afternoon 23-Dec-2001 (by Mike)
Last week Ellis watched beth put mousse in her hair one morning (the first time she's done this in years). That day at daycare he decided to try that out with blue paint... Then, the next day, he managed to get several of the other kids at daycare to do it too! They'd cleaned him up pretty well before sedning him home so, sorry, no photo.Today he's taken a big step up, deciding that he wants to eat with us at the table in his booster seat (46K) instead of the high chair.
He's also been sleeping in a baby bed instead of the crib for several nights in a row now, we hope we'll be able to take the crib away in the next few weeks...
evening 14-Nov-2001 (by Mike)
All the kids at Ellis' daycare got their picture taken a couple of weeks ago.
Daycare photo (54K).
afternoon 03-Nov-2001 (by Mike)
Grape harvest is finally over so Perennial Vintners is slowing down a bit and we finally have a chance to start catching up on other things in our lives.
Here's a great photo of Ellis at lunch today
with an olives on fingertips (43K).
afternoon 24-Aug-2001 (by Mike)
In what we've learned is his typical fashion, with no fanfare, yesterday Ellis took his first steps!
Many times in the last few months we've seen him while leaning against the coffee table, find himself free-standing next to it, then leaning back against it, but never actually walking. After we'd had dinner, we put him down on the floor, and Beth and I stayed at the table to finish our dinners. As usual, he was playing with something on the coffee table, then we noticed he had already taken a few steps toward us at the dining room table. He was holding something which held most of his attention, so I'm not sure he even noticed he was walking. Part way across the room he paused and smiled at us, perhaps realizing that this was something cool. He took another few steps, then sat down to play with the toy he'd encountered like nothing had happened. He walked quite steadily, I'm rather surprised that we haven't seen it again already...
(sorry, no photos this time)
afternoon 08-Jul-2001 (by Mike)
We woke him up about 9:30pm on Independence Day and walked to our "usual spot" at the old school building just over the crest of the hill in Wallingford. The view is only of the higher fireworks above the building and trees, but it's still entertaining. I tried taking some photos, but surprise, none were worthwhile...
This weekend we visited George & Lynn with their kids Grace and Sara at their beach house near Westport WA (just west of Aberdeen). Looking west across the Pacific ocean, there's nothing to see until Japan!
Ellis on the beach at Westport (57K).
Ellis horsing around with Sara (51K).
morning 04-Jul-2001 (by Mike & Beth)
Late in May (sorry this is so late, but we used the old film camera instead of the new digital and didn't get the photos scanned in until today) we took our second plane trip. Ellis did pretty well, though when the cabin pressure changed going both up and down all the babies including Ellis got in a good 10 minute cry. Our friends Kayla and Nick (76K) had just moved to a house in Torrence south of Los Angeles, where we stayed for 3 nights. We made the pilgrimage to The Lighthouse (118K) at Hermosa Beach where Mike's favorite jazz sax player Art Pepper made his early career. We also visited a less trendy beach.
Ellis at the beach (113K).
Beth & Ellis in backyard, late June (71K).
Drinking from wineglass (57K).
evening 11-Jun-2001 (by Mike & Beth)
Ellis' latest achievement is complete mastery of the stairs. He's been known to spend almost an hour just going up and down them while we play and try to make sure he doesn't fall!
Of course some bigger things have occured -- he's done with the helmet therapy as of 24-May, yay! That same day he also got kicked out of physical therapy as he was now up to normal behaviour, another big yay!
And another big acheivement is that about that time he gave up his pacifier on his own. In times of crisis over the next few weeks we offered it to him again, but he's no longer interested in it, wow.
Lastly, we also got a bike trailer for him. Of course now that he's completed helmet therapy, we had to go buy a real bike helmet...
Stairs (52K).
Bike trailer (56K).
Ellis digging into a kitchen cabinet (53K) (see previous entry).
afternoon 29-Apr-2001 (by Mike)
The last month has been fairly hectic. Ellis has learned to crawl (about 4-5 weeks ago) which makes for a whole new look at life. I've finally gotten around to putting the door catches on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets... My job (Cisco) had a 10% layoff, I was amongst the survivors (the 6 month severance would have been pretty nice though!)
Dad, buried on the sofa again (62K).
Backyard dinner (67K).
evening 18-Mar-2001 (by Mike)
Our health insurance has changed due to my employer (Active Voice) being bought out by Cisco, so we're going through the hassles of finding a new doctor for Ellis. He's getting a bunch of teeth in all at once in the last few weeks, which has made for a few rather trying days.
Dad, buried on the sofa (54K).
evening 10-Mar-2001 (by Mike)
A couple weeks ago, the whole family on our way to visit a winery, of course with the digital camera. On the way we stopped at our local baby consignment store (Kids on 45th), and noticed the same make of car seat as Ellis used to have when we took the early photos of him. Of course we set him in it and took a new photo! This photo includes the earlier ones for comparison...
Car seat, near 1st birthday (133K).
evening 02-Mar-2001 (by Mike)
Been a busy week -- Mike turned 41, Ellis turned 1, and we had a 6.8 magnitude earthquake!
Mike was at work (6th floor -- pretty shaky), Beth and Ellis were at a Group Health clinic for Ellis 1 year checkup when the quake hit. Everyone was fine, though a bit spooked, and our house took almost no damage (a broken antique teacup from our china set and some CD cases had broken cases and dented the soft fir floors).
Mike's parents came over on his birthday day (Fri.) and spent some time with Ellis, and brought him a chocolate birthday cake.
Ellis' 1st birthday cake (46K).
Beth had a birthday party for him today (Sat.) and took some photos with the old-style film camera -- perhaps we'll have them here in s a few weeks. After the party this evening he's been pretty darn cranky, we thought he'd had a little too much fun today -- but no, he's actually just cut through his first upper tooth!
afternoon 22-Feb-2001 (by Mike)
We had a small disappointment last week -- although Ellis' helmet therapy (see Nov-2000) was expected to be complete last week, his head hasn't grown according to the "standard" curve. We thought the helmet still fit pretty loosely... According to the standard curve, he's now in a much slower growing period, thus to complete the treatment could be as long as 8 more months, aack! However, since he's already shown not to be following the curve we're optimistic that he'll "catch up" and be done before that.
Last weekend we visited our friends Gary and Trisha on Bainbridge Island for the evening. Gary took a few pictures, some really good ones!
At Trish and Gary's (57K).
Ellis on Beth's lap (67K).
evening 29-Jan-2001 (by Mike)
On a typical weekend evening, we somehow often find the time during the day to walk to the neighborhood grocery store during the day, and get nice freh ingredients for that one really special meal each week. Of course the next stage is preparing it -- this also involves the whole family in the kitchen. Beth does most of the work, while Ellis and I sit around on the floor playing, and generally getting underfoot.
Ellis and Mike preparing a nice family dinner (57K).
How is it that life can just keep getting busier?Ellis at my parents house on Christmas eve, in his helmet.
Christmas eve (28K).