We had a Happy Halloween at the Mitchell household, despite a general lack of interest on my part thtis year. I couldn't get excited about costuming my showy pregnant belly with a Princess costume that would have coordinated with the little dragon that Elliot insisted on. So I kind of bagged it. But Shaun threw together a last minute costume for work that was a hit.
We did have a ton of fun at the pumpkin patch again this year. I love the fall light! It makes for great pictures! Here are some of my faves, and you can see the rest of the album HERE.
Six years ago today, I married my sweetheart, barefoot in the sand. The memories we made that day are some of my very happiest and I treasure the time spent with family and friends on that beach in Maui.
More than that, though, I am so honored to call Shaun my husband. He is my best friend, my most trusted confidant, my shelter, my partner in crime, and my deepest love. I am so grateful that he chose to marry me.
Thank you for six wonderful year, my love. I am looking foward to many many more. I love you.
Obviously, there were a ton of pictures that I just love. So if you care to peruse some of my favorites you can check them out in our wedding photo album. :o)
When we were house hunting, our realtor regularly used the term "pride of ownership" as a positive quality of a home. He used it to describe homes where the owners didn't simply occupy a home, but made it their own, improved it, and their love for their home was evident in the quality and craftsmanship displayed in the care of their home.
For the past two summers, we have been investing in the concept of "pride of ownership." We are proud of our home and it was fun to have some recognition of that pride when today we were awarded the "Yard of the Month" by our community association. Our neighbor nominated us and the covenants committee voted for us! :o) It's so nice to have your hard work recognized.
Last summer, we invested in revamping the front yard, and this year it has been the back yard. Here's a few pics of the before and after. I'll post the backyard tomorrow.
I suppose I should just resign myself to the fact that I have a hard time blogging through the holidays. And then it appears that I have a difficult time picking it back up again because here we are in the beginning of April already (and guess what.. when I started writing this it was early March ... ugh). Oh well. I've given up feeling guilty about it. But here's a little snapshot of the last few months.
Other than the holidays, it's been business as usual around here. Not much to report other than the daily ups-and-downs of being the parents of a two-year-old (He turned 2 1/2 last week! ... CRAZY!)
But while life moves on, Elliot is busy exploring the world he's growing up in and I learning everything he can about... everything. We've done a lot of painting and drawing on the easel that Elliot got from Santa, rolled, and smashed play-dough until it became a dried out hockey puck, watched countless re-runs of the "Upside Down Show" and "Cars.", enjoyed snow days, and stay-in-and cuddle-with-a-book days, and vacuumed... incessantly vacuumed!
Elliot's curiosity about the vacuum has blossomed into an outright obsession. When at the store, he names most models on sight, "Purple Dyson!", "Red Shark!", "Blue Dirt Devil!", and is particularly keen to point out the "Eureka!" logo. Most mornings, I'm greeted with the the request, "Silver Kirby. Push it, please," (he's nothing if not polite) and I am not able to have a moment of peace until I drag the Kirby out and let him push it around for an hour or so. He pushes it, moves switches, changes levers asks me to "Plug-it-in" but then complains that it's "Wery Loud!"
On the more deliberate education front, we've been focusing on his letters and numbers now, since he's mastered his colors and shapes. (He had them down pat just after he turned 2.) It fascinates me to watch his little mind work around the problem of remembering what things are called, or recalling a memory of what we have done, or seen before. He is particularly focused on colors, and seems particularly attuned to the visual description of things. (Can you say, "child of two artists?" We don't have the whole alphabet down, yet, but he's got about two thirds of his ABC's. :o)
Just this past month he's put his counting in to order. I would hear him in his crib counting. (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8) but in early March he finally put in the 4, & 5 and 9 & 10. :o) He's perfected it now and counts just about everything. I'm so proud of him! Here's a little video of him the other morning. He got out the matching puzzle that he got for Christmas (we've only played with it a couple of times and he didn't show much interest) and brought it downstairs while I was making breakfast and I heard him counting out the pieces 1-10 perfectly! Of course, as soon as I get the camera out he doesn't cooperate, but you get the gist of it... Sorry, it's kind of long. It just amazes me that we can put something away for weeks at a time, and suddenly he'll get it out and have it mastered!
Last, here's a funny little extra, and a bit of an illustration on how you can spend tons of money on fancy toys, but when it comes down to it, they'll just want to play with a cardboard tube. Elliot's recipe for fun on this particular evening was:
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that the I have not had professional photos taken of my child since he was born. Is that bad? I take a lot of them myself... but I certainly don't consider my own experimentation anywhere near professional!!
Anyway, I thought it was about time to get some proper photos taken of Elliot so we took him to Fotofly to get some shots for his 2-year-old birthday... only 1 month late.
It needs to be said that Elliot was NOT cooperative for this exercise. As I said in the previous post, he is in serious stranger suspicion mode and did not appreciate the photographer getting up in his grill even though she was a perfectly nice young woman. I've never seen him so clingy with me! (Thank God that Gramma Bonnie wasn't there or it would have been a total lost cause! He wouldn't have left her arms!)
Couple that with the fact that Elliot has decided that he only wishes to wear his footed pajamas anymore (he pitches a fit every morning when I try to get him dressed), and on this occasion he was forced into wearing cute clothes (Horror!!) and he was just not a happy little model.
Never-the-less, I was grateful to get anything good with him acting out as he was. But maybe I'll save myself the grief in the future and keep taking them myself.
Anyway, do us a favor and vote for your favorite! We want to get one blown up for our house, but can't decide which one!
