Unplanned Dinner Out

We were at Guildford Mall today, doing some shopping, when it quickly became five thirty in the afternoon and we hadn't been to the library yet. So we decided to go to Whitespot where Elliot could eat his food out of a pirate ship. Unfortunately the Whitespot at Guildford was closed for renovations so we went to Red Robins. Elliot ordered his own food, followed by a please and thankyou. He ate his grilled cheese sandwich, fries, ketchup and entertained our neighbours in the process.

Sly like a Fox

Elliot asked for a cookie from our cookie jar. Mom said, okay but you can only take one. Reaching in he took one with his right hand, "One" he said. Then, just as his mother began to beam, he took another with his left hand, "One" he repeated and then ran as fast as his feet could carry him.

Synopsis of this Friday night

It's true, what you heard, about us having dinner at the mall tonight. And yes, it is even true that Elliot ate handfuls of fries and noodles and shrimps. I admit that we took him to Toys R Us where we definitely bought a couple of supplies for our trip through the Prairies which is upcoming up coming up. I can confirm that we did, in fact, take Elliot to the dollar store to buy a toy to occupy him while his mom looked at clothes. It's true that he picked two large rubber fish for his toy(s). I can't deny that he then walked all along the mall's thoroughfare, one fish in each hand, plopping them up and down in succession as if the fish were walking alongside their new owner. Perhaps he then carried the yellow fish in his mouth while handing the black fish to his dad, and asking him to do the same. To be honest, his dad did not oblige the fish-mongerer.
Then, it might be true that, he ran from clothes rack to clothes rack, yelling peek-a-boo to unsuspecting customers, forcing his poor dad to apologize a dozen times in one evening.
Then we might have come home, where we might have read "The Cat in the Hat Came Back" and then maybe even a "Li'l Critter" story involving a dump truck.
I will neither confirm or deny any of these rumours. Instead, I will go to bed. You should likely do the same.

 

Lamb and Dog, a Three Act Play

Our son, putting on a puppet show for us.
A Shakespearean tragic tale...the lamb falls to her untimely death.
 

Friend to the Monkeys

One of Elliot's favourite animals right now, is the monkey. And so he enjoys hanging out with his Gorilla. These pictures capture a calm moment, after he hugged the Gorilla but before he began to pummel the poor primate with punches.
 

Keepin it cool

Our family drinks quite a few slurpees.
We like Slurpees. We're the least healthy vegetarians in the world...
 

Really warm

The title says it all, but I feel obligated to keep typing anyways. It was really warm. Super duper warm, for a few days in a row. Up past 35 degrees. Elliot has the warmest room in the house, and although his thoughtful, caring and doting mother spent the entirety of each day trying to capture coolness and maintain it like a new pet, it was still unbearably hot. Even at night. And so Elliot wears the scars of heat rash in the pictures below.

 

good summer eatin'

Elliot attacks some corn. I was able to capture a couple of gruesome pictures of this violent "melee du mais". I hope no one who reads this blog knows any French or I might be hooped.
 

Elliot's mom and dad (neither of which is named Ned though one is me... therein lies the riddle) went to Ikea the other day (meaning a day other than today). Whilst there, they purchased a wooden train set for their son, whose name is Elliot. Then we went home and Elliot went to sleep, never seeing the train set. The next morning, after breakfast and some quality time with Patty, he noticed the train set and became so very excited about it that he left his mother with no choice but to open the package. He likes his train set.
 

Elliot and Tate have been pretty good about sharing the train set, with only a few battles and two attempted murders. Murder and trains go well together, so says Agatha Christie.

 

Because sometimes Elliot is growing too fast

We've got so many neat-o articles of clothing for our son, Elliot, and every once in a while I notice that one of his neat-o articles of clothing has never been worn on our son, Elliot, and they might be getting to be too small for him. So then I force him to wear them, if only for a few moments and a few photographs.
Elliot's zombie picture:
 

Elliot prays on his own (instead of preying on his own)

Yesterday at dinner Elliot closed his hands and closed his eyes as his dad started to pray. Then he prayed himself, something about his Daddy and his DVDs, followed by an amen.
He prayed by himself at lunch today too. Something about Elliot and food.

Elliot decided not to let us watch Midnight Cowboy lastnight (on the list of AFI's top 100 movies in American history). He was confused, I think. He was asking for pancakes. I think he thought that it was morning last night.
The evening was going quite well at first, we all went to White Spot with a friend. Elliot kept talking about his pirate ship, even before he got one. He ate lots of his fries and grilled cheese sandwich. He introduced himself to all of our table-neighbours. He let his dad eat his icecream. We went home, he played with his new Ikea train set (pictures to follow). Dad took him upstairs. We read Lil Critter, I am a Bunny, Cat in the Hat and I put him in bed. Then he began to scream. That was eight o'clock. Mom and I took turns trying to convince him to go to bed. Finally, I turned his lights down again and lay on the floor and lay very still while he tried to find a comfortable spot next to me, where he quickly fell asleep, at nearly midnight. We figured it was too late to watch the movie at that point (by about four hours).
Now the household is tired. So very tired.
Here are some cool pictures emailed to us from dear friends who had us over for dinner recently.

Baby Uncooperative - Must be from Mom's side

We went for an ultrasound yesterday and it went well, in that everything looked normal. We didn't get any good pictures though as the baby spent most of its time on its belly. Still, we are very thankful for Andrea's doctors and the technician we worked with yesterday. They had nothing but good news for us.

Classic Elliot TV - Elliot sits up, the rest is history

C:\My Documents\My Pictures\June 28 2005\almost crawling on Vimeo

Classic Elliot TV - early hockey skills

C:\My Documents\My Pictures\Feb 13 2006\early crosby on Vimeo

sofer sogud

Elliot went down well in his new bed last night and slept throught the night. Mom thinks he fell out of bed and she has built a case of evidence, but I'm not convinced. Neither would a jury be.
Then this afternoon he slept in his bed again for his nap. Mom had a nap too and woke up when Elliot was trying to get in her room.
It kind of feels like Elliot grew up last night. Our own faults for encouraging it, I suppose.

Evening snack

Honey nut cheerios with milk.

 

Here Elliot is practicing sleeping tonight in his new bed. He wasn't sure about it at first, of course, thinking that it was "uh-oh". But, as I type these word, he is asleep in his bed. No trouble at all tonight.
 

Working on the Day of Rest

For those who are militant in their view of recognizing the Sabbath, even this may not qualify as an exception: Performing maintenance on your agent of sleep (ie bed)?


Elliot and I changed his crib into a bed this afternoon after his nap.

Man Vimeo is fast

It used to take a day or two for Vimeo to translate downloaded clips so they were accessible by blogs but now it seems like it is instant.
So here is our video of Elliot learning to play frisbee. He's good!


Elliot learns to play frisbee on Vimeo

Saturday July 15 2006 - A day unlike any other

So what made today so special? Nothing particularly. But it was a great day. Elliot and Dad woke up at 7am (apparently he had two dreams about Annika and one of them had her singing) and ate waffles (pancakes in Elliotian) and watched Looney Tunes. Elliot has been loving Looney Tunes. He calls them "Bunny DVD" and asks for them constantly. Dad's okay with that, having grown up on the stuff. Then Mom woke up and we all had showers (Elliot has showers sometimes now). On the way downstairs after the showers, Elliot sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to his Dad (he actually sings the whole song) and then Baa Baa Black Sheep (but the wool is for Poppup and Tate in his version).
Then we went to the Bottle Depot to deposit our cans and bottles for cold hard cash (eleven dollars and fifteen cents) and Elliot and his mom walked to Esso to get slurpees. Elliot had an accident with the pop machine there but Mom cleaned it all up.
Then we went to a new park, where Elliot went on the digger (which has handles for kids to push and pull to pick up and dump gravel), the slide and a pretend car.
Then we had lunch and Elliot had a nap while Mom and Dad cleaned up the garage a bit.
Afterwards, Elliot came down and played in our garage and front yard.
We had a BBQ in the back yard and Elliot splashed in his pool. We met Caleb (21 months) and Lilly (3 1/2 years) and their parents Beverly and Jay. They just moved next door yesterday. Really good people.
The highlight of the day (for Dad at the very least) was to talk to Grandma Ashton on the phone. Elliot had a good, though seemingly random, talk with her for a minute but Dad got to catch up with her quite a bit, which was a real pleasure.
Then Elliot went to sleep and Dad downloaded all the pictures and a video from the day.

Maybe you're all right.

Maybe he is the cutest kid in the world...