The boys at play

Elliot, Nacho and Paul having a blast on a lazy Sunday afternoon . . .

Giggles . . .

giggles . . .

and more giggles.

There ain't nothing that Elliot won't eat

Elliot's gotten to a stage where he insists on eating some of whatever we're eating (or something vaguely similar if I can be sneaky enough). It's cute and all, but also kind of annoying as we have to be careful and only eat junk food when he's asleep or not looking.

Paul and I were happily noshing on kalamata olives yesterday when Elbow started whining and salivating in our direction. Paul and I shared a look and a shrug, and I bit off a bit of olive and handed it to Elliot. He plopped it into his mouth and without so much of a squint he was begging another. Aren't kids supposed to hate things like olives and stuff?

All I know is that I've laid down the law and decided that Elliot will not be getting any vegemite on toast until he's old enough to make it himself although I have my suspicions that Paul has other ideas.

All these new toys . . .

. . . and I'd rather play with mom's dirty socks!

Baby market bargains

Every six weeks or so, there is a market in Perth where parents sell their kids' preloved toys, clothes, books, baby goods, etc. Paul and I love going to them, but as they're usually on a Sunday morning and we are slow to get going on Sunday mornings, we usually only see the tail end of the markets and the remnants left over from the more dedicated bargain-hunting parents who got there earlier. But not this past weekend, no siree.

Paul, Elliot and I got to the market minutes after it opened and queued in the amazingly long maze of a line that wrapped through the recreation centre to the gigantic gymnasium at the back. After elbowing our way through the throngs of parents, strollers, toddlers and ready-to-pop pregnant ladies for several hours (mind you we needed a coffee break to regroup), we walked away with armfuls of bargains. What, might you ask, did we snag?

Fisher Price Ride to Stride walker thingie

Tupperware Shape Sorter

Leap Frog Learning Drum

Bag full of toys including Fisher Price cell phone and stacking action blocks plus heaps of other stuff

 Plus we got heaps of like-new name-brand clothes (two t-shirts, one polo shirt, one pair of shorts, one pair of pants, two sleepers, and one hip sweatshirt)

And how much, might you ask, did we fork out in total? about $40 (plus $3 each for entry) for over $300 worth of like-new goodies. I love a bargain. And Elliot loved that xmas came early this year!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Paul and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary today and we still really like each other. Who knew that hitching a lift in Morocco would lead to so much good stuff?

I LOVE YOU POLLIWOG!!!

A rainy afternoon inside

Thanks for coming to play with me! I really like it when you come to visit!

Enough with the paparazzi!!!

Trouble . . . starts with T, rhymes with E, stands for Elliot

Today, Elliot was on the loose looking for trouble wherever he could find it. He started out the morning with the discovery that he could open drawers and I found him checking out all my stripey socks. Later in the morning, he strewed all his toys across the floor, pulled all of his books off the shelf, then a bunch of my books as well. He also learned that he could pick up handfuls of dirt from the potted xmas tree and throw it around the floor (good thing I cleaned and mopped yesterday!). And just before bed, he found the basket of clean laundry that I was about to fold and decided to help . . . well sorta. Maybe going back to work a couple of days a week isn't such a bad thing after all. This staying at home is exhausting!

When is a first word a first word anyway?

For some time Elliot has been babbling "da-da-da-da-da" incessantly which I reckoned didn't count as a first word since it was just babbling nonsense, right? On the other hand, Elliot saved "mama" for when he was really upset and cried out a long "maaaa-maaaah" which obviously signified something a bit more meaningful, don't you think?

So what does it mean now that he's babbling "ma-ma-ma-ma" all the time? Elliot also does the shorter "da-da" and "mom-mom" and he seems to be addressing us, but he's a bit non-fussed with who is who. So do these count as words? How are we supposed to know what the official first word is so we can write it in the baby book? And is it always this random and arbitrary for little ones, and parents just make up something? It's all so confusing.

Elliot on film

In an attempt to try and catch Elliot standing up, we've been taking a lot of videos over the last two weeks. Too bad every time we point the camera at him he becomes interested in doing anything except standing up. The good news is that we've captured some really funny Elliot moments on film--well we think they're funny anyway. But I am also aware that this is a lot of video footage, and you all probably aren't quite as obsessed with Elliot as we are, so watch what you wish.

Growling like a ferocious beast
 
Showing off all his new tricks (except standing of course)


Attacking his new favourite yard-sale-bought toy

Still attacking it and then attacking Nacho

And now Nacho attacks Elliot back

Elliot thinks he's a ferocious beast again . . . this time he's in the zoo

Okay so I missed him climbing up to stand, but you can see him standing up, proud as punch, on his tippy tippy toes

A weekend full of firsts

What an eventful weekend we've had! On Friday night, we went to Elliot's first orchestra concert and it couldn't have gone more wonderfully. He just loves music and was so content to sit in his Daddy's lap and listen to the music and watch the other children playing. He also really liked smiling and flirting at the four ladies sharing a picnic behind us. He sure had them wrapped around his finger.

And then on Sunday, we went to a festival in Fremantle where we boogied and bounced to live African and Indian music, and Elliot got to go to his very first parade. Too bad he slept through the whole thing . . . the bagpipes, the drums, the clowns spraying the crowd with water, the marching bands, everything. He woke up for the second to last group and, judging by his reaction, I don't think that loud samba music and dancing Brazilian ladies are the happiest things to wake up to. He did really seem to dig the rest of the day though.

Fun at the park

Mommy's Mum's Group met at the park last week, and the other babies and I had so much fun playing and sharing our snacks.

Who knew ducks were so much fun to chase?

Holy cow, Elliot's nine-months-old already!!

I can't believe that Elliot has been out in the world longer than he was hanging out sharing a body with me. It's all gone so fast and it seems like it's getting faster every day. He's learning new things all the time now and as excited as we are to share in his new accomplishments, sometimes I really wish he'd just take a chill pill and and just stay a little baby a little bit longer.

Here's some of the exciting new things he's added to his repertoire in the last two weeks:

• Speed crawling--This kid is like lightening; watch out Usain Bolt! In what seems like a blink of an eye, Elliot can be from one end of the house to the other trying to eat Nacho's dog food or the dirt in our potted year-round xmas tree or reaching for cords behind the desk or pulling each and every one of his books off his shelf. If Elliot is awake, Nacho is fleeing and I'm on the chase.
• High-fiving--Okay, so he's only batting around .500 with this one, but if he's feeling it, he'll give you a definitive and enthusiastic smack.
• Waving bye-bye--Again, Elliot's a bit hit and miss still with waving at the appropriate time, but he loves to copy us when we do it; too bad he turns his hand toward himself and waves himself good-bye. And sometimes he gets stuck and keeps waving for a quarter of an hour or more! Too cute.
• Growling like a lion or dinosaur or something equally terrifying--I'm not sure where he got this one, but it's so so funny! He usually pairs his growling with a full-on slobber assault which is hilarious especially when he attacks the unopened bag of dog food that we just bought Nacho and is currently Elliot's favourite toy.
• Pulling himself up to stand--This is a new one as of tonight. Paul and I were in the kitchen with Elliot safety-gated on the other side when all of a sudden, he managed to pull himself up on the gate and give us a proud little grin. Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he sat himself down and did it again. I can't believe the little guy. He couldn't roll over two months ago and now he's standing up. It's all too fast!

Swimming like a little minnow

Mommy's been awfully forgetful with the camera lately. Good thing Aine's mommy snapped these pictures of the very first time I swam under water. This is how it all went down: First, Daddy and I swam all the way across the pool to get to a little duckie inside of a hoop. We came up to the hoop and then swoosh next thing I knew I was inside of the hoop, just like that. Mommy says I'm her little fishie, but to be honest it was just a little bit scary. You can probably tell I was a bit surprised by the look on my face, huh?

The sounds of motherhood . . .

Who knew that the precious pitter-pattering of little feet would be preceded by the horrific screeching of sweaty knees dragging along hard wood floors? Oh well, Elliot doesn't seem phased in the slightest by it.