The Pre-Christmas Letter

Whew, it's been a while...again.  Let's just get started on the updates for everyone.

Starting with the youngest, Elliot the little schnookums.


I think this picture was taken a while ago.  He crawls up on his knees now.  But he still loves chasing balls around!  A few weeks ago Elliot and I flew up to Seattle to attend my niece's baptism.  At the airport we had some time to kill at the gate so I got out a ball for Elliot to chase around.  I think EVERY person on our flight fell in love with the little guy.  Look at that face, how can you not?  Watching the joy on his face as he throws and chases the ball around is just enchanting.  He slept for most of the flight so charming everyone beforehand wasn't necessary, but a good tactic in the future.  Elliot got lots of love from his cousins in Seattle and he gets lots of love from the kids here at our playground.  He is such a good sport when kids are picking him up, tickling him, getting in his face and whatnot. 
He is still eating everything in sight.  For a while I thought he had learned his lesson with sand, but he's back to being a sand-eater.



He chews on chalk, leaves, sticks, cords, stickers, balloon pieces, toys, books, and much more.  I do my best to watch him, keep the floor clean, and fish things out of his mouth, but he's no only child.  I have actually found a Trader Joe's sticker and a balloon piece in his poop.  I was so annoyed to find the balloon piece because I tried so hard to clean all those up! 
Lately he has been acting so much older...  He interacts with Will a lot more.  Will likes to make Elliot laugh, and Elliot likes to destroy anything Will is playing with.  He prefers to walk with assistance, and Britton has gotten him to stand up by himself for a few seconds.  I think he has said, Mama and ball.  It hasn't been very clear or consistent yet.  He's still my sweet baby, and I'm starting to understand why people don't want their kids to grow up.

Speaking of Will



William and his daddy started school together this fall.  It was Will's first day of his first year of school, and Britton's first day of hopefully his last year of school.  The Rainbow School is on campus and about a 10 minute walk from our house.  Will was SO excited to go to school like all the kids around here.  There is hardly anyone around in the mornings.  He goes to school MWF from 9-12.  It's the perfect schedule for us.  Elliot still naps in the morning so I have some kid-free time on those days.  Usually I do really boring stuff like clean or shower.  Nothing amazing.  I do have to co-op there twice a month.  It should be fun to see what preschool is like for Will since it's hard to get any real information about his time spent there.  I have to use clues like paint on his shirt or really muddy shoes.  He doesn't have much interest in drawing or making crafts so I'm hoping preschool will give him more exposure.
When Will is home he spends most of his time playing with trains or cars inside or playing with friends outside.  His favorite right now--I've heard BF mentioned--is a girl named Liesel.  I never really thought they would get along since she mostly teased him when he was younger, and they fought a lot.  But lately they are so excited when the other gets home from preschool.  They run up to each other, sometimes hug, and shout about what they're going to do.  Usually play "restaurant", trains, or ride bikes.

They both started preschool this year, and were so excited to go. This picture was taken before school started. They both had their backpacks and helmets on, ready to ride off to school. This picture was also taken seconds before a big fight between them. Liesel, or Leelee as she's known here, wanted to say, "Ready, set, go." Then they would ride their bikes to Liesel's house. But Will had to start early which started Liesel crying and swearing she wasn't going to play with him anymore.
While Elliot and I were in Seattle, Britton and Will were in Disneyland with the Olsons. This was Will's second trip to Disneyland, but he doesn't remember the first trip at all. They went for the special Halloween event, and the whole family dressed up as dalmatians!  They had such a great time.  There were hardly any lines and plenty of candy.  Will's favorite ride was, surprisingly, the Matterhorn.  I was mostly surprised he was big enough to ride it.  They stayed up until midnight to watch the spooky fireworks show.



Britton is doing it all. Seriously, what is he not doing right now? And, somehow, he is doing it all well. He's a busy grad student by day, and a fantastic father and Disneyland party-er by night.


This is shaping up to be--possibly, maybe, fingers crossed--his last year at Stanford.  He doesn't have any more classes to take, and can focus on getting his own research done.  He has a few conferences to attend this fall.  He already went to one in Tennessee.  There is one in Seattle and another in Baltimore in November.  A paper he wrote with a colleague was just accepted by a journal today, and he needs to start applying for post-docs at labs and universities for next year.
He just helped organize a mixer for the Elders Quorum at church.  He plays squash and catch with friends, and is a faithful calorie counter.  This is starting to sound like a Christmas letter.

Me...  I'm still here.  Taking care of business.  Day after day after day.



After visiting Seattle I thought it would be a fun activity for Will to collect the fall leaves, and make an art project with them.  We went outside and I quickly realized that it may be fall in other parts of the country, but it hasn't shown up here yet.  It should soon.  This weekend I'll be helping with the pumpkin patch for all the Stanford families.  We're also organizing a Halloween party for our courtyard.  I just got some supplies to make Elliot's costume.  He's going to be a crawling spider!  So cute.  Will is going to be a "struction site monster."  Britton and I will come up with something for our own costumes.  After Halloween maybe the leaves will change colors and we will finally stop wearing shorts and flip flops.  Except for Britton.  That is his year-round grad school uniform.
At church I'm Will's nursery teacher.  He's happy about it, and so am I!  His class is a bunch of well-behaved little boys.  I'm reading The Path Between the Seas about the creation of the Panama canal.  I really like it, but it's 622 pages long and consuming most of my free time right now.  Maybe after I finish I can work with Britton on his Panamanian genealogy, and then we can justify a trip to Panama.  I definitely want to see the canal now.
After pregnancy number two I wasn't sure if I would want to run again.  But I do!  Erin, Britton's sister, convinced me to run a half marathon with her in November in Santa Barbara.  We'll have most of the girls in the Olson family going on the trip down there.  It's nice to have some motivation again.  I am supposed to run 10 miles tomorrow.  I have some running buddies here that just ran a full marathon on Sunday.  I hope they keep running.  It will be a boring 10 miles tomorrow by myself.