Fish and Parties!

Quick update... night before the 1st day of school, and I should be in bed, but I know I won't be able to sleep.  Thought I'd get some photos up here.

The latest:
- He's been doing well with the mattress on the floor, until today (it's been almost a week!).  There's only been one or two instances of me seeing his lamp click on, then off, or the like.  This morning was the first time he opened the door and came into our room instead of us going to get him upon waking.

This afternoon, I saw/heard his door open, peered down the hall only to see him putzing around, something pink hanging out of his mouth (finger puppet pig?), and then the door close.  He did not see me.  Huh, I thought.  A few moments later, I hear him pittering down the hall.  His excuse, "To see mom."  All attempts at napping were in vain today when it ended with a well-timed poop.

- Another food challenge, with fish and green beans this time.  The deal-- eat a serving of either, and it's a trip to the firehouse again!  After an hour+, we did the horribly-looking "I'm gonna hold you down and force this into your mouth because I know you'll like it," tactic.  It started the ball rolling (so mission accomplished) and with gagging, countdowns, clapping, ridiculous-looking dancing for each bite, the fish was eaten.  Off to the firehouse.  He got to sit in the truck, pretend to drive, turn on the lights, and came home with some pages to color and a giant balloon.  What a night!

(He's quite the con-man-- tries to get rewards/treats for things he already does... we made french fries in the oven, and he has been eating these ok.  He looks at me with a grin, "Firehouse?  Eat french fries?"  Nice try...)

- Two birthday parties this past week.  Big hits.  The day after was full of, "Diane's party, NOW."  No sense of time.

- Lots of evenings or trips to the lake lately.

- A cool thing the other day-- it was getting dark, and he says, "Star!" and immediately corrects himself to say, "Airplane."  I asked, "How did you know it was an airplane and not a star?"  He gets a coy grin, no answer, and I ask, "Do stars move?"  A big, self-assured, "Nooooo," followed.

 Making specs out of Play-Doh.

Going to feed the ducks with dad with a bag full of old bread.

 A smooch from my lovebug!

Diane's birthday party was fun.  Great courtyard with plenty of community bikes, trikes, you name it. 

I love these shots.  Of course, they couldn't move without help. 

Anissa lives across the alley and is always hollering a "Hi Elliot!" across the way.  So cute.  She turned 5 this week.  They put the playgym with the slide landing in the pool.  Very cool.  Elliot got pretty tired and it got a little slippery, and after 3 good falls, we called it quits. 

First trip to the firehouse for eating peas.  The second one for eating fish we failed to document.  The firefighters were eating dinner the first time, and I didn't want to interrupt, so we just looked from afar.  Sounds like this past trip was quite spectacular.