed a bit too enthusiastically, because I scared Elliot and made him cry. Oops. But, exciting that he stood!

Also, we brought out Henry's old walker wagon and the new favorite activity in the house is Henry pushing Elliot around in it:

And Elliot manages to push Henry, too!

New Years Sledding

The end of 2012 was not the best part of our year...Soon after Christnas Mike got really sick (it turned out to be strep throat) and was entirely out of commission for 3-4 days. Then Elliot got sick and was miserable and not sleeping. Since Mike was bedridden it was all me for the nights....one night I only had a total of 2 hours sleep the entire night, and faced the next morning with a miserable baby with a high fever, a 5 year old going crazy from too much time indoors, a very sick husband, and 5 inches of snow that had fallen overnight and needed to be shoveled.

That was the low point.

Mike got on antibiotics, and Elliot slept through the night (yeah!) and things were remarkably better after that. New Years Eve, though, turned into a very low key event where I went to bed at 9:30. Oh well.

On New Years Day, Henry and I were able to get out of the house finally to go sledding with his friends. We went to the park at the top of the hill we live on...It is great for sledding in terms of location, hill, and speed. The drawback is the parents need to stand at the bottom and literally catch the kids if they don't manage to stop on their own, since the bottom of the hill has trees, a steep drop off, and then a road. (we like to live on the edge). Sledding isn't sledding unless you have to fling yourself onto a moving sled to stop the occupant from flying into the street.

Happy New Year! May 2013 bring joy, good health, and SLEEP to all!