Fun with Maddie, First Haircut, and Ducks!

Fun With Maddie
E loves to be outside. If it were up to him, we would stay outside from the time we get up until time for bed. He also loves his dog, or "dah" as he says, Maddie. So taking Maddie to the park to play one evening was a big hit! If you know Maddie, you know that she isn't the calmest of animals, so we very rarely take her places like the park. She gets so excited when she sees other people and animals, and she pulls whoever is leading her and tries to jump on people. But we decided to give it another try and take her with us to a nearby park one evening. Much to our surprise, so stayed relatively calm and listened to J's commands very well. She went for a walk around the trail, then she enjoyed watching E swing. And he enjoyed having her there with him!

First Haircut
While we waited as long as possible to clip his cute little curls, when his hair started getting in his eyes, we knew it was time. But before you start worrying that we clipped ALL of his curls, let me assure you that we did no such thing. All of the curls in the back are still intact!

We took him to the beauty shop where Mommy and Meowmaw get their hair cut. Ms. A did a wonderful job. He didn't know what to think of the big chair, and he tried to push the scissors away a time or two, but for the most part, he was a wonderful client. And the end result: of course an adorable little boy!

D

Ducks!
Last Thursday, we went to the park to eat lunch and play. While we were there, we went for a little walk and encountered some ducks. E was very fascinated by them. He greeted them with a cute little "hi" and watched them until they escaped into the water. Nap time was drawing near, so I told E that it was time to say, "Bye, bye, Ducks!" and head home to rest. He started to wave and said, "Bye Dudts." And he continued saying it all the way to the car. Unfortunately, this was one of the few times we have gone to the park without the camera, so I was unable to capture his initial duck encounter.

However, since he enjoyed it so much, we decided to take Daddy back that evening to show him the ducks. This time we remembered the camera! When we first arrived, we saw a momma duck with her babies. They were swimming everywhere. E thought they were so cute! Then we walked on over to the place where we had played with the ducks earlier in the day. This time he really started chasing them. It was so funny!

Yes, this would be a picture of the "duts" running from him.

Look, there they go!

Hey! Come back duts!

Rossini Festival

A few weekends ago, we headed over to Market Square and downtown Knoxville for the Knoxville Opera's Rossini Festival. We weren't really sure what to expect. There were lots of street vendors and music, and plenty of opportunities for E to participate in one of his favorite activities: people watching. 

He enjoyed listening to this man making music. He would have stayed right there watching him all day if we would have let him.

He also enjoyed some yummy Italian Ice.

After enjoying the festival, we stopped for a mini photo shoot next to Market Square on our way back to the car. He loves the camera, so he hammed it up quite well.

It was a great day of family time. We were able to squeeze in a few hours of fun before the skies opened up and poured. So glad that we beat the storm.

Planting the Garden

We celebrated Earth Day by planting our garden! We planted 4 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, crooked neck squash, zucchini, and strawberries. We also bought some sweet basil, purple basil, garlic, cilantro, orange mint and pepper mint for our container herb garden. While our herbs STILL haven't found their permanent home, the vegetables are growing nicely! Papaw was a huge help with the garden. He tilled the garden for a second time, then he helped mark the rows and dig the holes for the plants. E was also a big help. Sporting his "My Favorite Color is Dirt" shirt from Meowmaw, he helped measure for the plants and supervise the beginning of the fencing process. We have a resident groundhog and a family of bunny rabbits who inhabit our yard so we are trying to keep them from eating all of our yummy produce. Here are some pictures from planting day. There will be more pictures soon as the plants continue to grow. And hopefully pictures of produce in the not-to-distant future!

First Visit to The Cove

A trip to the park with friends is a great way to make the afternoon fly by! A few weeks ago, we went to one of our favorite parks with L and Mrs. A. The boys enjoyed swinging most of all. They made a new friend, Brianna, who likes pushing them in the swings. They also liked playing on the chimes underneath the play structure. AND E finally decided that he liked the slide! Here are some pictures from our fun afternoon.

Look Who's Walking!

On Saturday evening, April 17, following the Orange and White game, someone decided to take his first steps! He was at Grammy's house for dinner, and decided that he wanted Grammy to have his new hat that he had gotten earlier that day at the ballgame. So he turned loose of the couch and took 4 steps and handed it to her! Then he took 10 steps a few minutes later. And he still hasn't stopped.

The next day we took a trip to the Stride Rite store to buy him his first new pair of walking shoes for playing to commemorate the big milestone. We used the next few days as opportunities to take him around and show off his new skill. Here is a pic of him walking in his new shoes at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house.