Brookfield Zoo fieldtrip

Monkies!!

WALK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Natalie starting holding our hands and walking a couple of weeks ago. She howls with laughter while chasing Elliot around the apartment. She has also started to do this guttural grunt/growl when she wants to walk (which is quite frequent) and is not finding the appropriate adult hands to assist.

Conked out

We spent the morning at the park and ate lunch 'al fresco'. On the stroll back home a sun soaked Spider Man and Natalie fell fast asleep. Well Elliot did. He made the transfer to bed and took his second nap in the last two months. Ahh.....

Uncle Piggy's birthday party

Great fun at Bill's 70th. Friends, family, chocolate cake and trains. Perfect day for Elliot.

Cousin Dawn was great with Natalie. Baby sitter?

Clean Turtle

Tiny one. Super clean. No peas up that nose.

Natalie Splashing -video

Here she is recorded for posterity splashing in the bath. Go Natalie!

The Turtle Eats! The Turtle Splashes!

Just before her 7 month birthday (tomorrow) Baby Natalie decides to venture forth beyond the boob. Hooray! To make it a bit more interesting, she insists upon grabbing the spoon herself and guiding it (the spoon and cereal in this case) to her mouth. Once she is done, she reassures herself that gravity does still exist by dropping the half loaded spoon to the ground.

Needless to say, the whole process was quite a mess resulting in a bath. Natalie discovered while in the bath that she, like her sainted brother, can splash too, now that she can sit up (yep, sitting up). She was quite excited and went at it with gusto.

Look in to my eyes . . .

Natalie attempts mind control of the Daddy.

Bathtime finger paints

An Easter gift from Gramma Monnie. If you didn't know better, you might think we just had a particularly colorful strain of bathroom mold.

Mud Bug

In springtime, a young boy's thoughts turn to dinosaurs, stingrays and mud mud mud.

Confetti Diaper Party

Shockingly enough, Natalie didn't really like this.

St. Pat's Dinner with the Stephens Family

Among the things we learned this evening: (1) a crowded Irish bar on St. Pat's is a little scary for children under 3 (2) Unless you have been desensitized since you were in the womb, growling 2 year old boys are scary to baby girls like Avery (3) Mexican restaurants are pleasantly quiet on St. Pat's. (4) Portabella mushroom fajitas are "not good, Dad" (even though Elliot loves regular mushrooms.)

Sexy Shoulders

So, I (Julie) must confess to one vanity -- my shoulders. I do believe they are my best feature. It looks to me like Baby Natalie might have inherited them. We're banking on Geoff's genes for a prodigious memory.

Zoe playdate

We were snowed in today. We haven't bought a snow shovel and I wasn't about to dig us out of the snow anyhow. Amy saved me by dropping Zoe off for most of the day. They read to each other -- which involved a lengthy debate about whether the tigers were swimming in juice or water. They had the animals talk to each other. Elliot was a slightly overenthusiastic bear. Played with playdough, puzzles, sang, etc.

Julie's birthday

We went to the Choo-Choo restaurant in Des Plaines. It's a long way from the Slanted Door in San Francisco.

Thanks to Jon and Em. Plus the hot, new Bumbo!

Super cute outfit gift from Jon and Emily to baby Natalie. It even matched her announcement colors. Thanks y'all!

The Bumbo is the hot new baby chair these days, I hear. Nat looks great in lavender.

Oh, and Elliot dressed like such a fool, I think he may have a future in a Whitesnake cover band. Winter hat and gloves, cammo pants and a monster t-shirt. Rock on foolio.

Kohl's Children's Museum

Big trip to the burbs today. Elliot was mesmerized by a perpetual motion machine. Zoe pretended to eat toast for the camera. Piper had a P party all to herself and Will and Angus tried to disassemble a kitchen.

Good fun.

Five little monkies - sorry about the tilted camera.

Shedd Aquarium Trip

Grandpa and Grandma gave us a membership to the Shedd Aquarium for Chirstmas. Julie and the crew have been a handful of times already. Here's the lot from today's trip: Zoe, Piper, Will and Angus. Not pictured due to fear of flash photography: Audrey.

Natalie - eyes open

They are still blue. Elliot's eyes are turning green as he is happy to tell anyone who will listen.

Elliot the white water canoeist

Elliot got ahold of Grandma Bonnie's whitewater canoe gear recently. He looks like a hippie little drummer boy to me.

More Northwestern Gear

We are terribly behind in posting photos. Grandma Bonnie got Elliot and Natalie Northwestern sweatsuits for Christmas. Go Cats! (or Meerkats as they seem to have become.)

Aunt Bean knits a hat for Natalie too

Thanks Aunt Bean. I have to say teaching the aunts to knit is really paying off. =)

New Lynelle Knitted Creation for the Turtle

Aunt Lynelle did it again. This hat is ridiculously cute. Thanks!

Braveheart

No, Elliot is not an anti-semite alcoholic but he does love him some Mel Gibson-type face painting.

Go Meerkats

The Zipprichs gave Elliot a Northwestern football jersey for his birthday. He refuses to take it off. However, he insists on calling it his "Meerkats jersey." I guess it's better than "Mildcats jersey."

Elliot "art directs" christmas photos

We have yet to send out our Christmas card and it is now January 8th. We attempted to stage the shot in front of Uncle Dee's (aka Daddy Hobbit's) Christmas tree in Austin, Texas. We did, however, let Elliot art direct as he yelled out Octopus, Tiger and Fish in order. The one shot of us smiling didn't quite work. What do you think? Tigers for a Christmas card in February?

Don't mess up the line up

Elliot loves to line things up -- primarily his animals and cars. These line ups can become quite elaborate. Once lined up, he reminds us any time we come near, not to mess up the line up. I'm convinced that once Elliot becomes whatever it is that he is going to be, we'll say we always knew it because of these line ups. Engineer? Architect?

Santa??!?!?

So, I woke up one morning, mid-December, with no plan. For me and my special 2-year-old, this is a bit of an emergency situation. I thought, Kris Kringle Mart downtown. Well, that doesn't open until 11, we arrived at 9:30. Then on a random whim, we wandered into Macy's (formerly Marshall Fields, and still, happily for Elliot and I, carrying Frango Mints). All around me in the line were moms who had dressed their kids up in Christmas special togs. Elliot, however, was dressed by dad -- sporting a bed head and sweat pants. With limited prep I stuck Elliot on a strange man's lap with a huge white (real) beard. He didn't scream. He just sat sort of frozen. The hot dog at the Kringle mart was much more to his liking.

Matrix Sweater

Aunt Lynelle made this wicked cool sweater for Natalie. Thanks!