Everything's Better Fried

Here's the Birthday Boy and his two best friends. We went to The Carlyle last night for Abram's birthday (of course) and it was delicious as always. Which leads me to some very big news. I have decided to learn to like seafood. They say that kids have to eat a new food 10 times before they learn to like it. So I told Abram that from now on, when he orders seafood at a restaurant I am going to try a bite of it. Last night was my first time. We ordered Firecracker Shrimp for an appetizer and I had two bites. I am proud to say that I didn't even gag. I'm sure it helped that it had been deep fat fried. That helps everything.

The other big news is that Vivi has started sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time. Just in time too, I've been doing pretty well with no sleep, but yesterday was the first day I felt tired all day. I remember a while ago we were all asking my parents questions about how they parented us when we were really little and they kept saying they couldn't remember. My dad said that that whole period is just a blur in his memory. That sounds about right. Just last week feels like a blur to me!

The Office

Abram's birthday is this Saturday and while Sherry was here she gave him a calender titled: "The Office: A 2008 inspirational wall calender" It gave us a few good laughs since it is our FAVORITE show. However, I was a little disappointed it didn't include one of my favorite quotes from Dwight:

Jim: Dwight, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Dwight: I can travel anywhere, except Cuba, and I will travel to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor and I will hike Mount Doom.

My favorite line last week was from Creed in the middle of that brilliant sequence of dialogue about the use of the word "whomever":

Ryan: What I really want, honestly, Michael is for you to know it so that you can communicate it to the people here, to your clients, whomever.
Michael: Oh okay.
Ryan: What?
Michael: It's whoever, not whomever.
Ryan: It's whomever.
Michael: No, whomever is never acutally right.
Jim: Nope, sometimes it's right.
Creed: Michael is right. It's a made up word used to trick students

To trick students! Creed kills me. Definitely my favorite character. So on that note, I'm about to go watch this week's episode and go to bed happy.

More From This Weekend With Preston

Get Off My Back Lisa

All right, all right, I'm back. Here are a few highlights since Abram has gone back to "I'm too busy to blog" mode.

1. Adam came to town and met Aviva. He quickly won Max over with a Diego megaphone. Just what Max needed, a megaphone.

2. Sherry came to visit with Preston to begin his best friendship with Max. We spent Friday and Saturday with all the Ellis cousins, and I'm telling you there is nothing that makes Max happier than playing with cousins. I can't believe how my heart just fills up when I see it. This part of parenting has been totally unexpected. I never even thought of it before. It's the same way when he's with his Quinn cousins and I love it.

3. Staying home with two hasn't been nearly as bad as I had convinced myself it would be. Here are some updated photos of Aviva. I swear every time I pick her up she's gotten bigger. Last night she only woke up one time! I'm sure we'll go straight back to twice a night, but you gotta love those flukes.

The Coin Collector

Max LOVES collecting coins. Yesterday, Max and I went to Panera to get out of the house and to get mommy a surprise breakfast treat. When the cashier gave us change for our purchase, Max gobbled up the coins and hoarded them while we ate breakfast. But this wasn't enough. He wanted to put the coins in his pocket -- a game that some times provides him hours of entertainment and practice with fine motor skills (I mean, have you tried to put a coin in a kid's pocket before? Those pockets are like lock-boxes they're so tight.).

So there he was in Panera, putting coins in his "pocket." The whole store was watching, mostly because his PJs have no pockets. Instead, Max would drop his pants to his ankles, place the coin in the crotch area of the pants, then pull the pants up and scream "Coins pocket!" to the delight of the whole store. And so, of course, he spent the rest of our visit to Panera picking up and dropping his pants, all the while looking for his coin.

Things I'll miss about paternity leave and things I won't

Things I'll miss about paternity leave:

1. Watching Kristin parent
2. Watching Max put on his shoes by himself
3. Hearing Max calling for Daddy after his naps and the hugs I get when getting him from the crib
4. Naps
5. Panini Monday

Things I won't miss about paternity leave:

1. Nothing

More Aviva

Some more pics from this weekend.

Weekend Fun

Ryan, Amy and their kids came up Friday night and spent Saturday morning with the family fawning over Aviva. To get the kids out of the house that morning, we all went down to Art on the Avenue, a small art fair in a neighborhood just adjacent to our own. There were lots of fun kid activities, balloons, live music, and of course hot dogs. Max didn't want the hot dogs though. Instead, he literally just walked into a Mexican place we frequent -- Los Tios -- and grabbed a server by the hand. He looked at us questioningly, wondering if we would be joining him for lunch. We had to oblige.

One of the toys he picked up at the fair was his first piggy bank. He loves honing his fine motor skills by putting pennies into his piggy bank, breaking it open, and then putting the pennies back into the bank. (Yes, he only has pennies. He doesn't know the difference and none of you should tell him.)

Max also played his first violin, instructed and aided by local high school students. Shy at first, he loved the experience and eagerly thanked the girl helping him. He also enjoyed the live music, but it was too loud for his taste (luckily, otherwise we would have been there for hours).

On Sunday, Grandpa and Mimi came down to visit and watch Conference. Aviva provided plenty of glamor shots and good looks.

Max and Keely and Aviva

I was just reminiscing this morning about our trip to Ann Arbor and this picture made me happy.

Sweet Home, ALexandria

After a five-day excursion, two days of which were spent in the car, the burgeoning Ellis family returned home late Tuesday night to their beloved home on the hill (Quaker Hill). Everyone had fun while in Ann Arbor. Max played with Keely and (mostly) Keely's toys. Abram played with Shawn and (mostly) Shawn's Wii. And Kristin played Rook with Lisa and the men (when they weren't busy playing Wii). Even little V would sit in the same room as Benjamin and they would cry together.

For more highlights of the trip, we suggest visiting Shawn and Lisa's blog, where supposedly Lisa will post a list of our weekend's adventures. But for pictures, see attached.

Picture descriptions
Max at Keely's birthday party -- held at a local inflatable circus -- with Keely proving she can cry at her party in the background. Max was absolutely in heaven, especially since the inflatable devices could hold Daddy's weight. And for once, Abram wasn't the sweatiest person at the party.

Keely holding Baby Aviva -- Keely ADORED V and held her, caressed her, and kissed her at every possibly moment. Keely must see a princess-adoring little girl underneath all that pink.

Max sleeping in the car on the way home -- whenever he sleeps in his car seat, this is his pose. Not sure where he learned it ...

Max in his new Michigan gear -- Apparently Max is the only unaware that Michigan is having a poor football season. No matter, Max is making up for with style.