all kinds of playing around ...

hangin around our 'hood ...

Elmo sings Eli to sleep

J found this video for Eli on youtube, a good test to see if he likes the real Elmo as much as he likes the one Grandma and Grandpa Green sent him. When we played this, Eli was transfixed, swayed back and forth, smiled, and at the end, said "Yeah!"

It also cracked us up -- especially the descriptions of Elmo's busy days with the foggy slo-motion replays. Enjoy! (Right before bedtime is best ...)

disney halloween redux

Now that its all said and done, I can say that Eli and V's trip to Anaheim worked out amazingly well! The hardest part was getting in and out of the airport with all of our bags. Check it -- small roller bag (my stuff), big roller bag (Eli's stuff), car seat, laptop, diaper bag, purse, stroller -- that is a lot of stuff!

#1-3 ~ Eli was a superstar on the plane. One the way there he got his own seat and really liked looking out the window at the other planes. I'm pretty sure he knew what they were and connected them with the planes that fly over our house. He didn't cry and liked looking around at the other passengers. At one point I unbuckled him and he looked up at me and asked to be re-buckled, since everyone else was.

#4-5 ~ We met my friend Lynne who flew from Colorado. She spent time with Eli when I had to attend to conference duties, but we managed to have some fun on the side. Here we were on the bus to Disneyland!

#6-7 ~ We had such a good time! As you can see, Eli the lion came roaring out -- not really -- the whole thing was pretty overwhelming. We were only there for three hours so we didn't have time to do the whole thing. We walked around and looked at all the kids, then we went on the dumbo ride. (btw, I was snapping in this picture, not flipping the camera off!) Dumbo, flying up and down in the air = pretty scary. He made it through most of the ride but cried at the end. There's a story for when he's a teenager. Then we went into the enchanted tiki room. This started off as scary, when the tree behind Eli started talking for no discernable reason, but once the birds started singing it was very fun -- lots of pointing and swaying to the music. After that we saw the parade, which he also really liked. Then, the jungle cruise then the Peter Pan ride.

#8 ~ That's a lot of adventure!

#9 ~ Eli's sporting the outfit Lynne brought for him, and the Broncos hat from Aunt Joan. We were headed here to the aquarium, where they had big window displays for big fish. This was a hit, and Eli was saying "fish" by the end of the day ... (kind-of, "ish")

#10 ~ Right before we had to hit the road, we made a detour to Newport Beach. Beautiful! On the way back Eli had to sit on my lap and although he was good, was a bigtime wiggleworm. We were really glad to get home and see dad and dad was glad to see us!

#11 ~ As you can see, the pumpkin missed us too. Bye-bye Halloween!

Big heartfelt thanks to Lynne for taking the time to spend with us, we had a wonderful time and really appreciated the time with you.