without dad

Although we miss Dad, we have been getting along ok without him for the last week. Here are a few cute pics of Eli. One day, he had a lot of fun with funnels. Another day, he really wanted to wear his boots. He is trying to put on his shoes himself, but so far it has been unsuccessful. With my help, we have no problem. Anyway, Eli wore his boots around the house for awhile. The picture of him and Triscuit is fuzzy because he didn't want to stop moving. He is getting much better at walking in them inside! Outside walking is still a challenge. But, we did practice that a bit in the past week too. You can also see that I have been keeping Eli in in good shape -- we went to the library and he got his second haircut -- all in one day. Such a handsome fellow!

winter

hi all. Here are some winter pics for you to enjoy. Eli seems to really enjoy going out on the sled. I like taking him to the dog park. The snow can be smooth, and he can get in a nice sled ride. He is also learning how to walk on the snow in his boots. He is getting better at it, but once he falls down, he is stuck. Eli also likes playing with the pot lids and going to see noodles. Noodles doesn't mind the lids, but Triscuit does not like them at all! I should also say that I can tell Eli is learning more each day! Today, I asked him to get his milk and bring it back to me. He had to walk over to another room and he found his milk and brought it back. Ahhh, the little things impress me!

Hearing, now with more listening.

Shelby, Eli, and I spent a lot of time together. Since Eli's day care is closed for two weeks around Christmas, we've used a combination of parent-care, baby-sitter-care, and mom-and-dad-care to keep Eli entertained. One notable discovery is that Eli is developing quite the receptive vocabulary. He can identify his body parts, Triscuit and Noodles, and, perhaps most impressively, objects around the house. He can point to the oven, doors, cabinets, and more. We have to be very careful of what we say - even though Eli isn't talking back, he is absorbing our discussions.

He is also very interested in books. Shelby and I have read him more than 20 books each of the last few days. Fortunately, he isn't as wed to specific titles as he was a few months back, giving us a little more variety in what we read to him.

Eli returns to school tomorrow. We fear that the adjustment will be hard on him. He is finally happy to spend time in the playroom at the gym, which is now familiar because we went several times during his break, but we suspect he will not like being apart from us for entire days. I am also not sure how Eli will cope when I go to Uganda in two weeks, nor when Shelby and I go to Brazil and Costa Rica in February.

Well, we can't worry about the future when there is so much to do today!

Eli in Action

The last few weeks have been chaotic. We replaced our aging carpet and tile on the first floor with a sleek, new hardwood floor. While the new floor was being stained, we visited St. Louis. My parents came to Madison on Tuesday to help us reorganize the house. Christmas itself was quiet, if somewhat too quiet because of the challenging weather. The next looming challenge is my trip to Uganda in three weeks. I'll only be gone for ten days, but it is the longest I've been away from Shelby (and Eli) in years.

Now, for some multimedia (thanks to Google, I now have 200Gb (not a typo) of Picasa storage space. Expect more videos as I try to get my money's worth:

fun with yogurt

Last week, I thought Eli might enjoy painting with yogurt. He preferred eating it! But, we had fun, and it was good spoon practice!

the snow

We had our first big snow of the year today - a blizzard! You can see that Eli was not much taller than the snow. He does look pretty darn cute in his snowsuit. It took a little while, but he eventually warmed up to the idea of being in the snow. Now, I need to get a sled so Dad and Eli can go ride the big hills.

Eli visits GG

We stopped to see Roz (aka GG) on the way home. We had a lovely Thanksgiving lunch. Yum! And, Roz got Eli a couple of bath books for the holidays. He loves them already!

more brazil pics

HI again...you can see that Eli definitely liked the pool in Brazil. He especially liked it when Dad would toss him up and down. We had a very nice Thanksgiving too -- thanks to Val's cooking! We also took Eli to downtown Sao Paulo. After he woke up, we got a great view of the city.

Brazil pics

hi all. I know we've fallen behind in posting pictures to the blog. Here are some pictures from Brazil. Many of these are from Malu's country home. Mainly, they are pictures of Eli being particularly cute. Even though the travels were tiring, he gave us many smiles and got a lot of practice walking! There will be more pics, don't worry!

Seeing Attle.

Here are some pictures of our last few days of traveling.

Eli and the Winds of Change

The next two weeks Eli, Shelby, and I are taking an ambitious trip to Seattle and Sao Paulo. I'm writing this from Seattle, where we've been since yesterday morning. Eli was surprisingly quiet on the plane. He didn't howl at all, though he clearly grew impatient at the confinement in the last two hours. The days of carrying him on our lap are probably drawing to an end, but it is hard to justify spending a lot of money out of pocket to take him on business trips. We made it to Seattle and our hotel by noontime. Lunch at the Pike Place Market was followed by a rejuvenating nap. We visited our friends Renee and Eric, as well as their daughter Mia, after Eli's (and dad's) nap. They live about 20 minutes from our hotel, so it is a fairly easy cab ride. We spent the afternoon watching Eli and Mia play together. Eli really liked some of Mia's toys, as well as their dog Lucy. We all ate pizza together for dinner and then returned to the hotel for the night. Eli has a pack-and-play in the room, but it isn't the most comfortable crib he's slept in. He was restless, waking a few times during the night. Eventually he curled up with us and rested until about 6AM.

After he woke up, Shelby and I took turns exercising in the hotel gym. We had breakfast with our friend Esper. We converted the leisure seating at Starbucks into a baby picnic area. A good time was had by all. We then went back to Renee's house and spent the day with her and Mia. Eli took a nice nap in the car and continued to sleep once we arrived at Renee's house. He woke up by 11. Together, we went to Gymboree and enjoyed a toddler music class. Eli is a natural percussionist. We returned to Renee's house and had a 'silly lunch' of french toast. We spent the afternoon at the Seattle aquarium where Eli and Mia had a great time watching the fish and seeing the exhibits. Each time Eli goes to a museum he gets more engaged.

Eli and mom took a good nap after the aquarium while I checked email. Everyone was woken up at 5:30 to have dinner with Esper. A comfortable meal at Cheesecake Factory provided a nice cap on a fun day.

Also, I had to have to Grand Hyatt fix a 'baby chute' in our 17th floor room. A baby-sized, open-able window at toddler eye level is just a touch dangerous. They have now engineered a very sophisticated lock on the window, so we are happy. But I was incredulous about this window earlier in the day.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Eli will be staying with Mia and Renee's nanny. We'll bring her over in the morning, come back to meetings (both Shelby's meeting and one I have in another building), and then pick up Eli in the afternoon. It is very nice having good friends in the area who we get to see on trips like this one...Renee and her family are being overly generous to us, but we are incredibly grateful for their hospitality.

More to follow as we experience Seattle and prepare for a week in Brazil.

Here we come...walking down the street

MVI_0508, originally uploaded by dhoconno.

Eli decides to go on a walk with dad...and then take off by himself.

one more

I went back through the pictures from the day, and I had to add one more picture because Eli looked so happy!

Eli's first haircut

We took Eli to get his first haircut today. Not surprisingly, he wasn't too happy about it. He was much happier (and more handsome) afterwards when he got to play in the toy car and crawl around. We also took him to Didier Farms and he got to play with pumpkins and see some farm animals. It is always fun to "moo" at the cows. And, I think he tried to do that today. Enjoy! We are off to Boston tomorrow!

Dave and the crepe guy in Paris

IMG_0408, originally uploaded by dhoconno.

Dave and his new friend, the street crepe guy, in Paris last week.

messy eater

Eli demonstrated his messy habits very nicely today. He put those pieces of cantaloupe on his head, not me. And, he really makes a mess with his avocados. But, he can eat an entire avocado for a meal -- amazing! I also thought folks might like to see Eli wearing his winter attire. I'm sure that will get more use in the coming weeks.....

Oh, and there will hopefully be pics from our trip to the pumpkin patch today. But, those pics are on our other camera and I need to find the cable to get them off of that camera. Stay tuned!