Family Xmas 2013

I know it has been quiet around here, but there are a lot of cute xmas pics to share... Some made it on Twitter, some haven't, but here's how our Christmas is going so far. I hope yours is wonderful!

T liked picking out trees this year.

So did E, especially since we were looking for one his size (more T-proofable).

And E got to pay for it.

Posing because sometimes I win.

E hamming up his excitement at Santa's arrival.

T loves his meat stick (don't know what's with his hair!)

Donut just lovin'.

Boah? Boah? (book!)

 Socks that might pass the chief pilot and still be fun.

Girl scientist lego mini fig. Scientists, staring entranced at liquids...

YES, a skateboard!

Yes, a haul!

Wishing you all the joys possible this Christmas and into the new year!

The Baumzingers

Friday Cute- In the Yard

I have no great commentary to add to this first set, as I think they're pretty great on their own. This is my parents' yard, the dog (Mika) is my brother's, and the pig is my Dad's, despite the fact that it showed up on my graduation or some such and he used to claim it was mine (he seems to have given up). (Perhaps I should not have mentioned that. However, it is his, and thus not an issue.)

The second set from my parents' cracks me up, because sometimes it's just a bit difficult to be small. As in small enough to be foiled by an abundant garden, and perhaps eaten by a large plant. Ray laughed when he saw them, so either they're funny or we're a bit cruel:



Have a good weekend, and watch out for baby-eating plants!

Obsession

I have to apologize because I JUST downloaded the pictures off of one of our cameras and realized that I hadn't done so since before we visited my parents last month. Turns out ya'll have been missing out on some gloriousness. At least in my opinion.

I haven't mentioned this much, I don't think, but Eamon is obsessed with OUT. His first act after breakfast is to go find his shoes and bring them to you, muttering "shoo?" He will drag you out as many times a day as he can, even in ridiculous heat and humidity (as Alli and Jana discovered last week). Visiting my parents' house, with the nice enclosed yard, was like heaven for him. And then he discovered something even better.

Yum

We had a good weekend camping and hiking with Jana, Alli, Isaac, Alan, and Jimmy - pictures to come as soon as I can steal some from Jana, I hope! In the meantime.... I distract you with this...

This isn't Eamon's first cone. You'll see those, as soon as I figure out how to deal with Hawaii - only 232 photos left to edit! Then... only at least 8 posts to edit. However. This is one MESSY cone. Raspberry lemon gelato. We walked (well, he strolled) to my favorite ice cream store, which just opened a branch by our house - but a couple miles away by bike path. E wasn't as excited about the walk until he got the ice cream...he ate the whole way home...
Messy, happy, child. Oddly clean stroller. Works for me.

Popper, part 2 million

For your Friday cute, I offer you:

A young boy "mowing" the concrete.

All the family just looooooves the idea that we have the corn popper. Of course I had to take it down for my parents to enjoy, right?

Wheels

Eamon got his first ride in the grocery store cart/car.
He loved it, and did not want to get out.

Which means he promptly followed with his first temper tantrum in a grocery store parking lot.

ps- not sure why both boys are wearing their glasses inside...

New Generation

There are pictures of my brothers playing on my grandparents' pool table when they could barely see over the curb. My cousin Sallie and I, who were much younger, were told we could play when we could touch the center dot. Obviously, some of those who came before us did some damage to the table (which they could barely see).

Regardless, I can pretty much promise that my siblings never got to do this at our grandparents', and neither will Eamon's (much older) cousins.

Yes, E is trying to figure out how to hold three balls at once. And failing.
Yeah, the kid REALLY likes balls. We had to take the pool balls away because a pool ball thrown overhand? Pretty dangerous.

And grandpa? Is wrapped around his tiny fingers. But look how happy the kid is...

In the land of the Butterfly

Edited to add: Thanks to Heather for the comments. If you click through to the full entry, there is now a link to the Picasa album near the bottom of the page, and a slideshow on the blog page if you just want to sit and watch the pictures fly by (hee!). Let me know if these work for you!

I won free tickets to the Butterfly Pavillion through a Yellowscene magazine giveaway (awesome magazine AND great giveaways!), and fortunately they were dated a year out so we could wait until Eamon could enjoy them as well. Now if we'd just thought to go when it was cold out and the tropical butterfly room would have felt good....

But otherwise, it was awesome. The pictures are amazing, so click through any of these to get to the full (edited) album on Picasa. Warning: there are tarantulas in the full album. Arachnophobes, beware.

In the meantime, here's a sampler (click for more):

Kudos to Ray: It's really hard to get a picture of a toddler AND a butterfly. Even when there are a million butterflies...

Happy Father's Day 2010!

Happy Father's Day to our parents and to all the fathers out there!

And to my own partner in parenting crime. Thank you for being a great Dad.

Ohh, FIRE!



You've really earned your wings.

Good Turns

For my 255th post, a rare sight- a photo of myself and E that I looove. So I'm forcing you all to love it too (what, you clicked onto my blog!).

That's my iphone case E is holding. My phone suffered an unfortunate submergence a few days ago, and I was left phoneless while I left it in tupperware in the sun with rice (and swapped out the tupperware every 30 minutes). Thanks to the glorious Colorado dryness, it only took about 6 hours to get it fully dry and functional again, but while I was imagining how badly I had messed up, I was also fantasizing about having a phone with a camera on the screen side. I figured this picture (taken with my laptop, which has that exact arrangement) might make Ray less annoyed with me and show him what I could do with that pretty phone. Fortunately, I didn't need the bribery, but I am still coveting that phone just a wee bit.

And now I have a picture I actually want to share. So... hope you all have equally fortunate weekends!

GOOOOOOOAL!

Ray and Eamon have found some TV they can both appreciate. It has balls, brightly colored uniforms, what more could a ball-obsessed toddler ask for?

I love how intent they both are. Eamon has expanded his vocabulary by leaps and bounds lately, including surprising us with "BUBBLE" this last weekend. He's signing lots of things he isn't saying (food, drink/water in particular, and "more", although he says it as he signs). I'm a bit concerned his next word will be GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL.

And a little scared for the next football season. Okay, a lot scared. Viking horns in stereo? Eek.

(Oh, and the Steamboat crowd- he really appreciates the seat. Thank you.)

Everything is okay!

I've been waiting for the call from one of our parents asking if we were still alive since the blog has been quiet this week. It has been a week, to say the least. But I finally spent a couple of hours photo editing this morning (just Kaya's graduation and Ray's iphone shots from Hawaii to go.... still.)  So posts are coming this week. So many photos.

This? My favorite. A preview. More to come.

16 months

Eamon turned 16 months old on Thursday.



He's growing by leaps and bounds, to use the cliche. But he's hoping to leap any day..

He can climb. He can just reach into the drawers in the bathroom. He figured out how to highcenter his gut on the edge of the bathtub. In other words, not much is safe anymore.

On the one hand, he's desperate for independance. He can feed himself with a spoon, and would love a fork if we could find a kid's one that wasn't useless. He tries to use a cup, including the one that we had been using as a bath toy (ich). He wants to walk, as long as it's not on grass. He has his own language, and will "read" books to himself - or you.

On the other hand, he is holding on tightly. He wants to eat in someone's lap, not his chair., and to eat what you're eating, whether or not he likes it. He likes a hand to hold while he walks. He doesn't like Ray's uniform, because he really likes Ray.

In other words, he's doing just fine.

(Edited to add... he is also gaining disturbing skill in the stacking category. While he's uninterested in stacking blocks, he came back from Hawaii able to stack those rings like a crazy man, and he loves it!)