14 month videos

Elliott's recent fun facts

• He loves Curious George and has a favorite episode : Old McGeorge Had a Farm.  When George accidentally wreaks havoc at the farm and lets out all the animals, Elliott makes his mouth into a big "O" and points and hoots.  I swear he knows that George is causing trouble and it is hilarious to see him shrieking when the cows are running loose.
• He has a lot of friends these days and most of them are girls, so he has a lot of "girlfriends".  He will follow his little friend Gia around at music class and she will bop him on the head.
• He definitely knows the word "DA!" and says it constantly for Daphne, like when we park the car at home, or when he wakes up from nap, or first thing in the morning, or when we walk inside, or when we are eating dinner.  Also, if we say "Where's Daphne?" he will look around and point and call for her.
• He also definitely knows "wa wa" for water because I accidentally said it to him at the park and he started doing the sign for water.  Then when I never gave him his cup he started crying of thirst.  But I had left it at home!
•  It's funny to see him using other signs as well, like flapping his hands for "all done!" even though it's not technically the correct sign of course.
• We are still working on walking, and we take a walk down the block pushing his wagon and he will stop to pick a leaf every now and then and put it in his wagon for safe keeping.
• We go to music class on Mondays and he loves it!  His favorite is playing with this gauze fabric material we swish around in the air during some of the songs but he also likes playing with the shakers and watching Miss Hazimah sing the songs because she's very animated.

A friday told in photos

All good things must come to an end

and unfortunately that is summer fun!  But luckily Michigan has some pretty amazing autumnal activities to do so we won't exactly be suffering.  This week we are full of our regularly weekly scheduled music class, storytime, and play dates, but we also have a zoo trip for tomorrow after music and I have a presentation for our research at the Lyla Spelbring Lectureship on Saturday which is an all-day event!

Some photos of the end of summer with a visit from Aunt Andrea in Grand Rapids, Janessa's wedding at Thousand Oaks, and some early fall fun

You know it's Fall when...

Pumpkin patches, apple orchard, cider mill, fresh donuts, hayrides, homemade potato soup from farmers market veggies, and Boardwalk Empire happen all in one day!