Big sister's day out

Gabriel's party trick

That's salsa. And he's drinking it.

Dr. Show White, the specialist

Ballet class, episode 1

Eleanor has been going to ballet class now for about a month, and I just realized I haven't taken a picture of her in her ballet clothes.  She requested to switch from gymnastics and I was a little skeptical, but she's been really happy so far.  They move more constantly in ballet class, the outfit is more special, there's music, and the tap shoes at the end are really loud.  Ballet for the win. 

Gabriel at 14 months

First day of MDO

Today is Gabriel's first day of Mother's Day Out. I planned to line up both kids on the steps with their backpacks on and take a cute picture, but the kids thought that lacked a certain verve.

First, Eleanor had to bounce a basketball off the top of her head as many times as possible.

Then Gabriel had to water the garden.

Then he had to get mad at me for not letting him climb in the sand/mud bucket to play.

Then he had a good laugh after he smear the sand/mud all over me.

And this is the closest we got to the "sitting on the steps with backpacks" pose.  Eleanor is still bouncing a basketball on her head.

Happy first day Gabriel!

Gabriel at 1 year

Walking!

And we go swinging in the sky.

Eleanor's 3 year interview

This is first of (hopefully) annual interviews with the kids on their birthdays. Eleanor's responses are bold, mom's additions are in italics.

 1. What is your favorite color?
  Purple

 2. What is your favorite toy?
  "cats and dogs"
I have no idea what that means.

 3. What is your favorite fruit?
blackberries and Carl
Carl is not a fruit, he's a dog. A fictional dog.


4. What is your favorite TV show?
Cars

 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
  Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

 6. What is your favorite outfit?
  a party dress and dora dress

 7. What is your favorite game?
the yellow one
(cranium. and she doesn't actually know how to play it, she just likes to scatter the pieces everywhere and draw on the notepads)

 8. What is your favorite snack?
crackers

 9. What is your favorite animal?
cat
news to me

 10. What is your favorite song?
(does a goofy dance around the room)
Elizbeth Mitchell's bird song, They Might Be Giants Cross the street song

 11. What is your favorite book?
(starts listing every book she can see right now)
Eloise, the Cars book, Space Boy, all astronaut books, Olivia, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, Carl, Thomas the Train

 12. Who is your best friend?
  "Cars and Mater and Lightening and ants but they may bite you"
Not sure what to add to that

 13. What is your favorite cereal?
raisin bran

 14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
hang
play in the sandbox, catch bugs, explore, be dirty, climb stuff

 15. What is your favorite drink?
orange juice

 16. What is your favorite holiday?
easter egg hunt

 17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
a tent and animals and panda
water bottle and blankie

 18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
cereal and waffles
pancakes

 19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
pizza
ok

 20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
a dora and an astronaut

Train adventure

We took the train to Mockingbird Station and had a delicious dinner at Urban Taco. Eleanor enjoyed introducing Gabriel to one of her loves: riding the train!

Happy 10 Months, Gabriel!

Time is really flying now. Gabriel has developed a huge personality over the last couple of months - he's a curious, cheerful, adventurous eating machine. He's been struggling with his third and fourth teeth this week and he's currently a bit of a biter. His favorite things are exploring outside, eating, Eleanor, drums, water, dirt, and the quack-a-long. He still does not care for car rides. He's not quite walking but he's a skilled crawler and cruiser. We're having a bit of a tough time sorting out lucky babbling from his first few words, but we're pretty sure about "dog" and "mama." Love this terrific little guy!

Gabriel stood up by himself today! It was an accident and only lasted
about ten seconds.

Go gabe go!

A week hardly ever goes by without Richard and Eleanor making atleast
one batch of pancakes. She's making that face because he told her not
to just start shoveling them in her mouth, but to wait until they were
done and brought to the table. He's very mean.

I felt like when I took this picture Gabriel was trying to make me
laugh on purpose. He was eating pieces of bread and banana, and once
he bent over and ate a piece directly off the table. I laughed because
he looked silly (it's much cuter when babies do it than 2 year olds),
then he did it again. But this time he looked up at me with his face
down on the table, like he was seeing if I still thought it was funny.
Then he had a big laugh of his own.

8 months and crawling

What a great way to celebrate turning 8 months old!

Child lock fail.

Eleanor has a door knob cover on the inside of her door since she
moved out of her crib. It worked great.
Today she walked into our bedroom in her pajamas holding it and said
"here mommy, this was keeping me from coming to visit you so I took it
off." And promptly got into our bed.
Oh well.