at the zoo

Eloise, Owen and I went to the zoo last week with Mana and Patah. It's hard to believe it was a whole week ago! Anyway - we had so much fun! Here's Eloise sitting with Patah, looking at the elephants. Eloise named them (the Elephants) Eloise, Mama, Owen, Papa and the other Eloise.
Eloise also found out that she LOVES rides. We went on the sky train together, and then Eloise went on the airplane ride and the car ride all by herself. She had so much fun on the rides that we decided to take a trip to the boardwalk next month. More rides! Yay!

feed me!

The time has come for Owen to start eating grown up food. Here you see him having his first bite of cheese enchiladas. Oh, I mean rice cereal. He seemed okay with it, but not super psyched.
Aside from that, it's been a busy week. Eloise spent some time singing "Honey Pie" and imitating Owen's smile. We all went for a ride on the steam trains. And Owen spent some time playing with Grandpa and his toes. Lots of fun!

happy birthday!

Eloise is three years old - holy smokes!

What a year it's been. Eloise keeps on getting funner and more interesting to be with. She can put on her own shoes. She knows most of the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make. She's really good at sharing (usually). She LOVES books, going to the library and telling stores. And she learned how to be a really good big sister.
We had a really fun birthday party yesterday. Eloise said her favorite part was the cake. She said she especially liked the "diamonds" on the top.

In other news, Owen has gotten pretty good at turning over. He sure is a wriggly dude!

au revoir...

Poor Ricardo is no longer with us. He got really sick (with a tumor) and while he wasn't in pain, he just didn't really want to eat any more. We'll miss his feisty ways and all his funny quirks. I used to love it when he would wash himself, and sometimes his tongue would get stuck sticking a little bit out of his mouth. He'd walk around looking all serious and bad ass, but with his tongue hanging out like a goof ball. It would crack us up every time. There are so many other good memories of the last 15 years!
I like his expression in this picture from a couple of years ago. He's almost rolling his eyes with resignation while Eloise goes after his tail.
Good bye Don Tardo, we miss you.