We celebrated Independence Day in style this year, complete with a neighborhood parade and a family cookout with hot dogs and homemade ice cream! David and I topped off the night with a kid-free date night that included dinner, fireworks, and a movie! It was a hot day, but we enjoyed celebrating our country with some of our closest friends!
The parade was awesome! There was so much candy flying from the people riding in the cars that we had to dodge a stray piece more than once!
Everywhere we looked we saw red, white, and blue!
The firetruck was a big hit with the kids!
After the parade we walked back to the Downings’ to fill our tummies! Elliott was the last one to finish eating…in fact, he ate an entire hot dog! I could not believe my eyes!
The kids played while the grown-ups got to talk.
And, of course we had to attempt a group shot of all of the kids…it gets harder and harder the older they get! I crack up every time we try to do it. 11 kids, countless tears, a few escapees…
…and this is the best shot we got.
Some homemade ice cream and a hug was all he needed,
and Mr. E was all smiles again.
What a great day! Hope your Fourth was as happy as ours was!
A few weeks ago we took Elliott to visit his Pop’s grave for the first time. He knew that we were going and he was excited to take “flowers to Pop”.
I don’t think I will ever get used to the idea that this is just the way things are…
Elliott had fun running and playing at the cemetery, and we read scripture while we were there. We have begun referring to it as the place where we go and think about Pop…even though we can think about him any time.
Words cannot express how badly I wish you could know your Pop, sweet boy.
The other day I asked Elliott a question that he definitely knows the answer to.
“Elliott, who made you?”
His response:
“PacMan!”
What??? Why PacMan? And, how does he even know who PacMan is?? Perhaps it is an inherant trait that he obatined simply by being the son of a child of the 80’s. Hmmmmm?
One of my dearest friends, Laura, gave birth to a beautiful BIG baby boy last Tuesday, June 16, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome him to this world!
Since Jack was the fourth baby that my close-knit group of lifelong friends welcomed into the world we were all prepared to camp out, anxiously awaiting his arrival just as we did with Bennett, Elliott, and Dayton. So, naturally, when we got the news that Laura would be induced at 8am I made plans to run a few errands with Elliott in the morning and arrive sometime after lunch to await baby Jack.
Being the true party-planner that she is Laura’s mom had a smorgasbord of snacks, drinks, and games available for the hours and hours of waiting that we planned to do. Well, who knew that Laura would be such a champ and that she would deliver a 9 lb 9 oz baby before lunch? Luckily, I had plenty of warning and I didn’t miss his arrival! In the end, we all realized that the short wait worked out perfectly because it meant that we got to party afterward….and that Laura got to be there, too! And, if you know anything about Laura, you know that she hates to miss a good party!
Welcome to the world, sweet, baby Jack! You are so precious to me already and I can’t wait to know you more and more!
After taking a swing at David as they were leaving the house one day, Elliott didn’t miss a beat. “I sorry, Daddy. I time out” was his response, and he sat himself down on the front porch for a self-inflicted time out. A little repentance goes a long way right now…now that we’re living under the same roof as a very, and I mean very, terrible nearly two-year old! Pray for us, folks. I am told that 3 is even worse!
So much to blog about….so little time. I’ve gotten so far behind on blogging that I decided to post this “super post”, if you will, to catch up on what is going on in our little family. I’m warning you…it’s jam packed and loaded with tons of updates that I’m sure you are all dying to know about. Plus, there are enough movies in this post to make up for 3 months of Movie Mondays that I’ve failed to publish. Enjoy!
Our house is currently on the market and has been for about a month now. 2 1/2 weeks after we listed it we got a very generous offer and accepted it. Unfortunately, the potential buyers backed out. As if that wasn’t devastating enough, we received the bad news less than an hour after finding a house that we loved and were ready to make an offer on. As always, we are praying for the right buyers to come along soon. God’s timing is perfect, and we are trusting him with all of the details. We are also learning a lot about patience right now!
Elliott continues to be the sunshine in our life. David and I still can’t believe that he’s ours. Everyday we are blown away by the way that he is growing up. There aren’t words to describe how much we love him and how proud of him we are. Not only is he the most beautiful little boy I have every seen, but he is incredibly smart, incredibly generous, incredibly inquisitive, incredibly sweet, and incredibly talkative! I mean it people…this boy can talk up a storm! He is starting to use 3-4 word phrases and he says the funniest things! His teacher, Ms. Trecie, taught him to say “Peace out!”, and we taught him to add a “dude” at the end. It’s a crowd pleaser, for sure. One day when David arrived to pick him up at school, Elliott looked up and said “sup?” Apparently Ms. Trecie is also giving our son a little lesson in ebonics.
After months of trying to teach him to say his own name, he now refers to himself as “Eddie”. Not “Elw-i-ott” or “Eddie-utt”…just plain old “Eddie”. He will also refer to himself as “Eddie Keene Welch”. Recently we tried to teach him that Mommy’s name is Tricia Welch, and Daddy’s name is David Welch. He wasn’t fooled. He ended the conversation quickly by saying, “No, Daddy Welch!” He loves to talk about his friends at school when he’s not there. And, when we take him to school he can point to and name every friend in his class.
Here’s our little motor mouth showing off some of his new words.
In the last month Elliott has learned the names of most of his grandparents. “Graa-ma” (my mom) is just beside herself, of course.
He refers to my Grandmother as “Gi-Gi”, short for Great-grandmother. And, he calls David’s grandmother, Hattie, “Gran Hat”. ”Babu” = Baboushka, “Paw-Paw” = Papaw. “Nonnie” and “Pop” were no brainers for him. He has yet to say “Grandpa Dave” or “Great Grandpa”, but they are being grown-up about it and insisting that their feelings aren’t hurt.
Elliott with his Papaw and Baboushka
Clarity recently made a visit to Texas and Elliott wasn’t shy about showing her how happy he was to see her.
Time-outs are a rarity around here these days, but occasionally Elliott still finds himself being put in the corner. It probably breaks some sort of parenting rule to video your child throwing a fit, but I did it anyway.
Most of the time when asked if he has a dirty diaper Elliott will answer truthfully, but occasionally, he has to be asked if he’s telling the truth, or ”trufe”, in “Eddie” language. A few days ago he tee-teed in the potty for the first time! Although this is very exciting I don’t think he’s quite ready to be potty trained. He doesn’t know how to take his diaper off by himself…and I’m not about to teach him that! I’ve heard way too many horror stories of kids painting the walls with their own poo. No thanks. I prefer to pick out my own paint colors.
As mentioned before, Elliott goes to “school” two days a week at the day care located on my hospital’s campus. David has done such an amazing job taking on the responsibility of getting Elliott up out of bed, dressed, and fed in the morning and taking him to school. He also picks him up in the evenings and they get to spend some quaility father-son time together before I get home from work. It was easier than I thought to transition from working one night a week to working 2 days a week. I love what I do. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with a job I love and that I still have time to be a stay-at-home mom the majority of the time.
Ahhh…I feel like I am a little more caught up on the Welch family happenings now. I won’t bore you anymore by describing every last detail of our lives, but instead I will end by listing a few more things…quirks, if you will, about Elliott that David and I absolutely do not want to forget.
…the way he says gloves or “grubs” when talking about his baby glow worm’s hands or his pair of kitchen dish-washing gloves.
…the way he says “yes” so confidently when asked questions that he could not possibly know the answer to.
…the way he replaces the ‘K’ at the end of a word with a ‘T’; ie: “Milt”=milk, “bat” = back. We, of course, find this especially funny because David’s boss’s name is Milt. “Milt” has become a household name in more ways than one!
…the way he refers to everything in third person possessive form; ie: “Eddie’s grubs”, “Mommy’s milt”, etc.
…the way he runs.
…the way he gives kisses…with an underbite, tight-lipped, and open mouthed. Strange, but we can’t get enough of them.
…the way he can’t get to us fast enough, hurdling furniture, when we pick him up from school.
…his belly-laugh.
…the way he insists that we pray before eating a meal.
…the way that he tries to sing along to “God is so Good” every night before bed.
…the smell of his skin after being at school all day…suncsreened and sweaty. Sounds gross, but it’s so true.
…the way that he brushes his teeth at night.
…the fact that being tickled never gets old to him.
And, that about sums it up. If you’re still reading, thanks for tuning in!
