Happy 5 Months Elliot!

The Green Guy

Will has made it very clear lately that his favorite color is green. He likes frogs just because they're green. He wears green every day because his shoes are green, he has some green shirts, one pair of green pants, green pajamas, and a green hat.

He is still as obsessed as ever with Thomas the train. He forces us to make a train track for him as soon as he gets up in the morning. Trains come before breakfast. Trains accompany him everywhere we go whether he's in the car, stroller, bike trailer, or just walking. At last, he found a friend that is as obsessed with trains as he is. Turns out this friend has been living next door this whole time! They go outside every afternoon and play trains together on one of the picnic tables. It's very cute to hear them "talking Thomas" together. Things you only understand after watching HOURS of Thomas cartoons. Like, "Then Spencer buffers down the branch line and buffers up with the freight cars, but then there was trouble. Oh, no! Diesel 10 bashed the joby wood down the suspension bridge. Topham Hatt booms confusion and delay..." And it goes on like that forever.
We have to thank Thomas for motivating Will to finally ride a bike! He had absolutely no interest in riding a bike until one day by the dumpster... Yes, I couldn't believe my luck. I took out the trash and came back with a Thomas bike for Will! It was a bit broken, but Britton put his engineer skills to use and made this bike once again, really useful. I was amazed to watch Will's excitement at a Thomas bike, and then get on and try to ride it right away. He is now a very proud bike rider. He insisted on wearing his helmet on the playground. After arriving, he tells a girl, "I have a bike just like yours." She gets really offended and points out her bike is pink and his is blue. Will doesn't notice, but just keeps chattering on about how it's a Thomas bike and it goes really fast.
I would love Will to be able to attend preschool next year. I really want some thing close and affordable. I don't think either of those are really possible. I'll probably end up doing Joy school at my house or something. Whatever works. He already knows his ABC's and we're working on counting now. I love this guy. He is a ton of fun and charms everyone he meets. Unless he's talking about poop. Which happens a lot lately... I hoping it's just a phase he's going through, but it might be a long phase. His dad is still working on that phase.

The Newest

Elliot is growing so fast! He's already getting hosed by being the second child. He gets less attention than Will did at this age. We're hardly taking pictures of him. At no fault of his own! Look how cute he is. What more can he do? At least he has his own clothes thanks to his generous grandma and nana.
Elliot has been shorn. I tried trimming his hair when he was about a month old, but there were still some long stragglers. So long, in fact, that while Aunt Lori was holding him, she mistook it for her own hair. I cut it again a little while ago and he looks so much more mature. The long haired newborn look was so five months ago.
He's getting really strong. He can roll over, hold himself up with his hands, and even pivot around to look at different parts of the room. He just started working out daily in this exersaucer. He loves it! Each workout is followed by a mommy milkshake. He eats pretty well, but he's no Will...
His favorite people these days are Mommy, Will, followed by Dad. Mommy because of the milk factor. He thinks Will is just hilarious! Will can say and do just about anything and get a laugh out of Elliot. Daddy comes in at third place just because he's not around as much, and doesn't have the milk going for him. I know my place as the favorite is only short term. As soon as he figures out what's going on, he's going to appreciate what a crazy, silly, wonderful daddy he has.

Goodbye April

Here I am trying to summarize another month in my blog. It started with a wedding prep/conference weekend in Brentwood. Followed by a long wedding weekend in Brentwood. Congratulations D & V! It was a beautiful day for a beautiful wedding. I've never seen anyone look so extremely excited during the wedding ceremony than Derek. He tried to stop smiling but just couldn't. We took a weekend off after that and stayed here for a stroller walk that I organized for our courtyard peoples.

The next weekend was Six Flags weekend! We bought season passes with Britton's family and almost everyone took the day off on that Friday to make the most out of our passes. We were super excited for Will because we heard there was a "Thomas Town" area at the park! We told him all about it and he was so excited. Then we found out that they changed the rides to generic trains, helicopter, and buses because they didn't want to pay the royalty fees anymore. We didn't know how to break it to Will. He still loved it anyway. He still brought his trains with him. Here we are below enjoying the wanna be Harold the helicopter ride.

Besides the great rides at the park (and churros) there's lots of animals! We saw the whale show, saw some dolphins swimming in small tanks, and Will and cousins got to touch this elephant! Britton and I ran off to ride a rollercoaster during elephant time. It was awesome despite the lonnnnggg wait.

The next weekend was Easter weekend. I volunteered at the Stanford Easter egg hunt and roll sponsored by the Provost and his wife. They have a very nice, spacious lawn. We loved it despite the cheapness of the candy. Good thing Will doesn't know any better. I have turned into quite the chocolate snob lately.
All the volunteers had to wear these bunny ears so they would be easily recognized in case of emergency... Right. I didn't mind, and they looked very cute on my two little snuggle bunnies. It was nice to stay home that Sunday because...
The last Sunday of April we went out to Brentwood again for a birthday celebration for Britton's mom. In my family there's lots of birthdays in April. Plus all the birthdays in Britton's family. Happy birthday Mom, Sarah, Hailey, Korianne, Clare, Michael, Matthew, Thalia, and Margo!

Play Time

Why are little boys so sweaty? They play hard, that's why! We've been having lots of fun lately inviting friends over to our house. Pictured above is Will and Carson driving their cars up a homemade slide.
Will and Joseph spent some time playing Bob the Builder and fixing things. Thanks cousin Sam for sharing your awesome construction hats.
Lucas came over on a very, very, rainy day. Munchkin Music was canceled and the day would have been so boring without him. They voluntarily drank spinach smoothies at lunch, notice the mustache, and then wanted to take a nap together in Will's fun bed. Why is it so fun? I'm not sure why all the kids love playing in it. The only thing it has going for it is a door that opens so the kids can climb in it.
One of Will's favorite playground buddies is Sotaro. They are constantly laughing together. It's so fun to watch them play. Sotaro likes to repeat what Will says in English, and Will likes to repeat what Sotaro says in Japanese. Then they laugh. Then they swing and they laugh. Then they play with their trains in the sand and laugh. Then they fight over something, but mostly they just laugh.

March

March... Where have you gone? It's been a month of rain, and I can't remember what we've been up to this whole time. Elliot is three going on four months old. I feel like I have my brain back, but not my old schedule. Elliot is a smile-a-saurus, and is doing a great job holding on to things. We went to a small grocery store the other day with a mini shopping cart. Elliot's car seat just managed to fit in the cart. So I put some of the lighter items near Elliot's feet, and I looked down a minute later to find he had managed to grab the lotus root and get the package in his mouth. What an adventurous little eater...

Britton's spring break also fell during March. We went to the San Francisco Zoo the one not-so-rainy day of spring break. It was a ton of fun. I loved the kangaroos and peacocks the most. The kangaroos were very energetic and fun to watch. And turns out that the San Francisco zoo has these peacocks all over that freely walk around.

Will was a little intimidated by this one that was in our path. Beautiful colors. Beautiful bird.

Will wore his rain boots of course. They are the only shoes he wears these days.

We were all exhausted after only 2 hours. A season pass might be worth it. But then we just got season passes to Six Flags. Oh yeah! We're going to take family trips there this summer with the rest of Britton's family.

Haircut!

will told the hairdresser at Great Clips, "My hair is too long. I need to cut it. He understands more of what I say than I thought. He's a whole different boy now. He's excited that it's spiky. Give him a compliment next time you see him.

Last Minute Trip to San Francisco

I always seem to forget about holiday weekends because Stanford doesn't like to celebrate. Luckily Britton doesn't have class on Mondays so we took the day off and celebrated President's Day with a trip to San Francisco. We only live about 45 minutes away from SF, but hardly make our way over there. Maybe it's the cold fog, or the hassle of finding and paying for parking that deters us. Either way, I had never been to the famous Pier 39 before.
We had a great and somewhat cold time. I really shouldn't complain about cold here, but I really hate being cold. We ate a picnic lunch on Pier 39 by the sea lions, but only glanced at the stores there. Most of our time was spent walking to and from Ghirardelli Square.
Mmmm, Ghirardelli Square. We all split one fatty hot fudge sundae.
Elliot spent most of the time sleeping in the giant, comfy, plastic rain covered double stroller. For the short time he was awake we put him in the over-sized bear suit. He is such a cute little thing.

Will was super excited to see the "charlie cars" move down the tracks. Someday we'll have to actually ride in a trolley car with Will. Today I was looking at a Google map, and Will requested to see our house. After showing him the street view of our house, Grandpa and Grandma's house, and almost Nana and Papa's house I got the idea to relive our trip to San Francisco. Sure enough, "driving" down Jefferson street on Google maps, you can see a "charlie car".