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

Family photo shoot

We had a little family photo shoot with our friend/doula with Owen/photographer Emily when Elliot was 6 weeks old (you'll recall, oh faithful reader, that she did a family photo shoot when Owen was 4 weeks).  Here are some of the shots!

summertime!

and the livin' is easy...particularly if you are a baby and just get to sleep and lounge about all day.

We've also made some trips over to the beach (it's pretty awesome living a whopping 10 blocks from the lakes!), of which Owen's favourite part is definitely just playing in the sand!

6 weeks (+)

Tuesday marked 6 weeks of life for Elliot...and it continues to amaze me that if I didn't have the job I have, I would have had to be back at work on Wednesday. Maternity leave (excuse me, it's not called that, it's medical leave) in the US is so crazy!  You are guaranteed your job for 6 weeks no matter where you work, and 12 weeks if you work for a large enough employer (I work for the state, so definitely a large enough employer).  My employer will also allow further parental leave for up to one year and still allow you to return to your job - but this is not mandated like the other leave, I just happen to work somewhere that allows it.  All of this leave is completely unpaid - the US is the only industrialized nation in the world, and one of only 4 nations total that have unpaid maternity leave.  Crazy.  I will be taking my full 12 weeks starting late August when the semester would be starting again for me, and then an additional 4 weeks of "parental leave" for the remainder of the fall semester (because nobody wants a new teacher taking over the class with only a few weeks left in the semester). Right now I'm just on my regular 3 months of non-paid, non-working summer time.  So, I feel lucky that I will end up getting 7 months of time with my baby before I return to work when most people only get between 1.5 and 3 months.  The academic schedule works out nicely for having babies!

Anyway, here's what we've been doing this week!

dreaming about pooping on our almost daily walk around the lake

naked play time with big brother

tummy time is so much better with a friend!

We also went to the garden store, and O was particularly excited about the skid steer that was parked in the back of the tree area.

Every summer, artists craft mini golf holes that are set up in the Sculpture Garden outside the Walker Art Center (which is quite close to our house!).  So we headed over this morning to play the front 9.

nice form!

rockin' the promotional sunglasses the museum was handing out to the kids.

One month old

I didn't get around to this last week when Elliot actually turned 1 month old, but here it is now!  He continues to be very mellow, and still only feeds once a night - too bad he decided this week that his 3ish am feeding should also be time to get up for the day, so he likes to only lightly snooze (read: grunt, kick, and fuss with intermittent bouts of sleep) until he eats again around 6 or 7am, at which point he plays for a bit and then falls soundly asleep again by 8 or 9am. And is practically comatose from the hours of 11am to 6pm. I guess he still has his days and nights a bit flip flopped...we'll get that sorted soon enough. I can't complain, this is leaps and bounds better than Owen slept and ate at this age!

Owen continues to be a great big brother - occasionally requesting I "put Elliot in the crib and come play with me Mama", but mostly being very patient when Elliot needs something and is very gentle with him.

This summer has been relatively cool so far (mid to high 20sC as opposed to mid 30sC) so it has been great for getting out and not sweltering.  We have continued our Friday night picnic tradition (and other nights as well for that matter...but always on Fridays), so here are a couple pics from our last couple picnics (Sculpture Garden and Minnehaha Falls, respectively).

Owen for scale

sleeping beauty in the stroller there...perhaps if he would ever be awake during the day he may not decide 3am is "morning"

we had water with us, but the water fountain is always way more fun!

We also had a play date with MJ, Greta, and Teddy earlier this week to run in the sprinkler and play in the sandbox (mostly the latter in Owen's case - that kid loves himself a sandbox!).  The only pictures I managed to take were when they were all preoccupied with the watermelon.

young primates gathered around their fruit

"you want melon, Mama?"

and of course Elliot was napping through all of it...

But here are some pics of him awake (it does happen...)