Nap Time

Elan is now close to 11 months old. He's pretty good when it comes to napping. We can lay him down and he'll go to sleep on his own after a few minutes. However, we often hear him making noise in his room before he falls asleep. I often wondered what he did in there, so the other day I set the camera up and hit record as soon as I put him down. This is what it recorded, and yes, those are his teeth marks on the crib.

Celebration / Sad times

What in the world? This isn't a picture of Elan, I know. And most won't care to read this post or see this picture. So I apologize if this doesn't interest you, but it's of importance to me, so here goes.
So, what you see before you is the last bag of pumped milk Elan will ever have. As some of you already know, returning to work and leaving Elan with the sitter has been hard on me, but it's a fact of life I must deal with. However, I have always been comforted by the fact that, although I can't be there with him physically, a part of me was always there with him as he had my pumped milk while at the sitter's. Well, I stopped pumping two months ago, so tomorrow he will have his last bottle of my pumped milk. It saddens me that we have reached this point, but it's also a time to reflect and celebrate my accomplishments (yes, I am patting myself on the back, tooting my own horn, etc.). I was able to give my child what I think is the best for this long and I am proud of myself for that. Pumping was hard work and sometimes a real pain in the butt, but well worth it. :)
We promise to put the Halloween pictures up soon!

Camila's Baptism

We spent the weekend in Del Rio for my niece's baptism. It was a short trip, but a great opportunity to visit with my family. Elan and Camila played together, each one helping the other make a big mess with whatever they could find. It was nice watching them play and I'm sure everyone else enjoyed seeing them together. Here is the entire album of pictures from the Baptism and the dinner that followed.

Les Schtroumpfs

I had a stern talk with Papa Smurf today. You see he started building on our lot without permission. If they want to relocate to Austin that's fine, but they will have to pay rent if they want to be tenants on our land.

I apologize if I sound a little incoherent. To teach them a lesson, I ripped a Smurf's house off it's foundation and ate it. Now I feel kinda funny. I have always wondered how it must have been for the people who wanted to determine what mushrooms are edible or what mold goes good with cheese, for that matter. It seems like too much of the scientific method had to be used for something that really isn't that good. It would have been easier to kill an animal and throw it in a fire. OK, too much thought went into mushrooms for today.

The point is...we have finally received a good amount of rain. Not enough to bring water levels back to where they were in the past, but enough that the grass is looking green without hundreds of dollars in water bills and enough that there are mushrooms growing all around the yard. Mushrooms, oleander, ant piles...our yard is very child friendly for Elan to crawl around.

Ta-dah!

I introduce a new bike like I'm introducing my own child. A friend once commented on how I had to scroll through many of my bike pictures before getting to pictures of Elan on my phone. What can I say? I like my bikes, especially when I put in all the work to build them just the way I want. This reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Wall-E (watch it here).

This is my latest creation, the Soma Smoothie. I took it on its maiden voyage for a 25 mile ride on Park Road 1C between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks this weekend. I don't want to sound like the cheesey people that review this frame on the internet, but it really does ride smoooothly. I made some minor adjustments afterward, so it should now be ready for all my road biking needs. I can already tell I am going to really enjoy this bike, except for one small detail. To those of you from Del Rio, no this is not built in honor of my high school mascot. I'm now a little self-conscious about my choice in color combination. Thanks a lot bin-Lari!

E-Stalking

I'm not talking about e-stalking people, but rather, e-stalking things and places. Take this for example. After you book a place for your big day, you get online, look up pictures, try to find how others decorated it, and try to find out everything you can about the place before your own wedding. The same goes when you get a new baby carrier. You get online, find reviews, look at pictures, imagine yourself wearing it, and imagine your baby in it before it arrives in the mail.

I do the same after I order a new bike. I had been e-stalking the all new, 2010 Specialized Allez steel framed bike. I refuse to ride anything but a steel road bike and felt this would be the perfect road bike. It is steel, fully built, and best of all, it is affordable. I placed an order and eagerly waited for it to arrive at my local bike shop. After about a week of searching for photos and reviews of it online, I received a call from the bike shop saying the bike is completely sold out in my size and that they won't be expecting any to come in until January or later than that. I was bummed. There aren't many options in a new, steel frame road bike, that is both compact and affordable. I had already seen myself riding it on the upcoming Tour de Gruene. This bike has tabs for a rack and baby seat, so I also saw Elan strapped to the back as we navigated the bike routes of Austin. Although I really like this Specialized bike, January is too far off and I can't wait that long. Fortunately, I new exactly where to look for an alternative, so now I have been e-stalking the Soma Smoothie. This is a frame only, which means I will have to build it myself. I have most of the parts I need, but I don't have all the parts I want. Over the past few days I have been doing a lot of e-stalking. I do, however, get to hold this bike part in my hands. It's the first arrival and another step towards a new road bike.

Uh-oh!

He's mimicked other things we do, but this one is too cute.

Climbing Stairs - 9 Months Old

It's hard to believe the one year mark is quickly approaching, and it sure is amazing to see how quickly he learns a new skill. Only a few weeks ago he would cautiously look at the stairs and approach slowly. We then allowed him to start climbing a few steps but he wouldn't get far before he would stumble or get tired. Now the entire stair case is his new playground. The moment he hits the floor he charges for the stairs and climbs them in no time. I take him out to the park on nice days and he climbs the steps up to the slides too. When he's not climbing something, he's finding leaves, mulch, or grass to eat. Pica maybe? :)

Elan On His First Bike Ride

Green Beans

This is what a nine month old can do with green beans. Don't let the innocent face fool you. He looked more like this when he was making that mess.