Finally, a strange new development...
Eli likes to sit on Kevin's head.
Seriously.
He just climbs right up and sits down.
Wierdo.

In other news on the homefront, Eli got his first haircut, a very minor one just to straighten out his bangs. I couldn't bear to trim off the curls at the back of his neck. One of my co-workers pointed out that short in front and long in back is a mullet. Great. My kid has a mullet and it is my fault.

Our backyard is really shaping up. I'll send some pictures whenever I get around to taking them. We now have a fully-functioning sandbox with a tarp cover (I built it myself!). It currently holds 650 pounds of sand. No joke. Sand is really heavy! We have a great veggie bed with tomatoes and peppers, a composter and compost pile and two rain barrels off the downspouts. And we're mowing the lawn regularly. Paradise! Seriously, though, it is really fun to have a functional backyard to play in.

Eli's just discovered that if he chases the dogs, they run away. This is a fun new game in toddler-world. Luckily, even as old and arthritic as Gennie the greyhound is, she is still faster than the kid.

Finally, the most recent accomplishments in the world of learning are:
counting to 4
A,B,C and D (usually in order)
"I love you!"

The last one is my favorite.

One of my colleagues, Chuck, gave Eli a set of big blocks. I haven't had a chance to thank Chuck yet because he's been away on vacation, but Eli LOVES these blocks. Really loves them. He especially loves to stack them up really high then have one of us lift him up to keep stacking until they fall down. He is remarkably good at balancing them.

We've also spent some quality time in the water. Eli's friend Caroline invited us and a big bunch of our church buddies to swim at their neighborhood pool. Eli, quite the waterbaby, had a great time, as did his friends (and their parents, our friends!)

Baikal and Paul and their moms


Ann and her dad


Our buddy Katherine


Eli couldn't decide if he liked the water feature or not.

As Eli gets older and more expressive, his face shows more and more complex emotion every day. I love this picture, not because he's happy and shiny, but because he looks so irritated. And terribly rational.

I can't imagine what ridiculous thing I must have said to evoke such a look, but I should have written it down and vowed never to repeat it. Ever.

Sorry for the abrupt post stoppage. We've been having some internet problems here at Casa York-Simmons. Hopefully we've got them all sorted out.

So I'll back up...

It's summer, hooray!

We've been doing all sorts of great summer things around here, most of them involvong sun, sand water or a combination of the three.

In addition to spending many weekend afternoons at my parents' pool, a few weeks ago we went to the Decatur beach festival, where they dump several tons of beach sand into the middle of downtown Decatur and we get to play in the street in the sand. We met a bunch of our friends there. Eli liked playing with his friend Paul.




Eli tried to swim in the sand.