Big Day for a Big Boy

Technically it was two big days for my big boy.

 

Elliott's hair has been getting increasingly fuzzy and wild.  It was growing over his ears and, frankly, he looked like a hippie.  Spencer didn't have his first haircut until the week after he turned 1, so we weren't even sure that a 9-almost-10 month old could get a haircut.  According to others, though, this is entirely feasible, so I decided to take him on Friday.  We had fall pictures taken at the portrait studio on Saturday and I wanted him looking his best!

 

BEFORE

 

DURING

 

He wasn't thrilled about sitting in the chair (which really needs to be replaced.  Geez.), but he did pretty good.

 

 

I took him to the same place where we took Spencer for his first haircut.  I HAD to do a comparison collage. 

 

 

He did start crying at one point.

 

But he pulled it together and we got through it. 

 

And now he looks like he will be heading off to college next week.

 

We had the fall pictures done on Saturday. That post is coming soon. 

 

On Saturday evening, Elliott was sitting in front of the train table.  I was sitting next to him.  All of a sudden he turned around, grabbed on to the table, pulled himself up and started side stepping along it.  All in a matter of like 12 seconds.  These pictures were not of when he actually did it.  We recreated the moment this morning. 

 

He was very proud of himself. 

 

Then right after that we had dinner.  Elliott fed himself all of his cheese cubes, all of his grapes and all of his chunks of bread. 

 

Seriously.  Who is this independent baby?

 

We are just barely on the brink of it finally being cool enough for evening walks.  It was in the mid- 80's at about 7:30 pm, so we decided to venture out.  Since Elliott freaks out in the stroller when it is dark, we decided to break out the backpack.  Our friends/neighbors long-term lent this to us when Spencer was a baby.  Then they had a surprise 3rd baby and asked for it back.  We had sent it to Tucson to be stored at my grandma's house in my grandfather's workshop, but when my parents went to get it they couldn't find it.  Then our friends/neighbors moved and we lost touch with them so when we found it (just sitting in plain view in the workshop) I didn't have a way to reach them.  Now I totally feel like we stole it.

 

Anyway.  Elliott went in it for the first time last night.  He enjoyed it, even though he was morally opposed to how his parents obtained it.

 

Did you think I wouldn't do this?

 

Spencer was actually younger his first time in it.  8 months versus almost 10 months. 

 

Spencer's asthma has been flaring up this weekend and we didn't want him running (which is what he always ends up doing on a walk), so he went in Elliott's stroller.

Side note.  He was 5-years 1-month old yesterday.  We took the official picture in his brand new Halloween shirt.  Which is a 4T. 

 

I asked Michael if he would rather walk Ginger or push the stroller.  He hates walking Ginger (she stops to sniff a lot and is very herky jerky) so he picked the stroller.  He was like super dad.

 

It made me look bad since I just had 1 little dog.

There is a skunk that lives in our neighborhood (really, there are probably many of them, but I like to think that it is just the one and his name is Pepe and he's up to no good) that we see and smell from time to time.  We were going to walk through this little park/greenway when we saw him running along the path.  We went with an alternate route.  I tried to take a picture, but apparently my little point and shoot camera doesn't have a powerful enough flash to light up an entire park at night.  Lame.  You can just barely kind of see a white spot in between the arrows.  That's him.

 

Michael and I were joking that as we went the long way down to the next street, Pepe was going to cut across front yards and run to meet us at the corner.  He would hide behind a power box and then jump out and do jazz hands before spraying us.  We laughed and laughed, but Spencer was not amused.

 

Fall photos tomorrow.  You can see a preview with the new header though.