At one...

This is mostly a picture/video post, heavy on the Eytan updates.  Things are going well here, but quite busy between work and figuring out logistics for moving, etc.  Our garden has done really well -- weed cloth seems to really have made it work, combined with a little maintenance from Mike and a bunch of neglect from the rest of us most of the rest of the time.


I haven't taken a recent picture of the garden (but the carrots and broccoli and beans are astonishingly huge!) so here's a substitute photo of Mike and Eytan and the goats trimming our willow tree.

Eytan turned one this week.  He is a big fan of telephones and will hand you anything that looks like phone (home phone, cell phone, camera, internet connector, baby monitor) to get you to put it by your ear and talk.  Recently, he has on occasion been willing to put it by his ear too.

 
Climbing through and on top of stuff has been a recent pastime too.

Eytan also seems to really like sharing (on his terms more than on other peoples', but still), constantly offering you food and pacifiers and his toothbrush to use -- one bite for you, one bite for me.  He is so far a big fan of the mediterranean diet -- avocado, hummus, olives, more recently cheese...




Yogurt, avocado, and smoothie remnants above. 

Also, putting things into containers and drinking from cups are very popular activities, and sometimes funny to boot.

Despite the interests in phones and food, Eytan is not so much a fan of shoes.  That's probably in part our fault, as we never put any on him until we recently inherited a couple of pairs.  At which point, we put them on him and helped him walk a couple of steps, and he promptly sat down and took them off.  Apparently foot scrapes from pokey grass and burrs are totally preferable to shoes.




Pictures from blueberry picking and the resulting (yummy) blueberry ice cream.

Eytan has also been more frustrated lately.  I think it's that he has discovered all this power and ability to propel himself and point to what he wants and do things on his own, that when he can't (either they're out of reach or someone tells him he can't or takes him away from something), he gets upset.  I guess we all do that to some extent -- eventually I suppose we just learn how to manage it without launching ourselves backward or fighting diaper changes (well, maybe not the diaper changes part so much).

We took one trip this month, to Michigan to go to a wedding of an old high school friend of mine.  See wedding guests pictures below (sorry no bride/groom/pastor pictures, i forgot to take many...).

And we got to see Rachel and Josh and Micah and Tayva in Chicago on the way.

Micah somewhat coercedly but kindly let Eytan share his apple.  And chewing on apples became a big hit, to be repeated several times afterwards, like below on the plane ride home.

Oh, and an update from the walking department.  We've gone from walking while holding other peoples' hands, to holding just one hand, or ideally an object like a laundry basket, to occasional standing for 2-3 seconds unaided before falling back down.  Eytan seems really excited about it.

What else?  Well, I guess he still really likes, but has become more cautious of Timber the cat -- they must have had a conversation about it, and so now he's more interested in directing our hands to pet Timber than trying to do it himself.  And he has become a huge huge fan of water -- loves being in the lake, loves being in and dipping his face in the swimming pool, loves being carried underneath a stream of water, loves the bathtub, loves drinking from a cup and then pouring the rest of it on top of himself, and loves playing with the water streaming through the humidifier.  Go figure.