Elliott and the Dino

It's a long story, but boils down to this: My parents' back-door neighbor, who also happens to be my mom's cousin, know the people who own this dinosaur and were borrowing it for a few days. And we couldn't resist the opportunity to introduce Elliott!

The dino used to live on Franklin Road ... anyone recognize him/her?

Adam introducing them:



We had been trying for weeks to get Elliott to wave and out of the blue, he finally did it! Why not save it for a special time like when you are sitting on a dinosaur!?!



Hanging with Dew:

Snuggling with Lovee:

Family photo! We have so few of all of us together in one photo!

With cousin/neighbor Elaine:

After the dino, we went to see the horses that live in the front yard. He was pretty oblivious to them:


So random but really fun!

Playing with a ball

Don't forget: you are reading this blog voluntarily and you have been warned of the frivolity of the contents (see title above).

Here's a video of Elliott playing with a ball. Yup. That's it. I just liked it because it's him just being him in his little world, a little snippet of our day-in, day-out.

Untitled from adam r on Vimeo.

9 months!

1 week:

1 month:

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

9 months:

Playdates!

Well, I'm not always awesome at the traditional mom stuff, particularly since I'm a mom with a fulltime job, but one thing I could get used to quickly are playdates! Of course, they were much more about me getting to socialize!

Elliott and I are super popular :) so we had 2 playdates in one day while we were in Nashville!

First, I got together with my dear friends from freshman year of college, Ryan and Melanie. How strange to go from freshman-year dorm fun to sitting around watching our kiddos play! It was a blast to catch up!

Elliott playing with Mel's daughter Kaylee:

Eli and Kaylee having a little tea party:

All together (for about 7 seconds!). Elliott, Eli (Ryan's son), and Kaylee (Mel's daughter):

After our morning playdate, we headed to our lunchtime playdate with my practically-lifelong friend Katie and her 3 little ones!! It was our first time to meet Levi, her youngest, who is just a month younger than Elliott! So fun to see them together!


Elliott with Levi and Katie's oldest Annabelle. We missed Judah in these photos!

It's such a blessing to be able to keep up with old friends and get to know their kids! So special!

Knoxville Visit

After our 4th of July at the lake, we went to Knoxville for a too-quick visit!

Elliott was so excited to see Uncle Dew's school (UT) and apartment! Although he slept through the driving tour of campus, I could tell he was really pumped on the inside!

Dew's Apartment:


Playing on Dew's bed:
The BEST part of the visit was getting to introduce Elliott to his Aunt Lisa and Uncle Stan who haven't gotten to meet him yet! I have so many fun memories of visiting their house through the years so it was great to take Adam and Elliott to show them!



Elliott LOVED Stan's famous Donald Duck voice:


We also stopped by to visit my cousin Tyler's grave who passed away last year. I loved the big beautiful tree that he is resting under:

On the way out of town, we got to have lunch with two of our favorite Knoxvillians, Dew and Miss Tami! Hooray! We loved the little cafe Tomato Head that they showed us in Market Square ... great food, great atmosphere ... awesome!



Thanks to our hosts and tour guides ... I hope that we can come back soon!

2 steps in a row?

Check!

I guess that counts as "first steps"!?!

A video!

It's been forever since we downloaded videos from our little camera so we figured it was about time! Hope to post some more in the coming days.

This one is of Elliott standing earlier today. Yup, standing. It's his new favorite thing. He's done it several times in the past, but it's like someone flipped a switch this week and he can't get enough.

He's also taken some steps ... as in 1 step ... a few times. I don't think it counts as "first steps" until you can put 2 together at a time. We'll keep you posted. Part of me thinks it will be any day and part of me thinks we still have a while, so we'll see!

Enjoy!

Untitled from adam r on Vimeo.

4th of July!!! Part 2

More lake pics!!!

Dads with their kiddos:
Syd and Uncle Matty:



Kiddie pool time ~ sharing some love (we didn't even plan the matching hats!):

Can you even stand how cute!?!


Connor doing some impressive flips!


I really hated being in the hammock, lakeside, with my precious boy ...
And yes, we both really napped here (not posed!) ... it was awesome!

My first jet ski ride! So fun!!

Mimi has been waiting to take both babies on a walk in her double-stroller. Success!

Platts!


The whole gang (minus Mike and Dan ... boo!):

Cindy and Jean:

Cousins!




Playing with Grandaddy and his hat ... love this!

We ended the weekend with Tyler teaching us how to wake-surf. Matty nailed it:
Andy:
Love this of Amy as she knows she's going down!
What a fun and memorable weekend! Thanks so much for having us, Cheri and Mark!!!