Ell's first haircut

So last Friday, Ell's hair looked like this. It isn't all that unruly, but it was closing in on mullet territory in the back, and my sister didn't think Elliott had the rural street cred to pull off a mullet. So I hemmed and hawed about getting it done, fearing that a haircut would make my baby look too grown up. Over the last year we've all heard about how I try to prevent Elliott from growing or doing big boy things.

Plus, I had some purple rubber bands laying around and the back was the perfect length for little pigtails. I may have gotten curious about what a future daughter would look like. And she may be beautiful. Haha. Kidding! Sortof.

ANYWAY.

I made an appointment in Canton at a kid's haircutting place a couple of people had suggested to me. Which may have also been 6 miles from the closest Sonic. It is really genius. Each salon chair is a vehicle (firetrucks! Sparkly convertibles! Lightning McQueen!) And each mirror has it's own tv and dvd player on it. I picked out an Elmo movie and the lady went to town.

I had to be fast, but I managed to snap a few pictures in between distracting him to look down so she could work on the aforementioned mullet.

See the back? I wasn't lying.

Zoning out to the Elmo movie.

As a treat for his excellent behavior I bought him a new book with Elmo on it. It has a puppet in it which he thinks is amazing and so he steals the book from me. Then for some reason Elmo stops moving and talking and he doesn't really understand why.

Its summer!

I've been bad at putting up new pictures, because I've been busy enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having. Elliott and I have taken another trip to the petting zoo (this time he could tell me what some of the animals said, and he mooed and baaa!ed along with the cows and sheep), gone to the botanical garden where Elliott played in the dirt and sand and went down the most terrifying slide ever, and have taken lots of walks around town. Mostly, though, we try to get to the public pools around here, because they are wonderful.

He is still doing great with the signing classes we are taking, and especially loves to point out balloons, hats, balls, and sunglasses to me. He has added a few words to his vocabulary, although some are unclear except to us (shoe, cheese, juice, and kiss all sound like sss! or oos!) and others are more like onomatopoeia (guitar is doongadoongadoong and bubbles are rapid blowing noises while he reaches for the place behind the couch where I keep them). He is starting to test his limits, by throwing dinner on the ground and saying nononono when he's reaching for something I've told him to leave alone. He won't eat meat unless it's hidden in spaghetti or belongs to another child. I called my mom a couple of days ago asking for help to get him to eat real food and she laughed at me and told me to give him pudding and leave him alone. Which wasn't exactly the advice I was looking for, MOM.

But overall we're good, and busy, and enjoying the things that come with summer, like cheap berries and popsicles. Ice cream and sunshine. Pools with sprinklers mounted just high enough for Elliott to walk under but manage to spray me in the chest while I am trying to get brave enough to get my stomach wet.

He gets it honest...

For those who don't know what the title of this post means, it's what my family says when describing a trait that has obviously been passed down from family (or kinfolk, as my dad says). I also want to start by saying that I KNOW you shouldn't plop your kid in front of the tv and call it a babysitter. And I don't. The few times I've tried it (in desperation, mind you) by renting a sesame street or curious george video from the library, he has been completely uninterested or even a little freaked out. He'll watch the screen for 15 seconds and then go find a book, or a ball, or destroy something.

But Elliott LOVES the remote control. And since the power button is bright red, he usually figures out how to turn on the tv pretty quickly. Today it was on channel four, but he pushed buttons and it quickly became fuzz. Then he managed to land on PBS, and there is a nature program on about animals in Madagascar. He is enthralled, standing in front of the tv staring up at the lizards and lemurs and whipping around every so often, like he's asking me "Are you seeing this?!"

Why my floors SHOULD be cleaner

I mean, who else in the world thinks a broom looks like a really cool toy? I've had to start hiding them.

Ol' Crazy Eyes

Spending the day outdoors does something strange to us.

Makes us see the world a little differently.

Puts a little sparkle in our eyes.Lets us all wear rose colored glasses. Or cardboard novelty ones from the dollar bin at Target.

Our buddy Jaafar

Super baby!

The balloon helps him fly.