Family fun on a nice spring afternoon...

We headed up to Wabash this weekend to visit Grammy, Gramps, and Elias' "great" aunts. Grammy even let Elias play with Gramp's prized tractors!

Great Aunt P let us play with her new iPad. This baby LOVED the bigger version of Mama and Daddy's iPhone. (Daddy loved the new Apple gadget as well!)

The best by far was when Gramps let Elias play with his cane. Check out Baby Moses!

 All this excitement makes for a very tired boy(s).

In other news, in addition to being weeks away from walking, Elias is now talking. First word from last week was, "Cat!" He also says "Mama" and "Dad." But his favorite is "Cat," since that is his play friend in the house. They even shared cat food together when Mama was off in the other room for a matter a seconds. Oh dear....

The Road Ends Here

..as well as our little fairy-tale, history-making weekend. The Butler Bulldogs put up a good fight, right down to the end. But if there were 2 more seconds on the clock and the shot from half-court actually didn't bounce out of the basket, maybe we would have gotten the trophy. But in reality, our Dawgs were the real hometown heroes and winners if the 2010 National Championship. They demonstrated poise, determination, and are examples of true student athletes. Hats off to this team to getting this game back to the basics! We are proud.

Easter Weekend

So much excitement here in Indianapolis this weekend! We were visited by Oma and Mama and Daddy's alma mater has made it to the Final Four! Daddy, Elias and Oma went to Lucas Oil Stadium (home of our Indianapolis Colts) to watch Butler practice...

Mama and Daddy were able to go to the semi-final game and watch their school beat Michigan State for a seat in the Championship Game.

On Easter Sunday, we got dressed and headed to Church, Butler's campus (in the spirit of the weekend), the White River Canal Walk for a little Final Four action, and later to Fogo de Chao for Daddy's birthday dinner.

 

Green = Go! and Red = I'm stuffed!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Here's to our Dawgs!

History cannot deny!

We'll sing the Butler war song,

We'll give a fighting cry;

We'll fight the Butler battle--

Bulldogs ever do or die.

And in the glow of the victory firelight,

Hist'ry cannot deny

To add a page or two

For Butler's fighting crew

Beneath the Hoosier sky.

B-U!

 

We are jumping for joy around here as Mama and Daddy's alma mater has bought them a trip to the NCAA Basketball Tournament's Final Four! Much celebrating will occur in their home town and Mama and Daddy will join the action and excitement. Here's to our Dawgs for a run to the 2010 national championship. If the Colts can't pull it off, maybe the Bulldogs will.

Movin' On Up!

Elias has become quite mobile these days! He has mastered quadruped (on all fours) crawling and is quite fast at it!

He also enjoys a stroll holding hands through the common hallways of the schoolhouse. Bravery has inspired him to "let go" and try to walk/run unassisted. Elias also discovered how to climb up stairs!

All this mobility granted Elias an "upgrade" of his sleeping quarters (although he still spends 1/2 the night in Mama and daddy's bed.) His parents were quite fearful of the discovery of climbing and ending up on the floor with some sort of bleed. So they got him a bed that lowers all the way to the ground.

In other news, we are quite pleased what has been going down in Washington. Finally families with hemophilia will not be plagued with not being covered due to preexisting conditions or meeting their cap before high school (the cost of factor is just not coming down!) We are breathing a little easier these days with port placement and the start of prophylaxis treatment on the near horizon. Thank you Barrack #1 for the start of a little healthcare reform!

Springin' Out

We all have a whole lotta cabin fever round' here. This week has brought Indianapolis temperatures above freezing along with some sunshine. So we sprung this wintry cave and headed out to enjoy the first inklings of Springtime.

Out to Lacy Park

Our First Swim Class

Elias really enjoyed his swim class. He was one of the best swimmers of the infants (meaning not crying.) Elias loved to swim on his tummy, kick, back swim, dunk, and jump in the pool! A fun time was had by all and he is definitely following in the "flippers" of his Uncle T.

3/4th of the way to a Year!

Just a quick post here of some 9 month old stats:

Weight: 20 lbs, 12 oz (55%)
Height 28 1/2 inches (60%)
Head Circumference: 46 1/2 cm (83%)

Motor Skills:

• Pulling up in crib, toys, coffee table--but not too steady, and thinks it's quite hilarious

• Able to walk by holding two hands
• Army crawling everywhere (hasn't figured out hands and knees and well, just can't get to pulling Daddy's power cord or to the bookshelf fast enough)
• In and out of sitting to hands and knees all the time--this has turned into a sort of locomotion
• Can get to "downward facing dog" with fully extended legs and arms

Although Mama and Daddy can't leave the room for more than an instant AND many more bruises and goose-eggs are popping up daily, we are thankful to be still bleed-free. We are loving the extra padding of his cloth diapers, Comfy Crawlers, knee pads, and helmet (not pictured here since he figured out how to remove it...)

Other favorite activities:

• Book time
  
• Playing music with his new musical instruments
  
• Bath time--and hopefully soon swimming!
• Peek-a-boo
• Eating :) We are venturing into the land of proteins...bringing on the eggs and meat. (We all enjoyed scrambled eggs and pancakes this Saturday (Elias had mini-cakes).
• Napping with Daddy

We are all eagerly awaiting his top two teeth to come down so that we can all get back to sleeping routine again (although Elias doe not by any means "sleep through the night." TOO BUSY!)