At long last...

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from Christmas and beyond!  It's been a busy month...
Dave left to do field work in Uganda on New Year's Eve and my parents arrived here for a visit (and to help out!) on Jan 5.  Dave returned here, and Mom and Dad returned to their home yesterday.  And I completed my first week back at work!  Whew!

So, let's start with Christmas.  It was a great Christmas morning...it's so fun having a kid that is so excited for Christmas!  Because, I LOVE Christmas.  So I LOVE having somebody else to share in my complete love of Christmas.  Next year, he will get it even more...and then Elliot will get in on the action too!  It will be awesome!

Owen asked for three things from Santa:

underwear - note the Thomas set in the foreground

street sweeper - O decided Piggy should be the driver

 and a hippopotamus.  Thank goodness for books!

xmas morning selfie

who needs presents when there's paper?

book break!

post present play time!

play time continued

 And a couple pics from before Dave left

post 6am bottle snooze in the big bed

at Midwest Mountaineering trying out the kayaks while Dad shops for new hiking boots

Once Dave left, this was a pretty typical early morning for us.  Books in the big bed before breakfast.  

Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived!  Some of those pics were posted last time, but here are the remainder (in general I was horrible about taking pictures while they were here!  I really have to be better this...). Lots of books were read, and lots of playing was done with the grandparents while I headed back to work.

snuggled up in Grandpa's big shirt awaiting some clothes

E is trying so hard to get his knees under him!

I tried to get a picture of the three of them...Grandma did well looking at the camera and smiling, but O and Grandpa had a bit of trouble.  So you either got O looking like an alien, or Grandpa with his eyes closed...this was the best of the bunch.

 Grandma is a potty trainer extraordinaire!  We got O into pullups while she was here...and he actually stopped screaming about being taken to the potty and has started to hold it for a bit and wait.  Yay for Grandma!!!

Grandma modeling the "potty prize pail"  It's O's reward system for using the potty.  He gets to put a little plastic animal in it each time he uses the potty.  Such a sense of accomplishment!

O has not stopped playing Thomas the Train since xmas morning.  It was definitely a hot seller!

the drooling bandito!

 And, because I didn't include it earlier, here are the 6 month growth stats on Elliot!
Height: 28"  91% !!!!!  This explains why he is fitting in 12-18 month clothes already.
Weight: 17# 2oz  36%  So, still long and skinny...although not nearly as skinny as Owen was, so we think of him as our chunky baby...he has thigh rolls!  I love it!
Head size - without the helmet of course ;) : 47cm  77%  the helmet's not helping make that noggin' look any smaller either

As I said earlier, he is trying so hard to get up on all fours.  He can't quite get his knees all the way under him yet...but I figure he'll be crawling within the month...watch out cats!

And in probably the best news so far of 2015, Elliot is now helmet free!! At least for the daytime.  He was given the green light yesterday to stop wearing the helmet during the day.  He will continue to wear it at night for the next 2 weeks, then we'll reassess and he may be completely helmet free at that point.

no helmet = the return of sock monkey #1

giraffe leg trap

in the fortress of solitude/pillows