Eli is composing a symphony.

We've been going to the park almost every day. Fall in Atlanta is about as perfect as it gets. It has been a very hot dry summer and, while it is still frighteningly dry, it is cooling off just a little so that afternoons at the playground are a delight. Now that Stinky is walking, there's a lot more he can do at the playground. He seems to make a new friend every day. And, as an added bonus, it tired him out so he sleeps beautifully at night.

Looks like I've falled off the posting wagon. Again. Evenings are so busy around here. It seem slike I get home from work play with the little stinker, eat, clean up and crash. 'Course, recently there have been a few episodes of Heroes sprinkled in, courtesy Netflix. It is our newest obsession. Somehow, we keep getting hooked intot he really complicated TV shows. Besides, something has to tide us over until Lost returns in December!

Anyway...

Here's what we've been up to. When we last visited our hero, he was freshly ONE YEAR OLD. Shortly thereafter, the little squirt took his parents on the parish retreat at Kanuga in Hendersonville, NC.


He ate some rocks.





Took a lot of walks.




Played with cabin mates Paul and Katherine.


And was very jealous of how big 23-month-old Paul is-- almost big enough to ride a scooter!

Then Eli gave it a try.

And then there was cake. Paul showed Eli how it is done.

Baikal (21 months) wins the most dedicated (and perhaps most fearless) swimmer award.

Everyone went swimming, including our friends Baikal and her dad Matt, Paul and his mom Beth, and Tara, Kahlan and little Beth and their parents Richard and Sarah. Uncle Arthur and Anna came by and Mama's Aunt Zan and Uncle Steve. And of Course, Grumpy and Grandmere were the gracious hosts.

Everyone in the pool!

Then on Sunday evening it was party time!

Mama (that's me) made a train cake.

Saturday afternoon we went to a party at Paul Frilingos' house with some of our church friends, old and new.

There was also some truck riding and walking!

The most fun event of the day was tumbling on the couch pillows. This is a daily occurence.

The big day!

Yes, this is my one-year-old son with a (clean) diaper on his head.

Is it possible that a whole year has gone by?

This weekend was Eli's big first birthday weekend. That makes it sound really dramatic, like we partied for three days. we didn't but it was a big weekend of fun non-birthday-related activities that added up to one fun birthday weekend.

I wish I had lots of poetic things to say about Eli turning one. I don't. The fact is, it kind of snuck up on us. It seems like he was a "just a few months old" for so long then we've suddenly hit this major milestone. In reality, a first birthday is just another day for Eli since he doesn't have any idea what is going on, but for us it feels bigger than that.

He's moving into the toddler room at his preschool.
We get to face his carseat forward instead of backwards.
He can eat oranges.
He's totally weaned onto regular milk.

He's not so much a baby anymore and that is very sad for me. Incredibly, though, he is a really wonderful little kid, a snugglepuss with a great sense of curiosity (heaven help us) and no sense of gravity or self-preservation. We genuinely have fun around here. It is a blessing to live with this growing little kinetic force.

Kevin and I spent most of Thursday and Friday last week saying things like, "a year ago right now we were getting in the car to go to the hospital," "a year ago right now I was wondering what I had gotten myself into," "I a year ago right now I was wimpering for an epidural..." etc. A YEAR AGO? It was a lifetime ago!

Anyway, on to the festivities...

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?