Swing...Kiss!

Little Nate had his first time in a swing and he was all smiles. Of course, he's usually all smiles so it's hard to tell how much more he liked being in the swing.



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Finger

I'm often asked how Eli is coping with having a little brother. The good news is that once in a while, it looks like this:







Yep, I'm proud of that picture.

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Hike

You know it's always been my life-long dream to be the creamy center of a baby sandwich. Dream has been achieved, documented below.

But first, I started the hike by letting Eli hike on his own. We had done this before and Eli made it a few feet before he stopped to look at....anything. Then all forward progress would be lost and we'd have to call him down.

Today, however, he shot like a rocket. He was a man with a mission, trotting, navigating tree roots, climbing up stairs. He was on fire, tripping only once. I'd say he covered between 3/4 and 1 mile, with maybe 250 feet up in elevation.

That also explains why, when he got into his backpack, he drooped to the position you see in the sandwich below.




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I Take Full Responsibility

For the past few days, every time Eli sees the Golden Arches, he says, "I want fries!"




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Babble

Eli's been babbling continuously for the past few weeks. Maybe this has happened before, and I just wasn't paying close enough attention to the babble to hear it. But today, we were walking along a parking lot, Eli put his hands on our Toyota, looked at me and said "This is our car." That's officially his first sentence.

He followed that up with "This is the bath", "That is a plane", and "I said 'Stick'" (That's one of his snacks.) You wouldn't have understood the sentences out of context, but in context it was very clear.

We had a great family day. We did a hike in Pacifica from the pier, over the hills, to Rockaway Beach, where we hung out and lunch. We hike back a different route, took the kids on a drive so they could nap, walked around Twin Peaks where tourists wanted their pictures taken with our kids. But most of all, I got a bit of a baby sandwich.




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Eli knows how to hug. Sometimes when asked. Sometimes without being asked. Mommy, daddy, Nate, everyone. Even the most exhausting of days can be turned around with those two little arms around your neck.



(picture taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where he loved the waves splashing overhead.)

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Location:Central Ave,Pacific Grove,United States

And the Winner Is

While we are all reluctant to admit it, it is undeniably true that, at times, parenting is less of a cooperative endeavor than it is a competition.

We've been needing to cut Eli's and Nate's claws, I mean, fingernails for far too long. While I was in the other room (doing the dishes, thank you very much) Susie tried to cut E's. She begged, pleaded, offered a check ("A what?" Well, that's a separate post) a check for just one fingernail even. There was no cutting, only whining, complaining, and crying, and Eli wasn't behaving well either.

Enter daddy. I offered to cut his nails and he walked across the bed to where I was sitting, handed me the clippers, sat in my lap, and politely held out his fingers so I could cut them. Mission accomplished.

This made Susie mad, and she started to hit me. Repeatedly. On the shoulder and on the back. The hitting was more like a massage from my perspective, but that's just between you and me. But what should happen a few minutes later? Eli comes up to me and starts hitting me. Repeatedly. On the shoulder and the back.

I call this one a draw.




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Train

We've taken Eli on the muni trains a couple of times in the last few weeks, and each time it, well, it ended in tears. Started in tears, too. And the middle had more than it's share of tears.

But today, I kept talking about how awesome the train is, and when it arrived, he was excited to see it. For the entire twenty minute ride downtown, his face looked exactly like this:




Nate is now getting into wiggling, and batting at the toys hanging above his play mat. But mostly he likes to be held by his mommy, and hopefully not kicked by his brother.




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Location:Powers Ave,San Francisco,United States

If we're both off work, then we need to make the most of it. So off we went to Santa Barbara for a week. We had been there once before with Eli (when we took the train) and it was a perfect place for hiking, city walks, and the beach.

We did three hikes, each 4-6 miles long, two of which weren't disasters. We strolled State street many times. We visited the courthouse, and nearby, the best wooden-structure playground we have ever seen. We ate at a restaurant on the beach (beware, those seagulls really aren't afraid). And we played on the beach.




We stayed in a one bedroom house, where Nate got to share the bed with Mommy, daddy got to sleep on the couch, and Eli got to sleep in a shower. With such close quarters, I think the boys managed to bond just a little bit.




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Rain

The big event? Unkie Mark came to visit! And we had a great time. We went to the children's museum, bought unique root beers at BevMo, multiple walks around town, clothes shopping in the Castro, In-n-Out, Angry Birds, lunch with his client (my boss), and best of all, played played played. Eli started to warm to Mark, calling him "Mar" once or twice. Mark would make random noises and faces to make Eli laugh. He'd do that to make Susie and me laugh, too. We're sorry he had to go, but apparently he has a job and and a family of his own.








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Location:Church St,San Francisco,United States

Your Mother Should Know

Today was Nate's Father's Day hike. That is to say it was his first real hike. It was Father's Day in 2009 that Susie had the bright idea to take Eli on his first hike. I encourage you to look back through the archives to see how that hike went. I'd link to the post here, but I'm still trying to forget it ever happened. Today was much better. The whole way up to Pt. Reyes, he snoozed. For the whole hike in Bear Valley, he snoozed. On the way home....you can't have everything. He and Eli get each other worked up in a good cry, and that's what we had for the drive home. Although it was pretty cute when Eli, to comfort his brother, leaned over and said, "Shhhhhhhhhhhhh."




This was also Eli's first time riding in a full-frame backpack. It could have been worse (he threw up in REI when we tried it there). For the most part, Eli watched the birds, the stream, and the trees. He'd look up at a tall tree and say, "Hi!" and as we walked away from a tree he particularly liked, he'd say, "Buh-bye!"




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Location:San Jose Ave,San Francisco,United States