Vacuums, families, and canoes

It has been busy around the O'Connor house lately, as usual. We had both sets of grandparents visit in the last week. I think I need to start referring to each grandma and grandpa with their names too. I wonder if Eli is getting confused when I say that "Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit?" Also, if you haven't spent much time around Eli, he is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner. I have included a picture of a happy Eli playing with the house vacuum cleaner (It's pretty special when he gets to play with the house vac, rather than his toy vacs). And, lastly, we capped the week off with a trip in a canoe. We had a wonderful time canoeing today. We all sang "Row, row, row your boat," quacked at ducks, and hunted for wildlife. Eli was on tip-top behavior in the front of the boat with Dad. I think we will have more canoe rides in our future!

Enjoy!

Wednesday nights with dad

The last few weeks have been great. I hurt my knee, which sidelined me from soccer, but allowed me to spend more time with Eli! Each of the last two weeks, we've gone on a dad and Eli date while mom played soccer. Last week we went to the Memorial Union, watched ducks and geese, and ate ice cream. Tonight we went to Noodles for mac and cheese, visited the library, and finished our night with rainbow ice cream. Between these fun Wednesday nights we had the 4th of July. I just finished a major project at work so I was able to spend the weekend with the family and not focus entirely on work. We crammed a lot of activity into a few days: we took in the fireworks from the Memorial Union, keeping Eli up until 10:30 in the process; we marched in a neighborhood parade; we went to two merry-go-rounds on Monday, one at the zoo and one at Ella's deli; and we spent lots of time at the park. Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks, along with a video showing Eli's increasing enthusiasm.

The zoo and more

We've had a fun last few weeks with Eli. The 'biggest event' was probably our trip to the zoo. You can see that Eli fed the goats, rode the camel with Dad, chased a peacock, and drank from the water fountain. Such fun! But, we missed our chance to feed the giraffes. We will have to go back for that.

Otherwise, Eli's just been a very chatty little boy. He talks all the time. He is now saying multi-word sentences. And, he is working on his 'big' words, like "Arboretum, fireworks, terrace, and ice cream." He says something new everyday....or so it seems....