Surprise!

Grandpa Herr and I share the same birthday and when I'm in the Midwest we celebrate together.  But this year was all about Grandpa as he is celebrating his 80th birthday and the party was a surprise!  Happy Birthday, Grandpa!  There was a great turn out of family and friends and fortunately the severe storms forcast for the day were a no show :)  Here are a few pictures of Elena as she enjoyed the day.  Elena is enjoying her first piece of real banana cake with frosting and she didn't make a mess.  I know what you are thinking...didn't she have cake for her birthday?  Well she did of sorts but it was made with rice flour since I thought she was having problems with wheat, egg free since we hadn't introduced egg yet and reduced sugar with a powdered sugar glaze.  So it does constitute a cupcake but not like the moist sugary banana cake with real frosting made by Aunt Chris--oh so yummy!  Again today was a great day; with only one nap, Elena was like the energizer bunny, she kept going, smiling and waving :) 

Climb on in...

As I mentioned yesterday, Elena is into climbing and this morning it was this toy tote.  She wrinkles her nose when she is frustrated but she is persistent and very proud of herself when she prevails.  And then it is time to relax in an awkward looking position.  Such a silly girl!

A Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

It's been six months, almost to the day since we saw Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jim (Elena's Great Grandma and Grandpa).  Elena has changed a lot since Christmas and she displayed her personality quite well in our short visit.  She and Grandma read or rather ripped Grandma's magazine (ok by Grandma), Elena ran around, climbed on Grandpa's box...there was a lot of smiling, waving, and no visit would be complete without a small tantrum.  Grandma and Grandpa were surprised by and seemed to enjoy the tantrum since Elena is so smiley most of the time.  I really enjoyed my time with Grandma and Grandpa and hope Grandma continues to feel better!

Graduation Party

After a brief visit with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jim, we were off to congratulate Austin on his high school graduation.  In the fall he'll be off to Ball State--Congrats and Good luck, Austin!  As we walked into the pole barn/garage for the party Elena began waving and smiling.  She loved all the people.  It was a bit hot--all this humidity is hard for us So. Cal girls ;) so Elena walked A LOT.  She took her Grandma and Papa for long walks in the grass and loved all the rocks in the drive way.  Later in the day she had a waving contest with Grandma Herr (Elena's Great G).  It was so cute, they faced each other and waved at each other faster and faster.  Below is a picture of them waving together.  The last picture is with Grandpa Herr (Elena's Great G) right before Elena fed him some O's and honked his nose.  Despite lack of naps today and yesterday, Elena is quite the trooper and held up well.

Chicago Botanical Garden

Well, we're keeping quite busy here in Illinois.  A lot of people to see and a lot of things to do.  Today we met friends at the Chicago Botanical Garden for a picnic and walk around the grounds.  I've never been to the Botanical Gardens and it was beautiful.  There was so much to see, I would like to go back sometime maybe without a toddler who wants to run around.  Now that Elena has pretty mastered walking, it is all she wants to do and with shoes she's pretty good at running.  Our little pudge is thinning out fast!

Here is our attempt at the water wall trying not to get soaked by the splashes!

Bram demonstrated how to interact with the water wall--he was a pro!

Switched out of the stroller and into the wagon, Elena had a ball!

At the end of the afternoon, hot and tired!

Updating in Illinois

I thought I'd put a few recent pictures up from our time in Illinois.  Elena still likes to play with beards and honk noses and Papa is being such a good sport.  We have been spending a lot of time reading books which is great since the weather has been very stormy and humid.  I'm not sure when it happened but I now enjoy 10 inches of rain over a year not in one week.  The rest of our waking time is spent chasing her around the house.  Elena loves Grandma and Papa's new house, so big and open she can take off running.  She's walking great but still falls quite a bit (generally because she's trying to run too soon).  And as you saw in a previous post, she's climbing on anything she can get her leg on.  Elena's conversational skills are coming along too.  She understands quite a bit of what we say and imitates our sounds.  She talks back to us in a mixture of sounds like "a-da" for all done or "da" for done or yes and of course she knows Dada and is saying Mama more often.  She is also beginning to assert her opinion more often in the form of tantrums...{sigh}.

Happy Father's Day

Wishing a happy day to all fathers, including Carl who is back home. We miss him dearly but we're also having a great time visiting family and friends in the Midwest. Last night Elena figured out how to climb on the rocking chair from my childhood. She fell twice but is careful and now really enjoys climbing up and sliding off the chair. With this morning's light I captured her in motion--so adorable!

The humidity is getting to Elena (not to mention all the thunderstorms) and she has heat rash so this afternoon she was stripped down to a diaper though she'd prefer to be diaperless.  Outside we found Papa working on his bike.  Elena helped check balance ;)  Thought these were cute even without clothes.

Swimming with Cousins

Enjoying time with her cousins, Elena took to the pool to escape the heat and humidity. Nah, she loves water and we just might have to get a small pool like this one for our yard. She loves splashing and kicking (while sitting) and filling buckets with water and toys. All three of the kids had a great time!

Baby on a Jet Plane

This is the first leg of Elena's third round trip airplane ride (so the 5th time in a plane) and she did awesome! The key to this girl is having enough snacks, books to read, and get in a least one nap. We did have some kicking of the seat in front of her, but not really her fault since it reclined into her lap. When it was upright and not touching her feet she didn't pay any attention to it. Overall the flight was good and she was cute. Ask her where the airplane is or make the airplane noise and she points outside.  This was our first time flying without Carl and it was exhausting hauling everything but we made it and luckily our plane was on time.  Now it's time to get acclimatized to Illinois time and the humidity!

Fun at the Fair

First day of our county fair! Confession: I've never been to the San Diego County Fair in the nearly six years living out here. And you ask, how could I not visit the fair with fried Twinkies, fried Oreo's and fried Klondike bars until now? Well, frankly a lot of people go to the fair and on hot summer days I'm just not up for rubbing elbows with sweaty strangers. But as we all know, having a kid changes life in so many ways and today I was willing to forgo personal space so Elena could see the animals (the grossly discounted ticket was helpful too). We spent time with some funny looking hens and roosters (of course while I was making the correct animal noise, huge pigs, sleeping cows and then the lambs and goats in the petting zoo. Elena was interested in the animals and pointed as I made the animal noises but you could hardly guess from the pictures.

Goats say "baah, baah"

Here is Elena walking on the awesome grass and having fun with friends. Check out her tongue, she loves playing with her tongue since her 4th tooth broke through.

All the kids enjoyed running around on the grass and around Elena. So cute!!

Here's a little video of Elena walking. She looks pretty good on grass today.

On the verge of running

I know what you are thinking...how can Elena be running when she hasn't taken to walking yet? Prior to this weekend Elena was averaging 8 consecutive steps and then she would fall and crawl as her primary mode of movement. All this changed over the weekend as she now prefers to walk.  Today she walked from the kitchen table down the hallway to the guest room and only fell once. So I guess she is officially walking, although she looks like miniature drunken sailor.  It is quite funny to watch!  And even though she is still figure out her balance to walk, today she tried running.  When she figures out how to run, look out world this is going to be one fast toddler!

Relaxing in the Pool

Here's a little summer pick me up....Elena lounging in a friend's pool earlier this week.  

Go Galaxy!

Today we ventured off to the L.A. Galaxy soccer game against Houston Dynamo.  The game started at 5pm but we were in the sun and it was HOT!  Elena was not happy with the heat.  She didn't scream or throw a tantrum but when she is hot she gets ornery and is quite the handful.  Fortunately the second half was better, we were in the shade and Elena seemed to enjoy the game.  Despite being down a few good players due to the World Cup, the Galaxy played a great game and won 4-1. 

So hot...let me chew on the water bottle.

The game is getting exciting!  (And the sun is much less intense, complete shade is near)

Here is Elena cheering on the team!

Ahh, finally full shade.  Elena kicked back and enjoyed the game and time with Daddy.

Elena's shirt was soaked from spilling water down herself during the first half.  As we were leaving the air temp dropped quite a bit so we put on her souvenir shirt.  Coordinating shirts, aren't they cute?

This is our first family shot at an arm's length...good thing Carl has long arms!!

Tooth #4

Just a note in the journal:  Tooth number four finally broke skin today.  Yay!  It seems to take Elena about three weeks to get a tooth through once it starts causing her unbearable pain and frequent night wakings.  Hopefully the next set of teeth will be less painful.