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.

IT'S SUMMER!!
And as we all know, here in Atlanta, summer means swimming! Eli's been hitting pools all around town.

Here's Eli and Daddy swimming at Grandmaman and Bumpus' house. (Grumpy got a new name, "Bumpus", which Eli can pronounce and my dad is much fonder of.)

I've been getting back into running (again). Our daily schedule is so tight that it is hard to find the time to run between waking up with his highness the little rooster at the crack of dawn and when we collapse into bed in the evening. Seems like something is always in the way. Ah well, I'm doing my best.

To motivate me, I've put some new running songs on my ipod. It is so funny to think about what kind of music I listen to when I exercise, it isn't the kind of stuff I listen to at any other time in my life. A lot of hip hop, actually and not the most savory kind. But it has a good beat and makes me feel tough... both are necessary to keep me going!

So here are some of the songs on my list.
Lose Yourself by Eminem
Hey Ya! by Outkast
Let's Get it Started by The Black Eyed Peas
Jackson by Johnny and June Carter Cash
Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix
Supernova by Liz Phair
Lady Marmalade by Labelle
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

There's more, but those are some of the highlights. Any ideas to add? I could use the help!

Welcome to the world, Madelynn!
We've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little petunia. Madelynn's mother, Elizabeth, is a colleague and friend of mine. Eli's surrounded by cute girls these days.

Eli, master of Jedi mind tricks, says...
Happy Birthday Alison!!

In other food news, Eli and I planted a garden. I built some raised beds and filled one with dirt. Last weekend we put in a few tomatoes and peppers. We're keeping it small this first year and we'll get a bit bigger next year. My composter is nearly full, so soon I'll be able to start to fill the other garden bed to get it ready for next year's crops. Please ignore the lack of landscaping around the bed... baby steps.

This evening after dinner, Eli and I watered the plants. And I watered Eli. I couldn't resist!

One legacy that Kevin and I have in both our families is that of good cooking and good eating. Kevin's mother, Linda, was a remarkable southern cook in the old tradition. Her chicken and dumplings... whoa. There are many things I miss about her and one of them is that I never had a chance to learn her kitchen secrets.

My dad is a great cook of the gourmet variety. He's a foodie. we can be assured at any given family gathering that there will be three times as much food as we can eat and it will all be delicious.

Why am I talking about food?

Because our CSA (community supported agriculture) just started up a couple of weeks ago. We are awash in green leafies, kale, collards, redleaf, beautiful garlic, kohlrabi, beets, vidalias. The strawberries are amazing! If you haven't heard of it, a CSA is a neighborhood co-op that buys shares of produce from a local organic farm. Every week, we pick up a big box of yummies from a neighbor's house and start cooking!

This week's box was so delish. If my kitchen could do a happy dance, it would. Tonight we had a beet and egg salad and sauteed beet greens.

In case you're interested, here's the beet and egg salad recipe, surprisingly delicious:

a couple of beets, boiled and peeled, cut into bite sized peices
a couple of hard boiled eggs, peeled and cut into pieces
some mayo
salt and pepper

Mix and eat. Yum.

We haven't been at the beach since February but we were able to get enough time off over Memorial Day weekend to take a family trip. One of the cool things about going to the beach every three or four months is that it is a great way of marking Eli's growth. He has a different reaction every time we are there because he is in a different developmental place each time.

This trip was marked by his fascination with the ocean at the same time he was sort of overwhelmed. Trips down to the water were very serious for him. He spent a lot of time thinking very hard about the sand, the shells, the water, the birds. I think he was enjoying himself. It is a toddler's job, after all, to organize the world. He was working hard!

We had a great Mother's Day last weekend. We all went over to our friends the Millers' house for a Mother's Day cookout. The food was great and the company was the best! At one point, the mamas were enjoying a quiet moment eating ice cream when the daddies called us outside to see something funny: two toddlers and their toys in a pack-n-play made for one infant. Luckily, it didn't turn into a cage match.
After play time, the little ones had dessert: Eli with a popsicle and Baikal with ice cream in the nice evening sun.

Happy Mothers Day! Here's a big KIIISSSSS for all of Eli's favorite mamas, most especially his Granmaman. We love you, Mom!

There are a few of you out there who don't get to see Eli on an regular basis. It is for your poor folks that I post this picture. We've taken some really beautiful pictures of Eli. He is really photogenic and very pretty.

But this picture, friends, THIS is a picture of my son. The front part of his hair sticks up for no reason at all. He's perpetually losing a shoe because he loves to play with the velcro. He's holding tight to that silly bubble bottle. His nose is all scratched from a speed-of-light faceplant he took yesterday. He's a sweet, sunny little soul with a lot of energy. Gorgeous.

It has been a good day. This morning Eli helped me make banana bread and then he hung out on the porch with his new spill proof bubble dispenser (thanks Mose!) that he is madly in love with it. Frankly, I am madly in love with it, too, as it solves our nearly daily tussles over who gets to hold the bottle of bubble solution. Eli carries around for hours at a time, not even blowing bubbles, just holding it. It went for a walk with us today.









After we baked, Eli helped with the dishes, a project that ended up being, of course, messier than the initial dirty dishes, so Eli's portion of the project moved out to the porch where he happily played in dishwater and soap until lunchtime. Toddlers ROCK!!

While we're technically not "potty training" with any gusto, Eli has a little potty chair that he likes to sit on from time to time. He calls it "pobby". Without giving too many unsolicited details, I will say that he has used it several times successfully. We are very proud.
He likes his pobby so much that he will occasionally sit down on any other convenient, small round object and call it "pobby". Short stumps in the park, for example. A few days ago, we were in the front yard playing and Eli decided that one of my big flowerpots looked like... you guessed it... pobby. Luckily he is still in diapers so soiling the soil was not an issue.

We also got to visit Eli's Godparents, John and Andie and their lovely little 5 month old Anna, our Goddaughter. I think spending the afternoon with little Mister Let's Go made John and Andie wonder whether they'd survive toddlerhood.

Here are some photos of Anna on her baptism day. She's a peach!