Violin playing

Eoin woke up to a great surprise this morning - his own toy violin. He has been obsessed with violins for a little while and so as you can imagine when he saw his own violin he started jumping up and down. He has been playing with it now for two straight hours! Luckily the violin plays reasonable music that (hopefully) won't drive me crazy!

Fun playdate

Andrew and Jackson came and hung out this afternoon. The boys played well together around the train table and on the whole shared toys well. Eoin didn't want the guys to leave, so much so he cried when he saw Daddy coming home because that meant the boys were going home.

Family Visit

We're all getting really excited about our family coming to visit from London this week. Eoin has been practicing everyone's names. Oh and as you can see from the video he has also been practicing his violin playing ;-)

Tongues and funny faces

Eoin has really started to explore his face and what everything does. Of course that also means we now have to deal with fingers being stuck up his nose (as of yet nothing else - thankfully). He is also fascinated by winking and curling tongues.

Afternoon at the Library

This afternoon Eoin and I did one of his favorite things - we visited the library. There was a surprise waiting for us; a new doll house. Eoin must have spent nearly 45 minutes playing with the doll house (even though everything was stuck down with super strong glue). He just wanted to point at everything and say it's names. Of course though Eoin eventually found a book about trains and he spent a little while reading that book.

When we first joined the library I nearly feel over when they told me how many books we could take out - 99! We grew up being allowed to take three books out each and when they saw the Simpson family coming with 6 kids I think our poor local library nearly died knowing that we would have so many books to take out between us. I love our libraries in Palo Alto. There is a great kids library about a mile away (the oldest free standing kids library in America) and we have a local library just blocks from our house. But what I am thrilled about even more is that Eoin loves books and the library. it is one of the few things he asks to do.

21 months old

We're creeping closer and closer to the big 2 ! Eoin is 21 months old today and stands a tall and lean 36.5 inches and approx. 32 lbs.

Eoin has finally got all four canines in so the only teeth left are the two year old molars which I think he is working on because he constantly has his blanket in his mouth.

Developments this month are:

1. Independent feeding in fact he gets quite cross if you try and feed him.
2. Beginning to drink from a regular cup.
3.Preferring to walk instead of using the stroller (but boy does it take time to get anywhere!).
4. Diving to the bottom of the pool for a ring and pushing with his feet to come back up.
(oh watch out for some underwater photos coming soon).
5. The use of the word MINE - and 'I DO IT'.
6. Walking downstairs unassisted.

and best of all

7. Saying 'I love Daddy/Mommy'

Stairs

Here's Eoin practicing his walking downstairs on our neighbors porch.

Enjoying the summer

Here's Eoin enjoying our little backyard. We're so glad we've got this space for some outdoor toys. Oh and of course Eoin loves playing with our neighbors little dog Chloe.

Farm visit

Today we took Eoin on a visit to his first ever working farm. We had a blast. Eoin really loved the sheep and the pigs but in particular the sheep. A young sheep really befriended Eoin and kept rubbing him and trying to eat his t-shirt. The sheep even let Eoin poke his ears and nose.

Ardenwood Farm is a day out and we are sure we will be back again soon! We might even organize an IAC Bay Area playgroup trip there soon.

Airplane

Eoin and I made his huge diapers.com box into an airplane this morning. Eoin had tons of fun flying in it.

What a week...

This week has been tough. Eoin has been super clingy, not sleeping well and has become afraid of stuff he use to love!

So Eoin has been taking ok naps but he has been very tossy turny and then at night well it's almost like having a new born again. He will sleep fine 7.30pm threw till about 11.30pm and then he has been up every hour to hour and half. He's been absolutely besides himself - tears and proper upset. All that settles him is cuddling up to me while in the rocking chair.

Eoin also hasn't coped to well with not having me in his sights. Normally he is the most independent kid going and will go right up to a stranger and sit on their knee or start talking to them but this week none of that. He's even been a little weary of Daddy.

And finally he has become afraid of things that he loved like water balloons, the dryer, being chased and his absolute favorite train crossing barriers.

Eoin doesn't appear to be ill, nor is he teething so really not sure what is going on but once I have it figured out I'll let you know.

Loving books

In the last couple of months Eoin has really been into his books. We now have two 'story times' a day before nap and before bed but he will regularly bring us books to read to him at other times too.












We have a few books that are regular reads - all his train books; Dear Zoo; Everywhere Babies; Calliou and That's Not My Dragon.

Kitty Cat Love

Eoin is really beginning to enjoy having cats. Whenever he sees Sappho sleeping he tries to give her his blankie and dobby. Because Eoin has finally learned to be gentle with Sappho she has started to seek him out to play and be petted. We can't wait for Eoin to move into a big boy bed and then Sappho will be able to curl up at the end of his bed at night.

Tide Pools and Hermit Crabs

Today we had one of those great days that was totally unplanned but will always stay in our memories as a great family day. It started off by meeting friends at the park and having brunch with them and then after a mammoth nap from Eoin we decided to head over to the coast.

We ended up going to a hidden beach that we have never been too before. The tide was out and there were tons of tide pools to explore. The pools were full of tiny hermit crabs. Eoin wasn't too sure what to make of them and kept blowing them for some reason. However he loved splashing in the warm pools and pulling the shells of the rocks.








After the beach we headed up to Half Moon Bay to a little fish and chip shack that in our opinion does the best fish and chips we've found so far in America. After dinner we walked down to the Marina and watched the pelicans dive for fish. A great day!

Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Twice this week Eoin and I visited the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. The first time Eoin mainly hung out by the fish tanks and spent ages commanding them to eat. Yesterday he stayed inside and explored the museum. All the exhibts are hands on so Eoin was in heaven trying to make everything work even if some of exhibits were a little old for him. His favorites seemed to be the green wind energy display and the tunnels.


We also met some of Eoin's little friends there. Of course is was almost impossible for the Mommies to have a conversation as we were all running after our little ones in different directions but I seem to be the one doing the most running as Eoin now thinks it's hilarious to run away from me (despite lots of stern warnings but luckily the place was small enough for it not to be dangerous).

Dobby Box and more developments

Today we started the journey towards pacifier freedom, or Dobby freedom as Eoin calls them.

We went out and bought a little box that we decorated and now call the 'Dobby Box'. When Eoin wakes up in the morning and after his nap he places all his Dobbys into the box and then he has to cope without his dobby (but he has his blankie) during the day.

Today was the first day of this new routine and he did well except his thumb found its way into his mouth a lot!

Oh and a funny story about 'dobby'. Eoin was in bed the other night with me and he kept pulling at my top and asking for 'mommy dobby'. It took me a while but then I realized he was referring to my nipples!!!!!

Other little developments are the use of the word 'MINE' but it is very cute when he tells other kids 'mine mommy'.

Bedtime and nap time was changed. Naps are now 11.30 to 12 ish for anything from an hour to two hours and bedtime is now 7pm.

Speech is crazy and we are really having to watch what we say! We love that Eoin is turning into such a fun little boy with a wicked sense of humor (not that dissimilar to his Mommy even down to the 'evil laugh'), but we do miss our baby.



PS If the blog is a little quiet for the next few days don't worry. My camera went to camera heaven but as blessings/luck would have it I won a photo competition the day it died and the prize was a new camera so new photos and video coming soon :-)

Please pray for.......

Please keep my brother Joe in your prayers and thoughts over the next few months. Joe starts a long course of chemo this week (and soon radiotherapy) for a very rare brain tumor. Joe who is only 22 and just graduated college in Ireland, is Eoin's godfather and the second youngest in our family of six siblings. Joe is doing us all proud and is staying so strong and positive! But please do keep him, his amazing and very supportive girlfriend and our family in our prayers and thoughts over the next few months. Thank you all so much!

Fourth of July weekend fun

We've had a wonderful long weekend here to celebrate fourth of July. We started the weekend on Friday with Eoin's swim class and then a hike. Yesterday we went for another morning hike and then chilled for the afternoon. In the evening we had our new friends Joel and Gal over for dinner; Andy cooked a very tasty curry. Today we had tons of fun after church as we went to Mitchell Park which has a super fun water play area. Eoin spent an hour running in and out of the water shoots.

Ring a Ring o' Roses

Ruby Slippers

Yesterday we had a playdate at Julia's house. About half an hour in Eoin went quiet and when I went to see what he was up to I found him putting these ruby slippers on. He insisted on wearing them for the rest of the playdate!