One more post with a few more beach pictures and a few fun Eli milestones.

Eli has learned to clap and to wave bye bye. He sort of says "bye bye", too, except that he doesn't say b's, so he says "dye dye". He gets ecstatic every time a dog walks by, which in our house is a lot, so there's a lot of giggling going on here. He still isn't saying "mama" or "dada" but does have a word for "food", so we can rest assured that we brought home the right baby.

Eli shuns any sort of order and it drives him crazy when all of his books are on the shelf or his nesting cups are all stacked together or there is any paper in a stack or pillows on the couch. He is hell-bent on making sure nothing stays in its place. He will crawl through the house pausing just long enough to create chaos before moving on to the next project. It is hilarious. It is a mess.

The nursery teacher at Sunday School last week said that it was great to have Eli there on Sunday mornings because he was so easy to keep happy, that he never fussed or got worked up like some of the other kids. She said he spent the morning playing happily by himself and chatting with the other little ones. I was very proud of him (but secretly I checked his nametag to see if she might accidentally be talking about another kid).

We're pretty happy around here.

Okay, we're out of our minds with unbridled joy. Parenthood is a hoot.

Before we went to the beach, we took a trip to the zoo (much closer than the beach since it is only a couple of blocks away). Our fuzzy friend Mei Lan the panda was celebrating her first birthday last week and we wanted to wish her all the best. It was a fun party and we signed her birthday card. Mei Lan is only about two weeks older than Eli so she has a special place in our hearts.

That's her daddy, Ling Ling, in the background.








Our friends the Frilingos went with us.

If you were to read this blog on any kind of regular basis, you'd think that we do nothing but go on vacation. That is so remarkably far from the truth it is laughable. Having said that, we just got back from the beach (again!).

It was a wonderful trip. The weather was beautiful, perfect really and there was almost no one there. We had the whole island to ourselves. Eli was great. He was so much fun and on his best behavior the whole time. Kevin even gave me the chance to go to the spa and get a massage, thanks to the gift certificate that The Girls gave me when I was about 100 months pregnant and felt like a whale with vericose veins. So yes, I got a massage... a chocolate massage. I am not kidding! I was massaged with fancy cocoa oils. It was like getting massaged in a godiva factory-- bliss!


But that's not the exciting news (as nice as it was!). The exciting news is that Eli took his first steps on the beach! He has been really good at standing for a while now and can stand and squat, up and down, without holding on to anything. But one afternoon he stood up and took a step on the beach before landing on his bum. Kevin and I were ecstatic.

He has since taken several more steps with his record being this afternoon's shaky 5 in a row. It is amazing to watch.



Hooray!

Eli has one more shout out for the evening:
Happy Birthday, Aunt Elizabeth!

The cousins couldn't really meet since Eli had a runny nose but we got the families together for a photo. Soon, Hunter and Eli will be cruising aorund the place so fast, we old folks won't be able to keep up. Eli's got a lot of tricks to show Hunter.


And here are all of the Simmons boys. Handsome crowd, aren't they?

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
Introducing, HUNTER DAVID SIMMONS!

We took a trip to Pilot Montain last weekend to see Grandaddy and to visit with little cousin Hunter. Eli is finally big enough to ride in the red wagon (a gen-u-wine Radio Flyer) at Grandaddy's house and he loved every minute of it. He rode the red wagon lots of places, in Grandaddy's driveway, in Great Grandma's yard, at the park... he's a regular speed demon.

Check it out! We've been tagged as a rockin' blog but our friends over at "day upon day..."

And now, I'm tagging my friend Elizabeth at
Westward Expressed because she just moved along way away from me and, well, she ROCKS!

In other, less exciting news, now that Eli is nearly eleven months old, I thought you might want to hear about some of the stuff he can do.

Eli can:
crawl with the best of them
cruise (walk while holding on to the couch)
stand for a second without holding on
say "banana" (sort of)
say "dog" (sort of)
open and close drawers and cabinets and crawl inside them
kick his legs in the swimming pool

Eli loves:
the dogs
pancakes
bubbles
swimming
fruit of all kinds
paper of all kinds (for eating, of course)
to pull kleenex out of its box
"The Very Hungry Caterpiller"


Eli doesn't like:
vegetables
not being allowed to stick his fingers in the light sockets
mornings

Eli says
WELCOME TO THE WORLD, HUNTER DAVID SIMMONS!!




Eli's new little cousin Hunter was born on Friday. He was in a bit of a hurry to get out and see the world so he came out a little before his due date, but he is a healthy little guy and we can't wait to meet him! Congratulations to his parents, David and Jaime. Let the fun begin!

I've always believed that one of the best things about coming home from vacation is sorting the mail. Now that I'm an adult (sort of), most of the mail is bills and junky catalogues, but it is still fun to sort through (and besides, my copy of Harry Potter #7 arrived!).

It is especially fun to sort mail when I have help.

The previous pictures of Eli and Kevin and I on the beach are pretty cute, but truthfully they are not a good indicator of preceding beach trips. I did my best to protect his little tender skin from the sun, so we ventured out before 8 am and after 5pm and Eli was always covered, like this. Yes, I know, he looks a little dorky, but he didn't get sunburned!

Eli encountered his first "old fashioned" phone... you know, the kind with the curly cord. It was a big hit.
I think he ordered pizza. From China.

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.