Welcome!

A hearty welcome to my new cousin Braelynn Ann Elliott...

She was born on July 9th 2010 at 10:46am....both my Auntie Steph and Braelynn are doing well....Auntie Steph gave birth like a champ (just as we knew she would) and is doing great as a Mom thus far...she is thrilled that Braelynn has a full head of hair (and had threatened to use those sticky bows on her if she was a little baldy baby)

Da Gramma was present and was quoted as saying "It's MUCH different when it's not you having the baby!"

I look very forward to going up to Connecticut in a few weeks to meet my brand new first cousin!

CONGRATULATIONS AUNTIE STEPH, AND UNCLE BRIAN!

MY FIRST PARADE!

And if the staff of my daycare is to be believed, the first of many...

Yep...on Thursday, Dad got an email saying that on Friday we'd be having the annual Independence Day parade around the office buildings that border my daycare!

What does THAT mean, you ask...well, I'm glad you did!

It means that we all get in a huge line that resembles a discombobulated amoeba, and walk around the office park...some of us in our finest red white and blue!

Getting the email kind of last minute, Dad scrambled a bit, but we pulled off finding me a cute outfit to celebrate the Fourth a few days early...Mom was out of town for work, so she didn't get to come, but Dad was kind enough to take tons of pictures for her...Out of respect for the kids, (I like to be careful to not post shots on the web of my classmates) I only posted a shot of us where you couldn't really make out their faces, but Dad also got some other great shots of us walking around the building. A lot of workers came out to see us, so it was fun! The bigger kids were waving flags, and holding spinning pinwheels. It was great!

In addition to the outfit, I surprised Dad by pulling out the cute Independence Day hat that I made myself. (I seriously did! The teachers cut the pieces out, and I stuck them on all by myself!)

Now granted, I wasn't always thrilled to have the hat on, but what kid is? I took it off a few times, but Dad always kindly put it back on for me.

We had a lot of fun, and even though the parade only lasted about 15 minutes, we made the most of it.

I was obviously a little confused and annoyed about Dad taking a picture of us, but I instantly changed my tune once he put me down and let me run around...

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

To anyone offended by the fact that both my Dad and I think Papa John's is terrible pizza...

....seriously? Have you tried it? It's terrible, terrible pizza...

Having only been on this Earth for a mere 18 months, there are two things I'm sure of...Papa John's Pizza is some of the worst pizza on this planet, and Michael Rappaport is a terrible, terrible actor...

Man, this old picture reminds me that I gotta get a new haircut soon!

Happy Father's Day 2010!

Just a quick shout-out to all the Dads out there! Even if you're just a dude acting like a Dad-esque role-model to someone, like my Uncle Steve, Uncle Mat, and JustRichy...or all those other guys who are there for us youngens...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO YOU, TOO!

A great quote from my Dad's friend at work Jaheem is: Any "boy" can make 'em....but only a "Dad" can take care of them...:

Now, Dad is often transcribing what I ask him to for the blog, so I don't want to draw this out too much, but I just wanted to say thanks for being a great Dad...we have a lot of fun together, and I truly enjoy our time together. He seems to enjoy being a Dad more than he ever thought he would, which means I must be doing something right. :-)

Also a quick shout-out to NotDaGramma (Or Grandpa as he's known in fine dining circles) for being the guy who has sworn to take me fishing someday...and to Grandpa Dickie who, while no longer with us, remains a big part of my life by watching over me and for doing a great job while he was around helping to raise his two sons into men who are two of the greatest Uncles around.

For Father's Day, my daycare had a little pizza party....Dad was kind enough to share his pizza (Which I, adorably, referred to as "peetz-zee"...I would walk up to him and say "Bite bite...peetz-zee, and he would give me a bite) but would only let me have water and not soda.

Someday, Dad....someday.

It was Papa John's, which Dad assured me was OK to eat, because it taught me what terrible pizza was, so that I can better appreciate great pizza further down the road...

Bad pizza...it's out there, folks...

I also showed Dad our kid-sized slide, which I could climb up, and slide down all by myself...of course, yelling out "Whee!" while I went down...

A great time was had by all! Also, Dad wanted to point out that I was representing World Cup with my little Nike outfit.

Note...I do not support the use of a vuvuzela...ever.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Our Second June Trip to the Zoo!

So....today Dad and I went with Mom down to work...she either broke or sprained her little toe, catching it on my baby gate (Sorry Mom!) and we helped her bring some heavy party supplies
down so she wouldn't have such a hard time on the Metro. (Our car was in the shop, so we couldn't drive her)

As a reward for my efforts...I got another trip to the Zoo! It's a good thing for me that Dad likes the Zoo as much as I do (although I sometimes suspect even moreso than I do...) so I get to go a lot!

The weather was great...sunny, with a nice breeze, and this time, we made a break for the Small Mammal House, which I was very excited about...there are lots of little critters in there that look a lot like monkeys, which I am of course a huge fan of! (Next time you see me...ask me what a monkey says. The answer....may surprise you.)

I asked about 212 times if Dad would get me out of the stroller, as it was severely limiting my movement. He promised that once we got to the Small Mammal House, I could get out, and true to his word, he did! Immediately, I tore off down the hill away from him, but only got about 6 feet before he came up behind me and snagged me...Now come on...how does he and my Mom DO it!? I feel like I've run, like, hundreds of feet away from them, when in reality they grab me when I've only gotten about 3 feet away...what kind of speed do these people possess?!

So, I followed Dad into the Small Mammal House, and really enjoyed looking around at all the small mammals.

The House lived up to its name in spades.

I also enjoyed randomly running around, and deftly darting in and out of larger groups of people, hoping to shake Dad (or at least make him work a little harder to catch me...) In between all the running, I saw a ton of cute little mammals...Golden Lion Tamarins, Hairless Mole Rats, Meerkats, and these guys, which were my favorite...I went back to their enclosure three times...

They were a type of treeshrew, and they used their long noses to root around and look for bugs to eat in the dirt....it was awesome watching them. They kept coming up to the glass really close to me so I could watch them...it was so much fun!

As I ran around, I came upon a cart with wheels, that didn't roll when I pushed it...it made no sense to me! How could something with wheels be so stubborn as to not move when pushed!?

I looked and looked, but couldn't find any logical reason that the cart wouldn't move, so I I figured I'd back off, do some deep thinking at home, and come back at it fresh next time...

It was getting late, and I was getting tired, so Dad took me out to head back home for a nap...later today, we had to go to a little Father's Day pizza party at daycare (Which I'll talk about on Sunday) so I wanted to be well-rested...

Dad was nice enough to take me through the water misters on the way out of the zoo (and I don't care who you are, or how old you are....you can't help but giggle like crazy going through those things!) They're so cool and refreshing...and you can usually see a little rainbow as you go through...

A Quickie...

So, in an effort to procrastinate on catching up a bit more, I am posting about my whirlwind weekend in Connecticut...

And by whirlwind, I mean, like seriously...less than 24 hours.

Mom had another business trip to go on in New York City, and Gramma Mindy was kind enough to watch me for the evening while Mom and Dad went to see a Broadway Show!

After a drive that was lovely until we reached the border of Connecticut (where traffic was brutal), Mom and Dad met Gramma Mindy at the train station....she was nice enough to come down to Bridgeport, and even though I felt a bit betrayed (with the crying that comes with that feeling of betrayal) Gramma Mindy put me at ease by mentioning that I could play the piano when I got to her place.

Sweet.

So, while I got to see JustRichy, Uncle Mat, and Gramma Mindy, my folks headed into the big city to see the play Jersey Boys...they enjoyed the show a lot, and then ate a late dinner at this great little French place...

On my folks' end, Friday saw Mom actually going to work, while Dad headed back to Connecticut to pick me up. On my end, it saw me going to the beach with Gramma Mindy for a little while (and still avoiding actually getting into the swing on the playground, while happily just pushing the swing...) and awaiting my trip home.

Dad came to pick me up, and whisked me away, while Mom finished her meetings, walked around New York for awhile, and waited for us.

After a really cool drive into NYC with LOTS of trucks and buses to look at...(those are my new favorite words..."truck" and "bus" punctuated with a loud "wow" for emphasis) we picked up Mom, and she hooked me up with a sweet pair of sunglasses that she bought from the awesome Times Square Toys 'R Us...I was tired, and traffic getting out of the city was brutal, but once we hit the open road, I got a bit of sleep, and we cruised into Bethesda late, but excited to be home.

While there weren't any pictures from the trip (It all happened so fast, and the photographer that typically embeds with me was off seeing some play somewhere) I did have a quick one at a rest stop when Mom presented me with my sunglasses for the first time. She was also showing off her smashing new haircut...

And yeah...I somehow pull off being adorable, and cool...did you think I wouldn't?

A Spring Gramma Mindy Visit

Continuing our highly anticipated series of catch-up posts, I thought I'd revisit my most recent visit from Gramma Mindy! It was quite some time ago (yeah...I'm STILL pretty far behind) but the memories are as fresh as ever.

Gramma Mindy came down for a pretty long visit this time, which was nice...Unfortunately, I have to apologize, since I shared a stomach bug I had (which I was also kind enough to leave in Connecticut with my Aunt Amy & Uncle Steve during a recent visit there) so Gramma Mindy had a bit of a rough week (as did my Dad to a lesser degree...sorry about that!) but we still spent
some quality time together.

Gramma Mindy was kind enough to watch me, while Mom and Dad not only went out to dinner, but got to see a movie as well! A busy week for Mom and Dad...also, all three of us went to a nice seafood place in Bethesda which Mom had been wanting to try...

By FAR, my favorite part of the week was all the trips to the playground!

Even though she was still feeling a bit under the weather, Gramma Mindy chased me around the playground, and helped me on the slide!

It's always amusing when I go under the playset, and try to run away from whoever I'm hanging out with. They always catch me, though!!


Gramma Mindy and I had a lot of fun! Dad had some fun too, mostly chasing us and taking pictures for the blog. I have to say, Dad is a fine assistant...he somehow manages to balance having fun, while also documenting the event for all of my fans in the blogosphere...

The one thing I am unsure about still are the swings...in theory, they look like a lot of fun. I watch other kids swinging, and they seem to be having fun, while I also have fun watching them.
I also have a lot of fun pushing the swing...but something about getting in there and being pushed still gives me the fluttering in my stomach that I get when something just isn't right...I'm working on it though.

I'm up to being able to sit in the swing for upwards of eleven seconds. Baby steps.

As always, it was lovely having Gramma Mindy around, and I can't wait to do it again (Minus the stomach bug...seriously, I'm really sorry about that...)

How can you be mad at a face like this?