Shift

Elanor next to the cats then:

and now:


She has begun to show quite a bit more interest in them. As her ability to reach and grasp has improved, she has made quite a few lunges in their direction. We're working on the idea of "pet the kitty nicely!"


The boys had been getting used to her as the squeaky new inhabitant with interesting toys. Now they are a bit more dubious of the benefits of her presence

Snoozy Friends

Sweetly napping, swaddled babies with matching (spit out) pacifiers.

Picnicking

We have been enjoying our summer by picnicking at various parks. Elanor sometimes sleeps and sometime squawks. It's a little difficult to figure out what apparatus we need and what can be dispensed with. The play mat works pretty well as a sun shade and Ellie snoozes in the cozy moby swaddle. It is wonderfully relaxing way for Jonathan and me talk over the week.

Five

Last year, we spent the weekend on Orcas Island after discovering that the next year was going to be full of changes.

This year, our celebration definitely showed the effects of those changes, but it still had the unmistakable signs of the new happy.

Jonathan decided to work a half day and then come home to rest. We picked up Indian food to eat in and then went to see Toy Story 3 while Elanor did this with my mom:


It was a little nerve-wracking to leave her for that long but, of course, she was just fine and we got to enjoy our movie.

On Saturday, the three of us took a day trip to Whidbey Island by way of Deception Pass. The last time that we were here, we watched a boat towing bunch of logs through. There wasn't anything quite as interesting in the water this time although we attracted plenty of attention ourselves. At least Elanor was in the wrap most of the time so people were less likely to come up and try to pat her on the head. It also reduced the urgency of my entirely irrational vision of her slipping out of my arms and falling off of the bridge. We did have her hat with us, but after it blew off and landed in the roadway, I tucked it away until we were out of the wind a bit.

It was a gorgeous day.

We walked down to the beach at Deception pass, something that neither of us had ever done before.

There's nothing like the bald back of a baby's head to make a romantic picture, is there?

Elanor loves the Flying Baby move. She was laughing until I got the camera out to take a picture.

We introduced her to the little bit of sand on the beach by trickling it over her feet. Fortunately, she isn't into grabbing fistfuls of dirt and stuffing them into her mouth yet.


We stopped at a few places that we have never been before to see the view and give Elanor some time out of her car seat.

Then back into the car, a quick dinner at DQ (the only place that we came across at the right time--Jonathan was anxious to get to the ferry line) and a long wait for the ferry back to Seattle. A good day and a fun way to celebrate our fifth anniversary.

Two

Two year-olds are all the same-fascinated with scissors.

What? I'm not supposed to play with these?

Blueberries

We went blueberry picking as usual this year. It was pleasantly overcast in the morning.

Elanor did her part by playing on the picnic blanket among the bushes.

And by taking quite a good nap.

We saw this fellow curled up at the base of a bush. He was a little shy but just enough interested to look back at us instead of slithering off.

Proverbs 4:4-5

"When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me and said to me, 'Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live."

How am I teaching my daughter now while she is the only one in my care?