3 months of E

E welcomed in 3 months of time with us yesterday!  It's hard to believe it's already been that long...and in other ways it seems like he has always been here as he's such an integral part of the family already.  E continues to be a super chill baby.  He has been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks now (7pm to 6ish am) which is amazing to me.  O didn't sleep through the night like this until he was 13 months old!  He is also a monster eater in a way that O never was (yup, E, you're going to be compared to O on all these baby milestones...deal with it).  He's going to be my chubby baby for sure!
He has also turned into a big "chatter" and loves to coo and smile away...at least to Dave and I (and his Grandma! They had a big chat every morning while Grandma drank her coffee while we were on vacation).  He will sometimes smile at O, but more often than not is a bit wary/apprehensive of the 2+ year old energy.  But for all this smiling, as soon as he sees the camera come out, this is what I get:

The smiles stop and he just stares at the camera transfixed.  I did manage to get some smile photos yesterday though...he must have been distracted by things other than the camera because we were outside.

I love those big gummy grins!

O, as always, is a great big brother and so much fun to hang around with.  He talks all the time and makes up so many fun stories and has so much to say about all the things going on around him, or reliving what happened yesterday, or last week, or last month!  His memory amazes me!  I really love this age (not so much the "limits testing" portion of it, but the rest of what 2.5 brings is pretty great!).

my little tree hugger

back from vacation

We spent the past 2 weeks in Calgary and the at the cabin while Dave went to Kenya for field work.  We are back and have lots of pics!  We had a great visit with family and friends and Elliot got to meet a lot of relatives.  He did great being passed around without much argument, and Owen loved visiting and playing with his cousins.

Our second night there, my parents hosted a nice get together/dinner with a bunch of extended family.

Great Grandma got to see Owen again and meet little Elliot

with cousins Will and Anna

E chillin' with Uncle Scott

A little cuddle time with (Great) Auntie Joan

cuddle with Auntie Beth

And arguably Owen's favourite part of the whole vacation was meeting my cousin Cody who is a policeman.  At dinner Owen was a bit enthralled with him and kept asking questions like:
"Senor Policeman?  What are you doing?"  "Senor Policeman are you eating your cake?"  "Senor Policeman, did you eat donuts today?"  It was awesome!  So Cody offered to stop by with his partner and squad car the next day so Owen could sit in the car.  At first Owen didn't recognize Cody in his uniform...but quickly got over that as evidenced by these shots:

Owen had lots of fun playing trucks with Grandpa.  And E took his time napping with Grandpa while he watched the news.

 We also had a little bbq with some of my high school friends...but I was too busy socializing to remember to take pics...but all the kids had fun playing with all the 30+ year  old toys my parents still have stockpiled in their house for all the grandkids!

We made a trip to Heritage Park.  Riding the train and the ferry were both a big hit with O.  E basically slept his way through the park.

I hear the train a comin'
It's rollin' round the bend...

Most of O's ice cream ended up on his pants...and hands...and face...and sweatshirt.
 Basically anywhere but his mouth.

 Then to the cabin for some (more) rest and relaxation!

which way to the beach?

relaxing on the park bench while O served "ice cream"
under the slide

O and Anna spent a lot of time "swimming" in the hot tub

driving the boat.  By which I mean staring out the side of the boat while absentmindedly turning the steering wheel (don't worry, we weren't actually moving fast) 

pretending they are an animal search and rescue crew

I took this pic 8 times...somebody was blurry in every shot (mostly O...it's hard to get little people to sit still!!) but this was the best of the bunch

Anna reading to O