adventures around the house and town ...

This is a big mish-mash of several adventures around the house and our town.
#1-3 ~ this is the sad end of the play kitchen I was trying to make for Eli out of a cardboard box. My biggest mistake was making it the size specified in the directions ... as you can see, it was big enough for Eli to climb inside and small enough to cause him trouble! The real trouble was that he couldn't stop himself from going in again and again ... the kitchen is no more.

#4 ~ Eli really likes to tell us "bye-bye" and pretend like he's leaving us. It's especially good if he can close a door between us, go into the closet or the shower, or -- the best -- use our keys. Here, he even put my work badge on. I think he's going to go in for me!

#5-7 ~ We got a new trailer for the bicycles, so that we can take Eli on rides. The pictures are from the first day, when it was a little scary. He really likes it now and gets very excited.

#8-9 ~ These are two of Eli's buddies at school, Aiden and Jake. All of the kids in his room are very affectionate with each other -- they try to make each other feel better if they're sad and play together really well.

#10 ~ I know this looks like a crazy picture! One of the places Eli most likes to go "bye-bye" is with Phoebe every morning. She is a really good sport and usually just scoots over so that he can climb on her, invade her bed, and slam the kennel door in her face again and again, saying "bye-bye!"

#11 ~ Eli at the duck pond

#12 ~ Eli at the soccer field. There's a field near our house and there is nearly always a game being played. Eli loves to watch but he really wants to play. Once (during a break in play), he was holding a cup and walked right onto the field, handed a player his cup and took the ball away from him! He thinks it's very exciting to see the big boys kicking and running all together.

#13-14 ~ There is a duck pond by the library and we've been feeding bread to the ducks, which is endlessly entertaining.

Valentine Day zoo trip

We bought a membership to the zoo and plan to make it one of our regular stops this year. We had a fun time! Eli went to the zoo once before when he was much smaller. This time he knew a lot of the animals ahead of time (and what they say). We brought his animal book with him and he liked pointing between the picture and the real thing. As you can see, it was a lot for one little guy. We took a ride on the train -- he's normally VERY interested in trains (choo! choo!) but this time, it was a little scary, and then he promptly fell asleep and missed the whole thing.

omsi trip with Anna

We went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Technology with our friends Alex, Susan, and Susan's daughter Anna. Anna and Eli had a grand time exploring all around and having fun!

big lag but lots goin on

So, sorry for the long lag in posts -- small technical issue, we ran out of memory on our hard drive and had to transfer a big chunk of photos to our external hard drive before I could upload more. So, there's a huge backlog from our many adventures. Tonight, just a fun taste -- more to come over the next few nights.

So Eli's got many words in his vocabulary now, but usually only says one at a time. This movie shows one of his favorite games -- telling us what animals say. Enjoy!

First basketball game

The Green family went to the Portland Trailblazers Game this past weekend. V bought the tickets for J for Christmas and we really looked forward to this outing. Eli really likes crowds and really likes basketball, so we thought it could be a good experience. The game started at 7PM, which is on the edge of his normal bedtime, and he fell asleep in the car on the way there. When we woke him up he was confused and became generally alarmed as we walked through the cold and got in line and joined a stream of people. As we came close to our seats, the game started and the lights flashed and the crowd roared -- which was really scary! Eli and mom had to watch the first few minutes from the deck but when we finally made it up to the seats, dad gave us soda, which made everything okay. From there, Eli had a GREAT time, clapping and cheering, and following the game. What a fun outing, we all had a great time. Oh, and the Trailblazers led the Utah Jazz in all four quarters but it was a close and exciting game.

first haircut

#1-2 ~ Eli horsing around in some "before" shots -- to establish that the time has come for the hair to be cut ...
#3-7 ~ We had a few minutes wait, which was good as Eli got to see what everyone was doing. He didn't want to sit in the chair by himself but was pretty relaxed. He got really sleepy and quiet and generally stayed still so that our stylist could do a good job.
#8-9 ~ posing with mom and dad after the ordeal. He perked up right after the scissors went away! Our stylist gave him a balloon, which is always a quick way to his affections (the balloon was promptly lost at the grocery store afterwards...)
#10 ~ Our friend Matt came to visit afterwards and we walked up to visit the soccer game in the new field by our house. Thanks for visiting Matt! Also in this picture, you can see our new couch!