Elliot's favorite toy

A couple of months ago, I posted a couple of pictures of the things Elliot likes to wear around the house and you may have noticed that one of the things he wore was an upgrade of our harness/leash situation.

I've mentioned many times what a snuggly baby Elliot is, and he extends those snuggles to stuffed animals as well as us.  I think that's why he was so interested in the monkey harness to begin with--the monkey part of it.  When we showed him he could wear it, man, that was something else!

He even took to wearing the harness while carrying around the fuzzy brown jacket he'd been in since late winter.  Apparently it's close enough to a stuff animal to snuggle, too...

Indoor fun

What with having spent the past six months either 17 months pregnant or caring for a newborn, we have spent more than our fair of time indoors.  On the few occasions it's become clear that we're not leaving the house, I get out toys to promote a little more activity.

I saw this little igloo tent at Ikea for $10 while we lived a reasonable distance from one in Chicago and have not regretted bringing it home with us...

Okay, so that's actually a lousy shot of the tent, but you get the idea.  When I was a kid, I had a little play tent at my Grandma's house and it was just the coolest thing ever and I love giving my kids a similar experience.  They have a ball when I bring this puppy out.

The very cool collapsible tunnel Kendra got from Poppa for her last birthday has also seen a lot of playtime in the past few months.

It's a lifesaver to have stuff like this around for those we-are-WAY-too-cooped-up-here days.  Especially because once they've had an afternoon of fun, we can just fold it up until the next time we feel the need (or until Elliot finds the tunnel package and brings it to me and begs me to open it, which happens on a fairly regular basis as we store it on the floor next to the wardrobe in their room).

It's also SO nice that the older two are old enough to be playing together and keeping each other entertained for such long stretches of time.  They seem to have a lot of fun together, and we love watching it.

Sweet Elliot

Elliot is a very, very sweet little boy and always has been.  Even as a small infant, he began smiling weeks before Kendra did and soooo much more than either of his siblings have.

All these videos are several months old, but they capture different parts of his personality very well.

This one was right after his birthday in June and we were trying to record his little kissy face, but Grant got him to demonstrate how cuddly he can be, too.


One evening we were playing around before bed and caught a little video of it.  I spend loooots of my time doing stuff like this with Elliot.


And this last one is more recent, right before Paxton was born.  As a parent, it's easy to get sucked into wanting to buy your kids ALL OF THE CRAP you see in stores, but it turns out kids are so easily entertained with the simplest things.  Like a $1 pinwheel...


I know they're not much, but I feel like little videos of simple things are pretty neat.  I know I'd be totally fascinated to see footage like this of my own childhood and we already appreciate what we've got of Kendra at this age because it turns out kids go and grow up whether they get your permission to or not...

Our sweet little Elliot.

Playing in the rain

I thought I was behind with blogging our pictures...it's downright embarrassing how many videos I've neglected!  I'll try to space them out instead of spamming them at you all at once...

I think everyone has at least a few ideas in their head of, "When I have kids, I'm going to..."  One of Grant's firmest pre-parenthood pacts with himself and his children is that he would take his kids out and play in the rain.

So, most times it rains while he's home and the weather is at least a little warm, he does just that.  We put Kendra in a swimming suit and he takes her around for a long time, playing, running, splashing, looking at the worms that come up out of the ground.  They have a ball together.  It's their "thing"...at least until next summer when Elliot will be old enough to join them.  :)

This video is from last summer, and it's a pretty good representation of the kind of fun I'm talking about...

Paxton's First Month

I have been a little slow with the blogging and quite a bit behind when I do get around to it.  So here is a little photo dump of Paxton's first month (or so) on Earth, in chronological order...

Grant noted a while back that we have far more pictures of Kendra's first month than that of either of her brothers' and that's true, but I think we're doing pretty well--I only took one or two from each series we had and I actually have blogged plenty of them, especially ones with siblings.

Paxton is a pretty laid-back baby, who often has a rather concerned look on his face.  But he is an adorable and wonderful addition to our little family!

Unattended blueberries

My go-to treatment for cutting teeth is frozen blueberries.  Nothing seems to work quite as well to help with the discomfort, and!  It's also a nutritious snack.

So when Elliot was cutting molars a while back, I busted out the frozen blueberries.  But one day, I forgot to put them away when we were done at the table.

Do you know what happens to unattended blueberries in our home...?  At some point later, I heard a "tink, tink, tink..." of a spoon hitting a bowl but I hadn't yet learned that if I'm not eating and Grant isn't eating, that noise is NOT one you want to hear!

Do you know how hard it is to get blueberry juice off a white wall?  It's still that exact same color, I can't even lighten it half a shade.  I'm pretty sure we're just going to have to paint over it to remove it.

Oh, well.  At least he was feeling better.