Eli is 2!!

Get ready for a lot of pictures in the next couple posts...I have a hard time choosing which ones to post!


I cannot believe Eli is officially two as of yesterday! My baby boy is turning into a little boy! We had a day full of fun activities. I like the idea of Eli having a special day on his birthday. So, we went to a place called "Goin' Bananas" in the morning. It's basically a huge warehouse full of bounce houses, and they also have a play area in the front with toys and pretend houses and stuff. Eli had a blast! It was definitely a work out for both of us! As you can see, he found a fireman hat in the dress-up area that he did not want to take off.
We then picked up John from work and went to one of our favorite eating spots, P.Terry's, for cheeseburgers and fries. It's Eli favorite because they have a sandbox with toys where he can play while we eat.
In the afternoon, I thought I'd go take Eli to the toy store to get his very own fireman hat, and we also got some matchbox cars. After that we went to go get ice cream, and Eli had his first ice cream cone. He enjoyed it as you can see in the pictures.
So, it was a fun-filled special day! We'll have more pictures to post of his birthday party this weekend...

Farm Day

A few days ago, we took a trip to a little farm right in the city in east Austin. Unfortunately, it didn't have any animals besides chickens, which Eli was sad about. But we did get to pick our own strawberries to take home. This was a new and fun experience for both of us. It was hard to resist eating them after we picked them! The farm is called Boggy Creek Farm, and is a great place to go buy fresh produce straight from the source. We'll be going back, for sure!

Camping Trip

We went camping this past weekend at Inks Lake with some friends from church. Eli had a blast on his first camping trip! The whole way there he kept saying "Camping!...Mama camping, Dada camping, etc." over and over, and he hasn't stopped talking about our camping trip since. The weather was perfect for camping, beautiful days with plenty of sunshine, high in the 70s and low in the 50s. Also, we found out that by coincidence, Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa (John's brother and his wife) were going to be there that weekend as well. It turns out that out of all the 200 and something campsites, theirs was literally next door to ours with one site between. So, we got to spend time with them, too. We were all exhausted when we got home, but it was so much fun!

Family Visit

Last week Eli and I went up to Dallas to see my family. We had so much fun! It was fun to see Eli play with his cousins, Grayson and Garrett who are 8 and 6, because they actually can play together more now. Eli tried to do everything they do. We got to go to the Dallas zoo, and we also had a little early birthday celebration for Eli. Wish we lived closer, but when we do get to see family, it's always a good time.
Zoo Trip:











Here the boys are feeding and petting the sting rays:












Birthday celebration:
Licking icing and then eating cake and ice cream!
Like the make-shift candles on the cake? By the way, Eli loves singing the Happy Birthday song to Boone...very cute! I'll try to get that on video...

Must Be Heaven

For the month of March, we were able to borrow a truck from my mom so that we could do some yard work and landscaping. Eli thought this was the coolest thing ever! He loved coming home and seeing it in the driveway. He called it "Dada's truck". We spent many afternoons playing in the truck. Boone also enjoyed the truck. He liked sitting in it, and it was hard to get him out. We literally had to push him out of it. The best day with "Dada's truck" according to Eli was when John, Eli, and Boone went to get dirt. Not only did he get to see the front-end loader unload the dirt into the back, but he got to bring the dirt home and dump it onto the driveway. This means that Eli had two huge piles of dirt to climb on right in his own driveway! We are all sad that we had to return the truck last weekend. It came in very handy and was a lot of fun to have around. Now Eli keeps asking, "Dada truck?"...and John and Eli both start crying...ha ha! I think I might see a truck in our future.
















Eli towing dirt in his truck just like Dada

A true trucker!

Pure Genius

Here's Eli demonstrating his knowledge of different types of trains. The video is long but worth a watch. Harvard, here we come!

23 months old

Wow, another month flew by. That little tractor up there at the top of the blog is way too close to the 2! No big changes or events really in the last month. Eli's still talking like crazy and getting better and better at it. He's even saying some 3 and 4 word sentences now! He's been saying his name a lot lately. It's Eli do this, Eli do that, Eli need this, Eli need that...it's still cute. He says it very clear, too.
Eli has discovered lately how handy his step stools are. They even have little handles on top so it's easy for him to carry around. Whenever he wants to see something or reach something up high, he runs and gets the stool...even if he's outside. It's handy for him, but not so much for me. Talk about child-proofing!

Eli's also become a real ham for the camera. He says "cheeeeese" for pictures as you've seen, and he will also pose when I take pictures, as you see here.










So, one more month of being one year old...

Egg!

Our chickens finally laid their first egg for us! This is very exciting since we've been anticipating eggs from them for about 6 weeks or so now. Yay chickens, keep it up!

New Shoes

Eli is so excited about his new shoes that we got yesterday. I don't know if it's because he likes them so much or if it's because they are much more comfortable. I feel so bad because he was wearing a 6 1/2 extra wide, and after measuring his feet in the store, I found out he's now wearing a 7 1/2 to 8 wide. His poor little feet were crammed into his old shoes. No wonder he kept taking them off all the time! Anyway, Eli spotted the shoes with firetrucks that also light up when he stomps his feet, and there was no turning back! I couldn't get him to try on any other shoes once he saw those. I'm not too crazy about the light-up shoes, but oh well. As you can see, he's very proud of them. Eli's almost two, and his shoes are already almost as big as mine!

Zilker Kite Festival

Today we went to the annual Kite Fesival at Zilker park. It was a very windy day, perfect for kite flying. When we were parking, Eli kept saying, "Watch kites, watch kites!". It is an amazing sight to see the hundreds of kites, all shapes and sizes, flying in the air. We met some friends there and had lots of fun! Can't wait for the 3rd annual Perkins Family Kite Day next year! We'll have an almost 3 year old and a 6 month old...whoa!

Here's why there aren't many pictures of me and Eli...John's not the best photographer in the world, he snaps with no warning! And Eli was being wiggly, too.