Little baby, big beach.

We all went down to the beach. Eli's first encounter with sand went pretty well.

After the long flight from California to Florida, I was pretty tired. Lucky for me, Eli was ready to help me unpack. He's so helpful.

Two weeks ago, I flew to California to start my vacation with a half marathon in Napa Valley with my bff Alison. No pictures from that. Sorry, I was too busy running!

At the end of a fabulous weekend of great food, fun shopping, sightseeing in the Bay Area and, of course, running, I flew to Jacksonville, FL into the waiting arms of two handsome gentlemen (who happen to be my husband and son, lucky me!).



Kevin left for El Salvador the next day and Eli and I spent ten delightful days together at the beach. It was very, very fun. (Although not very restful. The days of lounging on the beach with a book are far behind me, I think.)

Here follow some pictures of our vacation adventures.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I haven't posted in a while. Truth is,
WE'VE BEEN AT THE BEACH!!

Tonight, Eli and I went to the Frilingos new house for a get together and low country boil. Master chef Timothy Frilingos rocked the shrimp, sausage and corn. Many kudos to him!

Eli ate and ate and ate. He ate cheerios and cherries and watermelon and peas and mangos and bread...

Eli also played with bubbles and played with some water toys and watched the bigger kids run around. He is learning to crawl through things and tried out Paul Frilingos' crawling tunnel. Very fun!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
We had a big, busy day. Mama ran the Peachtree Road Race while Eli hung out with his Grumpy. He tried to be good but may have been a bit fussy. It is hard being little.
When Mama got home, she and Eli and uncle Arthur and Anna and Tabasco and Rudy the Dog went to the neighborhood parade. Arthur, Anna and Mama remember going to this parade with their bikes and dogs decorated with crepe paper and streamers. Back in the day!


Eli was all decked out in his fourth of July finery. Check out his baseball shoes!

I was going to pretend that I am posting this picture to show off Eli's new pjs. Really, though, I'm posting this picture to show off my cute kid.

Mama likes it when Eli helps out in the garden. He's a great gardener when he remembers not to eat the woodchips.

Most of all, though, we LOVE to visit Grandaddy and all of our friends in Pilot Mountain. Eli wants to send a special shout-out to his new buddy Landon who brought Eli a whole bunch of cool toys and books. Now there are lots of fun toys at Grandaddy's house. Thanks Landon!

The parish picnic!


Hanging out with Beth and Daddy.

Summer is a fun time around here. Here are some pictures of the fun things Eli gets to do.

The zoo!
The baby panda, Mei Lan is only a few days older than Eli. She's a good bit bigger, though.

Yesterday was a great day starting with the zoo, then errands around town (the craft store, hooray!) and ending with a trip to the "beach" in Decatur Square where they blocked of several roads in the middle of town and dumped a bunch of sand for us to play in. There was live music and games and... did I mention sand? This was Eli's first encounter with the gritty stuff and I have to admit, I was a little worred, especially since we are going to the beach in a few weeks. A beach trip sans sand sounds pretty miserable. He, of course, loved it. He loved it on his toes, he loved it on his hands. He loved chewing on a shovel. He even decided it didn't taste too bad.

Thanks to Erin Miller for this great picture.

Look out you carnivores, this is not for the faint of heart...
ELI LOVES TOFU!!

The best part of the whole weekend, though, was Monday afternoon when Eli went swimming for the first time at Grumpy and Grandmere's. The pool was nice and warm and the weather was perfect!
We didn't know what to expect for his first time in the pool, but we should have known... he loved it. He's like a little duck in his floatie, even trying to kick and splash. We floated around and splashed and played for nearly an hour before cooking up some (veggie) burgers and having dinner. Looks like we know where we'll be spending most of our summer afternoons!

On Sunday we went to play at the Millers' house. We were having so much fun we didn't get the camera out. Eli played with Baikal in her water play table and he ate some dirt. A good day all around. Since Memorial Day is the official start of the summer, Daddy and Eli celebrated by donning their Hawaiian shirts and fishin' hats.

Last weekend was really fun! We did all sorts of new and fun things. I will say, after 8 1/2 months, you'd think we'd be better at taking pitcures of things OTHER than just Eli, like other people, the scenery, whatever. Sadly (or not!), you just get shots of the stinker.
We went to see our friends Maurice and Vicky get married on Saturday. Maurice and Vicki helped us build our screened porch a few years ago, so they have a special place in our hearts-- We LOVE the screened porch!
Eli got all dressed up in his baby formals: "Thank Heaven for Little Boys" in blue linen with a starched white collar. He looked a little prissy but altogether cute, of course!

Who loves Mama?

Kevin and I have decided that we're never buying toys again. This weekend, the stinker had a blast with 1) a Kleenex box, 2) a juice bottle with dried beans in it, 3) a paper grocery bag.
Here he is with the bag, happily sitting in a plastic Rubbermaid bin.

Finally, as promised, here are some pictures! First, Eli painted a flowerpot for me for Mother's Day with a little help of his teachers at his daycare (a glorious, marvelous and wonderful place!). He got to taste the paint, natch. I got a little choked up when they showed it to me.




Isn't it beautiful?

Holy Mackerel I think this is a personal record. Ithas been so long since I last posted and so much has been happening! unfortunatly, we don't have any pictures to share right now since the camera's batteries died and we keep forgetting to charge it. Soon, very soon.

However, I'll give a little update about what's been happening Casa York-Simmons. Eli has been very busy. In the last few weeks he has really figured out how to MOVE. He isn't quite crawling as much as he is flinging himself from place to place by rolling or inching along like a worm. He never moves in a straight line and often goes backwards, but he usually ends up where he wants to go. Anwhere he wants to go is almost always off limits. The edge of the bed is a very popular destination. Crawling, we are sure, is just around the corner. Babyproofing has begun.

Additionally, Eli has discovered consonants and so has been regaling us with hour upon hour of great stories about his day, descriptions of the scenery, details of the dogs' actions... of course, we can't understand a word of it, but it doesn't seem to stop him. The kid talks a blue streak: "Dee dee deeda, ga gi gi dee do too too ti da da da da. Be be boo?..." and on and on. He has also taken to ear-peircing shrieks of delight at absolutely everything including but not limited to the dog, the door, anyone who walks into the room, the carpet, a toy.

I'm sure that this will lose its appeal soon enough, but for now, we think it is hilarious and love to talk and shriek back to him. The neighbors must think we've adopted a heard of chimpanzees.

Eli had his first fever this weekend which turned out to be his first (only?) ear infection. I haven't slept in four days. Poor little one was miserable every time we laid him down. Kudos go to Kevin for doing his research and figuring out what was wrong. Double kudos go to our pediatrician who prescribed the antibiotics to clear it up. Eli is back to happy shrieking and babbling.

Pictures soon!

Eli is turning seven months old tomorrow and he is getting so darn big. He can sit up on his own now, entirely unassisted. He's eating all sorts of fun foods (all pureed): apples, bananas, peaches, prunes, plums, oatmeal, apricots, pears, sweet potatoes and, most recently, carrots. He doesn't like carrots and whenever we feed them to him, he looks at us like we've just given him a spoonful of ground glass mixed with cod liver oil. Oh well, you can't win them all. Earlier today, he was squirming around with a mouthful of unswallowed carrot when he suddenly sneezed. Apparently, covering Mama with pureed carrot is hilarious.

Another fun thing about being a big ol' seven month old is that it opens up some playground possibilities. Eli loves swinging on the swings! We are thrilled that spring is here so we can go swing and swing and swing.

ROCK ON! Check out Eli's new shirt!

Another great thing about living near the stadium is that friends come by to visit on the way to Braves games. Here's our friend Amanda (far right) with Eli and some of her friends eating pizza on the porch before a game.

One of the great things about living in our neighborhood is its proximity to all sorts of interesting places. For example, we happen to live halfway between the zoo and Turner Staduim. Both are within easy walking distance-- for humans and for horses.

The Budwieser Clydesdales were staying at the zoo for a few days at the beginning of baseball season. For several days, right before a game, the horses would walk down our street pulling their wagon (is there really beer in there?). It was sort of surreal but altogether very cool.

About a year before I got pregnant, I started to really enjoy running. I'm not very fast, but I really like going out and just cruising around for a while to clear my head and wear me out a bit. I've finally been able to pick it back up again with some regularity and I really love it! Eli and I have rejoined our Morning Run group now that the weather is so pretty here in the ATL. Yesterday, we ran 4.5 miles together! Yay us! Then, as is our custom, the whole group headed for coffee.

I've posted comments from our run leader, Steve before, but here is another one about yesterday morning:

Little Eli York-Simmons was all smiles this morning. As we headed down to Centennial Olympic Park, he was having a ball taking in all the sights and sounds of dawn in Atlanta. The wind was in his face, and I could sense his excitement over the adventure he was on. You could see it in his eyes, absolutely wide-open, drinking in every experience we had along the way: the cars zooming by, the tall buildings all about, the colors of the banners at the park, the clacking of railcar wheels on the tracks, the conversations of the runners, the roar of the planes overhead, the pitter-patter of our steps, the clouds racing over the tops of the tallest buildings, the sudden pop of the runners' laughter, the bright orange cones that lined the street next to Underground, the shrill of the policeman's whistle, the yellow pollen running in the gutter, the constant whirling of stroller wheels, and the calm, reassuring voice of his mom, right there with him every step of the way. He could sense it all, I think: every move we made, every breath we took. It was all of a piece--maybe not all fully understood, maybe downright baffling at times--but the stuff of life (lots and lots of stuff) experienced in the midst of a community of friends.

Everything was new this morning. Not necessarily understood, but new, very, very new.

In time, maybe ole' Eli will sort it all out. Maybe he'll remember back to this morning and make sense of all he saw, heard, touched and felt. Maybe one day he'll write a reflection about it. Maybe one day he'll set it to music. Maybe one day he'll tell his kids about it. Maybe...

But you know, one thing I know 'ole Eli knew for sure about his morning, as God is my witness. He knew we was loved. How do I know that? Well, he told me with his eyes, and he smiled it all the way home.

It has been only two weeks since the last posts. Looks like I might be turning over a new leaf! all is well in our world. Eli is hilarious, a delight and a wonder. He had he first vegetable this weekend: sweet potatoes. He didn't seem to notice the change and ate them up with his usual vigor. What can we say? The boy loves to eat!

His newest trick is that he can hold a bottle all by himself, provided that it is a small bottle. He is very proud of himself. He has recently started drinking juice as an afternoon snack and the little juice bottle is the perfect size.