Holiday wrap-up, Part I

Although the last couple of months have been busy, Elliott and his family did find some time to party.  Elliott has enjoyed his first holiday season, and he managed to only gain 2 pounds!  

Not long after the excitement of Halloween wore off, we were lucky enough to celebrate Fauxgiving.  Nope, I didn't accidentally misspell Thanksgiving.  Fauxgiving is a gathering established by a group of our friends that involves renting a house together near Seattle for the weekend before Thanksgiving.  You know that tradition on Thanksgiving where people go around the table and say what they're thankful for?  Well, at Fauxgiving we just go around the table and say how delicious the food is.  No words of thanks are required.  We just eat, and eat, and eat.  

 

Fortunately, most components of the Thanksgiving feast are the perfect consistency for babies, so Elliott was able to enjoy his first meal.

Elliott scarfing Daddy's rolls:

I'm not actually shoving the roll in his mouth, but rather trying to prevent him from doing so:

Elliott and his friend Lisa.  They were both amazed by how much he can eat:

Elliott and Fiona:  Fiona looks adorable, but Elliott...not so much.
Perhaps he is experiencing his first food coma?

First SNOW!!!

After Fauxgiving, Elliott was bummed that he had to wait 3 more weeks for another party (mostly, he wanted more food). But it was worth it. In early December we traveled to Idaho to have a pre-Christmas celebration with my (Summer's) family.  Fortunately, road trips with Elliott have improved, and he does a lot more of this than he used to:

Here is Elliott dressed for the party:

This photo is here just because the expression makes me laugh:

Elliott was excited to see so many of his cousins there.
Cousin Kole:

 

Cousin Kori:

Cousin Levi:

Cousin Shayde in the cool R2D2 hat Grandma Carren made:

Cousin Dana giving Elliott some attention:

Grandpa Buddy made these awesome Gingerbread houses for all the kids to decorate:

The Decorating Squad:

 

Cousin Paige's Job:

Finished products:

At first, Elliott was disappointed that he couldn't take part in the good times (the eating of the candy and frosting, not the decorating part).  But then he found this gold ball to chew on. Problem solved. 

Before we went to Idaho, I told Elliott the story behind Christmas.  He was both excited and confused, responding, "what, I get presents from a fat guy in a red suit because a baby was born!?!?!?" 

 

Obviously, he doesn't quite understand.  I'll try to explain again next year, but for now I focused on the part of the story where good behavior (read: sleeping at night) = presents.  He responded with this expression:

He continued to be confused when meeting Santa in person:

 

Even when Santa gave him a present (toy monkey!), he was unmoved:

 In fact, highly suspicious, he tried to unmask the old man:

"pvwpwvpvw, there is no way that dude fits down a chimney Mom":

  

Before heading back to Seattle, Grandma Carren, AKA the Crochet Master, gave him his Christmas presents:

 

 

Coming soon, "Holiday wrap up, Part II: the midwest in me"

The Most Popular Baby on the Block

There probably is no need to state the obvious, but I will do so anyway.  We've been busy.  The busiest we've ever been.  

In the past 6 weeks, we were away from home for 3 weekends, Chris prepared and passed his General Exam, I worked 70-80 hours/week, Elliott started daycare, and I completed 3 residency interviews.  I'm happy to report we all survived and are now resting comfortably at Grandma Kate's in Iowa.  It is sooooooo nice to be on vacation.  I wanted to publish a post I made a while back, and then will hopefully get some new pictures on here for the holidays.

As most new parents quickly discover, having a baby is the key to becoming popular.  Are you lonely?  Do you wish people would visit you?  Would you like to get more use out of your air mattress?  If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you should have a baby.  They're pretty adorable, and not that much work, really.  In fact, I'll let you borrow mine for a couple of nights. :)

Anyhow, the point I'll eventually get to is that we have had no shortage of visitors since Elliott was born, and we are very grateful for them.  I love to watch my family and friends shower Elliott with praise and kisses.  Oh, and presents are nice too. :)

Here Chris is wearing a hat from my Mom (Grandma Carren), and Elliott is wearing a hat from Chris's Mom (Grandma Kate).  Doesn't he look happy.

 

Elliott got a little more excited about the train Grandma Kate brought him on her visit (with Great Aunt Nancy) in October.  He seems to love trains these days. Perhaps it's that they are easy to grab on to and push around.  They even inspire him to scoot across the floor at lightning speed!  Well, maybe just tortoise speed.... 

Elliott definitely thrives on more than presents during these visits.  He has gotten extremely social - laughing and chatting at everyone.  He will even stare at people and holler until they give him a smile. So, please keep visiting!  

Here is Elliott soaking up some attention from doting relatives:

Thanks everyone for giving Elliott so much love and affection!  We kind of like him too.   

Here are a couple recent (well, 6 weeks ago) shots to hold you over until the next posts.  If you find yourself thinking, "he looks kind of big for a 7 month old", you would be correct.  He's obviously thriving on all your love and attention.  At 22 pounds and 28 inches, he is 7 months, going on 12.

 

Our little pumpkin

This is going to be a photo-rich post, as we've got a lot to cover.  I think October might be my favorite month.  It is colorful, festive, and full of delicious pumpkiny treats. Yum!  Chris and I have always loved the fall, but I think we love it just a little bit more now that we get to share it with Elliott.  Ahhhhhh.....So sweet.

Grandma Kate/Manternach visited with Aunt Nancy in early October, and we all headed to a local pumpkin patch.  

Chris picking out Elliott's very heavy pumpkin and pushing all of our pumpkins in the wheel barrow. You know, because they were heavy.

 

Here is an awesome pumpkin pirate display at the patch:

Aunt Sunny drove over for the day and was lucky enough to meet us there to check out our little pumpkin.  Hi Aunt Sunny!

The family at the patch:

 

Seriously, is that not the cutest little pumpkin you've ever seen?

 

Around mid-October we went to a wedding near the Ballard Locks.  It was a gorgeous venue, and a beautiful ceremony.  Thanks Sara and Josh for a great celebration, and the opportunity to take lots of silly photos of each other.

 

 

 

During October we hosted a Fall Celebration (our second annual).  We made chili, cornbread, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin bagels.  Friends came and decorated sugar cookies, carved pumpkins, and dipped caramel apples.  Sadly, I did not get photos of the amazing spread. But, I did get some pictures of Elliott and his friend Fiona in their adorable pumpkin bibs, even though they wouldn't give us a smile.  It went something like this.
Summer: "C'mon Elliott and Fiona, give us a smile. Peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo!" 
Elliott: "Um, what are you doing lady?  We're just here for the food."

Okay Mom, I'll crack a little smile.  But only because that girl is cute.

We carved the pumpkins we picked at the patch, but unfortunately we didn't get photos before they rotted (in about 12 hours!).  I stole this one from the internet, and this is what Elliott's pumpkin looked like:

On Halloween, Elliott insisted we all get dressed up and go Trick-or-Treating.  Grandma Carren crocheted a pretty awesome costume while Chris and I never got around to finishing ours. Maybe next year...

Just in case you couldn't figure out what we Elliott is supposed to be:

Elliott's friend (and the little girl I babysit), Addie the duck.

Halloween Costume #2:

Random man walking in Ballard.  Elliott thought he was the coolest!

Elliott's first trick-or-treating stash.

When we got home Chris and I started sampling the candy.  You know, to make sure it wasn't poisonous.  Then, we noticed a pack of preteens coming to our door.  Holy crap!  We'd completely forgotten that we could get trick-or-treaters ourselves.  I hadn't bought any candy, so the obvious choice was to give away Elliott's candy to the kids.  So, what did we do?  Close the blinds and turn off the lights of course. We had to protect our baby's first candy stash...

Return of the photo montage.  Elliott, Chris, and Autumn in Seattle: